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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4209-h.zip b/4209-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2771af5 --- /dev/null +++ b/4209-h.zip diff --git a/4209-h/4209-h.htm b/4209-h/4209-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..460c774 --- /dev/null +++ b/4209-h/4209-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,26840 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of At the Mercy of Tiberius, by Augusta Evans Wilson +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + font-size: small ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0%; + font-size: small ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's At the Mercy of Tiberius, by August Evans Wilson + +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: At the Mercy of Tiberius + +Author: August Evans Wilson + +Posting Date: July 7, 2009 [EBook #4209] +Release Date: July, 2003 +First Posted: December 11, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT THE MERCY OF TIBERIUS *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +AT THE MERCY OF TIBERIUS +</H1> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +A NOVEL +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +By +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +AUGUSTA EVANS WILSON +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +Author of "A Speckled Bird," "Infelice," "Vashti,"<BR> "Beulah," "St. +Elmo," etc. +</H4> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Fate steals along with silent tread,<BR> + Found oftenest in what least we dread;<BR> + Frowns in the storm with angry brow,<BR> + But in the sunshine strikes the blow.<BR> + —COWPER.<BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +IN MEMORY OF MY MOTHER, WHO HAS ENTERED INTO REST. +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P> +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="100%"> +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="10%"> +<A HREF="#chap01">I</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="10%"> +<A HREF="#chap02">II</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="10%"> +<A HREF="#chap03">III</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="10%"> +<A HREF="#chap04">IV</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="10%"> +<A HREF="#chap05">V</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="10%"> +<A HREF="#chap06">VI</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="10%"> +<A HREF="#chap07">VII</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="10%"> +<A HREF="#chap08">VIII</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="10%"> +<A HREF="#chap09">IX</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="10%"> +<A HREF="#chap10">X</A> +</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap11">XI</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap12">XII</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap13">XIII</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap14">XIV</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap15">XV</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap16">XVI</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap17">XVII</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap18">XVIII</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap19">XIX</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap20">XX</A> +</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap21">XXI</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap22">XXII</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap23">XXIII</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap24">XXIV</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap25">XXV</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap26">XXVI</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap27">XXVII</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap28">XXVIII</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap29">XXIX</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap30">XXX</A> +</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap31">XXXI</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap32">XXXII</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap33">XXXIII</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap34">XXXIV</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap35">XXXV</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +AT THE MERCY OF TIBERIUS +</H1> + +<BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER I. +</H3> + +<P> +"You are obstinate and ungrateful. You would rather see me suffer and +die, than bend your stubborn pride in the effort to obtain relief for +me. You will not try to save me." +</P> + +<P> +The thin, hysterically unsteady voice ended in a sob, and the frail +wasted form of the speaker leaned forward, as if the issue of life or +death hung upon an answer. +</P> + +<P> +The tower clock of a neighboring church began to strike the hour of +noon, and not until the echo of the last stroke had died away, was +there a reply to the appeal. +</P> + +<P> +"Mother, try to be just to me. My pride is for you, not for myself. I +shrink from seeing my mother crawl to the feet of a man, who has +disowned and spurned her; I cannot consent that she should humbly beg +for rights, so unnaturally withheld. Every instinct of my nature +revolts from the step you require of me, and I feel as if you held a +hot iron in your hand, waiting to brand me." +</P> + +<P> +"Your proud sensitiveness runs in a strange groove, and it seems you +would prefer to see me a pauper in a Hospital, rather than go to your +grandfather and ask for help. Beryl, time presses, and if I die for +want of aid, you will be responsible; when it is too late, you will +reproach yourself. If I only knew where and how to reach my dear boy, I +should not importune you. Bertie would not refuse obedience to say +wishes." +</P> + +<P> +The silence which followed was so prolonged that a mouse crept from its +covert in some corner of the comfortless garret room, and nibbled at +the fragments of bread scattered on the table. +</P> + +<P> +Beryl stood at the dormer window, holding aside the faded blue cotton +curtain, and the mid-day glare falling upon her, showed every curve of +her tall full form; every line in the calm, pale Sibylline face. The +large steel gray eyes were shaded by drooping lids, heavily fringed +with black lashes, but when raised in a steady gaze the pupils appeared +abnormally dilated; and the delicately traced black brows that +overarched them, contrasted conspicuously with the wealth of deep +auburn hair darkened by mahogany tints, which rolled back in shining +waves from her blue veined temples. While moulding the figure and +features upon a scale almost heroic, nature had jealously guarded the +symmetry of her work, and in addition to the perfect proportion of the +statuesque outlines, had bestowed upon the firm white flesh a gleaming +smoothness, suggestive of fine grained marble highly polished. Majesty +of mien implies much, which the comparatively short period of eighteen +years rarely confers, yet majestic most properly describes this girl, +whose archetype Veleda read runic myths to the Bructeri in the twilight +of history. +</P> + +<P> +Beryl crossed the room, and with her hands folded tightly together, +came to the low bed, on which lay the wreck of a once beautiful woman, +and stood for a moment silent and pre-occupied. With a sudden gesture +of surrender, she stooped her noble head, as if assuming a yoke, and +drew one long deep breath. Did some prophetic intuition show her at +that instant the Phicean Hill and its dread tenant, which sooner or +later we must all confront? +</P> + +<P> +"Dear mother, I submit. Obedience to your commands certainly ought not +to lead me astray; yet I feel that I stand at the cross-roads, longing +to turn and flee from the way whither your finger points. I have no +hope of accomplishing any good, and nothing but humiliation can result +from the experiment; but I will go. Sometimes I believe; that fate +maliciously hunts up the things we most bitterly abhor, and one by one +sets them down before us—labelled Duty. When do you wish me to start?" +</P> + +<P> +"To-night, at nine o'clock. In the letter which you will take to +father, I have told him our destitution; and that the money spent for +your railway ticket has been obtained by the sacrifice of the diamonds +and pearls, that were set around my mother's picture; that cameo, which +he had cut in Rome and framed in Paris. Beryl so much depends on the +impression you make upon him, that you must guard your manner against +haughtiness. Try to be patient, my daughter, and if he should seem +harsh, do not resent his words. He is old now, and proud and bitter, +but he once had a tender love for me. I was his idol, and when my child +pleads, he will relent." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Brentano laid her thin hot fingers on her daughter's hands, +drawing her down to the edge of the bed; and Beryl saw she was +quivering with nervous excitement. +</P> + +<P> +"Compose yourself, mother, or you will be so ill that I cannot leave +you. Dr. Grantlin impressed upon us, the necessity of keeping your +nervous system quiet. Take your medicine now, and try to sleep until I +come back from Stephen & Endicott's." +</P> + +<P> +"Do not go to-day." +</P> + +<P> +"I must. Those porcelain types were promised for a certain day, and +they should be packed in time for the afternoon express going to +Boston." +</P> + +<P> +"Beryl." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, mother?" +</P> + +<P> +"Come nearer to me. Give me your hand. My heart is so oppressed by +dread, that I want you to promise me something, which I fancy will +lighten my burden. Life is very uncertain, and if I should die, what +would become of my Bertie? Oh, my boy! my darling, my first born! He is +so impulsive, so headstrong; and no one but his mother could ever +excuse or forgive his waywardness. Although younger, you are in some +respects, the strongest; and I want your promise that you will always +be patient and tender with him, and that you will shield him from evil, +as I have tried to do. His conscience of course, is not sensitive like +yours—because you know, a boy's moral nature is totally different from +a girl's; and like most of his sex, Bertie has no religious instincts +bending him always in the right direction. Women generally have to +supply conscientious scruples for men, and you can take care of your +brother, if you will. You are unusually brave and strong, Beryl, and +when I am gone, you must stand between him and trouble. My good little +girl, will you?" +</P> + +<P> +The large luminous eyes that rested upon the flushed face of the +invalid, filled with a mist of yearning compassionate tenderness, and +taking her mother's hands, Beryl laid the palms together, then stooping +nearer, kissed her softly. +</P> + +<P> +"I think I have never lacked love for Bertie, though I may not always +have given expression to my feelings. If at times I have deplored his +reckless waywardness, and expostulated with him, genuine affection +prompted me; but I promise you now, that I will do all a sister +possibly can for a brother. Trust me, mother; and rest in the assurance +that his welfare shall be more to me than my own; that should the +necessity arise, I will stand between him and trouble. Banish all +depressing forebodings. When you are strong and well, and when I paint +my great picture, we will buy a pretty cottage among the lilacs and +roses, where birds sing all day long, where cattle pasture in clover +nooks; and then Bertie, your darling, shall never leave you again." +</P> + +<P> +"I do trust you, for your promise means more than oath and vows from +other people, and if occasion demand, I know you will guard my Bertie, +my high-strung, passionate, beautiful boy! Your pretty cottage? Ah, +child! when shall we dwell in Spain?" +</P> + +<P> +"Some day, some day; only be hopeful, and let me find you better when I +return. Sleep, and dream of our pretty cottage. I must hurry away with +my pictures, for this is pay day." +</P> + +<P> +Tying the strings of her hat under one ear, and covering her face with +a blue veil, Beryl took a pasteboard box from a table, on which lay +brushes and paints, and leaving the door a-jar, went down the narrow +stairs. +</P> + +<P> +At the window of a small hall on the next floor, a woman sat before her +sewing-machine, bending so close to her work that she did not see the +tall form, which paused before her, until a hand was laid on the steel +plate. +</P> + +<P> +"Mrs. Emmet, will you please be so good as to go up after a while, and +see if mother needs anything?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly, Miss, if I am here, but I have some sewing to carry home +this afternoon." +</P> + +<P> +"I shall not be absent more than two hours. To-night I am going South, +to attend to some business; and mother tells me you have promised to +wait upon her, and allow your daughter Maggie to sleep on a pallet by +her bed, while I am gone. I cannot tell you how grateful I shall be for +any kindness you may show her, and I wish you would send the baby often +to her room, as he is so sweet and cunning, and his merry ways amuse +her." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I will do all I can. We poor folks who have none of this world's +goods, ought to be rich at least in sympathy and pity for each other's +suffering, for it is about all we have to share. Don't you worry and +fret, for I will see your ma has what she needs. I was mothered by the +best woman God ever made, and since she died, every sick mother I see +has a sort of claim on my heart." +</P> + +<P> +Pausing an instant to adjust the tucker of her machine, Mrs. Emmet +looked up, and involuntarily the women shook hands, as if sealing a +compact. +</P> + +<P> +It was a long walk to the building whither Beryl directed her steps, +and as she passed through the rear entrance of a large and fashionable +photograph establishment, she was surprised to find that it was +half-past two o'clock. +</P> + +<P> +The Superintendent of the department, from whom she received her work, +was a man of middle-age, of rather stern and forbidding aspect; and as +she approached his desk, he pointed to the clock on the mantel-piece. +</P> + +<P> +"Barely time to submit those types for inspection, and have them packed +for the express going East. They are birthday gifts, and birthdays have +an awkward habit of arriving rigidly on time." +</P> + +<P> +He unrolled the tissue paper, and with a magnifying glass, carefully +examined the pictures; then took from an envelope in the box, two short +pieces of hair, which he compared with the painted heads before him. +</P> + +<P> +"Beautifully done. The lace on that child's dress would bear even a +stronger lens than my glass. Here Patterson, take this box, and letter +to Mr. Endicott, and if satisfactory, carry them to the packing +counter. Shipping address is in the letter. Hurry up, my lad. Sit down, +Miss Brentano." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, I am not tired. Mr. Mansfield, have you any good news for +me?" +</P> + +<P> +"You mean those etchings; or the designs for the Christmas cards? Have +not heard a word, pro or con. Guess no news is good news; for I notice +'rejected' work generally travels fast, to roost at home." +</P> + +<P> +"I thought the awards were made last week, and that to-day you could +tell me the result." +</P> + +<P> +"The awards have been made, I presume, but who owns the lucky cards is +the secret that has not yet transpired. You young people have no +respect for red tape, and methodical business routine. You want to +clap spurs on fate, and make her lower her own last record? 'Bide awee. +Bide awee'." +</P> + +<P> +"Winning this prize means so much to me, that I confess I find it very +hard to be patient. Success would save me from a painful and expensive +journey, upon which I must start to-night; and therefore I hoped so +earnestly that I might receive good tidings to-day. I am obliged to go +South on an errand, which will necessitate an absence of several days, +and if you should have any news for me, keep it until I call again. If +unfavorable it would depress my mother, and therefore I prefer you +should not write, as of course she will open any letters addressed to +me. Please save all the work you can for me, and I will come here as +soon as I get back home." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well. Any message, Patterson?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Endicott said, 'All right; first-rate;' and ordered them shipped." +</P> + +<P> +"Here is your money, Miss Brentano. Better call as early as you can, as +I guess there will be a lot of photographs ready in a few days. Good +afternoon." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you. Good-bye, sir." +</P> + +<P> +From the handful of small change, she selected some pennies which she +slipped inside of her glove, and dropping the remainder into her +pocket, left the building, and walked on toward Union Square. Absorbed +in grave reflections, and oppressed by some vague foreboding of +impending ill, dim, intangible and unlocalized—she moved slowly along +the crowded sidewalk—unconscious of the curious glances directed +toward her superb form, and stately graceful carriage, which more than +one person turned and looked back to admire, wondering when she had +stepped down from some sacred Panathenaic Frieze. +</P> + +<P> +Near Madison Square, she paused before the window of a florist's, and +raising her veil, gazed longingly at the glowing mass of blossoms, +which Nineteenth Century skill and wealth in defiance of isothermal +lines, and climatic limitations force into perfection, in, and out of +season. The violet eyes and crocus fingers of Spring smiled and +quivered, at sight of the crimson rose heart, and flaming paeony cheeks +of royal Summer; and creamy and purple chrysanthemums that quill their +laces over the russet robes of Autumn, here stared in indignant +amazement, at the premature presumption of snowy regal camellias, +audaciously advancing to crown the icy brows of Winter. All latitudes, +all seasons have become bound vassals to the great God Gold; and his +necromancy furnishes with equal facility the dewy wreaths of orange +flowers that perfume the filmy veils of December brides—and the blue +bells of spicy hyacinths which ring "Rest" over the lily pillows, set +as tribute on the graves of babies, who wilt under August suns. +</P> + +<P> +From early childhood, an ardent love of beauty had characterized this +girl, whose covetous gaze wandered from a gorgeous scarlet and gold +orchid nodding in dreams of its habitat, in some vanilla scented +Brazilian jungle, to a bed of vivid green moss, where skilful hands had +grouped great drooping sprays of waxen begonias, coral, faint pink, and +ivory, all powdered with gold dust like that which gilds the heart of +water-lilies. +</P> + +<P> +Such treasures were reserved for the family of Dives; and counting her +pennies, Beryl entered the store, where instantaneously the blended +breath of heliotrope, tube-rose and mignonette wafted her across the +ocean, to a white-walled fishing village on the Cornice, whose gray +rocks were kissed by the blue lips of the Mediterranean. +</P> + +<P> +"What is the price of that cluster of Niphetos buds?" +</P> + +<P> +"One dollar." +</P> + +<P> +"And that Auratum—with a few rose geranium leaves added?" +</P> + +<P> +"Seventy-five cents. You see it is wonderfully large, and the gold +bands are so very deep." +</P> + +<P> +She put one hand in her pocket and fingered a silver coin, but poverty +is a grim, tyrannous stepmother to tender aestheticism, and prudential +considerations prevailed. +</P> + +<P> +"Give me twenty-five cents worth of those pale blue double violets, +with a sprig of lemon verbena, and a fringe of geranium leaves." +</P> + +<P> +She laid the money on the counter, and while the florist selected and +bound the blossoms into a bunch, she arrested his finishing touch. +</P> + +<P> +"Wait a moment. How much more for one Grand Duke jasmine in the centre?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ten cents, Miss." +</P> + +<P> +She added the dime to the pennies she could ill afford to spare from +her small hoard, and said: "Will you be so kind as to sprinkle it? I +wish it kept fresh, for a sick lady." +</P> + +<P> +Dusky shadows were gathering in the gloomy hall of the old tenement +house, when Beryl opened the door of the comfortless attic room, where +for many months she had struggled bravely to shield her mother from the +wolf, that more than once snarled across the threshold. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Brentano was sitting in a low chair, with her elbows on her knees, +her face hidden in her palms; and in her lap lay paper and pencil, +while a sealed letter had fallen on the ground beside her. At the sound +of the opening door, she lifted her head, and tears dripped upon the +paper. In her faded flannel dressing-gown, with tresses of black hair +straggling across her shoulders, she presented a picture of helpless +mental and physical woe, which painted itself indelibly on the panels +of her daughter's heart. +</P> + +<P> +"Why did you not wait until I came home? The exertion of getting up +always fatigues you." +</P> + +<P> +"You staid so long—and I am so uncomfortable in that wretchedly hard +bed. What detained you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I went to see the Doctor, because I am unwilling to start away, +without having asked his advice; and he has prescribed some new +medicine which you will find in this bottle. The directions are marked +on the label. Now I will put things in order, and try my hands on that +refractory bed." +</P> + +<P> +"What did the Doctor say about me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing new; but he is confident that you can be cured in time, if we +will only be patient and obedient. He promised to see you in the +morning." +</P> + +<P> +She stripped the bed of its covering, shook bolster and pillows; turned +over the mattress, and beat it vigorously; then put on fresh sheets, +and adjusted the whole comfortably. +</P> + +<P> +"Now mother, turn your head, and let me comb and brush and braid all +this glossy black satin, to keep it from tangling while I am away. What +a pity you did not dower your daughter with part of it, instead of this +tawny mane of mine, which is a constant affront to my fastidious +artistic instincts. Please keep still a moment." +</P> + +<P> +She unwrapped the tissue paper that covered her flowers, and holding +her hands behind her, stepped in front of the invalid. +</P> + +<P> +"Dear mother, shut your eyes. There—! of what does that remind you? +The pergola—with great amber grape clusters—and white stars of +jasmine shining through the leaves? All the fragrance of Italy sleeps +in the thurible of this Grand-Duke." +</P> + +<P> +"How delicious! Ah, my extravagant child! we cannot afford such +luxuries now. The perfume recalls so vividly the time when Bertie—" +</P> + +<P> +A sob cut short the sentence. Beryl pinned the flowers at her mother's +throat, kissed her cheek, and kneeling before her, crossed her arms on +the invalid's lap, resting there the noble head, with its burnished +crown of reddish bronze braids. +</P> + +<P> +"Mother dear, humor my childish whim. In defiance of my wishes and +judgment, and solely in obedience to your command, I am leaving you for +the first time, on a bitterly painful and humiliating mission. +To-night, let me be indeed your little girl once more. My heart brings +me to your knees, to say my prayers as of yore, and now while I pray, +lay your dear pretty hands on my head. It will seem like a parting +benediction; a veritable Nunc dimmitas." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER II. +</H3> + +<P> +"I do not want a carriage. If the distance is only a mile and a half, I +can easily walk. After leaving town is there a straight road?" +</P> + +<P> +"Straight as the crow flies, when you have passed the factory, and +cemetery, and turned to the left. There is a little Branch running at +the foot of the hill, and just across it, you will see the white +palings, and the big gate with stone pillars, and two tremendous brass +dogs on top, showing their teeth and ready to spring. There's no +mistaking the place, because it is the only one left in the country +that looks like the good old times before the war; and the Yankees +would not have spared it, had it not been such comfortable bombproof +headquarters for their officers. It's our show place now, and General +Darrington keeps it up in better style, than any other estate I know." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you. I will find it." +</P> + +<P> +Beryl walked away in the direction indicated, and the agent of the +railway station, leaning against the door of the baggage room, looked +with curious scrutiny after her. +</P> + +<P> +"I should like to know who she is. No ordinary person, that is clear. +Such a grand figure and walk, and such a steady look in her big solemn +eyes, as if she saw straight through a person, clothes, flesh and all. +Wonder what her business can be with the old general?" +</P> + +<P> +From early childhood Beryl had listened so intently to her mother's +glowing descriptions of the beauty and elegance of her old home "Elm +Bluff," that she soon began to identify the land-marks along the road, +alter passing the cemetery, where so many generations of Darringtons +slept in one corner, enclosed by a lofty iron railing; exclusive in +death as in life; jealously guarded and locked from contact with the +surrounding dwellers in "God's Acre." +</P> + +<P> +The October day had begun quite cool and crisp, with a hint of frost in +its dewy sparkle, but as though vanquished Summer had suddenly faced +about, and charged furiously to cover her retreat, the south wind came +heavily laden with hot vapor from equatorial oceanic caldrons; and now +the afternoon sun, glowing in a cloudless sky, shed a yellowish glare +that burned and tingled like the breath of a furnace; while along the +horizon, a dim dull haze seemed blotting out the boundary of earth and +sky. +</P> + +<P> +A portion of the primeval pine forest having been preserved, the trees +had attained gigantic height, thrusting their plumy heads heavenward, +as their lower limbs died; and year after year the mellow brown carpet +of reddish straw deepened, forming a soft safe nidus for the seeds that +sprang up and now gratefully embroidered it with masses of golden rod, +starry white asters, and tall, feathery spikes of some velvety purple +bloom, which looked royal by the side of a cluster of belated evening +primroses. +</P> + +<P> +Pausing on the small but pretty rustic bridge, Beryl leaned against the +interlacing cedar boughs twisted into a balustrade, and looked down at +the winding stream, where the clear water showed amber hues, flecked +with glinting foam bubbles, as it lapped and gurgled, eddied and sang, +over its bed of yellow gravel. Unacquainted with "piney-woods' +branches," she was charmed by the novel golden brown wavelets that +frothed against the pillars of the bridge, and curled caressingly about +the broad emerald fronds of luxuriant ferns, which hung Narcissus-like +over their own graceful quivering images. Profound quiet brooded in the +warm, hazy air, burdened with balsamic odors; but once a pine burr full +of rich nutty mast crashed down through dead twigs, bruising the satin +petals of a primrose; and ever and anon the oboe notes of that shy, +deep throated hermit of ravines—the russet, speckled-breasted +lark—thrilled through the woods, like antiphonal echoes in some vast, +cool, columned cloister. +</P> + +<P> +The perfect tranquillity of the scene soothed the travel-weary woman, +as though nestling so close to the great heart of nature, had stilled +the fierce throbbing, and banished the gloomy forebodings of her own; +and she walked on, through the iron gate, where the bronze mastiffs +glared warningly from their granite pedestal—on into the large +undulating park, which stretched away to meet the line of primitive +pines. There was no straight avenue, but a broad smooth carriage road +curved gently up a hillside, and on both margins of the graveled way, +ancient elm trees stood at regular intervals, throwing their boughs +across, to unite in lifting the superb groined arches, whose fine +tracery of sinuous lines were here and there concealed by clustering +mistletoe—and gray lichen masses—and ornamented with bosses of velvet +moss; while the venerable columnar trunks were now and then wreathed +with poison-oak vines, where red trumpet flowers insolently blared +defiance to the waxen pearls of encroaching mistletoe. +</P> + +<P> +On the other side, the grounds were studded with native growth, as +though protective forestry statutes had crossed the ocean with the +colonists, and on this billowy sea of varied foliage Autumn had set her +illuminated autograph, in the vivid scarlet of sumach and black gum, +the delicate lemon of wild cherry—the deep ochre all sprinkled and +splashed with intense crimson, of the giant oaks—the orange glow of +ancestral hickory—and the golden glory of maples, on which the hectic +fever of the dying year kindled gleams of fiery red;—over all, a +gorgeous blazonry of riotous color, toned down by the silver gray +shadows of mossy tree-trunks, and the rich, dark, restful green of +polished magnolias. +</P> + +<P> +Half a dozen fine Cotswold ewes browsed on the grass, and the small +bell worn by a staid dowager tinkled musically, as she threw up her +head and watched suspiciously the figure moving under the elm arches. +Beneath the far reaching branches of a patriarchal cedar, a small herd +of Jersey calves had grouped themselves, as if posing for Landseer or +Rosa Bonheur; and one pretty fawn-colored weanling ran across the sward +to meet the stranger, bleating a welcome and looking up, with +unmistakable curiosity in its velvety, long-lashed eyes. +</P> + +<P> +As the avenue gradually climbed the ascent, the outlines of the house +became visible; a stately, typical southern mansion, like hundreds, +which formerly opened hospitably their broad mahogany doors, and which, +alas! are becoming traditional to this generation—obsolete as the +brave chivalric, warm-hearted, open-handed, noble-souled, refined +southern gentlemen who built and owned them. No Mansard roof here, no +pseudo "Queen Anne" hybrid, with lowering, top-heavy projections like +scowling eyebrows over squinting eyes; neither mongrel Renaissance, nor +feeble, sickly, imitation Elizabethan facades, and Tudor towers; none +of the queer, composite, freakish impertinences of architectural style, +which now-a-day do duty as the adventurous vanguard, the aesthetic +vedettes "making straight the way," for the coming cohorts of Culture. +</P> + +<P> +The house at "Elm Bluff" was built of brick, overcast with stucco +painted in imitation of gray granite, and its foundation was only four +feet high, resting upon a broad terrace of brickwork; the latter +bounded by a graceful wooden balustrade, with pedestals for vases, on +either side of the two stone steps leading down from the terrace to the +carriage drive. The central halls, in both stories, divided the space +equally into four rooms on each side, and along the wide front, ran a +lofty piazza supporting the roof, with white smooth round pillars; +while the upper broad square windows, cedar-framed, and deeply +embrasured, looked down on the floor of the piazza, where so many +generations of Darringtons had trundled hoops in childhood—and +promenaded as lovers in the silvery moonlight, listening to the ring +doves cooing above them, from the columbary of the stucco capitals. +This spacious colonnade extended around the northern and eastern side +of the house, but the western end had formerly been enclosed as a +conservatory—which having been abolished, was finally succeeded by a +comparatively modern iron veranda, with steps leading down to the +terrace. In front of the building, between the elm avenue and the +flower-bordered terrace, stood a row of very old poplar trees, tall as +their forefathers in Lombardy, and to an iron staple driven into one of +these, a handsome black horse was now fastened. +</P> + +<P> +Standing with one foot on the terrace step, close to the marble vases +where heliotropes swung their dainty lilac chalices against her +shoulder, and the scarlet geraniums stared unabashed, Beryl's gaze +wandered from the lovely park and ancient trees, to the unbroken facade +of the gray old house; and as, in painful contrast she recalled the +bare bleak garret room, where a beloved invalid held want and death at +bay, a sudden mist clouded her vision, and almost audibly she murmured: +"My poor mother! Now, I can realize the bitterness of your suffering; +now I understand the intensity of your yearning to come back; the +terrible home-sickness, which only Heaven can cure." +</P> + +<P> +What is presentiment? The swaying of the veil of futurity, under the +straining hands of our guardian angels? Is it the faint shadow, the +solemn rustle of their hovering wings, as like mother birds they spread +protecting plumes between blind fledglings, and descending ruin? Will +theosophy ever explain and augment prescience? +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "It may be—<BR> + The thoughts that visit us, we know not whence,<BR> + Sudden as inspiration, are the whispers<BR> + Of disembodied spirits, speaking to us<BR> + As friends, who wait outside a prison wall,<BR> + Through the barred windows speak to those within."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +With difficulty Beryl resisted an inexplicable impulse to turn and +flee; but the drawn sword of duty pointed ahead. +</P> + +<P> +Striking her hands together, as if thereby crushing her reluctance to +enter, she waited a moment, with closed eyes, while her lips moved in +silent prayer; then ascending the terrace, she crossed the stone +pavement, walked up the stops and slowly advanced to the threshold. The +dark mahogany door was so glossy, that she dimly saw her own image on +its polished panels, as she lifted and let fall the heavy silver +knocker, in the middle of an oval silver plate, around the edges of +which were raised the square letters of the name "Darrington." The +clanging sound startled a peacock, strutting among the verbena beds, +and his shrill scream was answered by the deep hoarse bark of some +invisible dog; then the heavy door swung open, and a gray-headed negro +man, who wore a white linen apron over his black clothes, and held a +waiter in one hand, stood before her. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish to see Mr. Darrington." +</P> + +<P> +"I reckon you mean Gin'l Darrington, don't you? Mr. Darrington, Marse +Prince Darrington, is in Yurope." +</P> + +<P> +"I mean Mr. Luke Darrington, the owner of this place." +</P> + +<P> +"Jess so; Gin'l Luke Darrington. Well, you can't see him." +</P> + +<P> +"Why not? I must see him, and I shall stay here until I do." +</P> + +<P> +"'Cause he is busy with his lie-yer, fixin' of some papers; and when he +tells me not to let nobody else in I'de ruther set down in a yaller +jacket's nest than to turn the door knob, after he done shut it. Better +leave your name and call ag'in." +</P> + +<P> +"No, I will wait until he is at leisure. I presume my sitting on the +steps here will not be a violation of your orders." +</P> + +<P> +"To be shore not. But them steps are harder than the stool of +repentance, and you had better walk in the drawing-room, and rest +yourself. There's pictures, and lots and piles of things there, you can +pass away the time looking at." +</P> + +<P> +He waved his waiter toward a long, dim apartment, on the left side of +the hall. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, I prefer to sit here." +</P> + +<P> +She seated herself on the top of the stone steps, and taking off her +straw hat, fanned her heated brow, where the rich waving hair clung in +damp masses. +</P> + +<P> +"What name, miss, must I give, when the lie-yer finishes his bizness?" +</P> + +<P> +"Say that a stranger wishes to see him about an important matter." +</P> + +<P> +"Its mighty uncertain how long he will tarry; for lie-yers live by +talking; turning of words upside down, and wrong side outards, and +reading words backards, and whitewashing black things, and smutting of +white ones. Marse Lennox Dunbar (he is our lie-yer now, since his pa +took paralsis) he is a powerful wrastler with justice. They do say down +yonder, at the court house, that when he gets done with a witness, and +turns him aloose, the poor creetur is so flustrated in his mind, that +he don't know his own name, on when he was born, or where he was born, +or whether he was ever born at all." +</P> + +<P> +Curiosity to discover the nature of the stranger's errand had +stimulated the old man's garrulity, but receiving no reply, he finally +retreated, leaving the front door open. By the aid of a disfiguring +scar on his furrowed cheek, Beryl recognized him as the brave, +faithful, family coachman, Abednego, (abbreviated to "Bedney")—who had +once saved his mother's life at the risk of his own. Mrs. Brentano had +often related to her children, an episode in her childhood, when having +gone to play with her dolls in the loft of the stable, she fell asleep +on the hay; and two hours later, Bedney remembering that he had heard +her singing there to her dolls, rushed into the burning building, +groped through the stifling smoke of the loft, and seizing the sleeping +child, threw her out upon a pile of straw. When he attempted to jump +after her, a falling rafter struck him to the earth, and left an +honorable scar in attestation of his heroism. +</P> + +<P> +Had she yielded to the promptings of her heart, the stranger would +gladly have shaken hands with him, and thanked him, in the name of +those early years, when her mother's childish feet made music on the +wide mahogany railed stairs, that wound from the lower hall to the one +above; but the fear of being denied an audience, deterred her from +disclosing her name. +</P> + +<P> +Educated in the belief that the utterance of the abhorred name of +Brentano, within the precincts of "Elm Bluff," would produce an effect +very similar to the ringing of some Tamil Pariah's bell, before the +door of a Brahman temple, Beryl wisely kept silent; and soon forgot her +forebodings, in the contemplation of the supreme loveliness of the +prospect before her. +</P> + +<P> +The elevation was sufficient to command an extended view of the +surrounding country, and of the river, which crossed by the railroad +bridge north of the town, curved sharply to the east, whence she could +trace its course as it gradually wound southward, and disappeared +behind the house; where at the foot of a steep bluff, a pretty boat and +bath house nestled under ancient willow trees. At her feet the foliage +of the park stretched like some brilliant carpet, before whose gorgeous +tints, ustads of Karman would have stood in despair; and beyond the +sea-green, undulating line of pine forest she saw the steeple of a +church, with its gilt vane burning in the sunshine, and the red brick +dome of the ante bellum court house. +</P> + +<P> +Time seemed to have fallen asleep on that hot, still afternoon, and +Beryl was roused from her reverie by the sound of hearty laughter in +the apartment opposite the drawing-room—followed by the tones of a +man's voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, General. That is my destination this afternoon, and I shall +certainly expect you to dance at my wedding." +</P> + +<P> +Quick, firm steps rang on the oil-cloth-covered floor of the hall, and +Beryl rose and turned toward the door. +</P> + +<P> +With a cigar in one hand, hat and riding-whip in the other, the +attorney stepped out on the colonnade, and pausing involuntarily, at +sight of the stranger, they looked at each other. A man, perhaps, more, +certainly not less than thirty years old, of powerful and impressive +physique; very tall, athletic, sinewy, without an ounce of superfluous +flesh to encumber his movements, in the professional palaestra; with a +large finely modeled head, whose crisp black hair closely cut, was +(contrary to the prevailing fashion) parted neither in the middle, nor +yet on the side, but brushed straight back from the square forehead, +thereby enhancing the massiveness of its appearance. +</P> + +<P> +Something in this swart, beardless face, with its brilliant +inquisitorial dark blue eyes, handsome secretive mouth veiled by no +mustache—and boldly assertive chin deeply cleft in the +centre—affected Beryl very unpleasantly, as a perplexing disagreeable +memory; an uncanny resemblance hovering just beyond the grasp of +identification. A feeling of unaccountable repulsion made her shiver, +and she breathed more freely, when he hewed slightly, and walked on +toward his horse. Upon the attorney her extraordinary appearance +produced a profound impression, and in his brief scrutiny, no detail of +her face, figure, or apparel escaped his keen probing gaze. +</P> + +<P> +Glancing back as he untied his bridle rein, his unspoken comment was: +"Superb woman; I wonder what brings her here? Evidently a +stranger—with a purpose." +</P> + +<P> +He sprang into the saddle, stooped his head to avoid the yellow poplar +branches, and disappeared under the elm arches. +</P> + +<P> +"Gin'l Darrington's compliments; and if your bizness is pressin' you +will have to see him in his bedcharmber, as he feels poorly to-day, and +the Doctor won't let him out. Follow me. You see, ole Marster remembers +the war by the game leg he got at Sharpshurg, and sometimes it lays him +up." +</P> + +<P> +The old servant led Beryl through a long room, fitted up as a library +and armory, and pausing before an open door, waved her into the +adjoining apartment. One swift glance showed her the heavy canopied +bedstead in one corner, the arch-shaped glass door leading out upon the +iron veranda; and at an oblong table in the middle of the floor, the +figure of a man, who rose, taller and taller, until he seemed a giant, +drawn to his full height, and resting for support on the hand that was +rested upon the table. Intensity of emotion arrested her breath, as she +gazed at the silvered head, piercing black eyes, and spare wasted framp +of the handsome man, who had always reigned as a brutal ogre in her +imagination. The fire in his somewhat sunken eyes, seemed to bid +defiance to the whiteness of the abundant hair, and of the heavy +mustache which drooped over his lips; and every feature in his +patrician face revealed not only a long line of blue-blooded ancestors, +but the proud haughtiness which had been considered always as +distinctively characteristic of the Darringtons as their finely cut +lips, thin nostrils, small feet and unusual height. +</P> + +<P> +Unprepared for the apparition that confronted him, Luke Darrington +bowed low, surveyed her intently, then pointed to a chair opposite his +own. +</P> + +<P> +"Walk in, Madam; or perhaps it may be Miss? Will you take a seat, and +excuse the feebleness that forces me to receive visits in my bed-room?" +</P> + +<P> +As he reseated himself, Beryl advanced and stood beside him, but for a +moment she found it impossible to utter the words, rehearsed so +frequently during her journey; and while she hesitated, he curiously +inspected her face and form. +</P> + +<P> +Her plain, but perfectly fitting bunting dress, was of the color, +popularly dominated "navy-blue," and the linen collar and cuffs were +scarcely whiter than the round throat and wrists they encircled. The +burnished auburn hair clinging in soft waves to her brow, was twisted +into a heavy coil, which the long walk had shaken down till it rested +almost on her neck; and though her heart beat furiously, the pale calm +face might have been marble, save for the scarlet lines of her +beautiful mouth, and the steady glow of the dilated pupils in her great +gray eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Pray be seated; and tell me to whom I am indebted for the pleasure of +this visit?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am merely the bearer of a letter which will explain itself, and my +presence, in your house." +</P> + +<P> +Mechanically he took the preferred letter, and with his eyes still +lingering in admiration upon the classic outlines of her face and form, +leaned back comfortably against the velvet lining of his armchair. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you some exiled goddess travelling incognito? If we lived in the +'piping days of Pan' I should flatter myself that 'Ox-eyed Juno' had +honored me with a call, as a reward for my care of her favorite bird." +</P> + +<P> +Receiving no reply he glanced at the envelope in his hand, and as he +read the address—"To my dear father, Gen'l Luke Darrington"—the smile +on his face changed to a dark scowl and he tossed the letter to the +floor, as if it were a red-hot coal. +</P> + +<P> +"Only one living being has the right to call me father—my son, Prince +Darrington. I have repeatedly refused to hold any communication with +the person who wrote that letter." +</P> + +<P> +Beryl stooped to pick it up, and with a caressing touch, as though it +were sentient, held it against her heart. +</P> + +<P> +"Your daughter is dying; and this is her last appeal." +</P> + +<P> +"I have no daughter. Twenty-three years ago my daughter buried herself +in hopeless disgrace, and for her there can be no resurrection here. If +she dreams that I am in my dotage, and may relent, she strangely +forgets the nature of the blood she saw fit to cross with that of a +beggarly foreign scrub. Go back and tell her, the old man is not yet +senile and imbecile; and that the years have only hardened his heart. +Tell her, I have almost learned to forget even how she looked." +</P> + +<P> +His eyes showed a dull reddish fire, like those of some drowsy caged +tiger, suddenly stirred into wrath, and a grayish pallor—the white +heat of the Darringtons—settled on his face. +</P> + +<P> +Twice Beryl walked the length of the room, but each time the +recollection of her mother's tearful, suffering countenance, and the +extremity of her need, drove her back to the chair. +</P> + +<P> +"If you knew that your daughter's life hung by a thread, would you +deliberately take a pair of shears and cut it?" +</P> + +<P> +He glared at her in silence, and leaning forward on the table, pushed +roughly aside a salver, on which stood a decanter and two wine glasses. +</P> + +<P> +"I am here to tell you a solemn truth; then my responsibility ends. +Your daughter's life rests literally in your hands; for unless you +consent to furnish the money to pay for a surgical operation, which may +restore her health, she will certainly die. I am indulging in no +exaggeration to extort alms. In this letter is the certificate of a +distinguished physician, corroborating my statement. If you, the author +of her being, prefer to hasten her death, then your choice of an awful +revenge must be settled between your hardened conscience and your God." +</P> + +<P> +"You are bold indeed, to beard me in my own house, and tell me to my +face what no man would dare to utter." +</P> + +<P> +His voice was an angry pant, and he struck his clenched hand on the +table with a force that made the glasses jingle, and the sherry dance +in the decanter. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, you scarcely realize how much bravery this painful errand +demands; but the tender love in a woman's heart nerves her to bear +fiery ordeals, that vanquish a man's courage." +</P> + +<P> +"Then you find that age has not drawn the fangs from the old crippled +Darrington lion, nor clipped his claws?" +</P> + +<P> +The sneer curved his white mustache, until she saw the outline of the +narrow, bloodless underlip. +</P> + +<P> +"That king of beasts scorns to redden his fangs, or flesh his claws, in +the quivering body of his own offspring. Your metaphor is an insult to +natural instincts." +</P> + +<P> +She laid the letter once more before him, and looked down on him, with +ill-concealed aversion. +</P> + +<P> +"Who are you? By what right dare you intrude upon me?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am merely a sorrowful, anxious, poverty-stricken woman, whose heart +aches over her mother's sufferings and vho would never have endured the +humiliation of this interview, except to deliver a letter in the hope +of prolonging my mother's life." +</P> + +<P> +"You do not mean that you are—my—" +</P> + +<P> +"I am nothing to you, sir, but the bearer of a letter from your dying +daughter." +</P> + +<P> +"You cannot be the child of—of Ellice?" +</P> + +<P> +After the long limbo of twenty-three years, the name burst from him, +and with what a host of memories its echo peopled the room, where that +erring daughter had formerly reigned queen of his heart. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Ellice is my dear mother's name." +</P> + +<P> +He stared at the majestic form, and at the faultless face looking so +proudly down upon him, as from an inaccessible height; and she heard +him draw his breath, with a labored hissing sound. +</P> + +<P> +"But—I thought her child was a boy?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am the youngest of two children." +</P> + +<P> +"It is impossible that you are the daughter of that infernal, low-born, +fiddling foreign vagabond who—" +</P> + +<P> +"Hush! The dead are sacred!" +</P> + +<P> +She threw up her hand, with an imperious gesture, not of deprecation, +but of interdict; and all the stony calm in her pale face seemed +shivered by a passionate gust, that made her eyes gleam like steel +under an electric flash. +</P> + +<P> +"I am the daughter of Ignace Brentano, and I love, and honor his +memory, and his name. No drop of your Darrington blood runs in my +veins; I love my dear mother—but I am my father's daughter—and I want +no nobler heritage than his name. Upon you I have no shadow of claim, +but I am here from dire necessity, at your mercy—a helpless, +defenseless pleader in my mother's behalf—and as such, I appeal to the +boasted southern chivalry, upon which you pride yourself, for immunity +from insult while I am under your roof. Since I stood no taller than +your knee, my mother has striven to inculcate a belief in the nobility, +refinement, and chivalric deference to womanhood, inherent in southern +gentlemen; and if it be not all a myth, I invoke its protection against +abuse of my father. A stranger, but a lady, every inch, I demand the +respect due from a gentleman." +</P> + +<P> +For a moment they eyed each other, as gladiators awaiting the signal, +then General Darrington sprang to his feet, and with a bow, stately and +profound as if made to a duchess, replied: +</P> + +<P> +"And in the name of southern chivalry, I swear you shall receive it." +</P> + +<P> +"Read your daughter's letter; give me your answer, and let us cut short +an interview—which, if disagreeable to you, is almost unendurable to +me." +</P> + +<P> +Turning away, she began to walk slowly up and down the floor; and +smothering an oath under his heavy mustache, the old man sank back in +his chair, and opened the letter. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER III. +</H3> + +<P> +Holding in leash the painful emotions that struggled for utterance, +Beryl was unconscious of the lapse of time, and when her averted eyes +returned reluctantly to her grandfather's face, he was slowly tearing +into shreds the tear-stained letter, freighted with passionate prayers +for pardon, and for succor. Rolling the strips into a ball, he threw it +into the waste-paper basket under the table; then filled a glass with +sherry, drank it, and dropped his head wearily on his hand. Five leaden +minutes crawled away, and a long, heavy sigh quivered through Gen'l +Darrington's gaunt frame. Seizing the decanter, he poured the contents +into two glasses, and as he raised one to his lips, held the other +toward his visitor. +</P> + +<P> +"You must be weary from your journey; let me insist that you drink some +sherry." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, I neither wish nor require it." +</P> + +<P> +"I find your name is Beryl. Sit down here, and answer a few questions." +He drew a chair near his own. +</P> + +<P> +She shook her head: +</P> + +<P> +"If you will excuse me, I prefer to stand." +</P> + +<P> +In turning, so as to confront her fully, his elbow struck from the +table, a bronze paper-weight which rolled just beyond his reach. +Instinctively she stooped to pick it up, and in restoring it, her +fingers touched his. Leaning suddenly forward he grasped her wrists ere +she was aware of his intention, and drew her in front of him. +</P> + +<P> +"Pardon me; but I want a good look at you." +</P> + +<P> +His keen merciless eyes searched every feature, and he deliberately +lifted and examined the exquisitely shaped strong, white hands, the +dainty nails, and delicately rounded wrists with their violet tracery +of veins. It cost her an effort, to abstain from wrenching herself +free; but her mother's caution: "So much depends on the impression you +make upon father," girded her to submit to his critical inspection. +</P> + +<P> +A grim smile crossed his face, as he watched her. +</P> + +<P> +"Blood often doubles, like a fox; sometimes 'crops back,' but never +lies. You can't play out your role of pauper; and you don't look a +probable outcome of destitution and hard work. Your hands would fit +much better in a metope of the Elgin Marbles, than in a wash-tub, or a +bake-oven." +</P> + +<P> +Drawing away quickly, she put them behind her, and felt her palms +tingle. +</P> + +<P> +"It is expected I should believe that for some time past, you have +provided for your own, and your mother's wants. In what way?" +</P> + +<P> +"By coloring photographs; by furnishing designs for Christmas and +Easter cards, and occasionally (not often), by selling drawings used +for decorating china, and wallpaper. At one time, I had regular pay for +singing in a choir, but diphtheria injured my throat, and when I partly +recovered my voice, the situation had been given to another person." +</P> + +<P> +"I am informed also that before long, you intend to astonish the world +with a wonderful picture, which shall distance such laggards as Troyon, +Dore, and Ary Scheffer?" +</P> + +<P> +She was looking, not at him, but out through the glass door, at the +glowing western sky, where distant pine trees printed their +silhouettes. Now her gaze came back to his face, and he noted a faint +quiver in her full throat. +</P> + +<P> +"If God will mercifully spare my mother to me, my loftiest and holiest +ambition shall be to distance the wolfish cares and woes that have +hunted her, ever since she became a widow. Any and all honest labor +that can contribute to her comfort, will be welcome and sweet to me." +</P> + +<P> +"The laws of heredity must be occult and complex. The offspring of a +rebellious and disobedient child, is certainly entitled to no filial +instincts; and some day the strain will tell, and you will overwhelm +your mother with ingratitude, black as that which she showed me." +</P> + +<P> +"When I do, may God eternally forsake me!" +</P> + +<P> +A brief silence ensued, and the old man drummed on the table, with the +fingers of his right hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Who educated you?" +</P> + +<P> +"My dear father." +</P> + +<P> +"It seems there are two of you. Where is your brother?" +</P> + +<P> +"At present, I do not know exactly where he is, but I think in the far +West; possibly in Montana—probably in Canada." +</P> + +<P> +"How does he earn his bread? By daubing, or fiddling?" +</P> + +<P> +"Since he earns it honestly, that is his own affair. We have not heard +from him for some months." +</P> + +<P> +"I thought so! He inherits the worthless vagabond strain of—" +</P> + +<P> +"He is his mother's idol, and she glories in his resemblance to you, +sir; and to your father; hence his name—Robert L. Darrington." +</P> + +<P> +"Then she must have one handsome child! I am not surprised that he is +the favorite." +</P> + +<P> +"Bertie certainly is her darling, and he is very handsome; not in the +very least degree like me." +</P> + +<P> +For the first time, their eyes met in a friendly glance, and a covert +smile stirred the General's lips; but as he put out his hand toward +her, she moved a step beyond his reach. +</P> + +<P> +"Beryl, you consider me a dreadful, cruel old tyrant?" +</P> + +<P> +She made no reply. +</P> + +<P> +"Answer me." +</P> + +<P> +"You are my mother's father; and that word—father, means so much to +me, that it shall shield even you, from the shadow of disrespect." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! very dutiful indeed, but dead as the days when daughters obeyed, +and honored their fathers! Beggarly foreign professors wiped all that +out of the minds of wealthy girls at boarding schools—just as they +changed their backwoods pronunciation of French and Italian. Don't +evade my question." +</P> + +<P> +"I did not come here, sir, to bandy words; and I ended my mission by +delivering the letter intrusted to me." +</P> + +<P> +"You regard me as a vindictive old bear?" +</P> + +<P> +"I had heard much of the Darringtons; I imagined a great deal more; but +now, like the Queen of Sheba, I must testify—'Behold, the half was not +told me.'" +</P> + +<P> +He threw back his lion-like head, and laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"That will do. Shake hands, child." +</P> + +<P> +"No, thank you." +</P> + +<P> +"And you will not sit down?" +</P> + +<P> +"Frankly, I prefer not. I long to get away." +</P> + +<P> +"You shall certainly be gratified, but there are a few things which I +intend you shall hear. Of course you know that your mother was my only +child, and an heiress; but you are ignorant probably of the fact that +when she returned to boarding school for the last session, she was +engaged in marriage to the son of my best friend—a man in every +respect desirable, and thoroughly acceptable to me." +</P> + +<P> +"So my mother told me." +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed? She should blush to remember it. While she wore his engagement +ring, she forgot her promise to him, her duty to me, her lineage, her +birth, her position—and was inveigled by a low adventurer who—" +</P> + +<P> +"Who was my own precious father—poor, but noble, and worthy of any +princess! Unless you can refer to him respectfully, name him not at +all, in his child's presence." +</P> + +<P> +She suddenly towered over him, like some threatening fate, and her +uplifted arm trembled from the intensity of her indignation. +</P> + +<P> +"At least—you are loyal to your tribe!" +</P> + +<P> +"I am, to my heart's core. You could pay me no higher compliment." +</P> + +<P> +"Ellice wrote that she had bestowed her affections on—on—the 'exiled +scion of a noble house,' who paid his board bill by teaching languages +and music in the school; and who very naturally preferred to marry a +rich fool, who would pay them for him. I answered her letter, which was +addressed to her own mother—then quite ill at home—and I told her +precisely what she might expect, if she persisted in her insane folly. +As soon as my wife convalesced sufficiently to render my departure +advisable, I started to bring my daughter home; but she ran away, a few +hours before my arrival, and while, hoping to rescue Ellice, I was in +pursuit of the precious pair, my wife relapsed and died—the victim of +excitement brought on by her child's disgrace. I came back here to a +desolate, silent house;—bereft of wife and daughter; and in the grave +of her mother, I buried every atom of love and tenderness I ever +entertained for Ellice. When the sun is suddenly blotted out at noon, +and the world turns black—black, we grope to and fro aimlessly; but +after awhile, we accommodate ourselves to the darkness;—and so, I +became a different man—very hard, and I dare say very bitter. The +world soon learned that I would tolerate no illusion to my disgrace, +and people respected my family cancer, and prudently refrained from +offering me nostrums to cure it. My wife had a handsome estate of her +own right, and every cent of her fortune I collected, and sent with her +jewelry to Ellice. Did you know this?" +</P> + +<P> +"I have heard only of the jewels." +</P> + +<P> +"As I supposed, the money was squandered before you could recollect." +</P> + +<P> +"I know that we were reduced to poverty, by the failure of some banking +house in Paris. I was old enough when it occurred, to remember ever +afterward, the dismay and distress it caused. My father no doubt placed +my mother's money there for safety." +</P> + +<P> +"I wrote one long, final letter when I sent the checks for the money, +and I told Ellice I wished never to see, never to hear from her again. +I told her also, I had only one wish concerning her, and that was, that +I might be able to forget her so completely, that if we should meet in +the Last Judgment, I could not possibly know her. I assured her she +need expect nothing at my death; as I had taken good care that my +estate should not fall into the clutches of—her—'exiled scion of a +noble house.' Now do you consider that she has any claim on me?" +</P> + +<P> +"You must not ask me to sit in judgment on my parents." +</P> + +<P> +"You shall decide a question of business facts. I provided liberally +for her once; can you expect me to do so again? Has she any right to +demand it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Having defied your parental wishes, she may have forfeited a +daughter's claim; but as a heart-broken sufferer, you cannot deny her +the melancholy privilege of praying for your help, on her death-bed." +</P> + +<P> +The proud clear voice trembled, and Beryl covered her face with her +hands. +</P> + +<P> +"Then we will ignore outraged ties of blood, and treat on the ground of +mere humanity? Let me conclude, for it is sickening and loathsome to a +man of my age, to see his long silent household graves yawn, and give +up uncalled—their sheeted dead. For some years the money sent, was a +quietus, and I was left in peace. I was lonely; it was, hard work to +forget, because I could never forgive; and the more desolate the gray +ruin, the more nature yearns to cover it close with vines and flowers; +so after a time, I married a gentle, pure hearted woman, who made the +best of what was left of me. We had no children, but she had one son of +a former marriage, who proved a noble trustworthy boy; and by degrees +he crept into my heart, and raked together the cinders of my dead +affections, and kindled a feeble flame that warmed my shivering old +age. When I felt assured that I was not thawing another serpent to +sting me for my pains, I adopted Thorton Prince, and with the aid of a +Legislative enactment, changed his name to Prince Darrington. Only a +few months elapsed, before his mother, of whom I was very fond, died of +consumption and my boy and I comforted each other. Then I made my +second and last will, and took every possible precaution to secure my +estate of every description to him. He is my sole heir, and I intend +that at my death he shall receive every cent I possess. Did you know +this?" +</P> + +<P> +"I did, because your last endorsement on a letter of my mother's +returned unopened to her, informed her of the fact." +</P> + +<P> +"Why? Because in violation of my wishes she had persisted in writing, +and soon began to importune me for money. Then I made her understand +that even at my death, she would receive no aid; and since that +endorsement, I have returned or destroyed her letters unread. My Will +is so strong—has been drawn so carefully—that no contest can touch +it; and it will stand forever between your mother and my property." +</P> + +<P> +As he uttered these words, he elevated his voice, which had a ring of +savage triumph in its harsh excited tones. Just then, a muffled sound +attracted his attention, and seizing his gold-headed cane, he limped +with evident pain to the threshold of the adjoining room. +</P> + +<P> +"Bedney." +</P> + +<P> +Receiving no reply, he closed the door with a violence that jarred the +whole room; and came slowly back to the table, where he stood leaning +heavily on his stick. +</P> + +<P> +"At least we will have no eavesdropping at this resurrection of my +dead. That Ellice is now a miserable woman, I have no doubt; for truly: +'Quien se casa por amores, ha de vivir con dolores.' Of course you +understand Spanish?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir; but no matter; I take it for granted that you intend some +thrust at my mother, and I have heard quite enough." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't know Spanish? Why I fancied your—your 'exiled scion of a noble +house'—taught all the languages under the sun; including that used by +the serpent in beguiling Eve! Well, the wise old adage means: 'Who +marries for love, lives with sorrow.' Ellice made her choice, and she +shall abide by it; and you—being unluckily her daughter—will share +the punishment. If 'fathers WILL eat sour grapes, the children's teeth +MUST be set on edge.' I repudiate all claims on my parental treasury, +save such as I have given to my son Prince. To every other draft I am +bankrupt; but merely as a gentleman, I will now for the last time, +respond to the petition of a sick woman, whose child is so loyal as to +arouse my compassion. Ellice has asked for one hundred dollars. You +shall have it. But first, tell me why she did not go to the hospital, +and submit to the operation which she says will cure her?" +</P> + +<P> +"Because I could not be with her there, and I will never be separated +from her. The aneurism has grown so alarmingly, that I became +desperate, and having no one to aid us, I reluctantly obeyed my +mother's requirement that I should come here. I could not summon my +brother, because I have no idea where a letter would reach him; and +with no friend—but the God of the friendless—I am before you. There +is one thing I ought to tell you; I have terrible forebodings of the +result of the operation, from which the Doctor encourages her to hope +so much. She will not be able to take anesthetics, at least not +chloroform, because she has a weak heart, and—" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes—a very weak heart! It was never strong enough to hold her to her +duty." +</P> + +<P> +"If you could see her now, I think even your vindictive hatred would be +sufficiently gratified. So wasted, so broken!—and with such a +ceaseless craving for a kind word from you. One night last week pain +made her restless, and I heard her sob. When I tried to relieve the +suffering, she cried bitterly: 'It is not my poor body alone—it is the +gnawing hunger to see father once more. He loved me so fondly once and +if I could crawl to his feet, and clasp his knees in my arms, I could +at least die in peace. I am starving for just one sight of him—one +touch.' My poor darling mother! My beautiful, bruised, broken flower." +</P> + +<P> +Through the glittering mist of unshed tears, her eyes shone, like +silver lamps; and for a moment Gen'l Darrington covered his face with +one hand. +</P> + +<P> +"If you could realize how bitterly galling to my own pride and self +respect is this appeal to a man who hates and spurns all whom I love, I +think, sir, that even you would pity me so heartily, that your hardened +heart would melt into one last farewell message of forgiveness to your +unfortunate daughter. I would rather carry her one word of love than +all your fortune." +</P> + +<P> +"No—I come of a flinty race. We never forgive insults; never condone +wrongs; and expecting loyalty in our own blood, we cannot live long +enough to pardon its treachery. Once, I made an idol of my beautiful, +graceful, high-bred girl; but she stabbed my pride, dragged my name +through the gutters, broke her doting mother's heart; and now, I tell +you, she is as dead to me as if she had lain twenty-three years in her +grave. I have only one message. Tell her she is reaping the tares her +own hand sowed. I know her no more as child of mine, and my son fills +her place so completely, I do not even miss her. That is the best I can +say. No doubt I am hard, but at least I am honest; and I will not feign +what I cannot feel." +</P> + +<P> +He limped across the floor, to a recess on one side of the chimney, +where a square vault with an iron door had been built into the wall. +Leaning on his cane, he took from his pocket a bunch of keys, fitted +one into the lock, and pushing the bolt, the door slid back into a +groove, instead of opening on hinges. He lifted a black tin box from +the depths of the vault, carried it to the table, sat down, and opened +it. Near the top, were numerous papers tied into packages with red +tape, and two large envelopes carefully sealed with dark-green wax. In +removing the bundles, to find something beneath them, these envelopes +were laid on the table; and as one was either accidentally or +intentionally turned, Beryl saw the endorsement written in bold black +letters, and heavily underscored in red ink: "Last Will and Testament +of Robert Luke Darrington." Untying a small chamois bag, the owner +counted out five twenty-dollar gold pieces, closed the bag, and +replaced it in the box. +</P> + +<P> +"Hold out your hand. Your mother asked fur one hundred dollars. Here is +the exact amount. Henceforth, leave me in peace. I am an old man, and I +advise you to 'let sleeping dogs lie.'" +</P> + +<P> +If he had laid a red-hot iron on her palm, it would scarcely have been +more scorching than the touch of his gold, and only the vision of a wan +and woeful face in that far off cheerless attic room, restrained her +impulse to throw it at his feet. +</P> + +<P> +An almost intolerable humiliation dyed her pale cheeks a deep purplish +crimson, and she proudly drew herself to her utmost height. +</P> + +<P> +"Because I cannot now help myself, I accept the money—not as a gift, +but as a loan for my mother's benefit; and so help me God! I will not +owe it to you one moment longer than by hard labor I can earn and +return it. Goodbye, Gen'l Darrington." +</P> + +<P> +She turned toward the closed door leading to the library, but raising +his cane, he held it out, to intercept her. +</P> + +<P> +"Wait a moment. There is one thing more." +</P> + +<P> +He took from the tin box an oblong package, wrapped in letter paper, +yellowed by age, and carefully sealed with red wax. As he held it up, +she read thereon: "My last folly." He tore off the paper, lifted an old +fashioned morocco case, and attempted to open it, but the catch was +obstinate, or rusty, and several ineffectual efforts were made, ere he +succeeded in moving the spring. The once white velvet cushion, had +darkened and turned very yellow, but time had robbed in no degree, the +lustre of the magnificent sapphires coiled there; and the blue fires +leaped out, as if rejoicing in the privilege of displaying their +splendor. "This set of stones was intended as a gift to your mother, +when she was graduated at boarding-school. The time fixed for the close +of the session was only one month later than the day on which she +eloped with that foreign fraud, who should never have been allowed in +the school. My wife had promised that if your mother won the honor of +valedictorian, she should have the handsomest present ever worn at a +commencement. These costly sapphires were my poor wife's choice. Poor +Helena! how often she admired them!" His voice faltered, and he bit his +under lip to still its quiver. +</P> + +<P> +Was there some necromancy in the azure flames, that suddenly revealed +the beloved face of the wife of his youth, and the lovely vision of +their only child? His eagle eyes were dim with tears, and his hand +shook; but, as if ashamed of the weakness, he closed the jewel case +with a snap, and held it out. +</P> + +<P> +"Here—take them. I had intended to give them as a bridal present to my +son's wife, when he marries to suit me—as he certainly will; but +somehow, such a disposal seems hard on my dear Helena's wishes, and for +her sake, I don't feel quite easy about leaving them to Prince's bride. +Your mother never saw them, never knew of their existence. They are +very valuable, and the amount they will bring must relieve all present +necessities. Tell Ellice the sight of the case disturbs me, like a +thorn in the flesh, so I send them away, to rid myself of an annoyance. +She must not thank me; they come from her—dead mother." +</P> + +<P> +"A knowledge of their history would give her infinitely more pain than +the proceeds of their sale could bring comfort. I would not stab her +aching heart for twenty times the value of the jewels." +</P> + +<P> +"Then sell them, or do as you like. It matters not what becomes of +them, if I am spared in future all reminders of the past. Put them in +your pocket. What? The case is too large? Where is your trunk—your +baggage?" +</P> + +<P> +"I have none, except my basket and shawl." +</P> + +<P> +She picked them up from the carpet near the library door, and dropped +the case into her basket. +</P> + +<P> +"You are a brave, and a loyal woman, and you appear to deserve far +better parents than fell to your lot. Before you go, let me offer you a +glass of wine, and a biscuit." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you—no. I could not possibly accept it." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, we shall never meet again. Good-bye. Shake hands." +</P> + +<P> +"I will very gladly do so if you will only give me just one gentle, +forgiving kind word to comfort mother." +</P> + +<P> +He set his teeth, and shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"Good-bye, Gen'l Darrington. When you lie down to die, I hope God will +be more merciful to your poor soul, than you have shown yourself to +your suffering child." +</P> + +<P> +He bowed profoundly. +</P> + +<P> +Her hand was on the knob of the door, when he pointed to the western +veranda. +</P> + +<P> +"You are going back to town? Then, if you please, be so good as to pass +out through that rear entrance, and close the glass door after you. A +side path leads to the lawn; and I prefer that you should not meet the +servants, who pry and tattle." +</P> + +<P> +When she stood on the veranda, and turned to close the wide arched +glass door, whence the inside red silk curtain had been looped back, +her last view of the gaunt, tall figure within, showed him leaning on +his stick, with the tin box held in his left hand, and the dying +sunlight shining on his silver hair and furrowed face. +</P> + +<P> +Along the serpentine path which was bordered with masses of brilliant +chrysanthemums, Beryl walked rapidly, feeling almost stifled by the +pressure of contending emotions. Recollecting that these spice censers +of Autumn were her mother's favorite flowers, she stooped and broke +several lovely clusters of orange and garnet color, hoping that a +lingering breath of perfume from the home of her girlhood, might afford +at least a melancholy pleasure to the distant invalid. +</P> + +<P> +Advancing into the elm avenue, she heard a voice calling, and looking +back, saw the old negro man, Bedney, waving his white apron and running +toward her; but at that moment his steps were arrested by the sudden, +loud and rapid ringing of a bell. He paused, listened, wavered; then +threw up his hands, and hurried back to the house, whence issued the +impatient summons. +</P> + +<P> +The sun had gone down in the green sea of far-off pine tops, but the +western sky glowed like some vast altar of topaz, whereon zodiacal +fires had kindled the rays of vivid rose, that sprang into the zenith +and cooled their flush in the pale blue of the upper air. Under the +elms, swift southern twilight was already filling the arches with +purple gloom, and when the heavy iron gate closed with a sullen clang +behind her, Beryl drew a long deep breath of relief. On the sultry +atmosphere broke the gurgling andante music of the "branch," as it +eddied among the nodding ferns, and darted under the bridge; and the +weary, thirsty woman knelt on the mossy margin, dipped up the amber +water in her palms, drank, and bathed her burning face which still +tingled painfully. +</P> + +<P> +Having learned from the station agent, who had already sold her a +return ticket, that the north bound railway train, by which she desired +to travel home, would not depart until 7.15, she was beguiled by the +brilliance of the sky into the belief that she had ample time, to +comply with her mother's farewell request. Mrs. Brentano had tied with +a scrap of ribbon the bouquet of flowers, bought by her daughter on the +afternoon of her journey south, and asked her to lay them on her +mother's grave. +</P> + +<P> +Anxious to accomplish this sacred mission Beryl took the faded blossoms +from her basket, added a cluster of chrysanthemums, a frond of fern +from the "branch" border, and hurried on to the cemetery. When she +reached the entrance, the gate was locked, but unwilling to return +without having gratified her mother's wish, she climbed into a +spreading cedar close by the low brick wall, and swung herself easily +down inside the enclosure. +</P> + +<P> +Some time was lost in finding the Darrington lot, but at last she stood +before a tall iron railing, that bristled with lance-like points, +between the dust, of her ancestors and herself. In one corner rose a +beautiful monument, bearing on its front, in gilt letters, the +inscription "Helena Tracy, wife of R. L. Darrington." +</P> + +<P> +Thrusting her hand through a space in the railing, Beryl dropped her +mother's withered Arkja tribute on the marble slab. Her dress was +caught by a sharp point of iron, and while endeavoring to disengage it, +she heard the shrill whistle of the R. R. engine. Tearing the skirt +away, she ran to the wall, climbed over, after some delay, and finding +herself once more in the open road, darted on as fast as possible +through the dusk, heedless of appearances, fearful only of missing the +train. How the houses multiplied, and what interminable lengths the +squares seemed, as she neared the brick warehouse and office of the +station! The lamps at the street corners beckoned her on, and when +panting for breath she rushed around the side of the tall building that +fronted the railway, there was no train in sight. +</P> + +<P> +Two or three coal cars stood on a siding, near a detached engine, where +one man was lighting the lamp before the reflector of the headlight, +and another, who whistled merrily, burnished the brass and copper +platings. In the door of the ticket office the agent lounged, puffed +his cigar, and fanned himself with his hat. +</P> + +<P> +"What time is it?" cried Beryl. +</P> + +<P> +"Seven-forty-five." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! do not tell me I have missed the train." +</P> + +<P> +"You certainly have. I told you it left at 7:15 sharp. It was ten +minutes behind time on account of hot boxes, but rolled out just twenty +minutes ago. Did you get lost hunting 'Elm Bluff,' and miss your train +on that account?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I had no difficulty in finding the place, but having no watch, I +was forced to guess at the time. Only twenty minutes too late!" +</P> + +<P> +"Did you see the old war-horse?" +</P> + +<P> +Beryl did not answer, and after a moment the agent added: +</P> + +<P> +"That is Gen'l Darrington's nick-name all over this section." +</P> + +<P> +"When will the next train leave here?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not until 3:05 A.M." +</P> + +<P> +Beryl sat down on the edge of a baggage truck, and pondered the +situation. She knew that her mother, who had carefully studied the +railway schedule, was with feverish anxiety expecting her return by the +train, now many miles away; and she feared that any unexplained +detention would have an injurious effect on the sick woman's shattered +nerves. +</P> + +<P> +Although she could ill afford the expense, she resolved to allay all +apprehension, by the costly sedative of a telegram. +</P> + +<P> +Only a wall separated the ticket office from that of the "telegraph," +and approaching the operator, Beryl asked for a blank form, on which +she wrote her mother's address, and the following message: +</P> + +<P> +"Complete success required delay. All will be satisfactory. Expect me +Saturday. B. B." +</P> + +<P> +When she had paid the operator, there remained in her purse, exclusive +of the gold coins received that afternoon, only thirty-eight cents. +Where could she spend the next seven hours? Interpreting the perplexed +expression of her face, the agent, who had curiously noted her +movements, said courteously: +</P> + +<P> +"There is a hotel a few blocks off, where you can rest until train +time." +</P> + +<P> +"I prefer to remain here." +</P> + +<P> +"We generally lock up this office about half-past eight, and re-open at +half-past two, which gives passengers ample accommodation for the 3:05 +train." +</P> + +<P> +"Would you violate regulations by leaving the waiting-room open +to-night?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not exactly; as of course we are obliged to keep open for delayed +trains; but it will be lonesome waiting, for no one stays here, except +the Night Train Despatcher, and the switch watchman. Still if it will +oblige you, miss, I will not lock up, and you can doze away the time by +spreading your shawl on two chairs. I am going to supper now, and shall +turn down the lights. One burner will be sufficient." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you very much. Where can I find some water?" +</P> + +<P> +"In the cooler in the ladies' dressing-room. It is most unaccountably +hot tonight, and I never knew anything like it in October. There must +be a cyclone brewing somewhere not far off." +</P> + +<P> +He lifted his hat, as he passed her, and disappeared; and the tired +girl seated herself near a window and stirred the dense, impure air by +fanning herself with her straw hat. Gradually the few stragglers +loitering about the station wandered away; the engineer stepped upon +the locomotive; a piercing whistle broke suddenly on the silence +settling down over the whilom busy precincts, and as the rhythmic +measure of the engine bell rang farewell chimes, a pyramid of sparks +leaped high, and the mighty mechanism fled down the track, hunting its +own echoes. The man in charge of the express office came out, looked up +and down the street; yawned, lighted his pipe, and after locking the +office, wended his way homeward. +</P> + +<P> +From the adjoining room came the slow monotonous clicking of the +telegraph wires, as messages passed to other stations, and only the +switch watchman was visible, sitting on an inverted tub, and playing +snatches from "Mascotte" and "Olivette" upon a harmonicon. +</P> + +<P> +Heat seemed radiating from the brick pavement outside, from the inner +walls of the waiting-room; and Beryl, finding the atmosphere almost +stifling, went out under the stars. Up and down she paced, until weary +of the dusty thoroughfare, she turned into the street which, earlier in +the day, had conducted her toward the suburbs. She knew that a full +moon had climbed above the horizon, and some malign Morgana lured her +on, with visions of cool pine glades paved with silver mosaics, and +balmy with breath of balsam; where through vast forest naves echoed the +melodious monody chanted by the reddish gold wavelets of the "branch." +In the eastern sky the florid face of a hunter's moon looked down, from +the level line of a leaden cloud, which striped the star emblazoned +shield of night, like a bar sinister; and the white lustre of her rays +was dimmed to a lurid dulness solemn and presageful. +</P> + +<P> +As Beryl crossed the common near the station, and entered the pillared +aisles of the pines, the air was less oppressive, but a dun haze seemed +on every side to curtain the horizon, and the stars looked bleared and +tired in the breathless vault above her. A man driving two cows toward +town, stared at her; then a wagon drawn by four horses rattled along, +bearing homeward a gay picnic party of young people, who made the woods +ring with the echoes of "Hold the Fort." The grandeur of towering +pines, the mysterious dimness of illimitable arcades, and the peculiar +resinous odor that stole like lingering ghosts of myrrh, frankincense +and onycha through the vaulted solitude of a deserted hoary sanctuary, +all these phases of primeval Southern forests combined to weave a spell +that the stranger could not resist. +</P> + +<P> +After a while, fearful of straying too far, the weary woman threw her +shawl on the brown straw, and sat down quite near the road. She leaned +her bare head against the trunk of a pine, listened to the katydids +gossiping in a distant oak that shaded the "branch," to the quavering +strident song of a locust; and she intended, after resting for a few +moments, to return to the station-house; but unexpected drowsiness +overpowered her. Suddenly aroused from a sound sleep, she heard the +clatter of galloping hoofs, and as she sprang up, the horse, startled +by her movement, shied and reared within a few feet of the spot where +she stood. The moon shone full on the glossy black animal, and upon his +powerful rider, and Beryl recognized the massive head, swarthy face and +keen eyes of the attorney, Lennox Dunbar. He leaned forward and said, +as he patted the erect ears of his horse: +</P> + +<P> +"Madam, you seem a stranger. Have you lost your way?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Pardon me; but having seen you this afternoon at 'Elm Bluff,' I +thought it possible you had missed the road." +</P> + +<P> +Standing so straight and tall, with the sheen of the moon on her +faultless features, he thought she looked the incarnation of some +prescient Norn, fit for the well of Urda. +</P> + +<P> +She made no reply; and he touched his hat, and rode rapidly away in the +direction of the town, carrying an indelible impression of the +mysterious picture under the pines. +</P> + +<P> +The sky had changed; the face of the moon had cleared, but tatters and +scuds of smoke-colored cloud fled northward, as if scourged by a stormy +current too high to stir the sultry stagnation of the lower atmospheric +stratum. From its vaporous lair somewhere in the cypress and palm +jungles of the Mexican Gulf borders, the tempest had risen, and before +its breath the shreds of cloud flew like avant couriers of disaster. +Already the lurid glare of incessant sheet lightning fought with the +moon for supremacy, and from a leaden wall along the southeastern sky, +came the long reverberating growl of thunder, that told where the +electric batteries had opened fire. A vague foreboding, which for +several days had haunted Beryl's mind, now pressed so heavily upon her, +that she hurried back to the station, which was near the edge of the +town; and more than once she started nervously at sight of grotesque +shadows cast by the trees across the sandy road. +</P> + +<P> +The streets were deserted, and lights gleamed only in upper windows of +apartments, where sick sufferers tossed, or tender mothers sang soft +lullabys to restless babies crooning in their cribs. Now and then a +sudden gust of wind shook the yellow berries from the china trees, that +bordered the pavements, and very soon the moonshine faded, then flashed +fitfully, and finally vanished, as the blackening cloud swept over the +face of earth and sky. The watchman dozed on his post of observation; a +porter slept on a baggage truck under the awning, and as Beryl peeped +into the telegraph office, she heard the snoring of the operator, whose +head rested upon the table close to the silent instrument. She listened +to the ticking of a clock in the ticket office, but could not see its +face; wondered how late it was, and how long she had been absent. +Feeling very lonely and restless she closed the door, and sat down in +the deserted waiting-room, glad of the companionship of a +tortoise-shell cat which was curled up on a chair next her own. +</P> + +<P> +Gradually the storm approached, and she thought that an hour had +elapsed, when the dust-tainted smell of rain came with the rush of cold +air. There was no steady gale, but the tempest broke in frantic +spasmodic gusts, as though it had lost its reckoning, and +simultaneously assaulted all the points of the compass; while the +lightning glared almost continuously, and the roar of the thunder was +uninterrupted. Now and then a vivid zig-zag flash gored the intense +darkness with its baleful blue death-light, followed by a crash, +appalling as if the battlements of heaven had been shattered. Once the +whole air seemed ablaze, and the simultaneous shock of the detonation +was so violent, that Beryl involuntarily sank on her knees, and hid her +eyes on a chair. The rain fell in torrents, that added a solemn sullen +swell to the diapason of the thunder fugue, and by degrees a delicious +coolness crept into the cisterns of the night. +</P> + +<P> +When the cloud had wept away its fury, and electric fires burned low in +the far west, a gentle shower droned on the roof, and lulled by its +cadence Beryl fell asleep, still kneeling on the floor, with her head +resting on the chair where the cat lay coiled. +</P> + +<P> +In dreams, she wandered with her father and brother upon a Tuscan +hillside draped with purple fruited grape vines, and Bertie was +crushing a luscious cluster against her thirsty lips, when some noise +startled her. Wide awake, she sprang to her feet, and listened. +</P> + +<P> +"There ain't no train till daylight, 'cepting it be the through +freight." +</P> + +<P> +"When is that due?" +</P> + +<P> +"Pretty soon; it's mighty nigh time now, but it don't stop here; it +goes on to the water tank, whar it blows for the railroad bridge." +</P> + +<P> +"How far is the bridge?" +</P> + +<P> +"Only a short piece down the track, after you pass the tank." +</P> + +<P> +Beryl had rushed to the window, and looked out, but no one was visible. +She could scarcely mistake that peculiar voice, and was so assured of +its identity, that she ran out under the awning and looked up and down +the platform in front of the station buildings. The rain had ceased, +but drops still pattered from the tin roof, and a few stars peeped over +the ragged ravelled edge of slowly drifting clouds. By the light of a +gas lamp, she saw an old negro man limping away, who held a stick over +his shoulder, on which was slung a bundle wrapped in a red +handkerchief; and while she stood watching, he vanished in some cul de +sac. With her basket in her hand, and her shawl on her arm, she sped +down the track, looking to right and left. +</P> + +<P> +"Bertie! Bertie!" +</P> + +<P> +Once she fancied she discerned a form flying ahead of her, leaping from +cross tie to cross tie to avoid the water, but when she called +vehemently, only the sound of her own voice broke the silence. +</P> + +<P> +Was it merely an illusion born of her vivid dream of her brother; and +while scarcely awake, had she confounded the tones of a stranger, with +those so long familiar? She could not shake off the conviction that +Bertie had really spoken only a few yards from her, and while she stood +irresolute, puzzling over the problem, the through freight train dashed +by the station and left a trail of sparks and cinders. To avoid it she +sprang on a pile of cross ties beside the track, and when the fiery +serpent wound out of sight, she reluctantly retraced her steps. How +long the night seemed! Would day never dawn again? She heard the +telegraph operator whistling at his work, and as she re-entered the +waiting-room, she saw the ticket agent standing in his office. +</P> + +<P> +"What time is it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Half-past two o'clock. I might as well have locked up as usual, for +after all, you did not stay here." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes I did." +</P> + +<P> +He eyed her suspiciously. +</P> + +<P> +"I came back from supper, and brought a pitcher of cold tea, thinking +you might relish it, but you were not here. I waited nearly an hour; +then I went home." +</P> + +<P> +"It was so hot, I walked about outside. What a frightful storm." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, perfectly awful. Were you exposed to the worst of it?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I was here." +</P> + +<P> +He shook his head, smiled, and went into the next room, knowing that +when he returned to unlock his office she was not in the building, and +that he had seen her coming up the railway track. The bustle of +preparation soon began; the baggage wagons thundered up to the +platform, porters called to one another; passengers collected in the +waiting-room, carriages and omnibuses dashed about; then at 2:50 the +long train of north bound cars swept in. With her shawl and basket in +one hand, and the odorous bunches of chrysanthemums clasped in the +other, Beryl stepped upon the platform. She found a seat at an open +window, and made herself comfortable; placing her feet upon the basket +which contained the jewels that constituted her sole earthly fortune. +The bell rang, the train glided on, and as it passed the office door, +she saw the agent watching her, with a strangely suspicious expression. +</P> + +<P> +The cars wound around a curve, and she sank back and shut her eyes, +rejoicing in the belief that her mission to "Elm Bluff," and its keen +humiliation, were forever ended. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IV. +</H3> + +<P> +"I concede that point. Your lover is amply endowed with brains, and +moreover has a vast amount of shrewdness, all that is requisite to +secure success and eminence in his profession; but to-day, it seems as +much a matter of astonishment to me—as it certainly was six months +ago, when first you told me of your engagement—that you, Leo Gordon, +could ever fancy just such a man as Lennox Dunbar." +</P> + +<P> +"I am very sorry, Aunt Patty, that he finds no favor in your eyes, and +I think he is aware of the fact that he is not in your good graces. You +both look so vaguely uncomfortable when thrown into each other's +presence; but for my sake you must try to like Lennox." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Gordon bent her pretty head over a square of ruby velvet, whereon +she was embroidering a wreath of pansies, and the delicate flush on her +fair face, deepened to a vivid carnation. +</P> + +<P> +"My likes or dislikes are a matter of moonshine, in comparison with +your happiness. Because you are an orphan, I feel a sort of +responsibility; and sometimes I am not exactly easy over the account of +my stewardship I must render to my poor dead Marcia. The more I see of +your lover, the more I dread your marriage. A man who makes no +profession of religious belief, is an unsafe guardian of any woman's +peace of mind. You who have been reared almost in the shadow of the +altar, accustomed to hearing grace at your meals, to family prayers, to +strict observance of our ritual, will feel isolated indeed, when +transplanted to the home of a godless man, who rarely darkens the door +of the sanctuary. 'Be ye not unequally yoked together with +unbelievers.'" +</P> + +<P> +Miss Patty Dent took off her spectacles, wiped them with the string of +her white muslin cap, and adjusting them firmly on her nose, plucked +nervously at the fluted lace ruffles around her wrists. +</P> + +<P> +"Auntie, you are scarcely warranted in using such strong language. +Because a man refrains from the public avowal of faith, incident to +church membership, he is not necessarily godless; nor inevitably devoid +of true religious feeling. Mr. Dunbar has a strong, reticent nature, +habituated to repression of all evidences of emotion, but of the depth +and earnestness of his real feeling, I entertain no doubt." +</P> + +<P> +"I fear your line and plummet will never sound his depth. You often +speak of his strength; but, Leo, hardness is not always strength; and +he is hard, hard. I never saw a man with a chin like his, who was not +tyrannical, and idolatrous of his own will. My dear, such men are as +uncomfortable to live in the same house with, as a smoky chimney, or a +woman with shattered nerves, or creaking doors, or draughty windows. +They are a sort of everlasting east wind that never veers, blowing +always to the one point, attainment of their own ends, mildewing all +else. Ugh!" +</P> + +<P> +Miss Patty shivered, and her companion smiled. +</P> + +<P> +"What a grewsome picture, Auntie dear! Fortunately human taste is as +diverse and catholic as the variety of human countenances. For example: +Clara Morse raves over Mr. Dunbar's 'clear-cut features, so immensely +classical'; and she pronounces his offending 'chin simply perfect! fit +for a Greek God!'" +</P> + +<P> +"A very thin and gauzy partition divides Clara Morse's brains from +idiocy. In my day, all such feeble watery minds as hers were regarded +as semi-imbecile, pitied as intellectual cripples, and wisely kept in +the background of society; but, bless me! in this generation they skip +and prance to the very edge of the front, pose in indecent garments +without starch, or crinoline, or even the protection of pleats and +gathers; and insult good, sound, wholesome common sense with the +sickening affectations they are pleased to call 'aesthetics.' Don't +waste your time, and dilute your own mind by quoting the silly twaddle +of a poor girl who was turned loose too early on society, who falls on +her knees in ecstasies before a hideous broken-nose tea-pot from some +filthy hovel in Japan; and who would not dare to admire the loveliest +bit of Oiron pottery, or precious old Chelsea claret-colored china in +Kensington Museum, until she had turned it upside down, and hunted the +potter's mark with a microscope. I say Mr. Dunbar has a domineering and +tyrannical chin, and five years hence, if you do not agree with me, it +will be because 'Ephraim is joined to his idols'—clay feet and all." +</P> + +<P> +"Then follow the Bible injunction to 'let him alone.' I see Lennox +through neither Clara's rosy lenses, nor your jaundiced glasses; and +these circular discussions are as fruitless as they are unpleasant. Let +us select some more agreeable topic. I gave you Leighton's letter. What +think you of his scheme?" +</P> + +<P> +"That it is admirable, worthy of the brain that conceived it. What a +wonderful man he is, considering his age? Such a devout and fervent +spirit, and withal such a marvel of executive ability. Ah! happy the +woman who can command his wise guardianship, and renew her aspirations +after holiness, in his spiritual society. I honor, even more than I +love, Leighton Douglass." +</P> + +<P> +"So do I, Aunt Patty. He is quite my ideal pastor, and when he marries, +I hope his wife will be worthy of him in every respect. Only a very +noble woman would suit my cousin." +</P> + +<P> +A bright spot burned on Miss Dent's wrinkled cheek, and she knitted her +brows, and shook her head. +</P> + +<P> +"He is so absorbed in his holy work that he has no leisure for such +trifles as love-making; but if he should ever honor a woman by the +offer of his consecrated hand, it must be one of large fortune, who +will dedicate herself and her money to the accomplishment of his +ecclesiastical schemes." +</P> + +<P> +The corners of Miss Gordon's mouth twitched mutinously, but she +contrived to throw much innocent surprise and questioning into the +handsome brown eyes, which she lifted from her gold-hearted pansies, to +her Aunt's face. +</P> + +<P> +"Could you possibly associate mercenary motives with any step which he +might take? Such a supposition would be totally incompatible with my +estimate of his character." +</P> + +<P> +"When a man dedicates himself to a solemn mission, he is lifted far +above the ordinary plane, can dispense with sentimental +conventionalities, and must learn to regard all human relations as +merely means to an end. Want of money has palsied many an arm lifted to +advance the good of the Church; and zeal without funds, accomplishes as +little as rusty machinery stiff from lack of oil. If Dr. Douglass could +only control even a hundred thousand dollars, what shining monuments he +would leave to immortalize him! Indeed, it passes my comprehension how +persons who could so easily help him, deliberately turn a deaf ear to +the 'cry from Macedonia'." +</P> + +<P> +"There is far more eclat in trips to Macedonia, but the God of +recompense does not forget the steady, tireless help and sympathy +extended to the needy, who dwell within sight of our own doors. +Organized society work is good, but individual self-sacrifice and labor +are much better; and if every unit did full duty, co-operative systems +would not be so necessary; still, Leighton's scheme commends itself to +every woman's heart, and when I answered his letter, I expressed +cordially my approbation." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you prove your faith by your works, and send him a large check?" +</P> + +<P> +"Auntie, dear, do you expect me to stultify all your training, both +your example and precept—for lo! these many years—by setting my left +hand to gossip about my right? I am very sure." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Andrew, what is it?" +</P> + +<P> +"A boy from Mr. Dunbar's office has just galloped up, and says I am to +tell you he can't ride to the Falls to-day, as he expected, because of +some pressing business; and he wants to know if the Judge will come +into town right away? Mr. Dunbar will explain when he comes late this +evening." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well. Tell Daniel I shall not want 'Rebel' saddled; and say to +the messenger that my Uncle is not at home. Aunt Patty, do you know +where he has gone?" +</P> + +<P> +"Doubtless to his office; where else should he be? He said he had a +pile of tiresome papers to examine to-day." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Gordon folded up her work, laid it away in a dainty basket lined +with blue satin and flounced with lace; and after pausing a moment to +pet her Aunt's white Maltese cat which lay dozing In the sunshine, +walked away toward a Small hot-house, built quite near the dining-room, +and connected with it by an arcade, covered in summer by vines, in +winter by glass. +</P> + +<P> +Twenty-four years before that day, when a proud, fond young mother +puffed and tucked the marvel of lace and linen cambric, which was +intended as a christening robe for her baby, and laid it away with +spicery of rose leaves and sachet of lavender and deer tongue, to wait +until a "furlough" allowed the child's father to be present at the +baptism, she had supposed that its delicate folds would one day adorn a +dimpled rosy-faced infant, for whom the name Aurelia Gordon had long +been selected. Fate cruelly vetoed all the details of the programme, +carefully arranged by maternal affection; and the lurid sun that set in +clouds of smoke on one of the most desperate battles of the +Confederacy, saw Colonel Gordon's brave, patriotic soul released on +that long "furlough" which glory granted her heroes; saw his devoted +wife a wailing widow. The red burial of battle had precluded the +solemnization of baptismal rites at the sacred marble font; and when +four days after Colonel Gordon's death, his frail young wife welcomed +the summons to an everlasting re-union, she laid her cold hands on her +baby's golden head, and died, as she whispered: +</P> + +<P> +"Name her Leo, for her father." +</P> + +<P> +So it came to pass, that the clergyman who read the burial service +beside the mother's coffin, lifted the cooing infant in the midst of a +weeping funeral throng, and with a faltering voice baptized her, in the +presence of the dead, Leo Gordon. +</P> + +<P> +To the care of her sister Patty, and of her widowed brother, Judge +Dent, Mrs. Gordon had consigned her child; and transplanted so early to +her uncle's house, the orphan knew no other home. +</P> + +<P> +When the problem of vast numerical preponderance had solved itself in +accordance with the rules of avoirdupois, and history—fond like all +garrulous old crones of repeating even her inglorious episodes—had +triumphantly inscribed on her bloody tablets, that once more the Few +were throttled and trampled by the Many, then the fabled "Ragnarok" of +the Sagas described only approximately the doom of the devastated +South. In the financial and social chaos that followed the invasion by +"loyal" hordes, rushing under "sealed orders" on the mission of +"Reconstruction," and eminently successful in "reconstructing" their +individual fortunes, an anomaly presented itself for the consideration +of political economists. The wealthy classes of ante bellum days were +the most destitute paupers that the newly-risen Union sun shone upon. +</P> + +<P> +The French Revolution and its subsequent eruptions of Communism failed +to destroy the value of land; and the emancipation of Russian serfs may +have stimulated agricultural activity, but that political and social +Communism which the Pandora of "reconstruction" let loose throughout +the conquered States of the South, accomplished all that the victors +could have desired. +</P> + +<P> +Abandoned by the laborers God had fitted to endure toil under climatic +conditions peculiar to the soil, vast silent fields of weeds stared +blankly, and the richer a man found himself in ancestral acres, the +more hopelessly was he manacled by taxes. "Reconstructionists" most +thoroughly inoculated with "Loyal" rabies, held in lofty disdain the +claims of widows and orphans, and the right of minors was as dead as +that of secession. In the general maelstrom, Colonel Gordon's large +estate went to pieces; but after a time, Judge Dent took lessons from +his new political masters in the science of wrecking, and by degrees, +as fragments and shreds stranded, he collected and secreted them. +Certain mining interests were protected, and some valuable plantations +in distant sugar belts, were secured. As guardian of his sister's +daughter, he changed, or renewed investments in stocks which rapidly +increased in value, until an unusually large fortune had accumulated: +and verifying figures justified his boast, that his niece and ward was +the wealthiest heiress in the State. +</P> + +<P> +Reared in a household which consisted of an elderly uncle and aunt, and +a middle-aged governess, Leo Gordon had never known intimate +association with younger people; and while her nature was gentle and +tranquil, she gradually imbibed the grave and rather prim ideas which +were in vogue when Miss Patty was the reigning belle of her county. +Although petted and indulged, she had not been spoiled, and remained +singularly free from the selfishness usually developed in the character +of an only child, nurtured in the midst of mature relatives. When +eighteen years old, Leo, accompanied by her governess, Mrs. Eldridge, +had been sent to New York and Boston for educational advantages, which +it was supposed that her own section of the country could not supply; +and subsequently the two went abroad, gleaning knowledge in the great +centres of European Art. During their sojourn in Munich, Mrs. Eldridge +died after a very brief illness; and returning to her southern home, +Leo found herself the object of social homage. +</P> + +<P> +Thoroughly well-bred, accomplished, graceful and pretty, she commanded +universal admiration; yet her manner was marked by a quiet, grave +dignity, and a peculiar reticence, at variance with the prevailing type +of young ladyhood, now alas! too dominant; whose premature emancipation +from home rule, and old-fashioned canons of decorum renders "American +girlhood" synonymous with flippant pertness. Moulded by two women who +were imbued with the spirit of Richter's admonition: "Girls like the +priestesses of old, should be educated only in sacred places, and never +hear, much less see, what is rude, immoral or violent"; the pate tendre +of Leo's character showed unmistakably the potter's marks. +</P> + +<P> +She shrewdly surmised that the knowledge of her unusual wealth +contributed to swell the number of her suitors, and she was twenty-four +years old when Lennox Dunbar, for whom she had long secretly cherished +a partiality, succeeded in placing his ring on her fair, slender hand. +In character they differed widely, and the deep and tender love that +filled her heart, found only a faint echo in his cold and more selfish +nature, which had carefully calculated all the advantages derivable +from this alliance. +</P> + +<P> +He cordially admired and esteemed his brown-eyed fair-haired fiancee, +considered her the personification of feminine refinement and delicacy; +and congratulated himself warmly on his great good fortune in winning +her affection; but tender emotions found little scope for exercise in +his intensely practical, busy life, which was devoted to the attainment +of eminence in his profession; and the merely dynamic apparatus which +did duty as his heart, had never been disturbed by any feeling +sufficiently deep to quicken his calm, steady pulse. +</P> + +<P> +There were times, when Leo wondered whether all accepted lovers were as +undemonstrative as her own, and she would have been happier had he +occasionally forgotten professional aspirations, in the charm of her +presence; but her confidence in the purity and fidelity of his +affection was unshaken, even by the dismal predictions of Miss Patty, +who found it impossible to reconcile herself to the failure of her +darling scheme, that Leo should marry her second cousin, Leighton +Douglass, D.D., and devote her fortune to the advancement of his church. +</P> + +<P> +To-day, as she sought pleasant work in arranging the ferns and +carnations of her conservatory, her thoughts reverted to the previous +evening, which Mr. Dunbar had spent with her; and she could not avoid +indulging regret, that he should have allowed business affairs to +interfere with their engagement for horseback riding, but her reverie +was speedily interrupted by the excited tones of her aunt's voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Leo! Leo! Where do you hide yourself?" +</P> + +<P> +"Here, Auntie, in the conservatory." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! my child, such dreadful news! Such a frightful tragedy!" +</P> + +<P> +Pale and panting, Miss Patty ran down the arcade, and stumbled over a +barricade of potted plants on the threshold of the door. +</P> + +<P> +"What is the matter? Is it my Uncle, or—or Lennox?" +</P> + +<P> +Leo sprang to her feet, and caught her aunt's arm. +</P> + +<P> +"Horrible! horrible! General Darrington was robbed, and then most +brutally murdered last night!" +</P> + +<P> +"Murdered! Can it be possible? Murdered—by whom?" +</P> + +<P> +"How should I know? The whole town is wild about it. My brother is at +Elm Bluff, with the body, and I shall take the carriage and drive over +there at once. Dear me; I am so nervous I can't stand still, and my +teeth chatter like a pair of castanets." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps there may be some mistake. How did you hear it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Your Uncle Mitchell sent a boy to tell me why he was detained. There +has been a coroner's inquest, and of course, as an old and intimate +friend of General Darrington's, Mitchell feels he must do all he can. +Poor old gentleman! So proud and aristocratic! To be murdered in his +own house, like any common pauper! Positively it makes me sick. May the +Lord have mercy on his soul." +</P> + +<P> +"Amen!" murmured Leo. +</P> + +<P> +"Will you go with me to Elm Bluff?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no! Not for worlds. Why should I? Women will only be in the way; +and who could desire to contemplate so horrible a spectacle? It will +merely harrow your feelings, Aunt Patty, and you can do no good." +</P> + +<P> +"It is my Christian duty as a neighbor; and I was always very fond of +the first Mrs. Darrington, Helena Tracey. What is this wicked world +coming to? Robbery and murder stalking bare-faced through the land. It +will be a dreadful blow to Mitchell, because he and Luke Darrington +have been intimate all their lives. I see the carriage coming round, so +I must get my bonnet and wrap." +</P> + +<P> +"I presume Mr. Dunbar is engaged in the same melancholy details which +occupy my uncle." +</P> + +<P> +"Doubtless he is, because his father was General Darrington's attorney +until his health failed; and Lennox is now his lawyer and business +agent. It is a thousand pities that Prince is away in Europe." +</P> + +<P> +Two hours after the carriage had disappeared on the road leading to Elm +Bluff, Leo crossed the grassy lawn, and sat down near the gate, on a +rustic bench under a cluster of tall lilacs, which gave their name to +her uncle's home. +</P> + +<P> +A keen north wind whistling through neighboring walnut tree tops, drove +the dying leaves like frightened flocks before it, and ever and anon +the ripened nuts pattered down, hiding themselves under the drift of +yellow foliage, that had sheltered them in cool greenery during summer +heats. Overhead a red squirrel barked and frisked, and across the +pale-blue sky, feathered nomads, teal or mallard, moved swiftly en +echelon, their quivering pinions flashing like silver, as they fled +southward. On a distant hillside cattle browsed, and sheep wandered; +and the drowsy tinkle of bells, as the herd wended homeward, seemed a +nocturne of rest, for the closing day. +</P> + +<P> +How serene, harmonious and holy all nature appeared; and yet a few +miles distant, into what a fierce seething whirlpool of conflicting +passions, of hatred and bloodthirsty vengeance, had human crime plunged +an entire community. We plume ourselves upon nineteenth century +civilization, upon ethical advancement, upon Christian progress; we +adorn our cathedrals, build temples for art treasures, and museums for +science, and listen to preludes of the "music of the future;" and we +shudder at the mention of vice, as at the remembrance of the tortures +of Regulus, but will the Cain type ever become extinct, like the dodo, +or the ichthyosaurus? When will the laws of heredity, and the by-laws +of agnation result in an altruism, where human bloodshed is an unknown +horror? +</P> + +<P> +The apostles of Evolution tell us, that in the genealogical ages during +which man has struggled upward, from the lower stages of vertebrate and +mammal to the genus of catarrhine apes, he has gradually thrown off +bestial instincts, and that the tiger taint will ultimately be totally +eliminated; that "original sin is neither more nor less than the brute +inheritance which every man carries with him, and that Evolution is an +advance toward true salvation." Meanwhile what becomes of the "Survival +of the Fittest", which is only a euphemism for the strangling of the +feeble by the strong? We can understand how perfection, or permanence +of type, individual and national, demands carnage, and entails all the +dire catalogue of human woes, but wherein is altruism evolved? How many +aeons shall we wait, to behold the leopard and the lamb pasturing +together in peace? +</P> + +<P> +Pondering this problem, as he rode along the public road outside the +boundary of Judge Dent's lawn, Mr. Dunbar caught a glimpse of his +betrothed, sitting behind the hedge of lilacs, and he lifted his hat, +hoping that she would meet him at the entrance; but although she bowed +in recognition, he was forced to open the gate and admit himself. +Throwing the bridle rein over one of the iron spikes of the fence, and +taking off his gloves, he approached the bench. +</P> + +<P> +"Dare I flatter myself, that my queen deigns to meet me half way?" +</P> + +<P> +He took her outstretched hand, and kissed it softly, while his glance +noted every detail of her handsome fawn-colored dress, with its jabot +of creamy lace, and the cluster of crimson carnations in her belt. The +touch of his lips on her fingers, deepened the flush in her cheeks, +and, making room for him beside her, she replied: +</P> + +<P> +"Sit down, and tell me if this dreadful news about General Darrington +be indeed true? I have hoped there might be some mistake, some +exaggeration." +</P> + +<P> +"Some horrors exceed the possibility of verbal exaggeration, and last +night's tragedy is one of that class. General Darrington was most +brutally murdered." +</P> + +<P> +"Poor old gentleman! How incredible it seems that such awful crimes can +be committed in our quiet neighborhood? who could have been so guilty; +and what motive could have prompted such a fiendish act?" +</P> + +<P> +"The one all-powerful evil passion of mankind—greed of gold; lust of +filthy lucre. He was first robbed, then murdered by the thief, to avoid +detection and punishment. There is unmistakable evidence that the +General was chloroformed while asleep; but he must have awakened in +time to discover the robber, with whom he struggled desperately, and by +whom he was struck down. The coroner's inquest developed some startling +facts." +</P> + +<P> +"Has any clue been discovered which would indicate the murderer?" +</P> + +<P> +"A handful of clues." +</P> + +<P> +"Then you have a theory concerning the person who perpetrated this +awful crime?" +</P> + +<P> +"My dear Leo, not a theory, but a conviction; I might almost say an +absolute knowledge." +</P> + +<P> +"Would it be pardonable for me to ask whom you suspect; would it be a +violation of professional etiquette for you to tell me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly, my dearest, you can ask me anything, only—" he paused a +moment; and she put her hand quickly on his arm. +</P> + +<P> +"I see. Do not tell me mere suspicions; they might cruelly wrong an +innocent person; and I ought not to have asked the question." +</P> + +<P> +"My hesitation arose from a totally different source, and I was merely +wondering whether you, my sweet saint, could believe that a woman +committed the bloody deed." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Mr. Dunbar, impossible! A woman guilty of taking that old man's +life? The supposition is as horrible as the crime itself." +</P> + +<P> +Passing his hand lightly over her crimped fair hair, and looking down +into her eyes, as brown as the back of a thrush, her lover replied: +</P> + +<P> +"I find that the nobler and purer a woman's heart is, the less she +credits the existence of vice and the possibility of crime among her +own sex. You doubtless consider the Brinvilliers, Fredegonds, Fulvias +and Faustinas, quite as fabulous as Centaurs, Sirens and Were-wolves; +and I feel as reluctant to shake your fair faith in womanhood, as to +dash the dew from a rose-bud, or rudely brush the bloom a cluster of +tempting grapes; but the grim truth must be told, that our old friend +was robbed and murdered by a woman." +</P> + +<P> +"One of his servants? They all seemed devotedly attached to him." +</P> + +<P> +"No, by his granddaughter, a young and very beautiful woman; Beryl +Brentano, the child of General Darrington's daughter Ellice, whom he +had disowned on account of her wretched marriage with a foreigner, who +taught her music and the languages. Of course you have heard from your +aunt and uncle all the details of that family episode. Yesterday this +girl Beryl suddenly presented herself at Elm Bluff, and demanded money +from her grandfather; alleging that her mother's life was in danger for +want of it. I learn there was a stormy interview, part of the +conversation having been overheard by two persons; and the General, who +was as vindictive as a Modoc, or a Cossack, drove the young lady +through a door leading down to the rosery. This occurred in the +afternoon, immediately after I left Elm Bluff, where I went to obtain +his signature to a deed to some lands recently sold in Texas. I saw the +girl sitting on the front steps, and when she rose and looked at me, +her superb physique impressed me powerfully. She is as beautiful and +stately as some goddess stepping out of the Norse 'Edda', and +altogether a remarkable looking person. It will appear in evidence, +that the General harshly refused her pleadings, and made a point of +assuring her that his will, already prepared, would forever debar her +mother and herself from any inheritance at his death; as he had +bequeathed his entire estate to his adopted son Prince. Unfortunately, +she learned where the will was kept, as during the interview, persons +in the next room distinctly heard the peculiar noise made by the +sliding door of the iron vault, where General Darrington kept all his +valuable papers. She disappeared from Elm Bluff about sunset, going +toward town; and last night at ten o'clock, when I left you and rode +home, I saw her lurking in the pine woods not very far from the bridge +over the branch, near the park gate. She was evidently hiding, as she +sat on the ground half screened by a tree; but my horse shied and +plunged badly, and when she rose, the full moon showed her face and +figure distinctly. There was something so mysterious in her movements, +that I asked her if she had lost her way; to which she curtly replied +that she had not. I learn from Burk, the station agent, that her +actions aroused his suspicion, and that instead of leaving town, as she +said she intended, by the 7:15 train, she hung about the station, and +finally took the 3:05 express this morning. He said she had begged +permission to stay in the waiting-room, but that at 2:30 A.M., when he +went back to open the ticket office, she was nowhere to be found; and +that later, he saw her coming down the railroad track. She must have +gone back to Elm Bluff after I passed her on the road, and effected an +entrance through the window on the front piazza, as it was found open; +and the awful work of robbery and murder was accomplished during the +storm, which you know was so frightful that it drowned all minor +sounds. This morning when the General did not ring for his hot water at +the usual time, it was supposed that he was sleeping late, but finally +old Bedney knocked. Unable to arouse his master, he opened the door, +and found our old friend lying on the floor, near the fireplace. He had +been dead for hours, and close to his head was a heavy brass andiron, +which evidently had been snatched from the hearth by the murderess, who +must have dealt the fatal blow with it, as there was a dark spot on his +temple, and also on the left side near the heart. The room was in +disorder, and two glass vases on the mantel were shivered, as though +some missile had struck them—probably a heavy ledger which was found +on the floor." +</P> + +<P> +"How horrible! But no woman could have overpowered a man like General +Darrington." +</P> + +<P> +"Physically, his granddaughter was more than a match for him, +especially since his last illness; and I assure you she looks like some +daughter of the Vikings. She certainly is a woman of grand proportions, +and wonderfully symmetrical." +</P> + +<P> +"What is her age?" +</P> + +<P> +"About eighteen, I should think; though her size and a certain majestic +bearing might convey the impression that she was older." +</P> + +<P> +"How can you connect so dreadful a crime with a young and beautiful +woman, of whom you know absolutely nothing?" +</P> + +<P> +"My theory is, that she intended merely to get possession of the will, +the contents of which had been made known to her—and of the money, +that she knew or surmised was kept in the vault. When the effect of the +chloroform wore off, and the General waked to find her at the vault; a +struggle evidently took place, and in desperation at the thought of +being detected, she killed him. You do not understand all the bearings +of even slight circumstances in a case like this, but we who make a +study of such sad matters, know the significance of the disappearance +of the will; the destruction of which could benefit only her mother and +herself. The vault was open; the gold, silver, some valuable jewelry, +and the will are missing from the tin box. All the other papers were +left, even a package of bonds, amounting to thousands of dollars. She +seemed to know that the bonds might lead to detection, hence she did +not take them. On the floor, and in the bottom of the tin box were +found two twenty-dollar gold pieces. We are collecting all the +evidence, and it constitutes a powerful array of proof." +</P> + +<P> +"We? Do you mean that you are hunting down a woman?" +</P> + +<P> +Miss Gordon withdrew her hand from her lover's, and instinctively moved +farther from him. +</P> + +<P> +"I am most diligently hunting down the author of a foul and awful +crime; and it is my duty to my friend and client to use every possible +exertion, in discovering and bringing to punishment the person who +robbed and murdered him—be it man, woman or child. Feminine youth and +beauty are no aegis against the barbed javelins of justice and the +District Solicitor (Mr. Churchill) and I, have no doubt of the guilt of +the woman, who will soon be put on trial here for her monstrous and +unnatural crime." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER V. +</H3> + +<P> +In a deep, narrow "railway cut," through Virginia hills, a south-bound +freight train had been so badly wrecked in consequence of a "washout," +that the southern passenger express going north was detained fourteen +hours; thereby missing connection at Washington City, where the +passengers were again delayed nearly twelve hours. Tired and very +hungry, having eaten nothing but a sandwich and a cup of coffee for +three days, Beryl felt profoundly thankful when the cars rolled into +Jersey City. In the bustle and confusion incident to arrival in that +Babel, she did not observe the scrutiny to which she was subjected by a +man genteelly dressed, who gave her his hand as she stepped down from +the train, and kept by her side while she hastened in the direction of +the ferry. +</P> + +<P> +Reaching the slip where the boat awaited passengers, she was vexed to +see it backing out into the stream, and leaned against the chain which +barred egress until the next trip. +</P> + +<P> +"You have only five minutes to wait for the boat. You seem to have had +a long and trying journey, madam?" +</P> + +<P> +Glancing at him for the first time, Beryl perceived that he held a slip +of yellow paper from which he looked now and then to her face. His +features were coarse and heavy, but his eyes were keen as a ferret's; +and without answering his question, she turned away and looked across +the water which teemed with craft of every description, laden with +freight animate and inanimate, passing to and from the vast city, whose +spires, domes and forest of masts rose like a gray cloud against the +sky, etching there their leaden outlines. +</P> + +<P> +"You live at No.—West—Street, between 8th and 9th Avenue?" +</P> + +<P> +"You are a stranger, and your questions are offensive and impertinent." +</P> + +<P> +As she turned and confronted him haughtily, he stepped closer to her, +threw back his blue overcoat, and pointed to the metal badge on his +breast. +</P> + +<P> +"I am an officer of the law, and have a warrant for your arrest. You +are Beryl Brentano." +</P> + +<P> +"I am Beryl Brentano, yes; but there is some blunder, some mistake. How +dare you annoy me? Arrest me? Me!" +</P> + +<P> +"Do not make a scene. My instructions are to deal with you as gently as +possible. Better come quietly into the station near, and I will read +you the warrant, otherwise I shall be obliged to use force. You see I +have two assistants yonder." +</P> + +<P> +"Arrested for what? By whom?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am ordered to arrest you for the murder of General Darrington." +</P> + +<P> +"Murder! General Darrington is alive and well. I have just left him. +Stand back! Do not touch me. I will call on the police to protect me." +</P> + +<P> +Laying his fingers firmly on her arm, he beckoned to two men clad in +police uniform, who promptly approached. +</P> + +<P> +"You see resistance is worse than useless, and since there is no +escape, come quietly." +</P> + +<P> +"You are insulting me, under some frightful mistake. I am a lady. Do I +look like a criminal?" +</P> + +<P> +"General Darrington has been robbed and murdered, and I have +telegraphic orders to arrest and hold a woman named Beryl Brentano, who +corresponds in every respect with the description of the person +suspected of having committed the crime." +</P> + +<P> +Hitherto she had attributed the insult of the interview to some +question of mistaken identity, but as she slowly comprehended the +possibility that she was the person accused, and intended for arrest, a +sickening horror seized and almost paralyzed her, blanching her face +and turning her to stone. As he led her along the street, she staggered +from the numbness that possessed her, and her eyes stared blankly, like +those of a somnambulist. When she had been ushered into a room where +several policemen were lounging and smoking, the intolerable sense of +shame and indignation shook off her apathy. +</P> + +<P> +"This is a cruel and outrageous wrong, and only base cowards could +wantonly insult an unprotected and innocent woman. You call yourselves +men? Have you no mothers, no sisters, whose memory can arouse some +reverence, some respect for womanhood in your brutal souls?" +</P> + +<P> +Electric lamps set in the sockets of some marble face, might perhaps +resemble the blaze that leaped up in her eyes, as she wrenched her arm +from the officer's profaning touch, and her voice rang like the clash +of steel. +</P> + +<P> +"Madam, we are allowed no discretion; we are only the blind and deaf +machines that obey orders. Read the warrant, and you will understand +that our duty is imperative." +</P> + +<P> +Again and again she read the paper, in which the sheriff of the county +where Elm Bluff is situated, demanded her arrest and return to X—-, on +the charge of robbery and murder committed during the night which she +had spent at the station. Then several telegrams were placed before +her. The description of herself, her dress, even of the little basket +and shawl, was minutely accurate; and by degrees the horror of her +situation, and her utter helplessness, became frightfully distinct. The +papers fell from her nerveless fingers, and one desperate cry broke +from her white lips: +</P> + +<P> +"O just God! Will you permit such a shameful, cruel outrage? Save me +from this horrible injustice and disgrace!" +</P> + +<P> +Seeing neither the men, nor the room, her strained gaze seemed in her +great agony fixed upon the face of Him, who, silvering the lilies of +the field and watching the flight of sparrows, has tender care for all +who trust Him. Even in this terrible trial, the girl's first thought +was of her mother; and of the disastrous effect that the misfortune +would produce upon the invalid. +</P> + +<P> +"I am sorry to tell you, that we are required to search all persons +arrested under similar charges, and in the next room a female detective +will receive and retain every thing in your possession, except your +clothing. You are suspected of having secreted money, jewelry and some +very valuable papers." +</P> + +<P> +"Suspected of being a common thief! I am as innocent as any angel +beside the throne of Christ! Save me at least from the degradation of +being searched. Here is my basket, and here is my purse." +</P> + +<P> +She handed him the worn leather pocket-book, which contained only the +few pennies reserved to pay her passage across the ferry, and turned +the pocket of her dress inside cut. +</P> + +<P> +At the tap of a hand-bell, a tall, angular woman opened the door of an +adjoining room. +</P> + +<P> +"Mrs. Foster, you will very carefully examine the prisoner, and search +her clothing for papers, as well as valuables." +</P> + +<P> +"Spare me at least this indignity!" cried the shuddering girl. +</P> + +<P> +"Come with me, madam. We have no choice." +</P> + +<P> +When the door closed behind her, the constable walked up and down the +floor. +</P> + +<P> +"How deceitful appearances are! That woman looks as pure and innocent +as an angel, and I half believed her protestations; but here in the +basket, sure enough, hidden at the bottom, are the jewelry and the +gold. No sign of the papers, but she may have destroyed them. +</P> + +<P> +"Thief or not, she is a grand beauty; and if her heart was not in that +prayer she put up just now, she is a grand actress also. This is a +beastly trade of ours, hunting down and trapping the unwary. Sometimes +I feel no better than a sleuth-hound, and that girl's eyes went through +and through me a while ago like a two-edged dirk." +</P> + +<P> +As he vented his views of his profession, one of the policemen lighted +his pipe and puffed vigorously. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Foster came back, followed by her victim. +</P> + +<P> +"I find absolutely nothing secreted on the prisoner." +</P> + +<P> +"No papers of any description?" +</P> + +<P> +"None, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Madam, your basket contains the missing jewelry and money, at least a +portion of it, and I shall place it in the hands of the sheriff." +</P> + +<P> +"The money and jewels are not mine. They belong to my mother, to whom +they were given by her father; and she needs the money at this moment—" +</P> + +<P> +"Let me advise you to say as little as possible for your own sake; +because your words will be weighed against you." +</P> + +<P> +"I speak only the truth, and it will, it must, vindicate me. What +papers are you searching for?" +</P> + +<P> +"General Darrington's will. It was stolen with the money. Here is +yesterday's paper, with an account of the whole affair, telegraphed +from X——. If you need to learn anything, you will understand when you +read it." +</P> + +<P> +The sight of the capital letters in the Telegraphic Despatches, +coupling her name with a heinous and revolting crime, seemed to stab +her eyes with red-hot thrusts; and shivering from head to foot, she +slowly realized the suspicious significance of the disappearance of the +will, which was the sole obstacle that debarred her from her +grandfather's wealth. Although sustained by an unfaltering trust in the +omnipotence of innocence, she was tormented by a dread spectre that +would not "down" at her bidding; how could she prove that the money and +jewels had been given to her? Would the shock of the tidings of her +arrest kill her mother? Was there any possible way by which she might +be kept in ignorance of this foul disgrace? +</P> + +<P> +Beryl hid her face in her hands, and tried to think, but the whole +universe appeared spinning into chaos. She had opposed the trip South +so steadily and vehemently: had so sorrowfully and reluctantly yielded +at last to maternal solicitation, and had been oppressed with such dire +forebodings of some resultant evil. So bitter was her repugnance to the +application to her grandfather, that she had set out on her journey +feeling as though it were a challenge to fate; and this was the answer? +The vague distrust, the subtle sombre presentiment, the haunting shadow +of an inexplicable ill, had all meant this; this bloody horror, +dragging her fair name down to the loathsome mire of the slums of +crime. Had some merciful angel leaned from the parapets of heaven and +warned her; or did her father's spirit, in mysterious communion of +deathless love and prescient guardianship, stir her soul to oppose her +mother's scheme? Sceptical and heedless Tarquins are we all, whom our +patient Sibylline intuitions finally abandon to the woes which they +sought to avert. +</P> + +<P> +In the maddening rush and whirl of Beryl's reflections, her mother's +image was the one centre around which all things circled; and at +length, rallying her energies, she turned to her captor. +</P> + +<P> +"You intend to take me to prison?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am obliged to detain and deliver you to the officer who has come +from X—-with the warrant, and who will carry you back there for trial. +He knew from the detentions along the route, that he could easily +overhaul you here, so he went straight to Trenton with a requisition +from the Governor of his State upon Governor Mansfield, for your +surrender. It is but a short run to the Capital, and he expects to get +here in time to catch the train going South to-day. We had a telegram a +while ago, saying the papers were all right, and that he would meet us +at the train, as there will be only a few moments to spare." +</P> + +<P> +"But I must first see my mother. I must give her the money and +explain—" +</P> + +<P> +"The money will be claimed by the officer who takes charge of you." +</P> + +<P> +"Have you no mercy? My mother is ill, destitute; and she will die +unless I can go to her. Oh! I beg of you, for the sake of common +humanity, carry me home, if only for five minutes! Just let me see +mother, let me speak to her!" +</P> + +<P> +In the intensity of her dread, she fell upon her knees, and lifted her +hands imploringly; and the anguish in her white quivering face was so +piteous that the man turned his head away. +</P> + +<P> +"I would oblige you if I could, but it is impossible. The law is cruel, +as you say, but it is intended as a terror to evil-doers. Things look +awfully black for you, but all the same I am sorry for you, if your +mother is to suffer for your deeds. If you wish to write to her, I will +see that she receives your note; but you have very little time left." +</P> + +<P> +"O God! how hard! What a foul, horrible wrong inflicted upon the +innocent!" +</P> + +<P> +She cowered on the floor, unconscious that she still knelt; seeing only +the suffering woman in that dreary attic across the river, where sunken +feverish eyes watched for her return. +</P> + +<P> +Accidentally Beryl's gaze fell on the bunch of faded chrysanthemums +which had dropped unnoticed on the floor, and snatching them she buried +her face in their petals. Their perfume was the potent spell that now +melted her to tears, and the tension of her overtaxed nerves gave way +in a passionate burst of sobs. When she rose a few moments later, the +storm had passed; the face regained its stony rigidity, and henceforth +she fronted fate with an unnatural calmness. +</P> + +<P> +"Will you give me some paper and a pen?" +</P> + +<P> +"You can write here at the desk." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Foster approached her, and said hesitatingly: +</P> + +<P> +"Would it comfort you at all, for me to go and see your mother and +explain why you could not return to her? I am very sorry for you, poor +thing." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, but—you could not explain, and the sight of a stranger +would startle her. In one way you can help me; do you know Dr. Grantlin +of New York?" +</P> + +<P> +"Only by reputation; but I can find him." +</P> + +<P> +"Will you deliver into his hand the note I am writing?" +</P> + +<P> +"I certainly will." +</P> + +<P> +"How soon?" +</P> + +<P> +"Before nine o'clock to-night." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you—a thousand times." +</P> + +<P> +After a while she folded a sheet containing these words: +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"DEAR DR. GRANTLIN: +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"In the extremity of my distress, I appeal to you as a Christian +gentleman, as a true physician, a healer of the suffering, and under +God, the guardian of my mother's life. You know why I went to my +grandfather. He gave me the money, one hundred dollars, and some +valuable jewels. When in sight of home, I have been arrested on the +charge of having murdered my grandfather, and stolen his will. Need I +tell you that I am as innocent as you are? The thought of my mother is +the bitterest drop in my cup of shame and sorrow. You can judge best, +how much it may be expedient to tell her, and you can devise the +kindest method of breaking the truth, if she must know it. Have her +removed to the hospital, and do not postpone the operation. O Doctor! +be pitiful, be tender to her, and do not let her need any little +comforts. Some day I will pay you for all expenses incurred in her +behalf, but at present I have not a dollar, as the money has been +seized. I am sure you will not deny my prayer, and may God reward and +bless you, for your mercy to my precious mother. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"In grateful trust, +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"BERYL BRENTANO. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"P.S.—If you approve, deliver the enclosed note." +</P> + +<P> +On a separate sheet she wrote: +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"MY DARLING MOTHER: +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"Finding it necessary to return to X—-, I have requested Dr. Grantlin +to take particularly good care of you for a few days. Your father will +never forgive, never receive you, but he kindly complied with your +request and gave me one hundred dollars. Try to be patient until I can +come and tell you everything, and believe that God will not forsake us. +With these hurried lines, I send you a few chrysanthemums—your +favorite flowers—which I gathered in the rose garden of your old home. +When you smell them, think of your little girl who loves you better +than her own life, and who will hasten home at the earliest possible +moment, to take you in her arms. Mother, pray for me, and may God be +very merciful to you, my dearest, and to— +</P> +<P CLASS="letter"> +"Your devoted child, +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"BERYL." +</P> + +<P> +She had bound the withered flowers together with a strip of fringe from +her shawl, and now, with dry eyes and firm white lips, she kissed them +twice, pinned the last note around them and laid the whole in Mrs. +Foster's hand. +</P> + +<P> +"I trust you to deliver them in person to Dr. Grantlin before you sleep +to-night; and if I survive this awful outrage, perpetrated under the +name of law, I will find you some day, and thank you." +</P> + +<P> +Looking at the lovely face, pure in its frozen calm, as some marble +lily in the fingers of a monumental effigy, Mrs. Foster felt the tears +dimming her own vision and said earnestly: +</P> + +<P> +"Keep as silent as possible. The less you say, the safer you will be; +and run no risk of contradicting your own statements." +</P> + +<P> +"I appreciate your motive, but I have nothing to conceal." +</P> + +<P> +Beryl laid her hand on her shawl, then drew back. +</P> + +<P> +"Am I allowed the use of my shawl?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, certainly, madam." +</P> + +<P> +The officer would have opened and put it around her, but with an +indescribable movement of proud repulsion, she shook it out, then +wrapped it closely about her, and sat down, keeping her eyes fixed on +the face of the clock ticking over the fireplace. After a long and +profound silence, the man who had arrested her, said gravely and gently: +</P> + +<P> +"Time is up. I must deliver you to Officer Gibson at the train. Come +with me." +</P> + +<P> +She rose, gave her hand to Mrs. Foster, and stooping suddenly touched +with her lips the withered flowers, then followed silently. +</P> + +<P> +In subsequent years, when she attempted to recall consecutively the +incidents of the ensuing forty-eight hours, they eluded her, like the +flitting phantasmagoria that throng delirium; yet subtle links fastened +the details upon her brain, and sometimes most unexpectedly, that +psychic necromancer—association of ideas—selected some episode from +the sombre kaleidoscope of this dismal journey, and set it in lurid +light before her, as startling and unwelcome as the face of an enemy +long dead. Life and personality partook in some degree of duality; all +that she had been before she saw Elm Bluff, seemed a hopelessly +distinct existence, yet irrevocably chained to the mutilated and +blackened Afterward, like the grim and loathsome unions enforced by the +Noyades of Nantes. +</P> + +<P> +The sun did not forget to shine, nor the moon to keep her appointment +with the throbbing stars that signalled all along her circuit. Men +whistled, children laughed; the train thundered through tunnels, and +flew across golden stubble fields, where grain shocks and hay stacks +crowded like tents of the God of plenty, in the Autumnal bivouac; and +throughout the long days and dreary lagging nights. Beryl was fully +conscious of a ceaseless surveillance, of an ever-present shadow, which +was tall and gaunt, wore a drab overcoat and slouched hat, and was +redolent of tobacco. As silent as two mummies in the crypts of Karnac +they sat side by side; and twice when the officer touched her arm and +asked if she would take some refreshments, she merely shook her head, +and tightened the folds of her veil; shrinking closer to the window +against which she leaned. Not until they approached X—-, and she +recognized some features of the landscape, were her lips unsealed: +</P> + +<P> +"What persons are responsible for my arrest?" +</P> + +<P> +"Our District Solicitor, Mr. Churchill, and Mr. Dunbar, the lawyer, who +made the affidavit under which the warrant was issued. I am only a +deputy, acting under orders from the sheriff." +</P> + +<P> +"You are taking me to prison?" +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps not; it depends on the result of the preliminary examination, +and you may be allowed bail." +</P> + +<P> +A ray of hope silvered the shrouding gloom; there was a possibility of +escaping the stain of incarceration. +</P> + +<P> +"When will the examination take place?" +</P> + +<P> +"About noon to-day. You will have time to eat something and freshen up +a little. Here we are. What a crowd to welcome us! Don't stir. We will +just wait a while, and I will get you into a carriage as quietly as +possible." +</P> + +<P> +He whispered some directions to the conductor of the train, and +standing in the aisle with his arm across the seat, screened her from +the gaze of a motley crew of men and boys who rushed in to stare at the +prisoner, whose arrival had been impatiently expected. On the railway +platform and about the station house surged a sea of human heads, +straining now in the direction of the first passenger coach; and when +in answer to some question, the conductor pointed to the sleeping car +which was at the rear of the train, the mass swayed down the track. +</P> + +<P> +"Quick! Now is our time!" +</P> + +<P> +The deputy sheriff hurried her out, almost lifted her from the steps, +and pushing her forward, turned a corner of the street, and handed her +into a carriage which awaited them. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VI. +</H3> + +<P> +To Beryl many hours seemed to have crept away, since she had been left +alone in a small dusty apartment, adjoining the office where the chief +magistrate of X—-daily held court. Too restless to sit still, she +paced up and down the floor, trying to collect her thoughts, and at +last knelt by the side of a table, and laid her weight of dread and +peril before the Throne of the God she trusted. The Father of the +fatherless and Friend of the friendless, would surely protect her in +this hour of intolerable degradation. +</P> + +<P> +"O, Thou that hearest prayer; unto Thee shall all flesh come." +</P> + +<P> +The door opened, and a venerable, gray-haired man approached the table, +where her head was bent upon her crossed arms. When she lifted her +white face, with the violet circles under her dry eyes, making them +appear preternaturally large and luminous, and the beautiful mouth +contracted by a spasm of intense pain, a deep sigh of compassion passed +the stranger's lips. +</P> + +<P> +"I am Mitchell Dent, an old friend of General Darrington's, and of your +mother, who has often sat upon my knee. Because of my affection for +your grandfather, I have asked permission to see you for a few moments. +If you are unjustly accused, I desire to befriend you, and offer you +some advice. I am told you assert your innocence of the great crime of +which you are suspected. I hope you can prove it; but for your own sake +I advise you to waive an examination, and await the action of the Grand +Jury, as you have had no opportunity of consulting counsel, or +preparing your defence." +</P> + +<P> +"You knew my mother? Then you should require no other proof that her +child is not a criminal. I am innocent of every offence against General +Darrington, except that of being my father's daughter; and my +unjustifiable arrest is almost as foul a wrong as his murder." +</P> + +<P> +She drew herself proudly to her full height, and as his eyes dwelt in +irrepressible admiration upon her, his manhood did homage to her grace +and dignity, and he took off his hat. +</P> + +<P> +"I earnestly hope so; and the law holds every person innocent until her +guilt be fully proved and established." +</P> + +<P> +"Of the significance of law terms I know nothing; and of the usages of +courts I am equally ignorant. If, as you suggest, I should waive an +examination, should I escape imprisonment?" +</P> + +<P> +"No." +</P> + +<P> +"Then I must be tried at once; because I want to hurry back to my +mother who is ill, and needs me." +</P> + +<P> +"But you have no counsel as yet, and delay is your best policy." +</P> + +<P> +"Delay might cost my mother's life. I have no money to pay a lawyer to +stand up and mystify matters, and my best policy is to defend myself, +by telling the simple truth." +</P> + +<P> +Again Judge Dent sighed. Could guilt be masked by this fair semblance +of childlike guilelessness? +</P> + +<P> +"Can you summon any witnesses to prove that you were not at Elm Bluff +on the night of the storm?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, the ticket agent knows I was in the waiting-room during that +storm." +</P> + +<P> +He shook his gray head. +</P> + +<P> +"He will be one of the strongest witnesses against you." +</P> + +<P> +"Then I have no witnesses except—God, and my conscience." +</P> + +<P> +The door opened, and with his watch in his hand the deputy sheriff +entered. +</P> + +<P> +"Sorry to shorten your interview, Judge, but you know we have a +martinet in yonder, a regular Turk, and he splits seconds into +fractions." +</P> + +<P> +As Judge Dent withdrew, Beryl realized that her hour of woe had +arrived, and she began to pin her veil tightly over her face. +</P> + +<P> +"Come along—You can't keep your veil on. Try to be as non-committal as +possible when they ask you crooked questions. Of course I want justice +done, and I hope I am a faithful servant of the law; but if you are as +innocent as a flock of ring-doves, the lawyers will try to confuse you." +</P> + +<P> +He attempted to lead her, but she drew back. +</P> + +<P> +"I will follow you; but please do not hold my arm; do not touch me." +</P> + +<P> +A moment later, a door opened and closed, a glare of light showed her a +crowded room; a monotonous hum like the swell of the sea fell on her +ear; then stifled ejaculations, to which succeeded a sudden, deathlike +hush. The officer placed a chair for her in front of the platform where +the magistrate sat, and retired to the rear of the room. With some +difficulty Judge Dent made his way through the throng of spectators, +and seated himself beside Mr. Dunbar. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, sir, how did the prisoner impress you?" asked the latter, as he +folded up a paper. +</P> + +<P> +"Dunbar, you have made a mistake. I have spent the best of my life in +the study of criminals; and if that woman yonder is not innocent, I am +in my dotage." +</P> + +<P> +"Pardon me, Judge, if I dispute both propositions. I made no mistake; +and you are merely, in the goodness of your heart, and the fervor of +your chivalry, dazzled momentarily by the glamour of extraordinary +beauty and touching youth." +</P> + +<P> +When Beryl recovered in some degree from the shock of finding herself +actually on trial, she endeavored to collect her faculties; but the +violent palpitation of her heart was almost suffocating, and in her +ears the surging as of an ocean tide, drowned the accents of the +magistrate. At first the words were as meaningless as some Sanskrit +formula, but gradually her attention grasped and comprehended. In a +strident incisive voice he read from a paper on the desk before him: +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"At an inquisition held at X—-, T—-county, on the twenty-seventh day +of October, before me, Jeremiah Bateman, Coroner of said county, on the +body of Robert Luke Darrington, there lying dead, by the jurors whose +names are hereto subscribed; the said jurors upon their oath do say +that Robert Luke Darrington came to his death on the night of Thursday, +October twenty-sixth, by a murderous assault committed upon him by +means of a heavy brass andiron. And from all the evidence brought +before them, the jury believe that the fatal blow was feloniously given +by the hand of his granddaughter, Beryl Brentano. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"In testimony whereof, the said jurors have hereunto set their hands, +this twenty-seventh day of October, A.D., 18—. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"Signed——— +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"Attest, +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"JEREMIAH BATEMAN, Coroner." +</P> + +<P> +"In consequence of this verdict, and by virtue of a warrant issued at +the request of the District Solicitor, Governor Glenbeigh made a prompt +requisition for the arrest and detention of the said Beryl Brentano, +who has been identified and returned to this city, to answer the +charges brought against her. The prisoner will unveil and stand up. +</P> + +<P> +"Beryl Brentano, you are charged with the murder of Robert Luke +Darrington, by striking him with a brass andiron. Are you guilty, or +not guilty?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not guilty." Her voice was unsteady, but the words were distinct. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Dunbar, Mr. Burk, and a middle-aged woman lean as Cassius, came +nearer to the platform, and after a leisurely survey of the girl's face +and figure, pronounced her the person whom they had severally accused +of the crime of causing the death of General Darrington. +</P> + +<P> +The canons that govern psychical phenomena are as occult as the +abstraction of the "fourth division of space"; and they defy the +realism of common-place probability, mock all analysis, and annihilate +distance. When Beryl had first met the keen scrutiny of Mr. Dunbar's +glittering blue eyes, their baleful influence made her shiver slightly; +and now at the instant in which he approached, and inspected her +closely, she forgot that she was on trial for her life, became +temporarily oblivious of her dismal entourage, and stood once more +before a marble image in the Vatican, where the light streamed full on +the cold face, that for centuries has been the synonym of blended +beauty and cruelty. In her ears rang again the words her father had +rend aloud at her side, while she sketched: "But he does not inspire +confidence, by the smile that would like to express goodness. The +finely cut underlip that rises from the strongly marked hollow over the +chin ought to sharpen with a dash of contempt the conscious superiority +that lies upon his broad, magnificent forehead. His smile is in strong +contrast with the cold gaze of the large open eyes; a gaze that +hesitates not, but without mercy verifies a judgment fixed in advance, +that gives up every one to condemnation." +</P> + +<P> +The dusty crowded court-room appeared to swim in the rich aroma +distilled from the creamy hearts of Roman hyacinths; and the velvet +lips of purple Roman violets suddenly babbled out the secret of the +mysterious repulsion which had puzzled her, from the hour in which she +first looked into Mr. Dunbar's face; his strange resemblance to the +Chiaramonti Tiberius, which she had studied and copied so carefully. In +days gone by, the subtle repose, the marvelous beauty of that marble +face, where as yet the demon of destruction had cast no stain, +possessed a singular fascination for her; and now the haunting likeness +which had perplexed her at Elm Bluff, became associated inseparably +with old Bedney's description of Mr. Dunbar's merciless treatment of +witnesses, and Beryl realized with alarming clearness that in her +grandfather's lawyer she had met the incarnation of her cruel fate. +</P> + +<P> +Standing quite near her, he gravely related, with emphatic distinctness +and careful detail, his first meeting with the prisoner on the piazza +at Elm Bluff, and the vivid impression she left on his mind; his return +to Elm Bluff about half-past nine the same evening, in order to get a +deed which he had forgotten to put into his pocket at the first visit. +Learning that General Darrington had not yet retired for the night, he +sent in to ask for the deed, and was summoned "to come and get it +himself." On entering the bedroom, he found his client wrapped in a +cashmere dressing-gown, and sitting in an easy chair by the window, +which opened on the north or front piazza. He appeared much perturbed +and harassed, and in reply to inquiries touching his health, answered +that he was "completely shaken up, and unnerved, by a very stormy and +disagreeable interview held that afternoon with the child of his +wayward daughter Ellice. "When witness asked: "Did not the great beauty +of the embassadress accomplish the pardon and restoration of the erring +mother?" General Darrington had struck his cane violently on the floor, +and exclaimed: "Don't talk such infernal nonsense! Did you ever hear of +my pardoning a wrong against my family name and honor? Does any man +live, idiotic enough to consider me so soft-hearted? No, no. On the +contrary, I was harsh to the girl; so harsh that she turned upon me, +savage as a strong cub defending a crippled helpless dam. They know now +that the last card has been played, and the game ended; for I gave her +distinctly to understand that at my death, Prince would inherit every +iota of my estate, and that my will had cut them off without a cent. I +meant it then, I mean it now. I swear that lowborn fiddler's brood +shall never darken these doors; but somehow, I am unable to get rid of +the strange, disagreeable sensation the girl left behind her, as a +farewell legacy. She stood there at that glass door, and raised her +hand like a prophetess. 'General Darrington, when you lie down to die, +may God have more mercy on your poor soul than you have shown to your +suffering child.'" +</P> + +<P> +Witness advised him to go to bed, and sleep off the unpleasant +recollections of the day, but he said it was so oppressively hot, he +wanted to sit at the window, which was wide open. Witness having +secured the deed, which was on the table in the room, bade his client +good-night, and left the house. +</P> + +<P> +He was riding toward town, and thought it was about ten o'clock, when +he saw the prisoner sitting under a pine tree near the road, and not +more than a half a mile from the bridge over the "Branch" that runs at +the foot of Elm Bluff. His horse had shied and plunged at sight of her, +and, the moonlight being bright as day, witness easily recognized her +as the same person he had seen earlier in the afternoon. Thinking her +appearance there at that hour was rather mysterious, he asked her if +she had lost her way; to which she replied "No, sir." On the following +morning, when the mournful news of the murder of General Darrington had +convulsed the entire community with grief and horror, witness had +smothered his reluctance to proceed against a woman, and a solemn sense +of duty forced him to bring these suspicious circumstances to the +knowledge of the District Solicitor. +</P> + +<P> +While he gave his testimony, Mr. Dunbar watched her closely for some +trace of emotion, but she met his gaze without the movement of a +muscle, and he detected not even a quiver of the jet lashes that +darkened her proud gray eyes. +</P> + +<P> +Antony Burk next testified that he had given the accused instructions +about the road to Elm Bluff, when she arrived at X—; and that after +buying her return ticket, she told him it was necessary she should take +the 7:15 train, and that she would be sure to catch it. The train was a +few minutes late, but had pulled out of the station twenty minutes +before the prisoner came back, when she appeared much annoyed at having +missed it. +</P> + +<P> +Then she had sent a telegram (a copy of which was in the possession of +the Solicitor), and requested him to allow her to remain in the ladies' +waiting-room until the next train at 3:05. He had directed her to a +hotel close by, but she declined going there. Thinking she was fatigued +and might relish it, he had, after supper, carried a pitcher of iced +tea to the waiting-room, but though he remained there until nine +o'clock she was nowhere visible. He went home and went to sleep, but +the violence of the storm aroused him; and when he took his lantern and +went back to unlock the ticket office, he searched the whole place, and +the prisoner was not in the building. This was at half-past two A.M., +and the pitcher of tea remained untouched where he had placed it. It +was not raining when he returned, and a few minutes after he had hunted +for the prisoner, he was standing in the door of his office and he saw +her coming down the railway track, from the direction of the water tank +and the bridge. She was breathing rapidly as if she had been running, +and witness noticed that her clothes were damp, and that some drops of +water fell from the edge of her hat. A lamp-post stood in front of the +station, and he saw her plainly; asked her why she did not stay in the +room, which he had left open for her? Prisoner said she had remained +there. Witness told her he knew better; that she was not there at nine +nor yet at half-past two o'clock. The accused did not appear inclined +to talk, and gave no explanation, but got aboard the 3:05 train. +Witness considered her actions so suspicious, that he had related all +he knew to Mr. Dunbar, who had summoned him before the magistrate. He +(witness) was very loath to think evil of a woman, especially one so +beautiful and noble looking, and if he wronged her, he hoped God would +forgive him; but he never dodged telling the truth. +</P> + +<P> +Here the female Cassius rose, and gave her name as Angeline Dobbs. +</P> + +<P> +"She had for several years attended to the sewing and mending at Elm +Bluff, being summoned there whenever her services were required. On the +afternoon previous to General Darrington's death she was sitting at her +needlework in the hall of the second story of his house. As the day was +very hot, she had opened the door leading out to an iron balcony, which +projected just over the front hall door downstairs; and since the +piazza was open from the roof to the floor, she had peeped over, and +seen the prisoner when she arrived and had watched her while she sat on +the steps, waiting to be admitted. After the accused had been inside +the house some time, she (witness) recollected that she had seen a hole +in one of the lace curtains in the library downstairs, and thought this +would be such a nice time to darn it. The library was opposite the +drawing room, and adjoined General Darrington's bed-room. The door was +open and witness heard what she supposed was a quarrel, as General +Darrington's voice was loud and violent; and she distinctly heard him +say: 'My will is so strong, no contest can touch it! and it will stand +forever between your mother and my property.' Soon after, General +Darrington had slammed the door, and though she heard loud tones for +some time, she could not make out the words. The impression left on +witness's mind was that the prisoner was very impudent to the old +gentleman; and not long afterward she saw accused standing in the rose +garden, pretending to gather some flowers, but really looking up and +down at the front windows. Witness knew the prisoner saw the vault +where the General kept his papers, because she heard it opened while +she was in the bed-room. The door of the vault or safe did not open on +hinges, but was iron, and slid on a metal rod, which made a very +peculiar squeaking sound. When she heard the noise she thought that +General Darrington was so enraged that he got the will to show prisoner +it was all fixed forever, against her and her mother." +</P> + +<P> +When Miss Dobbs sat down, a lame man, disfigured by a scar on his +cheek, learned upon a stick and testified: +</P> + +<P> +"My name is Belshazzar Tatem. Was an orderly sergeant attached to +General Darrington's staff dtiring the war; but since that time have +been a florist and gardener, and am employed to trim hedges and vines, +and transplant flowers at Elm Bluff." On the afternoon of the +prisoner's visit there, he was resetting violet roots on a border under +the western veranda, upon which opened the glass door leading out from +the General's bed-room. He had heard an angry altercation carried on +between General Darrington and some one, and supposed he was scolding +one of the servants. He went to a shed in the barn yard to get a spade +he needed, and when he came back he saw the prisoner walk down the +steps, and thought it singular a stranger should leave the house that +way. Wondered whom she could be, and wondered also that the General had +quarrelled with such a splendid looking lady. Next morning when he went +back to his work, he noticed the glass door was shut, but the red +curtain inside was looped back. He thought it was half-past eight +o'clock, when he heard a loud cry in the bed-room, and very soon after, +somebody screamed. He ran up the steps, but the glass door was locked +on the inside, and when he went around and got into the room, the first +thing he saw was General Darrington's body lying on the floor, with his +feet toward the hearth, and his head almost on a line with the iron +vault built in the wall. The servants were screaming and wringing their +hands, and he called them to help him lift the General, thinking that +he had dropped in a fit; but he found him stone cold and stiff. There +was no sign of blood anywhere, but a heavy, old-fashioned brass andiron +was lying close to the General's head, and he saw a black spot like a +bruise on his right temple. General Darrington wore his night clothes, +and the bed showed he had been asleep there. Some broken vases were on +the floor and hearth, and the vault was wide open. The tin box was +upside down on the carpet, and some papers in envelopes were scattered +about. +</P> + +<P> +Witness had picked up a leather bag carefully tied at the top with red +tape, drawn into hard knots; but in one side he found a hole which had +been cut with a knife, and at the bottom of the bag was a twenty-dollar +gold piece. Two more coins of the same value were discovered on the +floor, when General Darrington's body was lifted; and on the bolster of +the bed lay a bottle containing chloroform. Witness immediately sent +off for some of General Darrington's friends, and also notified the +coroner; and he did not leave the room again until the inquest was +held. The window on the front piazza was open, and witness had searched +the piazza and the grounds for tracks, but discovered no traces of the +burglar and murderer, who had escaped before the rain ceased, otherwise +the tracks would have been found. Witness was positive that the +prisoner was the same person whom he had seen coming out of the +bed-room, and with whom General Darrington had quarrelled. +</P> + +<P> +The sheriff here handed to the magistrate, the gold pieces found on the +floor at Elm Bluff, by the last witness; then the little wicker basket +which had been taken from the prisoner when she was arrested. The coins +discovered therein were taken out, and careful comparison showed that +they corresponded exactly with those picked up after the murder. The +case of sapphires was also shown, and Mr. Dunbar rose to say, that "The +prosecution would prove by the attorney who drew up General +Darrington's will, that these exceedingly valuable stones had been +bequeathed by a clause in that will to Prince Darrington, as a bridal +present for whomsoever he might marry." +</P> + +<P> +A brief silence ensued, during which the magistrate pulled at the +corner of his tawny mustache, and earnestly regarded the prisoner. She +stood, with her beautiful white hands clasped before her, the slender +fingers interlaced, the head thrown proudly back. Extreme pallor had +given place to a vivid flush that dyed her cheeks, and crimsoned her +delicate lips; and her eyes looking straight into space, glowed with an +unnatural and indescribable lustre. Tadmor's queen Bath Zabbai could +not have appeared more regal in her haughty pose, amid the exulting +shouts that rent the skies of conquering Rome. The magistrate cleared +his throat, and addressed the accused. +</P> + +<P> +"You are Beryl Brentano, the granddaughter of General Darrington?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am Beryl Brentano." +</P> + +<P> +"You have heard the charges brought against you. What have you to say +in defence?" +</P> + +<P> +"That I am innocent of every accusation." +</P> + +<P> +"By what witnesses will you prove it?" +</P> + +<P> +"By a statement of the whole truth in detail, if I may be allowed to +make it." +</P> + +<P> +Here the Solicitor, Mr. Churchill, rose and said: +</P> + +<P> +"While faithfully discharging my official duties, loyalty to justice +does not smother the accents of human sympathy; and before proceeding +any further, I hope your Honor will appoint some counsel to confer with +and advise the prisoner. Her isolation appeals to every noble instinct +of manhood, and it were indeed puerile tribute to our lamented General +Darrington, to bring his granddaughter before this tribunal, without +the aid and defence of legal advisers. Justice itself would not be +welcome to me, if unjustly won. My friend, Mr. Hazelton, who is +present, has expressed his desire to defend the prisoner; and while I +am aware that your Honor is under the impression she refuses to accept +counsel, I trust you will nevertheless commit her, until she can confer +with him." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Hazelton rose and bowed, in tacit approval. +</P> + +<P> +Beryl advanced a few steps, and her clear pure voice thrilled every +heart in the crowded room. +</P> + +<P> +"I need no help to tell the truth, and I want to conceal nothing. Time +is inexpressibly valuable to me now, for a human life more precious +than my own is at stake; and if I am detained here, my mother may die. +May I speak at once, and explain the circumstances which you consider +so mysterious as to justify the shameful indignity put upon me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Since you assume the responsibility of your own defence, you may +proceed with your statement. Relate what occurred from the hour you +reached Elm Bluff, until you left X—-next morning." +</P> + +<P> +"I came here to deliver in person a letter written by my mother to her +father, General Darrington, because other letters sent through the +mail, had been returned unread. It contained a request for one hundred +dollars to pay the expense of a surgical operation, which we hoped +would restore her health. When I reached Elm Bluff, I waited on the +steps, until General Darrington's attorney finished his business and +came out; then I was led by an old colored man to the bed-room where +General Darrington sat. I gave no name, fearing he might refuse to +admit me, and he was very courteous in his manner until I laid the +letter before him. He immediately recognized the handwriting, and threw +it to the floor, declaring that no human being had the right to address +him as father, except his son Prince. I picked up the letter, and +insisted he should at least read the petition of a suffering, and +perhaps dying woman. He was very violent in his denunciation of my +parents, and his voice was loud and angry. So painful was the whole +interview, that it was a bitter trial to me to remain in his presence, +but knowing how absolutely necessary it was that mother should obtain +the money, I forced myself to beg him to read the letter. Finally he +consented, read it, and seemed somewhat softened; but he tore it into +strips and threw it from him. He drank several glasses of wine from a +decanter on the table, and offered me some, expressing the opinion that +I must be tired from my journey. I declined it. General Darrington then +questioned me about my family, my mode of living; and after a few +moments became very much excited, renewing his harsh invectives against +my parents. It was at this stage of the interview that he uttered the +identical words quoted by the witness: 'My Will is so strong, no +contest can touch it, and it will stand forever between your mother and +my property.' +</P> + +<P> +"Immediately after, he went to the door leading into the library and +called 'Bedney!' No one answered, and he shut the door, kicking it as +it closed. When he came back to his chair, he said very bitterly: 'At +least we will have no eavesdroppers at this resurrection of my dead.' +He told me all the story of my mother's girlhood; of her marriage, +which had infuriated him; that he had sent her a certain proportion of +property, and then disowned and disinherited her. Afterward he +described his lonely life, his second marriage which was very happy, +and his adoption of his wife's son, who, he repeatedly told me, had +usurped my mother's place in his affections. Finally he said: +</P> + +<P> +"'Your mother has asked for one hundred dollars. You shall have it; not +because I recognize her as child of mine, but because a sick woman +appeals to a Southern gentleman.' +</P> + +<P> +"He took a bunch of keys from his pocket, and with one of them opened a +safe or iron closet on the wall near the chimney, and from that vault +he brought a square black tin box to the table, where he opened it. He +took out a leather bag, and counted into my hand five gold pieces of +twenty dollars each. The money was given so ungraciously that I told +him I would not accept it, save as a loan for mother's benefit; and +that as soon as I could earn it I would return the amount to him. I was +so anxious to get away, I started toward the library door, but he +called me back, and gave me the morocco case which contains the +sapphires. He said my mother's mother had bought them as a gift for her +daughter, to be worn when she was graduated at school; but as she +married and left school without his knowledge, the jewels had never +been seen by her. He told me he had intended to give them to his son +Prince, for his bride, but that now he would send them to mother, who +could sell them for a handsome sum, because they were valuable. He +showed so much sorrow at this time, that I begged him to give me some +message of pardon and affection, which she would prize infinitely more +than money or jewels; but he again became angry and bitter, and so I +left him. I came away by the door leading out on the iron veranda, +because he directed me to do so, saying that he did not wish me to meet +the servants, who would pry and tattle. When I closed the glass door I +saw him standing in the middle of the room, leaning on his cane, and he +had the black tin box in his hand. The sun was setting then, and now—" +</P> + +<P> +She ceased speaking for some seconds, then raised her hands toward +heaven, and with uplifted eyes that seemed in their strained gaze to +pierce beyond the veil, she added with solemn emphasis: +</P> + +<P> +"I call God to witness, that was the last and only time I ever saw +General Darrington. That was the last and only visit I ever made to Elm +Bluff." +</P> + +<P> +There was a general movement among the spectators, and audible +excitement, which was promptly quelled by the magistrate. +</P> + +<P> +"Silence there in front, or I shall order the room cleared." +</P> + +<P> +Turning toward Beryl, he said: +</P> + +<P> +"If you left Elm Bluff at sunset, why did you not take the 7:15 train?" +</P> + +<P> +"I tried to do so, but missed it because I desired to obey my mother's +injunctions as strictly as possible. She gave me a small bunch of +flowers, and asked me to be sure to lay them for her on her mother's +grave. When I reached the cemetery, which you know is in sight of the +road from Elm Bluff, the gate was locked, and it required some time to +enable me to climb over the wall and find the monument. It was growing +dark, and when I arrived at the station, I learned the train had just +gone." +</P> + +<P> +"Why did you not go to a hotel, as you were advised to do?" +</P> + +<P> +"Because after sending the telegram to my mother, I had no money to pay +for lodging; and I asked permission to stay in the ladies' +waiting-room." +</P> + +<P> +"State where and how you spent the night." +</P> + +<P> +"It was very hot and sultry in that room, and as there was a bright +moon shining, I walked out to get some fresh air. The pine woods had +appeared so pretty and pleasant that afternoon, that I went on and on +toward them, and did not realize how far they were. I met people +passing along the road, and it did not seem lonely. The smell of the +pines was new to me, and to enjoy it, I sat down on the straw. I was +tired, and must have fallen asleep at once, for I remember nothing till +some noise startled me, and there I saw the same man on horseback in +the road, whom I had met at Elm Bluff. He asked me if I had misled my +way, and I answered 'No, sir.' The height of the moon showed me it was +late, and as I was frightened at finding myself alone in the woods, I +almost ran back to the railway station, where I saw no one, except a +telegraph operator, who seemed to be asleep in his chair. I cannot say +what time it was, because I could not see the clock. Soon after, it +began to thunder, and all through that terrible storm I was alone in +the waiting-room. So great was my relief when the wind and lightning +ceased, that I went to sleep, and dreamed of a happy time when I lived +in Italy, and of talking with one very dear to me. Just then I awoke +with a start, and heard a voice talking outside, which seemed very +familiar. There were two persons; one, a negro, said: +</P> + +<P> +"'There ain't no train 'till daylight, excepting the through freight.' +</P> + +<P> +"The other person asked: 'When is it due?' The negro answered: +</P> + +<P> +"'Pretty soon, but it don't stop here; it goes to the water tank where +it blows for the railroad bridge; and that is only a short distance up +the track.' +</P> + +<P> +"I think I must have been only half awake, and with my mind fixed on my +dream, I ran out in front of the station house. An old negro man +limping down the street was the only person visible, and while I +watched him he suddenly vanished. I went along the track for some +distance but saw no one; and when I came back, the ticket agent was +standing in the door of his office. I cannot explain to you the +singular impulse which carried me out, when I heard the dialogue, +because it is inexplicable to myself, save by the supposition that I +was still dreaming; and yet I saw the negro man distinctly. There was a +lamp-post near him, and he had a bundle on his shoulder. When the 3:05 +train came, I went aboard and left X—-." +</P> + +<P> +A smile parted Mr. Dunbar's lips, and his handsome teeth glittered as +he whispered to Judge Dent: +</P> + +<P> +"Even your chivalrous compassion can scarcely digest this knotty +solution of her movements that night. As a fabrication, it does little +credit to her ingenuity." +</P> + +<P> +"Her statement impresses me differently. She is either entirely +innocent, or she had an accomplice, whose voice she recognized; and +this clue should be investigated." +</P> + +<P> +The District Solicitor rose and bowed to the Magistrate. +</P> + +<P> +"With your Honor's permission, I should like to ask the prisoner whom +she expected to see, when she recognized the voice?" +</P> + +<P> +"A person who is very dear to me, but who is not in the United States." +</P> + +<P> +"What is the name of that person?" +</P> + +<P> +Her lips moved to pronounce his name, but some swift intuitive warning +restrained the utterance. Suddenly a new horror, a ghastly possibility, +thrust itself for the first time before her, and she felt as though +some hand of ice clutched her heart. +</P> + +<P> +Those who watched her so closely, saw the blood ebb from cheeks and +lips; noted the ashy pallor that succeeded, and the strange groping +motion of her hands. She staggered toward the platform, and when the +Magistrate caught her arm, she fell against him like some tottering +marble image, entirely unconscious. +</P> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<P> +So prolonged and death-like was the swoon, and so futile the usual +methods of restoration, that the prisoner was carried into the small +ante-room, and laid upon a wooden bench; where a physician, who chanced +to be in the audience, was summoned to attend her. Finding restoratives +ineffectual, he took out his lancet: +</P> + +<P> +"This is no ordinary fainting fit." +</P> + +<P> +He attempted to roll up one of her sleeves, but seeing this was +impracticable, would have unfastened her dress, had not Judge Dent +arrested his hand. +</P> + +<P> +"No, doctor; cut out the sleeve if necessary, but don't touch her +otherwise." +</P> + +<P> +"Let me assist you; I can easily bare the arm." +</P> + +<P> +As he spoke, Mr. Dunbar knelt beside the bench, and with a small, sharp +pen-knife ripped the seam from elbow to shoulder, from elbow to wrist, +swiftly and deftly folding back the sleeve, and exposing the perfect +moulding of the snowy arm. +</P> + +<P> +"Just hold the hand, Dunbar, so as to keep it steady." +</P> + +<P> +Clasping closely the hand, which the physician laid in his palm the +attorney noted the exquisite symmetry of the slender fingers and oval +nails. He bent forward and watched the frozen face. When the heavily +lashed lids quivered and lifted, and she looked vacantly at the grave +compassionate countenances leaning over her, a certain tightening of +the hold upon her fingers, drew her attention. Her gaze fastened on the +lawyer's blue eyes as if by a subtle malign fascination. The veil that +shrouded consciousness was rent, not fully raised; and as in some dream +the solemn eyes appeared to search his. A strange shivering thrill shot +along his nerves, and his quiet, well regulated heart so long the +docile obedient motor, fettered vassal of his will, bounded, strained +hard on the steel cable that held it in thrall. +</P> + +<P> +"You feel better now?" asked the physician, who was stanching the flow +of blood. +</P> + +<P> +Still her gaze seemed to penetrate the inmost recesses of the lawyer's +nature, calling into sudden revolt dormant elements that amazed and +defied him. +</P> + +<P> +A shadowy smile curved her pale lips. +</P> + +<P> +"At the mercy of Tiberius. At the mercy of Tiberius." +</P> + +<P> +Those present looked inquiringly at each other. +</P> + +<P> +"Her mind wanders a little. Sheriff, give her some of that brandy. She +is as weak as a baby." +</P> + +<P> +Judge Dent raised her head, and the officer held the tumbler to her +mouth; while the former said gently: +</P> + +<P> +"My poor girl, drink a little, it will strengthen you." +</P> + +<P> +With a gesture of loathing, she rejected it; and as she attempted to +raise herself, all the dire extremity of her peril rushed back upon her +mind, like a black overwhelming tide from the sea of the past. +</P> + +<P> +"Lie still, until I have bandaged your arm. Here, Dunbar, you acquitted +yourself so dexterously with your knife, just lend a hand. Hold the arm +until I secure the bandage." +</P> + +<P> +To find herself surrounded by men, helpless in the grasp of strangers, +with no womanly touch or glance to sustain her, served to intensify her +misery; and wrenching herself free, she struggled into a sitting +posture, then staggered to her feet. The heavy coil of hair loosened +when they bore her from the court-room, now released itself from +restraining pins, and fell in burnished waves to her knees, clothing +her with a glory, such as the world's great masters in art reserve for +the beatified. Had all the blood that fed her heart been drained, she +would not have appeared more deadly pale, and in her wide eyes was the +desperate look of a doomed animal, that feels the hot fangs of the +hounds, and the cold steel of the hunters. +</P> + +<P> +"Be persuaded for your own sake, to swallow some stimulant, of which +you are sadly in need. You will require all your strength, and, as a +physician, I insist upon your taking my prescription." +</P> + +<P> +"If I might have some water. Just a little water." +</P> + +<P> +Some one brought a brown stone pitcher, and she drank long and +thirstily; then looked for a moment at the faces of those who crowded +about her. +</P> + +<P> +"What will be done now?" +</P> + +<P> +Every eye fell to the floor, and after a painful silence Judge Dent +said very gently: +</P> + +<P> +"For the present, the Magistrate will retain you in custody, until the +action of the Grand Jury. Should they fail to indict you, then you will +at once be released." +</P> + +<P> +"I am to go to prison? I am to be thrust among convicts, vile +criminals! I—? My father's Beryl? O, righteous God! Where is Thy +justice? O, Christ! Is Thy mercy a mockery?" +</P> + +<P> +She stood, with her chin resting on her clenched hands, and twice a +long violent shudder shook her from head to foot. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope your imprisonment will be only temporary. The Grand Jury will +be in session next week. Meantime diligent search may discover the +persons whose conversation you overheard at the station; and if you be +innocent, we are all your friends, and the law, which now seems so +stern, will prove your strongest protector and vindicator." +</P> + +<P> +Judge Dent stood close beside her, as he essayed these words of +comfort, and saw that she caught her breath as though in mortal agony. +Her face writhed, and she shut her eyes, unable to contemplate some +hideous apparition. He suspected that she was fighting desperately an +impulse that suggested succor; and he was sure she had strangled it, +when her hands fell nerveless at her side, and she raised her bowed +head. If the finger of paralysis had passed over her features, they +would not have appeared more hopelessly fixed. Mechanically she twisted +and coiled her hair, and took the hat and shawl which the officer held +out to her. +</P> + +<P> +"If I can assist you in any way, you have only to send for me." +</P> + +<P> +She looked at Judge Dent intently, for an instant, then shook her head. +</P> + +<P> +"No one can help me now." +</P> + +<P> +She tied her veil over her face, and silently followed the deputy +sheriff to a carriage, that stood near the pavement. +</P> + +<P> +When he would have assisted her, she haughtily repelled him. +</P> + +<P> +"I will follow you, because I must; but do not put your hands on me." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VII. +</H3> + +<P> +In ante bellum days, when States' Rights was a sacred faith, a revered +and precious palladium, State pride blossomed under Southern skies, and +State coffers overflowed with the abundance wherewith God blessed the +land. During that period, when it became necessary to select a site for +a new Penitentiary, the salubrity and central location of X—-had so +strongly commended it, that the spacious structure was erected within +its limits, and regarded as an architectural triumph of which the State +might justly boast. Soon after this had been completed, the old county +jail, situated on the border of the town, was burned one windy March +night; then the red rain of war deluged the land, and when the ghastly +sun of "Reconstruction" smiled upon the grave of States' Rights, +Municipal money disappeared in subterranean channels. Thus it came to +pass, that with the exception of a small "lockup" attached to Police +Headquarters, X—had failed to rebuild its jail, and domiciled its +dangerous transgressors in the great stone prison; paying therefor to +the State an annual amount per capita. +</P> + +<P> +Built of gray granite which darkened with time and weather stains, its +massive walls, machicolated roof, and tall arched clock-tower lifted +their leaden outlines against the sky, and cast a brooding shadow over +the town, lying below; a grim perpetual menace to all who subsequently +found themselves locked in its reformatory arms. Separated from the +bustling mart and busy traffic, by the winding river that divided the +little city into North and South X—, it crested an eminence on the +north; and the single lower story flanking the main edifice east and +west, resembled the trailing wings of some vast bird of prey, an +exaggerated simulacrum of a monstrous gray condor perched on a "coigne +of vantage," waiting to swoop upon its victims. Encircled by a tall +brick wall, which was surmounted by iron spikes sharp as bayonets, that +defied escalade, the grounds extended to the verge of the swift stream +in front, and stretched back to the border of a heavily timbered tract +of pine land, a bit of primeval forest left to stare at the encroaching +armies of Philistinism. +</P> + +<P> +Within the precincts of the yard, the tender conservatism of our +great-hearted mother Nature, gently toned the savage stony features; +and even under the chill frown of iron barred windows, golden sunshine +bravely smiled, soft grasses wove their emerald velvet tapestries +starred and flushed with dainty satin petals, which late Autumn roses +showered in munificent contribution, to the work of pitying love. +</P> + +<P> +In a comfortably furnished room situated in the second story of the +main building, sat a woman apparently thirty-five years old, who was +singing to a baby lying face downward on her lap, while with one hand +she rocked the wicker cradle beside her, where a boy of four years was +tossing. Her hazel eyes were full of kindly light, the whole face +eloquent with that patient, limitless tenderness, which is the magic +chrism of maternity, wherewith Lucina and Cuba abundantly anoint +Motherhood. The blessed and infallible nepenthe for all childhood's +ills and aches, mother touch, mother songs, soon held soothing sway; +and when the woman laid the sleeping babe on her own bed, and covered +her with a shawl, she saw her husband leaning against the partly open +door. +</P> + +<P> +"Come here, Susie. The kids are snug and safe for the present, and I +want you." +</P> + +<P> +"For shame, Ned! To call our darlings such a beastly name. Kids, +indeed! My sweetest, loveliest lambs!" +</P> + +<P> +"There! Hear yourself! If I can see any choice of respectability +between kids and lambs, may I turn to a thoroughbred Southdown, and +take the blue ribbon at the next Fair. Beasts of the field, all of +them. The always-wide-awake-contrariness of womankind is a curious and +fearful thing. If I had called our beloved towheads, lambs, you would +have sworn through blue ruin that they were the cutest, spryest pair of +spotted kids, that ever skipped over a five-railed fence!" +</P> + +<P> +"So much the worse for you, Ned Singleton, that you are such a hopeless +heathen; you do not even know where the Elect are appointed to stand, +at that great day when the sheep come up on the right hand of the Lord, +and the goats go down to the left. If you read your Bible more, I +should have less to teach you." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! but let me tell you, I thought of all that before I made up my +mind to marry the daughter of a Presbyterian preacher. I knew your dear +little blue-nose would keep the orthodox trail; and being one of the +Elect you could not get the points of the celestial compass mixed. +Don't you forget, that it is part of the unspoken marriage contract, +that the wife must not only keep her own soul white, but bleach her +husband's also; and no matter what a reprobate a man may be, he always +expects his better-half, by hook or by crook, to steer him into heaven." +</P> + +<P> +He put his hands on his wife's shoulders, shook her, in token of +mastery, and kissed her. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you want of my 'always-wide-awake-contrariness'? I have half a +mind not to help you out of your scrape; for of course you have mired +somewhere. What is the matter now, Ned?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes—stuck hard and fast; so my dear little woman, don't you go back +on your wedding-day promises, but just lend a helping hand. I don't +know what is to be done with that poor young woman in No. 19. One of +the under-wardens, Jarvis, sleeps this week right under her cell, and +he tells me that all night long she tramps up and down, without +cessation, like some caged animal. This is her third day in, and she +has not touched a morsel; though at Judge Dent's request I ordered some +extras given her. Jarvis said she was not sullen, but he thought it +proper to report to me that she seemed to act very strangely; so I went +up to see after her. When I opened the door she was walking up and down +the floor, with her hands locked at the back of her head, and I +declare, Susie, she looks five years older than when she came here. +There are great dark hollows under her eyes, and two red spots like +coals of fire on her cheeks. I said: 'Are you sick, that you reject +your meals?' To which she replied: 'Don't trouble yourself to send me +food; I cannot eat!' Then I told her I understood that she was restless +at night, and I advised her to take a mixture which would quiet her +nerves. She shook her head, and I could not bear to look at her; the +eyes seemed so like a wounded fawn's, brimful of misery. I asked her if +there was anything I could do, to make her more comfortable; or if she +needed medicine. All this time she kept up her quick walk to and fro, +and she answered: 'Thank you. I need nothing—but death; and that will +come soon.' Now what could I say? I felt such a lump in my throat, that +if Solomon had whispered to me some kind speech, I could not have +uttered it, so I got out of the room just as fast as possible, to dry +the tears that somehow would blur my eyes. When they are surly, or +snappish, or violent, or insolent, I know exactly what to do, and have +no trouble; but hang me, if I can cope with this lady—there it is out! +She is a lady every inch, and as much out of place here as I should be +in Queen Victoria's drawing-room. Men are clumsy brutes, even in kid +gloves, and bruise much oftener than they heal. Whenever I am in that +girl's presence, I have a queer feeling that I am walking on eggs, and +tip-toe as I may, shall smash things. If something is not done, she +will be ill on our hands, and a funeral will balk the bloodhounds." +</P> + +<P> +"O, hush, Ned! You give me the shivers. My heart yearns toward that +beautiful young creature, and I believe she is as innocent as my baby. +It is a burning shame to send her here, unless there is no doubt of her +guilt. Judge Dent is too shrewd an old fox to be baited with chaff, and +I am satisfied from what he told you, that he believes her statement. +There is nothing I would not do to comfort her, but I would rather have +my ears boxed than witness her suffering. The day I carried to her a +change of clothes, until her own could be washed, and sewed up her +dress sleeve. I did nothing but cry. I could not help it, when she +moaned and wrung her hands, and said her mother's heart would break. I +have heard all my life that justice is blind; I have learned to believe +it, for it stumbles, and gropes, and lays iron claws on the wrong +person. As for the lawyers? They are fit pilots: and the courts are +little better than blind man's buff. Don't stand chewing your mustache, +Ned. Tell me what you want me to do, while baby is asleep. She has a +vexatious habit of taking cat naps." +</P> + +<P> +"Little woman, I turn over the case to you. Just let your heart loose, +and follow it." +</P> + +<P> +"If I do, will you endorse me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Till the stars fall." +</P> + +<P> +"Can you stay here awhile?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, if you will tell Jarvis where he can find me." +</P> + +<P> +"Mind you, Ned, you are not to interfere with me?" +</P> + +<P> +"No—I swear I won't. Hurry up, or there will be much music in this +bleating fold; and you know I am as utterly useless with a crying +child, as a one-armed man in a concert of fiddlers." +</P> + +<P> +The cell assigned to the new prisoner was in the centre of a line, +which rose tier above tier, like the compartments in a pigeon house, or +the sombre caves hewn out of rock-ribbed cliffs, in some lonely Laura. +Iron stairways conducted the unfortunates to these stone cages, where +the dim cold light filtered through the iron lattice-work of the upper +part of the door, made a perpetual crepuscular atmosphere within. The +bare floor, walls, and low ceiling were spotlessly clean and white; and +an iron cot with heavy brown blankets spread smoothly and a wooden +bench in one corner, constituted the furniture. Scrupulous neatness +reigned everywhere, but the air was burdened with the odor of carbolic +acid, and even at mid-day was chill as the breath of a tomb. Where the +doors were thrown open, they resembled the yawning jaws of rifled +graves; and when closed, the woful inmates peering through the black +lattice seemed an incarnation of Dante's hideous Caina tenants. +</P> + +<P> +When Mrs. Singleton stopped in front of No. 19, and looked through the +grating, Beryl was standing at the extremity of the cell, with her face +turned to the wall, and her hands clasping the back of her neck. The +ceiling was so low she could have touched it, had she lifted her arms, +and she appeared to have retreated as far in the gloomy den as the +barriers allowed. Thinking that perhaps the girl was praying, the +warden's wife waited some minutes, but no sound greeted her; and so +motionless was the figure, that it might have been only an alto rilievo +carved on the wall. Pushing the door open, Mrs. Singleton entered, and +deposited on the iron bed a waiter covered with a snowy napkin. At the +sound, Beryl turned, and her arms fell to her side, but she shrank back +against the wall, as if solitude were her only solace, and human +intrusion an added torture. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Singleton took both hands, and held them firmly: +</P> + +<P> +"Do you believe it right to commit suicide?" +</P> + +<P> +"I believe in everything but human justice, and Divine mercy." +</P> + +<P> +"Your conscience tells you that—" +</P> + +<P> +"Am I allowed a conscience? What ghastly mockery! Thieves and murderers +are not fit tenements for conscience, and I—I—am accused of stealing, +and of bloodshed. Justice! What a horrible sham! We—her victims—who +adored the beneficent and incorruptible attribute of God Himself—we +are undeceived, when Justice—the harpy—tears our hearts out with her +hideous, foul, defiling claws." +</P> + +<P> +She spoke through set teeth, and a spasm of shuddering shook her from +head to feet. +</P> + +<P> +"Listen to me. Suspicion is one thing, proof something very different. +You are accused, but not convicted, and—" +</P> + +<P> +"I shall be. Justice must be appeased, and I am the most convenient and +available victim. An awful crime has been committed, and outraged law, +screaming for vengeance, pounces like a hungry hawk on an innocent and +unsuspecting prey. Does she spare the victim because it quivers, and +dies hard?" +</P> + +<P> +"Hush! You must not despair. I believe in your innocence; I believe +every word you uttered that day was true, and I believe that our +merciful God will protect you. Put yourself in His hands, and His mercy +will save, for 'it endureth forever.'" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't ask mercy! I claim justice—from God and man. The wicked +grovel, and beg for mercy; but innocence lays hold upon the very throne +of God, and clutches His sword, and demands justice!" +</P> + +<P> +"I understand how you feel, and I do not wonder; but for your own sake, +in order to keep your mind clear and strong for your vindication, you +certainly ought to take care of your health. Starvation is the surest +leech for depleting soul and body. Do you want to die here in prison, +leaving your name tarnished, and smirched with suspicion of crime, when +you can live to proclaim your innocence to the world? Remember that +even if you care nothing for your life, you owe something to your +mother. You have two chances yet; the Grand Jury may not find a true +bill—" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, that tiger-eyed lawyer will see that they do. He knows that the +law is a cunning net for the feet of the innocent and the unwary. He +set his snare dexterously, and will not fail to watch it." +</P> + +<P> +"You mean Mr. Dunbar? Yes, you certainly have cause to dread him; but +even if you should be indicted, you have twelve human hearts full of +compassion to appeal to—and I can't think it possible a jury of sane +men could look at you and condemn you. You must fight for your life; +and what is far more to you than life, you must fight for your good +name, for your character. Suspicion is not proof of crime, and there is +no taint on you yet; for sin alone stains, and if you will only be +brave and clear yourself as I know you can, what a grand triumph it +will be. If you starve yourself you seal your doom. An empty stomach +will do you more harm than the Grand Jury and all the lawyers; for it +utterly upsets your nerves, and makes your brain whirl like a top. For +three days and nights you have not tasted food: now just to please me, +since I have taken so much trouble, sit down here by me, and eat what I +have brought. I know you would rather not; I know you don't want it; +but, my dear child, take it like any other dose, which will strengthen +you for your battle. It is very fine to rant about heroism, but +starvation is the best factory for turning out cowards: and even the +courage of old Caesar would have had the 'dwindles,' if he had been +stinted in his rations." +</P> + +<P> +She removed the napkin, and displayed a tempting luncheon, served in +pretty, gilt-banded white china. What a contrast it presented, to the +steaming tin platter and dull tin quart cups carried daily to the +adjoining cell? +</P> + +<P> +Beryl laid her hand on Mrs. Singleton's shoulder, and her mouth +trembled. +</P> + +<P> +"I thank you, sincerely, for your sympathy—and for your confidence; +and to show my appreciation of your kindness, I wish I could eat that +dainty luncheon; but I think it would strangle me—I have such a +ceaseless aching here, in my throat. I feel as if I should stifle." +</P> + +<P> +"See here! I brought you some sweet rich milk in my little boy's cup. +He was my first-born, and I lost him. This was his christening present +from my mother. It is very precious, very sacred to me. If you will +only drink what is in it, I shall be satisfied. Don't slight my angel +baby's cup. That would hurt me." +</P> + +<P> +She raised the pretty "Bo-Peep" silver cup to the prisoner's lips, and +seeing the kind hazel eyes swimming in tears, Beryl stooped her head +and drank the milk. +</P> + +<P> +The warden's wife lifted the cup, looked wistfully at it, and kissed +the name engraved on the metal: +</P> + +<P> +"You know now I must think you pure and worthy. I have given you the +strongest possible proof; for only the good could be allowed to touch +what my dead boy's lips have consecrated. Now come out with me, and get +some pure fresh air." +</P> + +<P> +Beryl shrank back. +</P> + +<P> +"These close walls seem a friendly shelter from the horrible faces that +cluster outside. You can form no idea how I dread contact with the vile +creatures, whose crimes have brought them here for expiation. The +thought of breathing the same atmosphere pollutes me. I think the +loathsomeness of perdition must consist in association with the +depraved and wicked. Not the undying flames would affright me, but the +doom of eternal companionship with outcast criminals. No! No! I would +sooner freeze here, than wander in the sunshine with those hideous +wretches I saw the day I was thrust among them." +</P> + +<P> +"Trust me, and I will expose you to nothing unpleasant. Take your hat +and shawl; I shall not bring you back here. There is time enough for +cells when you have been convicted and sentenced; and please God, you +shall never stay in this one again. Come." +</P> + +<P> +"Stay, madam. What is your purpose? I have been so hunted down, I am +growing suspicious of the appearance of kindness. What are you going to +do?" +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Singleton took her hand and pressed it gently. +</P> + +<P> +"I am going to trust, and help, and love you, if you will let me; and +for the present, I intend to keep you in a room adjoining mine, where +you will have no fear of wicked neighbors." +</P> + +<P> +"That will be merciful indeed. May God bless you for the thought." +</P> + +<P> +Down iron staircases, and through dim corridors bordered with dark +cells, gloomy as the lairs of wild beasts whom the besotted inmates +resembled, the two women walked; and once, when a clank of chains and a +hoarse human cry broke the dismal silence, Beryl clutched her +companion's arm, and her teeth chattered with horror. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, it is awful! That poor woman is the saddest case we have. She +waylaid and stabbed her husband to death, and poisoned his mother. We +think she is really insane, and as she is dangerous at times, it is +necessary to keep her chained, until arrangements can be made to remove +her to the insane asylum." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't wonder she is mad! People cannot dwell here and retain their +reason; and madness is a mercy that blesses them with forgetfulness." +</P> + +<P> +Beryl shivered, and her eyes glittered with an unnatural and ominous +brilliance. +</P> + +<P> +The warden's wife paused before a large door with solid iron panels, +and rang a bell. Some one on the other side asked: +</P> + +<P> +"What is the order? Who rang?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mrs. Singleton; I want to get into the chapel. Let me out, Jasper." +</P> + +<P> +The door swung slowly back, and the guard touched his hat respectfully. +</P> + +<P> +Through an open arcade, where the sunlight streamed, Mrs. Singleton led +her companion; then up a short flight of stone steps, and they found +themselves in a long room, with an altar railing and pulpit at one end, +and rows of wooden benches crossing the floor from wall to wall. Even +here, the narrow windows were iron barred, but sunshine and the sweet, +pure breath of the outside world entered freely. Within the altar +railing, and at the right of the reading desk where a Bible lay, stood +a cabinet organ. Leaving the prisoner to walk up and down the aisle, +Mrs. Singleton opened the organ, drew out the stops, and after waiting +a few moments, began to play. +</P> + +<P> +At first, only a solemn prelude rolled its waves of harmony through the +peaceful sunny room, but soon the strains of the beautiful Motet "Cast +thy burden on the Lord," swelled like the voice of some divine +consoler. Watching the stately figure of the prisoner who wandered to +and fro, the warden's wife noticed that like a magnet the music drew +her nearer and nearer each time she approached the chancel, and at last +she stood with one hand on the railing. The beautiful face, sharpened +and drawn by mental agony, was piteously wan save where two scarlet +spots burned on her cheeks, and the rigid lips were gray as some +granite Statue's, but the eyes glowed with a strange splendor that +almost transfigured her countenance. +</P> + +<P> +On and on glided the soft, subtle variations of the Motet, and +gradually the strained expression of the shining eyes relaxed, as if +the soul of the listener were drifting back from a far-off realm; the +white lids quivered, the stern lines of the pale lips unbent. At that +moment, the face of her father seemed floating on the sunbeams that +gilded the pulpit, and the tones of her mother's voice rang in her +ears. The terrible tension of many days and nights of torture gave way +suddenly, like a silver thread long taut, which snaps with one last +vibration. She raised her hands: +</P> + +<P> +"My God! Why hast Thou forsaken me?" +</P> + +<P> +The cry ended in a wail. Into her burning eyes merciful tears rushed, +and sinking on her knees she rested against the railing, shaken by a +storm of passionate weeping. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Singleton felt her own tears falling fast, but she played for a +while longer; then stole out of the chapel, and sat down on the steps. +</P> + +<P> +Across the grass plot before the door, burnished pigeons cooed, and +trod their stately minuet, their iridescent plumage showing every +opaline splendor as the sunlight smote them; and on a buttress of the +clock tower, a lonely hedge-sparrow poured his heart out in that +peculiarly pathetic threnody which no other feathered throat +contributes to the varied volume of bird lays. Poised on the point of +an iron spike in the line that bristled along the wall, a mocking bird +preened, then spread his wings, soared and finally swept downward, +thrilling the air with the bravura of the "tumbling song"; and over the +rampart that shut out the world, drifted the refrain of a paean to +peace: +</P> + +<P> +"Bob White!" "Peas ripe?" "Not quite!" +</P> + +<P> +In the vast epic of the Cosmos, evoked when the "Spirit of God moved +upon the face of the waters"—an epic printed in stars on blue abysses +of illimitable space; in illuminated type of rose leaf, primrose petal, +scarlet berry on the great greenery of field and forest; in the +rainbows that glow on tropical humming birds, on Himalayan pheasants, +on dying dolphins in purple seas; and in all the riotous carnival of +color on Nature's palette, from shifting glory of summer clouds, to the +steady fires of red autumn skies—we find no blot, no break, no blurred +abortive passages, until man stepped into creation's story. In the +material, physical Universe, the divine rhythm flows on, majestic, +serene as when the "morning stars sing together" in the choral of +praise to Him, unto whom "all seemed good"; but in the moral and +spiritual realm evolved by humanity, what hideous pandemonium of +discords drowns the heavenly harmony? What grim havoc marks the swath, +when the dripping scythe of human sin and crime swings madly, where the +lilies of eternal "Peace on earth, good will to man," should lift their +silver chalices to meet the smile of God? +</P> + +<P> +A vague conception of this vexing problem, which like a huge +carnivorous spectre, flaps its dusky wings along the sky of sociology, +now saddened Mrs. Singleton's meditations, as she watched the +lengthening shadow cast by the tower upon the court-yard; but she was +not addicted to abstract speculation, and the words of her favorite +hymn epitomized her thoughts: "Though every prospect pleases, and only +man is vile." +</P> + +<P> +The brazen clang of the deep-throated bell rang out on the quiet air, +and a moment later, the piercing treble of a child's cry made her +spring to her feet. She peeped into the chapel all was still. +</P> + +<P> +On tiptoe she passed swiftly down the aisle to the chancel, and saw the +figure crouched at the altar, with one arm twined through the railing. +For many days and nights the tortured woman had not known an instant of +repose; nervous dread had scourged her to the verge of frenzy, but when +the flow of long-pent tears partly extinguished the fire in her brain, +overtaxed Nature claimed restitution, and the prisoner yielded to +overwhelming prostration. Death might be hovering near, but her twin +sister sleep intervened, and compassionately laid her poppies on the +snowy eyelids. +</P> + +<P> +Stooping close, Mrs. Singleton saw that tears yet hung on the black +lashes which swept the flushed cheeks, but the parted lips were at +rest, and the deep regularly drawn breath told her that at last the +weary soul reposed in the peaceful domain of dreams. Deftly, and softly +as thistledown falls, she spread her own shawl over the drooping +shoulders, then noiselessly hurried back to the door. Locking it, she +took the key, ran across the grass, into the arcade, and up to the +great iron barrier, which the guard opened as she approached. With +flying feet she neared her own apartments, whence issued the indignant +wail of her implacable baby girl. As she opened the door, her husband +held the disconsolate child toward her. +</P> + +<P> +"You are in time for your share of the fun; I have had enough and to +spare. How you stand this diabolical din day in, day out, passes my +comprehension. You had not been gone fifteen minutes when Missy tuned +up. I patted and, 'She-e-d' her, but she got her head above cover, +squinted around the room, and not finding you, set up a squall that +would have scared a wildcat. The more I patted, the worse she screamed, +and her feet and hands flew around like a wind-mill. I took her up, and +trotted her on my knee, but bless you! she squirmed like an eel, and +her little bald head bobbed up and down faster than a di-dapper. Then I +walked her, but I would as soon try to swing to a greased snake. She +wriggled and bucked, and tied herself up into a bow knot, and yelled—. +Oh! a Comanche papoose is a dummy to her. As if I had not hands full, +arms full, and ears full, Dick must needs wake up and pitch head +foremost out of the cradle, and turn a double summerset before he +landed upside down on the floor, whereupon he lifted up his voice, and +the concert grew lively. I took him under one arm, so, and laid Missy +over my shoulder, and it struck me I would join the chorus in self +defence, so I opened with all my might on 'Hold the Fort'; but great +Tecumseh! I only insulted them both, and finding my fifth fiddle was +nowhere in the fray, I feared Jarvis would hear the howling and ring +the alarm bell, so I just sat down. I spread out Dick in a soft place, +where he could not bump his brains out, and laying my lady across my +lap, I held her down by main force, while she screamed till she was +black in the face. If you had not come just when you did, I should have +turned gray and cross-eyed. Hello, Missy! If she is not cooing and +laughing! Little vixen! Oh! but—'lambs'!—I believe they are! +Hereafter tend your own flock; and in preference I will herd young +panthers." +</P> + +<P> +He wiped his forehead where the perspiration stood in drops, and +watched with amazement the sudden lull in the tempest. +</P> + +<P> +Clasped in her mother's arms, the baby smiled and gurgled, and Dick, +drying his eyes on the maternal bosom, showed the exact spot where she +must kiss his bruised head. +</P> + +<P> +"Ned, what have you done? This baby's hair is dripping wet, and so is +the neck of her dress." +</P> + +<P> +"Serves her right, too. I sprinkled her, that's all." +</P> + +<P> +"Sprinkled her! Have you lost your senses?" +</P> + +<P> +"Shouldn't wonder if I had; people in bedlam are apt to be crazy. Yes, +I sprinkled Missy, because she turned so black in the face, I thought +she was strangling; and my step-mother always sprinkled me when I had a +fit of tantrums. But let me tell you, Missy will never be a zealous +Baptist, she doesn't take to water kindly." +</P> + +<P> +"When I want my children step-mothered I will let you know. Give me +that towel, and baby's woollen cap hanging on the knob of the bureau. +Bless her precious heart! if she does not keep you up all night, with +the croup, you may thank your stars." +</P> + +<P> +"Susie, just tell me how you tame them, so that next time—" +</P> + +<P> +"Next time, sir, I shall not trust you. I just love them, and they know +it; that is what tames the whole world." +</P> + +<P> +Edward Singleton stooped over his wife, and kissed her rosy cheek. +</P> + +<P> +"Little woman, what luck had you in No. 19?" +</P> + +<P> +"The best I could wish. I have saved that poor girl from brain-fever, I +hope." +</P> + +<P> +"How did you manage it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Just simply because I am a flesh and blood woman, and not a +blundering, cast-iron man." +</P> + +<P> +"How does she seem now?" +</P> + +<P> +"She has had a good, hearty spell of wholesome crying; no hysterics, +mind you, but floods of tears; and now she is sound asleep with her +head on the altar railing, in the chapel. I locked her up there, and +here is the key. When she wakes, I want her brought up here, put in +that room yonder, and left entirely to me, until her trial is over. I +never do things half way, Ned, and you need not pucker your eyebrows, +for I will be responsible for her. I have put my hand to the plough, +and you are not to meddle with the lines, till I finish my furrow." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VIII. +</H3> + +<P> +In one of the "outhouses" which constituted the servants' quarters, in +that which common parlance denominated the "back-yard" at "Elm Bluff," +an old negro woman sat smoking a pipe. +</P> + +<P> +The room which she had occupied for more than forty years, presented a +singular melange of incongruous odds and ends, the flotsam of a long +term of service, where the rewards, if intrinsically incommensurate, +were none the less invaluable, to the proud recipient. The floor was +covered by a faded carpet, once the pride of the great drawing-room, +but the velvet pile had disappeared beneath the arched insteps and high +heels of lovely belles and haughty beaux, and the scarlet feathers and +peacock plumes that originally glowed on the brilliant buff ground, +were no longer distinguishable. +</P> + +<P> +An old-fashioned piece of furniture, coeval with diamond shoe-buckles, +ruffled shirts and queues, a brass bound mahogany chiffonier, with +brass handles and tall brass feet representing cat claws, stood in one +corner; and across the top was stretched a rusty purple velvet strip, +bordered with tarnished gilt gimp and fringe, a fragment of the cover +which belonged to the harp on which General Darrington's grandmother +had played. +</P> + +<P> +The square bedstead was a marvel in size and massiveness, and the heavy +mahogany posts nearly black with age, and carved like the twisted +strands of a rope, supported a tester lined with turkey-red pleatings, +held in the centre by the talons of a gilt spread-eagle. So tall was +the bed, that three steps were required to ascend it, and the space +thus left between the mahogany and the floor, was hidden by a valance +of white dimity, garnished with wide cotton fringe. Over this spacious +place of repose, a patchwork quilt of the "rising sun" pattern +displayed its gaudy rays, resembling some sprawling octopus, rather +than the face of Phoebus. +</P> + +<P> +The contents of a wide mantel board flounced with fringed dimity, +(venerable prototype of macrame and Arrasene lambrequins), would have +filled with covetousness the soul of the bric-a-brac devotee; and +graced the counters of Sypher. +</P> + +<P> +There were burnished brass candle-sticks, with extinguishers in the +shape of prancing griffins, and snuffers of the same metal, fashioned +after the similitude of some strange and presumably extinct saurian; +and a Dresden china shepherdess, whose shattered crook had long since +disappeared, peeped coquettishly through the engraved crystal of a tall +candle shade at the bloated features of a mandarin, on a tea-pot with a +cracked spout—that some Darrington, stung by the gad-fly of travel, +had brought to the homestead from Nanking. A rich blue glass vase +poised on the back of a bronze swan, which had lost one wing and part +of its bill in the combat with time, hinted at the rainbow splendors of +its native Prague, and bewailed the captivity that degraded its +ultra-marine depths into a receptacle for cut tobacco. +</P> + +<P> +The walls, ceiled with curled pine planks, were covered with a motley +array of pasted and tacked pictures; some engraved, many colored, and +ranging in comprehensiveness of designs, from Bible scenes cut from +magazines, to "riots" in illustrated papers; and even the garish glory +of circus and theatre posters. +</P> + +<P> +In one corner stood an oak spinning-wheel, more than centenarian in +age, fallen into hopeless desuetude, but gay with the strings of +scarlet pepper pods hung up to dry, and twined among its silent spokes. +On a trivet provided with lizard feet that threatened to crawl away, +rested a copper kettle bereft of its top, once the idol of three +generations of Darringtons, to whom it had liberally dispensed "hot +water tea," in the blessed dead and embalmed era of nursery rule and +parental power; now eschewed with its despised use, and packed to the +brim with medicinal "yarbs," bone-set, horse mint, life everlasting, +and snake-root. +</P> + +<P> +In front of the fire which roared and crackled in the cavernous +chimney, "Mam' Dyce" rocked slowly, enjoying her clay pipe, and +meditatively gazing up at an engraved portrait of "Our First +President," suspended on the wall. It was appropriately framed in +black, and where the cord that held it was twined around a hook, a bow +and streamers of very brown and rusty crape fluttered, when a draught +entered the apartment. +</P> + +<P> +Obese in form, and glossy black in complexion, "Mam' Dyce" retained in +old age the scrupulous neatness which had characterized her youth, when +promoted to the post of seamstress and ladies' maid, she had ruled the +servants' realm at "Elm Bluff" with a sway as autocratic as that of +Catherine over the Muscovites. Her black calico dress, donned as +mourning for her master, was relieved by a white apron tied about the +ample waist; a snowy handkerchief was crossed over the vast bosom, and +a checked white and black turban skilfully wound in intricate folds +around her gray head, terminated in a peculiar knot, which was the +pride of her toilet. A beautiful spotted pointer dog with ears like +brown satin, was lying asleep near the fire, but suddenly he lifted his +head, rose, stretched himself and went to the door. A moment later it +opened, and the whilom major-domo, Abednego, came in; put his stick in +one corner, hung his hat on a wooden peg, and approached the fireplace. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, ole man; you know I tole you so." +</P> + +<P> +"You wimmen would ruther say that, than eat pound cake. Supposin' you +did tell me, what's the upshot?" +</P> + +<P> +"That gimlet-eyed weasel is snuffing round you and me; but we won't +turn out to be spring chickens, ready picked." +</P> + +<P> +"Which is to signify that Miss Angerline smells a mouse? Don't talk +parables, Dyce. What's she done now?" +</P> + +<P> +"She is hankering after that hankchiff. 'Pears to me, if she only went +on four legs 'sted of two, she would sell high for a bloodhound." +</P> + +<P> +"Great Nebuckadanzer! How did she find out?" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't ax me; ax the witches what she has in cahoot. I always tole you, +she had the eyes of a cunjor, and she has sarched it out. Says she saw +you when you found it; which ain't true. Eavesdrapping is her trade; +she was fotch up on it, and her ears fit a key-hole, like a bung plugs +a barrel. She has eavesdrapped that hankchiff chat of our'n somehow. +Wuss than that, Bedney, she sot thar this evening and faced me down, +that I was hiding something else; that I picked up something on the +floor and hid it in my bosom, after the crowner's inquess. Sez I: +'Well, Miss Angerline, you had better sarch me and be done with it, if +you are the judge, and the jury, and the crowner, and the law, and have +got the job to run this case.' Sez she, a-squinting them venomous eyes +of her'n, till they looked like knitting needles red hot: 'I leave the +sarching to be done by the cunstable—when you are 'rested and +handcuffed for 'betting of murder.' Then my dander riz. Sez I, 'Crack +your whip and go ahead! You know how, seeing you is the offspring of a +Yankee overseer, what my marster, Gin'l Darrington, had 'rested for +beating one of our wimen, on our 'Bend' plantation. You and your pa is +as much alike, as two shrivelled cow peas out'en one pod. Fetch your +cunstable, and help yourselves.'" +</P> + +<P> +Dyce rose, knocked the ashes out of her pipe, and stood like a dusky +image of an Ethiopian Bellona. +</P> + +<P> +"Drat your servigerous tongue! Now the fat's in the fire, to be sho! +Ever since I tuck you for better for wuss, I have been trying to larn +you 'screshun! and I might as well 'a wasted my time picking a banjo +for a dead jackass tu dance by; for you have got no more 'screshun than +old Eve had, in confabulating with the old adversary! Why couldn't you +temperlize? Sassing that white 'oman, is a aggervating mistake." +</P> + +<P> +Under ordinary circumstances, Bedney and Dyce prided themselves on the +purity of their diction, and they usually abstained from plantation +dialect; but when embarrassed, frightened or excited, they invariably +relapsed into the lingo of the "Quarters." +</P> + +<P> +"Hush! What's that? A screech owull! Bedney, turn your pocket." +</P> + +<P> +With marvellous swiftness she plunged her hand into her dress pocket, +and turned it wrong side out, scattering the contents—thimble, thread, +two "scalybarks," and some "ground peas" over the floor. Then stooping, +she slipped off one shoe, turned it upside down, and hung it thus on a +horseshoe fastened to the mantel board. +</P> + +<P> +"Just lem'me know when you have appinted to hold your sarching, and I +will make it convenient to have bizness consarning that bunch of horgs +and cattle, I am raising on shares in the 'Bend' plantation: and you +can have your sarching frolic," said Bedney, too angry to heed the +superstitious rites. +</P> + +<P> +Dyce made a warning gesture, and listened intently. +</P> + +<P> +"I am a-thinking you will be chief cook and bottle-washer at that +sarching, for the appintment is at hand. Don't you hear Pilot baying +the cunstable?" +</P> + +<P> +She sank into her rocking-chair, picked up a gray yarn sock, and began +to knit unconcernedly; but in a significant tone, she added, nodding +her head: +</P> + +<P> +"Hold your own hand, Bedney; don't be pestered about mine. I'll hoe my +row; you 'tend to yourn." +</P> + +<P> +Then she leaned back, plying her knitting needles, and began to chant: +"Who will be the leader when the Bridegroom comes?" +</P> + +<P> +Hearing the knock on the door, her voice swelled louder, and Bedney, +the picture of perplexity, stood filling his pipe, when the bolt was +turned, and a gentleman holding a whip and wearing a long overcoat +entered the room. +</P> + +<P> +"Good evening, Bedney. Are you and Dyce holding a camp meeting all by +yourselves? I hallooed at the gate till your dog threatened to devour +me, and I had to scare him off with my buggy whip." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, how'dy, Mars Alfred? I am mighty glad to see you! Seems like old +times, to shake hands with you in my cabin. Lem'me take off your +overcoat, sir, and gim'me your hat, and make yourself comfortable, here +by the jam of the chimbly." +</P> + +<P> +"No, Bedney, I can't spare the time, and I only want a little business +matter settled before I get back to town to my office. Thank you, Dyce, +this is an old-time rocker sure enough. It is a regular 'Sleepy +Hollow.'" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Churchill pushed back his hat, and held his gloved hand toward the +fire. +</P> + +<P> +"Bedney, I want to see that handkerchief you found in your master's +room, the day after he was murdered." +</P> + +<P> +"What hankchuf, Marse Alfred? I done tole everything I know, to the +Crowner's inquess." +</P> + +<P> +"I dare say you did; but something was found afterward. I want to see +it." +</P> + +<P> +"Who has been villifying of me? You have knowed me ever since you was +knee-high to a duck, and I—." +</P> + +<P> +"Nobody has vilified you, but Miss Dobbs saw you examining something, +which she says you pushed up your coat sleeve. She thinks it was a +handkerchief, but it may have been valuables. Now it is my duty, as +District Solicitor, to discover and prosecute the person who killed +your master, and you ought to render me every possible assistance. Any +unwillingness to give your testimony, or surrender the articles found, +will cast suspicion on you, and I should be sorry to have you arrested." +</P> + +<P> +"Fore Gord, Marse Alfred, I—" +</P> + +<P> +"Own up, husband. You did find a hankchef. You see, Marse Alfred, we +helped to raise that poor young gal's mother; and Bedney and me was +'votedly attached to our young Mistiss, Miss Ellie, and we thought ole +Marster was too hard on her, when she run off with the furrin fiddler; +so when this awful 'fliction fell upon us and everybody was cusing Miss +Ellie's child of killing her own grandpa, we couldn't believe no such +onlikely yarn, and Bedney and me has done swore our vow, we will stand +by that poor young creetur, for her ma's sake; for our young mistiss +was good to us, and our heart strings was 'rapped round her. We does +not intend, if we can help it, to lend a hand in jailing Miss Ellie's +child, and so, after the Crowner had 'liceted all the facts as he said, +and the verdict was made up, Bedney and me didn't feel no crampings in +our conscience, about holding our tongues. Another reason why we wanted +to lay low in this hiere bizness, was that we didn't hanker after +sitting on the anxious seats of witnesses in the court-house; and being +called ongodly thieves, and perjured liars, and turned wrong side out +by the lie-yers, and told our livers was white, and our hearts blacker +than our skins. Marse Alfred, Bedney and me are scared of that court; +what you call the law, cuts curous contarabims sometimes, and when the +broad axe of jestice hits, there is no telling whar the chips will fly; +it's wuss than hull-gull, or pitching heads and tails. You are a +lie-yer, Marse Alfred, and you know how it is yourself; and I beg your +pardon, sir, for slighting the perfession; but when I was a little gal, +I got my scare of lie-yers, and it has stuck to me like a kuckleburrow. +One Christmas eve jest before ole Marster got married, he had a egg-nog +party; and a lot of gentlemen was standing 'round the table in the +dining-room. One of 'em was ole Mr. Dunbar, Marse Lennox' father, and +he axed ole Marster if he had saved that game rooster for him, as he +promised, Marster told him he was very sorry, but some rogue had done +gone and burnt some sulphur the week before in his henhouse, and bagged +that 'dentical rooster. Presently Mr. Dunbar axed if Marster would let +him have one of the blue hen's roosters, if he would catch the rogue +for him before midnight. Of course Marster said he would. Mr. Dunbar +(Marse Lennox' pa), he was practicing law then, had a pot full of smut +on the bottom, turned upside down on the dining-room flo', and he and +Marster went out to the hen-'ouse and got a dominicker rooster and +shoved him under the pot. Then they rung the bell, and called every +darkey on the place into the dining-room, and made us stand in a line. +I was a little gal then, only so high, but I followed my daddy in the +house, and I never shall disremember that night, 'cause it broke up our +home preachment. Mr. Dunbar made a speech, and the upshot of it was, +that every darkey was to walk past the pot and rub his finger in the +smut; and he swore a solemn oath, that when the pusson that stole that +fine game rooster, touched the pot, the dominicker rooster would crow. +As Marster called our names, we every one marched out and rubbed the +pot, and when all of us had tried, the rooster hadn't crowed. Mr. +Dunbar said there was some mistake somewhere, and he made us step up +and show hands, and make prints on his hankcher; and lo, and behold! +one darkey had not touched the pot; his forefinger was clean; so Mr. +Dunbar says, 'Luke, here is your thief?' and shore 'nuff, it was our +preacher, and he owned up. I never forgot that trick, and from that day +'till now, I have been more scared of a lie-yer, than I am of a mad +dog. They is the only perfession that the Bible is agin, for you know +they jawed our Lord hisself, and he said, 'Woe! woe! to you lie-yers.' +Now, Marse Alfred, if you have made up your mind you are gwine to have +that hankcher, it will be bound to come; for if it was tied to a +millstone and drapped in the sea, you lie-yers would float it into +court; so Bedney, jest perduce what you found." +</P> + +<P> +"That is right, Dyce; I am glad your opinion of my profession has +forced you to such a sensible conclusion. Come, Bedney, no balking now." +</P> + +<P> +Perplexed by Dyce's tactics, Bedney stood irresolute, with his +half-filled pipe slipping from his fingers; and he stared at his wife +for a few seconds, hoping that some cue would be furnished. +</P> + +<P> +"Bedney, there's no use in being cantankerous. If you won't perduce it, +I will." +</P> + +<P> +Plunging her hand into the blue glass bowl, she pushed aside the +tobacco, and extracted a key; then crossed the room, lifted the valance +of the patriarchal bed, and dragged out a small, old-fashioned hair +trunk, ornamented with stars and diamonds of brass tack heads. Drawing +it across the floor, she sat down near Mr. Churchill, and bending over, +unlocked and opened it. After removing many articles of clothing, and +sundry heirlooms, she lifted from the bottom a bundle, which she laid +on her lap, and edging her chair closer to the Solicitor, proceeded to +unfold the contents. The outside covering was a richly embroidered +Canton crape shawl, originally white, now yellow as old ivory; but when +this was unwrapped, there appeared only an ordinary sized brown gourd, +with a long and singularly curved handle, as crooked as a ram's horn. +Bending one of her knitting needles into a hook, Dyce deftly inserted +it in the neck, where it joined the bowl, and after manoeuvring a few +seconds, laid down the needle, and with the aid of her thumb and +forefinger slowly drew out a long roll, tightly wrapped with thread. +Unwinding it, she shook the roll, and a small, gray object, about two +inches long, dropped into her lap. Mr. Churchill sat leaning a little +forward, as if intent on Dyce's movements, but his elbow rested on the +arm of the rocking chair, and holding his hand up to screen his face +from the blaze of the fire, he was closely watching Bedney. When Dyce +shook out and held up a faded, dingy blue silk handkerchief, the lawyer +noted a sudden twinkle in the old man's eyes, but no other feature +moved, and he stooped to take a coal of fire from the hearth. +</P> + +<P> +"There is the hankchuf that Bedney found. But mebbe you don't know what +this is, that I wrapped up in it, to bring us good luck?" +</P> + +<P> +She spread the handkerchief over his knee, and held up the small gray +furry object, which had fallen from its folds. +</P> + +<P> +"Rabbit's foot? Let me see; yes, that is the genuine left hind foot. I +know all about it, because when my regiment was ordered to the front, +my old colored Mammy—Ma'm Judy—who nursed me, sewed one just like +that, inside the lining of my coat skirt. But, Dyce, that rabbit's foot +was not worth a button; for the very first battle I was in, a cannon +ball killed my horse under me, and carried away my coat tail—rabbit's +foot and all. Don't pin your faith to left hind feet, they are fatal +frauds. You are positive, this is the handkerchief Bedney found? It +smells of asafoetida and camphor, and looks like it had recently been +tied around somebody's sore throat." +</P> + +<P> +"Marse Alfred, I will swear on a stack of Bibles high as the 'Piscopal +church steeple, that Bedney Darrington gim'me that same blue hankcher, +and he said he found it. I wasn't with him when he found it, but I +hardly think he would 'a stole a' old rag like that. I have perduced +it! now if you want to sarch behind it, you must tackle Bedney." +</P> + +<P> +She resumed her knitting and her lips closed like the spring of a steel +trap. +</P> + +<P> +"Dyce, I haven't heard the rooster crow yet. Somebody has fought shy of +the pot. See here, I am in earnest now, and I will give you both a +friendly word of warning. Your actions are so suspicious, that unless +you produce the real article you found, I shall be obliged to send you +to jail, and try you for the murder. How do I know that you and Bedney +are not the guilty parties, instead of General Darrington's +granddaughter? This soiled rag will impose neither upon me, nor upon +the court, and I give you five minutes to put into my possession the +real genuine handkerchief. I shall know it when I see it, because it is +white, with red spots on the border." +</P> + +<P> +"Paddle your own 'dug out,' Bedney, and show your s'creshun. If Marse +Alfred wants to set the red-eyed hounds of the Law on an innocent +'oman, let him blow his horn." +</P> + +<P> +She knitted assiduously, and looked composedly at her husband, whose +lower jaw had suddenly fallen, while his eyelids blinked nervously, as +though attacked by St. Vitus' dance. +</P> + +<P> +"Only five minutes, Bedney." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Churchill took out his watch, and held it open. +</P> + +<P> +"You see, Marse Alfred, I—" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see anything but an infernal fraud you two have planned. Only +three minutes more. There is a constable waiting at the gate, and if he +can not persuade you to—" +</P> + +<P> +"Bedney, step and fetch him in, and let Marse Alfred see the sarching +job done up all right." +</P> + +<P> +"No, I don't hunt foxes that way. Instead of searching this cabin, we +will just march you both instanter out of these comfortable quarters, +and let you try how soft the beds are, at the 'State boarding-house.' +You will sleep cold on iron bunks, and miss your feathers and your +crazy quilts. Time's up." +</P> + +<P> +He closed his watch, with a snap, and rose as he returned it to his +pocket. +</P> + +<P> +"Hold on, Marse Alfred! My head ain't hard enough to run it plum into a +wolf's jaws. I ain't 'sponsible for nobody's acts but my own, and if +Dyce have committed a pius fraud, in this here hank'cher bizness, to +screen Miss Ellie's child, why, you see yourself, I had no hand in it. +I did find that blue 'rag,' as you seen fit to call it, but it was nigh +on to twenty years ago, when I pulled it out of the breast pocket of a +dead Yankee officer, we found lying across a cannon, what my old +Marster's regiment captured at the battle of Manassas. I gin it to my +wife as a screw-veneer o' the war and she have treasured it accordin'. +You are a married man yourself, Marse Alfred, and you are obleedged to +know that wedlock is such a tight partnership, that it is an awfully +resky thing for a man to so much as bat his eyes, or squint 'em, toward +the west, when the wife of his bosom has set her'n to the east. I have +always 'lowed Dyce her head, 'pecially in jokes like that one she was +playing on you just now, 'cause St. John the Baptist said a man must +forsake father and mother and cleave unto his wife; but conjugular +harness is one thing, and the law is another, and I don't hanker after +forsaking my pine-knot fire, and feather bed, to cleave unto jail bars, +and handcuffs. I see you are tired of Dyce's jokes, and you mean +bizzness; and I don't intend to consume no more of your valuable +solicitous time. Dyce, fetch me that plank bottom cher to stand on." +</P> + +<P> +"Fetch it yourself. Paddling your own canoe, means headin' for the mill +dam." +</P> + +<P> +Bedney hastened to procure the designated chair, which he mounted in +front of the mantel piece, and thence reaching up to the portrait of +President Lincoln, took it carefully down from the hook. With the blade +of his pocket-knife, he loosened some tacks which secured the thin pine +slats at the back of the picture, and removed them. He took everything +from the frame, and blank dismay seized him, when the desired object +was nowhere visible. +</P> + +<P> +"Marse Alfred, I swear I tacked that hank'cher in the back of this here +portrait, between the pasteboard and the brown paper, only yestiddy; +and 'fore Gord! I haint seen it since." +</P> + +<P> +Grasping his wife's shoulder, he shook her, until her tall turban +quivered and bent over like the Tower of Pisa, and Mr. Churchill saw +that in his unfeigned terror, drops of perspiration broke out on his +wrinkled forehead. +</P> + +<P> +"Have you turned idjut, that you want us both to be devoured by the +roarin' lion of the Law? My mammy named me Bedney, not Dani-yell, and +she had oughter, for Gord knows, you have kept me in a fiery furnace +ever since I tuck you for better for wurser, mostly wurser. I want that +hank'cher, and you'd better believe—I want it quick. I found it, and +I'm gwine to give it up; and you have got no right to jeppardy my life, +if you are fool enough to resk your own stiff neck. Gim'me that +hank'cher! Fantods is played out. I would ruther play leap frog over a +buzz-saw than—than—pester and rile Marse Alfred, and have the +cunstable clawing my collar." +</P> + +<P> +"You poor, pitiful, rascally, cowardly creetur! Whar's that oath you +done swore, to help 'fend Miss Ellie's child? And you a deacon, high in +the church! If I had found that hank'cher, I would hide it, till +Gabriel's horn blows; and I would go to jail or to Jericho; and before +I would give testimony agin my dear young Mistiss's poor friendless +gal, I would chaw my tongue into sassage meat. That's the diffunce +between a palavering man full of 'screshun, and a 'oman who means what +she says; and will stand by her word, if it rains fire and brimstone. +Betrayin' and denying the innercent, has been men's work, ever since +the time of Judas and Peter. Now, Marse Alfred, Bedney did tack the +hank'cher inside the portrait of President Linkum, 'cause we thought +that was the saftest place, but I knowed the house would be sarched, so +I jest hid it in a better place. Since he ain't showed no more backbone +than a saucer of blue-mange, I shall have to give it up; but if I had +found it, you would never set your two eyes on it, while my head is +warm." +</P> + +<P> +She stooped, lifted the wide hem of her black calico skirt, and +proceeded to pick out the stitches which held it securely. When she had +ripped the thread about a quarter of a yard, she raised the edge of the +unusually deep hem, and drew out a white handkerchief with a colored +border. +</P> + +<P> +Bedney snatched it from her, and handed it to the Solicitor, who leaned +close to the fire, and carefully examined it. As he held it up by the +corners, his face became very grave and stern, and he sighed. +</P> + +<P> +"This is evidently a lady's handkerchief, and is so important in the +case, that I shall keep it until the trial is over. Bedney, come to my +office by nine o'clock to-morrow, as the Grand Jury may ask you some +questions. Good bye, Dyce, shake hands; for I honor your loyalty to +your poor young mistress, and her unfortunate child. You remind me of +my own old mammy. Dear good soul, she was as true as steel." +</P> + +<P> +As Mr. Churchill left the house, Bedney accompanied him to the gate. +When he returned, the door was locked. In vain he demanded admittance; +in vain tried the windows; every entrance was securely barred, and +though he heard Dyce moving about within, she deigned no answer to his +earnest pleadings, his vehement expostulations, or his fierce threats +of summary vengeance. The remainder of that night was spent by Pilot +and his irate master in the great hay bin of the "Elm Bluff" stables. +When the sun rose next morning, Bedney rushed wrathful as Achilles, to +resent his wrongs. The door of his house stood open; a fire glowed on +the well swept hearth, where a pot of boiling coffee and a plate of +biscuit welcomed him; but Dyce was nowhere visible, and a vigorous +search soon convinced him she had left home on some pressing errand. +</P> + +<P> +Two hours later, Mrs. Singleton opened the door of the small room +adjoining her own bedchamber, to which she had insisted upon removing +the prisoner. +</P> + +<P> +Beryl stood leaning against the barred window, and did not even turn +her head. +</P> + +<P> +"Here is a negro woman, begging to see you for a few moments. She says +she is an old family servant of General Darrington's." +</P> + +<P> +Standing with her back toward the door, the prisoner put out one hand +with a repellent gesture: +</P> + +<P> +"I have surely suffered enough from General Darrington and his friends; +and I will see nobody connected with that fatal place, which has been a +curse to me." +</P> + +<P> +"Just as you please; but old Auntie here, says she nursed your mother, +and on that account wants to see you." +</P> + +<P> +Without waiting for permission, Dyce darted past the warden's wife, +into the room, and almost before Beryl was aware of her presence, stood +beside her. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you Miss Ellie's daughter?" +</P> + +<P> +Listlessly the girl turned and looked at her, and Dyce threw her arms +around her slender waist, and falling on her knees hid her face in +Beryl's dress, sobbing passionately. In the violence of her emotion, +she rocked back and forth, swaying like a reed in some fierce blast the +tall form, to whom she clung. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, my lovely! my lovely! To think you should be shut up here! To see +Miss Ellie's baby jailed, among the off-scourings of the earth! Oh, you +beautiful white deer! tracked and tore to pieces by wolves, and hounds, +and jackalls! Oh, honey! Just look straight at me, like you was facing +your accusers before the bar of God, and tell me you didn't kill your +grandpa. Tell me you never dipped your pretty hands in ole Marster's +blood." +</P> + +<P> +Tears were streaming down Dyce's cheeks. +</P> + +<P> +"If you knew my mother, how can you think it possible her child could +commit an awful crime?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, God knows—I don't know what to think! 'Peers to me the world is +turned upside down. You see, honey, you are half and half; and while I +am perfectly shore of Miss Ellie's half of you, 'cause I can always +swear to our side, the Darrington in you, I can't testify about your +pa's side; he was a—a—" +</P> + +<P> +"He was as much a gentleman, as my mother was a lady; and I would +rather be his daughter, than call a king my father." +</P> + +<P> +"I believe you! There ain't no drop of scrub blood in you, as I can +see, and if you ain't thoroughbred, 'pearances are deceitful. I loved +your ma; I loved the very ground her little feet trod on. I fed her out +of my own plate many a time, 'cause she thought her Mammy's vittils was +sweeter than what Mistiss 'lowed her to have; and she have slept in my +bosom, and these arms have carried her, and hugged her, and—and—oh, +Lord God A'mighty! it most kills me to see you, her own little baby +here! In this awful, cussed den of thieves and villi-yans! Oh, honey! +for God's sake, just gin me some 'surance you are as pure as you look; +just tell me your soul is a lily, like your face." +</P> + +<P> +Beryl stooped, put her hand on the turbaned head, and bending it back, +so as to look down into the swimming eyes, answered: +</P> + +<P> +"If I had died when I was a month old, my baby soul would not have +faced God any more innocent of crime then, than I am to-day. I had no +more to do with taking General Darrington's money and his life, than +the archangels in Heaven." +</P> + +<P> +"Bless God! Now I am satisfied. Now I see my way clare. But it sets my +blood afire to see you here; it's a burning shame to put my dear young +Mistiss' child in this beasts' cage. I can't help thinking of that poor +beautiful white deer, what Marster found crippled, down at our 'Bend' +Plantation, that some vagabond had shot. Marster fotch it up home, and +of all the pitifulist sights!" +</P> + +<P> +Dyce had risen, and covering her face with her white apron, she wept +for some minutes. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you not the wife of Bedney, who saved my mother's life, when the +barn burned?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, honey, I am Mam' Dyce, and if I am spared, I will try to save +your'n. That is what has brung me here. You are 'cused of the robb'ry +and the murder, and you have denied it in the court; but chile, the +lie-yers are aworking day and night fur to hang you, and little is made +of much, on your side, and much is spun out of little, on theirn. They +are more cunning than foxes, and bloodthirstier than panters, and they +no more git tired than the spiders, that spin and piece a web as fast +as you break it. Three nights ago, I got down on my knees, and I kissed +a little pink morocco slipper what your Ma wore the day when she took +her first step from my arm to her own mother's knees, and I swore a +solemn oath, if I could help free Miss Ellie's child, I would do it. +Now I want to ask you one thing. Did you lose anything that day you +come to our house, and had the talk with old Marster?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing, but my peace and happiness." +</P> + +<P> +"Are you shore you didn't drap your hank'cher?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I am sure I did not, because I wrapped it around some +chrysanthemums I gathered as I went away." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, a lady's hank'cher was found in Marster's room, and it did smell +of chloryform. Bedney picked it up, and we said nothing and laid low, +and hid the thing; but that Godforsaken and predestinated sinner, Miss +Angeline, kept sarching and eavesdrapping, and set the lie-yers on the +scent, and they have 'strained Bedney on peril of jailing him, to +perduce it. When it got into their claws, and I thought it might belonk +to you, my teeth chattered, and I felt like the back of my frock was a +ice-warehouse. Now, honey, can you testify before God and man, that +hank'cher ain't yourn?" +</P> + +<P> +"I certainly can. I had only three handkerchiefs with me when I left +home, and I have them still. Here is one, the other two lie yonder. But +that handkerchief is worth everything; because it must belong to the +vile wretch who committed the crime, and it will help to prove my +innocence. Where is it?" +</P> + +<P> +"The Grand Jury is setting on it." +</P> + +<P> +Here Dyce looked cautiously around, and tip-toed to the door; finding +it ajar, closed it, then stole back. Putting her lips close to Beryl's +ear, she whispered: +</P> + +<P> +"Did you lose a sleeve button?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. I did not wear any." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank God! I feel like all the bricks in the court-house was lifted +off my heart, and flung away. I was in fear and trimbling about that +button, 'cause I picked it up, just under the aidge of the rug, where +ole Marster fell, when he got his death blow; and as sure as the coming +of the Judgment Day, it was drapped by the pusson who killed him. I was +so afeared it might belonk to you, that I have been on the anxious seat +ever since I found it; and I concluded the safest way was to bring it +here to you. I am scared to keep it at home, 'cause them yelping wolves +as wears the sheepskins of Justice, are on my tracks. I would never +give it up, if I was chopped to mince meat; but Bedney ain't got no +more than enuff backbone for half of a man, and the lie-yers +discomfrizzle him so, I could not trust him, when it comes to the +scratch. Now that button is worth a heap, and I am precious careful of +it. Look here." +</P> + +<P> +She took from her pocket two large pods of red pepper, which looked +exactly alike, but the end of one had been cut out around the stem, +then neatly fitted back, and held in place by some colorless cement. +Beckoning Beryl to follow, Dyce went closer to the window, and with the +aid of her teeth drew out the stem. Into her palm rolled a circular +button of some opaque reddish-brown substance, resembling tortoise +shell, and enamelled with gilt bunches of grapes, and inlaid leaves of +mother-of-pearl. Across the top, embossed in gilt letters ran the word +"Ricordo." +</P> + +<P> +The old woman lifted her open palm, and as Beryl saw the button, a +gasping, gurgling sound broke from her. She snatched it, stared at it. +Then the Gorgon head slipped through her fingers, she threw herself +against the window, shook the iron bar frantically; and one desperate +cry seemed to tear its way through her clinched teeth, over her ashy +lips: +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Mother! Mother—Mother! You are nailing me to a cross." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IX. +</H3> + +<P> +Nowhere in the vast vista of literature is there an episode more +exquisitely pathetic than that serene picture of the Grove at Colonus, +sacred to the "Semnai Theai;" where the dewy freshness, the floral +loveliness, the spicery, and all the warbling witchery of nature pay +tribute to the Avenging Goddesses. +</P> + +<P> +Twenty-two centuries have sifted their dust over the immortal figures +seated on the marble bench within the precincts consecrated to the +Eumenides, but in deathless tenacity, the rich aroma of Sophocles' +narcissus, and the soft crocus light linger there still; while from +thickets of olive, nightingales break their hearts in song, as +thrilling as the melody that smote the ears of doomed and dying Oedipus. +</P> + +<P> +So in all ages, we, born thralls of grief, lift streaming eyes, and +chant elegies to stony-hearted Mother-Earth, but her starry orbs shine +on, undimmed by sympathetic tears; her smiling lips show only sunshine +in their changeless dimples, and her myriad fingers sweeping the keys +of the Universal Organ, drown our De Profundis in the rhythmic thunders +of her Jubilate. Wailing children of Time, we crouch and tug at the +moss-velvet, daisy-sprinkled skirts of the mighty Mater, praying some +lullaby from her to soothe our pain; but human woe frets not her +sublime serenity, as deaf as desert sphinx, she fronts the future. +</P> + +<P> +Some echo of this maddening mystery sounded in the ears of the lonely +woman, who clutched the bars of her dungeon, and stared through its +iron lattice, at the peaceful, happy, outside world. At her feet lay +X—-, divided by the silvery river, which, here rushed with arrowy +swiftness under the gray stone arches of the bridge, and there widened +into glassy lakelets, as if weary from the mad plunge over a distant +rocky ledge in mid-stream, whence the dull steady roar of the "falls" +thrilled the atmosphere, like the "tremolo" in a dim cathedral, where +fading daylight dies on painted apse and gilded pipes. As a chessboard +the squares of buildings were spread out, defined by wide streets, +where humanity and its traffic sped, busy as ants. In a green plot, the +sombre facade of the court-house surmounted by an eyeless stone statue +of Justice, frowned on the frivolous throng below; and along the verge +of the common, marble fingers pointed up to the heaven of blue that +bent above "God's Acre"; while now and then, bulbous towers, and +glittering steeple vanes, caught the sunshine on their polished crests. +Beyond the whole, and bounding the valley filled with a billowy sea of +bluish-green pine tops, rose a wooded eminence, wearing still its +Persian robe of autumn foliage, and on its brow the colonnade and +chimneys of "Elm Bluff" blotted the southern sky, like a threatening +phantom. +</P> + +<P> +To-day forest, stream, earth and sky, appeared branded with one fatal +word, as if the world's wide page held only "Ricordo! Ricordo!" +</P> + +<P> +Beryl shut her eyes and groaned; but the scene merely shifted to a dell +under the shadow of Carrara hills, where olives set "Ricordo" among +their silver leaves; and lemons painted "Ricordo" in their pale gold; +and scarlet pomegranates and nodding violets, burning anemones and +tender green of trailing maiden-hair ferns all blazoned "Ricordo." +</P> + +<P> +The fierce tide of wrath, that indignation and her keen sense of +outraged innocence had poured like molten lead through her throbbing +arteries, was oozing sluggishly, congealing under the awful spell of +that one word "Ricordo." Hitherto, the shame of the suspicion, the +degradation of the imprisonment had caught and empaled her thoughts; +but by degrees, these became dwarfed by the growing shadow of a +possibly ignominious death, which spread its sable pinions along the +rosy dawn of her womanhood, and devoured the glorious sun of her high +hopes. The freezing gloom was creeping nearer, and to-day she could +expect no succor, save by one avenue. +</P> + +<P> +Islam believes that only the cimeter edge of Al Sirat divides Paradise +from perdition. Beryl realized that in her peril, she trod an equally +narrow snare, over yawning ruin, holding by a single thread of hope +that handkerchief. Weak natures shiver and procrastinate, shunning +confirmation of their dread; but to this woman had come a frantic +longing to see, to grasp, to embrace the worst. She was in a death +grapple with appalling fate, and that handkerchief would decide the +issue. +</P> + +<P> +Physical exhaustion was following close upon the mental agony that had +stretched her on the rack, for so many days and nights. To sit still +was impossible, yet in her wandering up and down the narrow room, she +reeled, and sometimes staggered against the wall, dizzy from weakness, +to which she would not succumb. +</P> + +<P> +Human help was no more possible for her, than for Moses, when he +climbed Nebo to die; and alone with her God, the brave soul wrestled. +Wearily she leaned against the window bars, twining her hot fingers +around them, pressing her forehead to the cold barrier; and everywhere +"Ricordo" stabbed her eyes like glowing steel. +</P> + +<P> +The door opened, some words were uttered in an undertone, then the bolt +clicked in its socket, and Mr. Dunbar approached the window. +Mechanically Beryl glanced over her shoulder, and a shiver crept across +her. +</P> + +<P> +"I believe you know me. Dunbar is my name." +</P> + +<P> +He stood at her side, and they looked into each other's eyes, and +measured lances. Could this worn, pallid woman, be the same person who +in the fresh vigor of her youthful beauty, had suggested to him on the +steps of "Elm Bluff," an image of Hygeia? Here insouciante girlhood was +dead as Manetho's dynasties, and years seemed to have passed over this +auburn head since he saw it last. Human faces are Nature's highest type +of etchings, and mental anguish bites deeper than Dutch mordant; +heart-ache is the keen needle that traces finest lines. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I know you only too well. You are Tiberius." +</P> + +<P> +Her luminous deep eyes held his at bay, and despite his habitual, +haughty equipoise, her crisp tone of measureless aversion stung him. +</P> + +<P> +"Sarcasm is an ill-selected arbiter between you and me; and your fate +for all time, your future weal or woe is rather a costly shuttlecock to +be tossed to and fro in a game of words. I do not come to bandy +phrases, and in view of your imminent peril, I cannot quite understand +your irony." +</P> + +<P> +"Understand me? You never will. Did the bloodthirsty soul of Tiberius +comprehend the stainless innocence of the victims he crushed for +pastime on the rocks below Villa Jovis? There is but one arbiter for +your hatred, the hang-man, to whom you would so gladly hurry me. +Hunting a woman to the gallows is fit sport for men of your type." +</P> + +<P> +Unable to withdraw his gaze from the magnetism of hers, he frowned and +bit his lip. Was she feigning madness, or under the terrible nervous +strain, did her mind wander? +</P> + +<P> +"Your language is so enigmatical, that I am forced to conclude you +resort to this method of defence. The exigencies of professional duty +compel me to assume toward you an attitude, as painfully embarrassing +to me as it is threatening to you. Because the stern and bitter law of +justice sometimes entails keen sorrow upon those who are forced to +execute her decrees, is it any less obligatory upon the appointed +officers to obey the solemn behests?" +</P> + +<P> +"Justice! Into what a frightful mockery have such as you degraded her +worship! No wonder justice fled to the stars. You are the appointed +officer of a harpy screaming for the blood of the innocent. How dare +you commit your crimes, raise your red hands, in the sacred name of +justice? Call yourself the priest of a frantic vengeance, for whom some +victim must be provided; and libel no more the attribute of Jehovah." +</P> + +<P> +Scorn curled her lips, and beneath her glowing eyes, his grew restless, +as panoplied in conscious innocence she seemed to defy attack. +</P> + +<P> +"You evidently credit me with motives of personal animosity, which +would alike disgrace my profession and my manhood. For your sake, +rather than my own, I should like to remove this erroneous impression +from your mind. If you could only understand—" +</P> + +<P> +She threw up her hand, with an imperious gesture of disdain. +</P> + +<P> +"Save your sophistries; they are wasted here. Why multiply cobwebs? I +understand you. If doves have a sixth sense that warns them before they +hear the hawk's cry, or discern the shadow of his circling wings, and +if mice, dumb in a cat's claws, surmise the exact value of the +preliminary caresses, the graceful antics, the fatal fondling of the +velvet paw, so we, the prey of legal 'Justice' know instinctively what +the swinging of censers, and the chanting of her high priest mean, when +he draws near us. I understand you. You intend to hang me if you can." +</P> + +<P> +He drew his breath with a hissing sound, and a dark flush Stained his +broad smooth brow. +</P> + +<P> +"On my honor as a gentleman, I came here to-day solely to—" +</P> + +<P> +"Solely to assure yourself of some doubtful link you must weld into +your chain; solely to plunge the scalpel of some double-edged question. +If there must be an ante mortem examination, we will wait, if you +please, for the legal dissection when I am stretched before the +jury-box. Until then, you have no right to intrude upon the misery you +have brought on an innocent woman." +</P> + +<P> +They stood so near each other, that he could count the fierce throbbing +of the artery in her round snowy throat, and see the shadow of her long +lashes; and again some electric current flashed from her feverishly +bright eyes, burning its way to the secret chambers of his selfish +heart, melting the dross that ambition and greed had slowly cemented, +and dropping one deathless spark into a deep adytum, of the existence +of which he had never even dreamed. Unconsciously he leaned toward her, +but she pressed back against the iron bars, and drew her dress aside as +if shunning a leper. There was no petulance in the motion, but its +significance pricked him, like a dagger point. +</P> + +<P> +"It was the hope of finding you an innocent woman, that must plead my +pardon for what you consider an unwarrantable 'intrusion.' Will you +believe me, if I swear to you, that I have come as a friend?" +</P> + +<P> +"As a friend to me? No. As a friend to General Darrington and his +adopted son Prince? Yes. Oh, Tiberius! Your rosy apples are flavored +like those your forefather offered Agrippina." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you regard me as an unscrupulous, calculating villain, who +pretending kindness, plots treachery? Do you deliberately offer me this +wanton insult?" +</P> + +<P> +His swart face reddened, and the fine lines of his handsome mouth +hardened. +</P> + +<P> +She shrank a few inches closer to the window, and compressed her lips. +</P> + +<P> +"If you were a man, I should swiftly resent the affront you have thrust +upon me, and suitable redress would be peculiarly sweet and welcome; +but you are a defenceless and unfortunate woman, and my hands are tied. +I desire to help you; you repulse me and insult my manhood. I will do +my painful duty, because it is sternly and inexorably my duty; but, I +wish to God, I had never set my eyes on you." +</P> + +<P> +The sudden passionate ring in his voice surprised her, and she looked +searchingly at him, wondering into what pitfall it was intended to lure +her. +</P> + +<P> +"If you had never set your eyes on me? Ah, would to God I had died ten +thousand times before I encountered their evil spell! If you had never +set your eyes on me? I should be now, a happy, hopeful girl, with life +beckoning me like the rosy Syrian plains that smiled on the +desert-weary. The world looked so bright to me that day, when first I +smelled the sweet resinous pines, and dreamed of my work, and all the +glory of the victory, I knew that I should win over poverty and want. I +was so poor in worldly goods, but oh!—Croesus could not have bought my +proud hopes! So rich, so overflowing with high hope! As I think of my +feelings that day, among the primroses and pine cones, it seems a +hundred years ago, and I recall the image of a girl long dead; such a +proud girl; so happy in the beautiful world of the art she loved! Then +some strange awful curse that had lain in wait, ambushed among the +flowers I gathered that last day of my dead existence, fell upon me—I +saw you! No wonder I shivered, when you met me. I saw you. Then my sun +sickened and went out, and my hopes crumbled, and my youth shrivelled +and perished forever; and the wide world is a rayless dungeon, and the +girl Beryl is buried so deep, that the Angels of the Resurrection will +never find her!—and I?—I am only a withered, disgraced woman, hurled +into a den; trampled, branded; with a soul devoured by despairing +bitterness, with a broken heart, a brain on fire! If you had drawn a +knife across my throat, or sent a bullet through my temples, my spirit +might have rested in the Beyond, and I could have forgiven that which +hastened me to heaven; but you strangled my hopes, and mutilated my +youth, and dishonored my father's name!—You robbed me of my stainless +character, and cast me among outlaws and fiends!—Worse yet, oh! +blackest of all your crimes!—you have almost throttled my faith in +Christ. You have torn away my hold upon the eternal God! You are the +curse of my life. You wish you had never set your eyes on me? Take +courage, finish your work; the best of me is utterly dead already, and +when you have taken my blood, and laid my polluted body in a convict's +shallow grave, your enmity will be satiated. Then I, at least, I shall +be free from my hideous curse. If there be any comfort left me, it +lurks in the knowledge that when you succeed in convicting me, the same +world will no longer hold us both." +</P> + +<P> +Was it the fever of disease, or incipient madness that blazed in her +eyes, flamed on her cheeks, and lent such thrilling cadence to her pure +clear voice? Was she a consummate actress, or had he made a frightful +mistake, and goaded an innocent girl to the verge of frenzy? Some +occult influence seemed clouding his hitherto infallible perceptions, +melting his heart, paralyzing his will. He walked up and down the +floor, with his hands clasped behind him, then came close to the +prisoner. +</P> + +<P> +"If I have unjustly suspected and persecuted you, may God forgive me! +If I have wronged you by suspicion and accusation of a crime which you +did not commit, then my atonement shall be your triumphant vindication. +I would give a good deal to know that your hands are as pure as they +look, and innocent of theft and murder. Tell me—tell me the truth. I +will save you, I will give you back all that you have lost, and tenfold +more. For God's sake, for your own sake, and for mine, I entreat you to +tell me the truth. Did you go back to 'Elm Bluff' that night, after I +met you in the pine woods?" +</P> + +<P> +His dark face was close to hers, and his keen blue eyes seemed to probe +the recesses of her soul. If she answered, would the steel springs of +some trap close upon her? +</P> + +<P> +"I did not go back to 'Elm Bluff.' My hands, my heart, my soul are as +free from crime as they were when God sent them into the world. I am +innocent—innocent—innocent as any baby only a week old, lying dead in +its little coffin. Innocent—but defiled, disgraced; innocent as the +Lord Jesus was of the sins for which He died; but you can not save what +you have destroyed. You have ruined my life." +</P> + +<P> +He was a strong man, cold, collected, priding himself upon his superb +physique, his nerves of steel; but as he watched and listened, he +trembled, and the girl's eyes dilated, sparkled through the sudden +moisture that so strangely and unexpectedly gathered in his own. +</P> + +<P> +"Then you must prove the truth of your solemn words; and it was this +faint hope that induced me to come here to-day. Only one circumstance +stands between the Grand Jury and your indictment for murder; and time +presses. Now tell me, do you know this?" +</P> + +<P> +He took from his coat pocket a small parcel wrapped in paper, and tore +off the covering. Beryl stood faint and dizzy, resting against the +window, but erect, on guard and defiant. He shook out and held up a +square of fine linen, daintily hem-stitched. Along the border ran +graceful arabesques, swelling into scallops and dotted with stars, +embroidered in some rich red thread; and in one corner, enclosed in a +wreath of exquisitely designed fuchsias, the large, elaborately ornate +capitals "B. B." were worked in fadeless scarlet scrolls to match the +wreath. Above the drooping flowers, poised the red wings of a +descending butterfly. Artistic instincts had outlined, and deft +delicate touches filled in, with the glowing embroidery. +</P> + +<P> +Did she know it? Could she ever forget that serene May day when the air +was liquid gold, and the Mediterranean molten sapphire, wreathed with +pearls, as the wavelets crested; when the rosy oleanders and silvery +flakes of orange blossoms floated down upon the ferny cliff, where +sitting by her father's side, she had drawn this design, spreading the +linen on the back of her father's worn copy of Theocritus? If she lived +a thousand years, would it be possible to forget the thin, almost +transparent white hand, with its blue veins swollen like cords, which +had gently taken the pencil from her fingers, and retouched and rounded +the sweep of the curves; the dear wasted hand that she had stooped and +kissed, as it corrected her work? +</P> + +<P> +As on the golden background of a cherished Byzantine picture, memory +held untarnished every tint and outline of that blessed day, when she +and her father had looked for the last time on the sunny sea they loved +so well. +</P> + +<P> +Did fell fate hover, even then, in that sparkling perfumed air, and in +sinister prescience trace this tangling web of threads, with grim +intent to snare her unwary feet? +</P> + +<P> +Savants tell us, that ages ago, in the dim dawn, primeval rain drops +made their pattering print, and left it to harden on the stone pages, +awaiting decipherment by human eyes and human brains, not yet +</P> + +<P> + "Born of the brainless Nature,<BR> + Who knew not that which she bore."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +Is there an analogous iron chain linking the merest trifles, the +frivolous accidents, the apparently worthless coincidences that swell +the sum of what we are pleased to call the nobly independent life of +the "free-agent" Man? In the matrix of time, do human tears and human +blood-drops leave their record, to be conned when Nemesis holds her +last assize? +</P> + +<P> +As the handkerchief swayed in the lawyer's grasp, Beryl saw the red "B. +B." like a bloody brand. At that instant she felt that the death clutch +fastened upon her throat; that fate had cast her adrift, on the black +waves of despair. In her reeling brain kaleidoscopic images danced; her +father's face, the lateen sail of fishing boats rocking on blue +billows, white oxen browsing amid purple iris clusters; she heard her +mother's voice, her brother's gay laugh; she smelled the prussic acid +fragrance of the vivid oleanders, then over all, like tongues of +devouring flames, flickered "Ricordo." "B. B." +</P> + +<P> +In the frenzy of her desperation she sprang forward, seized the arms +that held up the fatal handkerchief, and shook the man, as if he had +been an infant. Her eyes full of horror, were fixed on the scrap of +linen, and a frantic cry rang from her lips. +</P> + +<P> +"Father! Father! There is no hereafter for you and me! Prayer is but +the mockery of fools! There is no heaven for the pure, because there is +no God! No God!—to hear, to save the innocent who trusted in Him. +Oh—no God!" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Dunbar dropped the handkerchief, and as the irresistible conviction +of her guilt rolled back, crushing the hope he had cherished a moment +before, a spasm of pain seized his heart, and with a groan that would +not be repressed, he covered his eyes to shut out the vision of the +despairing woman, whose doom seemed sealed. Her right hand which +unconsciously clutched his left shoulder, shivered like an aspen, and +he knew that for the moment she was entirely oblivious of his presence; +blind to everything but the assurance of her ruin. +</P> + +<P> +After all, he had made no mistake; his keen insight was well nigh +infallible; but his triumph was costly. The luscious fruit of +professional success left an acrid flavor; the pungent dead sea ashes +sifted freely. He set his heel on the embroidered butterfly, and in his +heart cursed the hour he had first seen it. His coveted bread was +petrifying between his teeth. +</P> + +<P> +The grasp on his shoulder relaxed, the hand fell heavily. When he +looked in the face of his victim, he caught his breath at the strange, +inexplicable change a few minutes had wrought. Protest and resistance +had come to an end. Surrender was printed on every feature. The wild +fury of the passionate struggle that convulsed her, had spent itself; +and as after a violent wintry tempest the gale subsides, and the snow +compassionately shrouds the scene, burning the dead sparrows, the +bruised flowers, so submission laid her cold touch on this quivering +face, and veiled and froze it. +</P> + +<P> +From afar the sound of rushing waters seemed to smite Beryl's ears, to +surge nearer, to overflow her brain. She sank suddenly to the floor, +clinging with one hand to the window bar, and her auburn head fell +forward on the up-lifted arm. Thinking that she had fainted, Mr. +Dunbar stooped and raised her face, holding it in his palms. The eyes +met his, unflinching but mournful as those of a tormented deer whom the +hunters drag from worrying hounds. She writhed, freed herself from his +touch; and resting against the window sill, drew a long deep breath. +</P> + +<P> +"You have succeeded in your mission today. You have the only clue you +needed. You have no occasion to linger. Now—will you leave me?" +</P> + +<P> +He picked up the handkerchief. +</P> + +<P> +"This is your handkerchief?" +</P> + +<P> +She made no answer. A leaden hand was pressing upon her heart, her +brain, her aching eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"You have basely deceived me. You did go back that night, and you left +this, to betray you. Saturated with chloroform you laid it over your +grandfather's face. Load your soul with no more falsehoods. Confess the +deeds of that awful night." +</P> + +<P> +"I did not go back. I never saw 'Elm Bluff' after I met you. I know no +more of the chloroform than you do. I have told the truth first and +last, and always. I have no confession to make. I am as innocent as you +are. Innocent! Innocent! You are going to hang me for a crime I did not +commit. When you do, you will murder an innocent woman." +</P> + +<P> +She spoke slowly, solemnly, and at intervals, as if she found it +difficult to express her meaning. The passionless tone was that of one, +standing where the river of death flowed close to her feet, and her +beautiful face shone with the transfiguring light of conscious purity. +</P> + +<P> +"Hold up your hand, and tell me this is not your handkerchief; and I +will yet save you." +</P> + +<P> +"It was my handkerchief, but I am innocent. Finish your work." +</P> + +<P> +"How can you expect me to believe your contradictory statements?" +</P> + +<P> +Wearily she turned her head, and looked at him. A strange drowsiness +dimmed her vision, thickened her speech. +</P> + +<P> +"I expect nothing from you—but—death." +</P> + +<P> +"Will you explain how your handkerchief chanced to be found on your +grandfather's pillow? Trust me, I am trying to believe you. Tell me." +</P> + +<P> +In his eagerness he seized her hand, clasped it tightly, bent over her. +She made no reply, and the silky black lashes sank lower, lower till +they touched the violet circle suffering had worn under her eyes. Like +a lily too heavy for its stem, the glossy head fell upon her breast. +Her hot fingers throbbed in his palm, and when he felt her pulse, the +rapid bounding tide defied his counting. Kneeling beside her, he laid +the head against his shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you ill? What is the matter? Speak to me." +</P> + +<P> +Her parched lips unclosed, and she muttered with a sigh, like a child +falling asleep after long sobbing: +</P> + +<P> +"My handkerchief—Tiberius—my—han—" +</P> + +<P> +She had fought against fearful odds, with sleepless nights and fasting +days sapping her strength; and when the battle ended, though the will +was unfaltering, physical exhaustion triumphed, and delirium mercifully +took the tortured spirit into her cradling arms. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER X. +</H3> + +<P> +When Leo Gordon celebrated her twenty-second birthday, Judge Dent, +appreciating the importance of familiarizing her with the business +details and technicalities of commercial usage, incident to the +management of her large estate, had insisted upon terminating his +guardianship, and transferring to her all responsibility for the future +conduct of her financial affairs. New books were placed in her hands, +in which he required her to keep systematically and legibly all her +accounts; she drew and signed her own checks, and semi-annually +furnished for his inspection a neat balance-sheet. +</P> + +<P> +As adviser, and agent for the collection of dividends and rents, the +change or renewal of investments, he maintained only a general +supervision, and left her untrammelled the use of her income. As a +dangerous innovation upon time-honored customs, which under the ante +bellum regime, had kept Southern women as ignorant of practical +business routine, as of the origin of the Weddas of Ceylon, Miss Patty +bitterly opposed and lamented her brother's decision; dismally +predicting that the result must inevitably be the transformation of +their refined, delicate, clinging "Southern lady", into that abhorred +monster—"a strong-minded independent business woman". +</P> + +<P> +Intensely loyal to the social standard, usages and traditions of an +aristocracy, that throughout the South had guarded its patrician ranks +with almost Brahmin jealousy, she sternly decried every infringement of +caste custom and etiquette. Nature and education had combined to +deprive her of any adaptability to the new order of things; and she +rejected the idea that "a lady should transact business", with the same +contemptuous indignation that would have greeted a proposition to wear +"machine-sewed garments", that last resort of impecunious plebeianism. +However unwelcome Leo had found this assumption of the grave duties of +mature womanhood, she met the responsibility unflinchingly, and +gathered very firmly the reins transferred to her fair hands for +guidance. Judge Dent and Miss Patty were the last of their family, +except the orphan niece who had been left to their care, and as their +earthly possessions would ultimately descend to her, she had been +reared in the conviction that their house was her only home. +</P> + +<P> +Study and travel, potent factors in the march of progress, had so +enlarged the periphery of Leo's intellectual vision, that she +frequently startled her prim aunt, by the enunciation of views much too +extended and cosmopolitan to fit that haughty dame's Procrustean limits +of "Southern ladyhood". Blessed with a discriminating governess and +chaperon, who while fostering a genuine love of the beautiful, had +endeavored to guard her pupil from straying into any of those +fashionable "art crazes", which in their ephemeral exaggeration +approach caricatures of aestheticism, Leo became deeply imbued with the +spirit of classic literature and art; and grew especially fond of the +study of Greek and Roman architecture. +</P> + +<P> +Believing that the similarity of climate in her native State, justified +the revival of an archaic style of building, she ardently desired and +finally obtained her uncle's consent to the erection (as an addition to +the Dent mansion), of a suite of rooms, designed in accordance with her +taste, and for her own occupancy. Hampered by no prudential economic +considerations, and fearless of criticism as regarded archaeological +anachronisms, Leo allowed herself a wide-eyed eclecticism, that +resulted in a thoroughly composite structure, eminently satisfactory at +least to its fastidious owner. A single story in height, it contained +only four rooms, and on a reduced scale resembled the typical house of +Pansa, except that the flat roof rose in the center to a dome. +Constituting a western wing of the old brick mansion which it adjoined, +the entrance fronting north, opened from a portico with clustered +columns, into a square vestibule; which led directly to a large, +octagonal atrium, surrounded by lofty fluted pillars with foliated +capitals that supported the arched and frescoed ceiling. In the centre, +a circular impluvium was sunk in the marble paved floor, where in +summer a jet of spray sprang from the water on whose surface lily pads +floated; and in winter, shelves were inserted, which held blooming pot +plants, that were arranged in the form of a pyramid. The dome +overarching this, was divided into three sections; the lower frescoed, +the one above it filled with Etruscan designs in stained glass; the +upper, formed of white ground glass sprinkled with gilt stars +representing constellations, was so constructed, that it could be +opened outward in panels, and thus admit the fresh air. +</P> + +<P> +On the east side of this atrium, Leo's bed-room connected with that +occupied by Miss Patty in the old house; and opposite, on the west, was +a large square Pompeian library, with dark red dado, daintily frescoed +panels, and richly tinted glowing frieze. At the end of this apartment, +and concealed by purple velvet curtains lined with rose silk, an arch +opened into a small semi-circular chapel or oratory, lighted by stained +glass windows, whose brilliant hues fell on a marble altar upheld by +two kneeling figures; and here lay the family Bible of Leo's +great-grandfather, Duncan Gordon, with tall bronze candelabra on each +side, holding wax candles. At the right of two marble steps that led to +the altar, was spread a rug, and upon this stood an ebony reading-desk +where a prayer-book rested. Filling a niche in the wall on the left +side, the gilded pipes of an organ rose to meet a marble console that +supported a Greek cross. +</P> + +<P> +In order to secure an unobstructed vista from the front door, that +portion of the building which corresponded to the ancient tablinum, was +used merely as an aviary, where handsome brass cages of various shapes +showed through their burnished wires snowy cockatoos, gaudy paroquets, +green and gold canaries, flaming red and vivid blue birds, and one huge +white owl, whose favorite perch when allowed his freedom, was a bronze +Pallas on a projecting bracket. +</P> + +<P> +Conspicuous among these, was a peculiar cage made of tortoise shell, +ivory and silver wire, which Leo had assigned to a scarlet-crested, +crimson-throated Australian cockatoo. Beyond this undraped rear +vestibule stretched the peristyle, a parallelogram, surrounded by a +lofty colonnade. The centre of this space was adorned by a rockery +whence a fountain rose; flower beds of brilliant annuals and coleus +encircled it like a mosaic, and the ground was studded with orange and +lemon trees, banana and pineapple plants; while at the farther side +delicate exotic grape vines were trained from column to column. +</P> + +<P> +In summer this beautiful court was entirely open to the sky, but at the +approach of winter a movable framework of iron pillars was erected, +which supported a glass roof, that sloped southward, and garnered heat +and sunshine. Neither chimneys nor fireplaces were visible, but a +hidden furnace thoroughly warmed the entire house, and in each +apartment the registers represented braziers of classic design. +</P> + +<P> +Except for the external entrances, doors had been abolished; portieres +of plush, satin, and Oriental silk closed all openings in winter; and +during long sultry Southern summers were replaced by draperies of lace, +and wicker-work screens where growing ivy and smilax trained their cool +green leaves, and graceful tendrils. Wooden floors had accompanied the +doors to Coventry; and everywhere squares of marble, and lemon and blue +tiles showed shimmering surfaces between the costly rugs, and fur robes +scattered lavishly about the rooms. Surrounded by a gilded wreath of +olive leaves, and incised on an architrave fronting the vestibule, the +golden "Salve" greeted visitors; just beneath it, on an antique shaped +table of topaz-veined onyx, stood a Vulci black bowl or vase, decorated +in vermilion with Bacchanal figures; and this Leo filled in summer with +creamy roses, in winter, with camellias. Where the shrines and Lares +stood in ancient houses, a square, burnished copper pedestal fashioned +like an altar had been placed, and upon it rose from a bed of carved +lilies, a copy in white marble of Palmer's "Faith". +</P> + +<P> +From the front portico, one could look through the vestibule, the +atrium, the aviary, and on into the peristyle, where among vine +branches and lemon boughs, the vista was closed by a flight of stone +steps with carved cedar balustrade, leading up to the flat roof, where +it sometimes pleased the mistress to take her tea, or watch the sunset. +In selecting and ordering designs for the furniture, a strict adherence +to archaic types had been observed; hence the couches, divans, chairs, +and tables, the pottery and bric-a-brac, the mirrors and draperies, +were severely classic. +</P> + +<P> +An expensive whim certainly, far exceeding the original estimate of its +cost; and Miss Patty bewailed the "wicked extravagance of squandering +money that would have built a handsome church, and supported for life +two missionaries in mid-China"; but Judge Dent encouraged and approved, +reviving his classical studies to facilitate the successful +accomplishment of the scheme. When the structure was completed and Leo +declared herself perfectly satisfied with the result, it was her uncle +who had proposed to celebrate her twenty-fourth birthday by a mask-ball +in which every costume should be classic, distinctively Roman or Greek; +and where the mulsum dispensed to the guests should be mixed in a +genuine Cratera. +</P> + +<P> +To this brilliant fete, one cloudless June night, friends from distant +States were invited; and fragrant with the breath of its glowing roses, +the occasion became memorable, embalmed forever in Leo's happy heart, +because then and there, beside the fountain in the peristyle, she had +pledged her hand and faith to Mr. Dunbar. +</P> + +<P> +Sitting to-day in front of the library window, whence she had looped +back the crimson curtains, to admit the November sunshine, Leo was +absorbed in reading the description of the private Ambar-valia +celebrated by Marius at "White Nights". Under the spell of the Apostle +of Culture, whose golden precept: "BE PERFECT IN REGARD TO WHAT IS HERE +AND NOW," had appealed powerfully to her earnest exalted nature, she +failed to observe the signals of her pet ring-doves cooing on the ledge +outside. Finally their importunate tapping on the glass arrested her +attention, and she raised the sash and scattered a handful of rice and +millet seed; whereupon a cloud of dainty wings swept down, and into the +library, hovering around her sunny head, and pecking the food from her +open palms. One dove seemed particularly attracted by the glitter of +the diamond in her engagement ring, and perched on her wrist, made +repeated attempts to dislodge the jewel from its crown setting. +Playfully she shook it off several times, and amused by its +pertinacity, finally closed her hands over it, and rubbed her soft +cheek against the delicate silvery plumage. +</P> + +<P> +"No, no, you saucy scamp! I can't afford to feed you on diamonds from +my sacred ring! Did you get your greedy nature from some sable Dodonean +ancestress? If we had lived three thousand years ago, I might be +superstitious, and construe your freak into an oracular protest against +my engagement. Feathered augurs survive their shrines. Clear out! you +heretic!" +</P> + +<P> +As she tossed it into the garden and closed the window, the portiere of +the library was drawn aside, and her maid approached, followed by a +female figure draped in a shawl and wearing a lofty turban. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Leo, Aunt Dyce wants to see you on some particular business." +</P> + +<P> +"Howdy do, Aunt Dyce? It is a long time since you paid us a visit. +Justine, push up a chair for her, and then open the cages and let the +birds out for an hour. What is the matter, Aunt Dyce, you look +troubled? Sit down, and tell me your tribulations." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Miss Leo, I am in deep waters; up to my chin in trouble, and my +heart is dragging me down; for it's heavier 'an a bushel of lead. You +don't remember your own ma, do you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I wish I did; but I was only five months old when I lost her." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, if she was living to-day, she would stretch her two hands and +pull me out of muddy waves; and that's why I have come to you. You see, +Miss Marcia and my young Mistiss, Miss Ellice, was bosom friends, +playmates, and like sisters. They named their dolls after one another, +and many a time your ma brought her wax doll to our house, for me to +dress it just like Miss Ellice's, 'cause I was the seamstus in our +family, and I always humored the childun about their doll clothes. They +had their candy pullins, and their birthday frolics, and their shetlan' +ponies no bigger 'an dogs, and, oh Lord! what blessed happy times them +was! Now, your ma's in glory, and you is the richest belle in the +State; and my poor young mistiss is in the worst puggatory, the one +that comes before death; and her child, her daughter that oughter be +living in style at 'Elm Bluff', like you are here, where is she? Where +is she? Flung down among vilyans and mallyfactors, and the very +off-scourings of creation, in the penitenchery! Tears to me like, if +old mistiss is as high-headed and proud as she was in this world, her +speerit would tear down the walls and set her grandchild free. When I +saw that beautiful young thing beating her white hands agin the iron +bars, it went to my heart like a carving knife, and—" +</P> + +<P> +Dyce burst into tears, and covered her face with her apron, Leo patted +her shoulder softly, and essayed to comfort her. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't cry so bitterly; try to be hopeful. It is very, very sad, but if +she is innocent, her stay in prison will be short." +</P> + +<P> +"There ain't no 'ifs'—when it comes to 'cusing my mistiss' child of +stealing and murdering. Suppose the sheriff was to light down here this +minute, and grab you up and tell folks 'spectable witnesses swore you +broke open your Uncle Mitchell's safe, and brained him with a handi'on? +Would you think it friendly for people to say, if she didn't they will +soon turn her aloose? Would that be any warm poultice to your hurt +feelin's? It's the stinging shame and the awful, disgrace of being +'spicioned, that you never would forgive." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, it is very dreadful, and I pity the poor girl; but it seems that +appearances are all against her, and I fear she will find it difficult +to explain some circumstances." +</P> + +<P> +"If your ma was here to-day, she wouldn't say that. When she was a +friend, she was stone deaf and mole blind to every evil report agin +them she loved. Miss Marcia would go straight to that jail, and put her +arms 'round Miss Ellice's child, and stand by her till her last breath; +and the more she was pussecuted, the closer she would stick. Miss Leo, +you must take your ma's place, you must heir her friendship just like +you do her other property. I have come to you, 'cause I am going away +to New York, and can't feel easy 'till you promise me you will do what +you can. Miss Ellice is laying at the pint of death, and her poor child +is so deestracted about her needing comforts, that I tole her I'de go +on an' nuss her ma for her, 'till she was sot free and could hurry +back. I dreampt last night that ole mistiss called me and Bedney, and +said 'Take good care of Ellice'; and I got right out of bed and packed +my trunk. I'm just from the penitenchery, and that poor tormented child +don't know me, don't know nothing. Trouble have run her plum crazy, and +what with brain fever and them lie-yers, God only knows what's to +become of her. Handi'ons ain't the only godforsaken things folks are +murdered with. Miss Leo, promise me you will go to see her while I am +gone, and 'tend to it that she has good nussing." +</P> + +<P> +"I will do what is possible for her comfort; and as it will be an +expensive journey to you, I will also help you to pay your passage to +New York. How much money—" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want your money, Miss Leo. Bedney and me never is beholdin' to +nobody for money. We was too sharp to drap our savings in the +'Freedman's Bank', 'cause we 'spicioned the bottom was not soddered +tight, and Marster's britches' pocket was a good enough bank for us. We +don't need to beg, borrow, nor steal. As I tole you, I was the +seamstress, and just before Miss Ellice run away from the school, ole +mistiss had a fine lot of bran-new clothes made ready for her when she +come home to be a young lady. She never did come home, and when ole +mistiss died I jist tuck them new clothes I had made, and packed 'em in +a wooden chist, and kept 'em hid away; 'cause I was determed nobody but +Miss Ellice should wear 'em. I've hid 'em twenty-three years, and now +I've had 'em done up, and one-half I tuck to that jail, for that poor +young thing, and the rest of 'em I'm gwine to carry to Miss Ellice. +They shan't need money nor clothes; for Bedney and me has got too much +famly pride to let outsiders do for our own folks; but Miss Leo, you +can do what nobody else in this wide world can. I ain't a gwine to walk +the devil 'round the stump, and you mustn't take no 'fence when I jumps +plum to the pint. Mars Lennox is huntin' down Miss Ellice's child like +a hungry hound runs a rabbit, and I want you to call him off. If he +thinks half as much of you as he oughter, you can stop him. Oh, Miss +Leo, for God's sake—call him off—muzzle him!" +</P> + +<P> +Leo rose haughtily, and a quick flush fired her cheek; but as she +looked at the old woman's quivering mouth and streaming eyes, +compassion arrested her displeasure. +</P> + +<P> +"Aunt Dyce, there are some things with which ladies should not meddle; +and I cannot interfere with any gentleman's business affairs." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, honey! if Miss Marcia was living, she wouldn't say that! She would +just put her arm round Miss Beryl and tell Mars Lennox: 'If you help to +hang my friend's child, you shan't marry my daughter!' Your ma had +pluck enuff to stop him. Mark what I say; that poor child is innercent, +and the Lord will clear up everything some day, and then He will +require the blood of them that condemned the innercent. Suppos'n +appearances are agin her? Wasn't appearances all agin Joseph's bruthren +when the money and the silver cup was found in their bags, and them +afleein home? And if the 'Gyptian lie-yers could have got their claws +on that case, don't you know they would have proved them innercent boys +guilty, and a hung em? Oh, I am afeerd of Mars Lennox, for he favors +his pa mightily; he has got the keenest scent of all the pack; and he +went up yonder, and 'cused, and 'bused, and browbeat and aggervated and +tormented that poor, helpless young creetur,'till she fell down in a +dead faint on the jail floor; and sence then, the Doctor says her mind +is done clean gone. Don't get mad with me, Miss Leo; I am bound to +clare my conscience, and now I have done all I could, I am gwine to +leave my poor young mistiss' child in God's hands, and in yourn, Miss +Leo; and when I come back, you must gim'me an account of your +stewudship. You are enuff like Miss Marcia, not to shirk your duty; and +as you do, by that pussecuted child, I pray the Lord to do by you." +</P> + +<P> +She seized Leo's hand, kissed it, and left the room. +</P> + +<P> +For some moments Leo sat, with one finger between the creamy leaves of +her favorite book, but the charm was broken; her thoughts wandered far +from the stories of Apuleius, and the oration of Aurelius, and after +mature deliberation, she put aside the volume and rang the library bell. +</P> + +<P> +"Justine, is Mrs. Graham here?" +</P> + +<P> +"She is coming now; I see the carriage at the gate." +</P> + +<P> +"Do not invite her into Aunt Patty's room, until I have seen her. Tell +Andrew to harness Gypsy, and bring my phaeton to the door; and Justine, +carry my felt hat, driving gloves and fur jacket to Aunt Patty's room." +</P> + +<P> +Confined to her bed by a severe attack of her chronic foe, inflammatory +rheumatism, Miss Dent had sent for her dearest friend and faithful +colleague in church work, Mrs. Graham, who came to spend a day and +night, and discuss the affairs of the parish. +</P> + +<P> +"Aunt Patty, Mrs. Graham is in the parlor, and as I am well aware you +can both cheerfully dispense with my society for the present, I am +going into town. Dyce Darrington has been here, and I have promised to +go and see that unfortunate girl who is in prison." +</P> + +<P> +"Leo Gordon, you don't mean to tell me that you are going into the +penitentiary!" +</P> + +<P> +"Why not?" +</P> + +<P> +"It is highly improper for a young lady to visit such places, and I am +astonished that you should feel any inclination to see the countenances +of the depraved wretches herded there. I totally disapprove of such an +incomprehensible freak." +</P> + +<P> +"Then I will hold the scheme in abeyance, until I ask Uncle Mitchell's +advice. I shall call at his office, and request him to go with me." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you know that the Grand Jury brought in a true bill against that +young woman? She is indicted for murder, robbery and the destruction of +her grandfather's will. Mitchell tells me the evidence is overwhelming +against her, and you know he was disposed to defend her at first." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Aunty. I am aware that everything looks black for the unfortunate +girl; but I learn she is very ill, and as it cannot possibly injure me +to endeavor to contribute to her physical comfort. I shall go and sec +her, unless Uncle Mitchell refuses his consent to my visit to the +prison." +</P> + +<P> +"But, Leo, what do you suppose Mr. Dunbar will think and say, when he +hears of this extraordinary procedure?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Dunbar is neither the custodian of my conscience, nor the guardian +and dictator of my actions. Good-bye, Aunty dear. Justine, show Mrs. +Graham in." +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Dunbar will never forgive such a step; because, like all other +men, no matter how much license he allows himself, he is very exacting +and fastidious about the demeanor of his lady-love." +</P> + +<P> +"I shall not ask absolution of Mr. Dunbar, and I hope my womanly +intuitions are a safer and more refined guide, than any man's +fastidiousness. Remember, Aunt Patty, religion's holiest work consists +in ministering to souls steeped in sin. Are we too pure to follow where +Christ led the way?" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XI. +</H3> + +<P> +"Madam, I ordered the prisoner's head shaved. Did you understand my +instructions?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Why were my orders not obeyed?" +</P> + +<P> +"Because I don't intend you shall make a convict of her, before she has +been tried and sentenced. She has the most glorious suit of hair I ever +looked at, and I shall save it till the last moment. Doctor Moffat, you +need not swear and fume, for I don't allow even my husband to talk ugly +to me. You directed a blister put on the back of the neck, as close as +possible to the skull; it is there, and it is drawing fast enough to +satisfy any reasonable person. I divided the hair into four braids and +plaited them, and you can see I have hung up the ends here just loose +enough to save any pulling, and yet the hair is out of the way, so that +I keep her head cool with this India-rubber ice-bag. I will be +responsible for the blister." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Singleton spread her arms over the sick girl, as a hen shelters +her brood from a swooping hawk. +</P> + +<P> +"But, Susie, the Doctor knows better what is—" +</P> + +<P> +"Hush, Ned. Perhaps he does; but I 'detailed' myself to nurse this +case; and I don't propose to surrender all my common sense, and all my +womanly judgment, and maternal experience, in order to keep the Doctor +in a good humor. I will have my own head shaved before hers shall be +touched." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Singleton discreetly withdrew from the conference, softly closing +the door behind him; and Doctor Moffat bent over the thermometer with +which he was testing the temperature. When he raised his head, a kindly +smile lurked in his deep set eyes: +</P> + +<P> +"I can't afford to quarrel with you, madam; you are too faithful and +watchful a nurse. After all, the chances are, that it will ultimately +make very little difference; she grows worse so rapidly. I will come in +again before bed-time, and meanwhile make no change in the medicine." +</P> + +<P> +The warden's wife replenished the ice in a bowl, whence a tube supplied +the cap or bag on the head of the sufferer, and taking a child's apron +from her work-basket on the floor, resumed her sewing. After a while, +the door opened noiselessly, and glancing up, she saw Mr. Dunbar. +</P> + +<P> +"May I come in?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. You need repentance; and this is a good place to begin." +</P> + +<P> +"Is there any change?" +</P> + +<P> +"Only for the worse. No need now to tip-toe; she is beyond being +disturbed by noise. I think the first sound she will notice, will be +the harps of the angels." +</P> + +<P> +"I trust the case is not so hopeless?" +</P> + +<P> +"Queer heart you must have! You are afraid she will slip through your +fingers, and get to heaven without the help of the gallows and the +black cap? Death cheats even the lawyers, sometimes, and seems to be +snatching at your prey. You don't believe in prayer, and you have no +time to waste that way. I do; and I get down here constantly on my +knees, and pray to my God to take this poor young thing out of the +world now, before you all convict her, and punish her for crimes she +never committed." +</P> + +<P> +"Madam, her conviction would grieve me as much as it possibly could +you; and unless she can vindicate herself, I earnestly hope she may +never recover her consciousness." +</P> + +<P> +The unmistakable sincerity of his tone surprised the little woman, and +scanning him keenly as he stood, hat in hand, at the foot of the cot, +her heart relented toward him. +</P> + +<P> +"You still consider her guilty?" +</P> + +<P> +"Since my last interview with her, I have arrived at no conclusion. +Whether she be innocent or guilty, is known only by her, and her God. +All human judgments in such cases are but guesses at the truth. Is she +entirely unconscious, or has she lucid intervals?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Dunbar, on your honor as a gentleman, answer me. Are you here +hunting evidence on a death-bed? Would you be so diabolical as to use +against her any utterances of delirium?" The flash of his eyes +reminded her of the peculiar blue flame that leaps from a glowing bed +of anthracite coal; and she had her reply before his lips moved. +</P> + +<P> +"Am I a butcher, madam? Your insinuations are so insulting to my +manhood, that it is difficult for me to remember my interrogator is a +lady; doubly difficult for me to show you the courtesy your sex +demands. Sooner than betray the secrets of a sick room, or violate the +sanctity of the confidence which that poor girl's condition enjoins, I +would cut off my right arm." +</P> + +<P> +"I intend no discourtesy, sir; but my feelings are so deeply enlisted, +that I cannot stop to choose and pick phrases, in talking to the person +who caused that child to be shut up here. She thinks you are the most +vindictive and dangerous enemy she has; and I had no reason to +contradict her. Don't be offended, Mr. Dunbar." +</P> + +<P> +He deigned no answer, but the dilation of his thin nostrils, and the +stern contraction of his handsome lips, attested his wrath. Mrs. +Singleton rose and laid her fingers on his coat sleeve. +</P> + +<P> +"If I felt sure I could trust you—" +</P> + +<P> +"I decline your confidence. Madam, if I could only tell you, that your +vile suspicions are too contemptible to merit the indignation they +arouse, I should to some extent feel relieved." +</P> + +<P> +"Then having said it, I will let you off without an apology; and wipe +the slate, and start fresh. You are sensitive about your honor, and I +am determined to find out just how much it is worth. Trusting you as an +honorable gentleman, I am going to ask you to do something for me, +which may be of service to my patient; and I ask it, because I have +unlimited faith in your skill. Find out who 'Ricordo' is." +</P> + +<P> +"Why? I must thoroughly understand the import of whatever I undertake, +and if your reasons are too sacred to be communicated to me, you must +select some other agent. I do not solicit your confidence, mark you; +but I must know all, or nothing." +</P> + +<P> +"The day she was taken so ill, I was undressing her, and she looked at +me very strangely, and said she believed she was losing her mind. Then +she raised her hands and prayed: +</P> + +<P> +"'Lord, be merciful! Lord, seal my lips! Seal my lips!' +</P> + +<P> +"Since then she has not known me, but several times she cried out +'Ricordo'! Last night she sat up suddenly, and stared at something she +seemed to see right before her in the air. She shook her head at first, +and said—'Oh, no! it cannot be possible'. Then she clutched at some +invisible object, and a look of horror came into her eyes. She struck +her palms together, and I never heard such an agonizing cry, 'There is +no help! I must believe it—oh Ricordo!—Ricordo—Ricordo'. She fell +back and shivered as if she had an ague. I tried to soothe her, and +told her she had a bad dream. She kept saying: 'Oh, horrible—it was, +it was Ricordo!' Once, early this morning, she pulled me down to her +and whispered: 'Don't tell mother—it would break her heart to know it +was Ricordo!' She has not spoken distinctly since, though she mutters +to herself. Now, Mr. Dunbar, if I did not feel as sure of her innocence +as I am of my own, I should never tell you this; but I want your aid to +hunt and catch this 'Ricordo', because I am satisfied it will help to +clear her." +</P> + +<P> +"Was it not 'Ricardo'?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir—it sounded as if spelled with an o not an a—and it was +'Ricordo'." +</P> + +<P> +"Ricardo is a proper name, but I am under the impression that 'Ricordo' +is an Italian word that means simply a remembrance, a souvenir, +sometimes a warning. I am glad, however, to have the clue, and I will +do all I can to discover what connection exists between that word, and +the crime. Can you tell me nothing more?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sometimes she seems to be drawing and painting, and talks to her +father about pictures; and once she said: 'Hush! hush—mother is ill. +She must not know I died, because I promised her I would bear +everything. She made me promise'." +</P> + +<P> +At this moment the keen wail of a young child, summoned the warden's +wife to her own apartment, and Mr. Dunbar sat down in the rocking-chair +beside the iron cot. +</P> + +<P> +In that strange terra incognita, the realm of psychology, are there +hidden laws that defy alike the ravages of cerebral disease, and the +intuitions of the moral nature; inexorable as the atomic affinities, +the molecular attractions that govern crystallization? Is the day +dawning, when the phenomena of hypnotism will be analyzed and +formulated as accurately as the symbols of chemistry, or the +constituents of protoplasm, or the weird chromatics of spectroscopy? +Beryl's head, that hitherto had turned restlessly on its pillow, became +motionless; the closed eyes opened suddenly, fastened upon the +lawyer's; and some inexplicable influence impelled her to stretch out +her hand to him. +</P> + +<P> +"Tiberius, you have come for me." +</P> + +<P> +"I have come to ask if you are better to-day." +</P> + +<P> +Her burning fingers closed tightly over his, and the fever flame lent +an indescribable splendor to eyes that seemed to penetrate his heart. +Bending over her, he gently lifted a shining fold of hair from her +white temple, and still clasping her hand, said in a low voice: +</P> + +<P> +"Beryl, do you know me? Are you better?" +</P> + +<P> +"Wait till I finish the sketch from San Michele. After I am hung, you +will sell it. The light is so lovely." +</P> + +<P> +Up and down, her right hand moved through the air, making imaginary +strokes as on canvas, but her luminous gaze, held by some powerful +fascination, never left his. The gray depths had darkened, swallowed by +the widening pupils that made them almost black; and as Mr. Dunbar +recognized the complete surrender of physical and mental faculties, her +helplessness stirred some unknown sea of tenderness in the man's hard, +practical, realistic nature. +</P> + +<P> +Phlegmatic rather than emotional, and wholly secretive, he had +accustomed himself to regard romantic ideality, and susceptibility to +sentimentality as a species of intellectual anaemia; holding himself +always thoroughly in hand, when subjected to the softening influences +that now and then invaded professional existence, and melted the +conventional selfish crust over the hearts of his colleagues, as the +warm lips and balmy breath of equatorial currents kiss away the jagged +ledges of drifting icebergs. In his laborious life, that which is +ordinarily denominated "love" had been so insignificant a factor, that +he had never computed its potentiality; much less realized its +tremendous importance in solving the problem of his social, financial, +and professional success. Beauty had not allured, nor grace enthralled +his fancy; and his betrothal was a mere incident in the quiet tenor of +business routine, a necessary means for the accomplishment of a +cherished plan. +</P> + +<P> +To-day, while those hot slender fingers clung to his, and he leaned +over the pillow, watching his victim, a rising tide surged, rolled up +from some unexplored ocean of strange sensations, and its devouring +waves threatened to demolish and engulf the stately structure pride and +ambition had combined to rear. A brilliant alliance that insured great +wealth, that promised a secure stepping-stone to political preferment, +was apparently a substantial bulwark against the swelling billows of an +unaccountable whim; yet he was impotent to resist the yearning +tenderness which impelled him to forget all else, in one determined +effort to rescue and shelter the life he had been the chief agent in +imperilling. Clear eyed, keen witted, he did not for an instant deceive +himself; and he knew that neither compassion for misfortune, nor yet a +chivalrous remorse for having consigned a helpless woman to a dungeon, +explained this new emotion that threatened to dominate all others. +</P> + +<P> +Cool reason assured him that under existing entanglements, the girl's +speedy death would prove the most felicitous solution of this devouring +riddle, which so unexpectedly crossed his smooth path; then what meant +the vehement protest of his throbbing heart, the passionate longing to +snatch her from disease, and disgrace, and keep her safe forever in the +close cordon of his arms? +</P> + +<P> +The door was cautiously opened and closed, and noiselessly as a +phantom, Leo Gordon stood within the room. One swift survey enabled her +to grasp all the details. The small, comfortless, dismal apartment, the +barred narrow window, the bare floor, the low iron cot in one corner, +with its beautiful burden; the watching attitude of the man, who for +years had possessed her heart. Resting one elbow on his knee, his chin +leaned on his left hand, but the light fell full on his handsome face, +and she started, marvelled at the expression of the brilliant eyes +fixed upon the sufferer; eyes suffused and eloquent with tenderness, +never before seen in their cold sparkling depths. +</P> + +<P> +Mighty indeed must be the compassion, evocative of that intense +yearning look in his usually guarded, irresponsive countenance. A +painfully humiliating sense of her own personal incompetence to arouse +the feeling, so legibly printed on her lover's features, jarred upon +Leo's heart like a twanging dissonance breaking the harmonious flow of +minor chords; but a noble pity strangled this jealous thrill, and she +softly approached the cot. +</P> + +<P> +The rustle of her dress attracted his attention, and glancing up, he +saw his betrothed at his side. One might have counted ten, while they +silently regarded each other; and as if conscious of having unmasked +some disloyalty, scarcely yet acknowledged to himself, haughty defiance +hardened and darkened his face. Involuntarily his hold on Beryl's +fingers tightened. +</P> + +<P> +"Prison wards are not proper fields for the cultivation and display of +Miss Gordon's amateur kid glove charity. I hope, at least, it was a +species of exaggerated high-flown sentimentality, rather than mere +feminine curiosity that tempted you to precincts revolting to the +delicacy and refinement with which my imagination invested you." +</P> + +<P> +"My motives I shall not submit to the crucible of your criticism; and a +little reflection will probably suggest to you, that perhaps you are +unduly enlarging the limits, and prematurely exercising the rights of +anticipated censorship. There are blunders that trench closely upon the +borders of crime, and if professional zeal has betrayed you into the +commission of a great wrong upon an innocent woman, it is a sacred duty +to your victim, as well as my privilege as your betrothed, to alleviate +her suffering as much as possible, and to repair the injury for which +you are responsible. When human life and reputation are at stake, +hypercritical fastidiousness is less pardonable than the deplorable +mistake that endangers both." +</P> + +<P> +"And if I have not blundered; and she be guilty?" +</P> + +<P> +"Then your presence here, can only be explained by motives so malignant +and contemptible, that I blush to ascribe them to you." +</P> + +<P> +"If I am morbidly sensitive about your line of conduct you should +understand and pardon my jealous espionage." +</P> + +<P> +"If I, realizing that you are act infallible, entertain a nervous dread +that unintentionally you may have inflicted an irreparable wrong, you +at least should not feel offended, because I am sensitive as regards +reflections upon your honor as a gentleman, and your astuteness as a +lawyer." +</P> + +<P> +Her fair face had flushed; his grew pale. +</P> + +<P> +"Leo, is this to be our first quarrel?" +</P> + +<P> +"If so, you are entitled to the role of protagonist." +</P> + +<P> +He put out his left hand, and took hers, while his right was closely +clasping one that lay upon the chintz coverlid. +</P> + +<P> +What strange obliquity of vision, what inscrutable perversity possessed +him, he asked himself, as he looked up at the slight elegant figure, +clad in costly camel's-hair garments, with Russian sables wrapped about +her delicate throat, with a long drifting plume casting flickering +shadows over her sweet flowerlike face; the attractive embodiment of +patrician birth and environment of riches, and all that the world +values most—then down at the human epitome of wretchedness, +represented by a bronze-crowned head, with singularly magnetic eyes, +crimsoned cheeks, and a perfect mouth, whose glowing, fever-rouged lips +were curved in a shadowy smile, as she muttered incoherently of +incidents, connected with the life of a poverty-stricken adventuress? +Was friendly fate flying danger signals by arranging and accentuating +this vivid contrast, in order to recall his vagrant wits, to cement his +wavering allegiance? +</P> + +<P> +He was a brave man, but he shivered slightly, as he confronted his own +insurgent and defiant heart; and involuntarily, his fingers dropped +Leo's, and his right hand tightened on the hot palm throbbing against +it. +</P> + +<P> +On that dark tossing main, where delirium drove Beryl's consciousness +to and fro like a rudderless wreck, did some mysterious communion of +spirits survive? Did some subtle mesmeric current telegraph her soul, +that her foul wrongs were at last avenged? Whatever the cause, +certainly a strangely clear, musical laugh broke suddenly from her +lovely lips, mingled with a triumphant "Che sara, sara!" The heavy lids +slowly drooped, the head turned wearily away. +</P> + +<P> +Smothering a long drawn sigh, which his pride throttled, Mr. Dunbar +rose and stood beside his fiancee. +</P> + +<P> +"You have been feeling her pulse, how is the fever?" asked Leo. +</P> + +<P> +"About as high as it can mount. The pulse is frightfully rapid. I did +not even attempt to count it." +</P> + +<P> +"Mrs. Singleton tells me she is entirely unconscious—recognizes no +one." +</P> + +<P> +"At times, I think she has partly lucid glimpses; for instance, a +little while ago she called me 'Tiberius', the same appellation she +unaccountably bestowed on me the day of her preliminary examination. +Evidently she associates me with every cruel, brutal monster, and even +in delirium maintains her aversion." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Gordon's hand stole into his, pressing it gently in mute +attestation of sympathy. After a moment, she said in a low tone: +</P> + +<P> +"She is very beautiful. What a noble, pure face? How exquisitely turned +her white throat, and wrists, and hands." +</P> + +<P> +He merely inclined his head in assent. +</P> + +<P> +"It seems a profanation to connect the idea of crime with so lovely and +refined a woman. Lennox?" +</P> + +<P> +He turned, and looked into her brown eyes, which were misty with tears. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, my dear Leo, what is burdening your generous heart?" +</P> + +<P> +"Do you, can you, believe her guilty? Her whole appearance is a +powerful protest." +</P> + +<P> +"Appearances are sometimes fatally false. I think you told me, that the +purest and loveliest face, guileless as an angel's, that you saw in +Europe, was a portrait of Vittoria Accoramboni; yet she was veritably +the 'White Devil', 'beautiful as the leprosy, dazzling as the +lightning'. Do I believe her guilty? From any other lips than yours, I +should evade the question; but I proudly acknowledge your right to an +expression of my opinion, when—" +</P> + +<P> +"I withdraw the question, because I arrogate no 'rights'. I merely +desire the privilege of sympathizing, if possible, with your views; of +sharing your anxiety in a matter involving such vital consequences. +Privilege is the gift of affection; right, the stern allotment of law. +Tell me nothing now; I shall value much more the privilege of receiving +your confidence unsolicited." +</P> + +<P> +He took both her hands, drew her close to him, and looked steadily down +into her frank tender eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, my dear Leo. Only your own noble self could so delicately +seek to relieve me from a painful embarrassment; but our relations +invest you with both rights and privileges, which for my sake at least, +I prefer you should exercise. You must allow me to conclude my +sentence; you are entitled to my opinion—when matured. As far as I am +capable of judging, the evidence against her is—overwhelmingly +condemnatory. I thought so before her arrest; believed it when her +preliminary examination ended, and subsequent incidents strengthen and +confirm that opinion; yet a theory has dawned upon me, that may +possibly lighten her culpability. I need not tell you, that I feel +acutely the responsibility of having brought her here for trial, and +especially of her present pitiable condition, which causes me sleepless +nights. If she should live, I shall make some investigation in a +distant quarter, which may to some extent exculpate her, by proving her +an accessory instead of principal. My—generous Leo, you shall be the +first to whom I confide my solution—when attained. I am sorely +puzzled, and harassed by conflicting conjectures; and you must be +patient with me, if I appear negligent or indifferent to the privileges +of that lovely shrine where my homage is due." +</P> + +<P> +"If you felt less keenly the distressing circumstances surrounding you, +I should deeply regret my misplaced confidence in your character; and +certainly you must acquit me of the selfishness that could desire to +engross your attention at this juncture." +</P> + +<P> +Desirous of relieving him of all apprehension relative to a possible +misconstruction of his motives and conduct, she left one hand in his, +and laid the other with a caressing touch on his arm; an unprecedented +demonstration, which at any other time would have surprised and charmed +him. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, what a melancholy sight! So much delicate refined beauty, in this +horrible lair of human beasts! Lennox, let us hope that the mercy of +God will call her speedily to His own bar of justice, before she +suffers the torture and degradation of trial, by earthly tribunals." +</P> + +<P> +She felt the slight shudder that crept over him, the sudden start with +which he dropped her hand, and bent once more over the cot. +</P> + +<P> +"God forbid she should die now, leaving the burden of her murder on my +soul!" +</P> + +<P> +His countenance was averted, but the ferver of his adjuration filled +her with a vague sense of painful foreboding. +</P> + +<P> +"Is it friendly to desire the preservation of a life, whose probable +goal seems the gallows, or perpetual imprisonment? Poor girl! In the +choice of awful alternatives, death would come here as an angel of +mercy." +</P> + +<P> +Leo took Beryl's hand in hers, and tears filled her eyes as she noted +the symmetry of the snowy fingers, the delicate arch of the black +brows, the exceeding beauty of the waving outline where the rich +mahogany-hued hair touched the forehead and temples, that gleamed like +polished marble. +</P> + +<P> +"Is it friendly to wish an innocent girl to go down into her grave, +leaving a name stained for all time by suspicion, if not absolute +conviction of a horrible crime?" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Dunbar spoke through set teeth, and Leo's astonishment at the +expression of his countenance, delayed an answer, which was prevented +by the entrance of Mrs. Singleton. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Gordon, your uncle wishes to know whether you are ready to go +home; as he has an engagement that calls him away?" +</P> + +<P> +Did Leo imagine the look of relief that seemed to brighten Mr. Dunbar's +face, as he said promptly: +</P> + +<P> +"With your permission, I will see you safely down stairs, and commit +you to Judge Dent's care." +</P> + +<P> +Standing beside the cot, she watched Mrs. Singleton measure the +medicine from a vial into a small glass. When the warden's wife knelt +down, and putting one arm under the pillow elevated it slightly, while +she held the glass to the girl's lips, Beryl attempted to push it aside. +</P> + +<P> +"Take it for me, dear child; it will make you sleep, and ease your +pain." +</P> + +<P> +The beautiful eyes regarded her wistfully, then wandered to the face of +the lawyer and rested, spellbound. +</P> + +<P> +"Here, swallow this. It is not bad to take." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Singleton patted her cheek and again essayed to administer the +draught, but without success. +</P> + +<P> +"Let me try." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Dunbar took the glass, but as he bent down, the girl began to +shiver as though smitten with a mortal chill. She writhed away, put out +her shuddering hands to ward it off; and starting up, her eyes filled +with a look of indescribable horror and loathing, as she cried out: +</P> + +<P> +"Ricordo! Oh, mother—it is Ricordo! I see, it! Father—it was my Pegli +handkerchief!—with the fuchsias you drew! Father—ask Christ to pity +me!" +</P> + +<P> +She sank back quivering with dread, pitiable to contemplate; but after +a few moments her hands sought each other, and her trembling lips moved +evidently in prayer, though the petition was inaudible. Mrs. Singleton +sponged her forehead with iced water, and by degrees the convulsive +shivering became less violent. The wise nurse began in a subdued tone +to sing slowly, "Nearer my God to Thee," and after a little while, the +sufferer grew still, the heavy lids lifted once or twice, then closed, +and the laboring brain seized on some new vision in the world of +fevered dreams. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Singleton took the medicine from the attorney, and put it aside. +</P> + +<P> +"Sleep is her best physic. When these nervous shivers come on, I find a +hymn chanted, soothes her as it does one of my babies. Poor child! she +makes my heart ache so sometimes, that I want to scream the pain away. +How people with any human nature left in them, can look at her and +listen to her pitiful cries to her dead father, and her dying mother, +and her far-off God, and then believe that her poor beautiful hands +could shed blood, passes my comprehension; and all such ought to go on +four feet, and browse like other brutes. I am poor, but I vow before +the Lord, that I would not stand in your shoes, Mr. Dunbar, for all the +gold in the Government vaults, and all the diamonds in Brazil." +</P> + +<P> +Tears were dripping on the costly furs about Leo's neck, as she moved +closer to the attorney, and linked her arm in his: +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Dunbar, we will detain my uncle no longer. Mrs. Singleton has told +me, that one of her children is ill, had a spasm last night; and since +maternal duties are most imperative, it is impossible for her to give +undivided attention to this poor sufferer. If you will kindly take me +down stairs, I will call at the 'Sheltering Arms', and secure the +services of one of the 'Sisters' who is an experienced nurse. This will +relieve Mrs. Singleton, and we shall all feel assured that our poor +girl has careful and tender watching, and every comfort that anxious +sympathy can provide." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XII. +</H3> + +<P> +It was midnight in November, keenly cold, but windless; and in the +purplish sky, the wintry crown of stars burned with silvery lustre, +unlike the golden glow of constellations throbbing in sultry summer, +and their white fires sparkled, flared as if blown by interstellar +storms. The large family of Lazarus huddled over dying embers on +darkening hearths, and shivered under scanty shreds of covering; but +the house of Dives was alight with the soft radiance of wax candles, +fragrant with the warm aroma of multitudinous exotics, and brimming +with waves of riotous music, on which merry-hearted favorites of +fashion swam in measured mazes. The "reception" given by Judge Parkman +to the Governor and his staff, on the occasion of a review of State +troops at X—, was at its height; and several counties had been skimmed +for the creme de la creme of most desirable representatives of wit, +wealth and beauty. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Gordon had arrived unusually late, and as she entered the room, +leaning on her uncle's arm, she noticed that Mr. Dunbar was the centre +of a distinguished group standing under the chandelier. He was gently +fanning his hostess, who stood beside the Governor, and evidently he +was narrating some spicy incident, or uttering some pungent witticism, +whereat all laughed heartily. The light fell full on his fine figure, +which rose above all surrounding personages, and was faultlessly +apparelled in evening dress; and Leo's heart filled with tender pride, +at the consciousness that he was all her own. The exigencies of +etiquette prevented for more than an hour any nearer approach, but when +Mr. Dunbar had rendered "Caesar's things" to social Caesar, and paid +tribute of bows, smiles, compliments and persiflage into the coffer of +custom, he made his way through the throng, to the spot where his +betrothed stood resting after her third dance. +</P> + +<P> +"Will Miss Gordon grant me a promenade in lieu of the dance, which +misfortunes conspired to prevent me from securing earlier in the +evening?" +</P> + +<P> +He drew her hand under his arm, and his eyes ran with proprietorial +freedom over the details of her costume, pale blue satin, creamy foam +of white lace, soft sheen of large pearls, and bouquet of exquisite +half blown La France roses. +</P> + +<P> +Since their betrothal, he had claimed the privilege of sending the +flowers she wore, on special occasions, and she had invariably +expressed her appreciation through the dainty lips of a boutonniere +arranged by her own fingers. Now while he recognized the roses resting +on her corsage, her eyes dwelt on her favorite double lilac violets, +nestling in the buttonhole of his coat. +</P> + +<P> +"You were very late to-night. I loitered in ambush about the precincts +of the dressing-room, hoping for the pleasure of conducting you +down-stairs; but 'the best laid schemes o' mice and men gang aft +aglee', and I became the luckless prey of similar tactics. That +marauding Tomyris, Mrs. Halsey, sallied out at the head of her column +of daughters, espied me lurking behind the portiere, and proclaiming +her embarras de richesse, 'paid me the compliment' of consigning one +fair campaigner, Miss Eloise Hermione, to my care. Fancy the strain on +courtesy, as I accepted my 'quite unexpected good fortune'!" +</P> + +<P> +He spoke with a nervous rapidity, at variance with his usual +imperturbable deliberateness of manner, and she thought she had never +seen his eyes so restless and brilliant. +</P> + +<P> +"I was unusually late, owing to the fact that the Governor and staff +dined with Uncle Mitchell, and they lingered so long over their cigars +and wine, that I was delayed in the drawing-room, waiting for them; +consequently was very late in changing my dress. We were sorry you were +prevented from joining us. Uncle pronounced the dinner a perfect +success; and certainly Governor Glenbeigh was in his happiest mood, and +particularly agreeable." +</P> + +<P> +"Given his hostess, and entourage, could he possibly have been less? +Rumor's hundred tongues wag with the announcement, that his Excellency +is no longer inconsolable for his wife's death; and desires to testify +to the happiness of conjugal relations, by a renewal of the sweet +bondage; a curiously subtile compliment to the deceased. If I may be +pardoned the enormity of the heresy, I think Shakspeare blundered +supremely, when he gave Iago's soul to a man. Diabolical cunning, +shrewd malevolence pure and simple, armed with myriads of stings for +hypodermic incisions that poison a man's blood, should be appropriately +costumed in a moss-green velvet robe, should wear frizzled bangs as +yellow as yonder bouquet of Marechal Neils, so suggestive of the +warning flag flying over pest-houses!" +</P> + +<P> +"It is very evident you are not equally generous in surrendering the +amiability of Timon, along with the depravity of Iago, to the arsenal +of feminine weapons. What corroding mildew of discontent has fallen +from Mrs. Parkman's velvet dress, and rusted the bright blade of your +chivalry?" +</P> + +<P> +"The very breath of Iago, filling my ears and firing my heart with the +architectural details of her coveted 'castle in Spain.' Glenbeigh is +her cousin. The ladder of his preferment is set up before my eyes, and +his Excellency springs up the rounds, from Governor to Senatorship, +thence to a place in the Cabinet, certainly to an important foreign +embassy; where, in the eternal fitness of things, somebody, somebody +with tender brown eyes like a thrush's, and the voice of a siren, and +the red lips of Hebe—will be invited to reign as l'ambassadrice! If I +am not as mad with jealous despair as Othello, attribute my escape +either to a sublime faith in your adorable constancy and +incorruptibility, or to my own colossal vanity, fatuous beyond +absolution." +</P> + +<P> +He pressed her arm closer to his side, and covered with one hand the +gloved fingers resting on his sleeve; then added: +</P> + +<P> +"You must permit me to congratulate you upon your beautiful toilette +to-night. The harmony of the dress, and the grace of the wearer leave +nothing to be desired. Although debarred the pleasure of dining with +you, I had hoped to enter, at least, with the coffee, but the freight +train upon which I returned, was delayed; and I had no choice but to +await your arrival here." +</P> + +<P> +He indulged so rarely in verbal compliments, that she flushed with +profound gratification at flip fervor of his tone. +</P> + +<P> +"I am glad you like my dress, to which your roses lend the loveliest +garniture. I was not aware that X—could furnish at this season such +superb La France buds. Where did you find them?" +</P> + +<P> +"They travelled several hundred miles, for the privilege of nestling +against my Leo's heart." +</P> + +<P> +Spartan thieves are not the only heroic sufferers who smile and make no +moan, clasping close the hidden fangs ravening on their vitals. +</P> + +<P> +"As you mentioned in your note that very important business had called +you unexpectedly away, I hope your mission proved both pleasant and +successful." +</P> + +<P> +A shadow drifted over his countenance, like that cast by some summer +cloud long becalmed, which sets sail before a sudden gust. +</P> + +<P> +"Only a modicum of success to counterbalance the disagreeable features +of a journey in a freight train caboose." +</P> + +<P> +"Why do you hazard that dangerous schedule, instead of waiting for the +passenger express?" +</P> + +<P> +"Business exigencies narrow the limits of choice; moreover, had I +waited for the express, I should have missed the coveted pleasure of +this meeting with you. The rosy glamour of happy anticipation conquers +even the discomfort of a freight caboose." +</P> + +<P> +Did she suspect that some sullen undercurrent of intense feeling drove +these eddying foam bells of flattery into the stream of conversation; +or was her reply merely a chance ricochet shot, more accurately +effective than direct fire? +</P> + +<P> +"This afternoon I had a note from Sister Serena, asking for a few +articles conducive to the comfort of a sick room; and I really cannot +determine whether we should feel regret, or relief at the tidings that +that unfortunate girl—can scarcely—" +</P> + +<P> +"Spare me the Egyptian mummy at my feast! The memento mori when I would +fain forget. Let me inhale the perfume of your roses, without hearing +that possibly a worm battens on their petals. Will you ride with me +tomorrow afternoon?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am sorry that an engagement to dine will prevent, as the afternoons +are so short." +</P> + +<P> +"Are you going to the Percy's?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. Will you not be there?" +</P> + +<P> +"Too bad! I have just declined attending that dinner, because I had +planned the horseback ride. Formerly fate seemed to smile upon me; now +she shows herself a scowling capricious beldam. I have lost this +evening, waiting to see you, and now, I must steal away unnoticed; +because of an important matter which admits of no delay. Have you +promised to dance with Mayfield? Here he comes. Good-night, my dear +Leo, expect to see me at 'The Lilacs' at the earliest possible moment." +</P> + +<P> +Unobserved he made his escape, and hurried away. At a livery stable he +stopped to order his horse saddled, and brought to his door, and a few +moments later, stood before the grate in his law office, where the red +glow of the coals had paled under ashy veils. From the letter-rack over +the mantel, he took a note containing only a line: +</P> + +<P> +"She has reached the crisis. We have no hope." "SINGLETON." +</P> + +<P> +In the hot embers, it smoked, shrivelled, disappeared; and the attorney +crossed his arms over his chest to crush back the heavy sigh struggling +for escape. The long overcoat buttoned from throat to knee, enhanced +his height, and upon his stern, handsome features had settled an +expression of sorrowful perplexity; while his keen eyes showed the +feverish restlessness that, despite his efforts, betrayed heartache. +Above the heads of the gay throng he had just left, he had seen all +that evening a slender white hand beckoning to him from the bars of a +dungeon; and dominating the music of the ball room, the laughter of its +dancers, had risen the desperate, accusing cry: +</P> + +<P> +"You have ruined my life!" +</P> + +<P> +Was it true, that his hand had dashed a foul blot of shame upon the +fall pure page of a girl's existence, and written there the fatal +finis? If she died, could he escape the moral responsibility of having +been her murderer? Amid the ebb and flow of conflicting emotions, one +grim fact stared at him with sardonic significance. If he had ruined +her life, retribution promptly exacted a costly forfeit; and his +happiness was destined to share her grave. +</P> + +<P> +He neither analyzed nor understood the nature of the strange +fascination which he had ineffectually striven to resist; and he ground +his teeth, and clinched his hands with impotent rage, under the +stinging and humiliating consciousness that his unfortunate victim had +grappled his heart to hers, and would hold it forever in bondage. No +other woman had ever stirred the latent and unsuspected depths of his +tenderness; but at the touch of her hand, the flood burst forth, +sweeping aside every barrier of selfish interest, defying the ramparts +of worldly pride. Guilty or innocent, he loved her; and the +wretchedness he had inflicted, was recoiling swiftly upon himself. +</P> + +<P> +Unbuttoning his overcoat, he took from an inside pocket, the torn half +of a large envelope, and unlocking the drawer of his desk, hunted for a +similar fragment. Spreading them out before him, he fitted the zigzag +edges with great nicety, and there lay the well-known superscription: +"Last Will and Testament of Robert Luke Darrington." One corner of the +last found bit was brown and mud-stained, but the handwriting was in +perfect preservation. As he stooped to put it all back in a secret +drawer, something fell on the floor. He picked up the dainty +boutonniere of pale sweet violets, and looked at it, while a frown +darkened his countenance, as though he recognized some plenipotentiary +pleading for fealty to a sacred compact. +</P> + +<P> +"Poor Leo! how little she suspects disloyalty. How infinite is her +trust, and what a besotted ingrate I am!" +</P> + +<P> +He tossed the accusing flowers into the grate, took his riding-whip and +went down to the door, where his horse was champing the bit, and pawing +with impatience. Along the deserted streets, out of the sleeping town, +he rode toward the long stone bridge that spanned the winding river. +When he had reached the centre, his horse darted aside, because of the +sudden leap of a black cat from the coping of the nearest pier, whence +she sped on, keeping just ahead of him. The spectral sickle of a waning +moon hung on the edge of the sky, and up and down the banks of the +stream floated phantoms of silvery mist, here covering the water with +impalpable wreaths, and there drifting away to enable Andromeda to +print her starry image on the glassy surface. +</P> + +<P> +Behind stretched the city, marked by lines of gas lamps; in front rose +the hill clothed with forests; and frowning down upon the rider, the +huge shadow of the dismal dungeon crouched like a stealthy beast ready +to spring upon him. Dark as the deeds of its inmates, the mass of stone +blotted the sky, save in one corner, where a solitary light shone +through iron lattice work. Was it a beacon of hope, or did the rays +fall on features cold under the kiss of death? +</P> + +<P> +Spurring his horse up the rocky hill, Mr. Dunbar was greeted by the +baying of two bloodhounds within the enclosure; and soon after, Mr. +Singleton conducted him up the steps leading to the room where Beryl +had been placed. +</P> + +<P> +"She is alive; that is all. The doctor said she could not last till +midnight, but it is now half-past one; and my wife has never lost hope. +She has sent the nurse off to get some sleep, and you will find Susie +in charge." +</P> + +<P> +The hazel eyes of the gaoler's wife were humid with tears, as she +glanced up at the attorney, and motioned him to the low chair she +vacated. +</P> + +<P> +"I knew you would come, and when I heard you gallop across the bridge, +I sent Sister Serena off to bed. There is nothing to be done now, but +watch and pray. If she ever wakes in this world she will be rational, +and she will get well. The nurse thinks she will pass away in this +stupor; but I have faith that she will not die, until she clears her +name." +</P> + +<P> +Nature makes some women experts in the fine art of interpreting +countenance and character, and by a mysterious and unerring divination, +Mrs. Singleton knew that her visitor desired no companion in his +vigils; hence, after flitting about the room for a few moments, she +added: +</P> + +<P> +"If you will sit here a while, I can look after my babies. Should any +change occur, tap at my door; I shall not be long away." +</P> + +<P> +What a melancholy change in the sleeper, during the few days of his +absence; how much thinner the hollow cheek, how sunken the closed eyes; +how indescribably sharpened the outlines of each feature. The face +which had formerly suggested some marble statue, had now the finer +tracery as of an exquisite cameo; and oblivion of all earthly ills had +set there the seal of a perfect peace. She lay so motionless, with her +hands on her breast, that Mr. Dunbar bent his head close to hers, to +listen to her respiration; but no sound was audible, and when his ear +touched her lips, their coldness sent a shiver of horror through his +stalwart frame. Pure as the satin folds of an annunciation lily pearled +with dew, was the smooth girlish brow, where exhaustion hung heavy +drops; and about her temples the damp hair clung in glossy rings, +framing the pallid, deathlike face. +</P> + +<P> +At her wrist, the fluttering thread eluded his grasp, and kneeling +beside the cot, he laid his head down on her breast, dreading to find +no pulsation; but slow and faint, he felt the tired heart beat feebly +against his cheek; and tears of joy, that reason could neither explain +nor justify, welled up and filled his eyes. Leaning his head on her +pillow, he took one hand between both his, and watched the profound +sleep that seemed indeed twin sister of death. +</P> + +<P> +Softened by distance came the deep mellow sound of the city clock +striking two. Down among the willows fringing the river bank, some +lonely water-fowl uttered its plaintive cry, whereat the bloodhounds +bayed hoarsely; then velvet-sandalled silence laid her soothing touch +upon the world, and softly took all nature into her restful arms. +</P> + +<P> +In the searching communion which he held with his own heart, during +that solemn watch, Mr. Dunbar thrust aside all quibbles and disguises, +and accepted as unalterable, two conclusions. +</P> + +<P> +She was innocent of crime, and he loved her; but she knew who had +committed the murder, and would suffer rather than betray the criminal. +The conjecture that she was shielding a lover, was accompanied by so +keen a pang of jealous pain, that it allowed him no room to doubt the +nature or intensity of the feeling which she had inspired. +</P> + +<P> +In her wan loveliness, she seemed as stainless as a frozen snowdrop, +and while his covetous gaze dwelt upon her he felt that he could lay +her in her coffin now, with less suffering, than see her live to give +her brave heart to any other man. To lift her spotless and untrampled +from the mire of foul suspicion, where his hand had hurled her, was the +supreme task to which he proposed to devote his energies; but +selfishness was the sharpest spur; she must be his, only his, otherwise +he would prefer to see her in the arms of death. +</P> + +<P> +So the night waned; and twice, when the warden's wife stole to the +door, he lilted his head and waved her back. When the clock in the +tower struck four, he felt a slight quiver in the fingers lying within +his palm, and Beryl's face turned on the pillow, bringing her head +against his shoulder. Was it the magnet of his touch drawing her +unconsciously toward him, or merely the renewal of strength, attested +already by the quickened throb of the pulse that beat under his clasp? +By degrees her breathing became audible to his strained ear, and once a +sigh, such as escapes a tired child, told that nature was rallying her +physical forces, and that the tide was turning. Treacherous to his +plighted troth, and to the trusting woman whom he had assiduously wooed +and won, he yielded to the hungry yearning that possessed him, and +suddenly pressed his lips to Beryl's beautiful mouth. Under that +fervent touch, consciousness came back, and the lids lifted, the dull +eyes looked into his with drowsy wonder. Stepping swiftly to the door +which stood ajar, he met Mrs. Singleton, and put his hand on her +shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"She is awake, and will soon be fully conscious, but perfect quiet is +the only safeguard against relapse. When she remembers, leave her as +much alone as possible, and answer no questions." +</P> + +<P> +Holding her baby on her breast, Mrs. Singleton whispered: +</P> + +<P> +"Put out the lamp, so that she can see nothing to remind her." +</P> + +<P> +As he took his hat, and put his hand on the lamp, he looked back at the +cot, and saw the solemn eyes fixed upon him. He extinguished the light, +and passed into the room where Susie Singleton stood waiting. +</P> + +<P> +"She will not know Sister Serena, and for a day or two I will keep out +of sight when she is awake. Mr. Dunbar, God has done His part, now see +that you do yours. Have you found out who 'Ricordo' is?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly, it is a thing; not a person. As yet the word has given no +aid." +</P> + +<P> +"Then you have discovered nothing new during your absence?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I have found the missing half of the envelope which contained +General Darrington's will; but ask me no questions at present. For her +sake, I must work quietly. Send me a note at twelve o'clock, that I may +know her exact condition, and the opinion of the doctor. Has nothing +been heard from Dyce?" +</P> + +<P> +"As far as I know, not a syllable." +</P> + +<P> +They shook hands, and once more Mr. Dunbar sprang into his saddle. +Overhead the constellations glowed like crown jewels on black velvet, +but along the eastern horizon, where the morning-star burned, the sky +had blanched; and the air was keen with the additional iciness that +always precedes the dawn. Earth was powdered with rime, waiting to +kindle into diamonds when the sun smote its flower crystals, and the +soft banners of white fog trailed around the gray arches and mossy +piers of the old bridge. At a quick gallop Mr. Dunbar crossed the +river, passed through the heart of the city, and slackened his pace +only when he found himself opposite the cemetery, on the road leading +to "Elm Bluff." As the iron gate closed behind him, he walked his +horse, up the long avenue, and when he fastened him to the metal ring +in the ancient poplar, which stood sentinel before the deserted House, +the deep orange glow that paves the way for coming suns, had dyed all +the sky, blotting out the stars; and the new day smiled upon a sleeping +world. The peacock perched upon the balustrade of the terrace greeted +him vociferously, and after some moments his repeated knock was +answered by the cautious opening of the front door, and Bedney's gray +head peered out. +</P> + +<P> +"Lord—Mars Lennox! Is it you? What next? 'Pears to me, there's nothing +left to happen; but howsomever, if ther's more to come, tell us what's +to pay now?" +</P> + +<P> +"Bedney, I want you to help me in a little matter, where your services +may be very valuable; and as it concerns your old master's family, I am +sure you will gladly enter into my plan—" +</P> + +<P> +"Bless your soul, Mars Lennox, you are too good a lieyer to be shore of +anything, but the undertaker and the tax collector. I am so old and +broke down in sperrits, that you will s'cuse me from undertaking of any +jobs, where I should be obleeged to pull one foot out'en the grave +before I could start. I ain't ekal to hard work now, and like the rest +of wore-out stock, I am only worth my grabs in old fields." +</P> + +<P> +Sniffing danger, Bedney warily resolved to decline all overtures, by +taking refuge in his decrepitude; but the attorney's steady prolonged +gaze disconcerted him. +</P> + +<P> +"You have no interest, then, in discovering the wretch who murdered +your master? That is rather suspicious." +</P> + +<P> +"What ain't 'spicious to you, Mars Lennox? It comes as natchal to you +to 'spicion folks, as to eat or sleep, and it's your trade. You believe +I know something that I haven't tole; but I swear I done give up +everything to Mars Alfred; and if my heart was turned inside out, and +scraped with a fine-tooth comb, it wouldn't be no cleaner than what it +is. I know if I was lying you would ketch me, and I should own up +quick; 'cause your match doesn't go about in human flesh; but all the +lancets and all the doctors can't git no blood out'en a turnup." +</P> + +<P> +"You are quite willing, then, to see General Darrington's granddaughter +suffer for the crime?" +</P> + +<P> +"'Fore Gord! Mars Lennox, you don't tote fair! 'Pears to me you are +riding two horses. Which side is you on?" +</P> + +<P> +"Always on the side of justice and truth, and it is to help your poor +young mistress that I came to see you; but it seems you are too +superannuated to stretch out your hand and save her." +</P> + +<P> +"Ain't you aiming to prove she killed old marster? That's what you sot +out to do; and tarrapin's claws are slippery, compared to your grip, +when you take holt." +</P> + +<P> +The old negro stood with his white head thrown back, and unfeigned +perplexity printed on his wrinkled features, while he scanned the swart +face, where a heavy frown gathered. +</P> + +<P> +"I set out this morning to find a faithful, old family servant, whose +devotion has never before been questioned; but evidently I have wasted +my confidence as well as my time. Where is Dyce? She is worth a hundred +superannuated cowards." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't call no names, Mars Lennox. If there's one mean thing I nachally +despises as a stunnin' insult, it's being named white-livered; and my +Confederate record is jest as good as if I wore three gilt stars on my +coat collar. You might say I was a liar and a thief, and maybe I would +take it as a joke; but don't call Bedney Darrington no coward! It +bruises my feelins mor'n I'le stand. Lem'me tell you the Gord's truth; +argufying with lie-yers is wuss than shootin' at di-dappers, and that +is sport I don't hanker after. I ain't spry enuff to keep up with the +devil, when you are whipping him around the stump; and I ain't such a +forsaken idjut as to jump in the dark. Tell me straight out what you +want me to do. Tote fair, Mars Lennox." +</P> + +<P> +"I am about to offer a reward of two hundred and fifty dollars, and I +thought I would allow you privately the opportunity of securing the +money, before I made it public. Where is Dyce?" +</P> + +<P> +"You might as well ax the man in the moon. The only satisfaction she +gin me when she left home, was—she was gwine to New York to hunt for +Miss Ellie. I tole her she was heading for a wild goose chase, and her +answer signified she was leaving all of them fowls behind. If she was +here, she'd be only a 'clean chip in your homny pot'; for she wouldn't +never touch your job with a forty-foot pole, and what's more, she'd tie +my hands. I ain't afeard of my ole 'oman, but I respects her too high +to cross her; and if ever you git married, you will find it's a mighty +good rule to 'let sleeping dogs lay'. Who do you expect me to ketch for +two hundred and fifty dollars?" +</P> + +<P> +"A lame negro man, about medium size, who was seen carrying a bundle on +the end of a stick, and who was hanging about the railroad station on +the night of General Darrington's death. He probably lives on some +plantation south of town, as he was travelling in that direction, after +the severe storm that night. I want him, not because he had any +connection with your master's murder, but to obtain from him a +description of a strange white man, whom he directed to the railroad +water-tank. If you can discover that lame negro, and bring him to my +office, I will pay you two hundred and fifty dollars, and give him a +new suit of clothes. The only hope for General Darrington's +granddaughter is in putting that man on the witness stand, to +corroborate her statement of a conversation which she heard. This is +Wednesday. I will give you until Saturday noon to report. If you do not +succeed I shall then advertise. If you wish to save Miss Brentano, help +me to find that man." +</P> + +<P> +He swung himself into the saddle, and rode away, leaving Bedney staring +after him, in pitiable dubiety as to his own line of duty. +</P> + +<P> +"Wimmen are as hard to live peaceable with as a hatful of hornets, but +the'r brains works spryer even than the'r tongues; and they do think as +much faster 'an a man, as a express train beats er eight ox-team. Dyce +is the safest sign-post! If she was only here now, I couldn't botch +things, for she sees clare through a mill-stone, and she'd shove me the +right way. If I go a huntin', I may flounder into a steel trap; if I +stand still, wuss may happen. Mars Lennox is too much for me. I +wouldn't trust him no further 'n I would a fat possum. I am afeard of +his oily tongue. He sot out to hang that poor young gal, and now he is +willing to pay two hundred and fifty dollars to show the court he was a +idjut and a slanderer! I ain't gwine to set down on no such spring gun +as that! Dyce ought to be here. When Mars Lennox turns summersets in +the court, before the judge, I don't want to belong to his circus—but, +oh Lord! If I could only find out which side he raily is on?" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIII. +</H3> + +<P> +During the early stages of her convalescence, Beryl, though perfectly +rational, asked no questions, made no reference to her gloomy +surroundings and maintained a calm, but mournful taciturnity, very +puzzling to Mrs. Singleton, who ascribed it at first to mental +prostration, which rendered her comparatively obtuse; but ere long, a +different solution presented itself, and she marvelled at the silence +with which a desperate battle was fought. With returning consciousness, +the prisoner had grasped the grievous burden of her fate, unflinchingly +lifted and bound it upon her shoulders; and though she reeled and bent +under it, made no moan, indulged no regret, uttered no invective. +</P> + +<P> +One cold dismal day, when not a rift was visible in the leaden sky, and +a slanting gray veil of sleety rain darkened the air and pelted the +dumb, shivering earth, Beryl sat on the side of her cot, with her feet +resting on the round of a chair, and her hands clasped at the back of +her head. Her eyes remarkably large from the bluish circles illness had +worn beneath them, were fixed in a strained, unwinking, far-away gaze +upon the window, where black railing showed the outside world as +through some grim St. Lawrence's gridiron. +</P> + +<P> +From time to time the warden's wife glanced from her sewing toward the +motionless figure, reluctant to obtrude upon her revery, yet equally +loath to leave her a prey to melancholy musing. After a while, she saw +the black lashes quiver, and fall upon the waxen cheeks, then, as she +watched, great tears glittered, rolled slowly, dripped softly, but +there was no sigh, no sound of sobs. Leaning closer, she laid her arm +across the girl's knee. +</P> + +<P> +"What is it, dearie? Tell me." +</P> + +<P> +There was no immediate reply; when Beryl spoke, her voice was calm, low +and measured, as in one where all the springs of youth, hope, and +energy are irreparably broken. +</P> + +<P> +"Every Gethsemane has its strengthening Angels. The agony of the Garden +brought them to Christ. I thank God, mine did not fail me. If they had +not come, I think I could never have borne this last misery that earth +can inflict upon me. My mother is dead." +</P> + +<P> +"Why distress yourself with sad forebodings? Weakness makes you +despondent, but you must try to hope for the best; and I dare say in a +few days, you will have good news from your mother." +</P> + +<P> +"I shook hands with Hope, and in her place sits the only companion who +will abide with me during the darkness that is coming on—Patience, +pale-browed, meek-eyed, sad-lipped Patience. If I can only keep my hold +upon her skirts, till the end. To me, no good news can ever come. As +long as mother lived, I had an incentive to struggle; now I am alone, +and they who thirst for my blood are welcome to take it speedily. I +know my mother is dead; I have seen her." +</P> + +<P> +"Wake up, child. Your brain is weak yet and full of queer delirious +visions, and when you doze, realities and dreams are all jumbled +together. You have a deal too much sense to harbor any crazy spiritual +crankiness. Take your wine, and lie down. You have sat up too long, and +tired yourself." +</P> + +<P> +"No. I have wanted to tell you for several days, because you have been +so good, and I have heard you praying here at night that God would be +merciful to me; but I waited until I had strength to be calm. I have +lain here day after day, and night after night, face to face with +desolation and despair, and now I have grown accustomed to the horror. +I know that in this world there is no escape, no help, no hope; so—the +worst is over. When you consent to fate, and stretch out your arms to +meet death, there is no more terror, only waiting, weary waiting. I am +not superstitious, and unfortunately I am not one of the victims of +dementia, whose spectral woes are born of disordered brains. I am sadly +sane; and what I am about to tell you is no figment of feverish fancy. +I do not know how long I have been sick, but one night great peace and +ease came suddenly upon me. I swung in some soft tender arms, close to +the gates of Release, and the iron bars melted away, and my soul was +borne toward the wonderful light; but suddenly a shock, a strange +thrill ran through me, and the bars rose again, and the light faded. +Then all at once my father and my mother stood beside me, bent over me. +Father said: 'Courage, my daughter, courage! Bear your cross a little +longer,' My mother wept, and said, 'My good little girl. So faithful, +so true. I died in peace, trusting your promise. For my sake can you +endure till the end?' They faded away; and sorrow sat down once more, +clutching my heart; and death, the Angel who keeps the key of the Gate +of Release, turned his back upon me. I had almost escaped; I was close +to the other world, and I was conscious. I saw my mother's spirit; it +was no delirious fancy. I know that she is dead. Even in the world of +the released, she grieves over the awful consequences of my obedience +to her wishes. Mortal agony of body and soul brings us so near to the +borderland, that we have glimpses; and those we love, lean across the +boundary line and compassionate us. So my Gethsemane called down the +one strengthening Angel of all the heavenly hosts, who had most power +to comfort my heart, and gird me for my fate, my father, my noble +father. God, in pity, sent him to exhort me to bear my cross bravely." +</P> + +<P> +The low solemn voice ceased, and in the silence that followed, only the +dull patter of the rain, and the persistent purring of a kitten curled +up on the cot were audible. Mrs. Singleton finished the buttonhole in +Dick's apron, and threaded her needle. +</P> + +<P> +"If it comforts you at all to believe that, I have no right to say +anything." +</P> + +<P> +"You think, however, that I am the victim of some hallucination?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not even that. I think you had a very vivid dream, and being +exhausted, you mistook a feverish vision for a real apparition. I can't +believe your mother is dead, because if such were the case, Dyce would +have returned at once, and told us." +</P> + +<P> +"Dyce has a kind heart, and shrinks from bringing me the sad news; for +she knows my cup was already full. I know that my mother is dead. Time +will show you that I make no mistake. The veil was lifted, and I saw +beyond." +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe so; may be not. I am stubborn in my opinions, and I never could +think it possible for flesh to commune with spirits. Don't let us talk +about anything that disturbs you, until you regain your strength. Why +will you not try a little of this port wine? Miss Gordon brought it +yesterday, and insisted I should give it to you, three times a day. It +is very old and mellow. Look at things practically. God kept you alive +for some wise purpose, and since you are obliged to face trouble, is it +not better to arm yourself with all the physical vigor possible? Drink +this, and lie down." +</P> + +<P> +As Beryl mechanically drained the glass and handed it back, Mrs. +Singleton added: +</P> + +<P> +"I believe I told you, Miss Gordon is Mr. Dunbar's sweetheart. Their +engagement is no secret, and he is a lucky man; for she is as good as +she is pretty, and as sweet as she is rich. She has shown such a tender +interest in you, and manifests so much sympathy, that I am sure she +will influence him in your favor, and I feel so encouraged about your +future." +</P> + +<P> +A shadowy smile crossed the girl's wan face, +</P> + +<P> +"Invest no hope in my future; for escape is as impossible for me, as +for that innocent victim foreordained to entangle his horns in the +thicket on Mount Moriah. He could have fled from the sacrificial fire, +and from Abraham's uplifted knife, back to dewy green pastures +poppy-starred, back to some cool dell where Syrian oleanders flushed +the shade, as easily as I can defy these walls, loosen the chain of +fate, elude my awful doom." +</P> + +<P> +"It is because you are not yet yourself, that you take such a +despairing view of matters. After a while, things will look very +different, and you are too plucky to surrender your life without a +brave fight. A great change has come over Mr. Dunbar, and there is no +telling what he cannot do, when he sets to work. If ever a lawyer's +heart has been gnawed by remorse, it is his. He and Miss Gordon +together can pull you out of the bog, and I believe they will." +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Dunbar's professional reputation is more precious in his sight +than a poor girl's life; moreover, even if he desired to undo his work, +he could not. I am beyond human succor. Fate nails me to a cross, but +God consents; so I make no struggle, for behind fate stands God—and my +father." +</P> + +<P> +Wearily she leaned back on her pillows, and turned her face to the +wall. Mrs. Singleton drew the blankets over her, folded her own shawl +about the shoulders, and smoothing away the hair, kissed her on the +temple; then stole into the adjoining room, where her children slept. +</P> + +<P> +Before the fire that leaped and crackled in the wide chimney, and +leaning forward to rest her turbaned head against the mantelpiece, +while she spread her hands toward the blaze, stood a much muffled +figure. +</P> + +<P> +"Dyce!" +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Singleton had left the door ajar, and the old woman turned and +pointed to it, laying one finger on her lips; but the warning came too +late. +</P> + +<P> +"Hush! I don't want her to know I am here. Your husband told me she was +sitting up, and in her right mind, but too weak to stand any more +trouble. I wish I could run away, and never see her again, for when I +go in there, I feel like I was carrying a knife to cut the heart out of +a fawn, what the hounds had barely left life in. I can't bear the +thought of having to tell her—" +</P> + +<P> +Dyce covered her face with her shawl, to stifle her sobs, and her large +frame shook. Mrs. Singleton whispered: +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me quick. What is it." +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Ellie is dead. I got there three days after she was buried." +</P> + +<P> +The warden's wife sank into a chair, and drew the weeping negro into +one beside her. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know exactly what time she died?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes—I had it all put down in black and white. She died on Tuesday +night, just as the clock struck two; and the hospital nurse says—Lord, +amercy, Miss Susan! are you going to faint? You have turned ashy!" +</P> + +<P> +As Mrs. Singleton's thoughts recurred to the fact that it was at that +hour that Beryl lay in the stupor of the crisis, from which she awoke +perfectly conscious, and recalled the dream that the sick girl held as +a vision, she felt a vague but bewildering dread seize her faculties, +in defiance of cool reason, and scoffing scepticism. +</P> + +<P> +"Go on, Dyce. I felt a little sick. Tell me—" +</P> + +<P> +She paused and listened to an unusual and inexplicable noise issuing +from the next room; the harsh sound of something scraping the bare +floor. +</P> + +<P> +"You must pick your time to break this misery to that poor young thing. +I can't do it. I would run a mile sooner than face her with the news, +that her ma is dead; and I have grieved and cried, till I feel like my +brains had been put in a pot and biled. The Lord knows His bizness, of +course; yes, of course He knows the best to do; but 'pears to me, His +mercy hid its face behind His wrath, when He saw fit to let that poor +innercent young creetur in there get well, after her ma was laid in the +grave. It will be a harder heart than mine what can stand by, and tell +her she is motherless." +</P> + +<P> +"There is no need to tell her. She knows it." +</P> + +<P> +"How? Did she get the letter the Doctor said he wrote?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. She thinks her mother—" +</P> + +<P> +The noise explained itself. Too feeble to walk alone, Beryl had pushed +a chair before her, until she reached the door, and now stood grasping +it, swaying to and fro, as she endeavored to steady herself. One hand +held at her throat the black shawl, whose loosened folds fell like a +mourning mantle to her feet, the other clutched the door, against the +edge of which she leaned for support. +</P> + +<P> +"Dyce, I have known for some days that I have no mother in this world. +I have seen her. Your kind heart dreads giving me pain, but nothing can +hurt me now. I cannot suffer any more, because I am bruised and beaten +to numbness. I want to see you alone; I want to know everything." +</P> + +<P> +At sight of her, the old woman darted forward and caught the tall, +wasted, tottering form in her strong arms. Lifting her as though she +had been a child, she bore her back to her small bleak room, laid her +softly on her cot, then knelt down, and burst into a fit of passionate +crying. +</P> + +<P> +As if to shut out some torturing vision, Beryl clasped her hands over +her eyes, and when she spoke, her voice was very unsteady: +</P> + +<P> +"Did you see mother alive?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, honey, I was too late! I was three days too late to see her at +all. When I got to New York, and found the Doctor's house, he was not +at home; had just gone to Boston a half hour before I rung the bell. +His folks couldn't tell me nothin', so I had to wait two days. When I +give him your note, he looked dreadful cut up, and tole me Miss Ellie +had all the care and 'tention in the world, but nothin' couldn't save +her. He said she didn't suffer much, but was 'lirious all the time, +until the day before she died, when all of a sudden her mind cleared. +Then she axed for you, honey—God bless you, my poor lamb! I hate to +harrify your heart. The Doctor comforted her all he could, and tole her +bizness of importance had done kept you South. Miss Ellie axed how long +she could live; he said only a few hours. She begged him to prop her +up, so she could write a few words. He says he held the paper for her, +and she wrote a little, and rested; and then she wrote a little mere +and fell back speechless. He pat the piece of paper in a invellop and +sealed it, and axed her if she wished it given to her daughter Beryl. +She couldn't talk then, but she looked at him and nodded her head. That +was about four o'clock in the evening of Tuesday. She had a sort of +spasm, and went to sleep. At two o'clock, she woke up in Heaven. He +said he felt so sorry for you—dear lamb! He wouldn't let them burry +her where most was hurried that died in the hospital. He had her laid +away in his own lot in some graveyard, where his childun was burried, +'till he could hear from you. He tole me, she was tenderly handled, and +everything was done as you would have wanted it; and he cut off some of +the beautiful hair—and—" +</P> + +<P> +Dyce smothered her sobs in the bedclothes, but Beryl lay like a stone +image. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, honey! It jest splits my heart in two, to tell you all this—" +</P> + +<P> +"Go on, Dyce." +</P> + +<P> +"The doctor gin me a note to the nuss at the hospital, what 'tended the +ward Miss Ellie was in, and I got all her clothes, and packed 'em in a +box and brought 'em home. She told me pretty much what the doctor had +said, only she was shore your ma spoke jest before she died, and called +twice—'Ignace! Ignace!' She said she was beautiful as a angel and her +hair was a wonder to all who saw her, it was so long and so lovely. She +tole me the doctor hissef put a big bunch of white carnations and +tuberoses in her hand, after they put her in the coffin, and she looked +like a queen. The doctor wrote you a letter 'splainin' everything, and +sent it to the postmaster here. He seemed dreadfull grieved and +'stonished when I tole him how I had left you, and said if he could +help you, he would be very glad to do it. I tole him we would pay his +bill, as soon as this here trial bizness was over; and he answered: +'Tut—tut; bill indeed! That poor unfortunate girl need never worry +over any bill of mine. I did all I could for her mother, but the best +of us fail sometimes. Tell that poor child to come and see me, as soon +as she gets out of the clutches of those fire-eating devils down +South.' Honey, I couldn't be satisfied without seeing for myself, where +they had laid my dear young mistiss. I got 'rections from the doctor, +and I spent good part of a day huntin' the cemetery, and at last a man +in a uniform showed me Doctor Grantlin's lot. Oh, my lamb! That was the +first and only comfort I had, when I stood in front of that grand +lovely marble potico—with great angels kneeling on the four corners, +and knew my dear young mistiss was resting in such a beautiful place. I +felt so proud that ole mistiss' chile was among the best people, +sleeping with flowers in her hands, in that white marble house! I +wanted to be shore there warn't no mistake, and the keeper of the +graveyard tole me a lady had been put 'temporary' in the vault, four +days before. I had bought a bunch of violets from a flower shop, but I +could not get nearer than the door, where some brass rods was stretched +like a kind of a net; so I laid my little bunch down on the marble +steps, close as I could push it agin the rod; and though I couldn't see +my dear young mistiss, maybe—up in heaven—she will know her poor ole +mammy did not forgit her, and—" +</P> + +<P> +The old woman cried bitterly, and one thin hand, white as a snowflake, +fell upon her bowed head, and softly stroked her black wrinkled face. +After some minutes, when the paroxysm of weeping had spent itself, Dyce +took the hand, kissed it reverently, and pressed into it a package. +</P> + +<P> +"The doctor tole me to put that into your hands. He said he knew it +would be very precious to you, but he felt shore he could trust me to +bring it safe. Now, honey, I know you want to be by yourself, when you +read your ma's last words. I will go and set in yonder by the fire, +till you call me. My heart aches and swells fit to bust, and I can't +stan' no more misery jest now, sech as this." +</P> + +<P> +For some moments, Beryl lay motionless, then the intolerable agony +clutched her throat with an aching sense of suffocation, and she sat +up, with nerveless hands lying on the package in her lap. She was +prepared for, expectant of the worst, but the details added keener +stings to suffering that had benumbed her. At last, with a shuddering +sigh, she broke the seal, and took from folds of tissue paper, a long +thick tress of the beautiful black hair. Shaking it out of its satin +coil, she held it up, then wrapped it smoothly over her hand, and laid +it caressingly against her cheek. +</P> + +<P> +Prison walls melted away; she stood again in the New York attic, and +combed, and brushed, and braided those raven locks, and saw the wan +face of the beloved invalid, and the jasmine and violets she had pinned +at her throat. +</P> + +<P> +What had become of the proud, high-spirited ambitious girl, who laughed +at adverse fortune, and forgot poverty in lofty aspirations? How long +ago it seemed, since she kissed the dear faded cheek, and knelt for her +mother's farewell benediction. Was it the same world? Was she the same +Beryl; was the eternal and unchanging God over all, as of yore? She had +shattered and ruined the sparkling crystal goblet of her young life, +scattering in the dust the golden wine of happy hope, in the effort to +serve and comfort that loved sufferer, who, languishing on a hospital +cot, had died among strangers; had been shrouded by hirelings. That any +other hand than hers had touched her sacred dead, seemed a profanation; +and at the thought of the last rites rendered, the loyal child shivered +as though some polluting grasp had been laid upon herself. Out of the +envelope rolled a broad hoop of reddish gold, her mother's wedding +ring; and in zigzag lines across a sheet of paper was written the last +message: +</P> + +<P> +"My dear, good little girl, so faithful, so true, my legacy of love is +your mother's blessing. You must be comforted to know I am dying in +peace, because I trust in your last promise—" +</P> + +<P> +Then a blot, some unintelligible marks, and a space. Lower still, +scarcely legible characters were scrawled: +</P> + +<P> +"Tell my darling—to wear my ring as a holy—" +</P> + +<P> +In death as in life, the last word, and the deepest feeling were not +for her; the sacred souvenir was left for the hand that had so often +stabbed the idolatrous heart, now stilled forever. +</P> + +<P> +In all ages the ninety and nine that go not astray, never feel the +caressing touch which the yearning Shepherd lays on the obstinate +wanderer, who would not pasture in peace; and from the immemorial dawn +of inchoate civilization, prodigals have possessed the open sesame to +parental hearts that seemed barred against the more dutiful. By what +perverted organon of ethics has it come to pass in sociology, that the +badge of favoritism is rarely the guerdon of merit? +</P> + +<P> +To the orphaned, forsaken, disgraced captive, sitting amid the sombre +ruins of her life, drinking the bitter lees of the fatal cup a mother's +hand had forced to her reluctant lips, there seemed nothing strange in +the injustice meted out; for had not the second place in maternal love +always been hers? As the great gray eyes darkening behind their tears, +like deep lakes under coming rain, read and re-read the blurred lines, +the frozen mouth trembled, and Beryl kissed the hair, folded it away in +the letter, and pinned both close to her heart. Staggering to her feet, +she held up the ring, and said in a broken, half audible voice: +</P> + +<P> +"When I am dead, your darling shall have it; until then lend it to your +little girl, as a strengthening amulet. The sight of it will hold me +firm, will girdle my soul with fortitude, as it girdles my finger; will +set a yet holier seal to the compact whereby I pledged my life, that +you might die in peace. If, in the last hour, you had known all my +peril, all that my promise entails, would you have released me? Would +you have died content knowing that your idol was guarded and safe, +behind the cold shield of your little girl's polluted body? The blood +in my veins flowed from yours; I slept on your heart, I was the last +baby whose lips fed at your bosom. Mother! Mother, if you had known +all, could you have seen the load of guilt and shame and woe laid on +your innocent child, and bought the life of your first-born, by the +sacrifice of a scapegoat? Dear mother, my mother, would you shelter +him, and leave your baby to die?" +</P> + +<P> +Slipping the ring on her finger, she kissed it twice. The hot flood of +tears overflowed, and she fell on her knees beside the cot, clasping +her hands above her bowed head. +</P> + +<P> +"Alone in my desolation! Oh, father! keep close to my soul, and pray +that I may have strength to bear my burden, even to the end. My God! My +God! sustain me now. Help me to be patient, and when the sacrifice is +finished, accept it for Christ's sake, and grant that the soul of my +brother may be ransomed, because I die for his sins." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap14"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIV. +</H3> + +<P> +"Well, dear child, what is the trouble? Into what quagmire have your +little feet slipped? When you invite me so solemnly to a private +conference in this distractingly pretty room, the inference is +inevitable that some disaster threatens. Have you overdrawn your bank +account?" +</P> + +<P> +Judge Dent leaned back, making himself thoroughly comfortable in a deep +easy chair in Leo's luxurious library; and taking his niece's hand, +looked up into her grave, sweet face. +</P> + +<P> +"I want you to honor my draft for a large amount. I am about to draw +upon your sympathy; can I ever overdraw my account with that royal +bank?" +</P> + +<P> +"Upon my sympathy, never; but mark you, this does not commit me to +compliance with all your Utopian schemes. If you were raving mad, I +should sympathize, but nevertheless I should see that the strait-jacket +was brought into requisition. When your generosity train dashes +recklessly beyond regulation schedules of safety, I must discharge +engineer sympathy, and whistle down the brakes. What new hobby do you +intend that I shall ride?" +</P> + +<P> +"I have no intention of sharing that privilege even with you; I merely +desire you to inspect the accoutrements, to examine reins, and girth, +and stirrup. I lend my hobby to no one, and it is far too mettlesome to +'carry double'. Uncle Mitchell, I feel so unhappy about that poor girl, +that I must do something to comfort her, and only one avenue presents +itself. I want you to have her brought into court on a writ of Habeas +Corpus, and to use your influence with Judge Parkman to grant her bail. +I desire to give the amount of bond he may require, because I think it +would gratify her, to have this public assurance that she possessed the +confidence of her own sex; for nothing so strengthens and soothes a +true woman as the sympathy and trust of women." +</P> + +<P> +"Looking at the case dispassionately from a professional point of view, +I am sorry to tell you that the judge would scarcely be warranted in +granting bail. Were I still upon the bench, I could not conscientiously +release her, in the face of constantly accumulating evidence against +her, although she has my deepest compassion. Conceding, however, for +the moment, that Parkman consents to the petition and the girl is set +at liberty, are you prepared to pay the large forfeit, if she, +realizing the fearful odds against her acquittal, should take permanent +bail by absconding before the trial? Abstract sympathy and generous +sentiments are one phase of this matter; positively paying a fifteen or +a twenty-thousand-dollar-bond is quite another. Weigh it carefully. We +pity this unfortunate prisoner, but we know absolutely nothing in her +favor, to counterbalance the terrible array of accusing circumstances +fate has piled against her. If she be guilty, can she resist the +temptation to escape by flight; and if indeed she be innocent, how much +more difficult to await all that is involved in this trial, and abide +the issue? Because she is beautiful, has a refined and noble air, and +seems unsullied as some grand snow image, do not blind yourself to the +fact, that for aught we can prove to the contrary, she may have a heart +as black as Tullias', hands as bloody as Brunehaut's." +</P> + +<P> +"You believe that as little as I do. I have pondered the matter in all +its aspects, and I take the risk." +</P> + +<P> +"You can afford to pay for her flight?" +</P> + +<P> +"I will pay for her flight, no matter what it may cost." +</P> + +<P> +Judge Dent took her hand between both his. +</P> + +<P> +"Let us be frank." +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "'The things we do—<BR> + We do; we'll wear no mask, as if we blushed!'"<BR> +</P> + +<P> +"Are you so assured of the woman's fidelity; or do you deliberately +leave the door ajar, foreseeing the result, deeming this the most +expedient method of cutting the Gordian knot?" +</P> + +<P> +For a moment she hesitated, then her soft brown eyes looked down +bravely into his. +</P> + +<P> +"I believe she is innocent, and that she will be loyal if released on +bail; but if I mistake her character, and she should flee for her life +from the lifted sword of justice, then I shall gladly pay the expense +of playing Alexander's role; and shall feel rejoiced that she lives to +repent her crime; and that the man to whom I have promised my hand, has +been relieved of the awful responsibility of hunting her to death." +</P> + +<P> +"Have you made him acquainted with this scheme?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly not. I owed it to you to secure your approbation and +co-operation, before mentioning the matter to him." +</P> + +<P> +"Have you considered the opposition which, without inconsistency, he +cannot fail to offer? As prosecuting attorney for the Darringtons he +would be recreant to his client, if he consented to release on bail." +</P> + +<P> +"His sympathy is deeply enlisted in her behalf, and I do not anticipate +opposition; nevertheless, it would not deter me from the attempt to +free her, at least temporarily from prison. As you have no connection +with the trial, I can see no impropriety in your telling Judge Parkman, +that the girl's health demands a change of air and scene, and that it +is my desire to furnish any bond he may deem suitable, and then bring +the prisoner under my own roof, until the day fixed for her trial. If +you are unwilling to speak to him, will you permit me to mention the +subject to him?" +</P> + +<P> +"I fear enthusiasm is hurrying you into a proposal, the possibly grave +consequences of which you do not realize. You would run a great risk in +bringing here that unfortunate woman, over whose head has gathered so +black a cloud of suspicion. In becoming her gaoler, you assume a +fearful responsibility." +</P> + +<P> +"I fully comprehend all the hazard, and with your permission, I shall +not shrink. I have a conviction, for which I can offer no adequate +grounds, that this girl is as innocent as I am; and if all the world +hissed and jeered, I should stretch out my hand to her. Do you +recollect Ortes' booty when Antwerp fell into Alva's hands? The keys of +the dungeons. I would rather swing wide the barred doors of yonder +human cage across the river, and lead that woman out under God's free +sky, than wear all of Alva's jewels, own his gold. Uncle, will you +speak, or shall I?" +</P> + +<P> +"I must first talk with Churchill and Dunbar. Your effort might result +only in injury to the prisoner; because if she were brought into Court +on writ of Habeas Corpus, and refused bail, as I fear would be the +case, the failure would operate very unfavorably for her cause, on +public opinion, of which after all, in nineteen cases out of twenty, +the jury verdict is a reflection. Some new evidence has been presented +since the preliminary examination, and its character will determine the +question of bail. If I can see any chance of your success I will speak +to Parkman; for, indeed, my dear child, I honor your motive, and share +your hope; but unless I find more encouragement than I expect, I will +not complicate matters by a futile attempt, which would certainly +recoil disastrously." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, Uncle Mitchell. Please act promptly. I have set my heart of +hearts on having that poor young woman here to spend Christmas. Her +freedom to walk about in the sunshine, is the one Christmas gift I +covet; and I know you will gratify me if possible. You have only four +days in which to secure my present." +</P> + +<P> +"When do you expect to see Dunbar?" +</P> + +<P> +"I promised to ride with him this afternoon; but I prefer not to +discuss this subject, as he has earnestly requested me 'to abstain from +any reference to that gloomy business during his hours of recreation;' +and I have no intention of setting black care en croupe to share our +canter to-day. Having told me that when he leaves his office to visit +us, he locks his professional affairs in his desk, you can readily +understand that good taste enforces respect for his wishes, at least in +the matter of avoiding tabooed topics." +</P> + +<P> +"Does it occur to you that he will object very strenuously to seeing +the personification of 'that gloomy business' sitting at your +hearth-stone? That he may refuse to lock up in his law office the +significant and disagreeable reflection, that the woman whom he +arrested find prosecutes for a vile crime, is championed and housed by +one whom he claims as his promised wife? Dunbar has a keen eye for the +'eternal fitness of things,' and, where you are concerned, is a jealous +stickler for social convenance. I warn you he will be bitterly +offended, if you bring General Darrington's granddaughter under this +roof." +</P> + +<P> +Her delicate flower-like face flushed; and the slight figure became +proudly erect. +</P> + +<P> +"It is my house, and I acquit him of the presumption of desiring to +dictate to whom its doors shall be opened. If he has no confidence in +my discretion, no respect for my motives, no tolerance for difference +of opinion in a matter of vital importance, then the sooner our +engagement is annulled the better for both of us. When I have taken my +vows, I hope I shall steadfastly keep them, but meantime I am still a +Gordon. The irrevocable ubi tu Caius, ego Caia, has not yet been +uttered, and while it would grieve me very much to wound his feelings, +I claim the exercise of my own judgment. I am not indifferent to his +wishes; on the contrary, I ardently desire, as far as is consistent +with my self-respect, to defer to them; but when I pledged him my +faith, I did not surrender my will, nor obliterate my individuality." +</P> + +<P> +Judge Dent rose, put his arm around her shoulders, and drew the sunny +head to his breast. +</P> + +<P> +"Leo, listen to me. There is no heaven on earth, but the nearest +approach to it, the outlying suburbs whence we get bewildering glimpses +of beatitude beyond, is the season of courtship and betrothal. In the +magical days of sweetheartdom, a silvery glorifying glamour wraps the +world, brims jagged black chasms with glittering mist, paves rugged +paths with its shimmering folds, and tenderly covers very deep in rose +leaves, the clay feet of our idols. That wonderful light shines only +once full upon us, but the memory of it streams all along the +succeeding journey; follows us up the arid heights, throws its mellow +afterglow on the darkening road, as we go swiftly down the slippery +hill of life. It comes to all, as hope's happy prophecy, this sparkling +prologue, and we never dream that it is the sweetest and best of the +drama that follows; but let me tell you, enjoy it while you may. +Beautiful, hallowing sweetheart days, keep them unclouded, guard them +from strife; hold them for the precious enchantment they bring, and +take an old man's advice, do not quarrel with your sweetheart." +</P> + +<P> +He kissed her cheek, and when the door closed behind him, she sat down +and covered her face with her hands. +</P> + +<P> +Was that witching light already fading in her sky? Was the storm even +now muttering, that would rudely toss aside the rose leaves that +garlanded the feet of her beloved? In the midst of her eloquent +prologue would darkness smite suddenly, and end the drama? Life had +poured its richest wine into the cup she held to her lips; should she +risk spilling the priceless draught? She could turn a deaf ear to +teazing whispers of suspicion, she could shut her eyes to the spectre +that threw up warning hands, and so drift on; but the dream would be +broken perhaps too late, and all time could not repair the possible +shipwreck. Into the chill shadow of this problem plunged Miss Patty, +bringing through the room the penetrating spicery of an apron full of +pinks, which she was sorting and tying in star-shaped clusters. +</P> + +<P> +"An extraordinary and most unexpected thing has happened, and I know +you will be surprised." +</P> + +<P> +"What is it, Aunt Patty? Something very pleasant, I hope." +</P> + +<P> +"I have actually changed my opinion; and you know how tenacious I +usually am of my well-matured views, because they are always founded on +such sound reasons. Quite surprised, aren't you, dear?" +</P> + +<P> +"That is far too mild and inadequate a term to express my sensations. +Your views and opinions bear the same royal, inviolable seal as those +of the Medes and Persians, and from their unchangeableness must have +floated down the stream of Aryan migration, from some infallible +fountain in Bactria. I should not be much more astonished to hear that +Cynosure had grown giddy, had swung down and waltzed in the arms of +Sirius." +</P> + +<P> +"Leo, that sounds very pedantic, and there is nothing I dislike more. A +woman bedecked with rags and tags of farfetched learning, is about as +attractive an object as if she had turned out a full beard and +mustache. I am very sure you have heard me assert more than once, that +I verily believe Venus herself would scare all the men into +monasteries, if she wore blue stockings. Too much learning in a lady's +conversation is as utterly unpardonable as a waste of lemon and nutmeg +in a chicken-pie; or a superfluity of cheese in Turbot a la creme; just +a hint of the flavor, the merest soupcon is all that is admissible in +either. I came in to tell you, that I have experienced quite a change +of feeling with reference to that poor young lady, whom Mr. Dunbar with +such officious haste arrested and threw into gaol. I am now convinced +that a great wrong has been committed." +</P> + +<P> +For a moment Leo stooped to stroke the head of her Siberian hound, +crouching on the velvet rug at her feet; then she frankly met the +twinkling black eyes that peered over their gold-rimmed spectacles. +</P> + +<P> +"I am glad to hear it; but to what circumstance is so deckled a +revulsion of sentiment attributable?" +</P> + +<P> +"You know I have great confidence in Sister Serena's sagacity, and +during the past fortnight she has talked frequently with me on the +subject of the prisoner. When she undertook to nurse the poor child, +she too considered her guilty of the unnatural crime; but by degrees +she began to doubt it. About ten days ago, she says she went to the +penitentiary, and found the prisoner reading a Bible which she had +borrowed from the gaoler's wife. She asked her if she would like her to +offer up a prayer, in her behalf, and they knelt down side by side. +Sister Serena prayed that God would melt her heart if she was guilty, +and help her to repent. While they were still on their knees, Sister +Serena put one arm around her and said: +</P> + +<P> +"'God knows whether you are the criminal; and if so, let me beg of you +to make a full confession; it will unload your conscience, and may be +the means of arousing more sympathy in the public heart.' She says that +the poor girl looked at her a moment so reproachfully, and answered: +'When we meet in heaven, you will understand how cruelly your words +hurt me. I know that appearances are hopelessly against me, and I +expect to die; but I am so innocent, I keep my soul close to God, for +He who knows the truth, will help me to bear man's injustice.' Then she +prayed aloud for herself, that she might endure patiently and meekly an +awful punishment which she did not deserve; and while she prayed, her +countenance was so pure, so angelic, and there was such unmistakable +fervor and sincerity in her petition, that Sister Serena says she could +not help bursting into tears, and she actually begged the girl's pardon +for having doubted her innocence. She has fallen completely in love +with the poor young creature, and tells me she finds her wonderfully +talented and cultivated. This morning she showed me some of the most +beautiful designs for decorating our altar on Christmas, which the +prisoner sketched for her. She cut all the models for her, and gave her +such lovely suggestions, and when Sister Serena thanked her, she says +the most touching smile she ever saw came into that child's face, as +she answered: 'I ought to thank you for the privilege of decorating my +Savior's altar, at the last Christmas I shall spend on earth. Next +year, I shall spend Jesus' birthday with Him.' I felt so uncomfortable +when I heard all that passed between her and Sister Serena, that I +could not be easy until I had seen for myself; and as Sister Serena was +going over to carry some letters to be painted and gilded, I went with +her. I have seen her, and talked with her, and I pity the hard, bitter, +unregenerate and vindictive heart of the man who is prosecuting her for +murder. I do not believe that in all the world, Mr. Dunbar can find +twelve men idiotic and vicious enough to convict that beautiful orphan +girl; and his failure will do as little credit to his intellect, as +success would to his moral nature." +</P> + +<P> +"While I prefer to exclude Mr. Dunbar's name from our discussions, I +think it merely bare justice to the absent, to assure you that he +desires her conviction even less than you or I; and will do all in his +power to avert it. I feel more interest in this matter than you can +possibly realize, and, believing her innocent, I will befriend her to +the last extremity. Did Sister Serena succeed in fitting the black +dress I sent?" +</P> + +<P> +"The poor child had on a mourning dress, but I was not aware you sent +it. Losing her mother seems almost to have broken her heart. Poor +Ellice Darrington! Petted and fostered like a hot-house flower, and +then to die a pauper in a hospital! What an awful retribution for her +disobedience to her parents? There is the bell." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Auntie, and I must ask you to excuse me. Some of my Sunday-school +class are coming to practise their carols, and conclude a little +holiday preparation, and I hear them now on the steps." +</P> + +<P> +"Did Mitchell show you Leighton's telegram?" +</P> + +<P> +"He told me the good news, that at the last moment Leighton had filled +his pulpit for the holidays, and would preach for us on Christmas. How +delightfully it will revive the dear old days to have him back? Fancy +our hanging up our stockings once more at the foot of Uncle Mitchell's +bed! Your letter must have been eloquent, indeed, to entice him from +the splendors of the metropolis, to the yule log at our quiet 'Lilacs'; +and his coming is a tribute of gratitude to you, for all your loving +care of him. I know you are so happy at the thought of taking the Holy +Communion from the hand of your dear boy, that it will consecrate this +Christmas above all others; and I congratulate you heartily, dear Aunt +Patty." +</P> + +<P> +It was late in the afternoon of Saturday, Christmas Eve, when Leo +knocked at the door of Mrs. Singleton's room. A dispirited expression +characterized the countenance usually serene and happy, and between her +brows a perpendicular line marked the advent of anxious foreboding. Her +hopeful scheme had dissolved, vanished like a puff of steam on icy air, +leaving only a teazing memory of mocking failure. Judge Dent's +conference with the District Solicitor, had convinced him of the +futility of any attempt to secure bail; moreover, a message from the +prisoner earnestly exhorted them to abandon all intercessory designs in +her behalf, as she would not accept release on bail, and preferred to +await her trial. +</P> + +<P> +"Good evening, Miss Gordon. If you want to see her, Ned will show you +the way to the chapel, where I left her a while ago. Since her mother's +death, the only comfort she gets, is from the organ; so we let her go +there very often. I would go with you, but I want to finish a black +shawl I am crocheting for her." +</P> + +<P> +The warden escorted his visitor through the chill dim corridors that +had formerly so appalled Beryl's soul, and upon the steps of the +chapel, both paused to listen. On the small cabinet organ, a skilful +hand was playing a grand and solemn aria, which Leo had heard once +before in the cool depths of Freiburg Cathedral. It had impressed her +then most powerfully, as the despairing invocation of some doomed +Titan; to-day it thrilled her with keen and intolerable pain. Waving +the warden back, she softly entered the chapel, closed the door, and +sat down. +</P> + +<P> +Through the narrow windows, the afternoon sunlight, fettered by shadowy +bars, fell on the bare floor, and the radiance smote the organ and the +wan face of the musician, gilding the dark reddish-brown hair coiled +loosely on her nobly poised head. Her black dress enhanced the extreme +pallor of delicate features, which, outlined against that golden +background, bore a strong resemblance to the lovely portrait of +Titian's wife in the Louvre. Unmindful of the keys, across which her +fingers strayed, she was gazing off into space, as if seeking some +friendly face; and to the same sombre, passionate, plaintive melody she +sang: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "The way is dark, my Father! Cloud upon cloud<BR> + Is gathering thickly o'er my head, and loud<BR> + The thunders roar above me. O, see—I stand<BR> + Like one bewildered! Father, take my hand—<BR> + And through the gloom lead safely home Thy Child!<BR> + The day declines, my Father! and the night<BR> + Is drawing darkly down. My faithless sight<BR> + Sees ghostly visions. Fears like a spectral band<BR> + Encompass me. O, Father, take my hand,<BR> + And from the night lead up to light Thy Child!<BR> + The cross is heavy, Father! I have borne<BR> + It long, and still do bear it. I cannot stand<BR> + Or go alone. O, Father, take my hand,<BR> + And reaching down, lead to the crown Thy Child!"<BR> +</P> + +<P> +The voice was wonderfully sweet and rich, vibrating with the intense +pathos of minor chords in a mellow old violoncello, and either from +physical weakness, or the weight of woe, it quivered at last into a +thrilling cry. Tears were dripping over Leo's cheeks, as she went up to +the chancel railing, and leaning across, put out her hand. Beryl rose +and came forward, and so, with only the pine balustrade between, the +two stood palm in palm. No moisture dimmed the prisoner's eyes, but +around her beautiful mouth sorrowful curves betokened the fierceness of +the ordeal she was enduring; and her lips trembled a little, like rose +leaves under a sudden rude gust. +</P> + +<P> +"I have wanted very much to see you, Miss Gordon, to thank you for the +great kindness that prompted your effort to help me; and yet, I have no +hope of expressing adequately the comfort I derived from this +manifestation of your confidence. The knowledge that you offered +security for me, above all, that you were willing to take me—an +outcast, almost a convicted criminal—into the holy shelter of your own +home, oh! you can never realize, unless you stood in my place, how it +soothes my heart, how it will always make a bright spot in the +blackness of my situation. The full sympathy of a noble woman is the +best tonic for a feeble sufferer, who knows the world has turned its +back upon her. If I were unworthy, your goodness would be the keenest +lash that could scourge me; but forlorn though I seem, your friendship +brings me measureless balm, and while I could never have accepted your +generous offer, I thank you sincerely." +</P> + +<P> +"Why were you so unwilling that I should try to release you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I have not a dollar to pay my expenses anywhere, and I appreciated too +fully all that was involved in your hospitable offer, to take me under +your roof, to be willing to avail myself of it. Here I am provided for, +by those who believe me guilty; and here I have the kind sympathy of +Mr. and Mrs. Singleton, who were my first friends when the storm broke +over my doomed head. To go out of prison into the world now, would be +torturing, because I am proud and sensitive; and these dark walls +screen me from the curious observation from which I shrink, as from +being flayed. To the desolate and homeless, change of place brings no +relief; and since there is no escape for me, I prefer to wait here for +the end, which, after all, cannot be very distant." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you refer to the trial next month?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, to that which yawns behind the trial; a shallow gash out there +under the pines, where the sound of the penitentiary bell tolls +requiems for the souls of its mangled victims." +</P> + +<P> +"Hush! hush! You wrong yourself by imagining the possibility of such +horrible results. Gloomy surroundings, coupled with your great +bereavement, render you morbidly despondent; and it was the hope of +cheering you, that made me so anxious to get you away. If I could only +take you home, even for one week!" +</P> + +<P> +"The wish has cheered me inexpressibly. How good, how noble, how tender +you are! Miss Gordon, because I am so grateful, let me now say one +thing. You cannot help me in future, and it would grieve me to think +that I fell, as an unlifting shadow, between your heart and the +sunshine that warms it. In the night of my wretchedness, you have +groped your way to me, and in defiance of the circumstances that are so +cruelly leagued to strangle me, you throw your confidence like a warm +mantle around my shivering soul; you have courageously laid your pure, +womanly hands in mine—oh, God bless you! God reward you! Do you think +I could bear to know that I had caused even a hand's breadth of cloud +to drift over the heavenly blue of your happy sky? The bow of promise +that spans your life is no secret. Let no thought of me jar the harmony +that reigned before I came here. Leave me to my doom, which human hands +cannot avert now; and be happy without questioning. Inexorable fate +stands behind men; makes them, sometimes, irresponsible puppets." +</P> + +<P> +A deep flush had risen to Leo's temples, and withdrawing her hand, she +shaded her face for a moment. The great bell below the tower clock rang +sullenly. +</P> + +<P> +"Good-bye, Miss Gordon. I had permission to stay here only till the +bell sounded. Pray for me, but do not come again. Visits to me could +bring you nothing but sorrow in return for your compassion, and that +would add to my misery. I wish you a pleasant Christmas, a happy New +Year, and as cloudless a life as your great goodness deserves." +</P> + +<P> +Once more their hands met, in a long close clasp, then Leo laid on the +chancel railing a large square envelope. +</P> + +<P> +"It is only a Christmas card, but so lovely, I know your artistic taste +cannot fail to admire it; and it may brighten your cheerless room. It +is the three-hundred-dollar-prize-card, and particularly beautiful." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, dear Miss Gordon. It may help to deaden the merciless +stings of memory, which all day long has tortured me by unrolling the +past, where my Christmas days stand out like illuminated capitals on +black-letter pages." +</P> + +<P> +Deaden the stings of memory? What spell suddenly evoked the image of +her invalid mother, all the details of the attic room, the litter of +pencils on the table; the windows of a florist's shop where, standing +on the pavement, she had studied hungrily the shapes of the blossoms +poverty denied her as models; the interior of the Creche, which she had +penetrated in order to sketch the heads of sleeping babies, as a study +for cherubs? +</P> + +<P> +Leo had almost reached the door, when a passionate, indescribably +mournful cry arrested her steps. +</P> + +<P> +"Too late!—too late! O, God! What a cruel mockery!" +</P> + +<P> +Beryl stood leaning against the railing of the altar, with the light of +the setting sun falling aslant on the gilded card she held up in one +hand; on her white convulsed face, where tears fell in a scalding +flood. Retracing her steps, Leo said falteringly: +</P> + +<P> +"In my efforts to comfort you, have I only wounded more sorely? How +have I hurt you? What can I do?" +</P> + +<P> +"No—no! you are an angel of pity, hovering over an abyss of ruin, +whose darkest horrors you only imagine faintly. What can you do? +Nothing, but pray to God to paralyze my tongue, and grant me death, +before I lose my last clutch on faith, and curse my Creator, and drift +down to eternal perdition! It was hard enough before, but this mockery +maddens." +</P> + +<P> +With a sudden abandonment, she hurled the card away, threw her arms +around Leo's neck and sobbed unrestrainedly. Tenderly the latter held +her shivering form, as the proud head fell on her shoulder; and after a +time, Beryl lifted a face white as an annunciation lily, drenched by +tropical rain. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought misfortune had emptied all her vials, and that I was nerved, +because there was nothing more to dread. But the worst is always +behind, and this is the irony of fate. You think that merely a +rhetorical metaphor, a tragic trope? How should you know? That +Christmas card is the solitary dove I sent out to hunt a resting-place +for mother and for me, when the flood engulfed us. It was my design +sent to Boston, to compete for the prizes offered. How I dreamed, how I +toiled! Haunting the flower shops for a glimpse of heartsease, and +passion flowers, and stars of Bethlehem; begging a butcher at the +abattoir to spare a lamb, until I could sketch it; kneeling by cradles +in the public Creche to get the full red curve of a baby's sucking +lips, as they forsook the bottle, the dimple in the tiny hands, the +tendrils of hair on the satin brow! Over that card I sang, and I wept; +I worked, hoped, prayed, believed! So much depended upon it! Could the +Christ to whom I dedicated it, fail to answer my prayer for success? +Three hundred dollars! What a mint! It would pay the doctor, and make +mother comfortable, and get her a warm new suit for coming winter. Oh! +it is so easy to believe in God, until He denies us; and to trust +Christ, till He hurls our prayers back, and the stones crush us. Only +three hundred dollars between life and death; between a happy, proud +girl with a noble future, and a disgraced, broken-hearted wreck +trampled into a convict's grave! It would have saved all; all the awful +consequences of the journey here, which only dire extremity of need +forced upon me. On the fatal day I started South, I went at the last +moment, hoping that some tidings from my card would come on angel +wings. The decision had been made, but the awards were not yet +published, and so my doom was sealed. To-morrow, happy women, no more +innocent than I am, will smile at my Christmas card, and give it with +warm kisses and loving words to their dear ones; and to-day, my white +dove of hope, flies back in my face, with the talons of a harpy, to +devour me with maddening reminders of 'what might have been'. My +coveted three hundred dollars! Three hundred taunting fiends! to jeer +and torment me. The Christmas sun will shine on a pauper's empty cot in +a charity hospital; on a disgraced, insulted, forsaken convict. Take +away this last mockery, it is more than I can bear. There on the back +in gilt letters—Prize Card—Three Hundred Dollars! Yet a stranger paid +for my mother's coffin, and—. Three hundred furies to lash my heart +out! Too late! Take it away! too late! oh, too late! This is worse than +the pangs of death." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap15"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XV. +</H3> + +<P> +The Christmas Sabbath dawned cold and dim, and along the eastern sky +gray marbled masses of cloud with dun, stratified bases, built +themselves into the likeness of vast teocallis to Tonatiuh, over whose +apex the struggling rays fell red and presageful. Dulled by the stained +glass windows, the light that filled the semi-circular chapel at "The +Lilacs", was chill and sombre, until the fair sacristan held a taper +over the tall wax candles on each side of the altar, whence a mellow +radiance soon streamed over all; flashing along the golden letters +under the cross, and upon the gilded pipes of the little organ. On the +marble steps in front of the altar were two baskets filled with white +camellias, and great spikes of pink and blue hyacinths, that seemed to +break their hearts in waves of aromatic incense. The family Bible of +the Gordons lay open, on the reading desk, and upon its yellow pages +rested a Maltese cross of snowy Roman hyacinths. Looping back the +purple velvet portiere over the arch leading into the library, Leo sat +down on the organ bench to await the coming of the family, leisurely +arranged the stops, and marked in her prayer-book the Collect for +Christmas. In her morning robe of crimson cashmere, with its cascade of +soft rich lace foaming from throat to feet, and wearing a dainty +cluster of double white violets fastened just below one ear, where the +wax light kissed her sunny hair, she appeared a St. Cecilia, very fair +and sweet, to the eyes of the man who stood a moment unperceived +beneath the arch. A figure of medium height, clad in priestly garments, +with a white surplice sweeping to the marble floor; a finely modelled +head thickly fleeced with light brown hair, a serene pleasant face, +with regular features, deep-set black eyes magnified by spectacles, and +an expression of habitual placidity, that bespoke a soul consecrated by +noble aims, and at perfect peace with his God. +</P> + +<P> +Hearing his step as he crossed the floor, Leo looked over her shoulder, +smiled, and began to play softly, while he ascended the steps and knelt +before the altar. After some moments Miss Patty rustled in, sank on her +knees and finally settled herself comfortably on one of the +crescent-shaped, cushioned sofas; then Judge Dent entered, followed by +Justine and the aged negro butler, Joel, the two servants finding seats +just behind their master. Doctor Leighton Douglass selected his hymns, +and the leaves of five prayer-books fluttered, as Collects were found, +but Leo continued to play. +</P> + +<P> +Twice she turned and looked around the chapel, seeking some one, +delaying the commencement of the service. Finally accepting defeat, her +pretty fingers fell from the keys, and with them dropped two tears, +forced from her by the keen disappointment that robbed this occasion of +all its anticipated pleasure. Singularly free from fashionable +elocutionary affectations, and certain declamatory stage tricks, by +which the recitation of the Creed and the Lord's Prayer becomes a +competitive test of lungs in the race for breath, Leighton Douglass +read the morning service, in a well-modulated voice, and with a +profound solemnity that left its impress on each heart. The responses +were fervent, and the Christmas hymns were sung with joyful +earnestness; then priestly arms rose like the wings of a great snowy +dove, and from holy, priestly lips fell the mellow music of the +benediction: +</P> + +<P> +"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the +fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all evermore. Amen." +</P> + +<P> +Even while he pronounced the words, a whirring rustle filled the +beautiful oratory, and two of Leo's pet ring-doves, fluttering round +and round the frescoed ceiling, descended swiftly. One perched upon her +head, cooing softly, and its mate nestled down with outspread pinions, +pecking at the white muslin folds on Doctor Douglass' shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"Paracletes, dun plumed! Leo, let us accept them as happy auguries, +prophetic of divine blessing on our future work in the Master's +vineyard. My cousin, I wish you a very happy Christmas." +</P> + +<P> +He had approached the organ where she sat, and held out his hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Happy Christmas, Leighton, and many thanks to you for this +consecrating service in my place of prayer. After today, it will always +seem a more hallowed shrine, and before you leave us, we will gather +here as a family, and join in the celebration of the Holy Communion." +</P> + +<P> +They stood a moment hand in hand, looking into each other's eyes; and +watching them, Miss Patty's heart swelled with pardonable pride in the +two, whom her loving arms had so tenderly cradled. Pinching her +brother's hand, as she walked with him under the velvet draperies, she +whispered: +</P> + +<P> +"What a noble match for both! And he's only her second cousin." +</P> + +<P> +Leo's eyes were wet with tears, which Doctor Douglass ascribed to +devotional fervor; and withdrawing her hand, she opened one of the +windows, and called the doves to the stone ledge, putting them very +gently out upon the ivy wreaths that clambered up the wall, and peeped +into the chapel. +</P> + +<P> +"I believe you are sacristan here?" he said, pointing to the candles +that flared, as the wind rushed in. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, here I sweep, dust, decorate daily, allowing no other touch; and +here I bring my daintiest, rarest flowers, as tribute to Him who +tapestried the earth with blossoms, and sprinkled it with +perfumes—when? Not until just before the advent of humanity, whose +material kingdom was perfected, and furnished in anticipation of his +arrival." +</P> + +<P> +Extinguishing the candles, she closed the old Bible, covered it with a +square of velvet, and hung the cross of hyacinths upon the folded hands +of one of the marble angels that upheld the altar. +</P> + +<P> +"Pure-handed women are natural priestesses, meet for temple +ministration; and I have no doubt your exoteric labors here, merely +typify the secret daily sweeping out of evil thoughts, the dusting away +of motes of selfishness, the decorating with noble beautiful aims, and +holy deeds, whereby you sanctify that inner shrine, your own soul." +</P> + +<P> +"Praise from you means so much, that you need not stoop to flatter me. +The very vestments of you Levites should exhale infectious humility; +and I especially need exhortations against pride, my besetting sin. I +built this chapel, not because I am good, but in order to grow better. +Every dwelling has its room in which the inmates gather to eat, to +study, to work, to sleep; why not to pray, the most important privilege +of many that divide humanity from brutes? After all, the pagans were +wiser than we, and the heads of families were household priests, +setting examples of piety at every rising of the sun." +</P> + +<P> +"Let us see. Greek and Roman fathers laid a cake dripping with wine, a +wreath of violets, a heart of honey-comb, a brace of doves on the home +altar, and immediately thereafter, set the example of violating every +clause in the Decalogue. Mark you, paganism drew fine lines in morals, +long anterior to the era of monotheism and of Moses, and furnished +immortal types of all the virtues; yet the excess of its religious +ceremonial, robbed it of vital fructifying energies. The frequency and +publicity of sacerdotal service, usurped the place of daily individual +piety. The tendency of all outward symbolical observances, unduly +multiplied, is to substitute mere formalism for fervor." +</P> + +<P> +"Leighton, humanity craves the concrete. All the universe is God's +temple, yet the chill breath of the abstract freezes our hearts; and we +pray best in some pillared niche consecrated and set apart, I recall a +day in Umbria, when the wonderful light of sunset fell on ilex and +olive, on mountain snows, on valleys billowing between vine-mantled +hills, on creamy marble walls, on columned campaniles; and standing +there, I seemed verily to absorb, to become saturated as it were, with +the reigning essence of beauty. I walked on, a few steps, lifted a +worn, frayed leather curtain, and looked into a small gray, dingy +church, where a mist of incense blurred the lights on the ancient +altar, and the muffled roll of an organ broke into sonorous waves, like +reverberations of far-away thunder; and why was it, tell me, that the +universal glory thrilled me only as a sensuous chord of color, but in +the dark corner consecrated to the worship of our God, my soul +expanded, as if a holy finger touched it, and I fell on my knees, and +prayed? Each of us comes into this world dowered with the behest to +make desperate war against that indissoluble 'Triple Alliance, the +World, the Flesh and the Devil,' and needing all the auxiliaries +possible, I resort to conscription wherever I can recruit. Since I am +two thousand years too young to set up a statue of Hestia yonder in my +imitation prostas, I have built instead this small sacred nook for +prayer, which helps me spiritually, much as the Ulah aids Islam." +</P> + +<P> +"Your oratory is lovely, and I wish its counterpart adorned every +homestead in our land; but are you quite sure that in your individual +experience you are not mistaking effect for cause? Your holy heart +demands fit shrine for—" +</P> + +<P> +"I am quite sure I will not allow you to stand a moment longer on this +cold floor; and I do not intend that you shall pay me undeserved +compliments. It is derogatory to your dignity, and dangerous to my +modicum of humility. As soon as you are ready for breakfast, come to +the dining-room, where Santa Klaus left his remembrances last night. O, +Leighton! I had half a mind to hang up two stockings at uncle's bed, +for the sake of dear old lang syne. If we could only shut our eyes, and +drift back to the magical time of aprons, short clothes, and +roundabouts, when a sugar rooster with green wings and pink head, and a +doll that could open and shut her eyes, were considered more precious +than Tiffany's jewels, or Collamore's Crown Derby! Can Delmonico offer +you a repast half as appetizing as the hominy, the tea cakes, the honey +and the sweet milk which you and I used to enjoy at our supper just at +sunset, at our own little table set under the red mulberry trees in the +back yard?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why should my cousin, whose present is so rose-colored, whose future +so blissful, turn to rake amid the ashes of the past?" +</P> + +<P> +"Because, like Lot's wife, we are all prone to stare backward. Who +lives in the present? Do you? When we are young we pant for the future, +that pitches painted tents before us. When we are older, we live in the +past, that wraps itself in a sacred gilding glamour, and is vocal with +the happy echoes which alone survive. Far-off fields before and behind +us are so dewy, so vividly green; and the present is gray and stony, +and barren of charm, and we turn fretfully. It is part of the grim +tyranny of Time that it is tideless; that the stream bears +remorselessly on, and on, never back to the dear old spots; always on, +to lose itself in the eternal and unknown. So, to-day's Christmas lacks +the zest of its predecessors." +</P> + +<P> +Leo loosened the gilded chain that looped the curtains, and as the +purple folds fell behind her, hiding the arch, Doctor Douglass said +gently: +</P> + +<P> +"There is a solemn truth and wise admonition in one of Rabbi Tyra's +dicta: 'Thy yesterday is thy past; thy to-day is thy future; thy +to-morrow is a secret.'" +</P> + +<P> +"Leo, here is a package and a note which arrived during service, and as +Mr. Dunbar's servant said there was no answer expected, he did not +wait." +</P> + +<P> +As Miss Patty delivered the parcel to her niece, the minister walked +away to lay aside his vestments, but he noted the sudden hardening of +his cousin's face, the flush of displeasure, the haughty curl of her +lips; and on his ears fell his aunt's voice: +</P> + +<P> +"You expected and waited for him at morning prayer?" +</P> + +<P> +"I invited him to join us, if he felt disposed to do so." +</P> + +<P> +"What possible excuse can he offer for such negligence, when he knew +that Leighton would read the service?" +</P> + +<P> +An uwonted sparkle leaped into Leo's mild hazel eyes, and without +examination she handed the package and note to Justine. +</P> + +<P> +"Lay them in the drawer of my writing-desk, and then call all the +servants into the dining-room. Auntie, tardy excuses must wait longer +for an audience than we waited for the writer. Come to breakfast; uncle +will be impatient, and I want to enjoy his surprise when he sees his +Santa Klaus." +</P> + +<P> +She was sorely disappointed, deeply affronted by Mr. Dunbar's failure +to present himself on an occasion at which she had especially desired +his presence; and as she recalled the affectionate phraseology of her +note of invitation, her fair cheek burned with an intolerable sense of +humiliation. Was it partition, or total loss, of her precious kingdom? +In after years, she designated this Christmas as the era when the +"sceptre departed from Judah;" but putting away the chagrin, and +sealing the well of bitterness in her heart, she exchanged holiday +greetings, and proudly wore her royal robes throughout the day, holding +sternly off the spectre, which grimly bided its time—the hour of her +abdication. +</P> + +<P> +Through the benevolent and compassionate efforts of Mr. and Mrs. +Singleton, some faint reflection of the outside world festivities +penetrated the dismal monotony of prison routine; and the hearts of the +inmates were softened and gladdened by kind tokens of remembrance, that +carried the thoughts of bearded convicts back to Christmas carols in +innocent youth, and to the mother's knees where prayers were lisped. +</P> + +<P> +Illness had secured to Beryl immunity from contact with her comrades in +misery, and except to visit the little chapel, she never left the +sheltering walls of her small comfortless room, grateful for the +unexpected boon of silent seclusion. Her Christmas greeting had been +little Dick's sweet lips kissing her cheek, as he deposited upon her +narrow bed the black and white shawl his mother had knitted, and a box +left by Miss Gordon on the previous day, which contained half a dozen +pretty handkerchiefs with mourning borders, some delicate perfume and +soaps, toilet brushes and a sachet. +</P> + +<P> +An hour later, when Mrs. Singleton and her babies had gone to spend the +day with relatives in the city, Beryl went to the window, pushed the +sash up, and listened to the ringing of the Sabbath-school bells, as +every church beyond the river called its nursery to the altar, to +celebrate the day. The metallic clangor was mellowed by distance, +rising and falling like rhythmic waves, and the faint echo, filtered +through dense pine forests behind the penitentiary, had the ghostly +iteration of the Folge Fond. +</P> + +<P> +A gaunt yellow kitten, with a faded red ribbon knotted about its neck, +and vicious, amber-colored eyes that were a perpetual challenge, had +fled from the tender mercies of Dick to the city of refuge under +Beryl's cot; and community of suffering had kindled an attachment that +now prompted the lesser waif to spring into the girl's folded arms, and +rub its head against her shoulder. Mechanically Beryl's hand stroked +the creature's ear, while it purred softly under the caress; but +suddenly its back curved into an arch, the tail broadened, the purr +became a growl. Had association lifted the brute's instincts to the +plane of human antipathies? +</P> + +<P> +The warden had opened the door and quickly closed it, after ushering in +a tall figure, who wore an overcoat which was buttoned from throat to +knees. At sight of Mr. Dunbar, the cat plunged to the floor, and sped +away to the darkest corner under the iron bedstead. +</P> + +<P> +"Good morning. I dare not utter here the greetings of the day, because +you would construe it into a heartless mockery." +</P> + +<P> +He came forward hesitatingly, and she turned swiftly away, pressing her +face against the bars of the window, waving him back. +</P> + +<P> +"Why will you persist in regarding as an enemy, the one person in all +the world who is most anxious to befriend you?" +</P> + +<P> +Still no answer; only the repellent gesture warning him away. +</P> + +<P> +"Will you allow me, this Christmas morning, to comfort myself in some +degree, by leaving here a few flowers to brighten your desolate +surroundings?" +</P> + +<P> +He held out a bouquet of rare and brilliant hothouse blossoms, whose +delicious fragrance had already pervaded the room. They stood side by +side, yet she shrank farther, and kept her face averted, shivering +perceptibly. Lifting one arm he drew down the sash to shut out the +freezing air. +</P> + +<P> +"You are resolved neither to look at nor speak to me? So be it. At +least you must listen to me. You may not care to hear that I have been +absent, but perhaps it will interest you to know that I went in search +of the man for whose crime you are paying the penalty." +</P> + +<P> +If he expected her to wince under the probe, her nerves were taut, and +she defied the steel; but the face she now turned fully to him was so +blanched by illness, so hopeless in its rigid calm, that he felt a keen +pain at his own heart. +</P> + +<P> +"Prisoners, victims of justice, have, it seems, no privileges; else my +one request, my earnest prayer to be shielded from your presence, might +have protected me from this intrusion. Are you akin to Parrhasius that +you come to gloat over the agonies of a moral and mental vivisection? +The sight of suffering to which you have brought a helpless woman, is +scarcely the recompense I was taught to suppose agreeable to a +chivalrous Southern gentleman. If, wearing the red livery of Justice, +undue zeal for vengeance betrayed you into the fatal mistake of +trampling me into this horrible place, there might be palliation; but +for the brutal persistency with which you thrust your tormenting +presence upon me, not even heavenly charity could possibly find pardon. +Literally you are heaping insult upon awful injury. Is it a refinement +of cruelty that brings you here to watch and analyze my suffering, as a +biologist looks through lenses at an insect he empales, or Pasteur +scrutinizes the mortal throes of the victims into whose veins he has +injected poison?" +</P> + +<P> +If she had drawn a lash across his face, it would not have stung more +keenly than her words, so expressive of detestation. +</P> + +<P> +"Will you consider for a moment the possibility that other motives +actuate me; that ceaseless regret, remorse, if you choose, for a +terrible mistake, impels me to come here in the hope of making +reparation?" +</P> + +<P> +"Such a supposition is as inconceivable as the idea of reparation. When +a reaper goes forth to his ripe harvest, his lawful labor, and wantonly +turns aside into a by-path, to try the edge of his sickle on an humble, +unoffending stalk that fights for life among the grass and weeds, and +struggles to get its head sufficiently in the sunshine to bloom—when +he cuts it off unopened, crushes it into the sod, can he make +reparation? Although it is neither bearded yellow wheat, nor yet a +black tare, it proved the temper of his blade; and all the skill, all +the science of universal humanity, cannot re-erect the stem, cannot +remove the stains, cannot unfold the bruised petals. There are wrongs +that all time will never repair. Your sword of justice needs no +whetting; one stroke has laid me low." +</P> + +<P> +"I purpose to file it two-edged, in order to make no more mistakes. +Before long I shall cut down the real criminal, the principal, who +shall not escape, and for whom you shall not suffer." +</P> + +<P> +"Then 'a life for a life' no longer satisfies? How many are required? +The law has need of a sacrificial stone wide as that of the Aztecs. Is +justice a'daughter of the horse-leech'?" +</P> + +<P> +"So help me God—" +</P> + +<P> +"Hush! Take not His name upon your lips. Men like you cannot afford to +credit the existence of a holy God. This is Christmas—at least +according to the almanac—now as a 'chivalrous Southern gentleman,' +will you grant me a very great favor if I humbly crave it? Ah, noblesse +oblige! you cannot deny me. I beg of you, then, leave me instantly; +come here no more. Never let me see your face again, or hear your +voice, except in the court-room, when I am tried for the crime which +you have told the world I committed. This boon is the sole possible +reparation left you." +</P> + +<P> +She had clasped her hands so tightly, that the nails were bloodless, +and the fluttering in her white throat betrayed the throbbing of her +heart. +</P> + +<P> +"You are afraid of me, because you dread my discovering your secret, +which is—" +</P> + +<P> +"You have done your worst. You have locked me away from a dying mother; +disgraced an innocent life; broken a girl's pure, happy heart; what +else is there to dread? Although a bird knows full well when it has +received its death wound, instinct drives it to flutter, drag itself as +far as possible from the gaze of the sportsman, and gasp out its agony +in some lonely place." +</P> + +<P> +"When I hunt birds, and a partridge droops its wings, and hovers almost +at my feet, inviting capture, I know beyond all peradventure that it is +only love's ruse; that something she holds dearer than her own life, is +thereby screened, saved. You are guilty of a great crime against +yourself, you are submitting tacitly, consenting to an awful doom, in +order to spare and protect the real murderer." +</P> + +<P> +He bent closer, watching breathlessly for some change in her white +stony face; but her sad eyes met his with no wavering of the lids, and +only her delicate nostrils dilated slightly. She raised her locked +hands, rested her lips a moment on her mother's ring, as if drinking +some needed tonic, and answered in the same low, quiet tone: +</P> + +<P> +"Then, prime minister of justice, set me free, and punish the guilty. +Who murdered General Darrington?" +</P> + +<P> +"You have known from the beginning; and I intend to set you free, when +that cowardly miscreant has been secured. You would die to save your +lover; you, proud, brave, noble natured, would sacrifice your precious +life for that wretched, vile poltroon, who flees and leaves you to +suffer in his stead! Truly, there is no mystery so profound, so +complex, so subtle as a woman's heart. To die for his crimes, were a +happier fate than to sully your fair soul by alliance with one so +degraded; and, by the help of God, I intend to snatch you from both!" +</P> + +<P> +He had put his hands for an instant upon her shoulders, and his +handsome face flushed, eloquent with the feeling that he no longer +cared to disguise, was so close to hers, that she felt his breath on +her cheek. +</P> + +<P> +Swiftly, unerringly she comprehended everything; and the suddenness of +the discovery dazzled, awed her, as one might feel under the blue flash +of a dagger when thrust into one's clasp for novice fingers to feel the +edge. Was the weapon valued merely because of the possibility of +fleshing it in the heart of him who had darkened her life? Did he +understand as fully the marvellous change in the beautiful face, that +had lured him from his chapel tryst with his betrothed? He was on the +alert for signals of distress, of embarrassment, of terror; but what +meant the glad light that leaped up in her eyes, the quick flush +staining her wan cheek, the triumphant smile curving lips that a moment +before might have belonged to Guercino's Mater Dolorosa, the relaxation +of figure and features, the unmistakable expression of intense relief +that stole into the countenance? +</P> + +<P> +"Will you be so good as to tell me my lover's name, and where the fox +terriers of the law unearthed him?" +</P> + +<P> +"I will tell you something which you do not already know; that I have +found a clue, that I shall hunt him out, hide, crouch where he may; +that here, where he sinned, he shall expiate his crime, and that when +your lover is hung, your name, your honor, shall be vindicated. So +much, Lennox Dunbar promises you, on his honor as a gentleman." +</P> + +<P> +"Words, vapid words! Empty, worthless as last year's nests. My lover," +she laughed scornfully, "is quite safe even from your malevolence. If +indeed 'one touch of nature makes the whole world kin,' one might +expect some pity from the guild of love swains; and it augurs sadly for +Miss Gordon's future, that the spell is so utterly broken." +</P> + +<P> +His dark face reddened, lowered. +</P> + +<P> +"If you please, we will keep Miss Gordon's name out of the +conversation, and hereafter when—" +</P> + +<P> +"Enough! I shall keep her image in my grateful heart, the few tedious +months I have to live; and there seems indeed a sort of poetic justice +in the fact that the bride you covet, has become the truest, tenderest +friend of the hapless girl whom you are prosecuting for murder." +</P> + +<P> +"Beryl—" +</P> + +<P> +"I forbid such insolent presumption! You shall not utter the name my +father gave me. It is holy as my baptism; it must be kept unsullied for +my lover's lips to fondle. This is your last visit here, for if you +dare to intrude again, I will demand protection from the warden. I will +bear no more." +</P> + +<P> +As he looked at her, the witchery of her youthful loveliness, +heightened by the angry sparkle in her deep eyes, by the vivid +carnation of her curling lips, mastered him; and when he thought of the +brown-haired woman to whom he was pledged, he set his teeth tight, to +smother an execration. He moved toward the door, paused, and came back. +</P> + +<P> +"Will it comfort you to know that I suffer even more than you do; that +I am plunged into a fiercer purgatory than that to which I have +condemned you? I am devoured by regret; but I will atone. I came here +as your friend; I can never be less, and in defiance of your hatred, I +shall prove my sincerity. Because I bemoan my rash haste, will you say +good-bye kindly? Some day, perhaps, you will understand." +</P> + +<P> +He held out his hand, and his blue eyes lost their steely glitter, +filled with a prayer for pardon. +</P> + +<P> +She picked up the bouquet which had fallen from the window sill to the +floor, and without hesitation put it into his fingers: +</P> + +<P> +"I think I understand all that words could ever explain. My short +stream of life is very near the great ocean of rest. I have ceased to +struggle, ceased to hope; and since the end is so close, I wish no +active warfare even with those who wronged me most foully. If you will +spare me the sight of you, I will try to forget the added misery of the +visits you have forced upon me, and perhaps some of the bitterness may +die out. Take the flowers to Miss Gordon; leave no trace to remind me +of your persecution. We bear chastisement because we must, but the +sight of the rod renews the sting; so, henceforth, I hope to see you no +more. When we meet before our God, I may have a new heart, swept clean +of earthly hate, but until then—until then—" +</P> + +<P> +He caught her fingers, crushed his lips against them, and walked from +the room, leaving the bouquet a shattered mass of perfume in the middle +of the floor. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap16"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVI. +</H3> + +<P> +Standing before Leon Gerome's tragic picture, and listening to the +sepulchral echo that floats down the arcade of centuries. "Ave, +Imperator, morituri te salutant," nineteenth century womanhood frowns, +and deplores the brutal depravity which alone explains the presence of +that white-veiled vestal band, whose snowy arms are thrust in signal +over the parapet of the bloody arena; yet fair daughters of the latest +civilization show unblushing flower faces among the heaving mass of the +"great unwashed" who crowd our court-rooms—and listen to revolting +details more repugnant to genuine modesty, than the mangled remains in +the Colosseum. The rosy thumbs of Roman vestals were potent ballots in +the Eternal City, and possibly were thrown only in the scale of mercy; +but having no voice in verdicts, to what conservative motive may be +ascribed the presence of women at criminal trials? Are the children of +Culture, the heiresses of "all the ages", really more refined than the +proud old dames of the era of Spartacus? +</P> + +<P> +Is the spectacle of mere physical torture, in gladiatorial combats, or +in the bloody precincts of plaza de toros, as grossly demoralizing as +the loathsome minutiae of heinous crimes upon which legal orators +dilate; and which Argus reporters, with magnifying lenses at every eye, +reproduce for countless newspapers, that serve as wings for +transporting moral dynamite to hearthstones and nurseries all over our +land? Is there a distinction, without a difference, between police +gazettes and the journalistic press? +</P> + +<P> +If extremes meet, and the march of human progress be along no asymtotic +line, is the day very distant when we shall welcome the Renaissance of +that wisdom which two thousand years ago held its august tribunal in +the solemn hours of night, when darkness hid from the Judges everything +save well-authenticated facts? The supreme aim of civil and criminal +law being the conservation of national and individual purity, to what +shall we attribute the paradox presented in its administration, whereby +its temples become lairs of libel, their moral atmosphere defiled by +the monstrous vivisection of parental character by children, the +slaughter of family reputation, the exhaustive analysis of every +species of sin forbidden by the Decalogue, and floods of vulgar +vituperation dreadful as the Apocalyptic vials? Can this generation +</P> + +<P> + "—in the foremost files of time—"<BR> +</P> + +<P> +afford to believe that a grim significance lurks in the desuetude of +typical judicial ermine? +</P> + +<P> +Traditions of ante bellum custom proclaimed that "good society" in the +town of X—, formerly considered the precincts of courts as unfit for +ladies as the fetid air of morgues, or the surgical instruments on +dissecting tables; but the vanguard of cosmopolitan freedom and +progress had pitched tents in the old-fashioned place, and recruited +rapidly from the ranks of the invaded; hence it came to pass, that on +the second day of the murder trial, when the preliminaries of jury +empanelling had been completed, and all were ready to launch the case, +X—announced its social emancipation from ancient canons of decorum, by +the unwonted spectacle of benches crowded with "ladies", whose silken +garments were crushed against the coarser fabrics of proletariat. +Despite the piercing cold of a morning late in February, the mass of +human furnaces had raised the temperature to a degree that encouraged +the fluttering of fans, and necessitated the order that no additional +spectators should be admitted. +</P> + +<P> +Viewed through the leaden haze of fearful anticipation, the horror of +the impending trial had seemed unendurable to the proud and sensitive +girl, whom the Sheriff placed on a seat fronting the sea of curious +faces, the battery of scrutinizing eyes turned on her from the +jury-box. Four months of dread had unnerved her, yet now when the cruel +actuality seized her in its iron grasp, that superb strength which the +inevitable lends to conscious innocence, so steeled and fortified her, +that she felt lifted to some lonely height, where numbness eased her +aching wounds. +</P> + +<P> +Pallid and motionless, she sat like a statue, save for the slow strokes +of her right hand upon the red gold of her mother's ring; and the sound +of a man's voice reading a formula, seemed to echo from an immeasurable +distance. She had consented to, had deliberately accepted the worst +possible fate, and realized the isolation of her lot; but for one thing +she was not prepared, and its unexpectedness threatened to shiver her +calmness. Two women made their way toward her: Dyce and Sister Serena. +The former sat down in the rear of the prisoner, the latter stood for a +few seconds, and her thin delicate hand fell upon the girl's shoulder. +At sight of the sweet, placid countenance below the floating white +muslin veil, Beryl's lips quivered into a sad smile; and as they shook +hands she whispered: +</P> + +<P> +"I believe even the gallows will not frighten you two from my side." +</P> + +<P> +Sister Serena seated herself as close as possible, drew from her pocket +a gray woollen stocking, and began to knit. For an instant Beryl's eyes +closed, to shut in the sudden gush of grateful tears; when she opened +them, Mr. Churchill had risen: +</P> + +<P> +"May it please the Court, Gentlemen of the Jury: If fidelity to duty +involved no sacrifice of personal feeling, should we make it the +touchstone of human character, value it as the most precious jewel in +the crown of human virtues? I were less than a man, immeasurably less +than a gentleman, were I capable of addressing you to-day, in obedience +to the behests of justice, and in fulfilment of the stern requirements +of my official position, without emotions of profound regret, that +implacable Duty, to whom I have sworn allegiance, forces me to hush the +pleading whispers of my pitying heart, to smother the tender instincts +of human sympathy, and to listen only to the solemn mandate of those +laws, which alone can secure to our race the enjoyment of life, liberty +and property. An extended professional career has hitherto furnished me +no parallel for the peculiarly painful exigencies of this occasion; and +an awful responsibility scourges me with scorpion lash to a most +unwelcome task. When man crosses swords with man on any arena, innate +pride nerves his arm and kindles enthusiasm, but alas, for the man! be +he worthy the name, who draws his blade and sees before him a young, +helpless, beautiful woman, disarmed. Were it not a bailable offence in +the court of honor, if his arm fell palsied? Each of you who has a +mother, a wife, a lily browed daughter, put yourself in my place, lend +me your sympathy; and at least applaud the loyalty that strangles all +individuality, and renders me bound thrall of official duty. Counsel +for the defence has been repeatedly offered, nay, pressed upon the +prisoner, but as often persistently rejected; hence the almost +paralyzing repugnance with which I approach my theme. +</P> + +<P> +"The Grand Jury of the county, at its last sitting, returned to this +court a bill of indictment, charging the prisoner at the bar with the +wilful, deliberate and premeditated murder of Robert Luke Darrington, +by striking him with a brass andiron. To this indictment she has +pleaded 'Not Guilty,' and stands before her God and this community for +trial. Gentlemen of the jury, you represent this commonwealth, jealous +of the inviolability of its laws, and by virtue of your oaths, you are +solemnly pledged to decide upon her guilt or innocence, in strict +accordance with the evidence that may be laid before you. In fulfilling +this sacred duty, you will, I feel assured, be governed exclusively by +a stern regard to the demands of public justice. While it taxes our +reluctant credulity to believe that a crime so hideous could have been +committed by a woman's hand, could have been perpetrated without +provocation, within the borders of our peaceful community, +nevertheless, the evidence we shall adduce must inevitably force you to +the melancholy conclusion that the prisoner at the bar is guilty of the +offence, with which she stands charged. The indictment which you are +about to try, charges Beryl Brentano with the murder. +</P> + +<P> +"In outlining the evidence which will be presented in support of this +indictment, I earnestly desire that you will give me your dispassionate +and undivided attention; and I call God to witness, that disclaiming +personal animosity and undue zeal for vengeance, I am sorrowfully +indicating as an officer of the law, a path of inquiry, that must lead +you to that goal where, before the altar of Truth, Justice swings her +divine scales, and bids Nemesis unsheathe her sword. +</P> + +<P> +"On the afternoon of October the twenty-sixth, about three o'clock, a +stranger arrived in X—and inquired of the station agent what road +would carry her to 'Elm Bluff', the home of General Darrington; +assuring him she would return in time to take the north-bound train at +7.15, as urgent business necessitated her return. Demanding an +interview with Gen'l Darrington, she was admitted, incognito, and +proclaimed herself his granddaughter, sent hither by a sick mother, to +procure a certain sum of money required for specified purposes. That +the interview was stormy, was characterized by fierce invective on her +part, and by bitter denunciation and recrimination on his, is too well +established to admit of question; and they parted implacable foes, as +is attested by the fact that he drove her from his room through a rear +and unfrequented door, opening into a flower garden, whence she +wandered over the grounds until she found the gate. The vital import of +this interview lies in the great stress Gen'l Darrington placed upon +the statement he iterated and reiterated; that he had disinherited his +daughter, and drawn up a will bequeathing his entire estate to his +step-son Prince. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Brentano did not leave X—at 7.15, though she had ample time to +do so, after quitting 'Elm Bluff'. She loitered about the station house +until nearly half-past eight, then disappeared. At 10 P.M. she was seen +and identified by a person who had met her at 'Elm Bluff', crouching +behind a tree near the road that led to that ill-fated house, and when +questioned regarding her presence there, gave unsatisfactory answers. +At half-past two o'clock she was next seen hastening toward the station +office, along the line of the railroad, from the direction of the water +tank, which is situated nearly a mile north of town. Meanwhile an +unusually severe storm had been followed by a drenching rain, and the +stranger's garments were wet, when, after a confused and contradictory +account of her movements, she boarded the 3.05 train bound north. +</P> + +<P> +"During that night, certainly after ten o'clock, Gen'l Darrington was +murdered. His vault was forced open, money was stolen, and most +significant of all, the WILL was abstracted. Criminal jurisprudence +holds that the absence of motive renders nugatory much weighty +testimony. In this melancholy cause, could a more powerful motive be +imagined than that which goaded the prisoner to dip her fair hands in +her grandfather's blood, in order to possess and destroy that will, +which stood as an everlasting barrier between her and the estate she +coveted? +</P> + +<P> +"Crimes are referrible to two potent passions of the human soul; +malice, engendering thirst for revenge, and the insatiable lust of +money. If that old man had died a natural death, leaving the will he +had signed, his property would have belonged to the adopted son, to +whom he bequeathed it, and Mrs. Brentano and her daughter would have +remained paupers. Cut off by assassination, and with no record of his +last wishes in existence, the beloved son is bereft of his legacy, and +Beryl Brentano and her mother inherit the blood-bought riches they +covet. When arrested, gold coins and jewels identified as those +formerly deposited in Gen'l Darrington's vault, were found in +possession of the prisoner; and as if every emissary of fate were armed +with warrants for her detection, a handkerchief bearing her initials, +and saturated with the chloroform which she had administered to her +victim, was taken from the pillow, where his honored gray head rested, +when he slept his last sleep on earth. Further analysis would insult +your intelligence, and having very briefly laid before you the intended +line of testimony, I believe I have assigned a motive for this +monstrous crime, which must precipitate the vengeance of the law, in a +degree commensurate with its enormity. Time, opportunity, motive, when +in full accord, constitute a fatal triad, and the suspicious and +unexplainable conduct of the prisoner in various respects, furnishes, +in connection with other circumstances of this case, the strongest +presumptive evidence of her guilt. These circumstances, far beyond the +realm of human volition, smelted and shaped in the rolling mills of +destiny, form the tramway along which already the car of doom thunders; +and when they shall have been fully proved to you, by unassailable +testimony, no alternative remains but the verdict of guilty. Mournful +as is the duty, and awfully solemn the necessity that leaves the issue +of life and death in your hands, remember, gentlemen, Curran's immortal +words: 'A juror's oath is the adamantine chain that binds the integrity +of man to the throne of eternal justice'." +</P> + +<P> +No trace of emotion was visible on the prisoner's face, except at the +harsh mention of her mother's name; when a shudder was perceptible, as +in one where dentist's steel pierces a sensitive nerve. In order to +avoid the hundreds of eyes that stabbed her like merciless probes, her +own had been raised and fixed upon a portion of the cornice in the room +where a family of spiders held busy camp; but a fascination song +resisted, finally drew their gaze down to a seat near the bar, and she +encountered the steady, sorrowful regard of Mr. Dunbar. +</P> + +<P> +Two months had elapsed since the Christmas morning on which she had +rejected his floral offering, and during that weary season of waiting, +she had refused to see any visitors except Dyce and Sister Serena; +resolutely denying admittance to Miss Gordon. She knew that he had been +absent, had searched for some testimony in New York, and now meeting +his eyes, she saw a sudden change in their expression—a sparkle, a +smile of encouragement, a declaration of success. He fancied he +understood the shadow of dread that drifted over her face; and she +realized at that instant, that of all foes, she had most to apprehend +from the man who she knew loved her with an unreasoning and +ineradicable fervor. How much had he discovered? She could defy the +district solicitor, the judge, the jury; but only one method of +silencing the battery that was ambushed in those gleaming blue eyes +presented itself. To extinguish his jealousy, by removing the figment +of a rival, might rob him of the motive that explained his persistent +pursuit of the clue she had concealed; but it would simultaneously +demolish, also, the barrier that stretched between Miss Gordon's happy +heart and the bitter waves of a cruel disappointment. If assured that +her own affection was unpledged, would the bare form and ceremonial of +honor bind his allegiance to his betrothed? Absorbed in these +reflections, the prisoner became temporarily oblivious of the +proceedings; and it was not until Sister Serena touched her arm, that +she saw the vast throng was watching her, waiting for some reply. The +Judge repeated his question: +</P> + +<P> +"Is it the desire of the prisoner to answer the presentation of the +prosecution? Having refused professional defence, you now have the +option of addressing the Court." +</P> + +<P> +"Let the prosecution proceed." +</P> + +<P> +There was no quiver in her voice, as cold, sweet and distinct it found +its way to the extremity of the wide apartment; yet therein lurked no +defiance. She resumed her seat, and her eyes sank, until the long black +fringes veiled their depths. Unperceived, Judge Dent had found a seat +behind her, and leaning forward he whispered: +</P> + +<P> +"Will you permit me to speak for you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you—no." +</P> + +<P> +"But it cuts me to the heart to see you so forsaken, so helpless." +</P> + +<P> +"God is my helper; He will not forsake me." +</P> + +<P> +The first witness called and sworn was Doctor Ledyard, the physician +who for many years had attended General Darrington; and who testified +that when summoned to examine the body of deceased, on the morning of +the inquest, he had found it so rigid that at least eight hours must +have elapsed since life became extinct. Had discovered no blood stains, +and only two contusions, one on the right temple, where a circular +black spot was conspicuous, and a bluish bruise over the region of the +heart. He had visited deceased on the morning of previous day, and he +then appeared much better, and almost relieved of rheumatism and pains +attributable to an old wound in the right knee. The skull had not been +fractured by the blow on the temple, but witness believed it had caused +death; and the andiron, which he identified as the one found on the +floor close to the deceased, was so unusually massive, he was positive +that if hurled with any force, it would produce a fatal result. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Churchill: "Did you at that examination detect any traces of +chloroform?" +</P> + +<P> +"There was an odor of chloroform very perceptible when we lifted the +hair to examine the skull; and on searching the room, we found a vial +which had contained chloroform, and was beside the pillow, where a +portion had evidently leaked out." +</P> + +<P> +"Could death have occurred in consequence of inhaling that chloroform?" +</P> + +<P> +"If so, the deceased could never have risen, and would have been found +in his bed; moreover, the limbs were drawn up, and bent into a position +totally inconsistent with any theory of death produced by anaesthetics; +and the body was rigid as iron." +</P> + +<P> +The foregoing testimony was confirmed by that of Doctor Cranmar, a +resident physician, who had been summoned by the Coroner to assist +Doctor Ledyard in the examination, reported formally at the inquest. +</P> + +<P> +"Here, gentlemen of the jury, is the fatal weapon with which a woman's +hand, supernaturally nerved in the struggle for gain, struck down, +destroyed a venerable old man, an honored citizen, whose gray hairs +should have shielded him from the murderous assault of a mercenary +adventuress. Can she behold without a shudder, this tell-tale +instrument of her monstrous crime?" +</P> + +<P> +High above his head, Mr. Churchill raised the old-fashioned andiron, +and involuntarily Beryl glanced at the quaint brass figure, cast in the +form of a unicorn, with a heavy ball surmounting the horn. +</P> + +<P> +"Abednego Darrington!" +</P> + +<P> +Sullen, crestfallen and woe-begone was the demeanor of the old negro, +who had been brought vi et armis by a constable, from the seclusion of +a corner of the "Bend Plantation", where he had secreted himself, to +avoid the shame of bearing testimony against his mistress' child. When +placed on the witness stand, he crossed his arms over his chest, +planted his right foot firmly in advance, and fixed his eyes on the +leather strings that tied his shoes. +</P> + +<P> +After some unimportant preliminaries, the District Solicitor asked: +</P> + +<P> +"When did you first see the prisoner, who now sits before you?" +</P> + +<P> +"When she come to our house, the evening before ole Marster died." +</P> + +<P> +"You admitted her to your Master's presence?" +</P> + +<P> +"I never tuck no sech libberties. He tole me to let her in." +</P> + +<P> +"You carried her to his room?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"About what time of the day was it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't know." +</P> + +<P> +"Gen'l Darrington always dined at three o'clock. Was it before or after +dinner?" +</P> + +<P> +"After." +</P> + +<P> +"How long was the prisoner in the General's room?" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't know." +</P> + +<P> +"Did she leave the house by the front door, or the side door?" +</P> + +<P> +"Can't say. Didn't see her when she come out." +</P> + +<P> +"About how long was she in the house?" +</P> + +<P> +"I totes no watch, and I never had no luck guessing. I'm shore to land +wrong." +</P> + +<P> +"Was it one hour or two?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mebbe more, mebbe less." +</P> + +<P> +"Where were you during that visit?" +</P> + +<P> +"Feedin' my game pullets in the backyard." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you hear any part of the conversation between the prisoner and +Gen'l Darrington?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir! I'm above the meanness of eavesdrapping." +</P> + +<P> +"How did you learn that she was the granddaughter of Gen'l Darrington?" +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Angerline, the white 'oman what mends and sews, come to the back +piazer, and beckoned me to run there. She said ther must be a 'high ole +fracas', them was her words, agoin' on in Marster's room, for he was +cussin' and swearin', and his granddaughter was jawing back very +vicious. Sez I, 'Who'? Sez she, 'His granddaughter; that is Ellice's +chile'. Sez I, 'How do you know so much'? Sez she, 'I was darning them +liberry curtains, and I couldn't help hearing the wrangle'. Sez I, 'You +picked a oncommon handy time to tackle them curtains; they must be +mighty good to cure the ear-itch'. She axed me if I didn't see the +family favor in the 'oman's face; and I tole her no, but I would see +for myself. Sez she, to me, 'No yow won't, for the Gen'l is in a +tearing rage, and he's done drove her out, and kicked and slammed the +doors. She's gone.'" +</P> + +<P> +"Then you did not see her?" +</P> + +<P> +"I went to the front piazer, and I seen her far down the lawn, but +Marster rung his bell so savage, I had to run back to him." +</P> + +<P> +"Did he tell you the prisoner was his granddaughter?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you mention the fact to him?" +</P> + +<P> +"I wouldn't 'a dared to meddle with his fambly bizness!" +</P> + +<P> +"He appeared very angry and excited?" +</P> + +<P> +"He 'peard to want some ole Conyyac what was in the sideboard, and I +brung the bottle to him." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you remember whether his vault in the wall was open, when you +answered the bell?" +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't notice it." +</P> + +<P> +"Where did you sleep that night?" +</P> + +<P> +"On a pallet in the middle passage, nigh the star steps." +</P> + +<P> +"Was that your usual custom?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir. But the boy what had been sleepin' in the house while ole +Marster was sick, had gone to set up with his daddy's corpse, and I +tuck his place." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you hear any unusual noise during the night?" +</P> + +<P> +"Only the squalling of the pea-fowul what was oncommon oneasy, and the +thunder that was ear-splitting. One clap was so tremenjous it raised me +plum off'en the pallet, and jarred me to my backbone, as if a cannon +had gone off close by." +</P> + +<P> +"Now, Bedney, state carefully all the circumstances under which you +found your master the next morning; and remember you are on your oath, +to speak the truth, and all the truth." +</P> + +<P> +"He was a early riser, and always wanted his shavin' water promp'. When +his bell didn't ring, I thought the storm had kep' him awake, and he +was having a mornin' nap, to make up for lost time. The clock had +struck eight, and the cook said as how the steak and chops was as dry +as a bone from waitin', and so I got the water and went to Marster's +door. It was shet tight, and I knocked easy. He never answered; so I +knocked louder; and thinkin' somethin' was shorely wrong, I opened the +door—" +</P> + +<P> +"Go on. What did you find?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mars Alfred, sir, it's very harryfyin to my feelins." +</P> + +<P> +"Go on. You are required to state all you saw, all you know." +</P> + +<P> +Bedney drew back his right foot, advanced his left. Took out his +handkerchief, wiped his face and refolded his arms. +</P> + +<P> +"My Marster was layin' on the rug before the fireplace, and his knees +was all drawed up. His right arm, was stretched out, so—and his left +hand was all doubled up. I know'd he was dead, before I tetched him, +for his face was set; and pinched and blue. I reckon I hollered, but I +can't say, for the next thing I knowed, the horsler and the cook, and +Miss Angerline, and Dyce, my ole 'oman, and Gord knows who all, was +streamin' in and out and screamin'." +</P> + +<P> +"What was the condition of the room?" +</P> + +<P> +"The front window was up, and the blinds was flung wide open, and a +cheer was upside clown close to it. The red vases what stood on the +fire-place mantle was smashed on the carpet, and the handi'on was close +to Marster's right hand. The vault was open, and papers was strowed +plentiful round on the floor under it. Then the neighburs and the +Doctor, and the Crowner come runnin' in, and I sot down by the bed and +cried like a chile. Pretty soon they turned us all out and hilt the +inquess." +</P> + +<P> +"You do not recollect any other circumstance?" +</P> + +<P> +"The lamp on the table was burnin'—and ther' wan't much oil left in +it. I seen Miss Angerline blow it out, after the Doctor come." +</P> + +<P> +"Who found the chloroform vial?" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't know." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you hear any name mentioned as that of the murderer?" +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Angerline tole the Crowner, that ef the will was missin', Gen'l +Darrington's granddaughter had stole it. They two, with some other +gentleman, sarched the vault, and Miss Angerline said everything was +higgledy piggledy and no will there." +</P> + +<P> +"You testified before the Coroner?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Why did you not give him the handkerchief you found?" +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't have it then." +</P> + +<P> +"When and where did you get it? Be very careful now." +</P> + +<P> +For the first time Bedney raised his eyes toward the place where Dyce +sat near the prisoner, and he hesitated. He took some tobacco from his +vest pocket, stowed it away in the hollow of his cheek, and re-crossed +his arms. +</P> + +<P> +"When Marster was dressed, and they carried him out to the +drawing-room, Dyce was standin' cryin' by the fireplace, and I went to +the bed, and put my hand under the bolster, where Marster always kep' +his watch and his pistol. The watch was ther' but no pistol; and just +sorter stuffed under the pillow case—was, a hank'cher. I tuk the watch +straight to the gentlemen in the drawin'-room, and they come back and +sarched for the pistol, and we foun' it layin' in its case in the table +draw'. Of all the nights in his life, ole Marster had forgot to lay his +pistol handy." +</P> + +<P> +"Never mind about the pistol. What became of the handkerchief?" +</P> + +<P> +"When I picked it up, an injun-rubber stopper rolled out, and as ther' +wan't no value in a hank'cher, I saw no harm in keepin' it—for a'mento +of ole Marster's death." +</P> + +<P> +"You knew it was a lady's handkerchief." +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir! I didn't know it then; and what's more, I don't know it now." +</P> + +<P> +"Is not this the identical handkerchief you found?" +</P> + +<P> +"Cant say. 'Dentical is a ticklish trap for a pusson on oath. It do +look like it, to be shore; but two seed in a okrey pod is ezactly +alike, and one is one, and t'other is t'other." +</P> + +<P> +"Look at it. To the best of your knowledge and belief it is the +identical handkerchief you found on Gen'l Darrington's pillow?" +</P> + +<P> +"What I found had red specks sewed in the border, and this seems jest +like it; but I don't sware to no dentical—'cause I means to be +kereful; and I will stand to the aidge of my oath; but—Mars +Alfred—don't shove me over it." +</P> + +<P> +"Can't you read?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir; I never hankered after book-larnin' tomfoolery, and other +freedom frauds." +</P> + +<P> +"You know your A B C's?" +</P> + +<P> +"No more 'n a blind mule." +</P> + +<P> +As the solicitor took from the table in front of the jury box, the +embroidered square of cambric, and held it up by two corners, every eye +in the court-room fastened upon it; and a deadly faintness seized the +prisoner, whitening lips that hitherto had kept their scarlet outlines. +</P> + +<P> +"Gentlemen of the jury, if the murdered man could stand before you, for +one instant only, his frozen finger would point to the fatal letters +which destiny seems to have left as a bloody brand. Here in indelible +colors are wrought 'B. B.'!—Beryl Brentano. Do you wonder, gentlemen, +that when this overwhelming evidence of her guilt came into my +possession, compassion for a beautiful woman was strangled by supreme +horror, in the contemplation of the depravity of a female monster? If +these crimson letters were gaping wounds, could their bloody lips more +solemnly accuse yonder blanched, shuddering, conscience-stricken woman +of the sickening crime of murdering her aged, infirm grandfather, from +whose veins she drew the red tide that now curdles at her heart?" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap17"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVII. +</H3> + +<P> +As the third day of the trial wore away, the dense crowd in the +court-room became acquainted with the sensation of having been unjustly +defrauded of the customary public peruisite; because the monotonous +proceedings were entirely devoid of the spirited verbal duels, the +microscopic hair splitting, the biting sarcasms of opposing counsel, +the brow-beating of witnesses, the tenacious wrangling over invisible +legal points, which usually vary and spice the routine and stimulate +the interest of curious spectators. When a spiritless fox disdains to +double, and stands waiting for the hounds, who have only to rend it, +hunters feel cheated, and deem it no chase. +</P> + +<P> +To the impatient spectators, it appeared a very tame, one-sided, and +anomalous trial, where like a slow stream the evidences of guilt oozed, +and settled about the prisoner, who challenged the credibility of no +witness, and waived all the privileges of cross-examination. Now and +then, the audience criticised in whispers the "undue latitude" allowed +by the Judge, to the District Solicitor; but their "exceptions" were +informal, and the prosecution received no serious or important rebuff. +</P> + +<P> +Was the accused utterly callous, or paralyzed by consciousness of her +crime; or biding her time for a dramatic outburst of vindicating +testimony? To her sensitive nature, the ordeal of sitting day after day +to be stared at by a curious and prejudiced public, was more torturing +than the pangs of Marsyas; and she wondered whether a courageous Roman +captive who was shorn of his eyelids, and set under the blistering sun +of Africa, suffered any more keenly; but motionless, apparently +impassive as a stone mask, on whose features pitiless storms beat in +vain, she bore without wincing the agony of her humiliation. Very white +and still, she sat hour by hour with downcast eyes, and folded hands; +and those who watched most closely could detect only one change of +position; now and then she raised her clasped hands, and rested her +lips a moment on the locked fingers, then dropped them wearily on her +lap. +</P> + +<P> +Even when a juryman asked two searching questions of a witness, she +showed no sign of perturbation, and avoided meeting the eyes in the +jury-box, as though they belonged to basilisks. Was it only three days +since the beginning of this excruciating martyrdom of soul; and how +much longer could she endure silently, and keep her reason? +</P> + +<P> +At times, Sister Serena's hand forsook the knitting, to lay a soft, +caressing touch of encouragement and sympathy on the girl's shoulder; +and Dyce's burning indignation vented itself in frequent audible +grating of her strong white teeth. So passed Monday, Tuesday, +Wednesday, in the examination of witnesses who recapitulated all that +had been elicited at the preliminary investigation; and each nook and +cranny of recollection in the mind of Anthony Burk, the station agent; +of Belshazzer Tatem, the lame gardener; of lean and acrid Miss +Angeline, the seamstress, was illuminated by the lurid light of Mr. +Churchill's adroit interrogation. Thus far, the prosecution had been +conducted by the District Solicitor, with the occasional assistance of +Mr. Wolverton, who, in conjunction with Mr. Dunbar, had appeared as +representative of the Darrington estate, and its legal heir, Prince; +and when court adjourned on Wednesday, the belief was generally +entertained that no defence was possible; and that at the last moment, +the prisoner would confess her crime, and appeal to the mercy of the +jury. As the deputy sheriff led his prisoner toward the rear entrance, +where stood the dismal funereal black wagon in which she was brought +from prison to court, Judge Dent came quickly to meet her. +</P> + +<P> +"My niece, Miss Gordon, could not, of course, come into the court-room, +but she is here in the library, with her aunt, and desires to see you +for a moment?" +</P> + +<P> +"Tell her I am grateful for her kind motives, but I wish to see no one +now." +</P> + +<P> +"For your own sake, consider the—ah! here is my niece." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope you need no verbal assurance of my deep sympathy, and my +constant prayers," said Leo, taking one passive hand between hers, and +pressing it warmly. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Gordon, I am comforted by your compassion, and by your unwavering +confidence in a stranger whom your townsmen hold up as a 'female +monster'. Because I so profoundly realize how good you are, I am +unwilling that you should identify yourself with my hopeless cause. My +sufferings will soon be over, and then I want no shadowy reflex cast +upon the smiling blue sky of your future. I have nothing more to lose, +save the burden of a life—that I shall be glad to lay down; but you—! +Be careful, do not jeopardize your beautiful dream of happiness." +</P> + +<P> +"Why do you persist in rejecting the overtures of those who could +assist, who might successfully defend you? I beg of you, consent to +receive and confer with counsel, even to-night." +</P> + +<P> +"You will never understand why I must not, till the earth gives up her +dead. You tremble, because only one more link can be added to the chain +that is coiling about my neck, and that link is the testimony of the +man whose name you expect to bear. Miss Gordon"—she stooped closer, +and whispered slowly: "Do not upbraid your lover; be tender, cling to +him; and afford me the consolation of knowing that the unfortunate +woman you befriended, and trusted, cast not even a fleeting shadow +between your heart and his. Pray for me, that I may be patient and +strong. God bless you." +</P> + +<P> +Turning swiftly, she hurried on to the officer, who had courteously +withdrawn a few yards distant. As he opened the door of the wagon, he +handed her a loosely folded sheet of paper. +</P> + +<P> +"I promised to deliver your answer as soon as possible." +</P> + +<P> +By aid of the red glow, burning low in the western sky, she read: +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Dunbar requests that for her own sake, Miss Brentano will grant +him an interview this evening." +</P> + +<P> +"My answer must necessarily be verbal. Say that I will see no one." +</P> + +<P> +To the solitude and darkness of prison she fled for relief, as into +some merciful sheltering arms; and not even the loving solicitude of +Mrs. Singleton was permitted to penetrate her seclusion, or share her +dreary vigil. Another sleepless night dragged its leaden hours to meet +the dawn, bringing no rest to the desolate soul, who silently grappled +with fate, while every womanly instinct shuddered at the loathsome +degradation forced upon her. Face downward on her hard, narrow cot, she +recalled the terrible accusations, the opprobrious epithets, and +tearless, convulsive sobs of passionate protest shook her from head to +foot. +</P> + +<P> +Tortured with indignation and shame, at the insults heaped upon her, +yet sternly resolved to endure silently, these nights were veritable +stations along her Via Dolorosa; and fortified her for the daily +flagellation in front of the jury-box. +</P> + +<P> +On Thursday a slow, sleeting rain enveloped the world in a gray cowl, +bristling with ice needles; yet when Judge Parkman took his seat at +nine o'clock, there was a perceptible increase in the living mass, +packed in every available inch of space. +</P> + +<P> +For the first time, Mr. Dunbar's seat between his colleagues was +vacant; and Mr. Churchill and Mr. Wolverton were conversing in an +animated whisper. +</P> + +<P> +Clad in mourning garments, and with a long crape veil put back from her +face, the prisoner was escorted to her accustomed place; and braced by +a supreme effort for the critical hour, which she felt assured was at +hand, her pale set features gleamed like those of a marble statue +shrouded in black. +</P> + +<P> +Called to the stand, Simon Frisby testified that "he was telegraph +operator, and night train despatcher for railway in X—. On October the +twenty-sixth, had just gone on duty at 8 P.M. at the station, when +prisoner came in, and sent a telegram to New York. A copy of that +message had been surrendered to the District Solicitor. Witness had +remained all night in his office, which adjoined the ladies' +waiting-room, and his attention having been attracted by the unusual +fact that it was left open and lighted, he had twice gone to the door +and looked in, but saw no one. Thought the last inspection was about +two o'clock, immediately after he had sent a message to the conductor +on train No. 4. Saw prisoner when she came in, a half hour later, and +heard the conversation between her and Burk, the station agent. Was +very positive prisoner could not have been in the ladies' waiting-room +during the severe storm." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Churchill read aloud the telegram addressed to Mrs. Ignace +Brentano: "Complete success required delay. All will be satisfactory. +Expect me Saturday. B. B." +</P> + +<P> +He commented on its ambiguous phraseology, sent the message to the jury +for inspection, and resumed his chair. +</P> + +<P> +"Lennox Dunbar." +</P> + +<P> +Sister Serena's knitting fell from her fingers; Dyce groaned audibly, +and Judge Dent, sitting quite near, uttered a heavy sigh. The statue +throbbed into life, drew herself proudly up; and with a haughty poise +of the head, her grand eloquent gray eyes looked up at the witness, and +for the first time during the trial bore a challenge. For fully a +moment, eye met eye, soul looked into soul, with only a few feet of +space dividing prisoner from witness; and as the girl scanned the dark, +resolute, sternly chiselled face, cold, yet handsome as some faultless +bronze god, a singular smile unbent her frozen lips, and Judge Dent and +Sister Serena wondered what the scarcely audible ejaculation meant: +</P> + +<P> +"At the mercy of Tiberius!" +</P> + +<P> +No faintest reflection of the fierce pain at his heart could have been +discerned on that non-committal countenance; and as he turned to the +jury, his swart magnetic face appeared cruelly hard, sinister. +</P> + +<P> +"I first saw the prisoner at 'Elm Bluff', on the afternoon previous to +Gen'l Darrington's death. When I came out of the house, she was sitting +bareheaded on the front steps, fanning herself with her hat, and while +I was untying my horse, she followed Bedney into the library. The +blinds were open and I saw her pass the window, walking in the +direction of the bedroom." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Churchill: "At that time did you suspect her relationship to your +client, Gen'l Darrington?" +</P> + +<P> +"I did not." +</P> + +<P> +"What was the impression left upon your mind?" +</P> + +<P> +"That she was a distinguished stranger, upon some important errand." +</P> + +<P> +"She excited your suspicions at once?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing had occurred to justify suspicion. My curiosity was aroused. +Several hours later I was again at 'Elm Bluff' on legal business, and +found Gen'l Darrington much disturbed in consequence of an interview +with the prisoner, who, he informed me, was the child of his daughter, +whom he had many years previous disowned and disinherited. In referring +to this interview, his words were: 'I was harsh to the girl, so harsh +that she turned upon me, savage as a strong cub defending a crippled, +helpless dam. Mother and daughter know now that the last card has been +played; for I gave the girl distinctly to understand, that at my death +Prince would inherit every iota of my estate, and that my will had been +carefully written in order to cut them off without a cent.'" +</P> + +<P> +"You were led to infer that Gen'l Darrington had refused her +application for money?" +</P> + +<P> +"There was no mention of an application for money, hence I inferred +nothing." +</P> + +<P> +"During that conversation, the last which Gen'l Darrington held on +earth, did he not tell you he was oppressed by an awful presentiment +connected with his granddaughter?" +</P> + +<P> +"His words were: 'Somehow I am unable to get rid of the strange, +disagreeable presentiment that girl let behind her as a farewell +legacy. She stood there at the glass door, and raised her hand: 'Gen'l +Darrington, when you lie down to die, may God have more mercy on your +poor soul, than you have shown to your suffering child.' +</P> + +<P> +"I advised him to sleep off the disagreeable train of thought, and as I +bade him good night, his last words were: +</P> + +<P> +"'I shall write to Prince to come home.'" +</P> + +<P> +"What do you know concerning the contents of your client's will?" +</P> + +<P> +"The original will was drawn up by my father in 187-, but last May, +Gen'l Darrington required me to re-write it, as he wished to increase +the amount of a bequest to a certain charitable institution. The +provisions of the will were, that with the exception of various +specified legacies, his entire estate, real and personal, should be +given to his stepson Prince; and it was carefully worded, with the +avowed intention of barring all claims that might be presented by +Ellice Brentano or her heirs." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you recollect any allusion to jewelry?" +</P> + +<P> +"One clause of the will set aside a case of sapphire stones, with the +direction that whenever Prince Darrington married, they should be worn +by the lady as a bridal present from him." +</P> + +<P> +"Would you not deem it highly incompatible with all you know of the +Gen'l's relentless character, that said sapphires and money should have +been given to the prisoner?" +</P> + +<P> +"My surmises would be irrelevant and valueless to the Court; and facts, +indisputable facts, are all that should be required of witnesses." +</P> + +<P> +"When and where did you next see the prisoner?" +</P> + +<P> +Cold, crisp, carefully accentuated, his words fell like lead upon the +ears of all present, whose sympathies were enlisted for the desolate +woman; and as he stood, tall, graceful, with one hand thrust within his +vest, the other resting easily on the back of the bench near him, his +clear cut face so suggestive of metallic medallions, gave no more hint +of the smouldering flame at his heart than the glittering ice crown of +Eiriksjokull betrays the fierce lava tides beating beneath its frozen +crust. +</P> + +<P> +"At 10 o'clock on the same night, I saw the prisoner on the road +leading from town to 'Elm Bluff', and not farther than half a mile from +the cedar bridge spanning the 'branch', at the foot of the hill where +the iron gate stands." +</P> + +<P> +"She was then going in the direction of 'Elm Bluff?'" +</P> + +<P> +"She was sitting on the ground, with her head leaning against a pine +tree, but she rose as I approached." +</P> + +<P> +"As it was at night, is there a possibility of your having mistaken +some one else for the prisoner?" +</P> + +<P> +"None whatever. She wore no hat, and the moon shone full on her face." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you not question her about her presence there, at such an hour?" +</P> + +<P> +"I asked: 'Madam, you seem a stranger; have you lost your way?' She +answered, 'No, sir.' I added: 'Pardon me, but having seen you at "Elm +Bluff" this afternoon, I thought it possible you had missed the road.' +She made no reply, and I rode on to town." +</P> + +<P> +"She betrayed so much trepidation and embarrassment, that your +suspicion was at once aroused?" +</P> + +<P> +"She evinced neither trepidation nor embarrassment. Her manner was +haughty and repellent, as though designed to rebuke impertinence. Next +morning, when informed of the peculiar circumstances attending Gen'l +Darrington's death, I felt it incumbent upon me to communicate to the +magistrate the facts which I have just narrated." +</P> + +<P> +"An overwhelming conviction of the prisoner's guilt impelled you to +demand her arrest?" +</P> + +<P> +"Overwhelming conviction rarely results from merely circumstantial +evidence, but a combination of accusing circumstances certainly pointed +to the prisoner; and following their guidance, I am responsible for her +arrest and detention for trial. To the scrutiny of the Court I have +submitted every fact that influenced my action, and the estimate of +their value decided by the jurymen, must either confirm the cogency of +my reasoning, or condemn my rash fallibility. Having under oath +conscientiously given all the evidence in my possession, that the +prosecution would accept or desire, I now respectfully request, that +unless the prisoner chooses to exercise her right of cross-examination, +my colleagues of the prosecution, and his Honor, will grant me a final +discharge as witness." +</P> + +<P> +Turning toward Beryl, Judge Parkman said: +</P> + +<P> +"It is my duty again to remind you, that the cross-examination of +witnesses is one of the most important methods of defence; as thereby +inaccuracies of statement regarding time, place, etc., are often +detected in criminal prosecutions, which otherwise might remain +undiscovered. To this invaluable privilege of every defendant, I call +your attention once more. Will you cross-question the witness on the +stand?" +</P> + +<P> +Involuntarily her eyes sought those of the witness, and despite his +locked and guarded face, she read there an intimation that vaguely +disquieted her. She knew that the battle with him must yet be fought. +</P> + +<P> +"I waive the right." +</P> + +<P> +"Then, with the consent of the prosecuting counsel, witness is +discharged, subject to recall should the necessities of rebuttal demand +it." +</P> + +<P> +"By agreement with my colleagues, I ask for final discharge, subject to +your Honor's approval." +</P> + +<P> +"If in accordance with their wishes, the request is granted." +</P> + +<P> +The clock on the turret struck one, the hour of adjournment, and ere +recess was declared, Mr. Churchill rose. +</P> + +<P> +"Having now proved by trustworthy and unquestioned witnesses, a dark +array of facts, which no amount of additional testimony could either +strengthen, or controvert, the prosecution here rest their case before +the jury for inspection; and feeling assured that only one conclusion +can result, will call no other witness, unless required in rebuttal." +</P> + +<P> +Desiring to be alone, Beryl had shut out even Sister Serena, and as the +officer locked her into a dark antechamber, adjoining the court-room, +she began to pace the floor. One tall, narrow window, dim with inside +dust, showed her through filmy cobwebs the gray veil of rain falling +ceaselessly outside, darkening the day that seemed a fit type of her +sombre-hued life, drawing swiftly to its close, with no hope of rift in +the clouds, no possibility of sunset glow even to stain its grave. Oh! +to be hidden safely in mother earth—away from the gaping crowd that +thirsted for her blood!—at rest in darkness and in silence; with the +maddening stings of outraged innocence and womanly delicacy stilled +forever. Oh! the coveted peace of lying under the sod, with only +nodding daisies, whispering grasses, crystal chimes of vernal rain, +solemn fugue of wintry winds between her tired, aching eyes and the +fair, eternal heavens! Harrowing days and sleepless, horror-haunted +nights, invincible sappers and miners, had robbed her of strength; and +the uncontrollable shivering that now and then seized her, warned her +that her nerves were in revolt against the unnatural strain. The end +was not far distant, she must endure a little longer; but that last +battle with Mr. Dunbar? On what ground, with what weapons would he +force her to fight? Kneeling in front of a wooden bench that lined one +side of the room, she laid her head on the seat, covered her face with +her hands, and prayed for guidance, for divine help in her hour of +supreme desolation. +</P> + +<P> +"God of the helpless, succor me in my need. Forbid that through +weakness the sacrifice should be incomplete. Lead, sustain, fortify me +with patience, that I may ransom the soul I have promised to save." +</P> + +<P> +After a time, when she resumed her walk, a strange expedient presented +itself. If she sent for Mr. Dunbar, exacted an oath of secrecy, and +confided the truth to his keeping, would it avail to protect her +secret; would it silence him? Could she stoop so low as to throw +herself upon his mercy? Therein lay the nauseous lees of her cup of +humiliation; yet if she drained this last black drop, would any pledge +have power to seal his lips, when he saw that she must die? +</P> + +<P> +The deputy sheriff unlocked the door, and she mechanically followed him. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish you would drink this glass of wine. You look so exhausted, and +the air in yonder is so close, it is enough to stifle a mole. This will +help to brace you up." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you very much, but I could not take it. I can bear my wrongs +even to the end, and that must be very near." +</P> + +<P> +As he ushered her into the court-room, Judge Dent met her, took her +hand, and led her to the seat where Dyce and Sister Serena awaited her +return. +</P> + +<P> +"My poor child, be courageous now; and remember that you have some +friends here, who are praying God to help and deliver you." +</P> + +<P> +"Did He deliver His own Son from the pangs of death? Pray, that I may +be patient to endure." +</P> + +<P> +One swift glance, showed her that Mr. Dunbar, forsaking his former +place beside the district attorney, was sitting very near, just in +front of her. The jurymen filed slowly into their accustomed seats, and +the judge, who had been resting his head on his hand, straightened +himself, and put aside a book. There was an ominous hush pervading the +dense crowd, and in that moment of silent expectancy, Beryl shut her +eyes and communed with her God. Some mystical exaltation of soul +removed her from the realm of nervous dread; and a peace, that this +world neither gives nor takes away, settled upon her. Sister Serena +untied and took off the crape veil and bonnet, and as she resumed her +seat, Judge Parkman turned to the prisoner. +</P> + +<P> +"In assuming the responsibility of your own defence you have adopted a +line of policy which, however satisfactory to yourself, must, in the +opinion of the public, have a tendency to invest your cause with +peculiar peril; therefore I impress upon you the fact, that while the +law holds you innocent, until twelve men agree that the evidence proves +you guilty, the time has arrived when your cause depends upon your +power to refute the charges, and disprove the alleged facts arrayed +against you. The discovery and elucidation of Truth, is the supreme aim +of a court of justice, and to its faithful ministers the defence of +innocence is even more imperative than the conviction of guilt. The law +is a Gibraltar, fortified and armed by the consummate wisdom of +successive civilizations, as an impregnable refuge for innocence; and +here, within its protecting bulwarks, as in the house of a friend, you +are called on to plead your defence. You have heard the charges of the +prosecution; listened to the testimony of the witnesses; and having +taken your cause into your own hands, you must now stand up and defend +it." +</P> + +<P> +She rose and walked a few steps closer to the jury, and for the first +time during the trial, looked at them steadily. White as a statue of +Purity, she stood for a moment, with her wealth of shining auburn hair +coiled low on her shapely head, and waving in soft outlines around her +broad full brow. Unnaturally calm, and wonderfully beautiful in that +sublime surrender, which like a halo illumines the myth of Antigone, it +was not strange that every heart thrilled, when upon the strained ears +of the multitude fell the clear, sweet, indescribably mournful voice. +</P> + +<P> +"When a magnolia blossom or a white camellia just fully open, is +snatched by violent hands, bruised, crushed, blackened, scarred by +rents, is it worth keeping? No power can undo the ruin, and since all +that made it lovely—its stainless purity—is irrevocably destroyed, +why preserve it? Such a pitiable wreck you have made of the young life +I am bidden to stand up and defend. Have you left me anything to live +for? Dragged by constables before prejudiced strangers, accused of +awful crimes, denounced as a female monster, herded with convicts, can +you imagine any reason why I should struggle to prolong a disgraced, +hopelessly ruined existence? My shrivelled, mutilated life is in your +hands, and if you decide to crush it quickly, you will save me much +suffering; as when having, perhaps unintentionally, mangled some +harmless insect, you mercifully turn back, grind it under your heel, +and end its torture. My life is too wretched now to induce me to defend +it, but there is something I hold far dearer, my reputation as an +honorable Christian woman; something I deem most sacred of all—the +unsullied purity of the name my father and mother bore. Because I am +innocent of every charge made against me, I owe it to my dead, to lift +their honored name out of the mire. I have pondered the testimony; and +the awful mass of circumstances that have combined to accuse me, seems +indeed so overwhelming, that as each witness came forward, I have asked +myself, am I the victim of some baleful destiny, placed in the grooves +of destroying fate-foreordained from the foundations of the world to +bear the burden of another's guilt? You have been told that I killed +Gen'l Darrington, and stole his money and jewels, and destroyed his +will, in order to possess his estate. Trustworthy witnesses have sworn +to facts, which I cannot deny, and you believe these facts; and yet, +while the snare tightens around my feet, and I believe you intend to +condemn me, I stand here, and look you in the face—as one day we +thirteen will surely stand at the final judgment—and in the name of +the God I love, and fear, and trust, I call you each to witness, that I +am innocent of every charge in the indictment. My hands are as +unstained, my soul is as unsullied by theft or bloodshed, as your +sinless babes cooing in their cradles. +</P> + +<P> +"If you can clear your minds of the foul tenants thrust into them, try +for a little while to forget all the monstrous crimes you have heard +ascribed to me, and as you love your mothers, wives, daughters, go back +with me, leaving prejudice behind, and listen dispassionately to my +most melancholy story. The river of death rolls so close to my weary +feet, that I speak as one on the brink of eternity; and as I hope to +meet my God in peace, I shall tell you the truth. Sometimes it almost +shakes our faith in God's justice, when we suffer terrible +consequences, solely because we did our duty; and it seems to me +bitterly hard, inscrutable, that all my misfortunes should have come +upon me thick and fast, simply because I obeyed my mother. You, +fathers, say to your children, 'Do this for my sake,' and lovingly they +spring to accomplish your wishes; and when they are devoured by agony, +and smothered by disgrace, can you sufficiently pity them, blind +artificers of their own ruin? +</P> + +<P> +"Four months ago I was a very poor girl, but proud and happy, because +by my own work I could support my mother and myself. Her health failed +rapidly, and life hung upon an operation and certain careful subsequent +treatment, which it required one hundred dollars to secure. I was +competing for a prize that would lift us above want, but time pressed; +the doctor urged prompt action, and my mother desired me to come South, +see her father, deliver a letter and beg assistance. As long as +possible, I resisted her entreaties, because I shrank from the +degradation of coming as a beggar to the man who, I knew, had +disinherited and disowned his daughter. +</P> + +<P> +"Finally, strangling my rebellious reluctance, I accepted the bitter +task. My mother kissed me good-bye, laid her hands on my head and +blessed me for acceding to her wishes; and so—following the finger of +Duty—I came here to be trampled, mangled, destroyed. When I arrived, I +found I could catch a train going north at 7.15, and I bought a return +ticket, and told the agent I intended to take that train. I walked to +'Elm Bluff,' and after waiting a few moments was admitted to Gen'l +Darrington's presence. The letter which I delivered was an appeal for +one hundred dollars, and it was received with an outburst of wrath, a +flood of fierce and bitter denunciation of my parents. The interview +was indescribably painful, but toward its close, Gen'l Darrington +relented. He opened his safe or vault, and took out a square tin box. +Placing it on the table, he removed some papers, and counted down into +my hand, five gold coins—twenty dollars each. When I turned to leave +him, he called me back, gave me the morocco case, and stated that the +sapphires were very costly, and could be sold for a large amount. He +added, with great bitterness, that he gave them, simply because they +were painful souvenirs of a past, which he was trying to forget; and +that he had intended them as a bridal gift to his son Prince's wife; +but as they had been bought by my mother's mother as a present for her +only child, he would send them to their original destination, for the +sake of his first wife, Helena. +</P> + +<P> +"I left the room by the veranda door, because he bade me do so, to +avoid what he termed 'the prying of servants.' I broke some clusters of +chrysanthemums blooming in the rose garden, to carry to my mother, and +then I hurried away. If the wages of disobedience be death, then fate +reversed the mandate, and obedience exacts my life as a forfeit. Think +of it: I had ample time to reach the station before seven o'clock, and +if I had gone straight on, all would have been well. I should have +taken the 7.15 train, and left forever this horrible place. If I had +not loitered, I should have seen once more my mother's face, have +escaped shame, despair, ruin—oh! the blessedness of what 'might have +been!' +</P> + +<P> +"Listen, my twelve judges, and pity the child who obeyed at all +hazards. Poor though I was, I bought a small bouquet for my sick mother +the day that I left her, and the last thing she did was to arrange the +flowers, tie them with a wisp of faded blue ribbon, and putting them in +my hand, she desired me to be sure to stop at the cemetery, find her +mother's grave in the Darrington lot, and lay the bunch of blossoms for +her upon her mother's monument. Mother's last words were: 'Don't forget +to kneel down and pray for me, at mother's grave.'" +</P> + +<P> +The voice so clear, so steady hitherto, quivered, ceased; and the heavy +lashes drooped to hide the tears that gathered; but it was only for a +few seconds, and she resumed in the same cold, distinct tone: +</P> + +<P> +"So I went on, and fate tied the last millstone around my neck. After +some search I found the place, and left the bunch of flowers with a few +of the chrysanthemums; then I hastened toward town, and reached the +station too late; the 7.15 train had gone. Too late!—only a half hour +lost, but it carried down everything that this world held for me. I +used to wonder and puzzle over that passage in the Bible, 'The stars in +their courses fought against Sisera!' I have solved that mystery, for +the stars in their courses' have fought against me; heaven, earth, man, +time, circumstances, coincidences, all spun the web that snared my +innocent feet. When I paid for the telegram to relieve my mother's +suspense, I had not sufficient money (without using the gold) to enable +me to incur hotel bills; and I asked permission to remain in the +waiting-room until the next train, which was due at 3.05. The room was +so close and warm I walked out, and the fresh air tempted me to remain. +The moon was up, full and bright, and knowing no other street, I +unconsciously followed the one I had taken in the afternoon. Very soon +I reached the point near the old church where the road crosses, and I +turned into it, thinking that I would enjoy one more breath of the pine +forest, which was so new to me. It was so oppressively hot I sat down +on the pine straw, and fanned myself with my hat. How long I remained +there, I know not, for I fell asleep; and when I awoke, Mr. Dunbar rode +up and asked if I had lost my way. I answered that I had not, and as +soon as he galloped on, I walked back as rapidly as possible, somewhat +frightened at the loneliness of my position. Already clouds were +gathering, and I had been in the waiting-room, I think about an hour, +when the storm broke in its fury. I had seen the telegraph operator +sitting in his office, but he seemed asleep, with his head resting on +the table; and during the storm I sat on the floor, in one corner of +the waiting-room, and laid my head on a chair. At last, when the +tempest ended, I went to sleep. During that sleep, I dreamed of my old +home in Italy, of some of my dead, of my father—of gathering grapes +with one I dearly loved—and suddenly some noise made me spring to my +feet. I heard voices talking, and in my feverish dreamy state, there +seemed a resemblance to one I knew. Only half awake, I ran out on the +pavement. Whether I dreamed the whole, I cannot tell; but the +conversation seemed strangely distinct; and I can never forget the +words, be they real, or imaginary: "'There ain't no train till +daylight, 'cepting it be the through freight.' +</P> + +<P> +"Then a different voice asked: 'When it that due?'" +</P> + +<P> +"'Pretty soon I reckon, it's mighty nigh time now, but it don't stop +here; it goes on to the water tank, where it blows for the bridge.'" +</P> + +<P> +'"How far is the bridge?'" +</P> + +<P> +"'Only a short piece down the track, after you pass the tank.'" +</P> + +<P> +"When I reached the street, I saw no one but the figure of an old man, +I think a negro, who was walking away. He limped and carried a bundle +on the end of a stick thrown over his shoulder. I was so startled and +impressed by the fancied sound of a voice once familiar to me, that I +walked on down the track, but could see no one. Soon the 'freight' came +along; I stood aside until it passed, then returned to the station, and +found the agent standing in the door. When he questioned me about my +movements; I deemed him impertinent; but having nothing to conceal, +stated the facts I have just recapitulated. You have been told that I +intentionally missed the train; that when seen at 10 P.M. in the pine +woods, I was stealing back to my mother's old home; that I entered at +midnight the bedroom where her father slept, stupefied him with +chloroform, broke open his vault, robbed it of money, jewels and will; +and that when Gen'l Darrington awoke and attempted to rescue his +property, I deliberately killed him. You are asked to believe that I am +'the incarnate fiend' who planned and committed that horrible crime, +and, alas for me! every circumstance seems like a bloodhound to bay me. +My handkerchief was found, tainted with chloroform. It was my +handkerchief; but how it came there, on Gen'l Darrington's bed, only +God witnessed. I saw among the papers taken from the tin box and laid +on the table, a large envelope marked in red ink, 'Last Will and +Testament of Robert Luke Darrington'; but I never saw it afterward. I +was never in that room but once; and the last and only time I ever saw +General Darrington was when I passed out of the glass door, and left +him standing in the middle of the room, with the tin box in his hand. +</P> + +<P> +"I can call no witnesses; for it is one of the terrible fatalities of +my situation that I stand alone, with none to corroborate my +assertions. Strange, inexplicable coincidences drag me down; not the +malice of men, but the throttling grasp of circumstances. I am the +victim of some diabolical fate, which only innocent blood will appease; +but though I am slaughtered for crimes I did not commit, I know, oh! I +know, that BEHIND FATE, STANDS GOD!—the just and eternal God, whom I +trust, even in this my hour of extremest peril. Alone in the world, +orphaned, reviled, wrecked for all time, without a ray of hope, I, +Beryl Brentano, deny every accusation brought against me in this cruel +arraignment; and I call my only witness, the righteous God above us, to +hear my solemn asseveration: I am innocent of this crime; and when you +judicially murder me in the name of Justice, your hands will be dyed in +blood that an avenging God will one day require of you. Appearances, +circumstances, coincidences of time and place, each, all, conspire to +hunt me into a convict's grave; but remember, my twelve judges, +remember that a hopeless, forsaken, broken-hearted woman, expecting to +die at your hands, stood before you, and pleaded first and last—Not +Guilty! Not Guilty!—" +</P> + +<P> +A moment she paused, then raised her arms toward heaven and added, with +a sudden exultant ring in her thrilling voice, and a strange rapt +splendor in her uplifted eyes: +</P> + +<P> +"Innocent! Innocent! Thou God knowest! Innocent of this sin, as the +angels that see Thy face." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap18"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVIII. +</H3> + +<P> +As a glassy summer sea suddenly quivers, heaves, billows under the +strong steady pressure of a rising gale, so that human mass surged and +broke in waves of audible emotion, when Beryl's voice ceased; for the +grace and beauty of a sorrowing woman hold a spell more potent than +volumes of forensic eloquence, of juridic casuistry, of rhetorical +pyrotechnics, and at its touch, the latent floods of pity gushed; +people sprang to their feet, and somewhere in the wide auditory a woman +sobbed. Habitues of a celebrated Salon des Etrangers recall the +tradition of a Hungarian nobleman who, apparently calm, nonchalant, +debonair, gambled desperately; "while his right hand, resting easily +inside the breast of his coat, clutched and lacerated his flesh till +his nails dripped with blood." With emotions somewhat analogous, Mr. +Dunbar sat as participant in this judicial rouge et noir, where the +stakes were a human life, and the skeleton hand of death was already +outstretched. Listening to the calm, mournful voice which alone had +power to stir and thrill his pulses, he could not endure the pain of +watching the exquisite face that haunted him day and night; and when he +computed the chances of her conviction, a maddening perception of her +danger made his brain reel. +</P> + +<P> +To all of us comes a supreme hour, when realizing the adamantine +limitations of human power, the "thus far, no farther" of relentless +physiological, psychological and ethical statutes under which humanity +lives, moves, has its being—our desperate souls break through the +meshes of that pantheistic idolatry which kneels only to "Natural +Laws"; and spring as suppliants to Him, who made Law possible. We take +our portion of happiness and prosperity, and while it lasts we wander +far, far away in the seductive land of philosophical speculation, and +revel in the freedom and irresponsibility of Agnosticism; and lo! when +adversity smites, and bankruptcy is upon us, we toss the husks of the +"Unknowable and Unthinkable" behind us, and flee as the Prodigal who +knew his father, to that God whom (in trouble) we surely know. +</P> + +<P> +Certainly Lennox Dunbar was as far removed from religious tendencies as +conformity to the canons of conventional morality and the habits of an +honorable gentleman in good society would permit; yet to-day, in the +intensity of his dread, lest the "consummate flower" of his heart's +dearest hope should be laid low in the dust, he involuntarily invoked +the aid of a long-forgotten God; and through his set teeth a prayer +struggled up to the throne of that divine mercy, which in sunshine we +do not see, but which as the soul's eternal lighthouse gleams, glows, +beckons in the blackest night of human anguish. In boyhood, desiring to +please his invalid and slowly dying mother, he had purchased and hung +up opposite her bed, an illuminated copy of her favorite text; and now, +by some subtle transmutation in the conservation of spiritual energy, +each golden letter of that Bible text seemed emblazoned on the dusty +wall of the court-room: "God is our refuge and strength, a very present +help in trouble." +</P> + +<P> +When a stern reprimand from the Judge had quelled all audible +expression of the compassionate sympathy that flowed at the prisoner's +story—as the flood at Horeb responded to Moses' touch—there was a +brief silence. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Dunbar rose, crossed the intervening space and stood with his hand +on the back of Beryl's chair; then moved on closer to the jury box. +</P> + +<P> +"May it please your Honor, and Gentlemen of the Jury: Sometimes +mistakes are crimes, and he who through unpardonable rashness commits +them, should not escape 'unwhipped of justice'. When a man in the +discharge of that which he deemed a duty, becomes aware that +unintentionally he has perpetrated a great wrong, can he parley with +pride, or dally, because the haunting ghost of consistency waves him +back from the path of a humiliating reparation? Error is easy, +confession galling; and stepping down from the censor's seat to share +the mortification of the pillory, is at all times a peculiarly painful +reverse; hence, powerful indeed must be the conviction which impels a +man who prided himself on his legal astuteness, to come boldly into +this sacred confessional of truth and justice and plead for absolution +from a stupendous mistake. Two years ago, I became Gen'l Darrington's +attorney, and when his tragic death occurred in October last, my +professional relations, as well as life-long friendship, incited me to +the prompt apprehension of the person who had murdered him. After a +careful and apparently exhaustive examination of the authenticated +facts, I was convinced that they pointed only in one direction; and in +that belief, I demanded and procured the arrest of the prisoner. For +her imprisonment, her presence here to-day, her awful peril, I hold +myself responsible; and now, gentlemen of the jury, I ask you as men +having hearts of flesh, and all the honorable instincts of manhood, +which alone could constitute you worthy umpires in this issue of life +or death, do you, can you wonder that regret sits at my ear, chanting +mournful dirges, and remorse like a harpy fastens her talons in my +soul, when I tell you, that I have committed a blunder so frightful, +that it borders on a crime as heinous as that for which my victim +stands arraigned? Wise was the spirit of a traditional statute, which +decreed that the author of a false accusation should pay the penalty +designed for the accused; and just indeed would be the retribution, +that imposed on me the suffering I have entailed on her. +</P> + +<P> +"Acknowledging the error into which undue haste betrayed me, yet +confident that divine justice, to whom I have sworn allegiance, has +recalled me from a false path to one that I can now tread with absolute +certainty of success, I come to-day into this, her sacred temple, lay +my hand on her inviolate altar, and claiming the approval of her +officiating high-priest, his Honor, appeal to you, gentlemen of the +jury, to give me your hearty co-operation in my effort to repair a foul +wrong, by vindicating innocence. +</P> + +<P> +"Professors of ophthalmology in a diagnosis of optical diseases, tell +us of a symptom of infirmity which they call pseudoblepsis, or 'false +sight.' Legal vision exhibits, now and then, a corresponding phase of +unconscious perversion of sight, whereby objects are perceived that do +not exist, and objects present become transformed, distorted; and such +an instance of exaggerated metamorphosia is presented to-day, in the +perverted vision of the prosecution. In the incipiency of this case, +prior to, and during the preliminary examination held in October last, +I appeared in conjunction with Mr. Wolverton, as assistant counsel in +the prosecution, represented by the Honorable Mr. Churchill, District +Solicitor; the object of said prosecution being the conviction of the +prisoner, who was held as guilty of Gen'l Darrington's death. +Subsequent reflection and search necessitated an abandonment of views +that could alone justify such a position; and after consultation with +my colleagues I withdrew; not from the prosecution of the real +criminal, to the discovery and conviction of whom I shall dedicate +every energy of my nature, but from the pursuit of one most unjustly +accused. Anomalous as is my attitude, the dictates of conscience, +reason, heart, force me into it; and because I am the implacable +prosecutor of Gen'l Darrington's murderer, <I>I</I> COME TO PLEAD IN DEFENSE +OF THE PRISONER, whom I hold guiltless of the crime, innocent of the +charge in the indictment. In the supreme hour of her isolation, she has +invoked only one witness; and may that witness, the God above us, the +God of justice, the God of innocence, grant me the inspiration, and +nerve my arm to snatch her from peril, and triumphantly vindicate the +purity of her noble heart and life." +</P> + +<P> +Remembering the important evidence which he had furnished to the +prosecution, only a few hours previous, when on the witness stand, +people looked at one another questioningly; doubting the testimony of +their own senses; and VOX POPULI was not inaptly expressed by the +whispered ejaculation of Bedney to Dyce. +</P> + +<P> +"Judgment day must be breaking! Mars Lennox is done turned a double +summersett, and lit plum over on t'other side! It's about ekal to a +spavinned, ring-boned, hamstrung, hobbled horse clearin' a ten-rail +fence! He jumps so beautiful, I am afeered he won't stay whar he lit!" +</P> + +<P> +Comprehending all that this public recantation had cost a proud man, +jealous of his reputation for professional tact and skill, as well as +for individual acumen, Beryl began to realize the depth and fervor of +the love that prompted it; and the merciless ordeal to which he would +subject her. Inflicting upon himself the smarting sting of the keenest +possible humiliation, could she hope that in the attainment of his aim +he would spare her? If she threw herself even now upon his mercy, would +he grant to her that which he had denied himself? +</P> + +<P> +Dreading the consequences of even a moment's delay, she rose, and a hot +flush crimsoned her cheeks, as she looked up at the Judge. +</P> + +<P> +"Is it my privilege to decide who shall defend me? Have I now the right +to accept or reject proffered aid?" +</P> + +<P> +"The law grants you that privilege; secures you that right." +</P> + +<P> +"Then I decline the services of the counsel who offers to plead in my +defence. I wish no human voice raised in my behalf, and having made my +statement in my own defence, I commit my cause to the hands of my God." +</P> + +<P> +For a moment her eyes dwelt upon the lawyer's, and as she resumed her +seat, she saw the spark in their blue depths leap into a flame. +Advancing a few steps, his handsome face aglow, his voice rang like a +bugle call: +</P> + +<P> +"May it please your Honor: Anomalous conditions sanction, necessitate +most anomalous procedure, where the goal sought is simple truth and +justice; and since the prisoner prefers to rest her cause, I come to +this bar as Amicus Curiae, and appeal for permission to plead in behalf +of my clients, truth and justice, who hold me in perpetual retainment. +In prosecution of the real criminal, in order to unravel the curiously +knitted web, and bring the culprit to summary punishment, I ask you, +gentlemen of the jury, to ponder dispassionately the theory I have now +the honor to submit to your scrutiny. +</P> + +<P> +"The prisoner, whom I regard as the victim of my culpable haste and +deplorably distorted vision, is as innocent of Gen'l Darrington's +murder as you or I; but I charge, that while having no complicity in +that awful deed, she is nevertheless perfectly aware of the name of the +person who committed it. Not particeps crimmis, neither consenting to, +aiding, abetting nor even acquainted with the fact of the crime, until +accused of its perpetration; yet at this moment in possession of the +only clue which will enable justice to seize the murderer. Conscious of +her innocence, she braves peril that would chill the blood of men, and +extort almost any secret; and shall I tell you the reason? Shall I give +you the key to an enigma which she knows means death? +</P> + +<P> +"Gentlemen of the jury, is there any sacrifice so tremendous, any +anguish so keen, any shame so dreadful, any fate so overwhelmingly +terrible as to transcend the endurance, or crush the power of a woman's +love? Under this invincible inspiration, when danger threatens her +idol, she knows no self; disgrace, death affright her not; she extends +her arms to arrest every approach, offers her own breast as a shield +against darts, bullets, sword thrusts, and counts it a privilege to lay +down life in defence of that idol. O! loyalty supreme, sublime, +immortal! thy name is woman's love. +</P> + +<P> +"All along the march of humanity, where centuries have trailed their +dust, traditions gleam like monuments to attest the victory of this +immemorial potency, female fidelity; and when we of the nineteenth +century seek the noblest, grandest type of merely human +self-abnegation, that laid down a pure and happy life, to prolong that +of a beloved object, we look back to the lovely image of that fair +Greek woman, who, when the parents of the man she loved refused to give +their lives to save their son, summoned death to accept her as a +willing victim; and deeming it a privilege, went down triumphantly into +the grave. Sustained, exalted by this most powerful passion that can +animate and possess a human soul, the prisoner stands a pure, +voluntary, self-devoted victim; defying the terrors of the law, +consenting to condemnation—surrendering to an ignominious death, in +order to save the life of the man she loves. +</P> + +<P> +"Grand and beautiful as is the spectacle of her calm mournful heroism, +I ask you, as men capable of appreciating her noble self-immolation, +can you permit the consummation of this sacrifice? Will you, dare you, +selected, appointed, dedicated by solemn oaths to administer justice, +prove so recreant to your holy trust as to aid, abet, become +accessories to, and responsible for the murder of the prisoner by +accepting a stainless victim, to appease that violated law which only +the blood of the guilty can ever satisfy? +</P> + +<P> +"In order to avert so foul a blot on the escutcheon of our State +judiciary, in order to protect innocence from being slaughtered, and +supremely in order to track and bring to summary punishment the +criminal who robbed and murdered Gen'l Darrington, I now desire, and +request, that your Honor will permit me to cross-examine the prisoner +on the statement she has offered in defence." +</P> + +<P> +"In making that request, counsel must be aware that it is one of the +statutory provisions of safety to the accused, whom the law holds +innocent until proved guilty, that no coercion can be employed to +extort answers. It is, however, the desire of the court, and certainly +must accrue to the benefit of the prisoner, that she should take the +witness stand in her own defence." +</P> + +<P> +For a moment there was neither sound nor motion. +</P> + +<P> +"Will the prisoner answer such questions as in the opinion of the court +are designed solely to establish her innocence? If so, she will take +the stand." +</P> + +<P> +With a sudden passionate movement at variance with her demeanor +throughout the trial, she threw up her clasped hands, gazed at them, +then pressed them ring downward as a seal upon her lips; and after an +instant, answered slowly: +</P> + +<P> +"Now and henceforth, I decline to answer any and all questions. I am +innocent, entirely innocent. The burden of proof rests upon my +accusers." +</P> + +<P> +As Mr. Dunbar watched her, noted the scarlet spots burning on her +cheeks, the strange expression of her eyes that glowed with unnatural +lustre, a scowl darkened his face; a cruel smile curved his lips, and +made his teeth gleam. Was it worth while to save her against her will; +to preserve the heart he coveted, for the vile miscreant to whom she +had irrevocably given it? With an upward movement of his noble head, +like the impatient toss of a horse intolerant of curb, he stepped back +close to the girl, and stood with his hand on the back of her chair. +</P> + +<P> +"In view of this palpable evasion of justice through obstinate non +responsion, will it please the Court to overrule the prisoner's +objection?" +</P> + +<P> +Several moments elapsed before Judge Parkman replied, and he gnawed the +end of his grizzled mustache, debating the consequences of dishonoring +precedent—that fetich of the Bench. +</P> + +<P> +"The Court cannot so rule. The prisoner has decided upon the line of +defence, as is her inalienable right; and since she persistently +assumes that responsibility, the Court must sustain her decision." +</P> + +<P> +The expression of infinite and intense relief that stole over the +girl's countenance, was, noted by both judge and jury, as she sank back +wearily in her chair, like one lifted from some rack of torture. +Resting thus, her shoulder pressed against the hand that lay on the top +of the chair, but he did not move a finger; and some magnetic influence +drew her gaze to meet his. He felt the tremor that crept over her, +understood the mute appeal, the prayer for forbearance that made her +mournful gray eyes so eloquent, and a sinister smile distorted his +handsome mouth. +</P> + +<P> +"The spirit and intent of the law, the usages of criminal practice, +above all, hoary precedent, before which we bow, each and all sanction +your Honor's ruling; and yet despite everything, the end I sought is +already attained. Is not the refusal of the prisoner proof positive, +'confirmation strong as proofs of Holy Writ' of the truth of my theory? +With jealous dread she seeks to lock the clue in her faithful heart, +courting even the coffin, that would keep it safe through all the +storms of time. Impregnable in her citadel of silence, with the cohorts +of Codes to protect her from escalade and assault, will the guardians +of justice have obeyed her solemn commands when they permit the +prisoner to light the funeral pyre where she elects to throw herself—a +vicarious sacrifice for another's sins? For a nature so exalted, the +Providence who endowed it has decreed a nobler fate; and by His help, +and that of your twelve consciences, I purpose to save her from a +species of suicide, and to consign to the hangman the real criminal. +The evidence now submitted, will be furnished by the testimony of +witnesses who, at my request, have been kept without the hearing of the +Court." +</P> + +<P> +He left Beryl's chair, and once more approached the jury, +</P> + +<P> +"Isam Hornbuckle." +</P> + +<P> +A negro man, apparently sixty years old, limped into the witness stand, +and having been sworn, stood leaning on his stick, staring uneasily +about him. +</P> + +<P> +"What is your name?" +</P> + +<P> +"Isam Clay Hornbuckle." +</P> + +<P> +"Where do you live?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nigh the forks of the road, close to 'Possum Ridge." +</P> + +<P> +"How far from town?" +</P> + +<P> +"By short cuts I make it about ten miles; but the gang what works the +road, calls it twelve." +</P> + +<P> +"Have you a farm there?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes'ir. A pretty tolerable farm; a cornfield and potato patch and +gyarden, and parsture for my horgs and oxin, and a slipe of woods for +my pine knots." +</P> + +<P> +"What is your business?" +</P> + +<P> +"Tryin' to make a livin', and it keeps me bizzy, for lans is poor, and +seasons is most ginerally agin crops." +</P> + +<P> +"How long have you been farming?" +</P> + +<P> +"Only sence I got mashed up more 'an a year ago on the railroad." +</P> + +<P> +"In what capacity did you serve when working on the road?" +</P> + +<P> +"I was fireman under ingeneer Walker on the lokymotive 'Gin'l +Borygyard,' what most ginerally hauled Freight No. 2. The ingines goes +now by numbers, but we ole hands called our'n always 'Borygyard'." +</P> + +<P> +"You were crippled in a collision between two freight trains?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes'ir; but t'other train was the cause of the—" +</P> + +<P> +"Never mind the cause of the accident. You moved out to 'Possum Ridge; +can you remember exactly when you were last in town?" +</P> + +<P> +"To be shore! I know exactly, 'cause it was the day my ole 'oman's +step-father's granny's funeral sarmont was preached; and that was on a +Thursday, twenty-sixth of October, an' I come up to 'tend it." +</P> + +<P> +"Is it not customary to preach the funeral sermons on Sunday?" +</P> + +<P> +"Most generally, Boss, it are; but you see Bre'r Green, what was to +preach the ole 'oman's sarmont, had a big baptizin' for two Sundays +han' runnin', and he was gwine to Boston for a spell, on the next +comin' Saddy, so bein' as our time belonks to us now, we was free to +'pint a week day." +</P> + +<P> +"You are positive it was the twenty-sixth?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes'ir; plum postiv. The day was norated from all the baptiss +churches, so as the kinfolks could gether from fur and nigh." +</P> + +<P> +"At what hour on Thursday was the funeral sermon preached?" +</P> + +<P> +"Four o'clock sharp." +</P> + +<P> +"Where did you stay while in town?" +</P> + +<P> +"With my son Ducaleyon who keeps a barber-shop on Main Street." +</P> + +<P> +"When did you return home?" +</P> + +<P> +"I started before day, Friday mornin', as soon as the rain hilt up." +</P> + +<P> +"At what hour, do you think?" +</P> + +<P> +"The town clock was a strikin' two, jes as I passed the express office, +at the station." +</P> + +<P> +"Now, Isam, tell the Court whom you saw, and what happened; and be very +careful in all you say, remembering you are on your oath." +</P> + +<P> +"I was atoting a bundle so—slung on to a stick, and it gaided my +shoulder, 'cause amongst a whole passel of plunder I had bought, ther +was a bag of shot inside, what had slewed 'round oft the balance, and I +sot down, close to a lamp-post nigh the station, to shift the heft of +the shot bag. Whilst I were a squatting, tying up my bundle, I heered +all of a suddent—somebody runnin', brip—brap—! and up kern a man +from round the corner of the stationhouse, a runnin' full tilt; and he +would a run over me, but I grabbed my bundle and riz up. Sez I: 'Hello! +what's to pay?' He was most out of breath, but sez he: 'Is the train in +yet?' Sez I: 'There ain't no train till daylight, 'cepting it be the +through freight.' Then he axed me: 'When is that due?' and I tole him: +'Pretty soon, I reckon, but it don't stop here; it only slows up at the +water tank, whar it blows for the Bridge.' Sez he: 'How fur is that +bridge?' Sez I: 'Only a short piece down the track, after you pass the +tank.' He tuck a long breath, and kinder whistled, and with that he +turned and heeled it down the middle of the track. I thought it mighty +curus, and my mind misgive me thar was somethin' crooked; but I always +pintedly dodges; 'lie-lows to ketch meddlers,' and I went on my way. +When I got nigh the next corner whar I had to turn to cross the river, +I looked back and I seen a 'oman standin' on the track, in front of the +station-house; but I parsed on, and soon kem to the bridge (not the +railroad bridge), Boss. I had got on the top of the hill to the left of +the Pentenchry, when I hearn ole 'Bory' blow. You see I knowed the +runnin' of the kyars, 'cause that through freight was my ole +stormpin-ground, and I love the sound of that ingine's whistle more 'an +I do my gran'childun's hymn chunes. She blowed long and vicious like, +and I seen her sparks fly, as she lit out through town; and then I +footed it home." +</P> + +<P> +"You think the train was on time?" +</P> + +<P> +"Bound to be; she never was cotched behind time, not while I stuffed +her with coal and lightwood knots. She was plum punctchul." +</P> + +<P> +"Was the lamp lighted where you tied your bundle?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes'ir, burnin' bright." +</P> + +<P> +"Tell the Court the appearance of the man whom you talked with." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Dunbar was watching the beautiful face so dear to him, and saw the +prisoner lean forward, her lips parted, all her soul in the wide, +glowing eyes fastened on the countenance of the witness. +</P> + +<P> +"He was very tall and wiry, and 'peared like a young man what had +parstured 'mongst wild oats. He seemed cut out for a gintleman, but run +to seed too quick and turned out nigh kin to a dead beat. One-half of +him was hanssum, 'minded me mightly of that stone head with kurly hair +what sets over the sody fountin in the drug store, on Main Street. Oh, +yes'ir, one side was too pretty for a man; but t'other! Fo' Gawd! +t'other made your teeth ache, and sot you cross-eyed to look at it. He +toted a awful brand to be shore." +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean by one side? Explain yourself carefully now." +</P> + +<P> +"I dun'no as I can 'splain, 'cause I ain't never seed nothing like it +afore. One 'zact half of him, from his hair to his shirt collar was +white and pretty, like I tell you, but t'other side of his face was +black as tar, and his kurly hair was gone, and the whiskers on that +side—and his eye was drapped down kinder so, and that side of his +mouth sorter hung, like it was unpinned, this way. Mebbee he was born +so, mebbee not; but he looked like he had jes broke loose from the +conjur, and caryd his mark." +</P> + +<P> +For one fleeting moment, the gates of heaven seemed thrown wide, and +the glory of the Kingdom of Peace streamed down upon the aching heart +of the desolate woman. She could recognize no dreaded resemblance in +the photograph drawn by the witness; and judge, jury and counsel who +scrutinized her during the recital of the testimony, were puzzled by +the smile of joy that suddenly flashed over her features, like ilie +radiance of a lamp lifted close to some marble face, dim with shadows. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think his face indicated that he had been engaged in a +difficulty, in a fight? Was there any sign of blood, or anything that +looked as if he had been bruised and wounded by some heavy blow?" +</P> + +<P> +"Naw, sir. Didn't seem like sech bruises as comes of fightin'. 'Peared +to me he was somehow branded like, and the mark he toted was onnatral." +</P> + +<P> +"If he had wished to disguise himself by blackening one side of his +face, would he not have presented a similar appearance?" +</P> + +<P> +"Naw, sir, not by no manner of means. No minstrel tricks fotch him to +the pass he was at. The hand of the Lord must have laid too heavy on +him; no mortal wounds leave sech terrifyin' prints." +</P> + +<P> +"How was he dressed?" +</P> + +<P> +"Dunno. My eyes never drapped below that curus face of his'n." +</P> + +<P> +"Was he bareheaded?" +</P> + +<P> +"Bar headed as when he come into the world." +</P> + +<P> +"He talked like a man in desperate haste, who was running to escape +pursuit?" +</P> + +<P> +"He shorely did." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you mention to any person what you have told here to-day?" +</P> + +<P> +"I tole my ole 'oman, and she said she reckoned it was a buth mark what +the man carryd; but when I seen him I thunk he was cunjured." +</P> + +<P> +"When you heard that Gen'l Darrington had been murdered, did you think +of this man and his singular behavior that night?" +</P> + +<P> +"I never hearn of the murder till Christmas, 'cause I went down to +Elbert County arter a yoke of steers what a man owed me, and thar I +tuck sick and kep my bed for weeks. When I got home, and hearn the talk +about the murder, I didn't know it was the same night what I seen the +branded man." +</P> + +<P> +"Tell the Court how your testimony was secured." +</P> + +<P> +"It was norated in all our churches that a 'ward was offered for a lame +cullud pusson of my 'scription, and Deacon Nathan he cum down and axed +me what mischief I'de been a doin', that I was wanted to answer fur. He +read me the 'vertisement, and pussuaded me to go with him to your +office, and you tuck me to Mr. Churchill." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Dunbar bowed to the District Solicitor, who rose and cross-examined. +</P> + +<P> +"Can you read?" +</P> + +<P> +"Naw, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Where is your son Deucalion?" +</P> + +<P> +"Two days after I left town he want with a 'Love and Charity' +scurschion up north, and he liked it so well in Baltymore, he staid +thar." +</P> + +<P> +"When Deacon Nathan brought you up to town, did you know for what +purpose Mr. Dunbar wanted you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Naw, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Was it not rather strange that none of your friends recognized the +description of you, published in the paper?" +</P> + +<P> +"Seems some of 'em did, but felt kind of jub'rus 'bout pinting me out, +for human natur is prone to crooked ways, and they never hearn I +perfessed sanctification." +</P> + +<P> +"Who told you the prisoner had heard your conversation with the man you +met that night?" +</P> + +<P> +"Did she hear it? Then you are the first pusson to tell me." +</P> + +<P> +"How long was it, after you saw the man, before you heard the whistle +of the freight train?" +</P> + +<P> +"As nigh as I kin rickolect about a half a hour, but not quite." +</P> + +<P> +"Was it raining at all when you saw the woman standing on the track?" +</P> + +<P> +"Naw, sir. The trees was dripping steady, but the moon was shining." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know anything about the statement made by the prisoner?" +</P> + +<P> +"Naw, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Fritz Helmetag." +</P> + +<P> +As Isam withdrew, a middle-aged man took the stand, and in answer to +Mr. Dunbar's questions deposed: "That he was 'bridge tender' on the +railroad, and lived in a cottage not far from the water tank. On the +night of the twenty-sixth of October, he was sitting up with a sick +wife, and remembered that being feverish, she asked for some fresh +water. He went out to draw some from the well, and saw a man standing +not far from the bridge. The moon was behind a row of trees, but he +noticed the man was bareheaded, and when he called to know what he +wanted, he walked back toward the tank. Five minutes later the freight +train blew, and after it had crossed the bridge, he went back to his +cottage. The man was standing close to the safety signal, a white light +fastened to an iron stanchion at south end of the bridge, and seemed to +be reading something. Next day, when he (witness) went as usual to +examine the piers and under portions of the bridge, he had found the +pipe, now in Mr. Dunbar's possession. Tramps so often rested on the +bridge, and on the shelving bank of the river beneath it, that he +attached no importance to the circumstance; but felt confident the pipe +was left by the man whom he had seen, as it was not there the previous +afternoon; and he put it in a pigeon-hole of his desk, thinking the +owner might return to claim it. On the same day, he had left X—to +carry his wife to her mother, who lived in Pennsylvania, and was absent +for several weeks. Had never associated the pipe with the murder, but +after talking with Mr. Dunbar, who had found the half of an envelope +near the south end of the bridge, he had surrendered it to him. Did not +see the man's face distinctly. He looked tall and thin." +</P> + +<P> +Here Mr. Dunbar held up a fragment of a long white em elope such as +usually contain legal documents, on which in large letters was written +"LAST WILL"—and underscored with red ink. Then he lifted a pipe, for +the inspection of the witness, who identified it as the one he had +found. +</P> + +<P> +As he turned it slowly, the Court and the multitude saw only a +meerschaum with a large bowl representing a death's head, to which was +attached a short mouth-piece of twisted amber. +</P> + +<P> +The golden gates of hope clashed suddenly, and over them flashed a +drawn sword, as Beryl looked at the familiar pipe, which her baby +fingers had so often strained to grasp. How well she knew the ghastly +ivory features, the sunken eyeless sockets—of that veritable death's +head? How vividly came back the day, when asleep in her father's arms, +a spark from that grinning skull had fallen on her cheek, and she awoke +to find that fond father bending in remorseful tenderness over her? +Years ago, she had reverently packed the pipe away, with other articles +belonging to the dead, and ignorant that her mother had given it to +Bertie, she deemed it safe in that sacred repository. Now, like the +face of Medusa it glared at her, and that which her father's lips had +sanctified, became the polluted medium of a retributive curse upon his +devoted child. So the Diabolus ex machina, the evil genius of each +human life decrees that the most cruel cureless pangs are inflicted by +the instruments we love best. +</P> + +<P> +Watching for some sign of recognition, Mr. Dunbar's heart was fired +with jealous rage, as he marked the swift change of the prisoner's +countenance; the vanishing of the gleam of hope, the gloomy desperation +that succeeded. The beautiful black brows met in a spasm of pain over +eyes that stared at an abyss of ruin; her lips whitened, she wrung her +hands unconsciously; and then, as if numb with horror, she leaned back +in her chair, and her chin sank until it touched the black ribbon at +her throat. When after a while she rallied, and forced herself to +listen, a pleasant-faced young man was on the witness stand. +</P> + +<P> +"My name is Edgar Jennings, and I live at T——, in Pennsylvania. I am +ticket agent at that point, of——railway. One day, about the last of +October (I think it was on Monday), I was sitting in my office when a +man came in, and asked if I could sell him a ticket to St. Paul. I told +him I only had tickets as far as Chicago, via Cincinnati. He bought one +to Cincinnati and asked how soon he could go on. I told him the train +from the east was due in a few minutes. When he paid for his ticket he +gave me a twenty-dollar gold piece, and his hand shook so, he dropped +another piece of the same value on the floor. His appearance was so +remarkable I noticed him particularly. He was a man about my age, very +tall and finely made, but one half of his face was black, or rather +very dark blue, and he wore a handkerchief bandage-fashion across it. +His left eye was drawn down, this way, and his mouth was one-sided. His +right eye was black, and his hair was very light brown. He wore a +close-fitting wool hat, that flapped down and his clothes were +seal-brown in color, but much worn, and evidently old. I asked him +where he lived, and he said he was a stranger going West, on a +pioneering tour. Then I asked what ailed his face, and he pulled the +handkerchief over his left eye, and said he was partly paralyzed from +an accident. Just then, the eastern train blew for T——. He said he +wanted some cigars or a pipe, as he had lost his own on the way, and +wondered if he would have time to go out and buy some. I told him no; +but that he could have a couple of cigars from my box. He thanked me, +and took two, laying down a silver dime on top of the box. He put his +hand in the inside pocket of his coat, and pulled out an empty +envelope, twisted it, lit it by the coal fire in the grate, and lighted +his cigar. The train rolled into the station; he passed out, and I saw +him jump aboard the front passenger coach. He had thrown the paper, as +he thought, into the fire, but it slipped off the grate, fell just +inside the fender, and the flame went out. There was something so very +peculiar in his looks and manner, that I thought there was some mystery +about his movements. I picked up the paper, saw the writing on it, and +locked it up in my cash drawer. He had evidently been a very handsome +man, before his 'accident', but he had a jaded, worried, wretched look. +When a detective from Baltimore interviewed me, I told him all I knew, +and gave him the paper." +</P> + +<P> +Again Mr. Dunbar drew closer to the jury, held up the former fragment +of envelope, and then took from his pocket a second piece. Jagged edges +fitted into each other, and he lifted for the inspection of hundreds of +eyes, the long envelope marked and underscored:-"LAST WILL AND +TESTAMENT OF ROBERT LUKE DARRINGTON." The lower edge of the paper was +at one corner brown, scorched, somewhat burned. +</P> + +<P> +"Lucullus Grantlin." +</P> + +<P> +An elderly man of noble presence advanced, and Mr. Dunbar met and shook +hands with him, accompanying him almost to the stand. At sight of his +white head, and flowing silvery beard, Beryl's heart almost ceased its +pulsation. If, during her last illness her mother had acquainted him +with their family history, then indeed all was lost. It was as +impossible to reach him and implore his silence, as though the ocean +rocked between them; and how would he interpret the pleading gaze she +fixed upon his face? The imminence of the danger, vanquished every +scruple, strangled her pride. She caught Mr. Dunbar's eye, beckoned him +to approach. +</P> + +<P> +When he stood before her, she put out her hand, seized one of his, and +drew him down until his black head almost touched hers. She placed her +lips close to his ear, and whispered: +</P> + +<P> +"For God's sake spare the secrets of a death-bed. Be merciful to me +now; oh! I entreat you—do not drag my mother from her grave! Do not +question Doctor Grantlin." +</P> + +<P> +She locked her icy hands around his, pressing it convulsively. Turning, +he laid his lips close to the silky fold of hair that had fallen +across her ear: +</P> + +<P> +"If I dismiss this witness, will you tell me the truth? Will you give +me the name of the man whom I am hunting? Will you confess all to me?" +</P> + +<P> +"I have no sins to confess. I have made my last statement. If you laid +my coffin at my feet, I should only say I am innocent; I would tell you +nothing more." +</P> + +<P> +"Then his life is so precious, you are resolved to die, rather than +trust me?" +</P> + +<P> +She dropped his hand, and leaned back in her chair, closing her eyes. +When she opened them, Doctor Grantlin was speaking: +</P> + +<P> +"I am on my way to Havana, with an invalid daughter, and stopped here +last night, at the request of Mr. Dunbar." +</P> + +<P> +"Please state all that you know of the prisoner, and of the +circumstances which induced her to visit X——." +</P> + +<P> +"I first saw the prisoner in August last, when she summoned me to see +her mother, who was suffering from an attack of fever. I discovered +that she was in a dangerous condition in consequence of an aneurism +located in the carotid artery, and when she had been relieved of +malarial fever, I told both mother and daughter that an operation was +necessary, to remove the aneurism. Soon after, I left the city for a +month, and on my return the daughter again called me in. I advised that +without delay the patient should be removed to the hospital, where a +surgeon—a specialist—could perform the operation. To this the young +lady objected, on the ground that she could not assist in nursing, if +her mother entered the hospital; and she would not consent to the +separation. She asked what amount would be required to secure at home +the services of the surgeon, a trained nurse, and the subsequent +treatment; and I told her I thought a hundred dollars would cover all +incidentals, and secure one of the most skilful surgeons in the city. I +continued from time to time to see the mother, and administered such +medicines as I deemed necessary to invigorate and tone up the patient's +system for the operation. One day in October, the young lady came to +pay me for some prescriptions, and asked if a few weeks' delay would +enhance the danger of the operation. I assured her it was important to +lose no time, and urged her to arrange matters so as to remove the +patient to the hospital as soon as possible, offering to procure her +admission. She showed great distress, and informed me that she hoped to +receive very soon a considerable sum of money, from some artistic +designs that she felt sure would secure the prize. A week later she +came again, and I gave her a prescription to allay her mother's +nervousness. Then, with much agitation, she told me that she was going +South by the night express, to seek assistance from her mother's +father, who was a man of wealth, but had disowned Mrs. Brentano on +account of her marriage. She asked for a written statement of the +patient's condition, and the absolute necessity of the operation. I +wrote it, and as she stood looking at the paper, she said: +</P> + +<P> +"'Doctor do you believe in an Ahnung?' I said, 'A what?' She answered +slowly and solemnly: 'An Ahnung—a presentiment? I have a crushing +presentiment that trouble will come to me, if I leave mother; and yet +she entreats, commands me to go South. It is my duty to obey her, but +the errand is so humiliating I shrink, I dread it. I shall not be long +away, and meanwhile do please be so kind as to see her, and cheer her +up. If her father refuses to give me the one hundred dollars, I will +take her to the hospital when I return.' I walked to the door with her, +and her last words were: 'Doctor, I trust my mother to you; don't let +her suffer.' I have never seen her again, until I entered this room. I +visited Mrs. Brentano several times, but she grew worse very rapidly. +One night the ensuing week, my bell was rung at twelve o'clock, and a +woman gave me this note, which was written by the prisoner immediately +after her arrest, and which enclosed a second, addressed to her mother." +</P> + +<P> +As he read aloud the concluding lines invoking the mother's prayers, +the doctor's voice trembled. He took off his spectacles, wiped them, +and resumed: +</P> + +<P> +"I was shocked and distressed beyond expression, for I could no more +connect the idea of crime with that beautiful, noble souled girl, than +with my own sinless daughter; and I reproached myself then, and doubly +condemn myself now, that I did not lend her the money. All that was +possible to alleviate the suffering of that mother, I did most +faithfully. Under my personal superintendence she was made comfortable +in the hospital; and I stood by her side when Doctor—operated on the +aneurism; but her impaired constitution could not bear the strain, and +she sank rapidly. She was delirious, and never knew why her daughter +was detained; because I withheld the note. Just before the end came, +her mind cleared, and she wrote a few lines which I sent to the +prisoner. From all that I know of Miss Brentano, I feel constrained to +say, she impressed me as one of the purest, noblest and most admirable +characters I have ever met. She supported her mother and herself by her +pencil, and a more refined, sensitive woman, a more tenderly devoted +daughter I have yet to meet." +</P> + +<P> +"Does your acquaintance with the family suggest any third party, who +would be interested in Gen'l Darrington's will, or become a beneficiary +by its destruction?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. They seemed very isolated people; those two women lived without +any acquaintances, as far as I know, and apared proudly indifferent to +the outside world. I do not think they had any relatives, and the only +name I heard Mrs. Brentano utter in her last illness was, +'Ignace,—Ignace.' She often spoke of her'darling,' and her 'good +little girl'." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you see a gentleman who visited the prisoner? Did you ever hear +she had a lover?" +</P> + +<P> +"I neither saw any gentleman, nor heard she had a lover. In January, I +received a letter from the prisoner enclosing an order on S—& E—, +photographers of New York, for the amount due her, on a certain design +for a Christmas card, which had received the Boston first prize of +three hundred dollars. With the permission of the Court, I should like +to read it. There is no objection?" +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"PENITENTIARY CELL, JANUARY 8TH +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"In the name of my dead, whom I shall soon join—I desire to thank you, +dear Doctor Grantlin, for your kind care of my darling; and especially +for your delicate and tender regard for all that remains on earth of my +precious mother. The knowledge that she was treated with the reverence +due to a lady, that she was buried—not as a pauper, but sleeps her +last sleep under the same marble roof that shelters your dear departed +ones, is the one ray of comfort that can ever pierce the awful gloom +that has settled like a pall over me. I am to be tried soon for the +black and horrible crime I never committed; and the evidence is so +strong against me, the circumstances I cannot explain, are so accusing, +the belief of my guilt is so general in this community, that I have no +hope of acquittal; therefore I make my preparations for death. Please +collect the money for which I enclose an order, and out of it, take the +amount you spent when mother died. It will comfort me to know, that we +do not owe a stranger for the casket that shuts her away from all +grief, into the blessed Land of Peace. Keep the remainder, and when you +hear that I am dead, unjustly offered up an innocent victim to appease +justice, that must have somebody's blood in expiation, then take my +body and mother's and have us laid side by side in the Potter's field. +The law will crush my body, but it is pure and free from every crime, +and it will be worthy still to touch my mother's in a common grave. Oh, +Doctor! Does it not seem that some terrible curse has pursued me; and +that the three hundred dollars I toiled and prayed for, was kept back +ten days too late to save me? My Christmas card will at least bury us +decently—away from the world that trampled me down. Do not doubt my +innocence, and it will comfort me to feel that he who closed my +mother's eyes, believes that her unfortunate child is guiltless and +unstained. In life, and in death, ever +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"Most gratefully your debtor, +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"BERYL BRENTANO." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +A few moments of profound silence ensued: then Doctor Grantlin handed +some article to Mr. Dunbar, and stepping down from the stand, walked +toward the prisoner. +</P> + +<P> +She had covered her face with her hands, while he gave his testimony: +striving to hide the anguish that his presence revived. He placed his +hand on her shoulder, and whispered brokenly: +</P> + +<P> +"My child, I know you are innocent. Would to God I could help you to +prove it to these people!" +</P> + +<P> +The terrible strain gave way suddenly, her proud head was laid against +his arm, and suppressed emotion shook her, as a December storm smites +and bows some shivering weed. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap19"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIX. +</H3> + +<P> +Friday, the fifth and last day of the trial, was ushered in by a +tempest of wind and rain, that drove the blinding sheets of sleet +against the court-house windows with the insistence of an icy flail; +while now and then with spasmodic bursts of fury the gale heightened, +rattled the sash, moaned hysterically, like invisible fiends tearing at +the obstacles that barred entrance. So dense was the gloom pervading +the court-room, that every gas jet was burning at ten o'clock, when Mr. +Dunbar rose and took a position close to the jury-box. The gray pallor +of his sternly set face increased his resemblance to a statue of the +Julian type, and he looked rigid as granite, as he turned his brilliant +eyes full of blue fire upon the grave, upturned countenances of the +twelve umpires: +</P> + +<P> +"Gentlemen of the Jury: The sanctity of human life is the foundation on +which society rests, and its preservation is the supreme aim of all +human legislation. Rights of property, of liberty, are merely +conditional, subordinated to the superlative divine right of life. +Labor creates property, law secures liberty, but God alone gives life; +and woe to that tribunal, to those consecrated priests of divine +justice, who, sworn to lay aside passion and prejudice, and to array +themselves in the immaculate robes of a juror's impartiality, yet +profane the loftiest prerogative with which civilized society can +invest mankind, and sacrilegiously extinguish, in the name of justice, +that sacred spark which only Jehovah's fiat kindles. To the same astute +and unchanging race, whose relentless code of jurisprudence demanded +'an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life,' we owe the +instructive picture of cautious inquiry, of tender solicitude for the +inviolability of human life, that glows in immortal lustre on the pages +of the 'Mechilti' of the Talmud. In the trial of a Hebrew criminal, +there were 'Lactees,' consisting of two men, one of whom stood at the +door of the court, with a red flag in his hand, and the other sat on a +white horse at some distance on the road that led to execution. Each of +these men cried aloud continually, the name of the suspected criminal, +of the witnesses, and his crime; and vehemently called upon any person +who knew anything in his favor to come forward and testify. Have we, +supercilious braggarts of this age of progress, attained the prudential +wisdom of Sanhedrim? +</P> + +<P> +"The State pays an officer to sift, probe, collect and array the +evidences of crime, with which the criminal is stoned to death; does it +likewise commission and compensate an equally painstaking, lynx-eyed +official whose sole duty is to hunt and proclaim proofs of the +innocence of the accused? The great body of the commonwealth is +committed in revengeful zeal to prosecution; upon whom devolves the +doubly sacred and imperative duty of defence? Are you not here to give +judgment in a cause based on an indictment by a secret tribunal, where +ex parte testimony was alone received, and the voice of defence could +not be heard? The law infers that the keen instinct of +self-preservation will force the accused to secure the strongest +possible legal defenders; and failing in this, the law perfunctorily +assigns counsel to present testimony in defence. Do the scales balance? +</P> + +<P> +"Imagine a race for heavy stakes; the judges tap the bell; three or +four superb thoroughbreds carefully trained on that track, laboriously +groomed, waiting for the signal, spring forward; and when the first +quarter is reached, a belated fifth, handicapped with the knowledge +that he has made a desperately bad start, bounds after them. If by dint +of some superhuman grace vouchsafed, some latent strain, some most +unexpected speed, he nears, overtakes, runs neck and neck, slowly +gains, passes all four and dashes breathless and quivering under the +string, a whole length ahead, the world of spectators shouts the judges +smile, and number five wins the stakes. But was the race fair? +</P> + +<P> +"Is not justice, the beloved goddess of our idolatry, sometimes so +blinded by clouds of argument, and confused by clamor that she fails +indeed to see the dip of the beam? If the accused be guilty and escape +conviction, he still lives; and while it is provided that no one can be +twice put in jeopardy of his life for the same offence, vicious +tendencies impel to renewal of crime, and Nemesis, the retriever of +justice, may yet hunt him down. If the accused be innocent as the +archangels, but suffer conviction and execution, what expiation can +justice offer for judicially slaughtering him? Are the chances even? +</P> + +<P> +"All along the dim vista of the annals of criminal jurisprudence, stand +grim memorials that mark the substitution of innocent victims for +guilty criminals; and they are solemn sign-posts of warning, melancholy +as the whitening bones of perished caravans in desert sands. History +relates, and tradition embalms, a sad incident of the era of the +Council of Ten, when an innocent boy was seized, tried and executed for +the murder of a nobleman, whose real assassin confessed the crime many +years subsequent. In commemoration of the public horror manifested, +when the truth was published, Venice decreed that henceforth a crier +should proclaim in the Tribunal just before a death sentence was +pronounced, 'Ricordatevi del povero Marcolini! remember the poor +Marcolini;' beware of merely circumstantial evidence. +</P> + +<P> +"To another instance I invite your attention. A devoted Scotch father +finding that his own child had contracted an unfortunate attachment to +a man of notoriously bad character, interdicted all communication, and +locked his daughter into a tenement room; the adjoining apartment (with +only a thin partition wall between) being occupied by a neighbor, who +overheard the angry altercation that ensued. He recognized the voices +of father and daughter, and the words 'barbarity,' 'cruelty, 'death,' +were repeatedly heard. The father at last left the room, locking his +child in as a prisoner. After a time, strange noises were heard by the +tenant of the adjoining chamber; suspicion was aroused, a bailiff was +summoned, the door forced open, and there lay the dying girl weltering +in blood, with the fatal knife lying near. She was asked if her father +had caused her sad condition, and she made an affirmative gesture and +expired. At that moment the father returned, and stood stupefied with +horror, which was interpreted as a consciousness of guilt; and this was +corroborated by the fact that his shirt sleeve was sprinkled with +blood. In vain he asserted his innocence, and showed that the blood +stains were the result of a bandage having become untied where he had +bled himself a few days before. The words and groans overheard, the +blood, the affirmation of the dying woman, every damning circumstance +constrained the jury to convict him of the murder. He was hung in +chains, and his body left swinging from the gibbet. The new tenant, who +subsequently rented the room, was ransacking the chamber in which the +girl died, when, in a cavity of the chimney where it had fallen +unnoticed, was found a paper written by this girl, declaring her +intention to commit suicide, and closing with the words: 'My inhuman +father is the cause of my death'; thus explaining her dying gestures. +On examination of this document by the friends and relatives of the +girl, it was recognized and identified as her handwriting; and it +established the fact that the father had died innocent of every crime, +except that of trying to save his child from a degrading marriage. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, mark the prompt and satisfactory reparation decreed by justice, +and carried out by the officers of the law. The shrivelled, dishonored +body was lowered from the gibbet, given to his relatives for decent +burial, and the magistrates who sentenced him, ordered a flag waved +over his grave, as compensation for all his wrongs. +</P> + +<P> +"Gentlemen of the jury, to save you from the commission of a wrong even +more cruel, I come to-day to set before you clearly the facts, elicited +from witnesses which the honorable and able counsel for the prosecution +declined to cross-examine. An able expounder of the law of evidence has +warned us that: 'The force of circumstantial evidence being exclusive +in its nature, and the mere coincidence of the hypothesis with the +circumstances, being, in the abstract, insufficient, unless they +exclude every other supposition, it is essential to inquire, with the +most scrupulous attention, what other hypothesis there may be, agreeing +wholly or partially with the facts in evidence.' +</P> + +<P> +"A man of very marked appearance was seen running toward the railroad, +on the night of the twenty-sixth, evidently goaded by some unusual +necessity to leave the neighborhood of X—before the arrival of the +passenger express. It is proved that he passed the station exactly at +the time the prisoner deposed she heard the voice, and the half of the +envelope that enclosed the missing will, was found at the spot where +the same person was seen, only a few moments later. Four days +afterward, this man entered a small station in Pennsylvania, paid for a +railroad ticket, with a coin identical in value and appearance with +those stolen from the tin box, and as if foreordained to publish the +steps he was striving to efface, accidentally left behind him the +trumpet-tongued fragment of envelope, that exactly fitted into the torn +strip dropped at the bridge. The most exhaustive and diligent search +shows that stranger was seen by no one else in X—; that he came as a +thief in the night, provided with chloroform to drug his intended +victim, and having been detected in the act of burglariously +abstracting the contents of the tin box, fought with, and killed the +venerable old man, whom he had robbed. +</P> + +<P> +"Under cover of storm and darkness he escaped with his plunder, to some +point north of X—where doubtless he boarded (unperceived) the freight +train, and at some convenient point slipped into a wooded country, and +made his way to Pennsylvania. Why were valuable bonds untouched? +Because they might aid in betraying him. What conceivable interest had +he in the destruction of Gen'l Darrington's will? It is in evidence, +that the lamp was burning, and the contents of that envelope could have +possessed no value for a man ignorant of the provisions of the will; +and the superscription it was impossible to misread. Suppose that this +mysterious person was fully cognizant of the family secrets of the +Darringtons? Suppose that he knew that Mrs. Brentano and her daughter +would inherit a large fortune, if Gen'l Darrington died intestate? If +he had wooed and won the heart of the daughter, and believed that her +rights had been sacrificed to promote the aggrandizement of an alien, +the adopted step-son Prince, had not such a man, the accepted lover of +the daughter, a personal interest in the provisions of a will which +disinherited Mrs. Brentano, and her child? Have you not now, motive, +means, and opportunity, and links of evidence that point to this man as +the real agent, the guilty author of the awful crime we are all leagued +in solemn, legal covenant to punish? Suppose that fully aware of the +prisoner's mission to X—, he had secretly followed her, and +supplemented her afternoon visit, by the fatal interview of the night? +Doubtless he had intended escorting her home, but when the frightful +tragedy was completed, the curse of Cain drove him, in terror, to +instant flight; and he sought safety in western wilds, leaving his +innocent and hapless betrothed to bear the penalty of his crime. The +handkerchief used to administer chloroform, bore her initials; was +doubtless a souvenir given in days gone by to that unworthy miscreant, +as a token of affection, by the trusting woman he deserted in the hour +of peril. In this solution of an awful enigma, is there an undue strain +upon credylity; is there any antagonism of facts which the torn +envelope, the pipe, the twenty-dollar gold pieces in Pennsylvania, do +not reconcile? +</P> + +<P> +"A justly celebrated writer on the law of evidence has wisely said: 'In +criminal cases, the statement made by the accused is of essential +importance in some points of view. Such is the complexity of human +affairs, and so infinite the combinations of circumstances, that the +true hypothesis which is capable of explaining and reuniting all the +apparently conflicting circumstances of the case, may escape the +acutest penetration: but the prisoner, so far as he alone is concerned, +can always afford a clue to them; and though he may be unable to +support his statement by evidence, his account of the transaction is, +for this purpose, always most material and important. The effect may be +to suggest a view, which consists with the innocence of the accused, +and might otherwise have escaped observation.' +</P> + +<P> +"During the preliminary examination of this prisoner in October, she +inadvertently furnished this clue, when, in explaining her absence from +the station house, she stated that suddenly awakened from sleep, 'she +heard the voice of one she knew and loved, and ran out to seek the +speaker'. Twice she has repeated the conversation she heard, and every +word is corroborated by the witness who saw and talked with the owner +of that 'beloved voice'. When asked to give the name of that man, whom +she expected to find in the street, she falters, refuses; love seals +her lips, and the fact that she will die sooner than yield that which +must bring him to summary justice, is alone sufficient to fix the guilt +upon the real culprit. +</P> + +<P> +"There is a rule in criminal jurisprudence, that 'presumptive evidence +ought never to be relied on, when direct testimony is wilfully +withheld'. She shudders at sight of the handkerchief; did she not give +it to him, in some happy hour as a tender Ricordo? When the pipe which +he lost in his precipitate flight is held up to the jury, she +recognizes it instantly as her lover's property, and shivers with +horror at the danger of his detection and apprehension. Does not this +array of accusing circumstances demand as careful consideration, as the +chain held up to your scrutiny by the prosecution? In the latter, there +is an important link missing, which the theory of the defence supplies. +When the prisoner was arrested and searched, there was found in her +possession only the exact amount of money, which it is in evidence, +that she came South to obtain; and which she has solemnly affirmed was +given to her by Gen'l Darrington. We know from memoranda found in the +rifled box, that it contained only a few days previous, five hundred +dollars in gold. Three twenty-dollar gold coins were discovered on the +carpet, and one in the vault; what became of the remain ing three +hundred and twenty dollars? With the exception of one hundred dollars +found in the basket of the prisoner, she had only five copper pennies +in her purse, when so unexpectedly arrested, that it was impossible she +could have secreted anything. Three hundred and twenty dollars +disappeared in company with the will, and like the torn envelope, two +of those gold coins lifted their accusing faces in Pennsylvania, where +the fugitive from righteous retribution paid for the wings that would +transport him beyond risk of detection. +</P> + +<P> +"Both theories presented for your careful analysis, are based entirely +upon circumstantial evidence; and is not the solution I offer less +repugnant to the canons of credibility, and infinitely less revolting +to every instinct of honor able manhood, than the horrible hypothesis +that a refined, cultivated, noble Christian woman, a devoted daughter, +irreproachable in antecedent life, bearing the fiery ordeal of the past +four months with a noble heroism that commands the involuntary +admiration of all who have watched her—that such a perfect type of +beautiful womanhood as the prisoner presents, could deliberately plan +and execute the vile scheme of theft and murder? Gentlemen, she is +guilty of but one sin against the peace and order of this community: +the sin of withholding the name of one for whose bloody crime she is +not responsible. Does not her invincible loyalty, her unwavering +devotion to the craven for whom she suffers, in vest her with the halo +of a martyrdom, that appeals most powerfully to the noblest impulses of +your nature, that enlists the warmest, holiest sympathies lying deep in +your manly hearts? Analyze her statement; every utterance bears the +stamp of innocence; and where she cannot explain truthfully, she +declines to make any explanation. Hers is the sin of silence, the +grievous evasion of justice by non-responsion, whereby the danger she +will not avert by confession recoils upon her innocent head. Bravely +she took on her reluctant shoulders the galling burden of parental +command, and stifling her proud repugnance, obediently came—a fair +young stranger to 'Elm Bluff.' Receiving as a loan the money she came +to beg for, she hurries away to fulfil another solemnly imposed +injunction. +</P> + +<P> +"Gentlemen, is there any spot out yonder in God's Acre, where violets, +blue as the eyes that once smiled upon you, now shed their fragrance +above the sacred dust of your dead darlings; and the thought of which +melts your hearts and dims your vision? Look at this mournful, touching +witness, which comes from that holy cemetery to whisper to your souls, +that the hands of the prisoner are as pure as those of your idols, +folded under the sod. Only a little bunch of withered brown flowers, +tied with a faded blue ribbon, that a poor girl bought with her hard +earned pennies, and carried to a sick mother, to brighten a dreary +attic; only a dead nosegay, which that mother requested should be laid +as a penitential tribute on the tomb of the mother whom she had +disobeyed; and this faithful young heart made the pilgrimage, and left +the offering—and in consequence thereof, missed the train that would +have carried her safely back to her mother—and to peace. On the +morning after the preliminary examination I went to the cemetery, and +found the fatal flowers just where she had placed them, on the great +marble cross that covers the tomb of 'Helena Tracey—wife of Luke +Darringtun.' +</P> + +<P> +"You husbands and fathers who trust your names, your honor, the peace +of your hearts-almost the salvation of your souls—to the women you +love: staking the dearest interest of humanity, the sanctity of that +heaven on earth—your stainless homes—upon the fidelity of womanhood, +can you doubt for one instant, that the prisoner will accept death +rather than betray the man she loves? No human plummet has sounded the +depths of a woman's devotion; no surveyor's chain will ever mark the +limits of a woman's faithful, patient endurance; and only the wings of +an archangel can transcend that pinnacle to which the sublime principle +of self-sacrifice exalts a woman's soul. +</P> + +<P> +"In a quaint old city on the banks of the Pegnitz, history records an +instance of feminine self-abnegation, more enduring than monuments of +brass. The law had decreed a certain provision for the maintenance of +orphans; and two women in dire distress, seeing no possible avenue of +help, accused themselves falsely of a capital crime, and were executed; +thereby securing a support for the children they orphaned. +</P> + +<P> +"As a tireless and vigilant prosecutor of the real criminal, the +Cain-branded man now wandering in some western wild, I charge the +prisoner with only one sin, suicidal silence; and I commend her to your +must tender compassion, believing that in every detail and minutiae she +has spoken the truth; and that she is as innocent of the charge in the +indictment as you or I. Remember that you have only presumptive proof +to guide you in this solemn deliberation, and in the absence of direct +proof, do not be deluded by a glittering sophistry, which will soon +attempt to persuade you, that: 'A presumption which necessarily arises +from circumstances,—is very often more convincing and more +satisfactory than any other kind of evidence; it is not within the +reach and compass of human abilities to invent a train of +circumstances, which shall be so connected together as to amount to a +proof of guilt, without affording opportunities of contradicting a +great part, if not all, of these circumstances.' +</P> + +<P> +"Believe it not; circumstantial evidence has caused as much innocent +blood to flow, as the cimeter of Jenghiz Khan. The counsel for the +prosecution will tell you that every fact in this melancholy case stabs +the prisoner, and that facts cannot lie. Abstractly and logically +considered, facts certainly do not lie; but let us see whether the +inferences deduced from what we believe to be facts, do not sometimes +eclipse Ananias and Sapphira! Not long ago, the public heart thrilled +with horror at the tidings of the Ashtabula railway catastrophe, in +which a train of cars plunged through a bridge, took fire, and a number +of passengers were consumed, charred beyond recognition. Soon +afterward, a poor woman, mother of two children, commenced suit against +the railway company, alleging that her husband had perished in that +disaster. The evidence adduced was only of a circumstantial nature, as +the body which had been destroyed by flames, could not be found. +Searching in the debris at the fatal spot, she had found a bunch of +keys, that she positively recognized as belonging to her husband, and +in his possession when he died. One key fitted the clock in her house, +and a mechanic was ready to swear that he had made such a key for the +deceased. Another key fitted a chest she owned, and still another +fitted the door of her house; while strongest of all proof, she found a +piece of cloth which she identified as part of her husband's coat. A +physician who knew her husband, testified that he rode as far as +Buffalo on the same train with the deceased, on the fatal day of the +disaster; and another witness deposed that he saw the deceased take the +train at Buffalo, that went down to ruin at Ashtabula. Certainly the +chain of circumstantial evidence, from veracious facts, seemed +complete; but lo! during the investigation it was ascertained beyond +doubt, to the great joy of the wife, that the husband had never been +near Ashtabula, and was safe and well at a Pension Home in a Western +State. +</P> + +<P> +"The fate of a very noble and innocent woman is now committed to your +hands, and only presumptive proof is laid before you. 'The circumstance +is always a fact; the presumption is the inference drawn from that +fact. It is hence called presumptive proof, because it proceeds merely +in opinion.' Suffer no brilliant sophistry to dazzle your judgment, no +remnant of prejudice to swerve you from the path of fidelity to your +oath. To your calm reasoning, your generous manly hearts, your +Christian consciences, I resign the desolate prisoner; and as you deal +with her, so may the God above us, the just and holy God who has +numbered the hairs of her innocent head, deal here and hereafter with +you and yours." +</P> + +<P> +That magnetic influence, whereby the emotions of an audience are +swayed, as the tides that follow the moon, was in large measure the +heritage of the handsome man who held the eyes of the jurymen in an +almost unwinking gaze; and when his uplifted arm slowly fell to his +side, Judge Dent grasped it in mute congratulation, and Mr. Churchill +took his hand, and shook it warmly. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Wolverton came forward to sum up the evidence for the prosecution, +and laboriously recapitulated and dwelt upon the mass of facts which he +claimed was susceptible of but one interpretation, and must compel the +jury to convict, in accordance with the indictment. +</P> + +<P> +Upon the ears of the prisoner, his words fell as a harsh, meaningless +murmur; and above the insistent mutter, rose and fell the waves of a +rich, resonant voice, that surrounded, penetrated, electrified her +brain; thrilled her whole being with a strange and inexplicable +sensation of happiness. For months she had fought against the singular +fascination that dwelt in those brilliant blue eyes, and lurked in +every line of the swart, stern face; holding at bay the magnetic +attraction which he exerted from the hour of the preliminary +examination. Of all men, she had feared him most, had shrunk from every +opportunity of contact, had execrated him as the malign +personification, the veritable incarnation of the evil destiny that had +hounded her from the day she first saw X——. +</P> + +<P> +Listening to his appeal for her deliverance, each word throbbing with +the fervent beat of a heart that she knew was all her own, an exquisite +sense of rest gradually stole over her; as a long-suffering child spent +with pain, sinks, soothed at last in the enfolding arms of protective +love. That dark, eloquent face drew, held her gaze with the spell of a +loadstone, and even in the imminence of her jeopardy, she recalled the +strange resemblance he bore to the militant angel she had once seen in +a painting, where he wrestled with Satan for possession of the body of +Moses. Disgrace, peril, the gaunt spectre of death suddenly dissolved, +vanished in the glorious burst of rosy light that streamed into all the +chill chambers of her heart; and she bowed her head in her hands, to +hide the crimson that painted her cheeks. +</P> + +<P> +How long Mr. Wolverton talked, she never knew; but the lull that +succeeded was broken by the tones of Judge Parkman. +</P> + +<P> +"Beryl Brentano, it is my duty to remind you that this is the last +opportunity the law allows you, to speak in your own vindication. The +testimony has all been presented to those appointed to decide upon its +value. If there be any final statement that you may desire to offer in +self-defence, you must make it now." +</P> + +<P> +Could the hundreds who watched and waited ever forget the sight of that +superb, erect figure, that exquisite face, proud as Hypatia's, patient +as Perpetua's; or the sound of that pathetic, unwavering voice? +Mournfully, yet steadily, she raised her great grey eyes, darkened by +the violet shadows suffering had cast, and looked at her judges. +</P> + +<P> +"I am guiltless of any and all crime. I have neither robbed, nor +murdered; and I am neither principal, nor accomplice in the horrible +sin imputed to me. I know nothing of the chloroform; I never touched +the andiron; I never saw Gen'l Darrington but once. He gave me the gold +and the sapphires, and I am as innocent of his death, and of the +destruction of his will as the sinless little children who prattle at +your firesides and nestle to sleep in your arms. My life has been +disgraced and ruined by no act of mine, for I have kept my hands, my +heart, my soul, as pure and free from crime as they were when God gave +them to me. I am the helpless prey of suspicion, and the guiltless +victim of the law. O, my judges! I do not crave your mercy—that is the +despairing prayer of conscious guilt; I demand at your hands, justice." +</P> + +<P> +The rushing sound as of a coming flood filled her ears, and her words +echoed vaguely from some immeasurably distant height. The gaslights +seemed whirling in a Walpurgis maze, as she sat down and once more +veiled her face in her hands. +</P> + +<P> +When she recovered sufficiently to listen, Mr. Churchill had risen for +the closing speech of the prosecution. +</P> + +<P> +"Gentlemen of the Jury: I were a blot upon a noble profession, a +disgrace to honorable manhood, and a monster in my own estimation, if I +could approach the fatal Finis of this melancholy trial, without +painful emotions of profound regret, that the solemn responsibility of +my official position makes me the reluctant bearer of the last stern +message uttered by retributive justice. How infinitely more enviable +the duty of the Amicus Curiae, my gallant friend and quondam colleague, +who in voluntary defence has so ingeniously, eloquently and nobly led a +forlorn hope, that he knew was already irretrievably lost? Desperate, +indeed, must he deem that cause for which he battles so valiantly, when +dire extremity goads him to lift a rebellious and unfilial voice +against the provisions of his foster-mother, Criminal Jurisprudence, in +whose service he won the brilliant distinction and crown of laurel that +excite the admiration and envy of a large family of his less fortunate +foster-brothers. I honor his heroism, applaud his chivalrous zeal, and +wish that I stood in his place; but not mine the privilege of mounting +the white horse, and waving the red flag of the 'Lactees.' Dedicated to +the mournful rites of justice, I have laid an iron hand on the +quivering lips of pity, that cried to me like the voice of one of my +own little ones; and very sorrowfully, at the command of conscience, +reason and my official duty, I obey the mandate to ring down the black +curtain on a terrible tragedy, feeling like Dante, when he confronted +the doomed— +</P> + +<P> +"'And to a part I come, where no light shines.'" +</P> + +<P> +So clearly and ably has my distinguished associate, Mr. Wolverton, +presented all the legal points bearing upon the nature and value of the +proof, submitted for your examination, that any attempt to buttress his +powerful argument, were an unpardonable reflection upon your +intelligence, and his skill; and I shall confine my last effort in +behalf of justice, to a brief analysis and comparison of the hypothesis +of the defence, with the verified result of the prosecution. +</P> + +<P> +"Beautiful and sparkling as the frail glass of Murano, and equally as +thin, as treacherously brittle, is the theory so skilfully manufactured +in behalf of the accused; and so adroitly exhibited that the ingenious +facets catch every possible gleam, and for a moment almost dazzle the +eyes of the beholder. In attempting to cast a lance against the shield +of circumstantial evidence, his weapon rebounded, recoiled upon his +fine spun crystal and shivered it. What were the materials wherewith he +worked? Circumstances, strained, well nigh dislocated by the effort to +force them to fit into his Procrustean measure. A man was seen on the +night of the twenty-sixth, who appeared unduly anxious to quit +X—before daylight; and again the mysterious stranger was seen in a +distant town in Pennsylvania, where he showed some gold coins of a +certain denomination, and dropped on the floor one-half of an envelope, +that once contained a will. In view of these circumstances (the +prosecution calls them facts), the counsel for the defence PRESUMES +that said stranger committed the murder, stole the will; and offers +this opinion as presumptive proof that the prisoner is innocent. The +argument runs thus: this man was an accepted lover of the accused, and +therefore he must have destroyed the will that beggared his betrothed; +but it is nowhere in evidence, that any lover existed, outside of the +counsel's imagination; yet Asmodeus like he must appear when called +for, and so we are expected to infer, assume, presume that because he +stole the will he must be her lover. Does it not make your head swim to +spin round in this circle of reasoning? In assailing the validity of +circumstantial evidence, has he not cut his bridges, burned his ships +behind him? +</P> + +<P> +"Gentlemen, fain would I seize this theory were it credible, and +setting thereon, as in an ark, this most unfortunate prisoner, float +her safely through the deluge of ruin, anchor her in peaceful security +upon some far-off Ararat; but it has gone to pieces in the hands of its +architect. Instead of rescuing the drowning, the wreck serves only to +beat her down. If we accept the hypothesis of a lover at all, it will +furnish the one missing link in the terrible chain that clanks around +the luckless prisoner. The disappearance of the three hundred and +twenty dollars has sorely perplexed the prosecution, and unexpectedly +the defence offers us the one circumstance we lacked; the lover was +lurking in the neighborhood, to learn the result of the visit, to +escort her home; and to him the prisoner gave the missing gold, to him +intrusted the destruction of the will. If that man came to 'Elm Bluff' +prepared to rob and murder, by whom was he incited and instigated; and +who was the accessory, and therefore particeps criminis? The prisoner's +handkerchief was the medium of chloroforming that venerable old man, +and can there be a reasonable doubt that she aided in administering it? +</P> + +<P> +"The prosecution could not explain why she came from the direction of +the railroad bridge, which was far out of her way from 'Elm Bluff'; but +the defence gives the most satisfactory solution: she was there, +dividing her blood-stained spoils with the equally guilty +accomplice—her lover. The prosecution brings to the bar of retribution +only one criminal; the defence not only fastens the guilt upon this +unhappy woman, by supplying the missing links, but proves +premeditation, by the person of an accomplice. Four months have been +spent in hunting some fact that would tend to exculpate the accused, +but each circumstance dragged to light serves only to swell the dismal +chorus, 'Woe to the guilty'. To-day she sits in the ashes of +desolation, condemned by the unanimous evidence of every known fact +connecred with this awful tragedy. To oppose this black and frightful +host of proofs, what does she offer us? Simply her bare, solemnly +reiterated denial of guilt. We hold our breath, hoping against hope +that she will give some explanation, some solution, that our pitying +hearts are waiting so eagerly to hear; but dumb as the Sphinx, she +awaits her doom. You will weigh that bare denial in the scale with the +evidence, and in this momentous duty recollect the cautious admonition +that has been furnished to guide you: 'Cosceding that asseverations of +innocence are always deserving of consideration by the executive, what +is there to invest them with a conclusive efficacy, in opposition to a +chain of presumptive evidence, the force and weight of which falls +short only of mathematical demonstration?' The astute and eloquent +counsel for defence, has cited some well-known cases, to shake your +faith in the value of merely presumptive proof. +</P> + +<P> +"I offer for your consideration, an instance of the fallibility of +merely bare, unsupported denial of guilt on the part of the accused. A +priest at Lauterbach was suspected, arrested and tried for the murder +of a woman, under very aggravated circumstances. He was subjected to +eighty examinations; and each time solemnly denied the crime. Even when +confronted at midnight with the skull of the victim murdered eight +years before, he vehemently protested his innocence; called on the +skull to declare him not the assassin, and appealed to the Holy Trinity +to proclaim his innocence. Finally he confessed his crime; testified +that while cutting the throat of his victim, he had exhorted her to +repentance, had given her absolution, and that having concealed the +corpse, he had said masses for her soul. +</P> + +<P> +"The forlorn and hopeless condition of the prisoner at this bar, +appeals pathetically to that compassion which we are taught to believe +coexists with justice, even in the omnipotent God we worship; yet in +the face of incontrovertible facts elicited from reliable witnesses, of +coincidences which no theory of accident can explain, can we stifle +convictions, solely because she pleads 'not guilty'? Pertinent, indeed, +was the ringing cry of that ancient prosecutor: 'Most illustrious +Caesar! if denial of guilt be sufficient defence, who would ever be +convicted?' You have been assured that inferences drawn from probable +facts eclipse the stupendous falsehood of Ananias and Sapphira! Then +the same family strain inevitably crops out, in the loosely-woven web +of defensive presumptive evidence—whose pedigree we trace to the same +parentage. God forbid that I should commit the sacrilege of arrogating +His divine attribute—infallibility—for any human authority, however +exalted; or claim it for any amount of proof, presumptive or positive. +'It is because humanity even when most cautious and discriminating is +so mournfully fallible and prone to error, that in judging its own +frailty, we require the aid and reverently invoke the guidance of +Jehovah.' In your solemn deliberations bear in mind this epitome of an +opinion, entitled to more than a passing consideration: 'Perhaps strong +circumstantial evidence in cases of crime, committed for the most part +in secret, is the most satisfactory of any from whence to draw the +conclusion of guilt; for men may be seduced to perjury, by many base +motives; but it can scarcely happen that many circumstances, especially +if they be such over which the accuser could have no control, forming +altogether the links of a transaction, should all unfortunately concur +to fix the presumption of guilt on an individual, and yet such a +conclusion be erroneous.' +</P> + +<P> +"Gentlemen of the jury: the prosecution believes that the overwhelming +mass of evidence laid before you proves, beyond a reasonable doubt, +that the prisoner did premeditatedly murder and rob Robert Luke +Darrington; and in the name of justice, we demand that you vindicate +the majesty of outraged law, by rendering a verdict of 'guilty'. All +the evidence in this case points the finger of doom at the prisoner, as +to the time, the place, the opportunity, the means, the conduct and the +motive. Suffer not sympathy for youthful womanhood and wonderful +beauty, to make you recreant to the obligations of your oath, to decide +this issue of life or death, strictly in accordance with the proofs +presented; and bitterly painful as is your impending duty, do not allow +the wail of pity to drown the demands of justice, or the voice of that +blood that cries to heaven for vengeance upon the murderess. May the +righteous God who rules the destinies of the universe guide you, and +enable you to perform faithfully your awful duty." +</P> + +<P> +Painfully solemn was the profound silence that pervaded the court-room, +and the eyes of the multitude turned anxiously to the grave countenance +of the Judge. Mr. Dunbar had seated himself at a small table, not far +from Beryl, and resting his elbow upon it, leaned his right temple in +the palm of his hand, watching from beneath his contracted black brows +the earnest, expectant faces of the jurymen; and his keen, glowing eyes +indexed little of the fierce, wolfish pangs that gnawed ceaselessly at +his heart, as the intolerable suspense drew near its end. +</P> + +<P> +Judge Parkman leaned forward. +</P> + +<P> +"Gentlemen of the jury: before entering that box, as the appointed +ministers of justice, to arbitrate upon the most momentous issue that +can engage human attention—the life or death of a fellow creature—you +called your Maker to witness that you would divest your minds of every +shadow of prejudice, would calmly, carefully, dispassionately consider, +analyze and weigh the evidence submitted for your investigation; and +irrespective of consequences, render a verdict in strict accordance +with the proofs presented. You have listened to the testimony of the +witnesses, to the theory of the prosecution, to the theory of the +counsel for the defence; you have heard the statement of the accused, +her repeated denial of the crime with which she stands charged; and +finally you have heard the arguments of counsel, the summing up of all +the evidence. The peculiar character of some of the facts presented as +proof, requires on your part the keenest and most exhaustive analysis +of the inferences to be drawn from them, and you 'have need of +patience, wisdom and courage'. While it is impossible that you can +contemplate the distressing condition of the accused without emotions +of profound compassion, your duty 'is prescribed by the law, which +allows you no liberty to indulge any sentiment, inconsistent with its +strict performance'. You should begin with the legal presumption that +the prisoner is innocent, and that presumption must continue, until her +guilt is satisfactorily proved. This is the legal right of the +prisoner; contingent on no peculiar circumstances of any particular +case, but is the common right of every person accused of a crime. The +law surrounds the prisoner with a coat of mail, that only irrefragable +proofs of guilt can pierce, and the law declares her innocent, unless +the proof you have heard on her trial satisfies you, beyond a +reasonable doubt, that she is guilty. What constitutes reasonable +doubt, it becomes your duty to earnestly and carefully consider. It is +charged that the defendant, on the night of the twenty-sixth of +October, did wilfully, deliberately, and premeditatedly murder Robert +Luke Darrington, by striking him with a brass andiron. The legal +definition of murder is the unlawful killing of another, with malice +aforethought; and is divided into two degrees. Any murder committed +knowingly, intentionally and wantonly, and without just cause or +excuse, is murder in the first degree; and this is the offence charged +against the prisoner at the bar. If you believe from the evidence, that +the defendant, Beryl Brentano, did at the time and place named, +wilfully and premeditatedly kill Robert Luke Darrington, then it will +become your duty to find the defendant guilty of murder; if you do not +so believe, then it will be your duty to acquit her. A copy of the +legal definition of homicide, embracing murder in the first and second +degrees, and of manslaughter in the first and second degrees, will be +furnished for your instruction; and it is your right and privilege +after a careful examination of all the evidence, to convict of a lesser +crime than that charged in the indictment, provided all the evidence in +this case, should so convince your minds, to the exclusion of a +reasonable doubt. +</P> + +<P> +"In your deliberations you will constantly bear in memory, the +following long established rules provided for the guidance of jurors: +</P> + +<P> +"'I.—The burden of proof rests upon the prosecution, and does not +shift or change to the defendant in any phase or stage of the case. +</P> + +<P> +"'II.—Before the jury can convict the accused, they must be satisfied +from the evidence that she is guilty of the offence charged in the +indictment, beyond a reasonable doubt. It is not sufficient that they +should believe her guilt only probable. No degree of probability +merely, will authorize a conviction; but the evidence must be of such +character and tendency as to produce a moral certainty of the +prisoner's guilt, to the exclusion of reasonable doubt. +</P> + +<P> +"'III.—Each fact which is necessary in the chain of circumstances to +establish the guilt of the accused, must be distinctly proved by +competent legal evidence, and if the jury have reasonable doubt as to +any material fact, necessary to be proved in order to support the +hypothesis of the prisoner's guilt, to the exclusion of every other +reasonable hypothesis, they must find her not guilty. +</P> + +<P> +"'IV.—If the jury are satisfied from the evidence, that the accused is +guilty of the offence charged, beyond reasonable doubt, and no rational +hypothesis or explanation can be framed or given (upon the whole +evidence in the cause) consistent with the innocence of the accused, +and at the same time consistent with the facts proved, they ought to +find her guilty. The jury are the exclusive judges of the evidence, of +its weight, and of the credibility of the witnesses. It is their duty +to accept and be governed by the law, as given by the Court in its +instructions.' +</P> + +<P> +"The evidence in this case is not direct and positive, but presumptive; +and your attention has been called to some well known cases of persons +convicted of, and executed for capital crimes, whose entire innocence +was subsequently made apparent. These arguments and cases only prove +that, 'all human evidence, whether it be positive or presumptive in its +character, like everything else that partakes of mortality, is +fallible. The reason may be as completely convinced by +circumstantial—as by positive evidence, and yet may possibly not +arrive at the truth by either.' +</P> + +<P> +"The true question, therefore, for your consideration, is not the kind +of evidence in this case, but it is, what is the result of it in your +minds? If it has failed to satisfy you of the guilt of the accused, and +your minds are not convinced, vacillate in doubt, then you must acquit +her, be the evidence what it may, positive or presumptive; but if the +result of the whole evidence satisfies you, it you are convinced that +she is guilty, then it is imperatively your duty to convict her, even +if the character of the evidence be wholly circumstantial." Such is the +law. +</P> + +<P> +"In resigning this case to you, I deem it my duty to direct your +attention to one point, which I suggest that you consider. If the +accused administered chloroform, did it indicate that her original +intention was solely to rob the vault? Is the act of administering the +chloroform consistent with the theory of deliberate and premeditated +murder? In examining the facts submitted by counsel, take the +suggestion just presented, with you, and if the facts and circumstances +proved against her, can be accounted for on the theory of intended, +deliberate robbery, without necessarily involving premeditated murder, +it is your privilege to put that merciful construction upon them. +</P> + +<P> +"Gentlemen of the jury, I commit this mournful and terrible case to +your decision; and solemnly adjure you to be governed in your +deliberations, by the evidence as you understand it, by the law as +furnished in these instructions, and to render such verdict, as your +reason compels, as your matured judgment demands, and your conscience +unhesitatingly approves and sanctions. May God direct and control your +decision." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap20"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XX. +</H3> + +<P> +Drifting along the stream of testimony that rolled in front of the +jury-box, an eager and excited public had with scarcely a dissenting +voice arrived at the conclusion, that the verdict was narrowed to the +limits of only two possibilities. It was confidently expected that the +jury would either acquit unconditionally, or fail to agree; thus +prolonging suspense, by a mistrial. It was six o'clock when, the +jurors, bearing the andiron, handkerchief, pipe, and a diagram of the +bedroom at "Elm Bluff", were led away to their final deliberation; yet +so well assured was the mass of spectators, that they would promptly +return to render a favorable verdict, that despite the inclemency of +the weather, there was no perceptible diminution of the anxious crowd +of men and women. +</P> + +<P> +The night had settled prematurely down, black and stormy; and though +the fury of the gale seemed at one time to have spent itself, the wind +veered to the implacable east, and instead of fitful gusts, a steady +roaring blast freighted with rain smote the darkness. The officer +conducted his prisoner across the dim corridor, and opened the door of +the small anteroom, which frequent occupancy had rendered gloomily +familiar. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish I could make you more comfortable, and it is a shame to shut +you up in such an ice-box. I will throw my overcoat on the floor, and +you can wrap your feet up in it. Yes, you must take it. I shall keep +warm at the stove in the Sheriff's room. The Judge will not wait later +than ten o'clock, then I'll take you back to Mrs. Singleton. It seems +you prefer to remain here alone." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, entirely alone." +</P> + +<P> +"You are positive, you won't try a little hot punch, or a glass of +wine?" +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, but I wish only to be alone." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't be too down-hearted. You will never be convicted under that +indictment, at least not by this jury, for I have a suspicion that +there is one man among them, who will stand out until the stars fall, +and I will tell you why. I happened to be looking at him, when your +Christmas card was shown by Mr. Dunbar. The moment he saw it, he +started, stretched out his hand, and as he looked at it, I saw him +choke up, and pass his hand over his eyes. Soon after Christmas, that +man lost his only child, a girl five years old, who had scarlet fever. +To divert her mind, they gave her a Christmas card to play with, that +some friend had sent to her mother. She had it in her hand when she +died, in convulsions, and it was put in her coffin and buried with her. +My wife helped to nurse and shroud her, and she told me it was the card +shown in court; it was your card. The law can't cut out the +heartstrings of the jury, and I don't believe that man would lift his +hand against your life, any sooner than he would strike the face of his +dead child." +</P> + +<P> +He locked the door, and Beryl found herself at last alone, in the +dreary little den where a single gas burner served only to show the +surrounding cheerlessness. The furniture comprised a wooden bench along +the wall, two chairs, and a table in the middle of the floor; and on +the dusty panes of the grated window, a ray of ruddy light from a lamp +post in the street beneath, broke through the leaden lances of the +rain, and struggled for admission. +</P> + +<P> +The neurotic pharmacopoeia contains nothing so potent as despair to +steady quivering nerves, and steel to superhuman endurance. For Beryl, +the pendulum of suspense had ceased to swing, because the spring of +hope had snapped; and the complete surrender, the mute acceptance of +the worst possible to come, had left her numb, impervious to dread. As +one by one the discovered facts spelled unmistakably the name of her +brother, allowing no margin to doubt his guilt, the necessity of +atonement absorbed every other consideration; and the desire to avert +his punishment extinguished the last remnant of selfish anxiety. If by +suffering in his stead, she could secure to him life—the opportunities +of repentance, of expiation, of making his peace with God, of saving +his immortal soul—how insignificant seemed all else. The innate love +of life, the natural yearning for happiness, the once fervent +aspirations for fame—the indescribable longing for the fruition of +youth's high hopes, which like a Siren sang somewhere in the golden +mists of futurity—all these were now crushed beyond recognition in the +whirlwind that had wrecked her. +</P> + +<P> +Her father slept under silvery olives in a Tuscan dell, her mother +within hearing of the waves that broke on the Atlantic shore; and if +the wanderer could be purified by penitential tears, what mattered the +shattering of the family circle on earth, when in the eternal Beyond, +it would be indissolubly reformed? Over the black gulf that yawned in +her young, pure life, the wings of her Christian faith bore her +steadily, unwaveringly to the heavenly rest, that she knew remained for +the people of God; and so, she seemed to have shaken hands with the +things of time and earth, and to stand on the border land, girded for +departure. To meet her beloved dead, with the blessed announcement that +Bertie must join them after a while, because she had ransomed his +precious soul; and that the family would be complete under the heavenly +roof, was recompense so rich, that the fangs of disgrace, of physical +and mental torture were effectually extracted. By day and by night the +ladder of prayer lifted her soul into that serene realm, where the +fountains of balm are never drained; and into her face stole the +reflection of that peace which only communion with the Christian's God +can bring to those whom grief has claimed for its own. +</P> + +<P> +To-night, as she listened to the Coronach chanted by the gale, and the +dismal accompaniment of the pelting rain, she realized how utterly +isolated was her position, and kneeling on the bare floor, crossed her +arms on the table, bowed her bead upon them, and prayed for patience +and strength. The ordeal had been fiery, but the end was at hand, and +release must be near. +</P> + +<P> +She heard quick steps in the corridor, and the key was turned in the +lock. Had the jury so promptly decided to destroy her? For an instant +only, she shut her eyes; and when she opened them, Mr. Dunbar was +leaning over her, folding closely about her shoulders some heavy wrap, +whose soft fur collar his fingers buttoned around her throat. She had +not known that she was cold, until the delicious sensation of warmth +crept like a caressing touch over her chilled limbs. She did not stir, +and neither spoke; but after a moment he turned toward the door; then +she rose. +</P> + +<P> +"There is something I wish to say, and this is my last opportunity, as +after to-night we shall not meet again. During the past four months I +have said harsh, bitter things to you, and have unjustly judged you. In +grateful recognition of all that you have so faithfully essayed to +accomplish in my behalf, I ask you now to forget everything but my +gratitude for your effort to save me; and I offer my hand to you, as +the one friend who sacrificed even his manly pride, and endured +humiliation in order to redress my wrongs. I thank you very sincerely, +Mr. Dunbar." +</P> + +<P> +He took her outstretched hand, pressed it against his cheek, his eyes, +held it to his lips; then a half smothered groan escaped him, and +afraid to trust himself, he went quickly out. +</P> + +<P> +Believing that she stood on the confines of another world, she had +possessed her soul in patience, waiting for the consummation of the +sacrifice; yet at the crisis of her fate, that singular, +incomprehensible influence, long resisted, drew her thoughts to him, +whom she regarded as the chosen puppet of destiny to hurry her into an +untimely grave. She had fought the battle with him, under fearful odds; +conscious of sedition in the heart that defied him, warily clutching +with one hand the throat of rebellion in her citadel, while with the +other, she parried assault. +</P> + +<P> +Keeping lonely vigil, amid the strewn wreck of life and hope, she had +waved away one persistent thought, that lit up the blackness with a +sudden glory, that came with the face of an angel of light, and babbled +with the silvery tongue of sorcery. As far as her future was concerned, +this world had practically come to a premature end; but above the roar +of ruin, and out of the yawning graves of slaughtered possibilities, +rose and rang the challenge: If she had never come South, if she could +have been allowed the chance of happiness that seemed every woman's +birthright, if she had met and known Mr. Dunbar, before he was pledged +to another; what then? If she were once more the Beryl of old, and he +were free? If? What necromancy so wonderful, as the potentiality of if? +Weighed in that popular balance—appearances—how stood the poor +friendless prisoner, loaded with suspicion, tarnished with obloquy, on +the verge of an ignominious death; in comparison with the fair, proud +heiress, dowered with blue blood, powerful in patrician influence, rich +in all that made her the envy of her social world? +</P> + +<P> +In the dazzling zenith of temporal prosperity, Leo Gordon considered +the heart of her betrothed her most precious possession; the one jewel +which she would gladly have given all else to preserve; and yet, fate +tore it from her grasp, and laid it at the feet, nay thrust it into the +white hand of the woman who must die for a fiendish crime. A latter-day +seer tells us, that in all realms, "Between laws there is no analogy, +there is Continuity"; then in the universe of ethical sociology, who +shall trace the illimitable ramifications of the Law of Compensation? +</P> + +<P> +Up and down, back and forth, slowly, wearily walked the prisoner; and +when the town clock struck eight, she mechanically counted each stroke. +As in drowning men, the landmarks of a lifetime rise, huddle, almost +press upon the glazing eyes, so the phantasmagoria of Beryl's past, +seemed projected in strange luminousness upon the pall of the present, +like profiles in silvery flame cast on a black curtain. +</P> + +<P> +Holding her father's hand, she walked in the Odenwald; sitting beside +her mother on a carpet of purple vetches, she stemmed strawberries in a +garden near Pistoja; clinging to Bertie's jacket, she followed him +across dimpling sands to dip her feet in the blue Mediterranean waves, +that broke in laughter, showing teeth of foam, where dying sunsets +reddened all the beach. Through sunny arcades, flushed with +pomegranate, glowing with orange, silvered with lemon blossoms, came +the tinkling music of contadini bells, the bleating of kids, the +twittering of happy birds, the distant chime of an Angelus; all the +subtle harmony, the fragmentary melody that flickers through an +Impromptu of Chopin or Schubert. She saw the simulacrum of her former +self, the proud, happy Beryl of old, singing from the score of the +"Messiah", in the organ loft of a marble church; she heard the rich +tenor voice of her handsome brother, as he trilled a barcarole one +night, crossing the Atlantic; she smelled the tuberoses at Mentone, the +faint breath of lilies her father had loved so well, and then, blotting +all else, there rose clear as some line of Morghen's, that attic room; +the invalid's bed, the low chair beside it, the wasted figure, the +suffering, fever-flushed face of the beloved mother, as she saw her +last, with the Grand Duke jasmine fastened at her throat. +</P> + +<P> +The door was thrown open, and the officer beckoned her to follow him. +Back into the crowded court-room, where people pressed even into the +window sills for standing room, where Judge and counsel sat gravely +expectant; where the stillness of death had suddenly fallen. The +officer conducted her to the bar, then drew back, and Mr. Dunbar came +and stood at her side; resting his hand on the back of her chair. +</P> + +<P> +In that solemn hush, the measured tramp of the jury advancing, and +filing into their box, had the mournful, measured beat as of pall +bearers, keeping step to a dismal dirge; and when the foreman laid upon +the table the fatal brass unicorn, the muffled sound seemed ominous as +the grating of a coffin lowered upon the cross bars of a gaping grave. +As the roll was called, each man rose, and answered in a low but +distinct tone. Then the clerk of the court asked: +</P> + +<P> +"Gentlemen of the jury, have you agreed upon your verdict?" +</P> + +<P> +"We have," replied the foreman. +</P> + +<P> +"What say you! Guilty, or not guilty?" +</P> + +<P> +Beryl had risen, and the gaslight shining full upon her pale, Phidian +face, showed no trace of trepidation. Only the pathetic patience of a +sublime surrender was visible on her frozen features. The eyes +preternaturally large and luminous were raised far above the sea of +heads, and their strained gaze might almost have been fixed upon the +unveiled face of the God she trusted. Her hands were folded over her +mother's ring, her noble head thrown proudly back. +</P> + +<P> +"We the jury, in the case of the State against Beryl Brentano, find +defendant not guilty as charged in the indictment; but guilty of +manslaughter in the first degree; and we do earnestly commend her to +the mercy of the Court." +</P> + +<P> +The girl staggered slightly, as if recoiling from a blow, and Mr. +Dunbar caught her arm, steadied her. The long pent tide of popular +feeling broke its barriers, and the gates of Pandemonium seemed to +swing open. Women sobbed; men groaned. In vain the Judge thundered +"Silence", "Order!" and not until an officer advanced to obey the +command, to clear the court-room, was there any perceptible lull, in +the storm of indignation. +</P> + +<P> +Turning to the Judge, Mr. Dunbar said: +</P> + +<P> +"In behalf of the prisoner, I most respectfully beg that the Court will +end her suspense; and render her return to this bar unnecessary by +promptly pronouncing sentence." +</P> + +<P> +"Is it the wish of the prisoner, that sentence should not be delayed?" +</P> + +<P> +"She wishes to know her fate." +</P> + +<P> +She had uttered no sound, but the lashes trembled, fell over the tired, +aching, strained eyes; and lifting her locked hands she bowed her chin +upon them. +</P> + +<P> +Some moments elapsed, before Judge Parkman spoke; then his voice was +low and solemn. +</P> + +<P> +"Beryl Brentano, you have been indicted for the deliberate and +premeditated murder of your grandfather, Robert Luke Darrington. Twelve +men, selected for their intelligence and impartiality, have patiently +and attentively listened to the evidence in this case, and have under +oath endeavored to discover the truth of this charge. You have had the +benefit of a fair trial, by unbiased judges, and finally, the jury in +the conscientious discharge of their duty, have convicted you of +manslaughter in the first degree, and commended you to the mercy of the +Court. In consideration of your youth, of the peculiar circumstances +surrounding you, and especially, in deference to the wishes and +recommendation of the jury—whose verdict, the Court approves, I +therefore pronounce upon you the lightest penalty which the law affixes +to the crime of manslaughter, of which you stand convicted; which +sentence is—that you be taken hence to the State Penitentiary, and +there be kept securely, for the term of five years." +</P> + +<P> +With a swift movement, Mr. Dunbar drew the crape veil over her face, +put her arm through his, and led her into the corridor. Hurriedly he +exchanged some words in an undertone with the two officers, who +accompanied him to the rear entrance of the court-house; and then, in +answer to a shrill whistle, a close carriage drawn by two horses drew +up to the door, followed by the dismal equipage set apart for the +transportation of prisoners. The deputy sheriff stepped forward, trying +to shield the girl from the driving rain, and assisted her into the +carriage. Mr. Dunbar sprang in and seated himself opposite. The officer +closed the door, ordered the coachman to drive on, and then entering +the gloomy black box, followed closely, keeping always in sight of the +vehicle in advance. +</P> + +<P> +The clock striking ten, sounded through the muffling storm a knell as +mournful as some tolling bell, while into that wild, moaning Friday +night, went the desolate woman, wearing henceforth the brand of +Cain—remanded to the convict's home. +</P> + +<P> +She had thrown back her veil to ease the stifling sensation in her +throat, and Mr. Dunbar could see now and then, as they dashed past a +street lamp, that she sat upright, still as stone. +</P> + +<P> +At last she said, in a tone peculiarly calm, like that of one talking +in sleep: +</P> + +<P> +"What did it mean—that verdict?" +</P> + +<P> +"That you went back to 'Elm Bluff' with no intention of attacking Gen'l +Darrington." +</P> + +<P> +"That I went there deliberately to steal, and then to avoid detection, +killed him? That was the verdict of the jury?" +</P> + +<P> +She waited a moment. +</P> + +<P> +"Answer me. That was the meaning? That was the most merciful verdict +they could give to the world?" +</P> + +<P> +Only the hissing sound of the rain upon the glass pane of the carriage, +made reply. +</P> + +<P> +They had reached the bridge, when a hysterical laugh startled the man, +who leaned back on the front seat, with his arms crossed tightly over a +heart throbbing with almost unendurable pain. +</P> + +<P> +"To steal, to rob, to plunder. Branded for all time a thief, a rogue, a +murderess. I!—I—" +</P> + +<P> +A passionate wail told the strain was broken: "I, my father's darling, +my father's Beryl! Hurled into a living tomb, herded with convicts, +with the vilest outcasts that disgrace the earth—this is worse than a +thousand deaths! It would have been so merciful to crush out the life +they mangled; but to doom me to the slow torture of this loathsome +grave, where death brings no release! To die is so easy, so blessed; +but to live—a convicted felon! O, my God! my God! Hast Thou indeed +forsaken me?" +</P> + +<P> +In the appalling realization of her fate, she rocked to and fro for a +moment only, fiercely shaken by the horror of a future never before +contemplated. Then the proud soul stifled its shuddering sigh, lifted +its burden of shame, silently struggled up its awful Via Crucis. Mute +and still, she leaned back in the corner of the carriage. +</P> + +<P> +"I could have saved you, but you would not accept deliverance. You +thwarted every effort, tied the hands that might have set you free; and +by your own premeditated course throughout the trial, deliberately +dragged this doom down upon your head. You counted the cost, and you +elected, chose of your own free will to offer yourself as a sacrifice, +to the law, for the crime of another. You are your own merciless fate, +decreeing self-immolation. You were willing to die, in order to save +that man's life; and you can certainly summon fortitude to endure five +years' deprivation of his society; sustained by the hope that having +thereby purchased his security, you may yet reap the reward your heart +demands, reunion with its worthless, degraded idol. I have watched, +weighed, studied you; searched every stray record of your fair young +life, found the clear pages all pure; and I have doubted, marvelled +that you, lily-hearted, lily-souled, lily-handed, could cast the pearl +of your love down in the mire, to be trampled by swinish feet." +</P> + +<P> +The darkness of the City of Dis that seemed to brood under the wings of +the stormy night, veiled Beryl's face; and her silence goaded him +beyond the limits of prudence, which he had warily surveyed for himself. +</P> + +<P> +"Day and night, I hear the maddening echo of your accusing cry, 'You +have ruined my life!' God knows, you have as effectually ruined mine. +You have your revenge—if it comfort you to know it; but I am incapable +of your sublime renunciation. I am no patient martyr; I am, instead, an +intensely selfish man. You choose to hug the ashes of desolation; I +purpose to sweep away the wreck, to rebuild on the foundation of one +hope, which all the legions in hell cannot shake. Between you and me +the battle has only begun, and nothing but your death or my victory +will end it. You have your revenge; I intend to enjoy mine. Though he +burrow as a mole, or skulk in some fastness of Alaska, I will track and +seize that cowardly miscreant, and when the law receives its guilty +victim, you shall be freed from suspicion, freed from prison, and most +precious of all boons, you shall be freed forever from the vile +contamination of his polluting touch. For the pangs you have inflicted +on me, I will have my revenge: you shall never be profaned by the name +of wife." +</P> + +<P> +Up the rocky hill toiled the horses, arching their necks as they +stooped their faces to avoid the blinding rain: and soon the huge blot +of prison walls, like a crouching monster ambushed in surrounding +gloom, barred the way. +</P> + +<P> +In two windows of the second story, burned lights that borrowed lurid +rays in their passage through the mist, and seemed to glow angrily, +like the red eyes of a sullen beast of prey. The carriage stopped. A +moment after, the deputy-sheriff sprang from his wagon and rang the +bell close to the great gate. Two dogs bayed hoarsely, and somewhere in +the building an answering bell sounded. +</P> + +<P> +Beryl leaned forward. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Dunbar, there is one last favor I ask at your hands. I want +my—my—I want that pipe, that was shown in court. Will you ask that it +may be given to me? Will you send it to me?" +</P> + +<P> +A half strangled, scarcely audible oath was his only reply. +</P> + +<P> +She put out her hand, laid it on his. +</P> + +<P> +"You dare caused me so much suffering, surely you will not deny me this +only recompense I shall ever ask." +</P> + +<P> +His hand closed over hers. +</P> + +<P> +"If I bring it to you, will you confess who smoked it last?" +</P> + +<P> +"After to-night, sir, I think it best I should never see your face +again." +</P> + +<P> +The officer opened the carriage door, the warden approached, carrying a +lantern in one hand and an umbrella in the other. Mr. Dunbar stepped +from the carriage and turning, stretched out his arms, suddenly +snatched the girl for an instant close to his heart, and lifted her to +the ground. +</P> + +<P> +The warden opened the gate, swinging his lantern high to light the way, +and by its flickering rays Lennox Dunbar saw the beautiful white face, +the wonderful, sad eyes, the wan lips contracted by a spasm of pain. +</P> + +<P> +She turned and followed the warden; the lights wavered; the great iron +gate swung back in its groove, the bolt fell with a sullen clang; the +massive key rattled, a chain clanked, and all was darkness as she was +locked irrevocably into her living tomb. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap21"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXI. +</H3> + +<P> +The annual resurrection had begun; the pulse of Nature quickened, rose, +throbbed under the vernal summons; pale, tender grass-blades peeped +above the mould, houstonias lifted their blue disks to the March sun, +and while the world of birds commenced their preludes where silky young +leaves shyly fluttered, earth and sky were wrapped in that silvery haze +with which coy Springtime half veils her radiant face. The vivid +verdure of wheat and oat fields, the cooler aqua marina of long +stretches of rye, served as mere groundwork for displaying in bold +relief the snowy tufts of plum, the creamy clusters of pear, and the +glowing pink of peach orchards that clothed the hillsides, and brimmed +the valleys with fragrant prophecies of fruitful plenty. +</P> + +<P> +Dimmed by distance to fine lines of steel, wavered the flocks of wild +geese flying from steaming bayous to icy lakes in the far North, and +now and then as the ranks dipped, a white flash lit the vignettes +traced against the misty, pearl-gray sky. +</P> + +<P> +Spring sunshine had kissed the lips of death, and universal life sprang +palpitating to begin anew the appointed yearly cycle; yet amid the +flush and stir of mother earth, there lay hopelessly still and cold +some human hopes, which no divine "Come forth" would ever revivify. +</P> + +<P> +Into the face of Leo Gordon had crept that strange and indescribable +change, which is analogous to the peculiar aspect of the clear heavens +when dark clouds just faintly rim the horizon, below which they heap +their sombre, sullen masses, projecting upward weird shadows. +</P> + +<P> +Apparently the sun of prosperity burned in the zenith and gilded her +path with happiness, but analyzed by the prism of her consciousness +the brightness faded, the colors paled, and grim menace crossed all, +like the dark lines of Fraunhofer. To be chosen, loved, wooed and won +exclusively for herself, irrespective of all extraneous appurtenances +and advantages, is the supreme hope innate in every woman, and the +dread that her wealth might invest her with charms not intrinsic, had +made Leo unusually distrustful of the motives of her numerous suitors. +That Leighton Douglass loved the woman, not the heiress, she knew +beyond the possibility of cavil or doubt, and when, after mature +deliberation, she promised her hand to Mr. Dunbar, she had felt equally +sure that no mercenary consideration biased his choice or inspired his +professions of attachment. +</P> + +<P> +For a nature so proudly poised, so averse to all impulsive +manifestations of emotion, her affections were surprisingly warm and +clinging, and she loved him with all the depth and fervor of her +tender, generous heart; hence the slow torture of her humiliation in +the hour of disenchantment. To women who love is given a sixth sense, a +subtile instinct whereby, as in an occult alembic, they discern the +poison that steals into their wine of joy; so Leo was not long in +ignorance that her coveted kingdom belonged by right of conquest to +another, and that she reigned only nominally and by courtesy. +</P> + +<P> +The evil we most abhor generally espies us afar off, chases tirelessly, +crouches at our feet, grimacing triumphantly at our impotence to escape +its loathsome clutches; and Leo's pride bled sorely in the realization +that she had sold her hand and heart for base counterfeit equivalents. +In a crisis of keen disappointment, only very noble natures can remain +strictly just, yet in arraigning her lover for disloyalty, this +sorrowing woman abstained from casting all the blame upon him. He had +not intentionally deceived her, had not deliberately betrayed her +trust; he was the unwilling victim of an inexplicable fascination +against which she felt assured he had struggled sullenly and +persistently; and which, in destroying the beautiful edifice of their +mutual hopes, offered him nothing but humiliation in exchange. +</P> + +<P> +Standing to-day beside the pyramid of scarlet geraniums, and velvety, +gold-powdered begonias in the centre of the octagonal room, where the +warm Spring sun shone down through the dome, falling aslant on the +great snowy owl and the rose-colored cockatoo smoothing their plumes on +the top of the glittering brass cages—Leo contrasted the luxurious and +elegant details of her lovely home with the grim and bleak cell where, +in shame and ignominy, dwelt the young stranger who had stolen her +throne. A beggar by the road-side had filched from the queen in her +palace, her crown and sceptre, and the pomp and splendor of royal +surroundings only mocked and emphasized an empty sham. Merely a trifle +paler than usual, and somewhat heavy-eyed from acquaintance with +midnight vigils, she proudly bore her new burden of grief with her +wonted easy grace; but the pretty mouth was compressed into harder, +narrower lines, and the delicate nose dilated in a haughtier curve. +Sooner or later we all learn the wisdom of the unwelcome admonition: +"Fortune sells what we believe she gives." +</P> + +<P> +For two months Leo's relations with Mr. Dunbar had been distinctly +strained, and while both carefully avoided any verbal attempt at +explanation, her manner had grown more distant, his more scrupulously +courteous, but pre-occupied, guarded and cold. Knowing that abdication +was inevitable, she slowly revolved the best method of release, which +promised the least sacrifice of womanly dignity, and the greatest +economy of unpleasantness on the part of her betrothed. +</P> + +<P> +During the week of the trial, she had seen him but twice, and +immediately after he had been summoned to attend some suit in New +Orleans, and had hurriedly bidden her adieu in the presence of others. +With punctilious regularity he wrote studiedly polished, graceful yet +merely friendly letters, and like ice morsels they slowly widened the +glacier creeping between the two. +</P> + +<P> +To her council she admitted only her bruised pride, her bleeding heart, +her relentless incorruptible conscience; and over the conclusion, she +shed no tears, made no moan, allowed no margin for pity. Early on that +Spring morning, she had received a glowing sheaf of La France and +Duchess de Brabant roses, accompanied by a brief note announcing Mr. +Dunbar's return, and requesting an interview at noon. The tone of her +reply was markedly cordial, and after offering congratulations upon +his birthday, she begged his acceptance of a souvenir made for the +occasion by her own hands, a dainty "bit of embroidery which she +flattered herself, he would value for the sake of the donor." +</P> + +<P> +Who doubts that Vashti made a most elaborate toilette, on that day of +humiliation, when discarded and discrowned she trailed her royal robes +for the last time across the marble courts of Shushan, going forth to +make room for Queen Esther? Amid the loops of lace at her throat, and +into the jewelled clasp of her belt, Leo had fastened the exquisite +roses, noting the perfect harmony of her costume, as she smoothed the +folds of the sapphire velvet robe which she knew that Mr. Dunbar +particularly admired. The lofty, beautiful room was aglow with rich +color from oriental rugs strewn about the marble floor, from masses of +hyacinths and crimson camellias in stands, baskets, vases; from +brilliant tropical birds flitting to and fro; and through the gilt +wire vista of the aviary, the fountain in the peristyle beyond threw up +its silvery hands to arrest attention, and softly beat time to the +music of the gold and green canaries. The large white owl with wide, +prescient, berylline eyes, rose suddenly, and on slow wings circled +round and round, flying gradually to the ceiling of the dome, then +swooped back to its perch; and the Siberian hound, a huge, dun-hued +creature, lifted his head from the velvet rug and rubbed it against his +mistress' dress. +</P> + +<P> +As the sound of a step she knew so well, rang in the vestibule, the +blood leaped to Leo's cheeks, but she walked quickly forward, and met +her visitor just beneath the "Salve" in the scroll of olives, putting +out her hands across the onyx table with its red and black bowl of +violets. Thus at arm's length, she held him a moment. +</P> + +<P> +"I am very glad to see you; and I wish you a happy birthday, hoping +your new year may be as bright as the sun that ushers it in; and as +full of fragrance as these lovely roses, which I wear in honor of the +day." +</P> + +<P> +Hand in hand, she smiled up into his handsome face, and certainly he +had never looked more kingly, more worthy of her homage. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, dear Leo. The light and sweetness of my future can be +blotted out, only by losing you. You must be the fulfilment of your own +kind wishes." +</P> + +<P> +He raised her left hand, kissed it lightly, and as she withdrew her +fingers and resumed her seat, in front of an ottoman ablaze with a +tangled mass of brilliant Berlin wool, he sat down at her side. +</P> + +<P> +Ere she was aware of his intention, he pushed the ottoman beyond her +reach, and dexterously catching her hand, took the gold thimble from +her finger and dropped it into his vest pocket. +</P> + +<P> +"Perish the fetich of needle-work, crochet and knitting! To-day at +least it shall not come between us;—and I claim your eyes, your +undivided attention. Now tell me how many of my rivals, how many +audacious suitors you have held at bay, by these gay Penelope webs +woven in my absence?" +</P> + +<P> +"Has Ulysses the right to be curious? Should not memories of Calypso +incline him to unlock the fetters of Penelope?" +</P> + +<P> +"Did she ever for one instant deem the silken cords she hugged to her +loyal, tender heart—fetters? Sweet, patient incarnation of +unquestioning fidelity, she stands the eternal antithesis of Mrs. +Caudle. From Kittie's letter, I inferred you were not well; but +certainly, my dear Leo, I never saw you look more lovely than to-day." +</P> + +<P> +"Just now Kittie's perceptions are awry, dazzled by the rose light that +wrap? her world. Has Prince arrived?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, he came yesterday, and my little sister is entirely and +overwhelmingly happy, for he is literally her Prince. Physically he is +much improved; has developed surprisingly, but has the shy, taciturn +manner of a student, and is, I fear, a hopeless bookworm." +</P> + +<P> +"Why should his literary taste disquiet you? He went to Germany to +foster his scholarly inclination." +</P> + +<P> +"Why? Why should a man apprentice himself to a carpenter, and become an +expert joiner, when he can never obtain the tools requisite to enable +him to work successfully? His aspirations run along the grooves of +science; and after dear little Kittie, his favorite Goddess is Biology. +Trained in the laboratory of a German scientist, where every imaginable +facility for researches in vivisection, and for the investigation of +certain biological problems was afforded him, he lands in America +empty-handed, and behold my carpenter minus tools." +</P> + +<P> +"Having fitted himself for the profession, you surely will not attempt +now to discourage or dissuade him." +</P> + +<P> +"The logic of impecuniosity will doubtless accomplish more than the +dissuasion of friends. Microscopic inspection of red and white +corpuscles, of virus, tissues, protoplasm and chlorophyl is probably +very interesting to lovers of microbes, and students of segmentation, +but such abstract pursuits appertain to purple and fine linen. A +profession means much; but ability to practise, infinitely more. Just +now the paramount problem is, how Prince can best make his bread. Six +months ago, he was prospectively so rich that he could indulge the whim +of blowing scientific soap-bubbles labelled with abstruse symbols; at +present, necessity directs his attention to paying his board bills." +</P> + +<P> +"I thought a liberal allowance had been settled upon him, and ample +provision made for his future?" +</P> + +<P> +"So there certainly was, on paper; but the destruction of the record +invalidated the gift." +</P> + +<P> +"All the world knows that he has the rights of an adopted son." +</P> + +<P> +"All the world knows equally well, that failing to produce the will, +Prince has lost his legacy, and must enlist in the army of +'bread-winners'." +</P> + +<P> +"Then what becomes of 'Elm Bluff' and its fine estate?" +</P> + +<P> +"They descend in the line decreed alike by law and nature, to the +nearest blood relation." +</P> + +<P> +Leo felt the blood reddening her throat and cheeks, but under the quick +glance of her hazel eyes, his handsome face always en garde showed no +embarrassing consciousness. Fearful of silence, she said in a +perplexed, inconsequent tone: +</P> + +<P> +"How manifestly unjust. Poor Kittie!" +</P> + +<P> +"Why poor Kittie? Her beaming face is eloquent repudiation of your +pity, and she verily believes her blond-headed, scholarly Prince a +bountiful equivalent for all Croesus' belongings. Rich little Kittie! +After all, where genuine love reigns, worldly environment matters +comparatively little; love makes happiness, and happiness is the +reconciler." +</P> + +<P> +A throb of pain shook the woman's heart as she realized the bitter +truth that he spoke from an experience born out of season: that he was +athirst for that which her fortune, her love, her own fair, graceful +self could never give him. +</P> + +<P> +She looked at him, with an arch smile lighting her face, but he saw the +trembling of her lips, noted the metallic ring in her voice. +</P> + +<P> +"'Et in Arcadia Ego?' Recent associations have rendered you idyllic. I +can recall a period when 'love in a cottage' was the target that +challenged the keenest arrows of your satire. Rich little Kittie has my +warmest congratulations. Will Prince remain in X—?" +</P> + +<P> +"How can he? The demand here for amateur scientists is not sufficiently +encouraging; and I rather think he gravitates toward a college +professorship, which might at least supply him abundantly with rabbits, +turtles, frogs and guinea-pigs for biological manipulation and +experiment. One of the gay balloons floating through his mind, is a +series of lectures to be delivered in the large cities. Heredity is his +pet hobby, and he proposes to canter it under the saddle of Weismann's +theory (whatever that may be), expounding it to scientific Americans. +As yet no plans have crystallized. His allowance was paid +semi-annually, but of course it failed him last January, and no +alternative presents itself but some attempt to utilize his technical +lore. There is a vacancy in the faculty of C—-University, and I shall +write at once to the board of trustees." +</P> + +<P> +Like a moth, Leo flitted closer to the flame. +</P> + +<P> +"Will he make no attempt to secure his rights?" +</P> + +<P> +"He is too wise to waste his time in so fruitless an endeavor." +</P> + +<P> +"Have you advised him to submit tamely to the deprivation of his +fortune?" +</P> + +<P> +"He has not consulted me, but Wolverton, who is his cousin, convinced +him of the futility of any legal proceedings." +</P> + +<P> +"Does General Darrington's granddaughter understand that Prince's +career will be ruined for want of the money to which he is entitled?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am not acquainted with the views Gen'l Darrington's granddaughter +entertains concerning Prince, as I have not seen her since the trial +ended. Have you?" +</P> + +<P> +Each looked steadily at the other, and under the gleam of his eyes, +hers fell, and her color flickered. +</P> + +<P> +"I went once, but was denied admission. Even Sister Serena sees her no +longer. You doubtless know that she is recovering slowly from a severe +attack of illness." +</P> + +<P> +"I have heard nothing since the night she was convicted and sentenced. +To-day I found a message at my office from Singleton, asking me to call +at my earliest convenience at the penitentiary, on a matter of legal +business. To what it refers, I know not, as I came immediately here." +</P> + +<P> +There was a brief silence, in which his gaze mercilessly searched her +fair, proud face; then with a supreme effort she laid her hand suddenly +on his, and looked up smiling: +</P> + +<P> +"I believe I was growing very impatient over your prolonged absence in +New Orleans. Time dragged dismally, and I was never more rejoiced than +when I received your last letter, and knew that I should see you +to-day. Lennox, I have set my heart on something, which only your +consent and acquiescence will secure to me. I am about to ask for a +mammoth sugar-plum that has dangled temptingly before my eyes for +nearly a year, and I shall enjoy it the more if you bestow it +graciously. Can you be generous and indulge my selfish whim?" +</P> + +<P> +He felt a quiver in the cold fingers over which his warm hand closed, +saw the throbbing of the artery in her white throat, the ebbing of the +scarlet in lips that bravely held their coaxing, smiling curves, and he +knew that the crisis he had long foreseen was drawing near. +</P> + +<P> +Leaning closer, he looked down into her brown eyes. The end must come; +but he would not precipitate it. Like Francis at Pavia, he acknowledged +to himself that all was lost, save honor. +</P> + +<P> +"Whenever my Leo convinces me she can be selfish, I promise all that +she can possibly ask; but the selfishness must first be +incontrovertibly established." +</P> + +<P> +He had never been dearer to her than at that moment, when his brilliant +eyes seemed to search her soul and magnetize her; yet she did not +falter and the aching of her heart was a goad to her will. +</P> + +<P> +"You merely shower lesser sugar-plums, intending they shall surfeit. +Lennox, you know how often I have longed to make the journey to Greece, +Asia Minor and Egypt; you remember I have repeatedly expressed the +wish? You—" +</P> + +<P> +"Pardon me, sweetheart, but this is the first time I ever heard it." +"You forget. At last the consummation unfolds itself as smoothly as the +fourth act of a melodrama. My friend and schoolmate, Alma Cutting, of +New York, invites a small party of ladies and gentlemen to accompany +her in a cruise through the Levant, on her father's new and elegant +steam yacht 'Cleopatra'. I have pressing letters from Alma and Mr. +Cutting, kindly urging me to join them in New York by the first of May, +at which time they expect to start on a preliminary cruise through the +North and Baltic seas; drifting southward so as to reach Sicily and +Malta as soon as cool weather permits. Do you wonder that so charming +and picturesque a tour tempts me sorely?" +</P> + +<P> +Unconsciously she had hurried her enunciation, but imperturbable as the +bronze he resembled, Mr. Dunbar listened; merely passing his left arm +around her, drawing her resisting form closer to him, holding her +firmly. +</P> + +<P> +"I am waiting for the selfish aspect of this scheme, else I should +answer at once, the coveted sugar-plum is yours, and we will make the +tour whenever you like, with the minor difference of mere details; we +will go in our own yacht." +</P> + +<P> +She caught her breath, and for an instant the world swam in a burst of +dazzling light. Beyond the reach of the usurper's witchery, was it not +possible that she might regain the alienated heart? Love chanted, it +is worth the trial; take him away, win him back. Pride sternly set foot +upon this spark of hope, with cruel insistence answering: his love has +never been yours; defrauded of the diamond, will you accept and +patiently wear paste? The quick revulsion was tantalizing as would +have been the vanishing of the ram from Abraham's gladdened sight; the +swift withdrawal of Diana's stag into the miraculous cloud at Aulis. +</P> + +<P> +"That would be too severe a tax upon your good nature and indulgence, +and involves a sacrifice of your professional plans, which I certainly +am not so intensely and monstrously selfish as to permit you to make. I +am so well aware of the reasons that necessitate your remaining in +America, in order to secure the appointment you are laboring to obtain, +that I refuse the sugar plum if bought with your disappointment." +</P> + +<P> +"Selfishness not established; you must plead on some better ground. +Suppose that the happiness of the woman who has done me the honor to +promise me her hand, is just now my supreme aim, paramount to every +other ambitious scheme; and that to insure it, I hazard all else? +Remember the privilege of choice is mine." +</P> + +<P> +It was the instinct not of affection, but of honor straining hard to +hold him to his allegiance, and her proud spirit thrilled under the +consciousness of his motive in striving to spare her. A crimson spot +burned on each cheek, a spark kindled in the soft, tender eyes. She +struggled to free herself, but his clasp tightened. +</P> + +<P> +"Conceding the generosity that would impel you to immolate your +feelings, in order to gratify my willies, I decline the sacrifice. You +must indulge my desire to receive my sugar plum in the bonbonniere of +the 'Cleopatra'." +</P> + +<P> +He pressed her sunny head against his shoulder, and rested his cheek on +hers. +</P> + +<P> +"Is it my Leo's wish to leave me, to go alone?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, to accompany Alma." +</P> + +<P> +"For an absence of indefinite duration?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly for a year; possibly longer; but you must be gracious in +yielding. If you really desire to promote my happiness, let me go +feeling that you consent freely." +</P> + +<P> +He comprehended fully all that he was surrendering, the noble, pure, +devoted heart; the refining, elevating companionship, the control of a +liberal fortune, the proud distinction of calling her his wife; and yet +above the refrain of many mingled regrets, he felt an infinite relief +that he had been spared the responsibility of the estrangement. +</P> + +<P> +"Whatever your happiness demands, I cannot refuse to concede, but you +can scarcely require me to receive 'graciously' the only construction I +can possibly place upon your request; that I am no longer an essential +element in your happiness." +</P> + +<P> +Knowing that he owed her every possible reparation, he was resolved to +shield her womanly pride from any additional wounds. He withdrew his +encircling arm, released her hand, walked to the end of the aviary, and +stood watching the shimmer of the fountain, where two of the ring-doves +held their wings aslant to catch the spray. After some moments she +joined him, and laid her slender fingers on his arm. +</P> + +<P> +"Dear Lennox, I propose at least a temporary change in our relations, +and even at the risk of incurring your displeasure, I prefer to be +perfectly frank. When you asked me to become your wife, neither of us +contemplated the long separation involved in this cruise abroad, which +I ardently desire for many reasons to make; and I am unwilling to +fetter either you or myself by an engagement during my absence. I want +to be entirely free, bound by no promise; and could I ask release, +unless you accepted yours?" +</P> + +<P> +He put his palm under her chin, and lifted the sweet, pure face, +forcing her to return his gaze. +</P> + +<P> +"Have I forfeited your confidence?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. Lennox. I have an indestructible faith in your honor." +</P> + +<P> +Her clear, truthful eyes assured him she acquitted him of all intention +to violate in any jot or tittle the forms of his allegiance. +</P> + +<P> +"You deem me incapable of intentionally betraying your noble trust?" +</P> + +<P> +"I do—indeed I do." +</P> + +<P> +"My peerless Leo, have you ceased to love me?" +</P> + +<P> +She shut her eyes an instant, and the delicate, flower face blanched; +the treacherous lips quivered: +</P> + +<P> +"No." +</P> + +<P> +"Who has supplanted me in your heart, for once I know it was all my +own?" +</P> + +<P> +"Lennox, you are still more to me than all the world beside; but I ask +time, I must be free at present. Let me go away untrammelled; consider +yourself as unfettered, as before our engagement, and when the year +expires, if you deem me absolutely necessary to your happiness, you can +readily ask a renewal of your bonds, and I can be sure by that time +whether my happiness depends upon becoming your wife. After to-day I +shall not wear your ring; and if, while away, I send it back to you, +interpret it as a final decision that in the future we can only be very +faithful and attached friends. I have sadly mistaken your character if +you refuse me release from a compact which I now certainly desire to +cancel." +</P> + +<P> +A shadow fell over his face, and he sighed heavily; but whether the +utterance of regret or relief she never knew. +</P> + +<P> +"Your heart shall no longer be burdened by bonds which I can loosen. +Because your peace and happiness are more to me than my own, I grant +you complete release. When my ring affronts you with disagreeable +memories of a past, which will always be hallowed and precious to me, +as the one beautiful dream that brightened my youth, that crowned me +for a season at least with the trust and love of the noblest woman I +have ever known, do not return it; let it slip from the hand it made my +own, and find in the blue sea a grave as deep as the chasm—that you +will—shall divide our lives. I honor you too profoundly to question +your course; yet there is an explanation which I owe to myself as well +as to you. Leo, no man can ever be worthy to call you wife, but perhaps +I am less unworthy than you probably deem me? While in New Orleans, I +wrote a long letter, which I afterward decided not to send by mail. I +brought it to-day, intending to put it into your hand." +</P> + +<P> +He took from the inside pocket of his coat, an envelope addressed to +her, broke the seal and pointed at the head of the sheet to the date, +some three weeks earlier. She surmised by that wonderful instinct which +God grants women as armor against the slow, ponderous aggressiveness of +man's tyranny, the nature of its contents. Had she merely anticipated +by an hour his petition for release? Even the bitterness of this +conjecture was neutralized by the testimony it bore to his integrity of +purpose, his unwillingness to conceal his disloyalty. When temples are +shattered and altars crumble, we save our idol and flee into the +wilderness, exulting in the assurance that no clay feet defile it. +</P> + +<P> +Leo shook her head and gently put aside the proffered letter. +</P> + +<P> +"You wrote it for the eyes of one who had pledged herself to bear your +name; the revocation of that promise annuls my right to read it." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Dunbar understood the apprehension that made her shiver slightly. +She was marching away proudly with flying colors, having dictated the +terms of his capitulation. Should he suffer the imputation of treachery +and intentional deception, rather than turn the tide of battle, trail +her banner in the dust, and add to her pain by mortally stabbing that +intense womanly pride which now swallowed up every emotion of her soul? +</P> + +<P> +The more thoroughly chivalrous a man's nature, the keener his craving +for the honors of war. +</P> + +<P> +"Because henceforth our paths diverge, I prefer to offer you my +exculpation, desiring amid the general wreck, to retain at least your +undiminished esteem. Will you read my confession?" +</P> + +<P> +"No; that would entail the necessity of absolution, and I might not be +able to command the requisite amiability, should occasion demand it. We +have shaken hands with the past, and you owe me nothing now but pardon +for any pain I may have given you, and occasional kind thoughts when +the ocean divides us. I promise you my unwavering esteem; in exchange +grant me your cordial friendship." +</P> + +<P> +She was growing strangely white, and her breath fluttered, but eyes and +lips came to the rescue with a steadfast smile. +</P> + +<P> +"You allow me no alternative but submission to your will; yet remember, +dear Leo, that in surrendering your pledged faith, I hold myself as +free from any intentional forfeiture, as on the day you gave me your +promise." +</P> + +<P> +"In token that I believe it, I salute and wear your roses." +</P> + +<P> +She bent her head, touched with her lips the flowers at her throat, and +smiling bravely, held out both hands. He took them, joined the palms, +and kissed her softly, reverently on the forehead. +</P> + +<P> +"God bless you, dear Leo. To have known so intimately a nature as noble +and exalted as yours, has left an indelible impression for good upon my +life, which must henceforth be very kinely. Good-bye." +</P> + +<P> +With beat of drum, and blare of bugles, pride claimed the victory; but +as Leo watched the tall, fine form pass out from the beautiful home she +had fondly hoped to share with him, she clasped her hands across her +lips to stifle the cry that told how dearly she had bought the +semblance of triumph. +</P> + +<P> +When the quick echo of his horse's hoofs died away, she went swiftly to +her writing desk. +</P> + +<P> +"Dear Uncle: Please send the enclosed telegram to Mr. Cutting. I had a +sad but decisive interview with Mr. Dunbar, and after obtaining his +consent to my tour, we thought it best to annul our engagement. Tell +Aunt Patty, and spare me all questions. I have not been hasty, and I +asked to be released, because I have deemed it best to leave him +entirely free." +</P> + +<P> +Sealing the note she rang for Justine. +</P> + +<P> +"Take this to my uncle's study, and tell Andrew to bring my phaeton to +the door at four o'clock. Until then, see that no one disturbs me." +</P> + +<P> +With averted face she held out the envelope, then the curtain fell; and +in solitude the aching heart went over the fatal field, silently +burying its slain hopes, realizing the bitterness of its Cadmean +victory. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap22"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXII. +</H3> + +<P> +"Certainly, Prince, I understand your motives and applaud your +decision, which is creditable alike to your heart and head. At +father's death he confided Kittie to my guardianship, and I cannot +consent to her scheme of going abroad with you, until your studies have +been completed. She has a few thousands, it is true, but her slim +fortune would not suffice to accomplish your scientific object, and +even if it were larger, you are quite right to decline with thanks'. +Kittie must be patient, and you must be firm, for you are both quite +young enough to afford to wait a few years. Loving little heart! She +longed to aid you, and this was the only method that presented itself. +If we can secure the commission I mentioned last week, your marriage +need only be deferred until Kittie is twenty-one. After all, Prince, +when you bartered your name and became a Darrington, for sake of this +fair heritage, you only accomplished early in life that into which +sooner or later all men are betrayed, the sale of a birthright for a +mess of pottage; the clutching at the shadowy present, thereby losing +the substantial future." +</P> + +<P> +"On that score I indulge no regrets. General Darrington was the only +father I ever knew, and since it was his wish, I shall gladly wear the +name with which he endowed me, in grateful recognition of the +affection, confidence and generous kindness he lavished upon me. That +the rich legacy he designed for me has been diverted into the channel +of all others most repugnant to him, is my misfortune, not his fault; +for ho took every possible precaution to secure my inheritance. Had I +been indeed his own son, he could not have done more, and I have a +son's right to mourn sincerely over his cruel and untimely end." +</P> + +<P> +The two men sat on the front steps at "Elm Bluff", and as Prince's eyes +wandered over the exceeding beauty of the "great greenery" of velvet +lawn, the stately, venerable growth of forest trees, wearing the +adolescent mask of tender young foliage, the outlying fields flanking +the park, the sunny acres now awave with crinkling mantles of grain, he +sighed very heavily at the realization of all that adverse fortune had +snatched away. +</P> + +<P> +Blond as Baldur of the Voluspa, with a wealth of golden brown beard +veiling his lips and chin, he appeared far more than six years the +junior of the clear cut, smoothly shaven face that belonged to his +prospective brother-in-law; and their countenances contrasted as +vividly as the portraiture of bland phlegmatic Norse Aesir, with some +bronze image of Mercury, as keenly alert as his sacred symbolic cocks. +</P> + +<P> +Strolling leisurely through the flowery decoying fields, that beckon +all around the outskirts of the vast, lonely wilderness of positive +Science, the dewy freshness of the youthful amateur still clung to +Prince's garments; even as souvenirs gathered by flitting Summer +tourists prattle of glimpses of wild, towering fastnesses, where strewn +bones of martyr pioneers whiten as monuments of failure. In the guise +of a green-kirtled enchantress, with wild poppies and primroses +wreathed above her starry eyes, Science was luring him through the +borderland of her kingdom, toward that dark, chill, central realm +where, transformed as a gnome, she clutches her votaries, plunges into +the primeval abyss-the matrix of time—and sets them the Egyptian task +of weighing, analyzing the Titanic "potential" energy, the +infinitesimal atomic engines, the "kinetic" force, the chemical motors, +the subtle intangible magnetic currents, whereby in the thundering, +hissing, whirling laboratory of Nature, nebulae grow into astral and +solar systems; the prophetic floral forms of crystals become, after +disintegration, instinct with organic vegetable germs,—and the Sphinx +Life—blur-eyed—deaf, blind, sets forth on her slow evolutionary +journey through the wastes of aeons; mounting finally into that throne +of rest fore-ordained through groping ages, crowned with the soul of +Shakspeare, sceptred with the brain of Newton. +</P> + +<P> +Like a child with some Chinese puzzle far beyond the grasp of his +smooth, uncreased baby brain, Prince played in unfeigned delight with +his problem: "Given the Universe, to explain the origin and permanence +of Law," without any assistance from the exploded hypothesis of a law +maker. Equipped with hammer, chisel, microscope, spectroscope and +crucibles, he essayed the solution, undismayed by memories of his +classics, of Sisyphus and Tantalus; seeing only the nodding poppies, +the gilded primroses of his dancing goddess. +</P> + +<P> +Will he discover ere long, that a lesser riddle would have been to +stand in the manufactory of the Faubourg St. Marcel, and abolishing the +pattern of the designers, the directing touch of Lebrun, the restraint +of the heddle, demand that the blind, insensate automatic warp and +woof should originate, design and trace as well as mechanically execute +the weaving of the marvellous tapestries? +</P> + +<P> +"Prince. I learn from Kittie that you visited the penitentiary last +week." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. I could not resist the curiosity to see the author of my recent +misfortunes; but I regret the sight. I am haunted by the painful +recurrence of that blanched, hopeless, beautiful face, which reminds me +of a pathetic picture I saw abroad—Charlotte Corday peering through +the bars of her dungeon window." +</P> + +<P> +"With a difference surely! Marat's murderess gloried in her crime; an +innocent prisoner languishes yonder, in that stone cage beyond the +river." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Dunbar pointed over the billowing sea of green tree tops, toward an +irregular dark shadow that blurred the northern sky line; and his eagle +eyes darkened as they discerned the prison outlines. +</P> + +<P> +"Did you ever see a sketch of Rossetti's 'Pandora'?" asked Prince. +</P> + +<P> +"No." +</P> + +<P> +"The face is somewhat like that young prisoner's; the same mystical, +prescient melancholy in the wide eyes, as if she realized she was +predestine to work woe. I am heartily glad I was spared the pain of the +prosecution, for had I been here, compassion would almost have +paralyzed the effort to secure justice; and now, while my loss is +irreparable, the law insures punishment for father's wrongs. As I walk +about this dear old place, which he intended I should possess, and +recall all that we had planned, it seems hard indeed that I find myself +so unable to execute his wishes. After a few days, when I shall leave +it, I suppose that for the next five years the house will become an owl +roost and den of bats and spiders. On Thursday I go temporarily to +Charleston to visit my uncle, Doctor Thornton, who offers me a place in +his office, and a home at his hearthstone." +</P> + +<P> +"Why specifically for five years?" +</P> + +<P> +"That is the term of her imprisonment. At the expiration of her +sentence, I presume Gen. Darringtor's grand-daughter will hasten to +take possession of her dearly-bought domain." +</P> + +<P> +A derisive smile unbent the tight lines of the lawyer's mouth. +</P> + +<P> +"Come here to live? She would sooner spring into the jaws of hell!" +</P> + +<P> +Prince Darrington's large light eyes opened wide, in a questioning +stare. +</P> + +<P> +"If she is innocent, as you believe, why should she shrink from +occupying the family homestead? If she be guilty, which I (having seen +her) cannot credit, there is no probability that remorseful scruples +would influence her. No conceivable contingency can ever again make it +my home, and on Thursday I go away forever." +</P> + +<P> +"That which a man claims and expects, generally deserts and betrays +him; it is the unforeseen, the unexpected that comes in the form of +benediction. Time is the master magician, and 'Tout went a qui sait +attendre'. Kittie may yet trail her velvet robe as chatelaine through +these noble old halls and galleries. Come to my office at ten o'clock +tomorrow; I may have an answer to my letter to Doctor Balfour." +</P> + +<P> +Six months before, Mr. Dunbar had walked down these steps, mounted his +horse and hurried away to keep tryst with the fair, noble woman, whose +promised hand was the guerdon of ambitious schemes, and years of +patient, persistent wooing. To-day he rode slowly to a parting +interview, which would sever the last link that Bad so long held their +lives in tender association. Whatever of regret mingled with the +contemplation of his ruined matrimonial castle, lay hidden so deep in +the debris, that no faintest reflection was visible in his inscrutable +face. +</P> + +<P> +When he reached the railway station where a special car containing a +small party, awaited the arrival of the north bound train that would +attach it to its sinuous length, a number of friends had assembled to +say good-bye to the departing favorite. The announcement of Miss +Gordon's extended yachting trip, had excited much comment in social +circles, and while people wondered at the prolongation of the +engagement, none but her immediate family suspected that the betrothal +had been cancelled. +</P> + +<P> +Leo's wonted gracious composure betrayed no hint of the truth, and she +greeted Mr. Dunbar with outstretched hand and a friendly smile. +</P> + +<P> +"I am indebted to your kind courtesy, Lennox, for the most auspicious +omen at the outset of my long journey; and I shall not attempt to tell +you how cordially I appreciate your tasteful souvenir. Your roses are +exquisite, and fragrant as the message they bring me." +</P> + +<P> +She glanced up at a large horseshoe made of her favorite pink roses, +which had been hung by a silver wire directly over the seat she +occupied. +</P> + +<P> +"Will you give me your interpretation of their message?" +</P> + +<P> +He swept aside a shawl and reticule, and sat down beside her. +</P> + +<P> +"It is written legibly all over their lovely petals. You wish me a +rose-strewn itinerary, all conceivable forms of 'good luck'; as though +you stood on tip-toe and shouted after me: 'Gluck auf.' As a happy +augury, I accept it. Like the old Romans, you have offered up for me a +dainty sacrifice to propitiate Domiduca—the goddess who grants +travellers a safe return home." +</P> + +<P> +"Meanwhile I hope you see quite as clearly, that the thorns have all +been stripped off and set thickly along my path?" +</P> + +<P> +Her smiling eyes met his steadily, and the brave heart showed no +quailing. +</P> + +<P> +"If I imagine that complimentary inference is written between the +lines, is it not pardonable to welcome the assurance that you will +sometimes be sharply pricked into remembrance of your absent friend?" +</P> + +<P> +At this moment, with clanging bells and thundering wheels the train +swept in, and Leo rose to exchange last greetings with numerous friends +Judge Dent and Miss Patty accompanied her as far as New York, and when +the car had been coupled at the end of the long line, and all was in +readiness, Mr. Dunbar took his companion's hand. +</P> + +<P> +"When we parted last, I was angry and hasty. Now I desire to make one +farewell request. You ask a release from our engagement. I grant it. I +hold you perfectly free; but I will consider myself bound, pledged to +you until the expiration of one year. Nothing you can say shall alter +my determination; but twelve months hence, if you can trust your +happiness to my hands, send me this message: 'I wear your ring.' Once +more I offer you my letter of confession. Will you receive it now; will +you look into the heart which I have bared for your scrutiny?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. I voluntarily forfeited that right, when I asked my freedom. If +your letter contains aught that would change my high regard, my +confidence, my affectionate interest in your happiness, I am doubly +anxious to avoid acquaintance with its contents. You have long held the +first place in my esteem, why seek to impair my valuation of your +character? Let us be friends, now and forever." +</P> + +<P> +"Remember you broke your fetters; I hug mine—a year longer. Forget me +if you will; but Leo, when your heart refuses to be strangled, suffer +its cry to reach me. Whatever the future may decree, you shall always +be my noble ideal of exalted womanhood, my own proud, sensitive, +unselfish Leo; and from the depth of my heart I wish you a pleasant +tour, and a safe and speedy return." +</P> + +<P> +A premonitory thrill shook the ear, and dropping the fingers that lay +cold as marble in his, Mr. Dunbar swung himself to the station +platform. The train moved off, but he knew that it would return in +switching, and so he stood hat in hand. +</P> + +<P> +As it slowly glided back, he stepped close to the open window, and +Leo's last look at the man she had loved so long and well, showed him +with the sun shining on his superb form, and coldly locked face. He saw +her hazel eyes dim in their mist of unshed tears, and the sweet, +blanched lips trembling from the spasm that held her heart. She leaned +down, laid her hand on his shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"Dear Lennox, open your hand carefully; there—hold it close. Good-bye." +</P> + +<P> +Into his palm she dropped something; their faces almost touched, eyes +met, heart looked into heart; then Leo smiled and drew back, lowering +her veil, and as the cars shivered, lurched, moved on, Mr. Dunbar put +on his hat and unclosed his fingers. +</P> + +<P> +The white fire leaping in the diamonds destroyed the last vestige of a +betrothal, that he had once regarded as the summum bonum of his +successful career; consumed in its incipiency the farewell compact, +which his regard for Leo's womanly pride, and an honorable desire to +cling as closely as possible to at least the loyal forms of allegiance, +had prompted him to impose upon himself. +</P> + +<P> +Apparently unwounded, she would sail away victrix, with gay pennons +flying through distant summer seas, while he remained, stranded on the +reefs of adverse fate, a target for cynical society batteries, a victim +of the condolence of sympathizing friends. +</P> + +<P> +In reality he felt the benignant touch of fortune still upon his head, +and thanked her heartily that Leo had taken the initiative; that no +overt act of disloyalty blurred his escutcheon, and above all, that he +had been spared the humiliation of acknowledging his inability to +resist the strange fascination that dragged him from his allegiance, as +Auroras swing the needle from the pole. He did not attempt to underrate +the vastness of his loss, nor to condone the folly which he designated +as "infernal idiocy"; yet conscience acquitted him of intentionally +betraying the trust a noble woman had reposed; and his vanity was +appeased by the conviction that though Leo had cast him out of her +life, she went abroad because she loved him supremely. Putting the ring +in his pocket, he turned away as from a grave that had closed forever +over that which once held ail the promise of life. +</P> + +<P> +Three hours later, that carefully written letter acknowledging to his +fiancee that his heart had rebelliously swung from its moorings, under +the magnetic strain of another woman, and asking her tender forbearance +to aid him in conquering a weakness for which he blushed, had been +reduced to a drab shadow on his office hearth; and the lawyer was +engrossed by the preparation of a testamentary document, which embraced +several pages of legal cap. Again and again he read it over, pausing +now and then as if striving to recall some invisible scroll, and at +last as if satisfied with the result, placed it in an envelope, thrust +it into his pocket, and once more mounted his horse. The ceaseless and +intense yearning to see again the young stranger, who seemed destined +to play the role of Ate in so many lives, would no longer be denied; +and at a swift gallop he took the road leading to the penitentiary. +</P> + +<P> +Four or five carriages were drawn up in front of the iron gate, and +when, in answer to the bell, Jarvis, the underwarden, came forward to +admit Mr. Dunbar, he informed him that the State Inspectors were making +a tour of investigation through the building. +</P> + +<P> +"I want to see Singleton." +</P> + +<P> +"Just now he is engaged showing the inspectors around, and they +generally turn everything upside down, and inside out. If you will step +into the office and wait awhile, he will be at leisure." +</P> + +<P> +"Where is Mrs. Singleton?" +</P> + +<P> +"She has just gone into the women's workroom. One of the sewing gang is +epileptic, and fell in a fit a few minutes ago, so I sent for her. Come +this way and I will find her." +</P> + +<P> +The visitor hesitated, drew back. +</P> + +<P> +"Is Miss Brentano there also?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. She is still on the infirmary list." +</P> + +<P> +Jarvis opened the door of a long, well-lighted but narrow room, in the +centre of which was a table extending to the lower end; and on each +side of it sat women busily engaged in stitching and binding shoes, and +finishing off various articles of clothing; while two were ticketing a +pile of red flannel and blue hickory shirts. Four sewing-machines stood +near the wall where grated windows admitted sunshine, and their hymn to +Labor was the only sound that broke the brooding silence. The room was +scrupulously clean and tidy, and the inmates, wearing the regulation +uniform of blue-striped homespun, appeared comparatively neat; but +sordid, sullen, repulsively coarse and brutish were many of the +countenances bent over the daily task, and now and then swift, furtive +glances from downcast eyes betrayed close kinship with lower animals. +</P> + +<P> +At one of the machines sat a woman whose age could not have exceeded +twenty-eight years, with a figure of the Juno type, and a beautiful +dark face where tawny chatoyant eyes showed the baleful fire of a +leopardess. Winding a bobbin, she leaned back in her chair, with the +indolent, haughty grace of a sultana, and when she held the bobbin up +against the light for an instant, her slender olive hand and rounded +wrist might have belonged to Cleopatra. +</P> + +<P> +"Who is that woman winding thread?" +</P> + +<P> +"Her name is Iva Le Bougeois, but we call her the 'Bloody Duchess'. She +was sent up here two years ago, from one of the lower counties, for +wholesale butchery. Seems her husband got a divorce, and was on the eve +of marrying again. She posted herself about the second wedding, and +managed to make her way into the parlor, where she hid behind the +window curtains. Just as the couple stood up to be married, she cut her +little boy's throat with a razor, dragged the body in front of the +bride, and before any one could move, drew a revolver, blew the top of +her husband's head off, and then shot herself. The ball passed through +her shoulder and broke her arm, but as you see, she was spared, as many +another wildcat has been. Her friends and counsel tried to prove +insanity, but the plea was too thin; so she landed here for a term of +twenty years, and it will take every day of it to cut her claws. She is +as hard as flint, and her heart is as black as a wolf's mouth." +</P> + +<P> +"Medea's wrongs generally end in Medea's crimes," answered the visitor; +watching the defiant poise of the small shapely head, covered with +crisp, raven locks. Having less acquaintance with the classics than +with the details of prison discipline, the under-warden stared. +</P> + +<P> +After a moment he pointed to a diminutive figure standing at the end of +the long table, and engaged in folding some white garments. +</P> + +<P> +"See that pretty little thing, with the yellow head? Shouldn't you say +she looks like an angel, and ought to be put on the altar to hear the +prayers of sinners? Would you believe she is a mother? Arson is her +hobby. She is a regular 'fire-bug'. She was adopted by a German couple, +and one night, when the old farmer had come home with the money paid +him for his sheep and hogs, she stole the last cent he had, pocketed +all the oold frau's silver spoons, poured kerosene around the floor, +set fire to the house in several places, locked the door and ran for +her life. A peddler happened to seek quarters for the night, and +finding the place on fire, managed to break through the windows and +save the old folks from being roasted alive. When the case came to +trial it was proved that she had set fire to two other buildings, but +on account of her youth had escaped prosecution. They could not hang +her, though she deserved the gallows, and her child was born three +months after she came here. Looks innocent as a wax doll doesn't she? +Eve Werneth she calls herself; and she is well named after the original +mother of all sin. She is Satan's own imp, and we chain her every +night, for she boasts that when things grow tiresome to her she always +burns her way out. I think she is the worst case we have, except the +young mulatto—I don't see her here just now—who was sent up for life, +for poisoning a baby she was hired to nurse. There is Mrs. Singleton." +</P> + +<P> +The warden's wife came forward with a vial in one hand, and at sight of +the visitor, paused and held out the other. +</P> + +<P> +"How'dy do, Mr. Dunbar. You are waiting to see Ned?" +</P> + +<P> +"I much prefer seeing you, if you have leisure for an interview. +Singleton can join us when the inspectors take their leave." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well; come up stairs. Jarvis, send Ned up as soon as you can." +</P> + +<P> +She led the way to the room where her two children were at play, and +breaking a ginger cake between them, dragged their toys into one +corner, and bade them build block houses, without a riot. +</P> + +<P> +"I have never received even a verbal reply to the note which I +requested your husband to place in Miss Brentano's hands." +</P> + +<P> +"Probably you never will. She took cold by being dragged back and forth +to court during that freezing weather, and two days after her +conviction she was taken ill with pneumonia. First one lung, then the +other, and the case took a typhoid form. For six weeks she could not +lift her head, and now though she goes about my rooms, and into the +yard a little, she is awfully shattered, and has a bad cough, Once when +we had scarcely any hope, she asked the doctor to give her no more +medicine; said that it would be a mercy to let her die. Poor thing! her +proud spirit is as broken as her body, and the thought of being seen +seems to torture her. Dyce is the only person whom she allows to come +near her." +</P> + +<P> +"Where is she?" +</P> + +<P> +"We were obliged to move her, after she was sentenced, but the doctor +said one of those cells down stairs would be certain and quick death +for her, with her lungs in such a condition; so we put her in the +smallest room on this floor; the last one at the end of the corridor. +It is only a closet it is true, but it is right in the angle, and has +two narrow slits of windows, one opening south, the other west, and the +sunshine gets in. The day after her trial ended, she sent for the +sheriff, who happened to be here, and asked him if solitary confinement +was not considered a more severe penalty than any other form here? When +he told her it was, she said: Then it could not be construed into +clemency or favoritism if you ordered me into solitary confinement? +Certainly not, he told her. Whereupon she begged him to allow her to be +shut up away from the others, as she would sooner sit in the dark and +see no human being, than be forced to associate with the horrible, +guilty outcasts down stairs. While he and Ned were consulting about her +case, she was taken very ill. Of course you know Ned has a good deal of +latitude and discretion allowed him, and the doctor is on our side, but +even at best, the rules are stern. She takes her meals alone, and the +only place where she meets the other convicts—isn't it a shame to call +her one!—is the chapel; and even there she is separated, because Ned +has given her charge of the organ. Everybody under sentence is obliged +to work, but she does not go down into the general sewing room. The +superintendent of that department apportions a certain amount of +sewing, and her share is sent up daily to her. She really is not able +to work, but begged that we should give her some employment." +</P> + +<P> +"She consented to see Mr. Prince Darrington?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no! It was the merest accident that he succeeded in speaking to +her. He happened to come the day that I took her out for the first time +in the garden, for a little fresh air in the sunshine; and we met him +and Ned on the walk. O, Mr. Dunbar! It was pitiful to see her face, +when the young man took off his hat, and said: +</P> + +<P> +"'I am General Darrington's adopted son.' +</P> + +<P> +"She was so weak she had been leaning on me, but she threw up her head, +and her figure stiffened into steel. 'You imagine that I am the person +who robbed you of Gen'l Darrington's fortune? I suffer for crimes I did +not commit; and am the innocent victim selected to atone for your +injuries. My wrongs are more cruel than yours. You merely lost lands +and money. Can you, by the wildest flight of fancy conjecture that +aught but disgrace and utter ruin remain for me?' Ned and I walked +away; and when we came back she had stepped into the hall, and drawn +the inside door between them. He was standing bareheaded, gazing up at +her, and she was looking down at him through the open iron lattice, as +if he were the real culprit. That night she had a nervous chill that +lasted several hours, and we promised that no one should be allowed to +see her. Of course the inspectors go everywhere, and when Ned opened +her door, I was with her, giving her the tonic the Doctor ordered three +times a day. I had prepared her for their visit, but when the gentlemen +crowded in, she put her hands over her face and hid it on the table. +There was not a syllable uttered, and they walked out quickly." +</P> + +<P> +"Will you do me the kindness to persuade her to see me?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am sure, sir, she will refuse; because she desires most especially +to be shielded from your visits." +</P> + +<P> +"Nevertheless, I intend to see her. Please say that I am here, and have +brought the papers Mr. Singleton desired me to prepare for her." +</P> + +<P> +Ten minutes elapsed before the warden's wife returned, shaking her head: +</P> + +<P> +"She prefers not seeing you, but thanks you for the paper which she +wishes left with Mr. Singleton. When she has read it, Mr. Singleton +will probably bring you some message. She hopes you will believe that +she is very grateful for your attention to her request." +</P> + +<P> +"Go back and tell her that unless she admits me, she shall never see +the paper, for I distinctly decline to put it in any hand but hers; +and, moreover, tell her she asked me to obtain for her a certain +article which, for reasons best known to herself, she holds very dear. +This is her only opportunity to receive it, which must be directly from +me. Say that this is the last time I will insist upon intruding, and +after to-day she shall not be allowed the privilege of refusing me an +audience. I am here solely in her behalf, and I am determined to see +her now." +</P> + +<P> +When Mrs. Singleton came back the second time, she appeared unwontedly +subdued, perplexed; and her usually merry eyes were gravely fixed with +curious intentness upon the face of her visitor. +</P> + +<P> +"The room straight ahead of you, with the door partly open, at the end +of this corridor. She sees you 'only on condition that this is to be +the final annoyance'. Mr. Dunbar, you were born to tyrannize. It seems +to me you have merely to will a thing, in order to accomplish it." +</P> + +<P> +"If that were true, do you suppose I would allow her to remain one hour +in this accursed cage of blood-smeared criminals?" +</P> + +<P> +Down the dim corridor he walked slowly, as if in no haste to finish his +errand, stepped into the designated cell, and closed the door behind +him. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap23"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXIII. +</H3> + +<P> +The apartment eight by twelve feet possessed the redeeming feature of a +high ceiling, and on either side of the southwest corner wall, a window +only two feet wide allowed the afternoon sunshine to print upon the +bare floor the shadow of longitudinal iron bars fastened into the stone +sills. A narrow bedstead, merely a low black cot of interlacing iron +straps, stood against the eastern side, and opposite, a broad shelf, +also of iron, ran along the walls and held a tin ewer and basin, a few +books, and a pile of clothing neatly folded. +</P> + +<P> +Across the angle niche between the windows a wooden bench had been +drawn; in front of it stood a chair and oval table, on which lay some +sheets of paper, pen and ink, and a great bunch of yellow jasmine, and +wild pink azaleas that lavishly sprinkled the air with their delicate +spicery. Pencils, crayons, charcoal and several large squares of +cardboard and drawing-paper were heaped at one end of the bench, and +beside these sat the occupant of the cell, leaning with folded arms on +the table in front of her; and holding in her lap the vicious, +ocelot-eyed yellow cat. +</P> + +<P> +Against the shimmering glory of Spring sunshine streaming down upon +her, head and throat were outlined like those of haloed martyrs that +Mantegna and Sodoma left as imperishable types of patient suffering. +</P> + +<P> +When the visitor came forward to the table that barred nearer approach, +she made no attempt to rise, and for a moment both were mute. He saw +the noble head shorn of its splendid coronal of braids, and covered +thickly with short, waving, bronzed tendrils of silky hair, that held +in its glistening mesh the reddish lustre of old gold, and the deep +shadows of time-mellowed mahogany. That most skilful of all sculptors, +hopeless sorrow, had narrowed to a perfect oval the wan face, waxen in +its cold purity; and traced about the exquisite mouth those sad, +patient curves that attest suffering which sublimates, that belong +alone to the beauty of holiness. Eyes unusually large and shadowy now, +beneath their black fringes, were indescribably eloquent with the +pathos of a complete, uncomplaining surrender to woes that earth could +never cure; and the slender wasted fingers, in their bloodless +semi-transparency, might have belonged to some chiselled image of +death. Every jot and tittle of the degrading external badges of felony +had been meted out, and instead of the mourning garment she had worn in +court, her dress to-day was of the coarse dark-blue home-spun checked +with brown, which constituted the prison uniform of female convicts. +</P> + +<P> +As Mr. Dunbar noted the solemn repose, the pathetic grace with which +she endured the symbols that emblazoned her ignominous doom, a dark red +glow suffused his face, a flush of shame for the indignity which he had +been impotent to avert. +</P> + +<P> +"Who dared to cut your hair—and thrust that garb upon you? They +promised me you should be exempt from brands of felony." +</P> + +<P> +"When one is beaten with many stripes, a blow more or less matters +little; is not computed. They kindly tell me that illness and the +doctor's commands cost me the loss of my hair; and after all, why +should I object to the convict coiffure? Nothing matters any more." +</P> + +<P> +"Why not admit at once that, Bernice-like, you freely offered up your +beautiful hair as love's sacrifice?" +</P> + +<P> +He spoke hotly, and an ungovernable rage possessed him as he realized +that though so near, and apparently so helpless, she was yet so +immeasurably removed, so utterly inaccessible. Her drooping white lids +lifted; she looked steadily up at him, and the mournful eyes held no +hint of denial. He stretched his hand across the table, and all the +gnawing hunger at his heart leaped into his voice, that trembled with +entreaty. +</P> + +<P> +"For God's sake give me your hand just once, as proof that you forgive +my share in this cruel, dastardly outrage." +</P> + +<P> +"Do not touch me. When we shake hands it must be as seal upon a very +sacred compact, which you are not yet ready to make." +</P> + +<P> +She straightened herself, and her hands were removed from the table; +fell to stroking the cat lying on her knee. +</P> + +<P> +"What conditions would you impose upon me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sit down, Mr. Dunbar, and let us transact the necessary business which +alone made this interview possible." +</P> + +<P> +With an imperious gesture, befitting some sovereign who reluctantly +accords audience, she motioned him to the chair, and as he seated +himself his eyes gleamed ominously. +</P> + +<P> +"It pleases you to ignore our past relations?" +</P> + +<P> +"Even so. To-day we meet merely as attorney and client to arrange the +final QUID PRO QUO. You have brought the paper?" +</P> + +<P> +"I inferred from your message that you desired as exact a copy as +memory permitted. Here it is." +</P> + +<P> +He took from his pocket a long legal envelope. +</P> + +<P> +"I believe you stated that your father originally drew up this paper, +and that recently you altered and re-wrote it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Those are the facts relative to it." +</P> + +<P> +"Can you recall the date of the revision?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nearly a year ago. Last May it was signed in the presence of Doctor +Ledyard and Colonel Powell, who also signed as witnesses, though +ignorant of its contents." +</P> + +<P> +"You offer me this as a correct expression of Gen'l Darrington's wishes +regarding the distribution of his estate, real and personal?" +</P> + +<P> +"At your request I furnish from memory a copy of Gen'l Darrington's +will, which I have faithfully endeavored to recall, and I +conscientiously believe this to be strictly accurate. Shall I read it?" +</P> + +<P> +A severe and prolonged fit of coughing delayed her reply; and when she +held out her hand for the paper, her breathing was painfully rapid and +labored. +</P> + +<P> +"I will not tax you. Let me glance over it." +</P> + +<P> +Spreading the long sheets open before her, she leaned over the table +and read. +</P> + +<P> +In the palm of her right hand rested her temple, and the left smoothed +and turned the leaves. Crossing his arms on the top of the table, the +attorney bent forward and surrendered himself to the coveted delight of +studying the face, that had made summary shipwreck of his matrimonial +fortune. No slightest detail escaped him; the burnished locks curled +loosely around the forehead smooth as a sleeping baby's, the broad arch +of the delicately-pencilled black brows, the Madonna droop of the lids +whose heavy sable fringes deepened the bluish shadows beneath the eyes, +the straight, flawless nose, the perfect chin with its deeply-incised +dimple, the remarkably beautiful mouth, which despairing grief had +kissed and made its own. +</P> + +<P> +Pale as marble, the proud, patrician face was pure as some bending lily +frozen on its graceful, rounded stem: and the tapering fingers with +daintily curved, polished nails would have suited better the lace and +velvet of royal robes than the rough home-spun sleeves folded back from +the white wrists. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Dunbar had met many lovely, gracious, high-bred women, yet escaped +heart whole; and even the nobility and sweetness of his pretty fiancee, +enhanced by the surrounding glamour of heiresship, failed to touch the +flood gates of tender love that a pauper's hand had suddenly unloosed, +to sweep as a destroying torrent through the fair garden of his most +cherished hopes. What was the spell exerted by the young convict when +she grappled his heart, and in the havoc of her own life carried down +all the possibilities of his future peace? Personal ambition, +calculating mercenary selfishness had melted away in the volcanic +madness that seized him, and to his own soul he acknowledged that his +dominant and supreme wish was to gather in his arms and hold forever +the condemned woman, who wore with such sublime serenity the livery of +felony. +</P> + +<P> +After all, have we misread our classics? Had not Homer a prevision of +the faith that Aphrodites' altar belonged in the Temple of the Fates? +</P> + +<P> +Beryl refolded the paper and looked up. In the face so close to hers, +she saw all the yearning tenderness, the over-mastering love that had +convulsed his nature, and before the pleading magnetic eyes that +essayed to probe her soul, hers fell. +</P> + +<P> +As out of a cloud, some burst of sunlight striking through the ruby +vestments of apostles in a cathedral window falls aslant and suddenly +crimsons the marble features of a sculptured angel guarding the high +altar, so unexpectedly a vivid blush dyed the girl's cheeks. Her lips +trembled; she swept her hand across her eyes as though blotting out +some fascination upon which it was not her privilege to dwell; then the +glow faded, she moved back on the bench, and leaned her head against +the wall. +</P> + +<P> +"Where are the bonds and other securities described in this paper?" +</P> + +<P> +"In a compartment of the safety deposit vault of the—Bank, of which +Gen'l Darrington was a large stockholder and director. His box was +opened last week in presence of his adopted son, and we hoped to find +perhaps a duplicate of the lost will; but there was not even a +memorandum to indicate his last wishes." +</P> + +<P> +"Can you tell me whether Mr. Prince Darrington will take any legal +steps to recover the legacy which the loss of the will appears to have +cancelled?" +</P> + +<P> +"He certainly has no such intention." +</P> + +<P> +"Are you quite sure of his views?" +</P> + +<P> +"Absolutely sure, having talked with him this morning. I speak +authoritatively." +</P> + +<P> +"He was entirely dependent on Gen'l Darrington?" +</P> + +<P> +"Wholly so with regard to pecuniary resources." +</P> + +<P> +"At present he is as much a beggar as I was that day when I first saw +X—? Is it true that want of money obliged him to quit Germany before +he obtained the university degree, for which his studies were intended +to fit him?" +</P> + +<P> +"Strictly true. He sorely laments his inability to complete the course +of study, and hopes at some future day to return and reap the +distinction which he feels sure awaits him in scientific fields." +</P> + +<P> +A brief silence followed, and the girl's thoughts seemed to drift far +from her gloomy surroundings to some lofty plane of peace beyond the +ills of time. Once more a spasm of coughing seized her; then she looked +at the attorney. +</P> + +<P> +"I learned in court that the destruction of Gen'l Darrington's will +would secure to my mother the possession of all his estate. She has +entered into Rest; into possession of her heritage in Christ's kingdom. +Am I, her child, the lawful heir of Gen'l Darrington's fortune? Are +there any legal quibbles that could affect my rights?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am aware of none. The estate is certainly yours, and the law will +sustain your claims." +</P> + +<P> +"Claim? I only claim the right to repair as far as possible a wrong for +which I suffer, yet am not responsible. I sent for a copy of the will +because—" +</P> + +<P> +"May I tell you why? Because in order to execute its provisions, it was +essential that you should know them accurately." +</P> + +<P> +The assurance that he interpreted so correctly her motive, brought a +quick throb to her tired Heart, and a faint flush of pleasure to her +thin cheeks. +</P> + +<P> +"Had you read as accurately my intentions, six months ago, when you +woke me from my sleep under the pine trees, how different the current +of many lives! Mr. Dunbar, my ignorance of legal forms constrains me to +accept your assistance in a matter which I am unwilling to delay—" She +hesitated, and he smiled bitterly. +</P> + +<P> +"You need be at no trouble to emphasize your reluctance. I quite +understand your ineradicable repugnance. Nevertheless good luck ordains +that only I can serve you at present, so be pleased to command me." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you. I wish you to help me make my will." +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"How long do you suppose I can endure this 'death in life?' I am +patient because I hope and believe my release is not far distant. +Galloping consumption is a short avenue to freedom." +</P> + +<P> +He caught his breath, and the blood ebbed from his lips, but he hurled +aside the suggestion as though it were a coiled viper. +</P> + +<P> +"Life has for you one charm which will successfully hold death at bay. +Love has sustained you thus far; it will lend wings to the years that +must ultimately bring the recompense for which you long, the sight of +him whose crime you expiate." +</P> + +<P> +He could not understand the peculiar smile that parted her lips, nor +the far-away, preoccupied expression that crept into her sad eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Nevertheless I have decided to make my will. I desire that in every +detail it shall duplicate the provisions of the instrument I am +punished for having stolen and destroyed; and I charge you to write it +so carefully, that when all the legacies shall have been paid, the +residue of the estate cannot fail to reach the hands of the son for +whom it was intended. To Mr. Prince Darrington I give and bequeath, +mark you now, ALL MY RIGHT AND TITLE to the fortune left by Gen'l +Darrington." +</P> + +<P> +"Before I pledge myself to execute this commission, I wish you to know +that of such testamentary disposition of your estate, I should become +remotely a beneficiary. Mr. Darrington has asked my only sister to be +his wife, and their marriage is contingent merely on his financial +ability to maintain her comfortably. Mine is scarcely the proper hand +to pour the rich stream of your possessions into his empty coffers." +</P> + +<P> +"I am well aware of the tie that binds your sister and Mr. Darrington." +</P> + +<P> +"Since when have you known it?" +</P> + +<P> +"No prison walls are sufficiently thick to turn the stream of gossip; +it trickles, oozes through all barriers. Exactly when or how I became +acquainted with your family secret is not germane to the subject under +consideration." +</P> + +<P> +"Cognizant of the fact that Gen'l Darrington's adopted son was my +prospective brother-in-law, you have paid me the compliment of +believing that selfish, pecuniary motives incited my zeal in securing +your prosecution, for the loss of the fortune I coveted? Your heart +garners that insult to me?" +</P> + +<P> +The only storm signal that defied his habitual control, was the intense +glow in his eyes where an electric spark rayed out through the blue +depths. +</P> + +<P> +"I might tell you, that my heart is a sepulchre too crowded with dead +hopes to hold resentment against their slayer; but you have a right to +something more. I pay you the just tribute of grateful admiration for +the unselfish heroism that prompted you to plead so eloquently in +defence of a forsaken woman who, living or dead, defrauded your sister +of a brilliant fortune. You fought courageously to save me, and I am +quite willing you should know that it is partly due to my recognition +of your bravery in leading that forlorn hope, that I am anxious by +immediate reparation to restore matters to their original status. Life +is so uncertain I can leave nothing to chance; and when my will is +signed and sealed, and in your possession, I shall know that even if I +should be suddenly set free, Mr. Darrington and your sister will enjoy +their heritage. When you will have drawn up the paper send it to Mr. +Singleton. I will sign it in his presence and that of the doctor, which +will suffice for witnesses." +</P> + +<P> +"In view of the peculiar provisions of the will, I prefer you should +employ some other instrument for its preparation. Judge Dent, Churchill +or Wolverton, will gladly serve you, and I will send to you whomsoever +you select. I decline to become the medium of transferring the accursed +money that cost you so dearly, to the man whom my sister expects to +marry." +</P> + +<P> +"As you will; only let there be no delay. Ask Judge Dent to prove his +friendship for Gen'l Darrington by enabling me to execute his wishes." +</P> + +<P> +"Judge Dent went this morning to New York; but by the latter part of +the week you may expect the paper for signature." +</P> + +<P> +"That relieves one anxiety, for while I was so ill I was tortured by +the thought that I could not make just restitution to innocent +sufferers. Mr. Dunbar, a yet graver apprehension now oppresses me. If I +should live, how can I put the rightful owners in immediate possession? +What process does the law prescribe for conveying the property directly +to Mr. Darrington?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ordinarily the execution of a deed of gift from you to him, would +accomplish that object." +</P> + +<P> +"Will you please write out the proper form on the paper in front of +you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I certainly will not." +</P> + +<P> +"May I know why?" +</P> + +<P> +"For two reasons. Personally, the deed of gift would embarrass me even +more than the will. Professionally, it occurs to me you are not of age; +hence the transfer would be invalid at present. Pardon me, how old are +you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I was eighteen on the fourth of July last. Grim sarcasm is it not, +that the child of Independence Day should be locked up in a dungeon?" +</P> + +<P> +"The law of the State requires the age of twenty-one years to insure +the validity of such a transaction as that which you contemplate." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you mean that my hands are tied; that if I should live, I can do +nothing for more than two years?" +</P> + +<P> +"Such is the law." +</P> + +<P> +"Then the justice that fled from criminal law, steers equally clear of +the civil code? What curious paradoxes, what subtleties of finesse lurk +in those fine meshes of jurisprudence, ingeniously spread to succor +wary guilt, to tangle and trip the careless feet of innocence! All the +world knows that the dearest wish that warmed General Darrington's +heart was to disinherit and repudiate his daughter, and to secure his +worldly goods to his adopted son; and yet because a sheet of paper +expressing that desire could not be produced in court, the will of the +dead is defied, and the fortune is thrust into the hated hands which +its owner swore should never touch it; hands that the law says murdered +in order to steal. When the child of the disowned and repudiated, +holding sacred the unfortunate man's wishes, refuses to accept the +blood-bought heritage, and attempts to replace the fatal legacy in the +possession of those for whom it was notoriously intended—this Tartufe +of justice strides forward and forbids righteous restitution; postpones +the rendering of 'Caesar's things to Caesar' for two years, in order to +save the condemned the additional pang of regretting the generosity of +her minority! Human wills, intentions and aims, no matter how laudable +and well known, are blandly strangled by judicial red tape, and laid +away with pompous ceremonial in the dusty catacombs of legal form. +Grimly grotesque, this masquerade of equity! Something must be done for +Mr. Darrington, to enable him to finish his studies and embark on the +career his father designed." +</P> + +<P> +"He is a man, and can learn to carve his way unaided." +</P> + +<P> +She sighed wearily, and a troubled look crossed her face; while the +visitor followed with longing eyes the slow motion of her delicate +hand, beautiful as Herses', that softly stroked the cat purring against +her shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"Surely there is an outlet to this snare. You could help me if you +would." +</P> + +<P> +"I? Do you imagine that after all the injuries I have inflicted on you, +I can consent to help you beggar yourself?" +</P> + +<P> +"You know that I would sooner handle red-hot ploughshares, than touch a +dollar, a cent, of that fortune. It would greatly relieve my mind and +comfort me, if you would indicate some method by which I can convey to +Mr. Darrington that which really belongs to him. Unless he can enjoy +it, it might as well be in the grave now with its former owner. Do help +me." +</P> + +<P> +The pathetic pleading of face and voice almost unnerved him, but he sat +silent. +</P> + +<P> +"Cannot I dispose at least of the income or interest? If a definite +amount should be allowed me each year, during my minority, could I do +as I please with that sum?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly you have that right. I may as well tell you, there is one +method of accomplishing your aim, by applying to the Legislature to +legalize your acts by declaring you of age. At present the estate is in +the hands of Mr. Wolverton, whom the Probate Court has appointed +administrator; and at the expiration of eighteen months from the date +of Gen'l Darrington's death, the control of the whole will devolve to +some extent upon you. Meanwhile the administrator will allow you +annually a reasonable amount." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know what sum Mr. Darrington required while abroad?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am told his allowance was four thousand dollars per annum. +Histology, morphology, and aetiology are whims too costly for +impecunious students. Prince must reduce his stable of hobbies." +</P> + +<P> +"No, he is entitled to canter as many as he likes, and the money could +not be better spent than in promoting the noble work of the advancement +of Science. The problem is solved, and my earthly cares are at an end. +Leave the copy you brought, and ask Mr. Wolverton to see me to-morrow. +He shall write both the will and the deed of gift, which you think can +be made valid, and meanwhile the annual allowance must be paid as +formerly to the son. Whether I live or die, the wishes of the dead will +be respected, and Prince Darrington shall have his own. It is an +intense relief to know that two innocent and happy lives will never +feel the fatal chill of my shadow; and when your sister enters 'Elm +Bluff' as its mistress, the balance-sheet will be complete." +</P> + +<P> +As if some dreaded task had been finally accomplished, she drew a deep +sigh of weariness that was cut short by a spell of coughing. +</P> + +<P> +"There is a Scriptural injunction concerning kindness to enemies, which +amounts to heaping coals of fire on their heads; and to my unregenerate +nature, it savors more of subtile inquisitorial cruelty, than of +Christian charity." +</P> + +<P> +"Your sister is not my enemy, I hope, and need I so rank your sister's +brother? There is one thing more, which even your sarcasm shall not +prevent." +</P> + +<P> +She drew from beneath the cardboard a paper box, placed it on the table +and removed the lid. +</P> + +<P> +"I presume the Sheriff meant kindly when he sent me this as my +property, which having testified to suit the prosecution, was returned +to the burglar in whose possession it was found. The sight of it was as +humiliating as a blow on the cheek. Some gifts are fatal; nevertheless, +you must ascribe no sinister motive to me, when I fulfil that +injunction of Gen'l Darrington's last Will and Testament, which set +apart these sapphires for his son's bride. They are just as I received +them from his hands. My mother, for whom they were intended, never saw +them; I thank God that she wears the eternal jewels that He provides +for the faithful and the pure in heart. I wish you to deliver this +case, and the gold pieces, one hundred dollars, to Mr. Darrington; and +it will be a mercy to rid me of torturing reminders." +</P> + +<P> +She looked at the azure flame leaping from the superb stones, and +pushed the box away with a gesture of loathing. +</P> + +<P> +"Beautifully blue as those weird nebulae in the far, far South; that +brood over the ocean wastes where cyclones are born; but to me and to +mine, the baleful medium of an inherited curse. Having accomplished my +doom, may they bring only benison to your sister." +</P> + +<P> +"I would see adders fastened in her ears and twined around her neck +sooner than those—" +</P> + +<P> +"At least take them out of my sight; give them to Mr. Darrington. They +are maddening reminders of a perished past. Now, to the last iota, I +have made all possible restitution, and the account is squared; for in +exchange for that life, which I am condemned as having taken, my own is +the forfeit. The expiation is complete." +</P> + +<P> +She seemed to have forgotten his presence, as her gaze rested on the +ring she wore, and a happy smile momentarily glorified the pale face. +</P> + +<P> +"Beryl!—" +</P> + +<P> +She started, winced, shivered; and threw up her hand with the haughty +denial he so well remembered. +</P> + +<P> +"Hush! Only my precious dead ever called me so. You must not dare!" +</P> + +<P> +Something she read in the face that leaned toward her, filled her with +vague dread, and despite her efforts, she trembled visibly. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Dunbar, I am very weary; tired—oh! how tired, body and soul." +</P> + +<P> +"You dismiss me? Recollect I was warned that this would be the last +interview accorded me, and I beg your indulgence. If you knew all, if +you could imagine one-half the sorrow you have caused me, you would +consider our accounts as satisfactorily balanced as your settlement +with the Darringtons. Whether you have ruined my life, or are destined +to purify and exalt it, remains to be determined. To see you as you +are, is almost beyond my powers of endurance, and for my own sake—mark +you—to ease my own heart, I shall redouble my efforts to have you +liberated. There is one speedy process, the discovery of the man whom, +thus far, you have shielded so effectually; and next week I begin the +hunt in earnest by going West." +</P> + +<P> +He saw her fingers clutch each other, and the artery in her throat +throb quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"How many victims are required to appease the manes of Gen'l +Darrington? Be satisfied with having sacrificed me, and waste no more +time in search that can bring neither recompense to you, nor +consolation to me. If I can bear my fate, you, sir, have no right to +interfere." +</P> + +<P> +"Then, like the selfish man I am, I usurp the right. What damnable +infatuation can bind you to that miserable poltroon, who skulks in +safety, knowing that the penalty of his evil deeds falls on you? One +explanation has suggested itself: it haunts me like a fiend, and only +you can exorcise it. Are you married to that brute, and is it loyalty +that nerves you? For God's sake do not trifle, tell me the truth." +</P> + +<P> +He leaned across the table, caught her hands. She shook off his touch, +and her eyes were ablaze. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you insane? How dare you cherish such a suspicion? The bare +conjecture is an insult, and you must know it is false. Married? I?" +</P> + +<P> +"Forgive me if I wound you, but indeed I could conceive of no other +solution of the mystery of your self-sacrifice; for it is utterly +incredible that unless some indissoluble tie bound you, that cowardly +knave could command your allegiance. It maddens me to think that you, +so far beyond all other women, can tolerate the thought of that—" +</P> + +<P> +"Hush! hush! You conjure phantoms with which to taunt and torture. You +pity me so keenly, that your judgment becomes distorted, and you chase +chimeras. Banish imaginary husbands, Western journeys, even the thought +of my wretched doom, and try henceforth to forget that I ever saw X—." +</P> + +<P> +"What does this mean? It was not on your hand when I held it so long +that day—in my own. Tell me, and quiet my pain." +</P> + +<P> +He pointed to the heavy ring, which was much too large for the wasted +finger where it glistened. +</P> + +<P> +"What does it mean? A tale of woe. It means that when my broken-hearted +mother was dying among strangers, in a hospital, she kissed her wedding +ring, and sent it with her love and blessing to the child—she +idolized. It means—" She held up her waxen hand, and into her voice +stole immeasurable tenderness: "Shall I tell you all it means? This +little gold hoop inscribed inside 'I. B. to E. D.,' girdles all that +this world has left for me; memories of father, mother, sunny childhood +in a peaceful home, lofty ambitions, happy, happy beautiful hopes that +once belonged to the girl Beryl, whom pitiless calamity has broken on +her cruel wheel. Walled up, dying slowly in a convict's tomb, the only +light that shines into my desolate heart, flickers through this little +circle; and clasping it close through the long, long nights, when +horrible images brood like vampires, it soothes me, like the touch of +the dear hand which it graced so long, and brings me dreams of the +fair, sweet past." +</P> + +<P> +Was it the mist in his eyes that showed her almost glorified by the +level rays of the setting sun, as like a tired child she leaned her +head against the wall, a pale image of resignation? +</P> + +<P> +To lose her was a conjecture so fraught with pain, that his swart face +blanched, and his voice quivered under its weight of tender entreaty. +</P> + +<P> +"What is it that sustains you in your frightful martyrdom? Why do you +endure these horrors which might be abolished? You hurl me back upon +the loathsome thought that love, love for a depraved, brutal wretch is +the secret that baffles me. I might be able to see you die, to lay you, +stainless snowdrop that you are, in the coffin that would keep you +sacred forever; but please God! I will never endure the pain of seeing +you leave these sheltering walls to walk into that man's arms. I swear +to you by all I hold most precious, that if he be yet alive, I will +hand him over to retribution." +</P> + +<P> +He had pushed aside the table, and stood before her, with the one +wholly absorbing love of his life glowing in his face. She dared not +meet the gaze that thrilled her with an exquisite happiness, and +involuntarily rose. Had she not strangled the impulse, her fluttering +heart would have prompted her to lean forward, rest her head against +his arm, and tell him all; but close as they stood, and realizing that +she reigned supreme in his affection, one seemed to rise reproachfully +between them; that generous, gentle woman to whom his faith was +pledged. No matter at what cost, she must guard Leo's peace of mind; +and to dispel his jealous illusion now, would speedily overwhelm the +tottering fabric of his allegiance. Folding her arms tightly across her +breast, she answered proudly: +</P> + +<P> +"So be it then. Do your worst." +</P> + +<P> +"You admit it!" +</P> + +<P> +"I admit nothing." +</P> + +<P> +"You defy me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Defy? It seems I am always at the mercy of Tiberius." +</P> + +<P> +"Can you look at me, and deny that you are screening your lover?" +</P> + +<P> +She quickly lifted her head, with a peculiar haughty movement that +reminded him of a desperate stag at bay, and he never forgot the +expression of her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"I deny that Miss Gordon's accepted lover has any right to catechise me +concerning a subject which, were his suspicions correct, should invest +it with a sanctity inviolable by wanton curiosity." +</P> + +<P> +He recoiled slightly as from a lash. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Gordon is on the eve of sailing through the sunny isles of +Greece; and while she is absent I purpose finding my nepenthe in my +hunt for murderers among Montana wilds. You have defied me, and I will +do my worst, nay, my very best to catch and hang that cowardly rogue +who adroitly used your handkerchief as the instrument to aid his crime." +</P> + +<P> +She walked a few steps, putting once more between them the table, +against which she leaned. +</P> + +<P> +"If you are successful, and the mystery of that awful murder should be +unravelled, you will then comprehend something of the desperation that +makes me endure even this crucifixion of soul; and in that day, when +you discover the fugitive lover, you will blush for the taunts aimed at +a defenceless and sorely-stricken woman." +</P> + +<P> +"Nevertheless, I bend my energies henceforth to his capture and +punishment." +</P> + +<P> +"Because he is my lover? Or because he may be a criminal? Ask that +question of your honor. Answer it to your own conscience, and to the +noble heart of the trusting woman you asked to become your wife. Mr. +Dunbar, you must leave me now; my strength is almost spent." +</P> + +<P> +Baffled, exasperated, he approached the table and took something from +his vest-pocket. +</P> + +<P> +"I hold my honor flawless, and with the sanction of my conscience I +prefer to answer to you—you alone—because he is your lover, I will +have his life." +</P> + +<P> +She smiled, and her eyes drooped; but there was strange emphasis in her +words as she clasped her hands: +</P> + +<P> +"God keep my lover now and forever. Mr. Dunbar, when you discover him, +I have no fear that you will harm one hair in his dear head." +</P> + +<P> +"If you knew all you have cost me, you might understand why I will +never forego my compensation. I bide my time; but I shall win. You +asked me, as a special favor, to preserve and secure for you something +which you held very valuable. Because no wish of yours can ever be +forgotten, I have complied with your request and brought you this +'precious souvenir' of a tender past." +</P> + +<P> +He tore away the paper wrapping, and held toward her the meerschaum +pipe, then dropped it on the table as though it burned his fingers. +</P> + +<P> +At sight of it, a sudden faintness made the girl reel, and she put her +hand to her throat, as if to loosen a throttling touch. Her eyes +filled, and in a whirling mist she seemed to see the beloved face of +the father long dead, of the gay, beautiful young brother who had +wrought her ruin. Weakness overpowered her, and sinking to her knees, +she drew the pipe closer, laid it against her cheek, folded her arms +over it on the table and bowed her head. +</P> + +<P> +What a host of mocking phantoms leaped through the portals of the +Bygone—babbling of the glorious golden dawn that was whitening into a +radiant morning, when the day-star fell back below the horizon, and +night devoured the new-born day. Memory comes, sometimes, in the guise +of an angel, wearing fragrant chaplets, singing us the perfect +harmonies of a hallowed past; but oftener still, as a fury scourging +with serpents; and always over her shoulder peers the wan face and +pitying eyes of a divine Regret. +</P> + +<P> +The sun had gone down behind the dense pine forest stretching beyond +the prison, but the sky was a vast shifting flame of waning rose and +deepening scarlet, and the glow from the West still defied the shadows +gathering in the cell. Beryl was so still, that Mr. Dunbar feared she +had fainted from exhaustion. +</P> + +<P> +He stepped to her side, and laid his hand on the bronzed head, +smoothing caressingly yet reverently the short, silky hair. Ah, the +unfathomable tenderness with which he bent over the only woman he ever +loved; the intolerable pain of the thought that after all he might lose +her. He heard the shuddering sob that broke from her overtaxed and +aching heart, and despite his jealous rage he felt unmanned. When she +raised her face, tears hung on her lashes. +</P> + +<P> +"I will thank you, Mr. Dunbar, as long as I live, for this last and +greatest kindness. If I could tell you what this precious relic +represents to me, oh, if you knew! you would pity me indeed." +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me. Trust me. God knows I would never betray your confidence, no +matter what it cost me." +</P> + +<P> +It was a powerful temptation to divulge the truth, and her heart +whispered that Bertie's safety would be secured by removing all jealous +incentive to his pursuit; but she remembered the fair, sweet, heroic +woman who had dared her fiance's wrath in order to unbar those prison +doors; who had faithfully and delicately thrown over the convict the +mantle of her friendship; and the loyal soul of the prisoner strangled +its weakness. +</P> + +<P> +Perishing in the desert where scorching sands stifled her, she had +surrendered to death, when love sprang to her side, lifted her into the +heavenly peace of dewy palms, and held to parched lips the sparkling +draught a glimpse of which electrified her. Would starvation entitle +her to drink? Over the head of pleading love stretched the arm of +stony-eyed duty, striking into the dust the crystal drops, withering +the palms; and following her stern beckon, the thirsty pilgrim re-trod +the sands of surrender, more intolerable than before, because the oasis +was still in sight. Duty! Rugged incorruptible Spartan dame, whose +inflexible mandate is ever: "With your shield, or on it." +</P> + +<P> +Beryl put up her hand, drew his from her head to her lips, kissed it +softly. +</P> + +<P> +"Good-bye, Mr. Dunbar. I promise you one thing. If I find I cannot +live, I will send for you. Upon the border of the grave I will open my +heart. You shall see all; and then you will understand, and deliver a +message which I must leave in your hands. Give my grateful remembrance +to Miss Gordon. Make her happy; and ask her to pray for me, that I may +be patient. Now leave me, for I can bear no more." +</P> + +<P> +She put aside his hand, and hid her face once more. He stooped, laid +his lips on the shining hair, and walked away. At the door he paused. +The long corridor was very dim and gloomy, and the deep-toned bell in +the tower was ringing slowly. Looking back into the cell, he saw that +Beryl had risen, and against the sullen red glow on the western window, +her face and figure outlined a silhouette of hopeless desolation. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap24"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXIV +</H3> + +<P> +Each human soul is dowered with an inherent adaptability to its +environment, with an innate energy which properly directed, grapples +successfully with all assailing ills; and Time, the tireless +reconciler, flies always low at our side, hardening the fibre of +endurance, stealthily administering that supreme and infallible +anaesthetic whereby the torturing throes of human woe are surely +stilled. Existence involves strife; mental and moral growth depend upon +the vigor with which it is waged, and scorning cowardice, Nature +provides the weapons essential to victory. The evils that afflict +humanity are meted out with a marvellously accurate reference to the +idiosyncrasies of character; and no weight is imposed which cannot by +heroic effort be sustained. The Socratic belief that if all misfortunes +were laid in a heap, whence every man and woman must draw an equal +portion, each would select the burden temporarily laid down and walk +away comforted, was merely an adumbration of the sublimer truth, "As +thy day, so shall thy strength be." +</P> + +<P> +Very slowly physical health and spiritual patience came back to Beryl; +but by degrees she bravely lifted the stained and mutilated wreck of +life, and staggered on her lonely way, finding that repose which means +the death of hope. +</P> + +<P> +At one time death had smilingly pushed ajar the door that opened into +eternal peace, and beckoned her bruised soul to follow; then mockingly +barred escape, and left her to renew the battle. From that double +window in the second story of the prison, she watched the silver of +full moons shining on the spectral white columns that crowned "Elm +Bluff", the fire of setting suns that blazed ruby-red as Gubbio wine, +along the line of casements that pierced the front facade, a bristling +perpetual reminder of the tragedy that cried to heaven for vengeance. +She learned exactly where to expect the first glimpse of the slender +opal crescent in the primrose west; followed its waxing brilliance as +it sailed out of the green bights of the pine forest, its waning +pallor, amid the sparkling splendor of planets that lit the far east. +</P> + +<P> +As the constellations trod the mazes of their stately minuet across the +distant field of blue, their outlines grew familiar as human +countenances; and from the darkness of her cell she turned to the great +golden stars throbbing in midnight skies, peering in through the iron +bars like pitying eyes of heavenly guardians. Locked away from human +companionship, and grateful for the isolation of her narrow cell, the +lonely woman found tender compensation in the kindly embrace of +Nature's arms, drawn closely about her. +</P> + +<P> +The procession of the seasons became to her the advent of so many +angels, who leaned in at her window and taught her the secret of floral +runes; the mysterious gamut of bird melodies, the shrill and weird +dithyrambics of the insect world; the recitative and andante and +scherzo of wind and rain, of hail and sleet, in storm symphonies. +</P> + +<P> +The Angel of Spring, with the snow of dogwood, and the faint pink of +apple blossoms on her dimpling cheeks; with violet censers swinging +incense before her crocus-sandalled feet, and the bleating of young +lambs that nestled in her warm arms. +</P> + +<P> +The Angel of Summer, full blown as the red roses flaunting amid the +golden grain and amber silk tassels that garlanded her sunny brow; +poised languorously on the glittering apex of salmon clouds at whose +base lightning flickered and thunder growled,—watching through drowsy +half shut lids the speckled broods of partridges scurrying with frantic +haste through the wild poppies of ripe wheat fields, the brown covey of +shy doves ambushed among purple morning glories swinging in the dense +shade of rustling corn; listening as in a dream to the laughter of +reapers, whetting scythes in the blistering glare of meadow slopes, yet +hearing all the while, the low, sweet babble of the slender stream that +trickled through pine roots, down the hillside, and added its silvery +tinkle to the lullaby crooned by the river to its fringe of willows, +its sleeping lily pads. +</P> + +<P> +The Angel of Autumn, radiant through her crystal veil of falling rain, +as with caressing touches she deepened the crimson on orchard +treasures, mellowed the heart of vineyard clusters, painted the leaves +with hectic glory that reconciled to their approaching fall, smiled on +the chestnuts that burst their burrs to greet her, whispered to the +squirrels that the banquet was ready; kissed into starry bloom blue +asters crowding about her knees, and left the scarlet of her lips on +the kingdom of berries ordained to flush the forest aisles, where +wolfish winds howled, when leaves had rustled down to die, and verdure +was no more. +</P> + +<P> +The Angel of Winter, a sad, mute image, wan as her robes of snow, +stretching white wings to shelter perishing birds huddled on the cold +pall that covered a numb world,—crowned with icicles that clasped her +silver locks, shedding tears that froze upon her marble cheeks; +standing on the universal grave where Nature lay bound in cerements, +hearkening to the dismal hooting of the owl at her feet, the sharp +insistent cry of gray killdees hovering above icy marshes, the wailing +tempest dirge over the dead earth; and while with one benignant hand +she tenderly folded her mantle about the sleepers, the other kindled a +conflagration along the western sky, that reddened and warmed even the +wastes of snow, and when she beckoned, the attendant stars seemed to +circle closer and closer, burning with an added lustre that made night +glorious. Answering her call, the Auroral arch sprang out of the North, +spanning the sky with waving banners of orange and violet flame, that +illumined the Niobe of the Seasons, as she hovered with out-stretched +glittering pinions, and mournful ice-dimmed eyes above her shrouded +dead children. +</P> + +<P> +With returning health, had come to Beryl activity of those artistic +instincts, which for a time, had slumbered in the torpor of despair; +and when her daily task of work had been accomplished, the prisoner +leaned with folded arms on the stone ledge of the window, and studied +every changing aspect of earth and atmosphere. By degrees the old +ambition stirred, and she began to sketch the slow panorama of July +clouds, built of mist and foam into the likeness of domes of burnished +copper, and campaniles of silver; the opaque mountain masses, +stratified along the horizon, leaden in hue, with sullen bluish gorges +where ravening January winds made their lair; the intricate, graceful +tracery of gnaried bare boughs and interlacing twigs, that would serve +as a framework when May hung up her green portieres to screen the +down-lined boudoirs where happy birds nestled; the gray stone arches of +the bridge in the valley below, the groups of cattle couched on the +rocky hillside, up which the pine forest marched like ranks of giants. +</P> + +<P> +On sultry afternoons she watched lengthening tree-shadows creep across +the reddish-brown carpeting of straw, and in the long nights when +sleeplessness betrayed her into the clutches of torturing +retrospection, she waited and longed for the pearly lustre that paved +the east for the rosy feet of dawn; listened to the beating of Nature's +heart in the solemn roar of the Falls two miles away, in the strophe +and anti-strophe of winds quivering through pine tops, the startled cry +of birds dozing in cedar thickets, the shrill droning of crickets, the +monotonous recrimination of katydids, the peculiar, querulous call of a +family of flying squirrels housed in the cleft of an old magnolia, the +Gregorian chant of frogs cradled in the sedge and ferns, where the +river lapped and gurgled. +</P> + +<P> +Humanity had turned its back upon her; but the sinless world of +creation, with all its glorious chords of beautiful color, and the +soothing witchery of the solemn voices of the night, ministered +abundantly to eye and ear. She had hoped and prayed to die; God denied +her petition; and sent, instead of His Angel of Death, two to comfort +her, the Angel of Health and the Angel of Resignation; whereby she +understood, that she had not yet earned surcease from suffering, but +was needed for future work in the Master's vineyard. +</P> + +<P> +If live she must, through the five years of piacular sacrifice, why +vitiate its efficacy by rebellious repining, that seemed an affront to +the divine arbiter of human destinies? She could not escape the cross; +and bitterness of heart might jeopardize the crown. Beggared by time, +could she afford to risk the eternal heritage? The deepest conviction +of her soul was, "Behind fate, stands God"; hidden for a season, deaf +and blind and mute, it seemed, but always surely there; waiting His own +appointed season of rescue, and of recompense. So strong was her faith +in His overruling wisdom and mercy, that her soul found rest, through +perpetual prayer for patience; and as weeks slipped into months, and +season followed season, she realized that though no roses of happiness +could ever bloom along her arid path, the lilies of peace kissed her +tired feet. +</P> + +<P> +Somewhere in the wicked world, Bertie was astray; and perhaps God has +kept her alive, intending she should fulfil her mission years hence, by +bringing him out of the snares of temptation, back into the fold of +Christ's redeemed. Five years of penal servitude to ransom his soul; +was the price exorbitant? +</P> + +<P> +One dull, wintry afternoon as she pressed close to the window, to catch +the fading light on the page of her Bible, it chanced to be the chapter +in St. Luke, which contained the parable of the Pharisee and the +Publican; and while she read, a great compunction smote her; a +remorseful sense of having scorned as utterly unclean and debased, her +suffering fellow prisoners. +</P> + +<P> +Was there no work to be done for the dear Master, in that moral +lazaretto—the long rows of cells down stairs, where some had been +consigned for 'ninety-nine years'? Hitherto, she had shrunk from +contact, as from leprous contagion; meeting the Penitentiary inmates +only in the chapel where, since her restoration to health, she went +regularly to sing and play on the organ, when the chaplain held +service. The world had cruelly misjudged her; was she any more lenient +to those who might be equally innocent? +</P> + +<P> +Next day she went humbly, yet shyly, down to the common work-room, and +took her place among the publicans, hoping that the soul of some +outcast might be won to repentance. Now and then messages of sympathy +reached her from the outside world, in the form of flowers, books, +magazines; and two of the jurors who convicted her, sent from time to +time generous contributions of dainty articles that materially promoted +her comfort; while a third, whose dead child had clung to her Christmas +card, eased his regretful pangs by the gift of a box containing paper, +canvas, crayons, brushes, paints, and all requisite appliances for +artistic work. +</P> + +<P> +Sister Serena had gone on a labor of love, to a distant State; and +faithful Dyce, hopelessly crippled by a fall from the mule which she +was forcing across the bridge leading to the State dungeon, had been +permanently consigned to the wide rocking chair, beside her cabin +hearth at "Elm Bluff". +</P> + +<P> +It was a bleak night in January, and intensely cold, when Mrs. +Singleton wrapped a shawl about her head, and ran along the dark +corridor to the cell, where Beryl was walking up and down to keep +herself warm. Only the moonlight illumined it, as the rays fell on the +bare floor, making a broad band of silver beneath the window. +</P> + +<P> +"I forgot to tell you, that something very dreadful happened at the +'Lilacs' last week. Judge Dent had a stroke of paralysis and died the +same night. As if that were not trouble enough to last for a while at +least, the house took fire in that high wind yesterday, and burned to +the ground; leaving poor Miss Patty Dent without a roof to cover her. +She had gone to the cemetery to carry flowers to her brother's grave, +and when she returned, it was too late to save anything. Miss Gordon's +new wing cost thousands of dollars and was furnished like a palace, so +I am told; but the flames destroyed every vestige of the beautiful +house, and the pictures and statues. It seems that it was heavily +insured, but money can't buy the old portraits and family silver, the +mahogany and glass, and the yellow damask—that have been kept in the +Dent family since George Washington was a teething baby; and Miss Patty +wails loudest over the loss of an old, old timey communion service, +that the Dents boasted Queen Anne gave to one of them, who was an +Episcopal minister. The poor old soul is almost crazy, I hear, and Mr. +Dunbar carries her to New York to-morrow, where she has a nephew +living; and next month she will go to Europe to join Miss Gordon. It is +reported in town, that when Judge Dent died so suddenly, Miss Patty +sent a cable telegram to her niece to come home; but early yesterday, +just before the fire, an answer came by cable, asking Miss Patty to +come to Europe. Some people think Mr. Dunbar intends escorting her, and +that when he meets Miss Gordon, the marriage will take place over +there; but I never will believe that, till it happens." +</P> + +<P> +She peered curiously into the face of her listener, but the light was +too dim to enable her to read its expression. +</P> + +<P> +"Why not? Under the circumstances, such a course seems eminently +natural and proper." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you really think he intends marrying?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am the confidant of neither the gentleman nor the lady; but you told +me long ago, that a marriage engagement existed between them; and since +both have shown me much kindness and sympathy, I sincerely hope their +united lives may be very happy. If Mr. Dunbar searched the universe, he +could scarcely find Miss Gordon's equal, certainly not her superior; +and he cannot fail to appreciate his good fortune in winning her." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Singleton lifted her shoulder significantly. "Perhaps! but you can +never be sure of men. They are about as uncertain calculations as the +hatching of guinea eggs, or the sprouting of parsley seed. What is +theirs can't be worth much; but what belongs to somebody else, is +invaluable; moreover, they are liable to sudden tantrums of sheer +obstinacy, that hang on like whooping-cough, or a sprain in one's +joints. Did you never see a mule take the sulks on his way to the corn +crib and the fodder rack, and refuse to budge, even for his own +benefit? Some men are just that perverse. Mr. Dunbar is trailing game, +worth more to him at present, than a sweetheart across the Atlantic +Ocean; which reminds me of what brought me here. He asked Ned to-day, +if you saw Mr. Darrington yesterday when he came here; and learning +that you did not, he gave him this paper, which he said would explain +what the Legislature did last month, about declaring you of age. Ned +told him you signed some document Mr. Wolverton brought here last week, +which secured all the property to Mr. Darrington, and he said he had +been informed of the transaction, and that Mr. Darrington would soon go +back to Germany. Then he added: 'Singleton, present my respects to Miss +Brentano and tell her, I am happy to say that my trip West last summer +was not entirely unsuccessful. It has furnished me with a very valuable +clue. She will understand.' Oh, dear! how bitterly cold it is! Come to +my room, and get thoroughly thawed; Ned is down stairs, and the +children are asleep." +</P> + +<P> +"No, thank you; I should only feel the cold more, when I came back." +</P> + +<P> +"Then take my shawl and cover your ears and throat. There, you must. +Good night." +</P> + +<P> +She closed the door, and fled down the long black passage, to the +bright cozy room, where her babes slumbered. +</P> + +<P> +Slowly Beryl resumed her walk from window to door, from bar to bar, but +of the stinging cold she grew oblivious; and the blood burned in her +cheeks and throbbed with almost suffocating violence at her heart. +</P> + +<P> +She comprehended fully the significance of the message, and dared not +comfort herself with the supposition that it was prompted by a spirit +of bravado. +</P> + +<P> +To what quarter of the globe was he tracking the desperate culprit, who +had fled sorely wounded from his murderous assault? Ignorant of his +mother's death, and of his sister's expiatory incarceration, might not +Bertie venture back to the great city, where she had last seen him; and +be trapped by those wily "Quaestores Paricidii" of the nineteenth +century—special detectives? +</P> + +<P> +Fettered, muzzled by the stone walls of her dungeon, she could send him +no warning, could only pray and endure, while she and her reckless, +wayward brother drifted helplessly down the dark, swift river of doom. +At every revival of fears for his safety, up started the mighty +temptation that never slumbered, to confess all to Mr. Dunbar; but as +persistently she took it by the throat, and crushed it back, resolved +at all hazards to secure, if possible, the happiness of the woman who +had trusted her. +</P> + +<P> +In the midst of the wreck of her life, out of the depths of the dust of +humiliation, had sprung the beautiful blossom of love, shedding its +intoxicating fragrance over ruin; yet, because the asp of treachery +lurked in the exquisite, folded petals, she shut her eyes to the +bewildering loveliness, and loyalty strove to tear it up by the roots, +to trample it out; learning thereby, that the fibrous thread had struck +deep into her own heart, defying ejectment. +</P> + +<P> +She had forbidden his visits, interdicted letters; but she could not +expel the vision of a dear face that haunted her memory; nor exorcise +the spell of a voice that had first thrilled her pulses when pleading +with the jury in her behalf. +</P> + +<P> +Sometimes she wondered whether she had been created as a mere sentient +plummet to sound every gulf of human woe; then humbly recanted the +impious repining, and thanked God that, at least, she had been spared +that deepest of all abysses, the Hades of remorse. That which comes to +most women as the supreme earthly joy—the consciousness of possessing +the heart of the man they love, fell upon Beryl like the lash of +flagellation; rendering doubly fierce the battle of renunciation, which +she fought, knowing that sedition and treason were raising the standard +of revolt within the fortress. +</P> + +<P> +During the eight months that had elapsed since Leo sailed for Europe, +Beryl had exchanged no word with Mr. Dunbar; but twice a sudden, +tumultuous leaping of her heart surprised her at sight of him, standing +in the door of the chapel; watching her as she sat within the altar +rail, playing the little organ, while the convict congregation stood up +to sing. Although no name was ever appended, she knew what hand had +directed the various American and foreign art magazines, which brought +their argosy of beauty to divert and gladden her sombre meditations. +</P> + +<P> +On Christmas morning, the second of her sojourn within penitentiary +walls, the express messenger had brought to the door of her cell, two +packages, one a glowing heart of crimson and purple passion flowers, +the other an exquisite engraving of Sir Frederick Leighton's "Hercules +Wrestling with Death"; and below the printed title, she recognized the +bold characters traced in red ink: "The Alcestis you emulate." +</P> + +<P> +To-night, a ray of moonlight crept across the wall, and shivered its +silver over the rigid face of the dead wife in the picture; and the +prisoner, gazing mournfully at it, comprehended that her own fate was +sadder than that of the immortal Greek devotee. To die for Admetus +after he had sworn on the altar of his gods, that he would spend alone +the remainder of his days, solaced by no fair successor, dedicating his +fidelity to appease her manes, was comparatively easy; but to turn +away, voluntarily resign the man she loved, and assist in forging the +links which she must live to see chaining him to a happy rival, were an +ordeal more appalling to Alcestis than premature descent into the dusky +realm of Persephone. +</P> + +<P> +To secure to her brother immunity from pursuit, and to Miss Gordon the +allegiance of the husband of her choice, was the problem that banished +sleep and kept Beryl pacing the floor, until welcome day hung her +orange mantle over the quivering splendor of the morning star. One +final effort was all that seemed possible now; and kneeling before the +table she wrote and sealed a note, to be delivered before the express +train bore the lawyer away on his journey: +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"Your message was received, and it has so disquieted and alarmed me +that I am forced to treat for peace. If you will cancel your police +contracts, cease your search, go to Europe with Miss Dent, and pledge +me your honor to marry Miss Gordon before you return, I will solemnly +promise, bind myself in the sight of the God I serve, to live and to +die Beryl Brentano; and never, without your consent and permission, +will I look again on the face of the man whom you are hunting to death. +The assurance of his safety will atone for all you have made me suffer; +will nerve me to bear whatever the future may hold. You will imagine +you understand, but it is impossible that you can ever realize the +nature of the pain this proposal involves for me; nevertheless, if you +accept and keep the compact, I believe you know that, at all costs, I +shall never forfeit the pledged word of +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"BERYL BRENTANO." +</P> + +<P> +When marriage vows had irrevocably committed Leo's happiness to his +honor, it might then be safe to tell him the truth, and solicit release +from the self-imposed terms. Five hours later, she received an answer: +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"A trifle too late, you unfurled the flag of truce. With my game in +sight, I decline to forego the chase. For your solicitude regarding my +marriage, I tender my thanks; and the assurance, that no magnet can +draw, not all the charms of Circe lure me across the Atlantic, until I +have accomplished my purpose. The tardiness of your proposal is +unerring appraiser of its costliness; and I were a monster of cruelty +to debar you the sight of your idol, though I bring him with the grim +garniture of chains and handcuffs. When I consign Miss Dent to her +relatives in New York, I go to a miners' camp in Dakota, to identify a +man bearing the marks of one who fled from X—-, and lost his pipe, on +the night he murdered Gen'l Darrington. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"DUNBAR." +</P> + +<P> +To temporize longer would be fatal to Bertie; and no alternative +remained but to tell the simple truth. +</P> + +<P> +Without an instant's delay she took up her pen, but ere half a line had +been traced on the paper, a hoarse whistle, somewhat muffled by +distance, told her the attempt was futile; and through the valley +beyond the river a trailing serpent of black smoke showed the express +train darting northward. The attorney had left X—-, but might linger +in New York sufficiently long for a letter to reach him; and doubtless +his address could be learned at his office: +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"If Mr. Dunbar will give me an opportunity of acquainting him with some +facts, he is anxious to discover, he shall find it unnecessary to +travel to Dakota; and will thank me for saving him from the long +journey he contemplates. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"B. B." +</P> + +<P> +The sun was setting when Mr. Singleton returned from the attorney's +office, and held out the note which he had been instructed to address +and deposit in the mail. +</P> + +<P> +"If it is a matter of any importance, I am sorry to tell you that this +cannot reach Mr. Dunbar immediately. He goes only as far as +Philadelphia, where Miss Dent's nephew meets her; then Dunbar travels +right on West without stopping, till he reaches Bismarck. He left +instructions at his office to retain all mail matter here, for a couple +of weeks, then forward to Washington City; as business would detain him +there some days after his return from the west. Good gracious! how +white your lips are. Sit down. What ails you?" +</P> + +<P> +She put her hand over her eyes, and tried to collect her thoughts. To +suffer so long, so keenly, and yet lose the victory; could it be +possible that her sacrifice would prove utterly futile? +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Singleton, you have shown me many times your friendly sympathy, +and I am again forced to tax your kindness. It is important that I +should see or communicate with Mr. Dunbar within the next forty-eight +hours. Could you induce the telegraph operator here to have a message +delivered to him on the train, before it reaches Washington City?" +</P> + +<P> +"I will certainly do my best; and to insure it I will go to the +railroad operator, who understands the stations, and can catch Dunbar +more easily than a message from the general office. Write our your +telegram, while I order my buggy." +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"MR. DUNBAR. On board Train No. 2. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"Please let me see you before you go West. I promise information that +will render you unwilling to make the journey to Bismarck." +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"B." +</P> + +<P> +Anxiously she computed the time within which an answer might reasonably +be expected; and her heart dwelt as a suppliant before God, that the +message would avail to arrest pursuit; but hours wore wearily away, +tedious days trod upon the slow skirts of dreary nights; and no +response lifted the burden of dread. Hope whispered feebly that his +failure to send a telegraphic reply, implied his intention of returning +to X—-from Philadelphia; and she clung to this rope of sand until a +week had passed. Then the conviction was inevitable that he regarded +her appeal as merely a ruse to divert his course, to delay the seizure +of his prey; and that while he misinterpreted the motive that prompted +her message, she had merely furnished an additional goad to his jealous +hatred. +</P> + +<P> +As helpless wrack borne on the sullen tide of destiny, she struck her +trembling hands together, and cried out in the dark solitude of her +cell: "Verily! The stars in their courses fought against Sisera." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap25"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXV. +</H3> + +<P> +The winter was marked by an unusual severity of cold, which prolonged +the rigor of mid-season until late in February, and despite the efforts +of penitentiary officials who made unprecedented requisitions upon the +board of inspectors, for additional clothing, the pent human herd +suffered keenly. +</P> + +<P> +Alarmed by the rapidly increasing rate of sickness within the "walls," +Mr. Singleton demanded a sanitary commission, which, after apparently +thorough investigation, reported no visible local cause for the +mortality among the convicts; but the germs of disease grew swiftly as +other evil weeds, and the first week in March saw a hideous harvest of +diphtheria of the most malignant type. +</P> + +<P> +At the earliest intimation of the character of the pestilence, the +warden's wife fled with her little children to her mother's home in a +neighboring county; maternal solicitude having extinguished her womanly +reluctance to desert her husband, at a juncture when her presence and +assistance would so materially have cheered, and lightened his labors. +An attempt was made to isolate the first case in the hospital, but the +cots in that spacious apartment filled beyond the limits of +accommodation; and soon, a large proportion of the cells on the ground +floor held each its victim of the fatal disease, that as the scythe of +death cut a wide swath through convict ranks. Consulting physicians +walked through the infected ward, altered prescriptions, advised +disinfectants which were liberally used, until the building seemed to +exhale pungent, wholesome, but unsavory odors; yet there was no +abatement in the virulence of the type. When the twenty-third case was +entered on the hospital list, the trustees and inspectors determined to +remove all who showed no symptom of the contagion, to an old, +long-abandoned cotton factory several miles distant; where the vacant +houses of former operatives would afford temporary shelter; and to +diminish the chances of carrying infection, each prisoner was carefully +examined by the attending physician, and then furnished with an +entirely new suit of clothing. +</P> + +<P> +When the nature of the epidemic could no longer be concealed from the +inmates, instinctive horror drove them from the neighborhood of the +victims, and like frightened sheep they huddled in remote corners, +removed as far as possible from the infected precincts, and loath to +minister to the needs of the sufferers. +</P> + +<P> +Two men, and as many women, selected and detailed as nurses in their +respective wards, openly rebelled; and while Doctor Moffat and Mr. +Singleton were discussing the feasibility of procuring outside +assistance, the door of the dispensary adjoining the hospital, opened, +and Beryl walked up to the table, where medicines were weighed and +mixed. +</P> + +<P> +"Put me to work among the sick. I want to help you." +</P> + +<P> +"You! What could you do? I should as soon take a magnolia blossom to +scrub the pots and pans of a filthy kitchen," answered the doctor, +looking up over his spectacles from the powder he was grinding in a +glass mortar. +</P> + +<P> +"I can follow your directions; I can obey orders; and physicians deem +that the sine qua non in nurses. Closed lips, open ears, willing hands +are supposed to outweigh any amount of unlicensed brains. Try me." +</P> + +<P> +"No. I am not willing. Go back up-stairs, and stay there," said the +warden. +</P> + +<P> +"Why may I not assist in nursing?" +</P> + +<P> +"In the first place you are not fit to mix with those poor creatures, +in yonder; their oaths would curdle your blood; and in the second, you +are not strong, and would be sure to take the disease at once." +</P> + +<P> +"I am perfectly well; my lungs are now as healthy as yours, and I am +not afraid of diphtheria. You detailed nurses, who refused to serve; I +volunteer; have you any right to reject me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, the right to protect and save your life, which is worth twenty of +those already in danger," replied Mr. Singleton, pausing in his task of +filling capsules with quinine. +</P> + +<P> +"Who made you a judge of the value of souls? My life belongs first to +God, who gave it, next to myself; and if I choose to jeopardize it, in +work among my suffering comrades in disgrace, you must not usurp the +authority to prevent me." +</P> + +<P> +"Has it become so intolerable that you desire to commit suicide, under +the specious plea of philanthropic martyrdom?" said Doctor Moffat, +whose keen black eyes scanned her closely, from beneath shaggy gray +brows. +</P> + +<P> +"I think I may safely say, no such selfish motive underlies my +resolution. My heart is full of pity, and of dread for some women here, +who admit their guilt, yet have sought no pardon from the Maker their +sins insult. Sick souls cry out to me louder than dying bodies; and who +dare deny me the privilege of ministering to both? The parable of the +sparrows is no fable to me; and if, while trying to comfort my unhappy +associates here, God calls me out of this dark stony vineyard, His will +alone overrules all; and I can meet His face in peace. We say: 'Lord +what wilt Thou have us to do?' and when the answer comes, pointing us +to perilous and loathsome labors, will He forget if we shut our eyes, +and turn away, coveting the sunny fields into which He sent others to +toil? Let me go to my work." +</P> + +<P> +During almost eighteen months, both men had studied her character as +manifested in the trying phases of prison existence, finding no flaw; +to-day they looked up reverently at the graceful form in its homespun +uniform, at the calm, colorless face, wearing its crown of meekness, +with an inalienable, proud air of cold repose. +</P> + +<P> +"To keep you here is about as sacrilegious as it would have been to +thrust St. Catherine among the chain-gang in the galleys," muttered the +doctor. +</P> + +<P> +"No doubt duty called her to much worse places; therefore, when she +died, the angels buried her on Sinai," answered the prisoner; before +whose wistful eyes drifted the memory of Luini's picture. +</P> + +<P> +"You have set your heart on this; nothing less will content you?" +</P> + +<P> +"While the necessity continues, nothing less will content me." +</P> + +<P> +"Remember, you voluntarily take your life in your own hands." +</P> + +<P> +"I assume the entire responsibility for any risk incurred." +</P> + +<P> +"Then, I wish you God speed; for the harvest is white, the laborers +few." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, doctor! I relied on you to help me keep her out of reach. If +anything happens, how shall I pacify Susie? She made me promise every +possible care of her favorite. Look here, only an hour ago I received a +letter and this package marked, 'One for Ned; the other for Miss +Beryl.' Two little red flannel safety bags, cure-alls, to be tied +around our necks, close to our noses, as if we could not smell them a +half mile off? Assafoetida, garlic, camphor, 'jimson weed,' valerian +powder—phew! What not? Mixed as a voudoo chowder, and a scent twice as +loud!" +</P> + +<P> +"Be thankful your wife is not here to enforce the wearing of the +sanitary sachet," said the doctor, allowing himself a grimace of +contemptuous disgust. +</P> + +<P> +"So I am! but being a bachelor, answerable only to yourself, you cannot +understand how absence does not exonerate me from the promise made when +she started away. I would sooner face an 'army with banners,' than that +little brown-eyed woman of mine when she takes the lapel of my coat in +one hand, raises the forefinger of the other, turns her head sideways +like a thrush watching a wriggling worm, and says, in a voice that +rises as fast as the sound a mouse makes racing up the treble of the +piano keys: 'Ump! whew! Didn't I tell you so? The minute my back was +turned, of course you made ducks and drakes of all your promises. Show +me a "Flying Jenney," that the tip end of any idiot's little finger can +spin around, and I'll christen it Edward McTwaddle Singleton!' Seems +funny to you, doctor? Just wait till you are married, and your Susan +shuts the door and interviews you, picking a whole flock of crows, till +you wonder if it isn't raining black feathers. When I am taken to taw +about this nursing business, I shall lose no time in laying the blame +on you." +</P> + +<P> +"I will assure Mrs. Singleton that you endeavored to dissuade me; and +that you faithfully kept your promise to shield me from danger." +</P> + +<P> +"Which she will not believe, because she knows that I have the power to +lock you up indefinitely. Besides, if you live to explain matters, +there will be no necessity; but suppose you do not? You are running +into the jaws of an awful danger, and if—" +</P> + +<P> +His frank, pleasant countenance clouded, he gnawed his mustache, and +the question ended in a long sigh. After a moment, a low, sweet voice +completed the sentence: +</P> + +<P> +"If I should die, your tender-hearted wife is so truly and faithfully +my friend, that she could not regret to hear I have entered into my +rest." +</P> + +<P> +There was a brief silence, during which the physician crossed the +floor, opened a glass door and surveyed the stock of drugs. When he +came back, and took up the pestle, he spoke with solemn emphasis: +</P> + +<P> +"This is the most malignant type of an always dangerous disease that I +have ever encountered; and constant exposure to it, without the +careful, persistent use of tonic and disinfectant precautions, would be +tantamount to walking unvaccinated into a pest-house, where people were +dying of confluent small-pox. I have no desire to frighten, but it is +proper that I should warn you; and insist upon the duty of watching +your own health as closely as the symptoms of the victims you are +desirous of nursing. Will you follow the regimen I shall prescribe for +yourself?" +</P> + +<P> +"Implicitly." +</P> + +<P> +The warden finished filling the capsules, rose and looked at his watch. +</P> + +<P> +"As far as the chances go, it is 'heads I win, tails you lose'; and +sorry enough I am to see you come down and dare the pestilence; but +since you are, I might as well say what I was asked to tell you last +night. For your sake I kept silent; now since you persist, I wash my +hands of all responsibility for the consequences. You have heard the +history of the woman Iva Le Bougeois, better known in the 'walls' as +the 'Bloody Duchess'. Two days ago the scourge struck her down; she is +very ill, the worst symptoms have appeared, and she is almost frantic +with terror. Last night, at 12 o'clock, I was going the rounds of the +sick wards, and found her wringing her hands, and running up and down +the cell like a maniac. I tried to quiet and encourage her, but she +paid no more attention than if stone deaf; and when I started to leave +her, she seized my arm, and begged me to ask you to come and stay with +her. She thinks if you would sing for her, she could listen, and forget +the horrible things that haunt her. It is positively sickening to see +her terror at the thought of death. Poor, desperate creature." +</P> + +<P> +"Yet you withheld her message when I might have comforted her?" +</P> + +<P> +"It was a crazy whim. In hardened cases like hers, death-bed remorse +counts for very little. Her conscience is lashing her; could you quiet +that? Could you bleach out the blood that spots her soul?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, by leading her to One who can." +</P> + +<P> +"Remember, you asked me as a special favor to keep you as far apart as +possible from all of her class." +</P> + +<P> +"At that time, overwhelmed by the misery of my own fate, I was pitiless +to the sufferings of others. The rod that smote me was very cruel then; +but by degrees it seems to bud like Aaron's with precious promise, that +may expand into the immortal flowers of souls redeemed. I dwelt too +long in the seat of the Pharisees; I shall live closer to God, walking +humbly among the Publicans. Will you show me the way to the woman who +wishes to see me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not yet. There are some instructions that must be carefully weighed +before I can install you as nurse, in that dismal mire of moral and +physical corruption. Singleton, send the hospital steward to me." +</P> + +<P> +There are spectacles which brand themselves so ineffaceably upon +memory, that time has no power to impair their vividness; and of such +were some of the scenes witnessed by the new nurse. +</P> + +<P> +Sitting on the side of her cot, from which the gray blanket had been +dragged and folded half across her shoulders, where one hand held it, +while the other clutched savagely at her throat; with her bare delicate +feet beating a tattoo on the white sanded floor, and her thin nostrils +dilated in the battle for breath, Iva Le Bougeois moaned in abject +terror. The coarse, unbleached "domestic" night-gown that fell to her +ankles was streaked across the bosom with some dark brown fluid; and +similar marks stained the pillow where her restless head had tossed. +The hot eyes and parched red lips seemed to have drained all the +tainted blood from her olive cheeks, save where, just beneath the lower +lids, ominous terra-cotta rings had been painted and glazed by the +disease. +</P> + +<P> +As Beryl pushed open the iron door, and held up the lantern, that its +brightness might stream into the cell, where even at five o'clock in +the afternoon of a rainy day darkness reigned, the rays flashed back +from the glowing eyes chatoyant as a cougar's. +</P> + +<P> +"Your message was not delivered until to-day, and I lost no time in +coming." +</P> + +<P> +The small head, where short, straight, blue-black locks, rumpled and +disordered, were piled elfishly around the low brow, was thrown up with +the swift movement of some startled furry animal, alert even in the +throes of death. +</P> + +<P> +"Is all hope over? Did they tell you there is no chance for me?" +</P> + +<P> +The voice was hoarse and thick, the articulation indistinct and +smothered. +</P> + +<P> +"No. They think you very ill, but still hope the remedies will save +you. The doctor says your fine constitution ought to conquer the +disease." +</P> + +<P> +"I am beyond the remedy—because I can't swallow any longer. Since the +doctor left me, I have tried and tried. See—" +</P> + +<P> +From a bench within reach, she lifted a small yellow bowl, which +contained a dark mixture, put it to her lips, and chafing her swollen +glands, attempted several times to swallow the liquid. A gurgling sound +betrayed the futility of the effort, the medicine gushed from her nose, +the eyes seemed starting from their sockets, and even the husky cry of +the sufferer was strangled, as she cowered down. +</P> + +<P> +"Compose yourself; nervousness increases the difficulty. Once I had +diphtheria, and could not swallow for two days, yet I recovered. Be +quiet, and let me try to help you." +</P> + +<P> +Kneeling in front of her, Beryl turned up the wick of the lantern, and +with a small brush attached to a silver wire, finally succeeded in +cauterizing and removing a portion of the poisonous growth that was +rapidly narrowing the avenue of breath. The spasm of coughing that +ensued was Nature's auxiliary effort, and temporarily relieved the +tightening clutch. +</P> + +<P> +After a few moments, a dose of the medicine was successfully +administered; and then the slender, shapely brown hand of the woman +grasped the nurse's blue homespun dress. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't leave me! Save me. Oh, don't let me strangle here alone—in the +dark; don't let me die! I'm not fit. I know where I shall go. It's not +the devil I dread; I have known many devils in this world,—but God. I +am afraid of God!" +</P> + +<P> +"Lie down, and cover your shoulders. If it comforts you to have me, I +will stay gladly. The doctor, the warden, all of us will do what we can +to cure you; but the help you need most, can come only from one whose +pity is greater and tenderer than ours, your merciful God. Lift up your +heart in prayer to him; ask him to forgive your sins, and spare you to +lead a better life." +</P> + +<P> +"He would not hear, because He knows how black my heart has been all +these years; since I gave myself up to hate and cursing. You can't +understand—you are not one of us. You are as much out of place here, +as one of the angels would be, held over the flames of torment till the +wings singed. From the first time we saw you in the chapel, and more +and more ever since, we found out you did not belong here. I have been +so wicked—so wicked—!" +</P> + +<P> +She paused, panting, then hurried on. +</P> + +<P> +"When the chaplain tried to talk to me, and gave me a book to read, I +dashed it back in his face, and insulted him. One Saturday they sent me +to sweep out and dust the chapel, and when I finished, I laid down on +one of the benches to rest. You went in to practise, not knowing I was +there; and began to sing. As I listened, something seemed to stir and +wake up in my heart, and somehow the music shook me out of myself. +There was one hymn, so solemn, so thrilling, and the end of every verse +was, 'Oh, Lamb of God! I come!'—and you sang it with a great cry, as +if you were running to meet some one. I had not wept—for oh! I don't +know how long—not since—. Then you played on the organ some +variations on a tune—'The Sweet By-and-by'—and the tears started, and +I seemed but a leaf in a wild storm. That was the song my little boy +used to sing! There was a Sunday-school in the basement of a church +next to our house, and he would stand at the window, and listen till he +caught the tune, and learned the words. Oh, that hymn! Every note stung +me like a whip lash when I heard it again. My child's face as I saw him +the last time I put him to bed; when he opened his drowsy eyes, and +raised up to kiss me good-night, came back to me, and seemed to sing, +'In the sweet by-and-by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore.' +No—never—never! Oh, my boy! My beautiful angel Max—there is no room +for me, on that heavenly shore! Oh! my darling—there is NO 'Sweet +by-and-by' FOR MOTHER NOW." +</P> + +<P> +She had started up, with arms clasped around her knees, and her +convulsed face lifted toward the low ceiling of the cell, writhed, as +she drew her breath in hissing gasps. +</P> + +<P> +"You loved your little boy?" +</P> + +<P> +"You are not a mother, or you wouldn't ask me that If ever you had felt +your baby's sweet warm lips on yours, you would know that it is +mother-love that makes tigers of women. Because I idolized my little +one, I could not bear the cruel wrong of having him torn from me, +taught to despise me; and so I loved him best when I slew him, and I +was so mad, with the delirium of pain and rage and despair, that I +forgot I was putting the gulf of perdition between us. Rather than +submit to separation in this world, than have him raised by them, to +turn away from his mother as a thing too vile to wear his father's +name, I lost him for ever and ever! My son, my star-eyed darling." +</P> + +<P> +"Listen to me. You loved him so tenderly, that no matter how wilful or +disobedient he might have been, you forgave him every offence; and when +he sobbed on your bosom, you felt he was doubly dear, and hugged him +closer to your heart? Even stronger and deeper is God's love for us. +Dare you call yourself more pitiful, more tender than your Father in +heaven, who gave you the capacity to love your child, because He so +compassionately loves His children? We sin, we go far astray, we think +mercy is exhausted, and the door shut against us; but when we truly +repent and go back, and kneel, and pray to be forgiven, Christ Himself +unbars the door and leads us in; and our Father, loving those whom He +created, pardons all; and only requires that we sin no more. God does +not follow us; we must humbly go back all the distance we have put +between us by our wickedness; but the heavens will fall before He fails +to keep His promise to forgive, when we do genuinely repent of our +wrongdoing." +</P> + +<P> +"It is easy for the good to believe that. You are innocent of any +crime, and you are punished for other people's sins, not for your own; +so you can't understand how I dread the thought of God, because I know +the blackness of my heart, when, to get my revenge, I sold my soul to +Satan. Oh! the horror of feeling that I can't undo the bargain; that +pay-day has come! I had the vengeance, I snatched out of God's hands, +and for a while I gloated over it; but now the awful price! My little +one in heaven with the angels; knowing that his mother is a +devil—eternally." +</P> + +<P> +Her head had fallen upon her knees, and in the frenzy of despair she +rocked to and fro. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you remember that the most sinful woman Christ met on earth, was +the one of all others that He first revealed Himself to, when He came +out of the grave? Because she was so nearly lost, and He had forgiven +so much, in order to save her, her purified heart was doubly dear, and +he honored her more than the disciples, who had escaped the depth of +her wickedness. Try to find comfort in the belief, that if sincere +remorse and contrition redeemed the soul of Mary Magdalen, the same +Savior who pitied and pardoned her will not deny your prayer." +</P> + +<P> +"God believed her, because she proved her repentance by leading a new, +purer life. But I have no chance left to prove mine. If she had been +cut off in the midst of her sins, as I am, she would have been obliged +to pay in her ruined soul to the Satan she had served so long. When I +am called to the settlement, it seems an insult and a mockery to ask +God, whom I have defied, to save me. If I could only have a little time +to show my penitence." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps you may be spared; but if not, God sees your contrition just +as fully now as if you lived fifty years to show it in good works. He +sees you are sincerely remorseful, and would be a true Christian, if He +allowed you an opportunity. That is the blessedness of our religion, +that when Christ gives us a new heart, purified by repentance and faith +in Him, He says it makes clean hands, in His sight, no matter how black +they might have been. One of the thieves was already on the cross, in +the agonies of death, with his sins fresh on his soul, and no possible +chance of atoning for his past, by future dedication of his life to +good; but Christ saw his heart was genuinely repentant, and though the +man did not escape crucifixion by humanity, his pardoned soul met Jesus +that same day in Paradise. It is not acceptance of our good deeds, +though they are required, it is forgiveness of our sins, that makes +Christ so precious. Pray from the very bottom of your heart, to God, +and try to take hold of the promise to the truly penitent; and +trust—trust Him." +</P> + +<P> +For a moment the crouching figure was still, as if the sufferer +mentally grasped at some shred of hope; then she fell back on her +pillow, and groaned. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know all I have done? Do you think there is any mercy for—" +</P> + +<P> +"Hush, every word taxes your failing strength. Compose yourself." +</P> + +<P> +"I can't! As long as I have breath let me tell you. If I shut my eyes, +horrible things seem to be pouncing upon me; dreadful shapes laugh, and +beckon to me, and I see—oh! pity me! I see my murdered child, with the +blood spouting, foaming, the velvety brown eyes I loved to kiss, +staring and glazed as I dragged his little body to—" +</P> + +<P> +With a gurgling scream she paused, shivered, panted. +</P> + +<P> +"It is a feverish dream. Your child is safe in heaven; ask your Father +to let you see his face among the angels." +</P> + +<P> +"It's not fever; it's the past, my own crimes that come to follow me to +judgment and accuse me. The hand of my first-born pointing over the +last bar at the mother who killed him! Do you wonder I am afraid to +die? I don't deny my bloody deeds—but after all it was a foul wrong +that drove me to desperation; and God knows, man's injustice brought me +to my sin. I was a spoiled, motherless child, married at sixteen to a +man whose family despised me, because my pretty face had ruined their +scheme of a match with an heiress, whose money was needed to retrieve +their fortunes. They never forgave the marriage, and after a few years, +mischief began to brew. +</P> + +<P> +"I loved my husband, but his nature was too austere to deal patiently +with my freakish, petulant, volcanic temper; and when he lectured me +for my frivolity, obstinacy plunged me into excesses of gayety, that at +heart I did not enjoy. His mother and sister shunned me more and more, +poisoned his mind with wicked and unfounded suspicions, and so we grew +mutually distrustful. He tired of me, and he showed it. I loved him. +Oh! I loved him better, and better, as I saw him drifting away. He +neglected me, spent his leisure where he met the woman he had once +intended to marry. I was so maddened with jealous heart-ache, some evil +spirit prompted me to try and punish him with the same pangs. That was +my first sin of deception; I pretended an attachment I never felt, +hoping to rekindle my husband's affection. Like many another heart-sick +wife, I was caught in my own snare; and while I was as innocent of any +wrong as my own baby boy, his father was glad of a pretext to excuse +his alienation. People slandered me; and because I loved Allen so +deeply, I was too proud to defend myself, until too late. +</P> + +<P> +"God is my witness, my husband was the only man I ever loved; ah! how +dear he was to me! His very garments were precious; and I have kissed +and cried over his gloves, his slippers. The touch of his hand was +worth all the world to me, but he withheld it. When you know your +husband loves you, he may ill treat, may trample you under his feet, +but you can forgive him all; you caress the heel that bruises you. +Allen ceased to show me ordinary consideration, stung me with sneers, +threatened separation; even shrunk from the boy, because he was mine. +</P> + +<P> +"There came a day, when some fiend forged a letter, and the same vile +hand laid it in my husband's desk. Only God knows whose is the guilt of +that black deed, but I believe it was his sister's work. Allen cursed +me as unworthy to be the mother of his child, and swore he would be +free. On my knees I begged him to hear, and acquit me. I confessed all +my yearning love for him, I assured him I was the victim of a foul +plot; and that if he would only take me back to the heaven of his +heart, he would find that no man ever had a more devoted wife. He +wanted an excuse to put me out of his way; he repulsed me with scorn, +and before the sun set, he forsook me, and took up his abode with his +mother and sister. Oh! the cruel wrong of that dreadful, parting scene!" +</P> + +<P> +She sprang from the cot, breathless from the passionate recital, +beating the air with one small slender hand, while the other tore at +the swollen cords of her tortured throat. +</P> + +<P> +Beryl caught the round, prettily turned wrist, and felt the feeble +thread of pulse that was only a wild flutter, under the olive satin of +the hot skin. +</P> + +<P> +"This excitement only hastens the end you dread. Lie down, and I will +pray for you." +</P> + +<P> +"I shall soon lie down for ever. Let me walk a little, before my feet +slide into the grave." +</P> + +<P> +She staggered twice across the length of the cell, then tottered and +fell back on the cot. At every respiration the thin nostrils flared, +and the glazed ring below the eyes lost its sullen red tinge, took on +blue shadows. +</P> + +<P> +"I did not know then I was to lose my child also; but before long, all +the scheme was made clear. Allen sued for a divorce. He wanted to shake +me off; and he persuaded himself all the foul things my enemies had +concocted must be true. I had lost his love; I was too proud to show my +torn heart to the world; and men make the laws to suit themselves, and +they help each other to break chains that gall, so Allen was set free. +I shut myself up in two rooms, with my boy, and saw no one. Even then, +though my heart was breaking, and I wept away the lonely days—longing +for the sight of my husband's face, starving for the sound of his +voice—I bore up; because I knew I was innocent, and unjustly censured, +and I had my child to comfort me. He slept in my arms and kept me +human; and we were all the world to each other. +</P> + +<P> +"Then the last blow fell. There came a note, whose every word bit my +heart like an adder. Allen demanded the boy, whom the law gave to his +guardianship; and I was warned I must make no attempt to see him after +he was taken away, because he would be taught to forget me. I refused. +I dared the officer to lay hands on my little one, and I was so frantic +with grief, the man had compassion, and left me. Two nights afterward, +I rocked him to sleep and put him in bed. His arms fell from my neck; +half aroused, he nestled his face to mine—kissed me. I went into the +next room, to finish a shirt I was making for him, and I shut the door, +fearing the noise of the machine would wake him. I sewed half an hour, +and—when I went back, the bed was empty, my child was gone. +</P> + +<P> +"I think I went utterly mad then. I can remember putting my lips to the +dent on the little ruffled pillow, where his head had lain, and +swearing that I would have my revenge. +</P> + +<P> +"That night turned me to stone; every tender feeling seemed to petrify. +When I learned that Allen was soon to marry the woman for whom he had +cast me off, and that my boy was to have a new mother to teach him to +hate me, it did not grieve me; I had lost all power of suffering; but +it woke up a legion of fiends where my heart used to beat, and I bided +my time. Happy women in happy homes think me a monster. With their +husbands' arms around them, and their babies prattling at their knees, +they bear my wrongs so meekly, and shudder at my depravity. When I +thought of Allen, who was my first and last and only love, giving my +place to some other woman, who was no more worthy than I knew myself to +be; and of the baby, who had slept on my heart, and was so dear because +he had his father's eyes and his father's brown curls, growing up to +deny and condemn his innocent but disgraced mother, it was more than I +could bear. I was not insane; oh, no! But I was possessed by more than +seven devils; and revenge was all this world could give me. My +husband's family had ruined me; so I would spoil their match a second +time. +</P> + +<P> +"The wedding was to be very private, but I bribed a servant and got +into the house, and stood behind the damask curtains. Allen's mother +and sister came in, leading my boy; and they were so close to me I +could see the long silky lashes resting against my baby's brow, as his +great brown eyes looked wonderingly at a horseshoe of roses dangling +from the chandelier. Then my husband, my handsome husband—my darling's +father, walked in, with the bride on his arm, and the minister met +them, saying: 'Dearly beloved—.' I ceased to be a woman then, I was a +fury, a wild beast—and two minutes later my darlings were mine once +more, safe from that other woman—dead at my feet. Then the ball I +aimed at my own breast missed its destination. I fell on my slaughtered +idols; seeing in a bloody mist the wide eyes of my baby boy, and the +mangled face of the husband whose kiss was the only heaven I shall ever +know. I meant to die with them, but I failed; so they sent me here. +That was years ago; but I was a stone until that day in the chapel, +when you sang my Max's song, 'By-and-By'." +</P> + +<P> +There was a brief silence, and Beryl's voice wavered as she said very +gently: +</P> + +<P> +"Your trials were fiery; and though the crime was frightfully black, +God judges us according to the natures we are born with, and the +temptations that betray us; and He forgives all, if we are true +penitents and throw ourselves trustingly on His mercy. Now take this +powder; it will make you sleep." +</P> + +<P> +"Will you stay with me? I shall not trouble anybody much longer. Say a +prayer for my sinful soul, that is going down into the eternal night." +</P> + +<P> +"Let us pray together, that your pardoned soul may find blessed and +eternal peace." +</P> + +<P> +Coming softly to the door, the doctor looked in through the iron +lattice, saw the figure of the nurse kneeling on the sanded floor, with +her bronzed head close to the pillow where the moaning victim's lay; +and involuntarily he took off his cloth cap, and bowed his gray head to +listen to the brief but solemn petition that went up from the dungeon +to the supreme and unerring Judge. +</P> + +<P> +When he returned to the same spot an hour later, Beryl sat on the side +of the cot, with one hand clasping the brown wrist thrown across her +lap, the other pressed gently over the sufferer's hot, aching eyes; and +wonderfully sweet was the rich voice that chanted low: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Just as I am, without one plea,<BR> + But that Thy blood was shed for me.<BR> + And that Thou bidd'st me come to Thee,<BR> + O Lamb of God! I come, I come!<BR> + Just as I am, and waiting not<BR> + To rid my soul of one dark blot,<BR> + To Thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot,<BR> + O Lamb of God! I come, I come!"<BR> +</P> + +<P> +The noon sun was shining over a wet world, kindling into diamonds the +crystal fringe of rain drops hanging from the green lances of willows, +where a tufted red bird arched his scarlet throat in madrigal—when +four men lifted a cot, and bore it with its apparently dying burden to +a spot upon which the warm light fell in a golden flood. +</P> + +<P> +Between the Destroying Angel and his gasping prey, stepped two, +anointed with the chrism of the Priesthood of Cure; and undismayed by +the strident, sibilant, fitful breath that distorted the blue lips of +the victim, they parried the sweep of the scythe of death, with the +tiny, glittering steel blade surgery cunningly fashions; and through +its silver canula, tracheotomy recalled the vanishing spirit, +triumphantly renewed the lease of life. +</P> + +<P> +At sunset on the same day, Beryl followed the warden to the door of the +large hospital. +</P> + +<P> +"Of all pitiful sights here, this has harrowed me the most. The doctors +did all they could, and the chaplain worked hard to save her soul, but +she was like flint, till just before the end, when she raised up, and +heard her child crying down in the work-room, where it had been put to +sleep. We could scarcely hold her; she fought like a panther to get out +of bed, till the blood gushed from her nose, and though she could not +speak plainly, she pointed, and we made out: 'Baby—Dovie'. The doctor +would not consent that we should expose the child to the risk, but I +could not hold out against that poor creature's pleading wild eyes, so +I just brought the little one. What a strangling cry she gave, when I +put it in her arms, and how the tears poured! She was almost gone, and +we saw that she wanted to tell us something about the child, but we +could not understand. The doctor put a pencil in her hand, and held a +sheet of paper before her, and she tried to scrawl her wishes, but all +we can read is: 'Her father won't ever own her. Baptize—her Dovie—Eve +Werneth's baby. Don't ever tell her she was born in jail. Raise her a +good—good—.' She had a sort of spasm then, and squeezed the child so +tight, it screamed. In five minutes, she was dead. Only nineteen years +old, and the little one just two years; and not yet weaned! I don't +know what to do; so I brought you. If I touch the child, it seems +frightened almost to death, but maybe you can coax it away. Poor little +thing! What a mercy if it could die!" +</P> + +<P> +"Will you let me have the care of it? Take it, and keep it up in my +cell?" +</P> + +<P> +"I shall be only too thankful, if you will lift the load from my +shoulders." +</P> + +<P> +"Tell the steward to bring me a cup of warm, sweetened milk and a +cracker. The poor little lamb must be almost famished." +</P> + +<P> +Through an open window streamed the radiance of a daffodil sky, flecked +with curling plumes of drifting fire, and the glory fell like a +benediction on the iron cot, where lay the body of the early dead; a +small, slight, blond girl wearing prematurely the crown of maternity, +whose thorns had torn and stained the smooth brow of mere childhood. +The half-opened eyes, fixed in their filmy blue glaze, seemed a prayer +for the pretty infant, whose head, a glistening tangle of yellow curls, +was nestled down against the bare white throat of the rigid mother; +while the dimpled hands pulled fretfully at the blood-spattered gown, +that was buttoned across the breast. +</P> + +<P> +As clusters of wild snowy violets springing up in the midst of mud and +mire, in a noxious swamp, look doubly pure and sweet because of fetid +surroundings,—so this blossom of the slums, this human bud, with +petals of innocence folded close in the calyx of babyhood, seemed +supremely and pathetically fair, as she stood leaning against the cot, +the little rosy feet on tip-toe, pressing toward her mother; tears on +the pink velvet of the round cheeks, on the golden lashes beneath the +big blue eyes that grew purplish behind the mist. +</P> + +<P> +The Macedonia of suffering humanity lies always within a stone's throw; +and the "cry for help" had found speedy response in more than one +benevolent heart. +</P> + +<P> +A gray-haired widow from the "Sheltering Arms," to which Sister Serena +belonged, and a Sister of Charity from the hospital in X—-, were +already ministering tenderly in the crowded ward; and both had essayed +to coax away the little figure clutching her mother's gown; but the +flaring white cap of one, and the flapping black drapery of the other, +frightened the trembling child. +</P> + +<P> +Into the group stole Beryl; followed closely by the yellow cat, which +had become her shadow. Kneeling beside the baby, she kissed it softly, +took one of the hands, patted her own cheek with it, and lifted the cat +to the mattress, where it began to purr. The silky shock of yellow +curls was lifted, the wide eyes stared wonderingly first at Beryl's +face bending near, then at the cat; and by degrees, the lovely waif +suffered an arm to draw her farther and farther, while her rose-red +mouth parted in a smile, that showed six little teeth, and with one +hand fastened in the cat's fur, she was finally lifted and borne away; +Beryl's soft cheek nestled against hers, the bronzed head bent down to +the yellow ringlets; one arm holding the baby and the cat, while the +other white hand closed warmly over the child's bare, cold, dimpled +feet. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap26"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXVI. +</H3> + +<P> +Fair and flowery as in the idyllic dawn when Theocritus sang its +pafatoral charms, was that sunny Sicilian land where, one May morning, +Leo Gordon wandered with a gay party in quest of historic sites, which +the slow silting of the stream of time had not obliterated. Viewed from +the heights of Achradina, whence all the vestiges of magnificence and +luxury have vanished, and only the hideous monument of "man's +inhumanity to man" remains, what a vast panorama stretched far as the +horizon on every side. +</P> + +<P> +To the north, girding the fire-furrowed plain of Catania where olive, +lemon, oleander and orange springing out of black lava, mingled hues +like paints on an ebony palette—rose vast, lonely, purple at base, +snowy at summit, brooding Etna; dozing in the soft, sweet springtime, +with red, wrathful eyes veiled by a silvery haze. An unlimited expanse +of crinkling blue sea, shot like Persian silk with gleams of gold, and +laced here and there with foam scallops, bounded the east; smiling +treacherously above the ghastly wreck sepultured in its coral crypts, +that might have told of the crash of triremes, the flames of sinking +galleys, which twenty-two centuries ago lit the bloody waves that +closed over slaughtered hosts. +</P> + +<P> +Westward lay green, wimpling vales, studded with laurel, arched with +vine-draped pergolas, dotted widi flocks, dimpled with reedy marshes +where red oxen browsed; and beyond the pale pink flush of almond +groves— +</P> + +<P> +"A smoke of blue olives, a vision of towers." +</P> + +<P> +Bucolic paradise of Battus and Bombyce, of Corydon and Daphnis, may it +please the hierophants of Sanskrit lore, of derivative Aryan philology, +of iconoclastic euhemerism, to spare us yet awhile the lovely myths +that dance across the asphodel meads of sunny Sicily. +</P> + +<P> +On the verge of the parapet of the Latomia, where the breath of the +sirocco, the gnawing tooth of time, and the slow ravelling of rain had +serrated the ledge, stood Leo, gazing into the dizzying depths of the +charnel house that swarmed with the ghosts of nine thousand men, who +once were huddled within its stony embrace. +</P> + +<P> +As if pitying nature had striven to appease the manes of the unburied +dead, a pall of luxuriant ivy and glossy acanthus covered the bottom +and sides of the quarry, one hundred feet below; but out of the dust of +centuries stared the rayless eyes of corpses, and the gaunt despairing +faces seemed still uplifted, now in invocation, anon in imprecation to +the overarching sky, where blistering suns mocked them by day, and +glittering moons and silver stars paused in their westward march +through dewy night, to tell them tantalizing tales of how musically +Aegean wavelets broke against the marbles at Piraeus; how loud the +nightingales sang in the plane and poplar groves at home; how the white +glory of the Parthenon smiled down on violet-crowned Athens, where +their wives and children thronged the temples, in sacrificial rites to +insure their safety. +</P> + +<P> +In crevices of the perpendicular walls lush creepers tapestried the +gray stone, and far down, out of the mould of the subterranean dungeon, +sprang slim lemon trees snowed over with fragrant bloom, clumps of +oleander waving banners of vivid rose, and golden-green pomegranate +bushes, where scarlet flakes glowed like the wings of tropical birds. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, is the game worth the candle? After voyaging thousands of miles, +do you feel repaid; or down there, in the heart of the desolation, do +you see only the grinning mask of jeering disappointment, which +generally follows American realists into the dusty haunts of Old World +idealism?" +</P> + +<P> +As she spoke, Alma Cutting stepped back under the cool canopy of a +spreading fig-tree, and fanned herself with a tuft of papyrus leaves. +She was a tall, handsome woman, pronouncedly brunette in type, with +large black eyes whose customary indolent indifference of expression +did not entirely veil the fires "banked" under the velvet iris; and a +square, firm mouth, around whose full crimson lips lurked a certain +haughtiness, that despite the curb of good breeding, bordered at times +closely upon insolence. Thirty years had tripped over this dark head, +where the hair, innocent of crimp or curl, hung in a straight jet +fringe low on her wide forehead; and though no lines marred the smooth, +health-tinted skin, she was perceptibly "sun burnt by the glare of +life," and the dew of youth had vanished before the vampire lips of +ennui. +</P> + +<P> +"Disappointed? Certainly not; and I were exacting and unreasonable +indeed, if I did not feel abundantly repaid. Alma, since the days when +I pored over Thucydides, Plutarch, Rollin and Grote, this spot has +beckoned to my imagination with all the uplifted hands of the nine +thousand captives; and the longing of years is to-day completely +gratified." +</P> + +<P> +"Am I unusually stupid, or are you rapt, beyond the realm of reason and +mid-day common sense? Pray what is the fascination? It is neither so +vast, nor so picturesque as the Colosseum. There, one expects to hear +the roar of the beasts springing on their human prey; the ring of steel +on steel, when the gladiators have bowed like dancing-masters to the +bloated old bald-headed Neros and Vespasians; and you fancy that you +smell the fountains of perfume that toss their spray from tier to tier; +and see the rainbow of the silk awning flapping overhead. Better than +all, you imagine you can watch the ravishing toilettes of the +Faustinas, and Fulvias and Messalinas who flirt with the handsome, +straight-nosed beaux so immensely classical in their togas; and when +their thunder-browed husbands unexpectedly step in behind, it is so +easy to conjecture the sudden change of theme, as they spread their +fans to cover the message just written on their ivory tablets, and +straightway fall to clawing the characters of all the Cornelias, and +Calpurnias, and Octavias and Julia Domnas, and other respectable wives! +All that I quite enjoyed because I understood. Eight years' campaigning +in New York, and London and Paris would teach even an idiot that +nineteenth century 'best society' can lift you so close to the +naughtiness of the golden Roman era, that one only has to strain a very +little on tip-toe, to feel at one's ease with the jeunesse doree of +dead ages. Here—what do you find in a huge stone well sunk into the +bowels of the earth? About as enticing as a plunge into a dry cistern, +suddenly unroofed? If spectres we must hunt, do let them be festive, +like those Faust danced with on the Brocken!" +</P> + +<P> +"You should be ashamed, Alma! Miss Gordon is the very soul of courteous +toleration, or she would resent the teasing goad of your Philistinism," +cried the brother, Rivers Cutting, who in his new style yachting suit +of blue cloth appeared veritably the jaunty genius of fashionable +modernity, confronting the ghost of antiquity. +</P> + +<P> +"You forget, Rivers, some of the sage dicta you brought back from the +'Summer School of Philosophy', when you followed your last Boston flame +to Concord, where she went poaching on the sacred preserves of the +'Illuminati,' hunting a new sensation. 'We must be as courteous to +human beings as we are to a picture, which we are willing to give the +advantage of a good light.' Now being Leo's very sincere friend, and +knowing that the supreme moment of her facial triumph is when, like a +startled fawn, she opens her eyes wide in horrified amazement at some +inconceivable heresy, do you suppose I am so recreant to loyalty as to +fail in providing her occasionally with the necessary Gorgon, ethical +or archaeolegical, as surroundings warrant? +</P> + +<P> +"History was never the fetich of my girlhood, and that quartette of +dry-as-dust worthies whom Leo carries around in leash, as other women +carry pugs and poodles, came near giving me meningitis in my tender +years. My first governess, a Puritan spinster, full of zeal, and +conscientiously bent on earning her wages, by exercising my brains to +their utmost capacity, undertook to introduce me to all the highly +immoral personages and practices that made the Punic Wars famous. By +way of making Imilco a lifelong acquaintance, she illustrated the siege +of Agrigentum by a huge, hideous image of Phalaris' 'Brazen Bull,' +drawn with chalk on the school-room blackboard. +</P> + +<P> +"A wonderful beast it certainly was; that taurus with head lowered, +tail lashing the air, one hoof pawing savagely, worthy representative +of all the horrors it typified, and which she explained with maddening +perspicuity. That night, when papa tore himself away from the club room +at one o'clock, and met mamma on the doorstep—just coming home from a +supper at Delmonico's after an opera party—they were ascending the +stairs, when frantic cries drove from her ears the echoes of +'Traviata's' witching strain. Thinking only a conflagration would +justify the din, papa threw up the hall sash and shouted 'fire!' and +the police sounded the alarm, and all pandemonium broke loose. +Investigation discovered me, wriggled half way down to the foot of my +bed, buried under the blankets, and shrieking 'Perillus' Bull! I am +roasting in the Brass Bull!' Being not very ardent disciples of Clio, +my solicitous parents failed to understand the nightmare; hence cracked +ice was folded over my head (mid-winter), and the family physician +ordered a mustard plaster half a yard long, down my spine. I vividly +remember Imilco, and the bovine fury pawing the blackboard; but of the +three Punic Wars, then and there tabooed, I recall only the brass +monster at Agrigentum. Leo, when we reach Girgenti, the remaining Mecca +of your historic hopes, some time to-morrow, you will understand why, +instead of climbing to the temples of the cliff, I shall lock the door +of our cabin, and drown the bellowing of the beast in Daudet's new +book." +</P> + +<P> +"I wish, indeed I do, that you had staid there to-day, instead of +coming ashore to dampen all our ardor and enthusiasm by your constant +thin drizzle of scorn. One should suppose that in this idyllic region, +some ray of poetic warmth must melt your frigid, scoffing soul. Daudet +suits my sister far better than Theocritus," answered her brother, +fastening a sprig of orange blossom in his button hole. +</P> + +<P> +Pushing back her sailor hat, Alma looked obliquely at him from beneath +her drooping lids. +</P> + +<P> +"Try me. Perhaps infection haunts the air. Spare us the Greek, come +down from your Yale and Harvard heights to the level of my ignorance, +and warble for me in English some of your Sicilian lark's melodies. At +least I have heard of Amaryllis and Simaetha." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Cutting shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"What—? Ashamed of your bucolic hobby! No wonder—since after all it's +only a goat. I dare you, brother mine, to produce me a Theocritan +fragment." +</P> + +<P> +"Take the consequences of your rash levity; though I have a dawning +suspicion some 'Imp of the Perverse' has coached you for the occasion." +</P> + +<P> +He stroked his mustache, pondered a moment, then struck an attitude, +and declaimed: +</P> + +<P> +"I go a serenading to Amaryllis; what time my flocks browse on the +mountains, and Tityrus drives them. Tityrus beloved of me in the +highest degree, feed my flocks and lead them to the fountain, etc." +</P> + +<P> +Mimicking his tone exactly, Alma finished the line: +</P> + +<P> +"And mind, Tityrus, that tawny Libyan he-goat lest he butt thee!' Come, +Rivers; free translation is allowable, considering surroundings, but +not garbling; and every time you know you substituted flocks for goats. +Proceed, and do not insult your pet author with emendations." +</P> + +<P> +With his hat on the back of his head, and his thumbs in the armholes of +his vest, Mr. Cutting resumed: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Sweet Amaryllis! though by death defiled,<BR> + Thee shall I ne'er forget; dear to my heart<BR> + As are my frisking goats, thou did'st depart.<BR> + To what a lot—was I, unhappy, born!"<BR> +</P> + +<P> +Again the mocking voice responded: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "But see! yon calves devour<BR> + The olive branches. Pelt them off I pray.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +"Confound the calves! 'St—! you white-skin thief—away!' Thanks, no +more at present. Doubtless it sounds very fine in Greek, because then, +I could not possibly understand that it is the melody and the rhythmic +dance of bleating calves, and capering goats. Here come the stragglers +laden with plunder. Oh, papa! Do give me those exquisite acacia +clusters." +</P> + +<P> +"My dear, I have ordered luncheon spread down there, in that strange +garden. It is the queerest place imaginable; and looking up, the effect +is quite indescribable." +</P> + +<P> +"Have you had the skulls polished for drinking cups, and printed the +menus on cross-bones? What shocking taste to add insult to injury by +spreading all our wealth of canned dainties on the very stones where +sit the ghosts of those who perished from hunger and thirst! Eminently +Dantesque, but the sacrilege appalls Leo. She would sooner attend an +oyster supper, or a clam-bake in the Catacombs, or—" bowing to a young +Englishman standing near, "lead a German in the Poets' corner of +Westminster Abbey. My dear girl, under which flag do you fight? +Athenian, Roman, Carthagenian, Syracusan? +</P> + +<P> +"The child of a man who fell in defence of his own fireside, could +scarcely fail to sympathize with the holy cause of the invaded; yet +here, in view of the horrors inflicted upon the captives, one almost +leans to Athens. It seems to me the most enduring monument of Syracusan +glory survives in the eloquent protest of Nicolaus against her cruelty; +especially when we recollect that it came from one who, of all others, +had most to forgive. Old, decrepit, unable to walk, the venerable +sorrow-laden man whose only children, two sons, had died fighting to +save Syracuse—was carried on a litter into the midst of the shouting +thousands, who were drunk with the wine of victory. 'Behold an unhappy +father, who has most cause to detest the Athenians, the authors of this +war, the murderers of my children! But I am less sensible of my private +afflictions than of the honor of my country, when I see it ready to +expose itself to eternal infamy by violating the law of nations, and +dishonoring our victory by barbarous cruelty. What! Will you tarnish +your glory, and have all the world say that a nation who first +dedicated a temple in their city, to Clemency, found none in yours? +Triumphs and victories do not give immortal glory to a city; but the +use of moderation in the greatest prosperity, the exercise of mercy +toward a vanquished enemy, the fear of offending the gods by a haughty +and insolent pride.' What a theme for Dore or Munkacsy?" +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you ever so much, Miss Gordon, for brushing away the library +dust from that historic cameo. I had so utterly forgotten it lay in the +musty tomes, that it has all the charm of a curio." Mr. Cutting took +off his hat, and bowed. +</P> + +<P> +"Acknowledgments are due rather to my cousin, Dr. Douglass, who called +my attention to the passage. The best of all things good abide with +him; and out of his overflowing store, he shares with the needy. Only +last night he reminded me of an illustration of the vanitas vanitatum +of human fame and national gratitude, to be found over yonder in the +necropolis. Less than a hundred and forty years after his death, +Archimedes was so completely forgotten by the city he had immortalized, +that Syracuse denied he was buried on her soil; and a foreigner had the +honor of clearing away rubbish and brambles, in order to show the grave +to his own countrymen." +</P> + +<P> +Leighton Douglass handed to his cousin a bunch of the delicate lilac +blossoms of acanthus, tied with a wisp of some ribbon-like grass, and +taking off his spectacles, replied: +</P> + +<P> +"Leo unduly exalts my memory at the expense of her own; and we have all +levied heavily on her fund of topographical accuracy." +</P> + +<P> +"If I travel much longer with two such learned and philosophical +scholars, I shall inevitably degenerate into an intellectual Dodder," +yawned Alma. +</P> + +<P> +"Into a what?" asked her father. +</P> + +<P> +"A Dodder, sir. Pray, papa, be more considerate than to force Doctor +Douglass to believe that instead of listening to the sermon he preached +us last year, you either slept ignominiously throughout its delivery, +or else allowed your unregenerate thoughts to dwell on those devices of +Lucifer, 'puts,' 'calls, 'spreads,' 'corners, 'spots' and 'futures'. Of +course you remember that he believes in evolution? There was a time, +even in my extremely recent day, when that word was more frightful to +the orthodox than a ton of nitro-glycerine; was to the elect, a fouler +abomination even than opera bouffe and the can can. But 'the thoughts +of men are widened with the process of the suns', and now it appears +that the immortal soul of us must be evolved, somewhat in the same +fashion as protoplasm, and unless we fight for 'survival' elsewhere, we +shall not be numbered among the spirited 'fittest', but degenerate into +parasites, dodders, backsliders. So, drawing nutriment from the +Doctor's historic brains, and from Leo's, I fall back into worse than a +dodder, a torpid violator of the Law of Work, a hopeless Sacculina! +Doctor Douglass, it was the bravest hour of your life when you stood up +in—church pulpit, and told us the scientists whom we were wont to +regard as more dreadful than the cannibals and Calmucks, are only a +devoted sect of truth seekers, preaching from older texts, and drawing +nearer and nearer to the kingdom of Heaven. To throw that ethical bomb, +required more courage than Balaklava." +</P> + +<P> +"Mine was merely a feeble attempt to follow out the analogical +reasoning of one of the most original and scientific thinkers of our +day in Great Britain; but the fact that you recall so correctly the +line of argument in a sermon delivered more than a year ago, is +certainly complimentary assurance of at least approximate success in my +effort." +</P> + +<P> +"After all, I am sorry I humored Leo's whim, and persuaded papa to +bring us here." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, my dear? We are enjoying it immensely," said her father. +</P> + +<P> +"Because Syracuse has proved my 'crumpled rose leaf', by destroying the +prestige of the 'Cleopatra'. Hitherto, I deemed our yacht quite the +most complete and gorgeous floating palace since the days of its highly +improper namesake's marauding sails on the Cydnus." +</P> + +<P> +"And so she is; there is nothing afloat comparable to her in speed, +appointments, comfort and beauty," interrupted Mr. Cutting. +</P> + +<P> +"Poor papa! How he bristles at the bare suggestion of rivalry. Be +comforted, sir, in the knowledge that at least we shall not be run down +by a phantom cruiser. It is very humiliating to American pride—after +winning the international prizes, and boasting so inordinately, to find +out that we are only about—how many centuries, Leo?—twenty-five +centuries behind Syracuse in building pleasure crafts. Think of a +superb cabin with staterooms containing beds (not bunks) for one +hundred and twenty guests, and the floors all covered with agates and +other precious stones, that formed a mosaic copy of the Iliad! If you +wished to emphasize a discussion on connubial devotion, behold! there +on your right, Andromache and Hector; if one's husband objected to a +harmless flirtation, lo! on the left, Agamemnon and Briseis; and to +point the moral of 'pretty is, as pretty does'—how very convenient to +indicate with the tip of your satin slipper, the demure figure of Helen +standing on the walls, to watch the duel between Menelaus and Paris! +Fancy the consolation a person of my indolent Sacculina temperament +might have derived from the untimely fate of Cassandra, oppressed with +knowledge in advance of her day and generation! There was the gymnasium +for the beaux; and for the belles bona fide gardens, with walks and +arbors covered with ivy and flowering vines whose roots rested in great +stone vessels filled with earth. Imagine the boudoir and bathrooms +paved with precious stones, encrusted with carved ivory and statues—" +</P> + +<P> +"Pooh! Alma. That rigmarole is not in the guide books. Come, Dixon is +waving his handkerchief down there, as a signal that luncheon is ready." +</P> + +<P> +"I prefer to wait here. Alma, bring me some anemones, and a sprig of +ivy from the circular garden, when you come back," said Leo. +</P> + +<P> +Doctor Douglass drew closer, and asked: +</P> + +<P> +"Will you let me stay also, and enjoy with you the wonderful charm of +this opalescent air, this beautiful cincturing sea?" +</P> + +<P> +"I would rather be alone. Solitude is a luxury rarely allowed on a +yacht cruise; and I want a few quiet moments. By day, poor Aunt Patty +has so much to tell me; at night, Alma is a chattering owl." +</P> + +<P> +There are hours when the ghost of a happy past, from which we have +persistently fled, constrains us to give audience; and Leo surrendered +herself to memories that brought a very mournful shadow into her brave +brown eyes. Thirteen months had passed since her departure from X—-and +despite changing scenes and novel incidents, she could not escape the +haunting face that met her on mountains, was mirrored in every sea; the +brilliant mesmeric face set in its frame of crisp black locks, with +dark blue eyes whose intense lustre had the cold, hard gleam of jewels. +Sleeping or waking, always that dear, powerful face daring her to +forget. +</P> + +<P> +When Doctor Douglass and Miss Patty joined the yacht party at Palermo, +the former had brought a letter and a package, which sorely tested +Leo's strength of will. Leaning to-day against the twisted body of an +old olive tree, she opened and read once more, the final message. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"When Leighton places this sheet in your hands, the year of release +which I could not refuse you, will have expired. Once your noble heart +was wholly mine; and the proudest moment of my life was, and will be, +that in which you promised to be my wife. All that you ever were, you +shall always remain to me; and if you can confide your happiness to my +keeping, I will never betray the sacred trust. Life has grown sombre to +me, during the past eighteen months; and the only companionship that I +can hope to cheer it, you alone can bring me. I have not willingly or +intentionally forfeited your confidence; but that I have suffered, I +shall not deny. If you love me, as in days gone by, our future rests +once more in your hands; and you must renew the pledges that at your +request I surrendered. In behalf of our past, I beg that you will +retain the ring, hallowed forever by the touch of your hand; and its +acceptance will typify, if not a renewal of our engagement, at least +the perpetuity of a sacred friendship. Awaiting your final decision, I +am, my dear Leo, +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"Yours as of yore, LENNOX." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +All that she had ever been; no more. The graceful, well-bred heiress +whom he admired, who commanded his profoundest respect, whom he had +known from his boyhood, and who of all others he had desired should +preside over his home and wear his name; but not the woman who reigned +in his heart; whose touch had lighted the glowing tenderness that so +transfigured his countenance, as she saw it that day, bending over a +sick convict in a penitentiary. +</P> + +<P> +He offered her formal allegiance, and that pale phantom of affection +grounded in reverence, which is to the ardent love that a true woman +demands in exchange for her own, as— +</P> + +<P> +"Moonlight unto sunlight; and as water unto wine." +</P> + +<P> +She knew that he was no willing victim of a fascination, which had +audaciously deranged his carefully mapped campaign of life; that he +would have set his heel on his own insurgent heart, had it been +possible; and she honored him for the stern integrity that forbade his +affectation of a warmth of feeling which she was now conscious she had +never evoked. +</P> + +<P> +Accepting the theory that the young convict was sustained and animated +by her devotion to a guilty lover, Leo fully understood that Lennox, +even were he mad enough to sacrifice his pride, could indulge no +expectation of ever winning the love of the prisoner; and despite her +efforts to regard their rupture as final, she had faintly hoped that he +would cross the ocean, and in person urge a renewal of the betrothal. +The test of absence had proved as effectual as she intended it should +be, and his letter proclaimed the humiliating fact, that while honor +inspired him to hold out his wrists for conjugal manacles, honor +equally constrained him to spare her the wrong and insult of insincere +professions of tenderness. +</P> + +<P> +Had she found it possible to condemn him as unworthy, it would have +diminished the pain of surrendering the brightest hope of her life; for +contempt is the balm a lofty soul offers a bruised heart, but she was +just, even in her anguish; and that when barbed the arrow, was the +mortifying consciousness that compassion for her was the strongest +motive which dictated the carefully phrased letter. She was far too +proud to parley with the temptation to accept the shadow in lieu of the +substance; and twenty-four hours after the arrival of the final appeal, +her answer was speeding with wings of steam across the ocean. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"DEAR LENNOX: +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"My heart overflows with gratitude for all the affectionate interest, +the kind solicitude, the innumerable thoughtful attentions you have so +indefatigably shown to Aunt Patty, in the sad complication of +misfortunes that so suddenly overwhelmed her; and I feel the inadequacy +of any attempt to express my thanks. Your letter can only rivet more +indissolubly the links of an affectionate friendship that must always +bind you and me; but the future can hold no renewal of pledges which I +feel assured would conduce neither to your happiness, nor to mine. Let +us embalm the past and bury it tenderly; raising no mound to trip our +friendly feet in years to come. The serenity of our future might be +marred by retrospective gleams of the beautiful ring that once enclosed +two lives; hence, I have ordered the diamonds reset in the form of a +four-leaved clover, which will be sent to dear Kittie as an auspicious +omen. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"With undiminished esteem, and unshaken confidence, and with a prayer +for your happiness, which will always be dear to me, I remain, +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"Your sincerely attached friend, +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"LEO." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The majority of men, and a large class of women, bury their dead, and +straightway begin assiduously the cultivation of all that promises +oblivion; but Leo's nature was deeper, more intense; and while she made +no audible moan, and shed no tears, she accepted the fact that earthly +existence had lost its coveted crown, and that her aching heart was the +dark grave of a beautiful hope that could know no resurrection. To-day +she asked herself: "What shall I do with my life?" +</P> + +<P> +Upon the warm air, sweet with the breath of lemon flowers, floated the +peculiar, jeering, yet subdued and musical laughter, which told that +Alma had flown straight at some luckless quarry. She held in one hand a +cluster of crimson anemones, and purple stars of periwinkle, and +walking between two English gentlemen, whose yacht, the "Albatross", +lay anchored close to the "Cleopatra" in the harbor below, slowly +approached Leo, saying: +</P> + +<P> +"Don't stone your prophets. Especially one hedged about with the triple +sanctity of Brasenose! 'Consider that thy marbles are but the earth's +callosities, thy gold and silver its faeces; thy silken robe but a +worm's bedding; and thy purple an unclean fish.' That is one +sugar-coated pill that I administer to my humility now and then to keep +it healthy. Hear him again;—'sitting on the marble bench of one of the +exhedrea on the edge of the Appian Way, close to the fragrant borders +of a rose farm': 'So it is, with the philosophers; all alike are in +search of happiness, what kind of thing it is. It is pleasure, it is +virtue; what not? All philosophers, so to speak, are but fighting about +the ass' shadow. I saw one who poured water into a mortar, and ground +it with all his might with a pestle of iron, fancying he did a thing +useful; but it remained water only, none the less.' Stoicism, hedonism, +the gospel of 'Sweetness and Light'; what is it, may I ask, that your +aesthetic priests furnish, to feed immortal British souls? Knee +breeches, sun flowers, niello, cretonne, Nanking bowls, lily dados? To +us it savors sorrowfully of that which one of your prophets +foreshadowed, 'Despair, baying as the poet heard her, in the ruins of +old Rome'." +</P> + +<P> +"Beg pardon, Miss Cutting; but you quite surprise me. The tone of many +American papers and magazines led us to suppose, really, that the rosy +dawn of Culture was beginning to flush the night of Philistinism +brooding over your Western world." +</P> + +<P> +"Believe it not. Primeval gloom, raw realism so weigh upon our +apathetic souls, that we rub our eyes and stare at sight of your +aesthetic catechism: 'Harmony, but no system; instinct, but no logic; +eternal growth and no maturity; everlasting movement, and nothing +attained; infinite possibilities of everything; the becoming all +things, the being nothing.' We have too much Philistine honesty to +pretend that we understand that, but like other ambitious parrots we +can commit to memory. One of your seers tells us that: 'Renaissance art +will make our lives like what seems one of the loveliest things in +nature, the iridescent film on the face of stagnant water!' Now it will +require at least a decade, to train us to appreciate the subtile +symphonies of ditch slime. An English friend compassionating my +American stupidity, essayed to initiate me in the cult of 'culture', +and gave me a leaf to study, from the latter-day gospel. I learned it +after a time, as I did the multiplication table. 'Culture steps in, and +points out the grossness of untempered belief. It tells us the beauty +of picturesque untruth; the grotesqueness of unmannerly conviction; +truth and error have kissed each other in a sweet, serener sphere; this +becomes that, and that is something else. The harmonious, the suave, +the well bred waft the bright particular being into a peculiar and +reserved parterre of paradise, where bloom at once the graces of +Panthism, the simplicity of Deism, and the pathos of Catholicism; where +he can sip elegances and spiritualities from flowerets of every faith!' +Fancy my crass ignorance, when I assure you that I actually laughed +over that verbal syllabub, thinking it intended as a famous bit of +satire." +</P> + +<P> +"Then it is pathetically true that reverence for the Renaissance has +not crossed the Atlantic?" asked one of the "Albatross" party, who with +his sketch book half open, was surreptitiously making an +"impressionist" view of Leo's profile, as she stood listening to Alma's +persiflage, and mechanically arranging her lilac acanthus blossoms. +</P> + +<P> +"Devoted British colporteurs have philanthropically scattered a few art +primers and tracts, and there is a possibility that in the near future, +our people may search the maps for Orvieto, and the dictionaries for +Campo Santo, to compass the mysteries of the 'Triumph of Death', and of +'Symmetria Prisca'. Some of us have even heard of 'Aucassin et +Nicolette', and of 'Nencia da Barberino', picking salad in her garden; +and I am almost sure a Vassar girl once spoke to me of Delia Quercia's +Ilaria; but with all my national pride, candor compels me to admit +that it is a 'far cry' to the day when we can devoutly fall on our +knees before the bronze Devil of Giovanni da Bologna. Aesthetic +paupers, we sit on the lowest bench at the foot of the class, in your +Dame's Art School, to learn the alphabet of the wonderful Renaissance; +and in our chastened and reverent mood, it almost takes our breath away +when your high-priestess unrolls the last pronunciamento, and tells us +her startling story of 'Euphorion!' Why? Ah!—don't you know? The +Puritan leaven of prudery, and the stern, stolid, phlegmatic decorum of +Knickerbockerdom mingle in that consummate flower of the nineteenth +century occident, the 'American Girl', who pales and flushes at sight +of the carnival of the undraped—in English art and literature. Here, +Leo, take your anemones; red, are they not, as the blood once chilled +down yonder, in that huge stone kennel? Dr. Douglass has the ivy root; +and he and I have concluded, that after all, Syracuse was not more +cruel here in the Latomia, than some States in America, where convicts +are leased to mining companies, and kept quarrying coal, without even +the sweet consolation of staring up at this magical blue sky. We leave +hideous moral and physical leprosy at home, and come here to shed +dilettante tears over classic tatters twenty-five centuries old! O +immortal and ubiquitous Tartufe!" +</P> + +<P> +As Leo walked with her cousin toward the spot, where the "Cleopatra" +rose and fell on the crest of waves racing before Libeccio, she +suddenly laid her hand on his arm. +</P> + +<P> +"Leighton, I have decided to leave the yacht at Venice and take Aunt +Patty to Udine for rest and quiet. When summer is over, I shall be +ready to make arrangements for the journey to Syria and Egypt, and you +must complete your church mission to England in time to accompany us to +Jerusalem." +</P> + +<P> +"Is this your itinerary, or Aunt Patty's?" +</P> + +<P> +"She has set her heart upon it; and it will be agreeable to me." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap27"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXVII. +</H3> + +<P> +Is it true that in abstract valuation, "the bird in hand, is worth two +in the bush?" +</P> + +<P> +We stand beneath a loaded apricot tree, and would give all the bushel +within reach, for one crimson satin globe pendent on the extreme tip of +the most inaccessible bough; and the largest, luscious, richest colored +orange always glows defiantly, high up, close to the body of the tree, +hedged away from our eager grasp by its impenetrable chevaux de frise +of bristling thorns. The wonderful water lily we covet is smiling on +its green cushion of leaves just beyond the danger line, where death +lurks; the rhododendron flame that burned brightest amid surrounding +floral fires, and lured us, springs from the crevice of some beetling +precipice, waving a challenge over fatal chasms that bar possession; +and with fretful dissatisfaction we repine, because the colors of the +feathered captives in our gilt cages are so dull, so faded in +comparison with their brothers, flashing wings of scarlet, and breasts +of vivid blue high in the sunlight of God's free air. +</P> + +<P> +The gold and silver dust that powder velvet butterflies, tarnish at a +touch, stain the fingers that clutch them; and the dewy bloom on purple +and amber grape clusters, never survives the handling of the vintager. +</P> + +<P> +Leaning back in the revolving chair in front of his office desk, Mr. +Dunbar slowly tore into strips a number of notes and letters, and +suffered the fragments to fall into a waste basket somewhat faded, yet +much too elegant to harmonize with its surroundings. +</P> + +<P> +When Leo quilted the lining of ruby silk and knotted the ribbons that +tied it to the wicker lace work, love pelted her cheek with roses, and +happy hope sang so loud in her ear, that she could not have divined the +cruel fact that she was preparing the dainty coffin, destined to +receive the mutilated remains of a betrothal, that typified supreme +earthly happiness to her. One by one dropped the shreds of Leo's last +message from Palermo, like torn crumpled petals of a once beloved and +sacred flower; and the faint, delicate perfume that clung to the +fragments, was one which Mr. Dunbar recognized as characteristic of the +library at the "Lilacs". The contents of the farewell note had in no +degree surprised him; for though fully persuaded that her heart was +irrevocably pledged to the past, he was equally sure that only the +ardor he scorned to feign, would avail to melt the wall of ice her +outraged pride had built between them. There were times when he +deplored bitterly the loss of her companionship; at others he exulted +in the consciousness of perfect freedom to indulge an overmastering +love, amenable to no chastisement by violated loyalty. He had +scrupulously endeavored, by careful employment of forms of deference, +to spare his betrothed as far as possible, the stinging humiliation and +anguish which every woman suffers, when the man whom she loves shows +her that she fills only a subordinate and insignificant place in his +affection; and yet, while her nobler nature commanded his homage, and +the brilliancy of the alliance seems to jeer at his blind fatuity, his +heart throbbed and yearned with an intolerable longing for one upon +whom the world had set the seal of an ineradicable disgrace. +</P> + +<P> +Nature and education had made him a coldly calculating man, jealous of +his honor, but immersed in schemes for his own aggrandizement, and +superbly invulnerable to the blandishments of sentimentality; hence his +amazement, when the deep and engrossing love of his life burned away +that selfishness which was citadel of his affections. Because his +infatuation had cost him so much, that was alluring alike to vanity, +pride, and ambition, a fierce hunger for revenge possessed him; and +herein differs the nature of the love of men and women; the one can +sacrifice itself for the happiness of the beloved; the other will +crucify its darling to appease jealous pangs in view of happiness it +can neither inspire nor share. +</P> + +<P> +"Good morning, Churchill. Come in. Glad to see you. Sit down." +</P> + +<P> +"When did you get back, Lennox?" +</P> + +<P> +"Last night." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, what luck?" +</P> + +<P> +"A rather leaky promise. Kneading slag or cold pig iron into Bessemer +steel would be about as easy as pounding the law of evidence into the +Governor's brains. I emphasized the moral weight of the petition, by +calling his attention to the signatures of the judge, jury, prosecuting +counsel and especially of Prince, who presumably has most to forgive. +The memorial of the inspectors, warden and physician was appended, and +constituted a eulogy upon the behavior and character of the prisoner; +especially the heroic service rendered by her during the recent fatal +epidemic. Human nature is an infernally vexing bundle of paradoxes, and +when a man throws his conscience in your teeth, what then? The argument +from which I hoped most, proved a Greek horse, and well-nigh wrought +ruin. When I dwelt upon the fact that the prisoner had voluntarily +conveyed to Prince all right and title to the fortune, which was +supposed to have tempted her to commit the crime, he bristled like a +Skye terrier, and grandiloquently assured me he valued his 'prerogative +as something too sacred to be prostituted to nepotism!' Prince being +his cousin, a readiness to exercise Executive clemency by pardoning the +prisoner, might be construed into a species of bargain and sale; and +his Excellency could not condone a crime merely because the culprit had +relinquished a fortune to his relative. Braying an ordinary fool in a +mortar is an unpromising job; but an extraordinary official +leatherhead, PLUS thin-skinned conscience, and religious scruples, +requires the upper and nether mill stone. You know, Churchill, it is +tough work to straighten a crooked ramrod." +</P> + +<P> +"I see; a case of moral curvature of the spine. When he was inaugurated +last December, I chanced to be at the Capital, and heard two old +codgers from the piney woods felicitating the State upon having a +Governor, 'Fit to tie to; honest as the day is long, and walks so +straight, he is powerful swaybacked.' Dunbar, did he refuse outright?" +</P> + +<P> +"He holds the matter in abeyance for maturer deliberation; but promises +that, unless he sees cogent reasons to the contrary, he may grant a +pardon when eighteen months of the sentence have expired. That will be +the last week in August, and almost two years since she was thrown into +prison. I should have made application to his predecessor, Glenbeigh, +had I not been so confident of overtaking the man who killed Gen'l +Darrington; but the clue that promised so much merely led me astray. I +went with the detective down into the mines, and found the man, who +certainly had a hideous facial deformity, but he was gray as a badger, +and moreover proved an ALIBI, having been sick with small-pox in the +county pest-house on the night of the murder. It is a tedious hunt, but +I will not be balked of my game. I will collar that wretch some day, +and meantime I will get the pardon." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope so; for I shall never feel easy until that poor girl is set +free. The more I hear of her deportment and character, especially of +the religious influence she seems to be exerting through some Bible +readings she holds among the female convicts, the more painfully am I +oppressed with the conviction that we all committed a sad blunder, and +narrowly escaped hanging an innocent woman." +</P> + +<P> +"Speak for yourself. I disclaim complicity in the disgraceful wrong of +the conviction." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I confess I would rather stand in your place than mine; +especially since my wife's brother Garland was called in as consulting +physician, last month at the penitentiary. He has so stirred her +sympathies for the woman whom he pronounces a paragon of all the +virtues and graces, that I begin to fidget now at the sound of the +prisoner's name, and can hardly look my wife straight in the face. When +I go up to court next week, I will call on the Governor, and add a +personal appeal to the one I have already signed. According to the +evidence, she is guilty; but when justice is vindicated, one can afford +to listen to the dictates of pity. Now, Dunbar, let me congratulate you +on your recent good luck. We hear wonderful accounts of your new +fortune." +</P> + +<P> +"Rumor always magnifies such matters; still it is true that I have +inherited a handsome estate." "Does your sister share equally?" +</P> + +<P> +"A very liberal legacy was left to her, but you are aware that I was +named for my mother's brother, Randall Lennox, and he has for many +years regarded me as his heir; hence, gave me the bulk of the property." +</P> + +<P> +"It is rather strange that he never married. I recall him as a very +distinguished looking man." +</P> + +<P> +"He had a love affair very early in life, while at college, with the +daughter of his Greek professor. Surreptitiously he took her to drive +one afternoon, and the horse became frightened, ran away and killed the +girl. He was a peculiar man, and seems never to have swerved from his +allegiance to her memory." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope it is not true that the conditions of the will require you to +remove from X—-and settle in New Orleans? We can't afford to lose you +from our bar." +</P> + +<P> +"There are no restrictions in my Uncle Lennox's will; the legacy was +unconditional; but the obligation of complying with his urgent desire +to have me live in New Orleans will probably induce me to make that my +future home. For several years he has associated me with him in the +conduct of some important suits; and I understand now, that his motive +was to introduce me gradually to a new field of professional labor. Not +the least valuable of my new possessions is his superb law library, +probably the finest in the South. Of course my business will keep me +here, for the present, and I have matured no plans." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you reach New Orleans before his death?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I was in Dakota, and missed a letter designed to acquaint me with +his illness. While in Washington on my return, arguing a case before +the Supreme Court, a telegram was forwarded from the office here, and I +hurried off by the first train, but arrived about ten hours too late. +Another grudge I have to settle with that bloody thief, when I unearth +him." +</P> + +<P> +"After all, Dunbar, you are a deucedly lucky fellow,—and—Hello! +historic Hebrew! Bedney, have you seen a ghost?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes—Mars Alfred—two of 'em." +</P> + +<P> +Spent with fatigue, panting, with an ashen pallor on his leathery, +wrinkled face, the old negro ran in to the office, and leaned heavily +against the oak table. +</P> + +<P> +"What is the matter? Positively, you are turning a grayish white. What +is the secret of the bleaching? Police after you? Or does the Sheriff +want you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mars Alfred, this ain't no fitten time to crack your on'-Gawdly jokes, +for I am scared all but into fits. I started in a brisk walk, but every +step I got more and more afeered to look behind, and I struk a fox +trot, and now my wind is clean gone." +</P> + +<P> +"What is the trouble? What are you running from?" +</P> + +<P> +"'Fore Gawd, Mars Alfred, sperrits! Sperrits, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you mean that you want a dram to steady your nerves?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm that frustrated I couldn't say what I want; but I didn't signify +bottle and jimmyjohn liquor, I mean sperrits, sir, ghosts what walk, +and make the hair rise like wire all over your head. The ole house is +hanted shore 'nuff; and I can't stay there. Lem'me tell you, Lord! Mars +Alfred, don't laugh! It's the Gawd's truth, ole Marster's sperrit is +fighting up yonder in his room with the man what killed him. I seen +him, in the broad daylight, and I have cum for you and Mars Lennox to +git there, jest as quick as you kin, so you kin see it fur yourselves. +I know you won't believe it till you see it; nuther should I, but it's +there. The sperrits have cum back, to show my young mistiss' child +never killed her grandpa." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Dunbar rose quickly, handed a glass of water to the old man, and +then placed a chair for him. +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me at once what you saw." +</P> + +<P> +"Ole Marster standin' in the flo' close to the vault, with his arm up +so—and the handi'on in his own hand—" +</P> + +<P> +"How dare you come here, with this cock-and-bull story? You are either +drunk or in your dotage. Your master has been in his grave for eighteen +months, and—" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! to be shore I know'd what you'd say. Cuss me for an idjut; but I +swar, Mars Lennox, I am that scared I dasn't to tell you no lie. The +proof of the pudden is jest chawin' the bag, an' I want you both to git +a carridge quick, and take me up home; and if you don't see what I tell +you is thar, you may kick me from the front door clean down to the big +gate. The grave is busted wide open, and the dead walks, for I seen +him; and I'll sho' him to you. Come on, I want you to see for yourself." +</P> + +<P> +"You imbecile old nincompoop! Go home, and tell Dyce to give you some +catnip tea, and tie you to a chair," laughed Mr. Churchill. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll laugh t'other side of your mouth, Mars Alfred, when you see +that awful sight up yonder. Ole Marster has come back, to clare the +name of his grandchile, for he and his murderer is a wrastling, and it +ain't no 'oman, it's a man! A tall, pretty man, with beard on his face." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Dunbar struck a bell at his side, and a clerk came promptly from +the rear room. +</P> + +<P> +"Nesbitt, step over to the livery stable, and order a carriage sent up +at once." Turning to Bedney he continued: +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose the gist of all your yarn-spinning is, that you have found a +stranger prowling about the place. How did you discover him?" +</P> + +<P> +"Lem'me tell you, as fur as I can, how I cum to see ole Marster. Mr. +Prince gin orders that the house should be opened and arred reglar, and +he pintedly enjined us to have that room well cleaned and put in order. +We had all pintedly gin it a wide berth, and kep' ourselves on t'other +side of the house, 'cause all such places is harryfying; but this +morning, I thought I would open the outside blind door on the west +gallery, and look in through the glass door. I know'd Mr. Prince had +stirred round considerable in there, the day before he left, but I +didn't know he had drapped the curting what was looped back the last +time I was inside. So I went up the steps and clared away a rose vine +what was hanging low down from the i'on pillar of the piazzar, and +almost screening the door, and I walked up, I did, and looked in. Lord +Gawd Amighty! The red curting was down on the inside, and I seen +through it, I swar to Gawd I did, sir! I seen clar spang through into +that room, and thar stood Marster in his night clothes, jest so—and +thar stood that murdering vil'yan close to him, holding the tin box +so—and Marster with the handi'on jest daring him to cum on—and—and +oh! I am glad to know my Marster was game to the last, died game! Never +show'd no white feather while thar was breath in his body. Mars Lennox, +I jest drapped on my knees, and I trimbled, and my teeth chattered, and +I felt the hair as it riz straight up. I was afeer'd to stay, and I was +afeer'd to move; but I shet my eyes and crawled back'ards easy to the +aidge of the steps, and then run as fast as I could. I wanted Dyce to +see, too, but the poor cretur is so crippled she can't walk, and as she +weighs two hundred and twenty pounds, I couldn't tote her; so I tole +her what I seen, and she sent me straight to find Mars Alfred fust, and +you next. I run to Mars Alfred's office, and he was out, so I kep' on +here. I know'd you lie'yers was barking up the wrong tree, and +wrongfully pussecutin' that poor young gal; and now the very sperrits +have riz up to testify fur her. If you two can face ole Marster's +ghost, and tell him you know better than he did who killed him, you've +got better pluck and backbone than I give you credit fur." +</P> + +<P> +"What did you eat last night, Bedney? Baked possum, and fried +chitterlings? Evidently you have had a heavy nightmare." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Churchill drew a match across the heel of his boot, and lighted a +cigar; looking quizzically at the old man, who was wiping the +perspiration from his face. +</P> + +<P> +"There's the carridg, I hear the wheels. Mars Lennox and Mars Alfred, +there is one thing I insists on havin'. The law is all lop-sided from +fust to last in this here case, and I want it squoze into shape, till +t'other side swells out a little. I want the Crowner to go up yonder +now, and hold another inquess. He's done sot all wrong on the body, and +now let him set on the sperrit if he kin. I'm in plum earnest. The +Crowner swore that poor young gal knocked Marster in the head with the +handi'on; and yonder stands Marster, ready to brain that man—with that +handi'on hilt tight in his own right hand. Now what I wants to know is, +WHAR is the 'delectible corpus' what you lieyers argufied over?" +</P> + +<P> +"You doting old humbug! If you decoy us on a wild goose chase I shall +feel like cutting one of your ears off!" +</P> + +<P> +"Slit 'em both and welcome, Mars Alfred, if you don't find I'm telling +you the Gawd's truth. I feel all tore up, root and branch, and if folks +could be scared to death, I should be stretched out this minute on the +west piazzar. I had my doubts about ghosts and sperrits, and I lost my +religion when I cotch our preacher brandin' one of my dappled +crumple-horned hefers with his i'on; but Bedney Darrington is a changed +pusson. Come en, let's see which of you will dar to laugh up yonder." +</P> + +<P> +"Are you really bent on humoring this insane or idiotic vagary?" asked +Mr. Churchill, as he saw his companion take his hat and prepare to +follow the negro, who had left the room. +</P> + +<P> +"His terror is genuine, and his superstitious tale is probably the +outer shell of some kernel of fact that may possibly be valuable. In +cases of circumstantial evidence, you and I know the importance of +looking carefully into the merest trifles. Come with me; you can spare +an hour." +</P> + +<P> +Leaving the carriage at the front entrance of the deserted and stately +old house, the attorneys crossed the terrace and walked around to the +western veranda, preceded by Bedney, who paused at the steps, and waved +them to ascend. +</P> + +<P> +"Go up and see for yourselves. I am nigh as I want to git." +</P> + +<P> +The stone floor was strewn with branches of rose vine, and the pruning +shears lay open upon them, just as they had fallen from the old man's +hand. The sun had passed several degrees below the meridian, and the +shadows of the twisted iron columns were aslant eastward, but the glare +of light shone on the plate-glass door, which was rounded into an arch +at top, and extended within four inches of the surface of the floor, +where it fitted into the wooden frame. It was one wide sheet, unbroken +into panes, and on the outside dust had collected, and a family of +spiders had colonized in the lower corner, spinning their gray lace +quite across the base. It was evident that the Venetian blinds had long +been closed, and recently opened, as a line of dust and dried drift +leaves attested; and behind the glass hung the dull red, plush curtain, +almost to the floor. +</P> + +<P> +Both gentlemen pressed forward, and looked in; but saw nothing. +</P> + +<P> +"Hang your head kinder sideways, down so, and look up, Mars Lennox." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Dunbar changed his position, and after an instant, started back. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you see it, Churchill? No hallucination; it is as plain as print, +just like the negative of a photograph." +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my soul! It beats the Chinese jugglers! What a curious thing!" +</P> + +<P> +"Stand back a little; you obstruct the light. Now, how clearly it comes +out." +</P> + +<P> +Printed apparently on the plush background, like the images in a +camera, were the distinctly outlined and almost life-size figures of +two men. Clad in a long gown, with loose sleeves, Gen'l Darrington +stood near the hearth, brandishing the brass unicorn in one hand, the +other thrown out and clinched; the face rather more than profile, +scarcely three-quarters, was wonderfully distinct, and the hair much +dishevelled. In front was the second portrait, that of a tall, slender +young man who appeared to have suddenly wheeled around from the open +vault, turning his countenance fully to view; while he threw up a dark, +square object to ward off the impending blow. A soft wool hat pushed +back, showed the curling hair about his temples, and the remarkable +regularity of his handsome features; while even the plaid pattern of +his short coat was clearly discernible. +</P> + +<P> +As the attorneys came closer, or stepped back from the door, the images +seemed to vary in distinctness, and viewed from two angles they became +invisible. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Churchill stared blankly; Mr. Dunbar's gaze was riveted on the face +of the burglar, and he took his underlip between his teeth, as was his +habit in suppressing emotion. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course there is some infernal trick about this; but how do you +account for it? It is beyond Bedney's sleight of hand," said the +District Solicitor. +</P> + +<P> +"I think I understand how it came here. Bedney, go around and open the +library door leading into this room, and loop back the curtain for a +moment." +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir, Mars Lennox. Forty railroad ingines couldn't pull me in there +alive. I wouldn't dar tamper with ole Marster's ghost; not for all the +money in the bank. Go yourself; I doesn't budge on no sech bizness as +prying and spying amongst the sperrits. It would fling me into a fit." +</P> + +<P> +"You miserable coward. Is the house open? Where is the key of this +room?" +</P> + +<P> +"Hanging on the horseshoe under my chimbly board. I'll fetch it and +unlock the front door, so you kin git in, and hold your inquess inside." +</P> + +<P> +"Will you go, Churchill, or shall I?" +</P> + +<P> +"What is your idea?" +</P> + +<P> +"To ascertain whether the images are on the glass, as I believe, and if +they can be seen without the background. Stand just here—and watch. +When I pull back the curtain, tell me the effect." +</P> + +<P> +Some moments later, the red folds shook, swayed aside, the curtain was +pushed out of sight on its brass rod. The interior of the apartment +came into view, the articles of furniture, the face and figure of Mr. +Dunbar. +</P> + +<P> +"Is it still there; do you see it?" shouted the latter. +</P> + +<P> +"No. It vanished with the curtain. Drop it back. There! I see it. Now +loop it. Gone again. Must be on the curtain," shouted the Solicitor, +peering through the glass at his colleague. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Dunbar turned a key on the inside, pushed back a bolt, and threw +open the door, which swung outward on the veranda. Then he carefully +let fall the plush curtain once more. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you see it?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. A blank show. I can't see into the trick. Dunbar, change places +with me and satisfy yourself." +</P> + +<P> +The solicitor went inside, and Mr. Dunbar watched from the veranda a +repetition of the experiment. +</P> + +<P> +"That will do, Churchill. It is all plain enough now, but you cease to +wonder at Bedney's superstitious solution. You understand it perfectly, +don't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I'll be hanged if I do! It is the queerest thing I ever saw." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you recollect that there was a violent thunder-storm the night of +the murder?" +</P> + +<P> +"Since you mention it, I certainly recall it. Go on." +</P> + +<P> +"All the witnesses testified that next morning this door was closed as +usual, but the outside blinds were open, and the red curtain was looped +back." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I remember all that." +</P> + +<P> +"The images are printed on the glass, and were photographed by a flash +of lightning." +</P> + +<P> +"I never heard of such a freak. Don't believe it." +</P> + +<P> +"Nevertheless it is the only possible solution; and I know that several +similar instances have been recorded. It is like the negative of a +common photograph, brought out by a dark background; and do you notice +the figures are invisible at certain angles? It is very evident the +storm came up during the altercation that night, and electricity +printed the whole scene on this door; stamping the countenance of the +murderer, to help the instruments of justice. While the blinds were +closed, and the curtain was looped aside, of course this wonderful +witness could not testify; but Prince let down the folds just before +his departure, and the moment Bedney opened the blinds, there lay the +truthful record of the awful crime. Verily, the 'irony of fate!' An +overwhelming witness for the defence, only eighteen months too late, to +save a pure, beautiful life from degradation and ruin. Well may Bedney +ask, 'where is your corpus delicti?' Alfred Churchill, I wish you joy +of the verdict, you worked so hard to win." +</P> + +<P> +Turning on his heel Mr. Dunbar walked the length of the veranda, and +stood gazing gloomily across the tangled mass of the neglected rose +garden, taking no cognizance of the garlands of bloom, seeing +everywhere only that lithe elegant figure and Hyperion face of the man +who reigned master of Beryl's heart. +</P> + +<P> +The Solicitor leaned one shoulder against the door facing, and with his +hands in his pockets, and his brows drawn into a pucker, pondered the +new fact, and eyed the strange witness. +</P> + +<P> +After a time, he approached his companion. +</P> + +<P> +"If your hypothesis be correct, and it seems plausible, if science +asserts that electricity can photograph,—then certainly I am sorry, +sorry enough for all I did in the trial; yet I cannot reproach myself, +because I worked conscientiously; and the evidence was conclusive +against the girl. The circumstantial coincidences were strong enough to +have hung her. We all make mistakes, and no doubt I am responsible for +my share; but thank God! reparation can be made! I will take the night +train and see the Governor before noon to-morrow. The pardon must come +now." +</P> + +<P> +"Pardon! He cannot pardon a crime of which she now stands acquitted. +The only pardon possible, she may extend to those who sacrificed her. +His Excellency need exercise no prerogative of mercy; his aid is +superfluous. Churchill, go in as soon as you can, and send out the +Sheriff, with as many of the jurors as you can get together; and ask +Judge Parkman to drive out this afternoon, and bring Stafford, the +photographer, with him. Tell Doctor Graham I want to see him here, as +he is an accomplished electrician. I will stay here and guard this door +till all X—-has seen it." +</P> + +<P> +Winged rumor flew through the length and breadth of the town, and +before sunset a human stream poured along the road leading to "Elm +Bluff", overflowed the green lawn under the ancient poplars, surged +across the terrace, and beat against the railing of the piazza. Men, +women, children, lawyers, doctors, newspaper reporters, all pressing +forward for a glimpse of the mysterious and weird witness, that, in the +fulness of time, had arisen to reprove the world for a grievous and +cruel wrong. +</P> + +<P> +The hinges had been removed; the door was set up at a certain angle, +carefully balanced against the hanging curtain; and there the curious +crowd beheld, in a veritable vision of the dead, torn as it were from +the darkness and silence of the grave, the secret of that stormy night, +when unseen powers had solemnly covenanted in defence of trusting +innocence. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap28"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXVIII. +</H3> + +<P> +On Saturday the regulations of prison discipline reduced the working +hours much below the daily quota, and at two o'clock the ringing of the +tower bell announced that the busy convicts of the various industrial +rooms were allowed leisure during the remainder of the afternoon, to +give place to the squad of sweepers and scrubbers, who flooded the +floors and scoured the benches. +</P> + +<P> +June heat had followed fast upon the balmy breath of May, and though +the air at dawn was still iced with crystal dew, the sun that shone +through the open windows of the little chapel, burned fiercely on the +unpainted pine seats, the undraped reading-desk of the pulpit, the +tarnished gilt pipes of the cabinet organ within the chancel railing. +</P> + +<P> +On one of the front benches sat Iva Le Bougeois, with a pair of +crutches resting beside her on the arm of the seat, and her hands +folded in her lap. Recovering slowly from the paralysis resulting from +diphtheria, she had followed Beryl into the chapel, and listened to the +hymns the latter had played and sung. The glossy black head was bent in +abject despondency upon her breast, and tears dripped over the smooth +olive cheeks, but no sound escaped the trembling mouth, once so red and +riotous, now drawn into curves of passionate sorrow; and the topaz +gleams that formerly flickered in her sullen hazel eyes were drowned in +the gloom of dejection. For her, memory was an angel of wrath, driving +her into the hideous Golgotha of the past, where bloody spectres +gibbered; the present was a loathsome death in life, the future a +nameless torturing horror. Helpless victim of her own outraged +conscience, she seemed at times sinking into mental apathy more +pitiable than that which had seized her physically; and the only solace +possible, she found in the encouraging words uttered by the voice that +had prayed for her during that long night of mortal agony, in the +gentle pressure of the soft hand that often guided her tottering +footsteps. +</P> + +<P> +The organ stops had been pushed back, the musical echoes vibrated no +longer; and the bare room, filled with garish sunshine, was so still +that the drowsy droning of a bee high up on the dusty sash of the +barred window, became monotonously audible. +</P> + +<P> +Within the chancel and to the right of the pulpit, a large reversible +blackboard had recently been placed, and on a chair in front of it +stood Beryl, engrossed in putting the finishing touches to a sketch +which filled the entire board; and oblivious for the moment of Eve +Werneth's baby, who, having emptied her bottle of milk, had pulled +herself up by the chair, and with the thumb of her right hand in her +mouth, was staring up at the picture. +</P> + +<P> +The lesson selected for the Sunday afternoon Bible class, which Beryl +had so successfully organized among a few of the female convicts, was +the fifteenth chapter of Luke; and at the top of the blackboard was +written in large letters: "Rejoice with Me, for I have found My sheep +which was lost." She had drawn in the foreground the flock couched in +security, rounded up by the collie guard in a grassy meadow; in the +distance, overhanging a gorge, was a bald, precipitous crag, behind +which a wolf crouched, watching the Shepherd who tenderly bore in his +arms the lost wanderer. On the opposite side of the blackboard had been +carefully copied the Gospel Hymn beginning:— +</P> + +<P> +"There were ninety and nine that safely lay, In the shelter of the +fold, But one was out on the hills away, Far off from the gates of +gold—Away on the mountains wild and bare, Away from the tender +Shepherd's care." +</P> + +<P> +Mental processes are strangely dualistic, and it not unfrequently +happens that while one is consciously intent upon a certain train of +thought, some secret cunning current of association sets in vibration +the coil of ideas locked in the chambers of memory, and long forgotten +images leap forth, startling in their pristine vividness. +</P> + +<P> +Absorbed by the text she was illustrating, the artist insensibly +followed lines she deemed imaginary, yet when the sketch was +completed, the ensemble suddenly confronted her as a miniature +reproduction of a very distant scene, that had gladdened her childish +heart in the blessed by-gone. Far away from the beaten track of travel, +in a sunny cleft of the Pistoian Apennines, she saw the white fleeces +grouped under vast chestnuts, the flash of copper buckets plunged by +two peasant women into a gurgling fountain, the curly head of Bertie +bowed over the rude stone basin, as he gayly coaxed the bearers to let +him drink from the beautiful burnished copper; the rocky terraces cut +in the beetling cliffs above, where dark ruby-red oleanders flouted the +sky with fragrant banners; and the pathetic face of a vagrant ewe +tangled among vines, high on a jagged ledge, bleating for the lamb +asleep under the chestnuts down in the dell. +</P> + +<P> +Across the chasm of years floated the echo of the tinkling bell, that +told where cows climbed in search of herbage; the singular rhythmic +cadence of the trescone, danced in a neighboring vineyard; the deep, +mellow, lingering tones of a monastery bell, rung by hermit hands in a +gray tower on a mountain eyry, that looked westward upon the sparkling +blue mirror of the Mediterranean. +</P> + +<P> +Then she was twelve years old, dreaming glorious midsummer day-dreams, +as she wandered with parents and brother on one of her father's +sketching tours through unfrequented nooks; now—? +</P> + +<P> +A petulant cry, emphasized by the baby hand tugging at the hem of her +dress skirt, recalled Beryl's attention; and as she looked down at the +waif, whom the chaplain had christened "Dovie" on the day of her +mother's burial, the little one held up her arms. +</P> + +<P> +"So tired, Dulce? You can't be hungry; you must want your nap. There +don't fret, baby girl. I will take you directly." +</P> + +<P> +She stepped down, turned the side of the blackboard that contained the +sketch to the wall; lowered the sash which she had raised to admit +fresh air, and lifted the child from the floor. Approaching the figure +who sat motionless as a statue of woe, she laid a hand on the drooping +shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"Shall I help you down the steps?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I'll stay here a while. This is the only place where I can get +courage enough to pray. Couldn't you leave her—the child—with me? It +has been years since I could bear the sight of one. I hated children, +because my heart was so black—so bitter; but now, I yearn toward this +little thing. I am so starved for the kiss of—of—," she swept her +hand across her throat, where a sob stifled her. +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly, if she will stay contentedly. See whether she will come to +you." +</P> + +<P> +At sight of the extended arms, the baby shrank closer to Beryl, nestled +her head under the girl's chin, and put up her lower lip in ominous +protest. With an indescribably mournful gesture of surrender, the +childless mother sank back in the corner of the bench. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't wonder she is afraid; she knows—everybody, everything knows I +killed my baby—my own boy, who slept for nearly four years on my +heart—oh!—" +</P> + +<P> +"Hush—she was frightened by your crying. She is sleepy now, but when +she has had her nap, and wakes good-humored, I will fill her bottle, +and bring her down to you. Try not to torment yourself by dwelling upon +a distressing past, which you cannot undo; but by prayer anchor your +soul in God's pardoning mercy. When all the world hoots and stones us, +God is our 'sure refuge'." +</P> + +<P> +"That promise is to pure hearts and innocent hands; not to such as I +am, steeped to the lips in crime—black, black—" +</P> + +<P> +"No. One said: 'The whole need not a physician; but they that are +sick.' Your soul is sick unto death; claim the pledged cure. Yonder I +have copied the hymn for to-morrow's lesson. While you sit here, commit +it to memory; and the Shepherd will hear your cry." +</P> + +<P> +Glancing back from the chapel door, she saw that the miserable woman +had bowed her face in her hands, and with elbows supported on her +knees, was swaying back and forth in a storm of passionate sobs. +</P> + +<P> +"O! my beautiful baby, my angel Max, pray for mother now. +Max—Max—there is no 'Sweet By and By'—for mother—" +</P> + +<P> +Hurrying from the wail of anguish that no human agency could lighten, +Beryl carried the orphan across the yard, and up the stairs leading to +the corridor, whence she was allowed egress at will. She noticed +casually, signs of suppressed excitement among some of the convicts, +who were lounging in groups, enjoying the half holiday, and three or +four men stood around the under-warden who was gesticulating +vivaciously; but at her approach he lowered his voice, and she lived so +far aloof from the jars and gossip of the lower human strata, that the +suspicious indications failed to arouse any curiosity. +</P> + +<P> +The southwest angle of the building was exposed fully to the force of +the afternoon sun, and the narrow cell was so hot that Beryl opened the +door leading into the corridor, in order to create a draught through +the opposite window. +</P> + +<P> +The tired child was fretfully drowsy, but with the innate perversity of +toddling babyhood, resented and resisted every effort to soothe her to +sleep. Refusing to lie across the nurse's lap, the small tyrant +clambered up, wrapped her arms about her neck, and finally Beryl rose +and walked up and down, humming softly Chopin's dreamy "Berceuse"; +while the baby added a crooning accompaniment that grew fainter and +intermittent until the blue eyes closed, one arm fell, and the thumb +was plunged between the soft full lips. +</P> + +<P> +Warily the nurse laid her down in a cradle, which consisted of an oval +basket mounted on roughly fashioned wooden rockers, and drawing it +close to the table, Beryl straightened the white cross-barred muslin +slip that was too short to cover the rosy dimpled feet; and smoothed +the flossy tendrils of yellow hair crumpled around the lovely face. +</P> + +<P> +The Sister of Charity, who, in the darkest hours of the pestilence had +shrouded the poor young mother, did not forget the human waif astray in +the world; but having secured a home for it in an "asylum," to which +she promised it should be removed so soon as all danger of carrying +contagion was over, had appointed the ensuing Monday on which to bear +it away from the gloomy precincts, where sinless life had dawned in +disgrace and degradation. This pretty toy, dowered with an immortal +soul, stained by an inherited criminal strain, had appealed to the +feminine tenderness in Beryl's nature, and she stood a moment, lost in +admiration of the rounded curves and dainty coloring. +</P> + +<P> +"Poor little blossom. Nobody's baby! A lily bud adrift on a dead sea of +sin. Dovie—Eve Werneth's child—but you will always be to me Dulce, my +pretty clinging Dulce, my velvet-eyed cherub model." +</P> + +<P> +Turning away, she bathed her face and hands, and leaned for a while +against the southern window; listening to the exultant song of a red +bird hovering near his brooding brown mate, to the soothing murmur of +the distant falls, borne in on the wings of the thievish June breeze +that had rifled some far-off garden of the aroma of honeysuckle. The +current of air had swung the door back, leaving only a hand's breadth +of open space, and while she sang to the baby, her own voice had +drowned the sound of footsteps in the corridor. +</P> + +<P> +On the whitewashed wall of the cell, a sheet of drawing paper had been +tacked, and taking her crayons, Beryl returned to the cradle, changed +the position of the child's left hand, and approaching the almost +completed sketch on the wall, retouched the outline of the sleeping +figure. Now and then she paused in her work, to look down at the golden +lashes sweeping the slumber-flushed cheeks, and pondering the mystery +of the waif's future, she chanted in a rich contralto voice, the solemn +"Reproaches" of Gounod's "Redemption." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, my vineyard, come tell me why thy grapes are bitter? What have I +done, my People? Wherein hast thou been wronged?" +</P> + +<P> +For weeks the elaboration of this sketch had employed every moment +which was not demanded for the execution of her allotted daily task in +the convict workroom; and knowing that on Monday she would be bereft of +her pretty model, she had redoubled her exertions to complete it. +</P> + +<P> +Beside a bier knelt a winged figure, in act of stealing the rigid form, +and to the awful yet strangely beautiful face of the messenger of +gloom, she had given the streaming hair, the sunken, cavernous but +wonderfully radiant eyes of Moritz Retzsch's weird image of Death. A +white butterfly fluttered upward, and in mid-air—neither descending +nor drifting, but waiting—poised on outspread pinions, hovered the +Angel of the Resurrection holding out his hands. Behind and beneath the +Destroyer, rolled dense shadows, and all the light in this picture +rayed out from the plumes above, and fell like a glory on the baby's +face. +</P> + +<P> +Cut off from all congenial companionship, thrown upon her own mental +resources, the prisoner had learned to live in an ideal world; and her +artistic tastes proved an indestructible heritage of comfort, while +memory ministered lavishly with images from the crowded realm of +aesthetics. Victorious over the stony limitations of dungeon walls and +dungeon discipline, fetterless imagination soared into the kingdom of +beauty, and fed her lonely soul, as Syrian ravens fed God's prophet. +</P> + +<P> +Fourteen months had passed since Mr. Dunbar walked away from this cell, +after the interview relative to Gen'l Darrington's will; and though his +longing to see the prisoner had driven him twice to the entrance of the +chapel, whence he heard the marvellously sweet voice, and gazed at the +figure before the organ, no word was exchanged. +</P> + +<P> +To-day, with his hand on the bolt of the door, and his heart in his +eyes, he leaned against the facing, and through the opening studied the +occupant of the cell that held the one treasure which fate had denied +him. +</P> + +<P> +The ravages of disease, the blemish of acute physical suffering had +vanished; the clear pallor of her complexion, the full white throat, +the rounded contour of the graceful form, bespoke complete restoration +of all the vital forces; and never had she appeared so incomparably +beautiful. +</P> + +<P> +Oppressed by the heat, she had pushed back the hair from her temples, +and though hopeless sadness reigned over the profound repose of her +features, the expression of her eyes told that the dream of the artist +had borne her beyond surrounding ills. +</P> + +<P> +Where the button of her blue homespun dress fastened the collar, she +wore a sprig of heliotrope and a cluster of mignonette, from the +shallow box in the window-ledge where they grew together. +</P> + +<P> +How long he stood there, surrendering himself to the happiness of +watching the woman whom, against his will, he loved with such +unreasoning and passionate fervor, Mr. Dunbar never knew; but a sudden +recollection of the face printed on the glass, the face, beautiful as +fabled Hylas—of the man for whose sake she was willing to die—stung +him like an adder's bite; and setting his teeth hard, he rapped upon +the door held ajar; then threw it open. +</P> + +<P> +At sight of him, her arm, lifted to the sketch, fell; the crayon +slipped from her nerveless fingers, and a glow rich as the heart of +some red June rose stained her cheeks. +</P> + +<P> +As he stepped toward her, she leaned against the wall, and swiftly drew +the baby's cradle between them. He understood, and for a moment +recoiled. +</P> + +<P> +"You barricade yourself as though I were some loathsome monster! Are +you afraid of me?" +</P> + +<P> +"What is there left to fear? Have you spared any exertion to accomplish +that which you believe would overwhelm me with sorrow?" +</P> + +<P> +"You cannot forgive my rejection of the overtures for a compromise +wrung from you by extremity of dread, when I started to Dakota?" +</P> + +<P> +"That rejection freed me from a self-imposed, galling promise; and +hence I forgive all, because of the failure of your journey." +</P> + +<P> +"Suppose I have not failed?" +</P> + +<P> +She caught her breath, and the color in her cheeks flickered. +</P> + +<P> +"Had you succeeded, I should not have been allowed so long the +comparative mercy of suspense." +</P> + +<P> +"Am I so wantonly cruel, think you, that I gloat over your sufferings +as a Modoc at sight of the string of scalps dangling at his pony's +neck?" +</P> + +<P> +"When the spirit of revenge is unleashed, Tiberius becomes a law unto +himself." +</P> + +<P> +He leaned forward, and his voice was freighted with tenderness that he +made no attempt to disguise. +</P> + +<P> +"Once after that long swoon in the court-room, when I held your hand, +you looked at me without shrinking, and called me Tiberius. Again, when +for hours I sat beside your cot, watching the crisis of your first +terrible illness, you opened your eyes and held out your hand, saying: +'Have you come for me, Tiberius?' Why have you told me you were at the +mercy of Tiberius?" +</P> + +<P> +Hitherto she had avoided looking at him, and kept her gaze upon the +sleeping child, but warned by the tone that made her heart throb, she +bravely lifted her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"When next you write to your betrothed, ask her to go to the Museo +Chiaramonti while in Rome, and standing before the crowned Tiberius, +she will fancy her future husband welcomes her. Your wife will need no +better portrait of you than a copy of that head." +</P> + +<P> +Into his eyes leaped the peculiar glow that can be likened unto nothing +but the clear violet flame dancing over a bed of burning anthracite +coal, and into his voice an exultant ring: +</P> + +<P> +"Meantime, like my inexorable prototype, 'I hold a wolf by the ears'. +Shall I tell you my mission here?" +</P> + +<P> +"As it appears I am indeed always at the mercy of Tiberius, your +courtesy savors of sarcasm." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, my stately white rose! My Rosa Alba, I will see to it, that no +polluting hand lays a grasp on you. My errand should entitle me to a +more cordial reception, for I bring you good news. Will you lay your +hand in mine just once, while I tell you?" +</P> + +<P> +He extended his open palm, but she shook her head and smiled sadly. +</P> + +<P> +"In this world no good news can ever come to me." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know that recently earnest efforts have been made to induce the +Governor to pardon you? That I have just returned from a visit to him?" +</P> + +<P> +"I was not aware of it; but I am grateful for your effort in my behalf." +</P> + +<P> +"I was disappointed. The pardon was not granted. Since then, fate, who +frowned so long upon you, has come to your rescue. The truth has been +discovered, proclaimed; and I came here this afternoon with an order +for your release. For you the prison doors and gates stand open. You +are as free as you were that cursed day when first you saw me and +robbed my life of peace." +</P> + +<P> +For a moment she looked at him bewildered; then a great dread drove the +blood from her lips, and her voice shook. +</P> + +<P> +"What truth has been discovered?" +</P> + +<P> +"The truth that you are innocent has been established to the entire +satisfaction of judge and jury, prosecution and Governor, sheriff, +warden, and you are free. Not pardoned for that which all the world +knows now you never committed; but acquitted without man's help, by the +discovery of a fact which removes every shadow of suspicion from your +name. You are at liberty, owing no thanks to human mercy; vindicated by +a witness subpoenaed by the God of justice, in whom you trusted—even +to the end." +</P> + +<P> +"Witness? What witness? You do not mean that you have hunted down—" +</P> + +<P> +She paused, and her white face was piteous with terror, as pushing away +the cradle she came close to him. +</P> + +<P> +"I have seen the face of the man who killed Gen'l Darrington." +</P> + +<P> +She threw up her arms, crossing them over her head. +</P> + +<P> +"O, my God! Have I suffered in vain? Shall I be denied the recompense? +After all my martyrdom, must I lose the one hope that sustained me?" +</P> + +<P> +Despite the rage which the sight of her suffering woke within his +heart, he could not endure to witness it. +</P> + +<P> +"Can you find no comfort in release? No joy in the consciousness of +your triumphant vindication?" +</P> + +<P> +"None! If you have robbed me of that which is all I care for on earth, +what solace can I find in release? Vindication? What is the opinion of +the world to me? Oh! how have I ever wronged you, that you persecute me +so vindictively, that you stab the only comfort life can ever hold for +me?" +</P> + +<P> +"And you love him so insanely, that to secure his safety, existence +here in this moral sty is sweet in comparison with freedom unshared +with him? Listen! That belief stirs the worst elements in my nature; it +swings the whip of the furies. For your own sake, do not thrust your +degrading madness upon my notice. I have labored to liberate you; have +subordinated all other aims to this, and now, that I have come to set +you free, you repulse and spurn me!" +</P> + +<P> +She was so engrossed by one foreboding, that it was evident she had not +even heard him, as moving to the bench in front of the window she sat +down, shivering. Her black brows contracted till they met, and the +strained expression of her eyes told that she was revolving some +possibility of succor. +</P> + +<P> +"Where did you see my—my—?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not in Dakota mines, where I expected to find him." +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Dunbar." She pointed to the chair at her side. +</P> + +<P> +He shook his head, but approached and stood before her. +</P> + +<P> +"I am waiting to hear you." +</P> + +<P> +"I sent you a telegram, promising information that would have prevented +that journey." +</P> + +<P> +"It failed to reach me." +</P> + +<P> +Unconsciously she was wringing her hands as her thoughts whirled. +</P> + +<P> +"I will tell you something now, if you will promise me that no harm +shall—" +</P> + +<P> +He laughed scornfully. +</P> + +<P> +"As if I had anything to learn concerning that cowardly villain! Thanks +for your confidence, which comes much too late." +</P> + +<P> +"You do not know that—" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I know all I want to know; more than you shall ever tell me, and +I decline to hear a confession that, in my eyes, defiles you; that +would only drive me to harsh denunciation of your foul idol. Moreover, +I will not extort by torture what you have withheld so jealously. Do +not wring your hands so desperately. You are goaded to confession now, +because you believe that I have secured your lover? Take courage, he +has not yet been arrested; he is still a wanderer hiding from +retribution." +</P> + +<P> +She sprang up, trembling. +</P> + +<P> +"But you said you had seen his face?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, and I have come to take you where you can identify that face?" +</P> + +<P> +"Then, he is dead." She covered her face with her hands. +</P> + +<P> +"No, I wish to God he was dead! Sit down. I will not see you suffer +such agony. He is safe for the present. If you will try to think of +yourself for a moment, and pay me the compliment of listening, I will +explain. Do you recollect that during the storm on the night of the +murder the lightning was remarkably vivid and severe?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; can I ever forget any details of that night? Go on." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you recall the position of the glass door on the west veranda; and +also that the crimson drapery or curtain was drawn aside?" +</P> + +<P> +"I recall it distinctly because, while Gen'l Darrington was reading my +mother's letter, I looked out through the glass at the chrysanthemums +blooming in the garden." +</P> + +<P> +"That door was almost opposite the chimney, and the safe or vault in +the wall was very near the fireplace. It appears that when the +chloroform failed to stupefy Gen'l Darrington, he got up and seized one +of the andirons on the hearth, and attacked the thief who was stealing +his money. While they were struggling in front of the vault, a burst of +electricity, some peculiarly vivid flash of lightning, sent by fate, by +your guardian angel, it may have been by God himself—photographed both +men, and the interior of the room on the wide glass panel of that door. +Forms, faces, features, even the pattern of the cloth coat, are printed +plainly there, for the whole world to study. The murderer and the +victim in mortal combat over the tin box. Accident—shall I say +Providence—unexpectedly brought this witness to light. The curtain so +long looped back, was recently lowered, and when, two days ago, the +outside blinds were opened, there lay your complete vindication. Crowds +have seen it; the newspaper issued an 'extra', and so general was the +rejoicing, that a public demonstration would have been made here at the +gaol, had not Churchill and I harangued the people and assured them it +would only annoy and embarrass you. So you are free. Free to shake the +dust of X—-forever from your feet; and it must comfort your proud soul +to know that you do not owe your liberty to the mercy of a community +which wronged you. I forbade Singleton to tell you, to allow any +premature hint to reach you; for I claimed the privilege of bringing +the glad tidings. Last night I spent in that room at 'Elm Bluff', +guarding that door; and the vigil was cheered by the picture hope drew, +that when I came to-day you would greet me kindly; would lay your dear +hands in mine, and tell me that, at least, gratitude would always keep +a place for me warm in your noble heart. I have my recompense in the +old currency of scorn. It were well for you if you had shown me your +hatred less plainly; now I shall indulge less hesitation in following +the clue the lightning lays in my grasp. I warn you that your release +only expedites his arrest; for you can never pass beyond my +surveillance; and the day you hasten to him, seals his fate. Long +imprisoned doves, when set free, fly straight to their distant mates; +so—take care—lest the hawk overtake both." +</P> + +<P> +Looking up at him, listening almost breathlessly to the tale of a +deliverance that involved new peril for Bertie, the color came slowly +back to her blanched face, and her parted lips quivered. +</P> + +<P> +"If the picture means anything, it proves that Gen'l Darrington made +the assault with the brass andiron, and in the struggle that followed, +the man you saw might have killed him in self defence." +</P> + +<P> +"When he is brought to trial in X—he shall never be allowed the +benefit of your affectionate supposition. I promise you, that I will +annihilate your tenderly devised theory." +</P> + +<P> +He ground his teeth in view of the transparent fact, that she was too +intently considering the bearing of the revelation upon the safety of +another, to heed the thought of her own escape from bondage. +</P> + +<P> +The little cluster of flowers fastened at her throat had become +loosened, and fell unnoticed into her lap. He stooped, picked them up, +and straightened them on his palm. When his eyes returned to Beryl, she +had bowed her face in her shielding hands. +</P> + +<P> +How little he dreamed that she was silently praying for strength to +deny the cry of her own beating heart, and to keep him from making +shipwreck of the honor which she supposed was still pledged to Leo! +Security for her brother, and unswerving loyalty to the absent woman +who had befriended her in the darkest hours of the accusation, were +objects difficult to accomplish simultaneously; yet at every hazard she +would struggle on. Because she had learned to love so well this man, +who was the promised husband of another, conscience made her merciless +to her own disloyalty. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Dunbar laid on the bench a small package sealed in yellow paper. +</P> + +<P> +"Knowing that your detention here has necessarily forfeited all the +industrial engagements by which you maintained yourself, before you +came South, I have been requested to ask your acceptance of this purse, +which contains sufficient money to defray your expenses until you +resume your art labors. It is an offering from your twelve jurors." +</P> + +<P> +"No—no. I could never touch it. Tell them for me that I am not +vindictive. I know they did the best they could for me, in view of the +evidence. Tell them I am grateful for their offer, but I cannot accept +it. I—" +</P> + +<P> +"You imagine I am one of the generous contributors? Be easy; I have not +offered you a cent. I am merely the bearer of the gift, or rather the +attempt at restitution. Your refusal will grieve them, and add to the +pangs of regret that very justly afflict them at present." +</P> + +<P> +"I have some money which Doctor Grantlin collected for my Christmas +card. He retained only a portion of the amount, and sent me the +remainder. Mr. Singleton keeps it for me, and it is all that I need +now." +</P> + +<P> +"The purse contains also a ticket to New York, as it has been supposed +that you would desire to return there at once." +</P> + +<P> +"Take all back, with my earnest thanks. I prefer to owe X—only the +remembrance of the great kindness which some few have shown me. The +officers here have been uniformly considerate and courteous to me; Mr. +and Mrs. Singleton will ever be very dear to me for numberless kind +deeds; and Sister Serena was a staff of strength during that frightful +black week of the trial." +</P> + +<P> +She paused, and her voice betrayed something of the tumult at her +heart, as while a sudden wave of scarlet overflowed her cheeks, she +rose and held out both hands. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Dunbar, if I have seemed unappreciative of your great exertions in +my behalf, it is merely because there are some matters which I can +never explain in this world. One thing I ask you to believe when I am +gone. I will never, so long as I live, cease to remember the debt I owe +you. I am and shall be inexpressibly grateful to you, and whenever I +think of my terrible sojourn here, be sure I shall recall tenderly—oh! +how tenderly! the two friends who trusted and believed in my innocence, +when all the world denounced me; the two who generously clung to me +when public opinion branded me as an outcast—you two—my best friends, +you and Miss Gordon. It makes me proud and happy to know in this hour +of my vindication, that in her, and in your good opinion, I needed +none. Out of your united lives, let me pass as a fleeting gray shadow." +</P> + +<P> +"Out of my life you can never pass. Into it you have brought +disappointment, humiliation, and a keenness of suffering such as I +never imagined I was capable of enduring; and some recompense I will +have. You hope to plunge into the vortex of a great city, where you can +elude observation and obliterate all traces. Do not cherish the ghost +of such a delusion. Go where you may, but I give you fair warning, you +cannot escape me; and the day you meet that guilty vagabond, you betray +him to the scouts of justice." +</P> + +<P> +He held her hands in a close, warm clasp, and a flush crossed his brow, +as he looked down into her quivering face where a smile which he could +not interpret, seemed only a challenge. +</P> + +<P> +"Would a generous man, worthy of Miss Gordon, harass and persecute a +very unhappy and unfortunate woman, who asks at his hands only to be +forgotten completely, to be left in peace?" +</P> + +<P> +"I lay no claim to generosity, and, where you are concerned, I am +supremely selfish. Miss Gordon has no need of your championship; she is +quite equal to redressing her own wrongs, when the necessity presents +itself. You are struggling to free your hands, so be it. I have a close +carriage at the gate, and to make assurance doubly sure, I have come to +take you to 'Elm Bluff'; to show you the face, and ask you to identify +it. Understand me, I will harass you with no questions; nor will I +intrude upon you there. I have ordered the grounds cleared, have posted +police to prevent the possibility of any occurrence unpleasant to you; +and all I ask is, that alone, you will examine this witness, produced +so strangely for your justification. I shall wait for you in the rose +garden, and if you can come down from that gallery and tell me that the +face is unknown to you, that the man photographed in the act of +stealing, is a stranger, is not the man you love so well that you bore +worse than death to save him from punishment, then I will give up the +quest; and you may flee unwatched to the ends of the earth." +</P> + +<P> +"Never again will I see that place which has blasted every hope that +life held for me." +</P> + +<P> +"Not even to clear away aspersion from his beloved name?" +</P> + +<P> +"I pray God, his beloved and sacred name may never be associated with a +crime so awful." +</P> + +<P> +"You will not go to see the face? Remember, I shall ask you neither yea +nor nay. I shall need only to look once into your eyes, after you have +seen the Gorgon. Beryl, my white rose! Are you ashamed to show me your +idol's face?" +</P> + +<P> +"I will never go to 'Elm Bluff'." +</P> + +<P> +"It is no longer necessary. You know already the features printed +there, and your avoidance stamps them with infamy. How can your lofty +soul, your pure heart, tolerate a creature so craven, so vile?" +</P> + +<P> +"We love not always whom we would, or should, were choice permitted us; +and to whom I have given my heart, my whole deep heart, you shall never +learn." +</P> + +<P> +The mournful smile that lent such wistful loveliness to her flushed +face, seemed to him merely a renewed defiance. +</P> + +<P> +"I bide my time, knowing it will surely come. You are free, but be +careful. Once when you lay upon the brink of the grave, unconscious, I +knelt at your side and took you in my arms; laid your head on my heart, +felt your cheek touch mine. Then and there I made a covenant with my +soul; and no other man's arms shall ever enfold you. Ah, my Rosa Alba! +I could dig your grave with my own hands, sooner than see that thief +claim you. I am a proud man, and you have dragged me through the slough +of humiliation, but to-day, as I bid you good-bye, I realize how one +felt, who looking at the bust of him she loved supremely, said with her +last breath: 'Voila mon univers, mon espoir, et mes dieux!' How soon we +meet again depends solely on your future course. You know the +conditions; and I promise you I will not swerve one iota." +</P> + +<P> +He took her hand, drew it across his cheek, laid it on his lips; and a +moment later walked away, with the faded flowers folded close in his +palm. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap29"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXIX. +</H3> + +<P> +Conveniently contiguous to the busy centre of a wide and populous city, +situated on the shore of one of those great inland fresh-water seas, +whose lake line girdles the primeval American upheaval, the Laurentian +rocks,—stands in the middle of a square, enclosed by a stone coping +and an iron railing, a stately pile of brick and granite several +stories high, flanked by wings that enclose in the rear a spacious +court. The facade was originally designed in the trabeated style, and +still retained its massive entrance, with straight, grooved lintel over +the door which was adorned by four round columns; but subsequent +additions reflected the fluctuations of popular architectural taste, in +the later arched windows, the broad oriel with its carved corbel, and +in the new eastern wing, that had flowered into a Tudor tower with +bulbous cupola. The strip of velvet sward between the street and the +house entrance, was embossed with brilliant coleus set in the form of +anchors; and a raised border, running the entire length under the +windows of the basement, was ablaze with geraniums of various hues. +</P> + +<P> +On a granite pediment above the portico, a large bronze anchor was +supported, and beneath it was cut, in projecting letters: "The Umilta +Anchorage". +</P> + +<P> +In front of the building ran a broad, paved boulevard; in the rear, the +enclosure was bounded by a stone wall, overgrown with ivy, and built +upon the verge of the blue lake, whose waves broke against the base, +and rolled away in the distance beyond the northern horizon. +</P> + +<P> +Fully in accord with the liberal eclecticism that characterized its +exterior, was the wide-eyed, deep, tender-hearted charity which, +ignoring all denominational barriers, opened its doors in cordial +welcome to worthy, homeless women, whom misfortune had swept away from +family moorings, and whose clean hands and pure hearts sought some +avenue to honest work. The institution was a memorial erected and +endowed by a wealthy man, whose only child Umilta, just crossing the +threshold of womanhood, had been lost in a sudden storm on the lake; +whose fair, drowned face had been washed ashore just below the stone +wall, and whose statue stood, guarded by marble angels, in the small +chapel in the centre of the building, which was designed as an enduring +monument to commemorate her untimely fate, and perpetuate her name. +</P> + +<P> +Divided into various industrial departments, the "Anchorage" was +maintained almost entirely by the labor of its inmates; and it had +rarely been found necessary to draw from the reserve endowment fund, +that was gradually accumulating for future contingencies. +</P> + +<P> +Trained nurses, trained housekeepers were furnished on demand; lace +curtains mended, laundered; dainty lingerie of every description, from +a baby's wardrobe to a bride's trousseau; ornamental needle-work on all +fabrics; artificial flowers, card engraving, artistic designs for +upholstering, menus, type-writing, all readily supplied to customers; +and certain confectionery put up in pretty boxes made by the inmates, +and bearing the "Anchor" stamp. A school of drawing, etching, painting, +and embroidery attracted many pupils; and a few pensioners who had +grown too infirm and dim-eyed for active work, had a warm, bright room +where they knitted stockings and underwear of various kinds. +</P> + +<P> +At one end of the long refectory was emblazoned on the wall: "For +whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in Heaven, the same +is my brother and sister and mother." At the other: "Bear ye one +another's burdens." The chapel contained no pulpit, but on a marble +altar stood a life-size figure of a woman clinging to the cross: and on +the walls hung paintings representing the Crucifixion, the Descent, the +Resurrection and the Mater Dolorosa; while in a niche at the extremity, +behind the altar, an Ecce Homo of carved ivory was suspended above a +gilt cross, and just beneath it glittered the motto "Faith, Hope, +Charity". Every morning and evening the band of women gathered here, +and recited the Apostles' Creed, and the Lord's Prayer; but on Sabbath +the members attended the church best suited to their individual tenets. +</P> + +<P> +The infirmary was a cheerful, airy room, and here professional nurses +were trained under the guidance of visiting physicians; and in an +adjoining kitchen were taught to prepare the articles of diet usually +belonging to the regimen of sick rooms. +</P> + +<P> +Widows, maidens, Catholics, Protestants, admitted from the age of +eighteen to forty, these "Umilta Sisters" were received on probation +for eighteen months; then entered upon a term of five years, subject to +renewal at will; bound by specified rules, but no irrevocable vow. +Yielding implicit obedience to the matron, elected by themselves every +four years—subject to approval and ratification by the Chapter of +Trustees, they were recognized wherever they went by the gray garb, the +white aprons, and snowy mob caps peculiar to the institution. +</P> + +<P> +Fashionable women patronized and fondled the "Anchorage", for much the +same reason that led them to pamper their pugs; and since the Chapter +of Trustees consisted of men of wealth and prominence, their wives, as +magnates in le beau monde, set the seal of "style" upon articles +manufactured there, by ordering quilted satin afghans with anchors of +pansies embroidered in the centre, for their baby carriages; painted +tea gowns; favors for a "German", or fans and bonbonnieres for birthday +parties. +</P> + +<P> +If children of the Brahmin caste of millionairdom were seized by the +Pariah ills of measles, or chicken-pox, or mumps, it was deemed quite +as imperatively the duty of doting parents to provide an "Anchorage" +nurse, as to secure an eminent physician, and the most costly brand of +condensed milk. In the name of sweet charity, gay gauzy-winged +butterflies of fashion harnessed themselves in ropes of roses, and +dragged the car of benevolence; as painted papillons drew chariots of +goddesses on ancient classic walls; so in the realm of social economy +the ubiquitous law of correlation of industrial force—of conservation +of energy—transmuted the arrested labor of the rich and idle into the +fostering heat that stimulated the working poor. +</P> + +<P> +Scarcely a month previous to her unexpected release from prison, Beryl +had received a letter from Doctor Grantlin, enclosing one addressed to +"Sister Ruth, Matron of Anchorage". He wrote that his daughter's health +demanded some German baths; and on the eve of sailing, he desired to +secure for the prisoner a temporary refuge, should the efforts which he +had heard were made to obtain her pardon, prove successful. As a nephew +of the founder, and a cousin of the young lady for whom the "Anchorage" +was intended as a lasting memorial, he had always been accorded certain +privileges by the trustees; and the letter, if presented to the matron, +would insure at least an entrance into the haven of rest, until the +prisoner could mature some plan for her future. +</P> + +<P> +Spurred away from X—by the dread of another interview with the man +whom she had assiduously shunned, and of being required to visit "Elm +Bluff" and scrutinize the accusing picture, Beryl had shrouded herself +in her heavy mourning, and fled from the scene of her suffering, on the +3 A.M. train Sunday morning; ten hours after receiving the certificate +of her discharge. Shrinking from observation, she refused Mr. Singleton +permission to accompany her to the station house, and bade him good-bye +three squares distant; promising to write soon to his still absent +wife, and assured by him that a farewell letter of affectionate +gratitude should be promptly delivered to Dyce. Fortunately a stranger +stood in the office and sold her a ticket; and in the same corner, +where twenty months before she had knelt during the storm, she waited +once more for the sound of the train. How welcome to her the shuddering +shriek that tore its way through the dewy silence of the star-lit +summer night, and she hurried out, standing almost on the rails, in her +impatience to depart. +</P> + +<P> +Several travellers were grouped near a pile of luggage awaiting the +train, but as it rolled swiftly in and jarred itself to a standstill, +she saw even through her crape veil a well known figure, leaning +against an iron post that held an electric lamp. She sprang up the +steps leading to the platform, and took the first vacant seat, which +was in front of an open window. +</P> + +<P> +The silvery radiance from the globe just opposite, streamed in, and her +heart seemed to cease beating as the tall form moved forward and taking +off his hat, stood at the side of the car. Neither spoke. But when the +brass bell rang its signal and the train trembled into motion, a hand +was thrust in, and dropped upon her lap a cluster of exquisite white +roses, with one scarlet passion flower glowing in the centre. +</P> + +<P> +During the three days spent in New York, Beryl's wounds bled afresh, +and she felt even more desolate than while sheltered behind prison +walls. The six-storied tenement house where she had last seen her +mother's face, and kissed her in final farewell, had been demolished to +make room for a new furniture warehouse. Strange nurses in the hospital +could tell her nothing concerning the last hours of the beloved dead; +and the only spot in the wide western world that seemed to belong to +her, was a narrow strip of ground in a remote corner of the great +cemetery, where a green mound held its square granite slab, bearing the +words "Ellice Darrington Brentano." +</P> + +<P> +With her face bowed upon that stone, the lonely woman had wept away the +long hours of an afternoon that decided her plan for the future. +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Grantlin had gone abroad for an indefinite period, and no one knew +the contents of his last letter. In New York her movements would be +subject to the SURVEILLANCE she most desired to escape; but in that +distant city where the "Anchorage" was situated, she might disappear, +leaving no more trace than that of a stone dropped in some stormy, +surging sea. +</P> + +<P> +To find Bertie and reclaim him, was the only goal of hope life held for +her, and to accomplish this, the first requisite was to effectually +lose herself. +</P> + +<P> +Anxious and protracted deliberation finally resulted in an +advertisement, which she carried next morning to the "Herald" office, +to be inserted for six months in the personal column, unless answered. +</P> + +<P> +"BERTIE, IF YOU WANT THE LOST BUTTON WE BOUGHT AT LUCCA, WHEN CAN +GIGINA HAND IT TO YOU IN ST. CATHERINE'S, CANADA?" +</P> + +<P> +She wore her old blue bunting dress, and a faded blue veil when she +delivered the notice at the office of the newspaper, and paid in +advance the cost of its publication. Later in the same day, clad in her +mourning garments, she went down to the Grand Central Depot and bought +a railway ticket; and the night express bore her away on her long +journey westward. +</P> + +<P> +It was on the fourth of July, her twenty-first birthday, that she +entered the reception room at the "Anchorage", and presented in +conjunction with Doctor Grantlin's letter, a copy of the newspaper +printed at X—, which contained an article descriptive of the discovery +of the picture on the glass door; and expressive of the profound +sympathy of the public for the prisoner so unjustly punished by +incarceration. +</P> + +<P> +For twenty years a resident of the institution, over which she had +repeatedly presided, Sister Ruth was now a woman of fifty-five, whose +white hair shone beneath her cap border like a band of spun silver, and +whose yellowish, dim eyes seemed unnaturally large behind their +spectacles. Thin and wrinkled, her face was nobly redeemed by a +remarkably beautiful, patient mouth; and her angular, wiry figure, by +small feet and very slender hands, where the veins rose like blue cords +lacing ivory satin. Over the shoulders of her gray flannel dress was +worn the distinctive badge of her office, a white mull handkerchief +pleated surplice fashion into her girdle, whence hung by a silver chain +a set of tablets; and the folds of mull were fastened at her throat by +a silver anchor. +</P> + +<P> +Having deliberately read letter and paper, she put the former in her +pocket, and returned the latter with a stately yet graceful inclination +of the head, that would have been creditable in Mdm. Recamier's salon. +</P> + +<P> +"I have expected you for some weeks, an earlier letter from Doctor +Grantlin having prepared me for your arrival; but it appears you have +not been released from prison by the pardon he anticipated?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, madam; the authorities who caused my arrest and imprisonment, +considered the discovery of the printed door a complete refutation of +the accusation against me, and ordered my release. I come here not as a +pardoned criminal, but as an unfortunate victim of circumstantial +evidence; acquitted of all suspicion by a circumstance even stranger +than those which seemed to condemn me. In the darkest days of my +desolation, Doctor Grantlin believed me innocent, honored me with his +confidence and friendship, soothed my mother's dying hour; and he will +rejoice to learn that acquittal anticipated the mockery of a pardon. +Only his generous encouragement emboldened me to hope for a temporary +shelter here." +</P> + +<P> +"Then you have no desire to become a permanent resident?" +</P> + +<P> +"At present, I shall be grateful if allowed to enjoy the privilege of +hiding my sore heart for a while from the gaze of a world that has +cruelly wronged me. I want to rest where wicked men and women do not +pollute the air, where I can try to forget the horrors of convict life; +and the rest I need is not idleness, it is labor of some kind that will +so fully employ my hands and brain, that when I lie down at night my +sad, aching heart and wounded soul can find balm in sleep. Locked at +night into a dark cell has made existence for nearly eighteen months a +mere hideous vigil, broken by fitful nightmare. To see only pure faces, +to listen to sweet feminine voices that never knew the desecration of +blasphemy, to exchange the grim, fetid precincts of a penitentiary for +a holy haven such as this, is indeed a glimpse of paradise to a +tortured spirit." +</P> + +<P> +"Have you special reasons for wishing to shun observation?" +</P> + +<P> +The dim eyes probed like some dull blade that tears the tissues. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, madam, special cause to want to be forgotten by the public, who +have stared me at times almost to frenzy." +</P> + +<P> +"You are an orphan, I am told; with no living relatives in America." +</P> + +<P> +"I am an orphan; and think I have no relative in the United States." +</P> + +<P> +"In the very peculiar circumstances that surround and isolate you, I +should imagine you would esteem it a great privilege to cast your lot +here, and become one of the permanently located Sisters of the +'Anchorage'. Ours is a noble and consecrated mission." +</P> + +<P> +"Knowing literally nothing of your institution, except that it is a +hive of industrious good women, offering a home and honest work to +homeless and innocent unfortunates, I could not pledge myself to a life +which might not prove suitable on closer acquaintance. Take me in; give +me employment that will prevent me from being a tax upon your +hospitality and mercifully shelter me from pitiless curiosity and +gossip." +</P> + +<P> +"Even were our sympathies not enlisted in your behalf, Doctor +Grantlin's request would insure your admission, at least for a season. +Where is your luggage?" +</P> + +<P> +"I have only a trunk, for which I have retained the railway check, +until I ascertained your willingness to receive me." +</P> + +<P> +"Give it to me." +</P> + +<P> +She crossed the room and pressed the knob of a bell on the opposite +wall. Almost simultaneously a door opened, and to a stout, middle-aged +woman who appeared on the threshold, the matron gave instructions in an +under tone. +</P> + +<P> +Returning to the stranger, she resumed: +</P> + +<P> +"I infer from the Doctor's letter, that you are a gifted person. In +what lines do your talents run?" +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps I should not lay claim to talent, but I am, by grace of study, +a good musician; and I draw and paint, at least with facility. At one +time I supported my mother and myself by singing in a choir, but +diphtheria closed that avenue of work. With the restoration of health, +I think I have recovered my voice. I am an expert needle woman, and can +embroider well, especially on fine linen." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you feel competent to teach a class in 'water color', in our Art +School? Our aquarelle Sister is threatened with amaurosis, and the +oculist prohibits all work at present." +</P> + +<P> +"You can form an opinion of my qualifications by examining some +sketches which are in my trunk. I have furnished several designs for +the 'Society of Decorative Art', and have sold a number of painted +articles at the Woman's Exchange." +</P> + +<P> +"Then I think you have only to step into a vacant niche, and supply a +need which was beginning to perplex us. During the latter part of +September, an International Scientific Congress will be held in this +city, and one of our patrons, Mr. Brompton, who expects to entertain +the distinguished foreign delegates, has given us an order for dinner +cards for eight courses, and each set for twenty-four covers. As nearly +as we can comprehend the design, his intention is to represent the +order of creation in fish, game, fruits and flowers; and each card will +illustrate some special era in geology and zoology. The cream and ices +set are expected to show the history of Polar regions as far as known, +and at the conclusion of the banquet, each guest will be presented with +a velvet smoking cap, to which must be attached a card representing +'scientific soap-bubbles pricked by the last scientists' junta'. Now +while the 'Anchorage's' cultured art standard claims to be as high as +any, East, we should scarcely venture to fill this order, had not two +of the professors in our University, promised to map out the order, and +furnish some dots in the way of engravings, which will aid the +accomplishment of the work; and we are particularly desirous of +pleasing our patron, from whom the 'Anchorage' expects a bequest. If +you think you can successfully undertake a portion of this order, given +us by Mr. Brompton, we shall make you doubly welcome." +</P> + +<P> +"I think I may safely promise satisfactory work in the line you +designate; and at least, I shall be grateful for the privilege of +making the attempt." +</P> + +<P> +"You are aware, I presume, that all inmates of the 'Anchorage' are +required to wear its regulation uniform." +</P> + +<P> +"I shall be very glad to don it; hoping it may possess some spell to +exorcise memories of the last uniform I wore; the blue homespun of +penitentiary convicts." +</P> + +<P> +"You must try to forget all that. The 'Anchorage' gates shut fast on +the former lives we led; here we dwell in a busy present, hoping to +secure a blessed future. Come with me to the cutting room, and be +measured for your flannel uniform; then one of the Sisters will show +you to your own cell in this consecrated bee-hive, which you will find +as peaceful as its name implies." +</P> + +<P> +The first story contained the reception rooms, chapel, schoolroom, +apartments for the display of sample articles manufactured; the +refectory, kitchen and laundry; and one low wide room with glass on +three sides, where orchids and carnations, the floral specialties of +the institution, were grown. On the second floor were various +workrooms, supplied with materials required for the particular fabric +therein manufactured or ornamented; and cut off from communication, was +the east wing, used exclusively as an infirmary, and provided with its +separate kitchen and laundry. The third story embraced the dormitory, a +broad, lofty apartment divided by carved scroll work and snowy +curtains, into three sets of sleeves running the entire length of the +floor; separated by carpeted aisles, and containing all the articles of +furniture needed by each occupant. On the ceiling directly over every +bed, was inscribed in gilt letters, some text from the Bible, exhorting +to patience, diligence, frugality, humility, gentleness, obedience, +cheerfulness, honesty, truthfulness and purity; and mid-way the central +aisle, where a chandelier swung, two steps led to a raised desk, whence +at night issued the voice of the reader, who made audible to all the +occupants the selected chapter in the Bible. At ten o'clock a bell was +rung by the Sister upon whom devolved the duty of acting as night +watch; then lights were extinguished save in the infirmary. This common +dormitory was reserved for Sisters who had spent at least five years in +the building; and to probationers were given small rooms on the second +story of the west wing. +</P> + +<P> +The third story of the same wing fronted north, and served as a studio +where all designs were drawn and painted; and upon its walls hung +pictures in oil and water color, engravings, vignettes, and all the +artistic odds and ends given or lent by sympathetic patrons. +</P> + +<P> +Each story was supplied with bath-rooms, and the entire work of the +various departments was performed by the appointed corps of inmates; +the Sisters of the wash tub, and of the broom brigade, being selected +for the work best adapted to their physical and intellectual +development. +</P> + +<P> +Visitors lingered longest in the great kitchen with its arched recess +where the range was fitted; where like organ pipes glittering copper +boilers rose, and burnished copper measures and buckets glinted on the +carved shelves running along one side. The adjoining pastry room was +tiled with stone, furnished with counters covered with marble slabs, +and with refrigerators built into the wall; and here the white-capped, +white-aproned priestesses of pots, pans and pestles moved quietly to +and fro, performing the labor upon which depended in great degree the +usefulness of artificers in all other departments. +</P> + +<P> +The refectory opened on a narrow terrace at the rear of the building, +which was sodded with turf and starred with pansies and ox-eyed +daisies, and on the wide, stone window sills sat boxes and vases filled +with maiden-hair ferns and oxalis, with heliotrope and double white +violets. Three lines of tables ran down this bright pretty room, and in +the centre rose a spiral stair to a cushioned seat, where when "Grace" +had been pronounced, the Reader for the day made selections from such +volumes of prose or poetry as were deemed by the Matron elevating and +purifying in influence; tonic for the soul, stimulant for the brain, +balm for the heart. +</P> + +<P> +Close to the rear wall overhanging the lake, ran a treillage of grape +vines, and on the small grass sown plat of garden, belated paeonies +tossed up their brilliant balls, as play-things for the wind that swept +over the blue waves, breaking into a fringe of foam beyond the stone +enclosure. +</P> + +<P> +Except at meals, and during the last half hour in the dormitory, night +and morning, no restriction of silence was imposed, and one hour was +set apart at noon for merely social intercourse, or any individual +scheme of labor. Busy, tranquil, cheerful, often merry, they endeavored +to eschew evil thoughts; and cultivated that rare charity which makes +each tolerant of the failings of the other, which broadens a sympathy +that can excuse individual differences of opinion, and that consecrates +the harmony of true home life. +</P> + +<P> +The room assigned to Beryl was at the extremity of the second story, +just beneath the studio; and as the north end of the wings was built at +each corner into projections that were crowned with bell towers, this +apartment had a circular oriel window, swung like a basket from the +wall, and guarded by an iron balcony. Cool, quiet, restful as an +oratory seemed the nest; with its floor covered by matting diapered in +blue, its low, wide bedstead of curled maple, with snowy Marseilles +quilt, and crisply fluted pillow cases; its book shelves hanging on the +wall, surmounted by a copy in oil of Angelico's Elizabeth of Hungary, +with rapt face upraised as she lifted her rose-laden skirt. +</P> + +<P> +The lambrequins of blue canton flannel were bordered with trailing +convolvulus in pink cretonne, and the diaphanous folds of white muslin +curtains held in the centre an embroidered anchor which dragged inward, +as the breeze rushed in through open windows. An arched recess in the +wall, whence a door communicated with the adjoining chamber, was +concealed by a portiere of blue that matched the lambrequins, and the +alcove served as a miniature dressing-room, where the brass faucet +emptied into a marble basin. +</P> + +<P> +In this apartment the imperial sway of dull maroons, sullen Pompeiian +reds, and sombre murky olives had never cast encroaching shadows upon +the dainty brightness of tender rose and blue, nor toned down the +silvery reflection of the great sea of waters that flashed under the +sunshine like some vast shifting mirror. +</P> + +<P> +Travel-worn and very weary, Beryl sat down by the window and looked out +over the lake, that far as the eye could reach, lifted its sparkling +bosom to the cloudless dim blue of heaven, effacing the sky line; +dotted with sails like huge white butterflies, etched here and there +with spectral, shadowy ship masts, overflown by gray gulls burnished +into the likeness of Zophiels' pinions, as their wings swiftly dipped. +</P> + +<P> +Driven by storms of adversity away from the busy world of her earlier +youth, leaving the wrack of hopes behind, she had drifted on the +chartless current of fate into this Umilta Sisterhood, this latter day +Beguinage; where, provided with work that would furnish her daily +bread, she could hide her proud head without a sense of shame. Doctor +Grantlin, in compliance with her request, would keep the secret of her +retreat; and surely here she might escape forever the scrutiny and the +dangerous magnetism of the man who had irretrievably marred her fair, +ambitious youth. +</P> + +<P> +To-day, twenty-one, full statured in womanhood, prematurely scorched +and scarred in spirit by fierce ordeals, she saw the pale ghost of her +girlhood flitting away amid the ruins of the past; and knew that +instead of making the voyage of life under silken sails gilded with the +light, and fanned by the breath of love and happiness, she had been +swept under black skies before a howling hurricane, into an unexpected +port,—where, lashed to the deck with "torn strips of hope", she had +finally moored a strained, dismasted barque in the "Anchorage", whence +with swelling canvas and flying pennons no ships ever went forth. +</P> + +<P> +A rush of grateful tears filled her tired eyes, and soothed by the +consciousness of an inviolable security, her trembling lips moved in a +prayer of thankfulness to God, upon whom she had stayed her tortured +soul, grappling it to the blessed promise: "Lo, I am with you always. I +will never leave you nor forsake you." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap30"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXX. +</H3> + +<P> +"Why deny it, Leo? Let us at least be frankly realistic, and 'call a +spade a spade' when we set ourselves to dig ditches, draining the +stagnant pools of life. Each human being has a special goal toward +which he or she strains, with nineteen chances out of twenty against +reaching it in time; and if it be won, is it worth the race? With some +of us it is love, ambition, mundane prosperity; with others, +intellectual supremacy, moral perfection, exalted spirituality, +sublimated altruism; but after all, in the final analysis, it is only +hedonism! Each struggles with teeth and claws for that which gives the +largest promise of pleasure to body, mind, or soul, as the individual +happens to incline. To Sybarites the race is too short to be fatiguing, +and the goal is only an ambuscade for satiety and ennui; to ascetics, +the race course stretches to the borders of futurity, but even for them +one form of pleasure, spiritual pleasure, lights up eternity. The thing +we want, we want; not because of its orthodoxy, or its excellency or +beauty PER SE; we want it because it gratifies some idiosyncratic +craving of our threefold natures. The good things of this world are +very adroitly and ingeniously labelled, but we rummage in the +bonbonniere for a certain marron glace, and if it be not there, all the +caramels in Venice, all the 'gluko' in Greece, all the rahatlicum in +Turkey will not appease us." +</P> + +<P> +With her arms thrown back, and clasped around the satin cushion crushed +against her head and shoulders, Miss Cutting lay on a red plush divan +in her father's picture gallery at home; and the swathing folds of a +topaz-hued surah gown embroidered with scarlet poppies half concealed +the feet that beat a tattoo on the polished oak floor. +</P> + +<P> +"Then you have missed your marron glace?" answered Leo, turning from +the contemplation of a new picture which Mr. Cutting had recently added +to his collection. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course. Do not all of us sooner or later? Where is yours? Safe +under lock and key, or hanging on some crag, ripening for the +confectioner; or filched by some stealthy white hand, devoured by some +eager lips that smile derisively at you while they nibble?" +</P> + +<P> +From beneath drooping lids, Alma's oblique glance noted the result of +her Scipio Africanus' tactics. +</P> + +<P> +"Alma, too intemperate and prolonged diet of sweets has ruined your +digestion; has rendered you an ethical dyspeptic. A surfeit of sugar +betrays itself in fermentation, and you have reached the stage of moral +acidulation." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, don't drift into homiletics! I see your marron grows hard by the +vineyard where sour grapes flourish. Leo, I am not so serenely proud as +you, but a trifle more honest, and I have cried for my bonbon, never +flouting its delicious flavor; hence, when I am ordered back to boiled +milk and oatmeal, I make no feint to disguise my wry faces." +</P> + +<P> +Alma's low, teasing laugh stung like some persistent buzzing insect, +and a slight flush tinged her companion's cheek as she replied: +</P> + +<P> +"Why plunge to the opposite extreme? You will starve on that porridge +you are desperately preparing for yourself." +</P> + +<P> +"What else remains? This world is a huge bazaar, a big church fair, and +like other eager-eyed children I promptly set my heart on the great +'bisc' doll with its head turning coquettishly from side to side, +singing snatches from 'La Grande Duchcsse', and clad like Sheba's +queen! I stake all my pennies on a chance in the raffle, which has a +'consolation prize' hidden away from vulgar gaze. By and by the dice +rattle, and over my head, quite out of my reach, is borne the coveted +beauty (owned now by a girl I know), bowing and singing to the new +owner, who exultantly exhibits her as she departs; and into my +outstretched arms falls something hideous enough to play Medusa in a +tableau, a rag baby with grinning Senegambian lips, rayless owlish +eyes, and a concave nose whose nostrils suggest the Catacombs! Bitter +rage and murderous fury possess me, but I am much too wise to show my +tempers at the fair; so I hug my 'consolation prize', and get away as +fast as possible with my treasure, and once safe from observation, box, +deride, trample upon it, and toss it into the garret as suitable prey +for dust, cobwebs and mildew! After a time, the keenness of the +disappointment dulls, like all other human aches that do not kill, and +by degrees I think less vindictively of the despised substitute. +Finally comes a day, when all else failing to amuse me, I creep +sheepishly into the attic and pick up the rejected, and persuade myself +it is at least better than no doll at all, and forthwith adorn it with +rags of finery; but the echoes of 'La Grande Duchesse' will always ring +in my ears, and through the halo of tears I see ever and anon the prize +beauty that was withheld. The two-edged sword in the diablerie of fate +is, that we are ordained to fret after 'bisc,' when stuffed rags have +been meted out as our share of the fair." +</P> + +<P> +Leo drew a chair near the divan and seated herself; looking steadily +into the velvety black eyes that instead of betraying hid, like a +domino, the soul of their owner. +</P> + +<P> +"Alma, better cross empty arms forever over empty heart, than mock your +womanhood by acceptance of a 'consolation prize'." +</P> + +<P> +"We all say that the day after the fair; but wait a few years as I have +done; and like all your sisters in the ranks of the disappointed, you +will ultimately crawl back to the attic and kiss the thick lips, and +try to persuade yourself the nose is not so formidable, though +certainly a trifle less classic than Antinous's! We set out with our +eyes fixed on Vega, blazing above, and flaunt our banner—'tout ou +rien!'—but when the campaign ends, Vega laughs at us from the horizon, +quitting our world; and we console ourselves with a rushlight, and +shelter it carefully from the wind with another flag: 'Quand on n'a pas +ce qu'on aime, il faut aimer ce qu'on a!' Such is the worldly wisdom +that comes with ripening years, like the deep stain on the sunny side +of a peach. Moreover, 'folding empty arms,' is only melodrama metaphor, +and 'empty hearts' are, begging your pardon, only figments of romantic +brains. Our hearts aren't empty, more's the pity! They hold deep, deep, +the image of Vega, and the flare of the tallow eandle on the surface +serves as cross lights to dazzle the world, and help us to hide the +reflection of our star. I saw that metaphor in some novel, and +recognize its truth. Do you, my princess?" +</P> + +<P> +"I will never so utterly degrade myself. I could neither lower my +standard, nor sacrifice my ideal," said Leo, with a touch of scorn in +her usually gentle voice. +</P> + +<P> +"You prefer that your ideal should sacrifice you? One enjoys for a +season the wide expanse visible from that lofty emotional pinnacle; but +the atmosphere is too rarefied, and we gladly descend to the warm, +denser air of the plains of common sense selfishness. If it be lowering +your standard to become the wife of a bishop (the youngest ever +ordained in his State), clothed with the double distilled odors of +sanctity and popularity, then heaven help your standard, which only +heaven can fitly house." +</P> + +<P> +"Since you persist in assuming that so flattering an offer has been +made me, I will set this subject at rest, by a final assurance that +even were your surmise correct, I could never under any imaginable +circumstances marry my cousin, Bishop Douglass. Although I trust and +reverence him beyond all other men, 'I love my cousin cousinly, no +more,' and he is too much absorbed by his holy office and its solemn +responsibilities, to waste thought on the frail, sweet, rosy garland of +any woman's love. Fret yourself no longer in casting matrimonial +horoscopes for me." +</P> + +<P> +The flushed cheeks, and a certain icy curtness in Leo's tone, warned +her companion that she was rashly invading sacred precincts. +</P> + +<P> +"Eight years ago I made the solemn asseveration that I would never +marry; and I ran as a raw recruit to swell the army of foolish virgins +who lost all the wedding splendors, the hypothetical 'cakes and ale', +for want of the oil of worldly wisdom. Now I am thirty-three, and my +lamp is filled to the brim, and the bridegroom is in sight. Why not? +Adverse weather, rain, rust and mildew spoiled my beautiful golden +harvest ten years ago, but aftermath is better than bare stubble +fields, and though you miss the song of the reapers, you escape +starvation. Deny it as we may, we are hopelessly given over to +fetichism, and each one of us ties around her stone image some +beguiling orthodox label. Leo, yours is pride, masquerading in the dun +garb of 'religious duty'. Mine is self-love, pure and simple, the +worldly weal of Alma Cutting; but nominally it is dubbed 'grateful +requital of a life of devotion' in my lover! You grieve over my +heartlessness? That is the one compensation time brings, when men and +women have killed the best in our natures. Teeth ache fiercely; then +the nerve dies, and we have surcease from pain, and find comfort in +knowing that the darkening wreck can throb no more. There was a time +when the pangs of Prometheus seemed only pastime to mine, but all +things end; and now I get on as comfortably without a heart, as the +victims of vivisection—the frogs, and guinea pigs, and rabbits—do +without their brains." +</P> + +<P> +"I do indeed grieve over the fatal step you contemplate; I grieve over +your unwomanliness in marrying a man whom you do not even pretend to +love; and some terrible penalty will avenge the outrage against +feminine nature. Some day your heart will stir in its cold torpor, and +then all Dante's visions of horror, will become your realities, +scuurging you down to despair." +</P> + +<P> +"Because 'Farleigh Court' may lie dangerously close to 'Denzil Place'? +Be easy, Leo; the cold remains of my ossified affection will lie in as +decorous repose as the harmless ash heaps of some long buried damosel +of the era of Lars Porsenna, dug out of Vulci or Chiusi. To make a safe +and brilliant marriage is the acme of social success. What else does +the world to which I belong, offer me now?" +</P> + +<P> +"There remains always, Alma, the alternative of listening to the +instinctive monitors God set to watch in every woman's nature; and we +have the precious and inalienable privilege of being true to ourselves. +Better mourn your 'bisc' than stoop to a lower substitute. Be loyal to +yourself, be true to your own heart." +</P> + +<P> +"I know myself rather too intimately to offer a tribute of admiration +on the altar of ego; and I prefer to make the experiment of trying to +be true and loyal to some one else, with whose imperfections I am not +so well acquainted. When you meet your adorable 'bisc' in society, with +a wife hanging on his arm,—when as pater familias he convoys his flock +of small children who tread on your toes at the chrysanthemum shows, +what then? The world, my world, is generously and munificently lax, and +though the limits of respectable endurance may be as hard to find as +the 'fourth dimension of space', or the authenticity of the 'Book of +Jasher', still for decency's sake we submit there are limits of +decorum; certain proprietorial domains upon which we may not openly +poach; and mcum et tuum though moribund, is not yet numbered with +belief in the 'grail'. Female emancipation is not quite complete even +in America, and noblesse oblige! our code still reads: 'Zeus has +unquestioned right to Io; but woe betide Io when she suns her heart in +the smiles that belong to Hera!' Some women find exhilaration in the +effort to excel, by flying closest to the flame without singeing their +satin wings; by executing a pirouette on the extremest ledge of the +abyss, yet escape toppling in; female Blondins skipping across the +tight rope of Platonic friendship, stretched above the unmentionable. +You are shocked?" +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed, I am pained. I can scarcely recognize the Alma of old." +</P> + +<P> +"Wait one moment, I have the floor. In the days when I wept for +my—shall I say 'bisc'? for impersonality is hedged about with safety, +and the consolation prize had not yet been invited to come back from +Coventry, a funny trifle set me to thinking seriously of my sin of +covetousness. One summer at a certain fashionable resort, let us call +it villeggiatura of the Lepidoptera, the amusement programme had +reached the last act, and people yawned for something new, when 'sweet +charity' came to the rescue, and proposed an entertainment to raise +funds for enlarging an ecclesiastical 'Columbary' where aged, unsightly +and repentant doves might moult, and renew their plumage. Musical, +dramatic, poetic recitations, and tableaux vivants constituted the +method of collecting the money, and the selections would have made +Rabelais chuckle. We had the most flagitiously erotic passages +(rendered in costume) from opera and opera bouffe, living reproductions +of the tragic pose of Paolo and Francesca that would hare inspired +Cabanel anew; of 'Ginevra Da Siena,' of 'Vivien,'—a carnival of the +carnal! where nurseries were robbed to supply the mimic ballet, and +where bald-headed clergyman, and white-haired mothers in Israel clapped +and encored. One fair forsaken dame, whose indignant spouse was seeking +a divorce, came to the footlights in an artistic garment so decollete +that a man sitting behind me whispered to his friend: 'What pictures +does she suggest to you? "Phryne before the Judges"—or Long's +"Thisbe?" She languorously waved a floral fan of crimson carnations, +and recited with all of Siddons' grace and Rachel's fire selections +from a book of poems, that were so many dynamite bombs of vice +smothered in roses. Amid tumultuous applause, she gave as encore +something that contained a fragment of Feydeau, and its closing words +woke up my drowsy soul, like a clap of thunder: 'Ce que les poetes +appellent l'amour, et les moralistes l'adultere!' Leo, there is a moral +somnambulism more frightful than that which leads to midnight +promenades on the combs of roofs, and the borders of Goat Island; so I +wiped my tears away, and after that day, began to read the billet doux +and wear the flowers of my 'consolation prize'." +</P> + +<P> +"You do not love him, and your marriage will degrade you in your own +estimation. Your bridal vows will be perjury, an insult to your God, +and a foul terrible wrong against the man who trusts your truthfulness. +According to our church, wedlock is a 'holy ordinance'; and to me an +unloving wife is unhallowed; is a blot on her sex, only a few degrees +removed from unmarried mothers. You know the difference between +friendship and love, and when you go to the altar, and give the former +in exchange for the latter, the base counterfeit for the true gold, you +are consciously and premeditatedly dishonest." +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks, for your clearness of diction, your perspicuity which leaves +no cobweb of misty doubt wherewith to drape my shivering moral +deformity! To 'see ourselves as others see us' is as disappointing as +the result of plunging one's hand into the 'grab-bag', but at least it +brings the stimulating tingle of a new sensation. Suppose each knows +perfectly well that as regards the true gold, both are equally +bankrupt? There is a queer moral fungus called 'honesty among thieves', +and we both know that we never sang snatches from Offenbach to each +other, through pink 'bisc' lips. He loved quite desperately a mignonne +of a blonde, with heavenly blue eyes and cherubic yellow hair, who, not +knowing his expectations from a California uncle, jilted him for a rich +Cuban. Look you, Leo, because I cannot wear Kohinoor, must I disport +myself without any diamond necklace? Since he can never own 'La +Peregrina,' must he eschew pearl studs in his shield front? We +distinctly understand that we are not first prizes; but perhaps we may +be something better than total blanks in the lottery, even though we +quite realize the difference between love and friendship. Do you? +Portia should know every jot and tittle of the law, and all the subtle +shades of evidence, before she lifts her voice in court." +</P> + +<P> +Alma pushed away her cushion, sat upright, and the slumbering fire +flashed up under her jet lashes. +</P> + +<P> +"If I do, that knowledge which earlier or later comes to all women, is +certainly linked with the comforting consciousness that I can trust +myself to govern and protect myself, without being tied to a watch-dog, +whose baying would serve much the same purpose as that picture in +mosaic in the House of the Tragic Poet. I have a very sincere affection +for you, Alma, but the day on which you sell yourself in a loveless +marriage, will strain hard on the cable of esteem." +</P> + +<P> +"Is it for this reason that you refuse to officiate as my bridesmaid?" +</P> + +<P> +"Solely because I will neither witness nor participate in an act which +will give me great pain by lowering my estimate of your character." +</P> + +<P> +Alma's long, supple, tapering fingers were outstretched, and taking +Leo's white dimpled hands, drew them caressingly to her face, pressing +a palm against each cheek. +</P> + +<P> +"Your good opinion is so precious, I cannot afford to lose it. We +accept men's flattery and expect their compliments, because it is a +traditional homage that survives the chivalry that inspired it; but we +don't mistake chaff for wheat, and the purest, sweetest, noblest and +holiest friendship in life is that of a true, good woman. The perfume +is as different as the stale odor of a cigar, from the breath of the +honeysuckle that bleached all night under crystal dew, floats in at +your window like a message from heaven, I love you dearly, my pretty +Portia, hence I wince a trifle at your harsh ascription of cave canem +motives in my marriage. In the idyllic Arthurian days, the 'Lily Maid +of Astolot' made a touching picture, weeping and dying for the man who +rode away, marauding on kingly preserves; but this is the era of wise, +common sense 'Maud Mullers', and she and the Judge, mating as best they +can, lead peaceful lives in a wholesome atmosphere, and cause no +scandal by following 'affinities' across the lines of law; as some high +in literature, art, and society have done, trusting that the starred +mantle of genius would hide their moral leprosy. With all my faults, at +least I am honest; and when I bow my stiff neck under the yoke +connubial, I promise you I will keep step demurely and sedately. Do you +remember a sombre book we read while yachting, which contained this +brave confession of a woman, whose marriage made her historic? 'I +thought I had done with life. I knew I had now cause to be proud of +belonging to this man, and I was proud. At the same time I as little +feigned ardent love for him, as he demanded it from me.' Leo, you and I +represent different types. You are an eagle brooding in cold eternal +solitude upon the heights, rather than be wooed by valley hawks; I am +only a very tired wren, who missed a mate on my first Valentine season, +and seeing my plumage grows a rusty brown, I accept the overtures of +one similarly forlorn, and hope for serene domesticity under the +sheltering eaves of some quiet, cosey barn. You are a nobler bird, no +doubt; but trust me dear, I shall be the happier." +</P> + +<P> +Leo withdrew her hands, and pushed back her chair, widening the space +that divided them. +</P> + +<P> +"You disappoint me keenly. I thought you too brave to crouch before the +jeers hurled at 'old maidenism'. Moral cowardice is the last flaw I +expected in one of your fibre." +</P> + +<P> +"Wait till you are thirty-three, and stand as a target at Society's +archery meeting. Yesterday Celeste was pale with horror when she showed +me two white hairs pulled from my 'bangs', and added, 'Helas races! and +powdered hair no more the style!' My dear girl— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "'True love, of course, is scarcely in society,<BR> + Unless in fancy dress, and masked like one of us—'"<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +still I really am very proud of my six feet two inches prospective +conjugal yoke-fellow; proud of his martial bearing, his brilliant +reputation, 'proud of his pride'; and I think I shall grow very fond of +him, because in a mild way I think he cares for me'; and we can make a +little Indian Summer for each other before the frosts of Winter fall +upon us. What else can I do with my life? Think of it. Papa will be +married soon, and while I don't propose to tear my hair and insult his +bride, nobody can be expected to reach such altitudes of +self-abnegation as to want a step-mother. Poor papa, I am sure I hope +he may be very happy, but it is superhuman to elect to live under the +same roof, and smile benignantly on his bliss. Rivers, too, has slipped +under the matrimonial noose, and I am absolutely thrown on my own +resources for companionship. What does society offer me? Haggard, +weazen old witch, bedizened in a painted mask; don't I know the yellow +teeth and bleared eyes behind the paste-board, and the sharp nails in +the claws hidden under undressed kid? Have not I gone around for years +on her gaudy wheel, like that patient, uncomplaining goat we saw +stepping on the broad spokes of the great wheel that churned the +butter, and pressed the cheese in that dairy, near Udine? The dizzying +circle, where one must step, step—keep time or be lost! In Winter, +balls, receptions, luncheons, teas, Germans, theatre parties, opera +suppers; a rush for the first glimpse of the last picture that emerges +from the custom-house; for a bouquet of the newest rose that took the +prize at the London Show. In season, coaching parties, tally ho! Then +fox hunting minus the fox, and later, boating and bathing and lawn +tennis!—and—always—everywhere heart-burnings, vapid formalities; +beaux setting belles at each other like terriers scrambling after a +mouse; mothers lying in wait, as wise cats watching to get their paws +on the first-class catch they know their pretty kittens cannot manage +successfully. Oh! Don't I know it all! I dare say my world is the very +best possible of its kind; and I am not cynical, but oh Lord! I am so +deadly tired of everything, and everybody." +</P> + +<P> +"No wonder, unless you mercilessly calumniate it; but you have only +yourself to blame. You made social success your aim, fashionable life +your temple of worship, sham your only God. If you habitually drink +poppy juice, can you fail to be drowsy?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh bless you! I have been polytheistic as any other well-read pagan of +my day, and changed the heads and the labels of the fetiches on my +altar almost as often as my ball wardrobe. I aspired to 'culture' in +all the 'cults', and I improved diligently my opportunities. One year +the stylish craze was sesthetics, and I fought my way to the front of +the bedlamites raving about Sapphic types, 'Sibylla Palmifera' and +'Astarte Syriaca'; and I wore miraculously limp, draggled skirts, that +tangled about my feet tight as the robes of Burne Jones' 'Vivien.' Next +season the star of ceramics and bric-a-brac was in the ascendant, and I +ran the gamut of Satsuma, Kyoto, de la Robbia, Limoge and Gubbio; of +niello, and millchori glass, of Queen Anne brass and Japanese bronze; +while my snuff boxes and my 'symphony in fans' graced all the loan +exhibitions. Soon after, a celebrated scientist from England who had +bowled over all the pins set up by his predecessors, lectured in our +Bojotia; and fired with zeal for truth, I swept aside all my costly +idealistic rubbish into a 'doomed pyramid of the vanities', and swore +allegiance to the Positive, the 'Knowable', whose priests handled +hammers, spectroscopes, electric batteries—and who set up for me a +whole Pantheon of science fetiches. I bought a microscope and peered +into tissues, pollen cells, diatoms, ditch ooze; and pitied my clever +and very talented grandmother who died ignorant of the family secrets +revealed by 'totemism', ignorant of 'parthenogenesis' which proved so +conclusively the truth of her own firm conviction, that the faults she +deplored in her son's children were all inherited directly from her +daughter-in-law, whom she detested; ignorant of the fact that the sun +which she regarded as a dazzling yellow fire was by bolometric measures +shown to be in reality of a restful, and refreshing blue color. By the +time I was fully convinced that teleology was as dead as the Ptolemaic +theory, and that 'wings were not planned for flight, but that flight +has produced wings', hence that Haeckel's gospel of 'Dysteleology' or +purposelessness in Nature satisfactorily explained creation—a great +wave of oriental theosophy overflowed us; and a revival of Buddhism +invited me to seek Nirvana as the final beatitude, where— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "'We shall be<BR> + Part of the mighty universal whole,<BR> + And through all icons mix and mingle with the<BR> + Kosmic Soul!'"<BR> +</P> + +<P> +Or to make matters clearer still: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "'Om, mani Padma, Om! the dewdrop slips<BR> + Into the shining sea!'"<BR> +</P> + +<P> +Even a sponge can hold only so much, and I fell back—or shall I say +forward—in the path of progress to rest in the dimness of agnosticism. +Is it strange, Leo, that I am desperately tired; and willing to plant +my feet on the rock of matrimony, which will neither dissolve nor slip +away, and to which my vows will moor me firmly?" +</P> + +<P> +"If you had clung to your Bible, and prayed more, you would not have +wasted so signally the years that might have brought you enduring +happiness. Forgive me, Alma, but you have lived solely for self." +</P> + +<P> +"Yet now, when I propose to live solely for somebody else, you shake me +off, and repudiate me? Selfish you think? I dare say I am, but religion +now-a-day winks at that, nay fosters it. Each church is an octopus, and +the members are laboriously striving to disprove the Saviour's +admonition: 'Ye cannot serve God and mammon.' I am no worse than my +ritualistic sisters whom I meet and gossip with, under cover of the +organ muttering, and sometimes I wonder if after all we are any nearer +the kingdom of heaven that Christ preached, than the pagans whose +customs we retain under evangelical names. 'They sacrificed a white kid +to the propitious divinities, and a black kid to the unpropiticus.' Do +not we likewise? The church or one of its pensioners needs money; so +instead of denying ourselves some secular amusement, cutting short our +chablis, terrapin, pate de foie gras, gateau, Grec, Amontillado; +wearing less sealskin and sables, buying fewer pigeon-blood rubies, +absolutely mortifying the flesh in order to offer a contribution out of +our pockets to God, how ingeniously we devise schemes to extract the +largest possible amount of purely personal pleasure from the +expenditure of the sum, we call our contribution to charity? We build +chapels, and feed orphans, and clothe widows, and endow reformatories, +and establish beds in hospitals, how? By a devout, consecrating +self-denial which manifests itself in eating and drinking, in singing +and dancing, at kirmess, charity balls, amateur theatricals, garden +parties; where the cost of our XV. Siecle costume is quadruple the +price of the ticket that admits to our sacrifice of black and white +kids in the same sanctuary. We serve God with one hand, and we surely +serve with the other the Mammon of selfishness and vanity. We have +Lenten service, Lenten dietetics, Lenten costumes even; Lenten +progressive euchre, Lenten clubs; but where are the Lenten virtues, +where the genuine humility, charity, self-dedication of body and soul +to true holiness?" +</P> + +<P> +"The church is a school. If pupils will not heed admonition, and defy +the efforts of instructors, is the institution responsible for the +failure in education? The eradication of selfishness is the mission of +the churches; and if we individually practised at home a genuine +self-denial for righteousness' sake, we should collectively show the +world fewer flaws for scoffing reprimand." +</P> + +<P> +"The Shepherds are too timid to control their flocks. If they only had +the nerve to pick us up, turn our hearts inside out, show us the black +corners, and the ossifications, and call sin, sin, we should begin to +realize what despicable shams we are. Dr. Douglass, the Bishop, is the +only one I know who lays us on the dissecting table, and who does not +speak of 'human fallibility' when he means vice. He told us one day +that the Gospel required a line of demarcation between the godly and +the ungodly, between Christians and unbelievers; but that it has become +imaginary like the meridian and the equator; and that he very much +feared the strongest microscope in the laboratories could not find +where the boundary line ran between the World, the Flesh and the Devil, +and the Kingdom of God in our souls. I am sorry a distant State called +him to her Episcopal chair, for his cold steel is needed among us. Now +tell me, Leo, what you intend to do with your life?" +</P> + +<P> +"Spend it for God and my fellow creatures; and enjoy all the pure +happiness I can appropriate without wronging others. I have so many +privileges granted me, that I ought to accomplish some good in this +world, as a thank offering." +</P> + +<P> +"Take care you don't make a fetich of Jerusalem missions, Chinese +tracts, and Sheltering Arms; and lose your dear, sweet personality in a +goody-goody machine bigot. Forgive me, dear old girl, but sometimes I +fear a shadow has fallen in your sunshine." +</P> + +<P> +"Sooner or later they fall into every life, yet mine will pass away I +feel assured. 'Pain, suffering, failure are as needful as ballast to a +ship, without which it does not draw enough water, becomes a plaything +for the winds and waves, travels no certain road, and easily +overturns.' If the gloomiest pessimist of this century can extract that +comfort, what may I not hope for my future? I am going to rebuild my +house at X——and when it is completed, I shall expect the privilege of +returning the hospitality you have so kindly shown me. I shall be very +busy for at least two years, and I am glad to know that Aunt Patty is +beginning to manifest some interest in my plans." +</P> + +<P> +"Leo, may I ask something?" +</P> + +<P> +"If you are quite sure you have the right to ask, and that I can have +no reason to decline answering." +</P> + +<P> +"I can't bear that you should live and die without being a happy wife. +I don't want you to become a mere benevolent automaton set aside for +church work, and charities; getting solemn and thin, with patient +curves deepening around your mouth, and loneliness looking out of— +</P> + +<P> +"'Eyes, meek as gentle Mercy's at the throne of heaven.'" +</P> + +<P> +"To be a happy wife is the dream of womanhood, and if the day should +ever dawn when God gives me that crown of joy, I shall wear it gladly, +proudly, and feel that this world has yielded me its richest blessing; +but, Alma, to-day I know no man whom I could marry with the hope of +that perfect union which alone sanctions and hallows wedded love. I +must be all the world to my husband; and he—next to God—must be the +universe to me. There is Gen'l Haughton coming up the stairs, so I +considerately efface myself. Good-bye till luncheon." +</P> + +<P> +As she glided away and disappeared behind the curtain leading into the +library, Alma looked after her, with very misty eyes, full of +tenderness. +</P> + +<P> +"Brave, proud soul; deep, sorrowful heart. If she can't drown her star, +at least she will admit no lesser light. She will never swerve one iota +from her lofty standard, and some day, please God, she may yet wear her +coveted crown right royally. Governor Glenbeigh is worthy even of her, +but will his devotion win her at last?" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap31"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXXI. +</H3> + +<P> +If it be true that the universal Law of Labor, physical or mental, +emanated from the Creator as a penal statute, for disobedience which +forfeited Eden, how merciful and how marvellous is the delicacy of an +adjustment, whereby all growth of body, mind and soul being conditioned +by work, humanity converts punishment into benediction; escapes +degeneration, attains development solely in accordance with the +provisions of the primeval curse, man's heritage of labor? Amid the +wreck of sacerdotal systems, the destruction of national gods, the +periodical tidal waves of scepticism, the gospel of work maintains +triumphantly its legions of evangels; its apostolic succession direct +from Adam; its myriad temples always alight with altar fires, always +vocal with the sublime hymn swelling from millions of consecrated +throats. +</P> + +<P> +The one infallible tonic for weakened souls, the one supreme balm for +bruised hearts is the divinely distilled chrism of labor. +</P> + +<P> +Absorbed in the round of duties that employed her hands and thoughts, +and necessitated dedication of every waking hour, Beryl found more +solace than she had dared to hope; and the artistic fancies which she +had supposed extinguished, spread their frail gossamer wings and +fluttered shyly into the serene sunshine that had broken rpon her +frozen life. The distinctively ornamental character of many of the +industrial pursuits at the "Anchorage", demanded originality and +variety of designs, and as this department had been assigned to her, +she entered with increasing zest the tempting field of congenial +employment; yet day by day, bending over her tasks, she never lost +sight of the chain that clanked at her wrist, that bound her to a +hideous past, to a murky, lowering and menacing future. +</P> + +<P> +Weeks slipped away, months rolled on; Autumn overtook her. Winter snows +and sleet blanched the heavenly blue of the dimpling lake, and no +tidings reached her from the wanderer, for whom she prayed. The +advertisement had elicited no reply, and though it had long ceased to +appear, she daily searched the personal column of the "Herald", with a +vague expectation of some response. If her brother still lived, was the +world so wide, that she could never trace his erring passage through +it? Would no instinct of natural affection prompt him to seek news of +the mother who had idolized him? After a while she must renew the +quest, but for the present, safety demanded her seclusion; and since +only Doctor Grantlin knew the place of her retreat, she felt secure +from discovery. +</P> + +<P> +One Spring day, when warm South winds had kissed open the spicy lips of +lilacs, and yellowed the terrace with crocus flakes, Beryl dismissed +her class of pupils in drawing and painting, and was engaged in dusting +the plaster casts, and arranging the palettes and pencils left in +disorder. The door opened, and a pretty, young German Sister looked in. +</P> + +<P> +"Sister Ruth have need of you to do some errands; and you must go on +the street; so you will get your bonnet and veil. Is it that you will +be there soon?" +</P> + +<P> +"I will come at once, Sister Elsbeth." +</P> + +<P> +For several days Sister Ruth had been confined to her room by +inflammatory rheumatism, and when Beryl entered, the invalid presented +the appearance of a mummy swathed in red flannel. +</P> + +<P> +"I am sorry to disturb you, and equally sorry that I feel obliged to +exact a reluctant service, because I know you dislike to visit the +business part of the city, and there I must send you. This note from +Mrs. Vanderdonk will explain the nature of the business, which I can +intrust to no one except yourself; and you will see that the commission +admits of no delay. Here is your car fare. Go first to No. 100 Lucre +Avenue, talk fully with Mrs. Vanderdonk, and then ride down to Jardon & +Jackson's and get all the material you think will be required. You will +observe, she lays great stress on the superfine quality of the plush. +Order the bill delivered with the goods; and if anything be required in +your department, you had better leave the list with Kling & Turner." +</P> + +<P> +Three squares south of the "Anchorage" ran a line of street cars which +carried her away to the heart of the city; and at the expiration of an +hour and a half, Beryl had executed the commission, and was walking +homeward, watching for a car which would expedite her return. Dreading +identification, she went rarely into the great thoroughfare; and now +felt doubly shielded from observation by the Quaker-shaped drab bonnet +and veil that covered her white cap. As she was passing the entrance of +a dancing academy, a throng of boys and girls poured out, filling the +sidewalk, and creating a temporary blockade, through which a gentleman +laden with several packages, elbowed his way. A moment later, Beryl's +foot struck some obstacle, and looking down she saw a large portfolio +lying on the pavement. It was a handsome morocco case, with the +initials "G. McI.", stamped in gilt upon the cover, which was tied with +well-worn strings. She held it up, looked around, even turned back, +thinking that the owner might have returned to search for it; but the +gentleman who had hurried through the crowd was no longer visible, and +in the distance she fancied she saw a similar figure cross the street, +and spring upon a car rolling in the opposite direction. +</P> + +<P> +The human clot had dissolved, the juvenile assembly had drifted away; +and as no one appeared to claim the lost article, she signalled to the +driver of the car passing just then, entered and took a seat in one +corner. The only passengers were two nurses with bands of little ones, +seeking fresh air in a neighboring park; and slipping the book under +her veil, Beryl began to examine its contents. A glance showed her that +it belonged to some artist, and was filled with sketches neatly +numbered and dated; while between the leaves lay specimens of ferns and +lichens carefully pressed. +</P> + +<P> +The studies were varied, and in all stages of advancement; here two elk +heads and a buffalo; there a gaunt coyote crouching in the chaparral; a +cluster of giant oaks; far off, a waving line of mountain peaks; a +canon with vultures sailing high above it; cow boys, and a shoreless +sea of prairie, with no shadows except those cast by filmy clouds +drifting against the sun. Slowly turning the leaves, which showed +everywhere a master's skilful hand, Beryl found two sheets of paper +tied together with a strand of silk; and between them lay a fold of +tissue paper, to preserve some delicate lines. She untied the knot, and +carefully lifted the tissue, looking at the sketch. +</P> + +<P> +A faint, inarticulate cry escaped her, and she sank back an instant in +the corner of the seat; but the chatter of the nurses, and the +whimpering wail of one dissatisfied baby mercifully drowned the sound. +The car, the trees on the Street, the belfry of a church seemed +spinning in some witch's dance, and an icy wind swept over and chilled +her. She threw aside her veil, stooped, and her lips whitened. +</P> + +<P> +What was there in the figure of a kneeling monk, to drive the blood in +cold waves to her throbbing heart? The sketch represented the head and +shoulders of a man, whose cowl had fallen back, exposing the outlines +and moulding of a face and throat absolutely flawless in beauty, yet +darkened by the reflection of some overpowering and irremediable woe. +The features were youthful as St. Sebastian's; the expression that of +one prematurely aged by severe and unremitting mental conflict; but +neither shaven crown, nor cowl availed to disguise Bertie Brentano, and +as his sister's eyes gazed at the sketch, it wavered, swam, vanished in +a mist of tears. +</P> + +<P> +In one corner of the sheet a man's hand had written "Brother Luke", +August the 10th. Had relenting fate, or a merciful prayer-answering-God +placed in her hand the long sought clue? When Beryl recovered from the +shock of recognition, and looked around, she found the car empty; and +discovered that she had been carried several squares beyond the street +where she intended to get out and walk. +</P> + +<P> +Carefully replacing the tissue paper and silk thread, she tied the +leathern straps of the portfolio, and left the car, holding the +sketches close to her heart as she hurried homeward. When she turned a +corner and caught sight of the bronze anchor over the door, she +involuntarily slackened her pace, and at the same moment a policeman +crossed the street, stood in front of her, and touched his cap. The +sight of his uniform thrilled her with a premonition of danger. +</P> + +<P> +"Pardon me, Sister, but something has been lost on the street." +</P> + +<P> +"A portfolio? I have found it." +</P> + +<P> +"It is very valuable to the owner." +</P> + +<P> +"I intend having it advertised in to-morrow's paper." +</P> + +<P> +"The person to whom it belongs, wishes to leave the city; to-night, +hence his haste in trying to recover it." +</P> + +<P> +"I picked it up in front of Heilwiggs' Dancing Academy. How did you +know who had found it?" +</P> + +<P> +"The owner discovered he had dropped it, soon after he boarded a car, +where Captain Tunstall of our force happened to be, and he at once +telegraphed to all the stations to be on the look out. A boot-black +whose stand is near Heilwiggs', reported that he saw one of the 'Gray +Women' pick up something, and get on an upbound car. Our station was +telephoned to interview the 'Anchorage', so you see we are prompt. I +was just going over to ring the bell, and make inquiries." +</P> + +<P> +"Who lost the book?" +</P> + +<P> +"A man named McIlvane, an Englishman I think, who is obliged to hurry +on to-night, in order to catch some New York steamer where his passage +is engaged." +</P> + +<P> +"You are sure he is a foreigner?" asked Beryl, who was feverishly +revolving the possibility that the sketch belonged to some detective, +and was intended for identification of the picture on the glass door at +X——. +</P> + +<P> +"You can't be sure of anything that is only lip deep, but that was the +account telephoned to us. There is a reward of twenty dollars if the +book is delivered by eight P.M.; after that time, ten dollars, and +directions left by which to forward it to London. He said it was +worthless to anybody else, but contained a lot of pictures he valued." +</P> + +<P> +"I do not want the reward, but before I surrender the portfolio, I must +see the owner." +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"For reasons that concern only myself. He can come here, and claim his +property; or I will take it to him, and restore it, after he has +answered some questions. You are quite welcome to the reward, which I +am sure you merit because of your promptness and circumspection. Will +you notify him that he can obtain his book by calling at the +'Anchorage'?" +</P> + +<P> +"Our instructions are, to deliver the book at Room 213, Hotel Lucullus. +It is now four o'clock." +</P> + +<P> +"I will not surrender the book to you; but I will accompany you to the +hotel, and deliver it to the owner in your presence. Let us lose no +time." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well. Sister, I'll keep a little behind, and jump on the first +red star car that passes down. Look out for me on the platform, and +I'll stop the car for you." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you," said Beryl, wondering whether the sanctity of her garb +exacted this mark of deference, or whether the instinctive chivalry of +American manhood prompted him to spare her the appearance of police +surveillance. +</P> + +<P> +Keeping her in sight, he loitered until they found themselves on the +same car, where the officer, apparently engrossed by his cigarette, +retained his stand on the rear platform. In front of the hotel two +omnibuses were discharging their human freight, and in the confusion, +Beryl and her escort passed unobserved into the building. He motioned +her into one of the reception rooms on the second floor, and made his +way to the office. +</P> + +<P> +Drawing her quaint bonnet as far over her face as possible, and +straightening her veil, Beryl sat down on a sofa and tried to quiet the +beating of her pulses, the nervous tremor that shook her. She had +ventured shyly out of her covert, and like all other hunted creatures, +trembled at her own daring in making capture feasible. Memory rendered +her vaguely apprehensive; bitter experience quickened her suspicions. +</P> + +<P> +Was she running straight into some fatal trap, ingeniously baited with +her brother's portrait? Would the Sheriff in X——, would Mr. Dunbar +himself, recognize her in her gray disguise? She walked to a mirror set +in the wall, and stared at her own image, put up one hand and pushed +out of sight every ring of hair that showed beneath the white cap +frill; then reassured, resumed her seat. How long the waiting seemed. +</P> + +<P> +Somebody's pet Skye terrier, blanketed with scarlet satin embroidered +with a monogram in gilt, had defied the bienseance of fashionable +canine and feline etiquette, by flying at somebody's sedate, snowy +Maltese cat, whose collar of silver bells jangled out of tune, as the +combatants rolled on the velvet carpet, swept like a cyclone through +the reception room, fled up the corridor. Two pretty children, gay as +paroquets, in their cardinal plush cloaks, ran to the piano and began a +furious tattoo, while their nurse gossiped with the bell boy. +</P> + +<P> +With her hands locked around the portfolio, Beryl sat watching the +door; and at last the policeman appeared at the threshold, where he +paused an instant, then vanished. +</P> + +<P> +A gentleman apparently forty years of age came in, and approached her. +He was short in stature, florid, slightly bald; wore mutton chop +whiskers, and a traveling suit of gray tweed broadly checked. +</P> + +<P> +Beryl rose, the stranger bowed. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, you have my sketch book! Madam, I am eternally your debtor. +Intrinsically worthless, perhaps; yet there are reasons which make it +inestimably valuable to me." +</P> + +<P> +"I picked it up from the pavement, and though I opened and examined it, +you will find the contents intact. Will you look through it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! I dare say it is all right. No one cares for unfinished sketches, +and these are mere studies." +</P> + +<P> +He untied the thongs, turned over a dozen or more papers, then closed +the lid, and put his hand in his pocket. +</P> + +<P> +"I offered a reward to—" +</P> + +<P> +"I wish no fee, sir; but the policeman has taken some trouble in the +matter, and without his aid I should probably not have been able to +restore it. Pay him what you promised, or may deem proper; and then +permit me to ask for some information, which I think you can give me." +</P> + +<P> +She beckoned to the officer who looked in just then; and when the money +had been counted into his hand, the latter lifted his cap. +</P> + +<P> +"Sister, shall I see you safe on the car?" +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, no. I can find my way home. I teach drawing at the +'Anchorage', and desire to ask a few questions of this gentleman, who I +am sure is an artist." +</P> + +<P> +When the policeman had left them, Beryl took the portfolio and opened +it, while the owner watched her curiously, striving to penetrate the +silver gray folds of her veil. +</P> + +<P> +"May I ask whether you expect to leave America immediately?" +</P> + +<P> +"I expect to sail on the steamer for Liverpool next Saturday." +</P> + +<P> +"Have you relatives in this country?" +</P> + +<P> +"None. I am merely a tourist, seeking glimpses of the best of this vast +continent of yours." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you make these sketches?" +</P> + +<P> +"I did, from time to time; in fact, mine has been a sketching tour, and +this book is one of several I have filled in America." +</P> + +<P> +With trembling fingers she untied the silk, lifted the sketch, and said +in a voice which, despite her efforts, quivered: +</P> + +<P> +"I hope, sir, you will not consider me unwarrantably inquisitive, if I +ask, where did you see this face?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ah! My monk of the mountains? That is 'Brother Luke'; looks like one +of Il Frate's wonderful heads, does he not? I saw him—let me see? +Egad! Just exactly where it was, that is the rub! It was far west, +beyond Assiniboia; somewhere in Alberta I am sure." +</P> + +<P> +"Was it on British soil, or in the United States?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly in British territory; and on one of the excursions I made +from Calgary. I think it was while hunting in the mountains between +Alberta and British Columbia. Let me see the sketch. Yes—10th of +August; I was in that region until 1st of September." +</P> + +<P> +Beryl drew a deep breath of intense relief, as she reflected that +foreign territory might bar pursuit; and leaning forward, she asked +hesitatingly: +</P> + +<P> +"Have you any objection to telling me the circumstances under which you +saw him; the situation in which you found him?" +</P> + +<P> +"None whatever; but may I ask if you know him? Is my sketch so good a +portrait?" +</P> + +<P> +"It is wonderfully like one I knew years ago; and of whom I desire to +receive tidings. My friend is a handsome man about twenty-four years of +age." +</P> + +<P> +"I was camping out with a hunting party, and one day while they were +away gunning, I went to sketch a bit of fir wood clinging to the side +of a rocky gorge. The day was hot, and I sat down to rest in the shadow +of a stone ledge, that jutted over the cove where a spring bubbled from +the crag, and made a ribbon of water. Here is the place, on this sheet. +Over there, are the fir trees. Very soon I heard a rich voice chanting +a solemn strain from Palestrinas' Miserere; the very music I had +listened to in the Sistine Chapel, a few months before; and peeping +from my sheltered nook, I saw a man clad in monkish garb stoop to drink +from the spring. He sat a while, with his arms clasped around his +knees, and his profile was so perfect I seized my pencil and drew the +outlines; but before I completed it, he suddenly fell upon his knees, +and the intense anguish, remorse, contrition—what not—so changed the +countenance, that while he prayed, I made rapidly a new sketch. Then +the most extraordinary thing happened. He rose, and turning fully +toward me, I saw that one-half of his face was nobly regular, +classically perfect; while the other side was hideously distorted, +deformed. Absolutely he was 'Hyperion and Satyr' combined—with one set +of features between them. I suppose my astonishment caused me to utter +some exclamation, for he glanced up the cliff, saw me, turned and fled. +I shouted and ran, but could not overtake him, and when I reached the +open space, I saw a figure speeding away on a white mustang pony, and +knew from the fluttering of the black skirts that it was the same man. +My sketch shows the right side of his face, the other was drawn down +almost beyond the lineaments of humanity. Beg pardon, madam, but would +you be so good as to tell me whether this freak of nature was +congenital, or the result of some frightful accident?" +</P> + +<P> +Beryl had shut her eyes, and her lips were compressed to stifle the +moan that struggled in her throat. When she spoke, the stranger +detected a change in her voice. +</P> + +<P> +"The person whose countenance was recalled by your sketch, was +afflicted by no physical blemish, when last I saw him." +</P> + +<P> +"His appearance was so singular, that I made sundry inquiries about +him, but only one person seemed ever to have encountered him; and that +was a half-breed Indian driver, belonging to our party. He told me, +'Brother Luke' belonged to a band of monks living somewhere beyond the +mountains; and that he sometimes crossed, searching for stray cattle. +That is the history of my sketch, and since I am indebted to you for +its recovery, I regret for your sake that it is so meagre." +</P> + +<P> +"It was last August that you made the sketch?" +</P> + +<P> +"Last August. And now may I ask, to whom my thanks are due?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am merely an humble member of a sisterhood of working women, and my +name could possess no interest for you. I owe you an apology for +trespassing upon your time, and prying into the mysteries of your +portfolio; but the beauty of your sketch, and its startling resemblance +to one in whom I have long felt an interest, must plead my pardon. I am +grateful, sir, for your courtesy, and will detain you no longer." +</P> + +<P> +He bowed profoundly; she bent her head, and walked quickly away, +keeping her face lowered, dreading observation. +</P> + +<P> +For the first time since her trial and conviction, a sensation of +perfect tranquillity shed rest upon her anxious and foreboding heart. +Bertie was safe from capture, on foreign soil; and the testimony of the +traveller that he prayed in the solitude of the wilderness, brought her +the comforting assurance, that the fires of remorse had begun the +purification of his sinful soul from the crime that had blackened so +many lives. Trained in his early youth at a Jesuit College, his +sympathies had ever been with the priesthood to whom his tutors +belonged; and his sister readily understood how swiftly he fled to +their penitential, expiatory system, when the blood of his grandfather +had stained his hands, and the scouts of the law hunted him to desert +wilds. +</P> + +<P> +Vain of the personal beauty that had always distinguished him, she +comprehended the keenness of the humiliation, which would goad him to +screen in a cloister, the facial mutilation, that punished him more +excruciatingly than hair shirt, or flagellation. Beyond the reach of +extradition (as she fondly hoped), inviolate beneath the cowl of some +Order which, in protecting his body, essayed also to cleanse, +regenerate and sanctify his imperilled soul, could she not now dismiss +the tormenting apprehension that sleeping or waking had persistently +dogged her, since the day when she saw the fuchsias on the +handkerchief, and the mother-of-pearl grapes on the sleeve button, in +the penitentiary cell? +</P> + +<P> +In a crisis of dire extremity, overborne by adversity, terrified by the +realization of human helplessness, we fly to God, and barter by promise +all our future, for the boon of temporary succor. +</P> + +<P> +How different, how holy the mood that brings us in tearful gratitude to +dedicate our lives to His service, when having abandoned all hope, His +healing hand lifts us out of long agony into unexpected rest? +</P> + +<P> +When an ignominious death stared this woman in the face, she had cried +to her God: "Though You slay me, yet will I trust You!" and to-night +she bowed her head in prayer, thankful that the uplifted hand held no +longer a dagger, but had fallen tenderly in benediction. +</P> + +<P> +Far away in the heart of the city, the clock in its granite tower was +striking two; yet Beryl knelt at her oriel window, with her arms +crossed on the wide sill, and her eyes fixed upon the shimmering sea, +where a soft south wind ruffled it into ridges of silver, beneath a +full May moon. Beyond those silent waters, hidden in some lonely, +snow-girt eyry, where perhaps the muffled thunder of the Pacific +responded to the midnight chants of his oratory, dwelt Bertie; and to +touch his hand once more, to hear from his own lips that he had made +his peace with God, to kiss him good-bye seemed all that was left for +accomplishment. +</P> + +<P> +Poor and unknown, she lacked apparently every means requisite for this +attainment; but faith, patience, and courage were hers. Daily work for +daily wage was the present duty; and in God's good time she would find +her brother. How, or when, so expensive and difficult a quest could be +successfully prosecuted, disquieted her not; she had learned to labor +and to trust; she remembered: "Their strength is to sit still." +</P> + +<P> +The symphony of her life was set in minors, yet subtle and perfect was +the harmony that dwelt therein; and because she had sternly shut love +out of her lonely heart, she kept votive lights burning ceaselessly on +the cold altar of duty. The solitary red rose of happiness that might +have brightened and perfumed her thorny path, she had cut off, ere the +bud expanded, and offered it as a loyal tribute to broaden the garland +that crowned Miss Gordon. At the mandate of conscience, she had +unmurmuringly surrendered this precious blossom, but memory was +tantalizingly tenacious; and in sorrowful hours of sore temptation, the +brave, pure soul came swiftly to the rescue of famishing heart: "What? +Is it so hard for us to keep the Ten Commandments? Do we covet our +neighbor's lover?" +</P> + +<P> +In the garden of earthly existence, some are ordained to bloom as human +plantae tristes, shedding their delicate aroma like the +"Pretty-by-nights", only when the glory of the day is done, and +twilight shadows coax open their pure hearts. +</P> + +<P> +To-night she seemed cradled in the arms of peace, soothed by an +unfaltering trust that whispered: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Would I could wish my wishes all to rest;<BR> + And know to wish the wish, that were the best."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +While her lips moved in a prayer for Bertie, she fell asleep; like a +child at ease, after long paroxysms of pain. When she awoke, the lilacs +were swinging their purple thuribles filled with dew, in honor of the +new day; a silvery mist, tinged here and there with the pale pink hue +of an almond blossom, wavered and curled over the quiet lake, and a +robin red-breast, winging his way from the orange and jasmine boughs of +the far sweet South, rested on the ivied wall, and poured out his happy +heart in a salutatory to the rising sun. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap32"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXXII. +</H3> + +<P> +"I fear, my sister, that you have made a great mistake in refusing an +offer of marriage, which almost any woman might be proud to accept." +</P> + +<P> +Sister Ruth closed her writing desk, and looked at Beryl over her +spectacles. +</P> + +<P> +"Why should you infer that any such proposal has been made to me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Simply because I know all that has occurred, and my cousin writes me +that you decline to marry him. If you had intended to remain here and +identify yourself with this institution, I could better understand your +motives in rejecting a man who offers you wealth, good looks, a +stainless reputation, an honored name, and the best possible social +position." +</P> + +<P> +"All of which tempt me in no degree. Mr. Brompton is doubtless +everything you consider him; lives in a brown stone palace, is an +influential and respected citizen, but comparatively, we are strangers. +He bought my pictures, took a fleeting fancy to my face, and to my +great surprise, indulged in a romantic whim. What does he comprehend of +my past? How little he understands the barrier that shuts me out from +the lot of most women." +</P> + +<P> +"He is fully acquainted with every detail of your life that has been +confided to me, or discovered by the public; and he has studied and +admired you ever since you came to dwell among us. In view of your very +peculiar history, you must admit that his affection is certainly +strong. If you married him, your past would be effectually blotted out." +</P> + +<P> +"I have no desire to blot it out, and though misfortune overshadowed my +name, it is the untarnished legacy my father left me, and I hold it +very sacred; wrap it as a mantle about me. When suspicion of any form +of disgrace falls upon a woman, it is as though some delicate flower +had been thrust too close to a scorching fire; and no matter how +quickly or how far removed, no matter how heavy the dews that empearl +it, how fresh and cool the wind that sweeps over it, how bright the sun +that feeds its pulses,—the curled petals are never smoothed, the hot +blasts leaves its ineffaceable blight. To me, the thought of marriage +comes no more than to one who knows death sits waiting only for the +setting of the sun, to claim his own. That phase of life is as +inaccessible and uninviting to me, as Antartic circumpolar lands; and +even in thought, I have no temptation to explore it. My future and my +past are so interblended, that I could as easily tear out my heart and +continue to breathe, as attempt to separate them. I have a certain work +to do, and its accomplishment bars all other paths." +</P> + +<P> +"Does the nature of that work involve vows of celibacy?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sometimes fate decrees for us, allowing no voluntary vows. How soon +the path to my work will open before me, I cannot tell; but the day +must come, and like a pilgrim girded, I wait and watch." +</P> + +<P> +"Can you find elsewhere a nobler field of work than surrounds you here?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly not, and some dross of selfishness mingles with the motives +that will ultimately bear me beyond these hallowing precincts; yet a +day may come, when having fulfilled a sacred duty, I shall travel back, +praying you to let me live, and work, and die among you." +</P> + +<P> +"My sister, your patient submission, your tireless application, have +endeared you to me; and I should grieve to lose you from our little +gray band, where your artistic labors have reflected so much credit on +the 'Home'." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, Sister Ruth; praise from fellow toilers is praise indeed, +and the greatest blessing one human being can bestow upon another, I +owe to you; the blessing of being helped to procure work, which enables +me to help myself. If I leave the 'Anchorage' for a season, it will be +on an errand such as Noah's dove went forth from refuge to perform; and +when I return with my olive branch, the deluge of my life will have +spent its fury, and I shall rest in peace where the ark is anchored." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you imagine that desertion from our ranks will be so readily +condoned? Drum-head court martial obtains here." +</P> + +<P> +"Would you call it desertion, if seizing the flag of duty that floats +over us here, I forsook the camp only long enough to scout on a +dangerous outpost, to fight single-handed a desperate battle! If I +fell, the folds of our banner would shroud me; if I conquered, would +you not all greet me, when weary and worn I dragged myself back to the +ranks? Some day, when I tap at the ark window, you will open your arms +and take me in; for then my earthly mission will have ended, and the +smoke of the accepted sacrifice will linger in my garments." +</P> + +<P> +"Meantime, to-day's duties demand attention. I have a note from Cyril +Brompton requesting that special courtesy be shown by us to his friend, +the new Bishop, who is in the city, and who desires to inspect the +'Anchorage'. Cyril declines escorting the party, because he finds it +painful to meet you now, and he wishes particularly that you should +show your own department. I shall not be able to climb to the third +story, while my ankles are so swollen, so I must deputize you to do the +honors on your floor. Hold yourself in readiness, if I should send for +you, and do not forget to give the Bishop a package of the new +prospectus of the art school. That basket of orchids must be delivered +before five o'clock. Sister Joanna said you detained her to make a +sketch of it." +</P> + +<P> +"I had almost finished when you summoned me. Send her up for the basket +in half an hour." +</P> + +<P> +The long studio was deserted, and very quiet on that sultry Saturday +afternoon in midsummer, and the drowsy air was laden with fragrance +from the pots of white carnations, massed on the iron balcony, upon +which the tall, plate glass windows opened to the north. Down the +centre of the apartment ran a table covered with oil cloth, and on the +walls hung pictures in oil, water-color, crayon, while upon brackets +and pedestals were mounted plaster casts, terra cotta heads, a few +bronzes, and some hammered brass plaques. In the corners of the room, +four marvels of taxidermy contributed brilliant colors mixed on the +feathered palettes of a pea-fowl, a scarlet flamingo, a gold and a +silver pheasant, all perched on miniature mounds, built of curious +specimens of rock, of shells, coral and sphagnum. +</P> + +<P> +The slow, languid swish, swish of the waters stirred by a passing +steamer, broke on the cliff beyond the wall; and along the sky line +where lake and atmosphere melted insensibly into blue distance, great +cumulus copper-colored clouds hooded with salmon-tinted folds, tipped +here and there with molten silver, shadowed with pearly hollows, hung +entranced by their own image, over the inland sea that gleamed like a +mirror. +</P> + +<P> +At the end of the studio, near the open windows, Beryl had placed the +plateau basket of orchids on the table; and she stood before an easel, +transferring to the surface of a concave brass plaque, the fluted +outlines of the scarlet and orange ribbons, the vivid green, purple and +golden-brown lips, the rose velvet cups, the tender canary-hued calyxes +of the glistening floral mass, whose aroma seemed a panting breath from +equatorial jungles. Having secured the strange forms of these vegetable +simulacra of the insect world, she replaced the sheathing of tissue +paper around the gorgeous mosaic of color; and just then, Sister Joanna +threw open the door, and ushered in a party of visitors, consisting of +two gentlemen and a lady. One was Mr. Kendall, a member of the Chapter +of Trustees. +</P> + +<P> +"Good evening, Sister. Bishop Douglass, of our State, and Miss Gordon, +from the South. I have been boasting to them of the perfect success of +the 'Anchorage', as an industrial institution. Will you show us some of +the work done in this department?" +</P> + +<P> +As on a swiftly revolving wheel, Beryl saw the black eyes and +gold-rimmed spectacles of Leighton Douglass; the shield-shaped amethyst +ring on his broad, white hand; the slender figure by his side, draped +in some soft brown tint of surah silk, the blond hair, the wide, +startled hazel eyes of Leo, who made a step forward, then paused +irresolute. +</P> + +<P> +The gaze of the visitors was fastened upon the superb form wearing the +gray garb of flannel, with snowy fluted frills at the rounded wrists +and throat, and a ruffled white muslin mob cap crowning rich waves of +bronze hair, that framed a beautiful pale face, whose gray eyes kept +always the soft shadow of their long jet lashes. +</P> + +<P> +Only half a minute sufficed to gird Beryl, and with no hint of +recognition in her tranquil countenance, she moved forward, opened the +drawers, and spread out for inspection various specimens of drawing and +painting, in all stages of advancement. +</P> + +<P> +A crimson tide overflowed Leo's cheeks, but accepting the cue of +silence, she refrained from any manifestation of previous acquaintance; +and bending over the pictures, listened to the grave, sweet voice that +briefly, though courteously answered all inquiries concerning the +school, hours of classes, tuition fees, remunerative rates paid for +designs for carpets, wall papers and decorative upholstering. Unrolling +from a wooden cylinder a strip of thick paper, two yards long and +twenty inches wide, she displayed an elaborate arabesque pattern done +in sepia for a sgraffito frieze, sixteenth century, which had been +ordered by the architect of the new "Museum of Art". +</P> + +<P> +"A bit of your favorite Florentine facade," said the Bishop, addressing +his cousin, and peering closely at the scroll work. +</P> + +<P> +"In this corner of the world, one scarcely expects a glimpse of Andrea +Feltrini," answered Leo, avoiding the necessity of looking at Beryl, by +glancing at Mr. Kendall. +</P> + +<P> +"What are your sources of information?" inquired Bishop Douglass. +</P> + +<P> +"We have a carefully selected collection of engravings, and a few good +sketches and cartoons; moreover, some of our Sisterhood have been in +Italy." +</P> + +<P> +In attempting to roll the strip, it slipped from her fingers. Both +women stooped to catch it, and their hands met. Looking into Leo's +eyes, Beryl whispered: "See me alone." Then she rewound the paper, +restored its oil silk cover, and shut the drawer. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you find that the demand for purely ornamental work renders this +department self-sustaining?" asked Leighton Douglass. +</P> + +<P> +"I think the experience of the 'Anchorage' justifies that belief; +especially since the popularization of so-called 'Decorative Art', +which projects the useful into the realm of the beautiful; and by +lending the grace of ornament to the strictly utilitarian, dims the old +line of demarcation." +</P> + +<P> +"We are particularly interested in acquiring accurate knowledge on this +subject, because Miss Gordon hopes to establish a similar institution +near her home in the South; where so many of our countrywomen, rendered +destitute in consequence of the late war, need training which will +enable them to do faithful remunerative work, without compromising +their feminine refinement. While in Europe she inspected various +industrial organizations; saw Kaiserswerth, and the Training Schools +for Nurses, even the Swedish 'Naas Slojd', and her visit here is solely +to verify the flattering accounts she has received of the success of +the eclectic system of the 'Anchorage'. The South is so rich in fine +materials that appear to offer a premium for carving, that we wish to +investigate this branch of 'decorative' labor, and hope you can help us +by some practical suggestions." +</P> + +<P> +"Within the past twelve months, we have commenced the experiment of +wood work; make all the utensils we need, and one of our patrons +secured for us some models from the school you mentioned near +Gothenburg. As yet we have received only two orders; one for a base in +walnut for a baptismal font; the other an oak triptych frame for a +choir in a Minnesota church. The carving is a distinct branch, that +does not belong to my department; but if you will knock at the arched +door on the right hand side of the hall, Sister Katrina, who has charge +of that work, will take pleasure in exhibiting the process. Mr. Kendall +knows the 'Anchorage' so well, he needs no guide to the work-rooms. +Permit me to offer you some copies of our new prospectus, and also a +photograph of this building, as a slight souvenir of your visit here." +</P> + +<P> +She fitted papers and picture into a square envelope stamped with an +anchor in red ink, and handing it to Miss Gordon, walked to the door +and opened it. On the threshold Leo turned, and looked intently into +her face: +</P> + +<P> +"Are you sufficiently at leisure to allow me a little further +conversation this afternoon; or shall I call again?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am entirely at your service, and shall gladly furnish any +information you may desire. Our matron has placed my time at your +disposal." +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Kendall, if you will kindly accompany the Bishop to the +wood-carving room, I can remain here a little while, to ask Sister some +questions, which would scarcely interest you gentlemen. I will join you +there, very soon. Leighton, please get an estimate of the cost of the +necessary outfit, and talk with Mr. Kendall concerning the feasibility +of sending one of our women here for a year." +</P> + +<P> +Closing the door, Beryl put out both hands, and took Leo's. She stood a +moment, holding them in a tight clasp. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, for considerately withholding a recognition that would have +embarrassed me. I hoped that the habit of our Order would in some +degree disguise me, yet, at a glance you knew me." +</P> + +<P> +"Shall I infer that your history is unknown here?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sister Ruth, our Matron, is thoroughly acquainted with my past life, +but she kindly respects my sorrows, and deems it unnecessary to publish +the details among the Sisterhood. Do you know me so little, that you +imagine I am capable of abusing the confidence of the head of an +establishment which mercifully shelters an outcast?" +</P> + +<P> +She stepped back, and motioned her visitor to a seat near the balcony. +</P> + +<P> +"I should be very reluctant to ascribe any unworthy motive to you; +therefore I fail to understand why you desire to preserve your +incognito, especially since the signal vindication of your innocence. +The news of the extraordinary discovery of the picture on the glass, +and of your complete acquittal, even of suspicion, gave me so much +pleasure that I should have written you my hearty congratulations, had +I been able to obtain your address." +</P> + +<P> +"I felt assured you would rejoice with me; and because I hold your good +opinion so valuable, let me say that my happiness in the unexpected +vindication of my character was enhanced by the proud consciousness +that in your estimation I needed none. When the blackness of an +intolerable shame overshadowed me, you groped your way to the dungeon, +and held out your hands in confidence and sympathy. All the world +suspected; you trusted me. You offered your noble name as bond, and +made a place for me at your own sacred hearthstone. Do you think I can +ever forget the blessedness of the balm that your faith in me poured +into my crushed, despairing heart? Do you doubt that no sun sets, +without seeing me on my knees, praying God's blessing of perfect +happiness for you? What would I not do—what would I not suffer—to +secure your peace, and to prove my gratitude?" +</P> + +<P> +Her voice vibrated like the silver string of a deep violon-cello, and +Leo, gazing up into the misty splendor of the beautiful sad eyes, +ceased to wonder at the fascination which she had exerted over Mr. +Dunbar. Unintentionally this woman's face had marred her life; had +unwittingly stolen her lover's heart; yet she believed no treachery +sullied the pure perfection of the soft red lips, and Leo's generous +nature rose above the narrow limits of ordinary feminine jealousy. Had +she doubted for an instant the theory that Beryl was heroically +suffering the penalty of a crime, in order to screen her guilty lover, +some suspicion of the truth might have dawned upon her. +</P> + +<P> +"Suppose I intend to put your gratitude to the test? You have +exaggerated the debt which you acknowledge; are you prepared to cancel +it? If I say to you, because I believed in you, trusted you, will you +repay me now, by granting a favor which I shall ask?" +</P> + +<P> +"I think Miss Gordon could express no wish that I would not gladly +execute, in order to promote her happiness." +</P> + +<P> +"Will you come back to X——and help me to establish a home for women, +who are destitute alike of money and of family ties? When you preside +over it I shall be haunted by no fears of failure. Once, I gave you my +sympathy; now, when I need help, will you give me yours?" +</P> + +<P> +Beryl shivered, and looked wonderingly at her companion. Was she indeed +so unsuspicious of the quicksand on which stood the fair temple of her +hopes in marriage? +</P> + +<P> +"O, Miss Gordon! That is the one thing, in all the world, that for your +sake as well as mine, I could never do. No, no; impossible." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, not for my sake, since I desire it so earnestly?" +</P> + +<P> +A bright flush had risen in Leo's cheeks, and she threw back her small +head challengingly. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment Beryl wavered. Could she bear to wound that proud spirit? +</P> + +<P> +"Go back to X——? To X——! It would be a renewal of my martyrdom, and +I should only be a stumbling block in the scheme you contemplate. You +do not understand, perhaps; but believe me, I prove my gratitude by +refusing your kind offer." +</P> + +<P> +"I think I understand; and if I am willing to run the risk, what then?" +</P> + +<P> +"Do not ask me the impossible. The very atmosphere of X——would numb +me, destroy all capability of usefulness, by reviving harrowing +memories." +</P> + +<P> +"Had not every shadow of suspicion vanished, and the entire community +manifested delight in your triumphant innocence, I should never have +suggested a return to the scene of your sufferings. Certainly, I cannot +press the payment of a debt, which you volunteered to cancel; but I am +sorry your refuse to oblige me." +</P> + +<P> +There was a starry sparkle in the soft hazel eyes, and an involuntary +and unconscious hardening of her lips, as Leo rose. +</P> + +<P> +"It is hard, Miss Gordon, to be always misunderstood; but sometimes +duty points to lines that subject us to harsh and bitter censure. I +bear ever a heavy burden; do not increase my load by condemning me as +ungrateful, God knows, you hold a warm and a holy place in my heart, +and your happiness is more to me than my own; yet the one thing you +ask, my conscience forbids." +</P> + +<P> +"How long have you been here?" +</P> + +<P> +"It will be two years to-morrow since I entered these peaceful walls." +</P> + +<P> +"Then your probation ends, and you become permanently a Sister of the +'Anchorage'?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not yet. I have been permitted to earn my daily bread here, upon +conditions somewhat at variance with the regulations that usually +govern the institution. I have not applied for admission to permanent +membership, because my stay is contingent upon circumstances, which may +call me hence to-morrow; which may never arise to beckon me away. +Sister Ruth generously allows me the latitude of choice; not for my own +sake, but for that of a friend, whose influence secured my admission. +After a while, when I have finished my work, I hope to come back; to +spend the residue of my earthly days, and to die here, a faithful +Umilta Sister of the 'Anchorage', which opened its arms when I was a +needy and desolate waif." +</P> + +<P> +"The peace of your new life is certainly reflected in your face. +Patience has had its perfect work; and that 'peace that passeth all +understanding' is the reward granted you." +</P> + +<P> +Leo held out her hand, and Beryl took it between both hers. +</P> + +<P> +"Dear Miss Gordon, grapes yield no wine until they are crushed, +trampled, bereft of bloom, of rounded symmetry, of beautiful color; but +the Lord of the Vineyard is entitled to His own. I was a very proud, +self-reliant girl, impatient of poverty, daringly ambitious; and what I +deemed a cruel fate, threw me into the vat, to be trodden under foot. +It may be, that when the ferment ends, and time mellows all, the purple +wine of my bruised and broken life may be accounted worthy the seal of +a sacramental sacrifice. I have ceased to question, to struggle, to +plan. Like a blind child, fearing to stumble into ruin, I stand, and +stretch out my hands to Him, who has led me safely through deep waters, +along frightful gorges. Each day brings its work, which I strive +worthily to accomplish; but my aim is to lay my heart, mind, soul, my +stubborn will, all in God's hands. You think peace the summum bonum? +Sometimes we obtain it by an ignominious surrender, when we should +possess it by conquest. 'Peace of mind is a beautiful and heavenly +thing; but even peace of mind may become an idol; and there is perhaps +no idol to which women bow down more passionately.' For this reason, I +am waiting for the drum beat of duty, and my march may begin at any +moment. I asked to see you alone, in order to beg that you will +increase my debt of obligations, by promising to reveal to no one the +place of my retreat. Accident has betrayed to you that which I am +anxious to keep secret; and I trust you will tell no one where you met +me." +</P> + +<P> +"Why should you hide, as though you were a culprit? You have been so +completely exonerated from the imputation of guilt which once hung over +you, that you owe it to yourself to front the gaze of the world +fearlessly. What have you to dread?" +</P> + +<P> +"The failure of something, which, though its accomplishment costs me +very dear, I shall not relax my efforts to promote. I am trying to be +loyal to my duty, even when the command is to strangle my own weak +heart. You do not, cannot understand. God grant you never will. There +are reasons why it is best for me to live in strict seclusion, for the +present. Those reasons I can explain neither to you, nor to any other +human being; and yet, I ask you to respect them, and to keep my secret. +You trusted me in the terrible exigencies of the past; and you must +trust me now, for—oh! God knows—I do indeed deserve your confidence." +</P> + +<P> +She raised the hand folded in her own, and bowed her head upon it. +</P> + +<P> +"You have my promise. Without your permission, I will mention our +meeting to no one. I trust you; and perhaps if you would trust me, I +might render you some aid." +</P> + +<P> +"The day may come, when I can find it compatible with duty to tell you +the secret of my life. In future years, when you are a happy wife, I +shall by God's help be able to seek you and your husband, and thank you +both for many kindnesses. I pray that you may be as happy as you +deserve." +</P> + +<P> +There was no tremor in the voice that answered quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"If you refer to Mr. Dunbar, you have been led astray by the gossip in +X——. Once, there seemed a probability that our lives might be united; +but long ago, we found that ardent friendship could not take the place +of love; and rather more than three years have passed since we have +even seen each other." +</P> + +<P> +With a startled movement Beryl dropped her companion's fingers, and +laid a hand on her shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! do not tell me that you have broken your engagement!" +</P> + +<P> +The two looked steadily at each other, and while Leo's proud face gave +no hint of pain or embarrassment, Beryl's blanched, quivered. +</P> + +<P> +"How did you know that any engagement ever existed?" +</P> + +<P> +"All X——knew it. Mrs. Singleton and Sister Serena told me." +</P> + +<P> +"I dissolved that engagement before I went to Europe." +</P> + +<P> +"Then you rashly wrecked your beautiful future. Why did you cast him +off? He would have made you happy; he is worthy, I think, even of you." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, he is worthy, I believe, of any woman whom he may really love; +but my happiness is not in his keeping, and my future holds, I trust, +something much brighter than our marriage would hate proved to me." +</P> + +<P> +"You have thrown away the substance for the shadow. Before it is too +late, reconsider your decision; give him an opportunity to reinstate +himself in your affection. You have both been so kind to me, that I +have hoped you would find life long happiness in each other." +</P> + +<P> +"Dismiss that delusion. His path and mine diverge more and more, and we +no longer dwell in the same State. He has inherited a large amount of +property in Louisiana, and now lives in New Orleans; hence you can +readily perceive how far apart the currents of our lives have drifted. +I rejoice in my freedom; and he, I suspect, is not inconsolable for my +loss." +</P> + +<P> +Through Beryl's whirling brain darted the recollection of a rumor, that +Leighton Douglass was suitor for his cousin's hand; and that Miss Dent +favored the alliance. Was the solution of Miss Gordon's cold, calm +indifference to be found in the presence and devotion of the Bishop? +Could he have supplanted Mr. Dunbar in her affection? Had the world +swung from its moorings? What meant the light that broke upon her, as +if the walls of heaven had fallen, and let all the glory out? +</P> + +<P> +After a moment she said, solemnly: +</P> + +<P> +"I pray God to overrule all earthly things, for your welfare, for your +heart's truest happiness; and for the realization of your dearest +hopes. When my mission has been accomplished, and duty lifts her seal +from my lips, I may try to see you once more, and explain the necessity +that forced me to seek seclusion." +</P> + +<P> +"I believe I understand; and I trust your reward will not be delayed. +You and I can lean with confidence upon the wisdom and the mercy of the +God we worship; but each must serve out His appointed time of bondage +in the Egypt of suffering, in the famine of the desert; and must drink +at Marah, before the blessing of the manna, the grapes of Eshcol, the +roses of Sharon. If ever you should need an earthly friend, remember +me; and if all other refuge fail you, my home can be always yours." +</P> + +<P> +Hand in hand they walked to the door, and Leo pitied the future of this +woman, whose lover was a wandering outlaw, with a price set upon his +head; and beneath her gray flannel habit, Beryl's heart was torn with +conflicting emotions, as she watched the placid, proud face, that +showed no vestige of the storm of disappointment which had stranded her +sweetest hope in life. +</P> + +<P> +"Good-bye, Beryl; God keep you in His tender care." +</P> + +<P> +"Good-bye, dear Miss Gordon. I will pray for your happiness, so long as +I live." +</P> + +<P> +She stooped, drew Leo's hands to her face, pressed her trembling lips +twice upon them; then turned quickly, and locked herself in the studio. +</P> + +<P> +Is it true, that "Orestes and Pylades have no sisters?" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap33"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXXIII. +</H3> + +<P> +A Persian proverb tells us: "A stone that is fit for the wall is not +left in the way." Strong artistic aspirations will plough through arid +sands, leap across bottomless chasms, toil over bristling obstacles, +climb bald, freezing crags to reach that shining plateau, where "beauty +pitches her tents", and the Ideal beckons. Favorable environment is the +steaming atmosphere that fosters, forces and develops germs which might +not survive the struggle against adverse influences, in uncongenial +habitat; but nature moulds some types that attain perfection through +perpetual elementary warfare which hardens the fibre, and strengthens +the hold; as in those invincible algx towering in the stormy straits of +Tierra del Fuego, swept from Antartic homes toward the +equator,—defying the fierce flail of surf that pulverizes rock, "Breed +is stronger than pasture; and no matter how savage a stepmother the +circumstances of life may prove, the inherited psychological strain +will sometimes dominate, and triumph." According to the Talmud: "A +myrtle, even in a desert, remains a myrtle". +</P> + +<P> +From her tenth year, Beryl had begun to build her castle in the Spain +of Art; daubed its walls with wonderful frescoes, filled its echoing +corridors with heroic men and lovely women of the classic ages; and +through its mullioned windows looked into an enchanted land, clothed +with that witching "light that never was on sea or land". When all else +on earth was sombre and dun-hued, sunlight and moonlight still gilded +those magical towers. In darkest nights, through hissing rain and +hurtling hail, she caught the glitter of its starry vanes smiling +through murkiness, and above the wail and sob of the storms that had +swept over the waste places of her youth, she heard the divine melodies +which the immortal harper, Hope, played always in the marvellous palace +of the Muses. +</P> + +<P> +In early girlhood she had followed her father into the solemn mysteries +of Greek Tragedy; and in that vast white temple dedicated to the +inexorable Fates, where predestined victims moved like marble images to +their immolation, her own plastic nature had been moulded in unison +with the classic cult. Among the throng of Attic types, an immortal +statue of filial devotion and sisterly love had attracted her +irresistibly, and to Antigone she rendered the homage of a boundless +admiration, an unwavering fealty. +</P> + +<P> +Intellectually, humanity cleaves to idolatry; and each of us worships +in the Pantheon, where our favorite divinities in literature crowd the +niches. To become a skilful artist, and paint the portrait of Antigone, +vas the ambition that had shaped and colored Beryl's young dreams, long +ere she suspected that a mournful parallelism in fate would consign her +to a living tomb more intolerable than that devised by Theban Creon. +</P> + +<P> +Our grandest pictures, statues, poems, are not the canvas, the marble, +the bronze, and the gilded vellum, that the world handles, criticises, +weighs, buys and sells, accepts with praise, or rejects with anathema. +Invisible and inviolate, imagination, keeps our best, our ideals, +locked in the cerebrum cells of "gray matter", which we are pleased to +call our workshop. +</P> + +<P> +What art gallery, what library can rival the sublime and beautiful +images that crowd the creased and folded labyrinth of the human brain; +as far beyond the ken and analysis of the biologist's microscope, as +some remote nebulae shining in blue gulfs of interstellar space, that +no telescopic Jense can ever discover, even as a faint blur of silvery +mist upon the black velvet vault that suns and planets spangle? +</P> + +<P> +In some degree, Beryl's artistic dream had been realized; and the study +of years slowly flowered into a large painting, which represented +Antigone standing beside the heap of dust, strewn reverently to +sepulchre the form dimly outlined at her feet. The sullen red sunset of +a tempestuous day flared from the horizon, across a desolate plain; +showed the city walls in the background, the hungry vultures poised +high above the dead, the marauding dogs crouched in the wind-swept +sand, watching their banquet, decreed by the king. The dust had been +scattered from a black vase that bore on its front, in a circular +medallion, the lurid head of grinning Hecate; and the last rite to +appease the unquiet manes was performed by the uplifted right arm that +poured libations from a burnished brass urn, held aloft over the pall +of earth that denned the figure beneath. The left hand was stretched, +not heavenward, but shieldingly over the mound, and in the beautiful, +stern face bent a little downward in invocation of the infernal gods, +one read sublime self-surrender, grief for Oedipus, regret for Hasmon, +farewell to life,—mingled with exultant consciousness that a +successful sacrifice had been accomplished for Polynices, and that the +spirit of the brother rested in peace. +</P> + +<P> +The soul of the artist seemed to look triumphantly through the solemn, +purplish blue eyes of the young martyr, and Beryl knew that her own +heart beat under the pamted folds of the diploidion; that she had +epitomized in a symbolic picture, the history of her own joyless youth. +</P> + +<P> +The canvas had been framed and hung at the art exhibition of the new +"Museum", opened in September; and only the "U" traced in one corner +beneath an anchor, indicated that it was the work of the Umilta +Sisters' "Anchorage". +</P> + +<P> +The public peered, puzzled, shook its sapient head, shrugged its +authoritative shoulders, and sundry criticisms crept into the journals; +but the prophet was judged in "his own country"; and home work, +according to universal canons, rarely finds favor among home awarding +committees, whose dulness its uncomprehended excellence affronts. +</P> + +<P> +One censured vehemently the masonry of the city wall; another deplored +pathetically the "defective foreshortening of a dog's shoulders"; the +picture "lacked depth of tone"; the "coloring was too bizarre", the +"tints too neutral". +</P> + +<P> +Like chemicals tested in a laboratory, or like Pharaoh's lean kine, +each objection devoured the preceding one; and unanimity of blame +assaulted only one salient point on the entire canvas: the red sandals +of the Greek girl—upon which outraged good taste fell with pitiless +fury. +</P> + +<P> +Undismayed, Beryl withdrew her picture, erased the ciphers in the +corner, and shipped it to New York to Doctor Grantlin, who had recently +returned from Europe; requesting him to place it at a picture dealer's +on Broadway, and to withhold the name of its birth-place. +</P> + +<P> +Two weeks later, a popular journal published an elaborate description +of "A painting supposed to have been obtained abroad by a New York +collector, who merited congratulation upon possession of a masterpiece, +which recalled the marvellous technique of Gerome, the atmosphere of +Jules Breton, the rich, mellow coloring, and especially the scrupulous +fidelity of archaic detail, which characterized Alma Tadema; and was +conspicuously manifest in the red shoes so distinctively typical of +Theban women". +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Kendall caused this article to be copied into the leading newspaper +of his own city; and the first mail, thereafter, carried to New York an +offer of eight hundred dollars for the painting, from the President of +the "Museum" Directors, who had been so shocked by the unknown +significance of the "red shoes". After a few days, it was generally +known, but mentioned with bated breath, that the "Antigone" had been +bought by a wealthy Philadelphian, who paid for it two thousand +dollars, and hung it in his gallery, where Fortunys, Madrazos, and +Diazs ornamented the walls. +</P> + +<P> +Why should journeying abroad to render "Caesar's things" to foreign +Caesars, demand such total bankruptcy that we must needs repudiate the +just debts of home creditors, whose chimneys smoke just beyond the +fence that divides us? De mortuis nil nisi bonum is a traditional and +sacred duty to departed workers; but does it exhaust human charity, or +require contemptuous crusade against equally honest, living toilers? +Are antiquity and foreign birthplace imperatively essential factors in +the award of praise for even faithful and noble work? We lament the +caustic moroseness of embittered Schopenhauer, brooding savagely over +his failure to secure contemporaneous recognition; yet after all, did +he malign his race, or his age, when, in answer to the inquiry where he +desired to be buried, he scornfully exclaimed: "No matter where; +posterity will find me." +</P> + +<P> +It was on the 26th of October, a week subsequent to the receipt of the +letter which contained the check sent in payment for the picture, that +Beryl sat down on the stone sill of her oriel window, to rest in the +seclusion of her room, after the labors of the day. +</P> + +<P> +It was the anniversary of her ill-starred visit to X——, and +melancholy memories had greeted her at dawn, clung to her skirts, +chanted their dismal refrain, and renewed the pain which time had in +some degree dulled. Four years ago she had felt her mother's feverish +lips on hers, in a parting kiss, and four years ago to-day the sun of +her girlhood had passed suddenly into total eclipse. Since then, moving +in a semi-twilight, suffering had prematurely aged her, and she had +schooled herself to expect no star, save that of duty, to burn along +her lonely path. To-day, she thought of the pride her picture would +have aroused in her devoted father; of the comforts the money would +have purchased for her invalid mother; of the pleasure, success as an +artist would have brought to her own ambitious soul, if only it had not +come so many years too late. What crown could fame bring to one, +dwelling always in the chill shadow of a terrible shame? The glory of +noble renown could never gild a name that had answered at the convicts' +roll call; a name which, at any moment, Bertie's arrest might drag back +to the disgrace of established felony. +</P> + +<P> +Of all mocking fiends, the arch torturer is that hand which draws aside +the black curtain of grim actuality, and shows us the wonderful realm +of "might have been", where lost hopes blossom eternally, and the +witchery of hallowed illusions is never dispelled. +</P> + +<P> +Wearily Beryl closed her eyes, as though the white lids availed to shut +out visions, tantalizing as the dream of bubbling springs, and +palm-fringed isles of dewy verdure, to the delirious traveller dying of +thirst, in the furnace blasts of mid-desert. +</P> + +<P> +If she had defied her mother's wishes, and refused to go to X—? How +different the world would seem to her; but, what was a world worth, +that had never known Mr. Dunbar? +</P> + +<P> +Over burning ploughshares she had walked to meet one destined to stir +to its depths the slumbering sea of her tenderest love; and to forego +the pain, would she relinquish the recompense? +</P> + +<P> +During the months that elapsed after Leo's visit to the "Anchorage", +Beryl had surrendered her heart to the great happiness of dwelling, +unrebuked by conscience, upon the precious assurance that the love of +the man whom she had so persistently defied and shunned, was +irrevocably hers. The sharpest pain that can horrow womanhood, springs +from the contemplation of the superior right of another to the object +of her affection; and though honor coerces submission to the just +claims of a rival, renunciation of the beloved entails pangs that no +anaesthetic has power to quiet. +</P> + +<P> +After the long struggle to aid Miss Gordon's accepted lover in keeping +his vows of loyalty, the discovery of his freedom, and the belief that +Bishop Douglass had supplanted him in the affection of her generous +benefactress, had brought to Beryl an exquisite release; sweet as the +spicy breath of the tropics wafted suddenly to some stranded, frozen +Arctic voyager. Heroic and patient, keeping her numb face steadfastly +turned to the pole star of duty, where the compass of conscience +pointed—was the floe ice on which she had been wrecked, drifting +slowly, imperceptibly, yet surely down to the purple warmth of the Gulf +Stream, dotted with swelling sails of rescue? Like oceanic streams +meeting, running side by side, freighted with cold for the equatorial +caldrons, with heat for the poles, are not the divinely appointed +currents of mercy and of affliction, God's agents of compensation, to +equalize the destinies of humanity? +</P> + +<P> +We rail at Fate as triple monsters; but sometimes it happens, that the +veil of inscrutability floats aside, for an instant, and we catch a +glimpse of the radiant smile of an infinite love. +</P> + +<P> +Hope had set in Beryl's sky, but a tender afterglow held off the coming +night, when she thought of the face that had bent so yearningly above +her, of the passionate voice and the thrilling touch that were now her +most precious memories. The pearl which Miss Gordon had cast away as +worthless, the discarded convict might surely, without sin, claim as +her own for ever. To-day an intense longing to see him once more, to +hear from his lips praise of her "Antigone", disturbed the tranquillity +that was spreading its robes of minever over a stony path; but she put +aside the temptation. +</P> + +<P> +To the Sisterhood of the "Anchorage" she had given one-half the +proceeds of the picture sale; and the remainder would enable her at +last to renew the search for her unhappy brother. So vague were the +topographical lines furnished by the English tourist, that prosecuting +her quest in the remote wilderness of mountains, which wore their crown +of snow, seemed a reckless waste of hope, time and money; nevertheless, +she must make the attempt. She knew that a gigantic railway system was +crawling like an anaconda under rocky ranges, over foaming rivers, +stretching its sinuous steel trail from Bay of Chaleur to Georgia Gulf; +with termini that saw the sun rise from the Atlantic Ocean, and watched +its setting in the red glory of the far Pacific; and perhaps steam +shovels, and iron tight-ropes might furnish her facilities on her long +journey. +</P> + +<P> +Winter would soon overtake her, and in the inhospitable region where +her brother had been surprised at his prayers, how could a lonely woman +travel without protection? Doubt, apprehension flitted as ill-boding +birds of night, flapping dusky wings to hide the signal beacon, which +love and duty swung to and fro; yet the yearning to see her brother's +face again, dwarfed all barriers, and she trusted God's guidance. +</P> + +<P> +On a chair near her, lay, on this afternoon, a map which for many days +she had been studying; and opening it once more, she ran a finger along +the dotted lines, mentally debating whether it would be best to go by +rail to Ottawa, by water to Sault St. Marie, whence the new railway +could be easily reached, or whether the most direct route would be via +St. Paul to Winnepeg. When she left the "Anchorage", her destination +must remain a secret; hence she could ask no counsel. In view of +approaching cold weather, economy of time seemed imperative; and she +resolved to buy a railway ticket to Fargo, where she could elude +suspicion, should the threatened invisible detective "shadow" her; and +whence another Pacific highway offered egress to western wilds. With +this definite conclusion she closed the map, and a moment later, some +one knocked at her door. +</P> + +<P> +"Come in." +</P> + +<P> +She went forward, and met Sister Katrina, a robust dame of forty years, +blond as Gerda; with the "light of the glowworm's tails" in her +golden-lashed violet eyes, and the "ruby spots of the cowslip's leaves" +on her full, frank lips. +</P> + +<P> +"Will you sit a while with me? There is still a half hour, before your +evening work begins in the carving shop. Come in." +</P> + +<P> +"I am sorry I have not time now, to indulge myself in such luxury as a +chat with you always proves. I came to beg the loan of your India ink +copy of the marble screens at Agra; which I have an idea would be very +effective done in cherry, for the panels under the new bookcases we are +designing for the library." +</P> + +<P> +"The copy is up stairs in the studio; but I shall be glad to get it for +you." +</P> + +<P> +"No; with your permission I can help myself, and I am going up there +now, for some red chalk. I know exactly where to find the picture, +because I was examining it two days ago. What think you of my idea?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am afraid you will find cherry too dark. A lighter wood, I think, +would be better adapted to the exceeding delicacy of the design." +</P> + +<P> +"Wait till I cut out a sample scroll, and we will talk it over. Sister +Ruth asked me to hand to you this paper, which contains a very +complimentary notice of your lovely picture. I read it as I came up, +and congratulate you on all the fine things said. You scarcely know how +proud we feel of our Sister's work. Thanks for the use of the drawing." +</P> + +<P> +She smiled, nodded and closed the door; and when her bright cheery +countenance vanished, it seemed as though a film of cloud had drifted +across the sun. +</P> + +<P> +Beryl went back to a low chair in front of the window, and opened the +paper, which chanced to be the New York "Herald." Unfolding it to hunt +the designated article, her glance fell accidentally upon the personal +column. Her heart leaped, then almost ceased beating, as she read: +</P> + +<P> +"Important. Bertie will meet Gigina in the Museum at Niagara Falls, +Canada side, any day during the last week in October." +</P> + +<P> +Two years and a half had almost gone by since she inserted the +advertisement, to which this was evidently a reply. Long ago she had +ceased to expect any tidings through this channel; but the seed sown in +faith, watered by tears, and guarded by continual prayer had stirred to +life; blossomed in the sunshine of God's pitying smile, and after weary +waiting, the ripe fruit fell at her feet. How fair and smooth, rosy and +fragrant it appeared to her famishing heart? How opportune the guiding +hand that pointed her way, when cross roads baffled her. Two days +later, she would have been journeying away from the coveted goal. Now +the tide of battle was turning. Had the stars rolled back on their +courses to rescue Sisera? +</P> + +<P> +How long the happy woman sat there, exulting in the mellowness of the +perfect fruit of patience, she never knew. +</P> + +<P> +Day died slowly; the vivid crimson and dazzling gold that fired the +West were reflected in the tranquil bosom of the lake, faded into the +tender pale rose of the sacred lotus, into the exquisite tints that +gild the outer petals of a daffodil, the heart of buttercups; and +then, robed in faintest violet powdered with silvery dust, the vast +pinions of Crepuscule spread over sky and water, fanning into full +flame the glittering sparks of planets and constellations that lighted +the chariot course of the coming moon. +</P> + +<P> +Across the sleeping lake hurried a north wind, on its long journey to +blow open the snowy camellias folded close in the heart of the South, +and under his winged sandals the waters crimped, rippled, swelled into +wavelets that played their minor adagio in nature's nocturn, as their +foam fingers fell on the pebbles that fringed the beach. From the deck +of a schooner anchored off shore, floated the deep voice of a man +singing Schubert's "Ave Maria"; and far, far away over the weird waste +of waters, where a buoy marked a sunken wreck, its red beacon burned +like the eye of Polyphemus, crouching in darkness, watching to +surprise Galatea. +</P> + +<P> +The penetrating chill of the night air aroused Beryl from her profound +trance; and lighting the gas over her dressing table, she re-read the +magical words that had transformed her narrow world. This was Monday +the 26th, and next Saturday was the limit of the proposed interview. +One day must suffice for necessary preparation, and starting by early +morning express on Wednesday, she would arrive in time to keep the +tryst that involved so much. She cut out the notice that was merely a +sentence in the page of social hieroglyphics, where no key fitted more +than one paragraph, and forgetting the criticism on her picture, she +went swiftly down stairs. +</P> + +<P> +The members of the Sisterhood were at supper, and she waited at the +refectory door for an opportunity to meet the matron. +</P> + +<P> +On the platform raised in the centre of the long room, sat the reader +for the day, Sister Agatha; a plump, florid young woman, with bright +black eyes, and a voice sweet and strong as the flute stop of an organ. +The selection that evening had been from "Agate Windows" and "Ice +Morsels", and the closing words were: +</P> + +<P> +"Alpine flowers are warmed by snow; the summer beauty of our hills, and +the autumn fertility of our valleys, have been caused by the cold +embrace of the glacier; and so, by the chill of trial and sorrow, are +the outlines of Christian character moulded and beautified. And we, who +recognize the loving kindness as well as the power of God in what may +seem the harsher and more forbidding agencies of nature, ought not to +be weary and faint in our minds, if over our own warm human life, the +same kind pitying Hand should sometimes cause His snow of +disappointment to fall like wool, and cast forth His ice of adversity +like morsels; knowing that even by these unlikely means, shall +ultimately be given to us also, as to nature, the beauty of Sharon, and +the peace of Carmel!" +</P> + +<P> +Somewhere in the apartment, a bell tapped. All rose, and each head in +the gray ranks bowed, while "thanks" were offered; then amid a subdued +murmur of conversation, the Sisterhood filed out, gathered in groups, +separated for various duties. +</P> + +<P> +"Sister Ruth, may I see you alone?" asked Beryl, touching her arm in +the hall. +</P> + +<P> +"This is the night for the examination of accounts, of last week's +expenses, and I shall be busy with Sister Elena, our book-keeper; +moreover, I promised to look over the linen closet of the Infirmary, +with Sister Consuelo, whose demands are like those of the daughter of +the horse-leech. Is your business urgent?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; but I will not detain you more than ten minutes." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well, come to my cabinet." +</P> + +<P> +The place designated was a pigeon box in size, and adjoined the +reception room on the first floor. Two desks packed with papers, three +chairs and a picture of Elijah and the ravens, constituted the +furniture. The matron brightened the light, seated herself and looked +at her companion. +</P> + +<P> +"Well. What can I do for you? Why, Sister? Something has happened; your +face is all aglow, your eyes are great stars." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; a heavy burden I have long borne is slipping from my heart, and +after the pressure it rebounds. I have told you that my stay here was +contingent on events which I could not control; that at any moment I +might consider it incumbent upon me to go away into the world; +therefore, I could bind myself by no compact to remain permanently in +the 'Anchorage'. The time has come; the drum taps, I must march away." +</P> + +<P> +"And you are so glad to leave us?" said the matron, gazing in wonder at +the radiant face, usually so impassive and cold with its locked lips, +and grave, sad, downcast eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"No, glad only in the occasion that calls me; regretting that duty +separates me temporarily from the Sisterhood, who so mercifully opened +their arms, when I had no spot in all the wide world where I could lay +my head, but the sod on my mother's grave. This blessed haven is for +those whose first duty in life summons them nowhere beyond its walls. +If conscience bade you leave these peaceful and hallowed halls, for +work far more difficult, would you hesitate to obey? It is safer and +less arduous to keep step with the main army; but some must perish on +picket duty, and is the choice ours, when an order details us?" +</P> + +<P> +"Who signed your order?" +</P> + +<P> +Sister Ruth took off her spectacles, and bent closer, with a keenness +of scrutiny, that was unflatteringly suspicious. +</P> + +<P> +"My dear mother." +</P> + +<P> +"I understood that you had been an orphan for years?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, for four wretched, lonely and terrible years; but no tomb is deep +enough to shut in the voice that uttered our mother's last wishes; and +all time cannot hush the sound of the command, cannot hide the beloved +hand that pointed to the path she asked us to follow. When my mother +kissed me good-bye, she blessed me, because of a promise I gave her; +and Heaven means to me the place where I can look into her sainted +face, and tell her 'Hold me close to your tender heart, for oh! I have +indeed kept my word. Your little girl obeyed your last command.'" Her +voice trembled, and she passed one hand over her eyes for an instant. +</P> + +<P> +"Sister Ruth, the opportunity has arrived, and I go to execute the last +clause of a sacred order. When I shall have finished my mission, I +shall want to come back home. Oh! you see? I call it home. For where +else can I ever have a home, till I join my father and mother? If I +should come back and ask you to take me for the remainder of my life, +as a sister worker, will you let me die with the 'anchor' on my breast? +I shall be as worthy of your confidence then, as I am now." +</P> + +<P> +"Where are you going?" +</P> + +<P> +"I hoped that you would not ask me, because I cannot tell you now. Will +you not trust me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Your extremely cautious reticence makes it difficult; and I have +always known that some distressing mystery brought you here." +</P> + +<P> +"Confidence that defies suspicious appearances is precious indeed; but +confidence that crumbles like Jericho's walls at the blast of Joshua's +trumpets, is as worthless a sham as a cable whose strands part at the +first taut strain. Sister Ruth, there are reasons why I go away alone, +to an unknown destination; and I am about to tax your trust yet more +severely, when I tell you that I need the disguise of the 'Umilta' +uniform. I ask your permission to wear it during my absence." +</P> + +<P> +The matron shook her head. +</P> + +<P> +"Surely, Sister Ruth, you cannot think it possible that I should bring +discredit upon this dear gray flannel, which I hold as sacred as +priestly vestments?" +</P> + +<P> +She laid her cheek against her own shoulder, with a caressing motion, +and passed her fingers softly across her sleeve. +</P> + +<P> +"My young sister, to some extent I am responsible for those who wear +the 'Umilta' gray. If I allowed you to carry our badge under such +peculiar circumstances beyond the limits of my supervision, I should +hazard too much; should deserve the severity of the censure I most +certainly should receive, if any disaster brought reproach upon our +spotless record as an institution. It was not designed as a disguise in +which to masquerade for unknown purposes." +</P> + +<P> +Beryl put up both hands, pressing her pretty white cap close to her +ears; and her lips trembled, as was their wont, when she was wounded. +</P> + +<P> +"Do not discrown me. My father's Beryl will never sully your pure +record; and it would be as impossible for me to disgrace your uniform, +as defile my mother's shroud. Grant me the protection of this +consecrated garb." +</P> + +<P> +"No. The 'Anchorage' must remain as heretofore, like Caesar's wife." +</P> + +<P> +"Although I have lived here so long, how little you know me." +</P> + +<P> +"Very true, my Sister; therefore, as custodian of the interests of our +little community, I must not put them in jeopardy. When do you expect +to take your departure?" +</P> + +<P> +"Wednesday, at 6 A.M., on the express for New York." +</P> + +<P> +"Have you received letters?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, Sister. Doctor Grantlin is the only person who writes to me, and +as his letters are always addressed to your care, I receive them from +your hands." +</P> + +<P> +"How long do you propose to stay in New York?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am not going to New York, and I know not how long I may be detained; +but I desire to return without needless delay." +</P> + +<P> +"Then you want your money." +</P> + +<P> +"Give me to-morrow five hundred dollars, and keep the remainder until I +come, or until you hear from me. Please say that I have gone on a +journey to fulfil a pledge made years ago; and try not to show the +Sisters that you have no confidence in me. That—would rob my +home-coming of half its pleasure. If any unforeseen accident should +keep me away, should cut short a life which has overflowed with great +sorrow, then retain the money and the pictures I leave behind; and +believe that I died, as I have lived, not unworthy of all thy kindness +and true charity this dear sacred 'Anchorage' has shown to me. Sister +Elena is impatient; I hear her walking up and down the floor. While I +am absent, Sister Katrina, and especially Sister Anice, can take my +place in the Art School; and all my orders were finished last week, +except the mirror for Mrs. St. Clair. She wished it framed in scarlet +bignonias, and as the painting is more than half done, Sister Anice can +easily complete it. I will not detain you longer. Good-night, Sister +Ruth." +</P> + +<P> +No sleep visited Beryl, and as she lay at two o'clock, watching the +shimmer of the moonlight reflected from the tossing waves upon the +panes of her wide window, where the tangled mesh of quivering rays +coiled, uncoiled, glided hither and yon like golden serpents, she heard +the click of the key, and the turning of the knob in a door, which +opened from the alcove into an adjoining room. That apartment was +reserved as a guest chamber; had been unoccupied for months; and +puzzled by the sound, Beryl sat up in her bed and listened. The blue +folds of the drapery hanging over the alcove arch, were drawn aside, +and Sister Ruth, wrapped in a trailing dressing-gown, held up a small +lamp and peered cautiously around. +</P> + +<P> +"What is the matter, Sister?" +</P> + +<P> +"Did I frighten you? I came this way rather than knock at the other +door, because Sister Frances is on watch to-night; and though she is a +dear good soul, she is afflicted with an undue share of the feminine +frailty, curiosity, and I prefer that no one should canvass my +unseasonable visit to you. Do not get up." +</P> + +<P> +She put the brass lamp on a chair, and sat down on the edge of the bed. +</P> + +<P> +"Our conversation has disquieted me, and I cannot sleep. Long ago, for +my own sake, I made a rule by which to govern my judgment of my fellow +beings; and it amounts to this: where I cannot be sure of evil in +others, I give them the benefit of the doubt, and sincerely endeavor to +think the best. I have watched you very closely. There is much that I +cannot understand; much that it appears strange you should hesitate to +explain; yet in these years I have had no cause to question your +truthfulness, and that is the basis of all human worth. We profess to +live here as one family, as sisters, holding each other in love, +charity and trust; yet in searching myself to-night, I fear I have gone +astray. I have pondered and prayed over this matter, and my heart +yearns toward you. I feel as I fancy a mother might, who had too +hastily slapped the face of her child; and, my sister, I have come to +say, forgive me, if I too harshly refused your request, if I wounded +you." +</P> + +<P> +She held out her hand, but Beryl did not see it; she had covered her +face, and unable to speak she leaned forward and laid her head on the +matron's lap. Gently the thin fingers stroked the shining hair, until +they were drawn down and pressed to the girl's lips. +</P> + +<P> +"Again, I asked myself, whether my decision had not been inspired by an +overweening pride in the public estimation of our home; rather than by +an unselfish regard for the welfare and peace of mind of one of its +members? What will the world think of us, must be subordinated to, what +is the best for my young sister, whose cross it is my duty to lighten? +I cannot bear to give you up; and I shall, I will trust you. Wear the +'gray' armor, and remember, if any blot stain it, you will bring +disgrace upon a holy cause; you will be the first to stain the Umilta +uniform; and I shall be blamed, for reposing confidence in one who +betrayed us to public scorn. My Sister Beryl, I give you 'the gray'. +God grant it may shelter you from harm, and bring you home to fill my +place with honor, when I have passed into the eternal Anchorage." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap34"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXXIV. +</H3> + +<P> +Over the region of the great lakes, her favorite haunt, hung the +enchanted stillness, the misty glamour of the purple-cloaked +witch—Indian Summer; whose sorcery veiled the dazzling face of the +sun, and changed the silver lustre of Selene into the vast, solemn red +blot that stared wonderingly at its own weird image in the glassy +waters. +</P> + +<P> +Wrapped in that soft, sweet haze, which like the eider down of charity +smooths all roughness, rounds all angles, the world of shore and lake +presented a magical panorama of towns and villages, herds of cattle, +flocks of sheep, spires of churches, masts of vessels,—all flashing +past the open window of the car, where Beryl sat, watching the shadows +lengthen as the long train thundered eastward, and the tree dials +marked the hour record on the golden brown stubble fields. +</P> + +<P> +When the goal is in sight, do we dwell on the hazard, the strained +muscles, the blistered feet, and the fierce thirst the long race-course +cost us? Who know that they are weary and spent, while the prize +brightens, nears as they stretch panting to grasp it? +</P> + +<P> +The certainty of meeting her brother, the anticipation of all that she +felt assured he would promise concerning his future, when he learned +the severity of the ordeal which she had endured in his behalf, blotted +out the costliness of the accomplishment. Like that glorious violet +haze of Indian Summer, which was drawing its opalescent drapery along +the vanishing iron railway track blackened with cinders, and softly +shrouding the grim outlines of wreck, that told where a vessel had +foundered on the lake in the early autumn gale, an overruling +Providence seemed shedding peace even upon her troubled past. In the +swift flash of the divine fire that sanctified the accepted sacrifice, +she was too dazzled to remember the moan of the slaughtered victim, the +agony of the death struggle; and now, her thoughts spanned the gulf of +time, and painted the eternal reunion of the broken and dishonored +family group. +</P> + +<P> +From these comforting reflections she was aroused by a piercing cry +that made her spring forward, and scan the crowd of human faces +collected close to the rails, at a small town where the cars had halted. +</P> + +<P> +On a side track in front of her window, was a train which had just +dashed in from Buffalo, and amid the surging mass of jeering +spectators, two officers stepped down from the platform, each with a +hand on the arm of a man, who was heavily handcuffed. At the sight, a +white-haired, withered woman leaning from a carriage and staring with +horror-haunted eyes, had screamed, and was falling back insensible. +</P> + +<P> +"That is his mother. Poor thing, why did they let her come? He is her +only boy," said a man to his comrade, who stood near Beryl's seat. +</P> + +<P> +"What is the matter?" asked a gentleman, sitting immediately in front +of her. +</P> + +<P> +"Two of our officers winged a bird, who thought it was safe flying over +yonder, with the lake between him and the county jail. Canada is handy +hunting-ground, when the game happens to be runaway thieves; and we +have bagged one. He was the cashier of our Savings Bank, and not +satisfied with tampering with the books, and forcing balances, he +finally robbed the vault of a lot of gold, and flew across the line. +His wife met him at St. Catherine's, and he met the iron bracelets he +was dodging." +</P> + +<P> +The train moved on, and once more Beryl heard the howling of the +wolves, that she had hoped were left forever behind; that now seemed in +full cry bearing down upon their prey. Should she return to the +"Anchorage", and advertise Bertie's danger? So vague were her ideas +relative to the limits of extradition, that she had regarded Canada as +a city of refuge; considered its protection of United States' criminal +fugitives as efficacious, as meeting a Vestal Priestess on the way to +his execution, proved in rescuing a Roman malefactor from the penalty +of violated law; but this shred of comfort had parted, when most she +required its aid. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I understand extradition provisions have been arranged, which are +bound to have a wholesome effect; especially in this section, where it +is so easy to slip across the lakes any dark night. I am told nearly +all felonies will be embraced now—from murder to burglary—and that +Her Majesty's Secretaries are more willing to aid our officers, than +was the case a few years ago, when no end of quibbling tied up justice." +</P> + +<P> +The gentlemen on the seat in front of her, moved away to the smoking +car; and the woman in gray listened to the creak and whirr of the wheel +of torturing dread, upon which some malignant fate once more bound her. +Bertie had been safe in his mountain fastness, until her ill-starred +advertisement coaxed him within reach of the police Briareus. Could she +discern the hand of merciful warning in this fortuitous meeting with a +captured culprit; which so vividly recalled the maddening incidents of +her return to X—-, when the sheriff had hurried her from the car? A +sickening terror seized her, and along the expanse of pearly mist that +united earth and sky, in tke snowy fringe of ripples breaking their +teeth on the shelving beach, she seemed to read the doom of her +stratagem written in words of menace: +</P> + +<P> +"Go where you may, but I give you fair warning you cannot escape me; +and the day on which you meet that guilty vagabond, you betray him to +the scouts of justice." +</P> + +<P> +Far away, among the orange groves of Louisiana, would he forget his +threat, or fail to execute it? On and on darted the train; people +laughed and talked; a tired baby swayed from side to side on the +nurse's knees, crooned herself to sleep; and a canary in a cage covered +with pink net, broke suddenly into a spasm of trills and roulades. +</P> + +<P> +It was almost four o'clock when the dull roar of Niagara set the air a +tremble, and the few remaining passengers left the train. The little +town was unusually quiet and deserted, the tide of summer travel having +ebbed; and not until the crystal fingers of the ice fairy had built her +wonderful Giralda out of foam and spray, would that of Winter tourists +begin to flow. +</P> + +<P> +Leaving her trunk at the "baggage room" of the station, Beryl engaged a +carriage driver to take her to the Suspension Bridge. Drawing her gray +bonnet and veil as far as possible over her face, she paid the toll, +and noticed that the keeper peered curiously at her, and muttered +something in an undertone to a man wearing a uniform, who turned and +stared at her. +</P> + +<P> +She hurried away along that iron mesh swinging high in air like a vast +spider web, spun from shore to shore across the swirling, snarling +caldron of hissing waters. Was the officer the wary spider watching her +movements, waiting to slip down the metal snare, and devour her hopes? +Her heart beats sounded as the heavy thuds of a drum; the rush of dire +forebodings drowned even the roar of the Falls, and the magnificence of +the spectacle vanished before the awful realization of the danger to +which she had invited Bertie. +</P> + +<P> +The bridge was deserted; no human being was visible; and now and then +she glanced back over her shoulder, dreading she knew not what form of +pursuit. At last her flying feet touched British soil, but she knew +now, that neither Bezer nor yet Shechcm lay before her; and no +sign-post rose to welcome her, with the "Refuge—Refuge"—the water and +the bread appointed of old, for spent fugitives. Canada was an ambush +that, despite all caution, might betray her. Against the last rail of +the bridge she leaned, tried to steady her nerves; and put up one +passionate prayer: +</P> + +<P> +"Turn not Thy face from me, O my God! in this last hour! Guide me +aright. Overrule all my mistakes, and save my repentant brother." +</P> + +<P> +On the wide gallery of the "Clifton House" stood a gardener engaged in +removing the flower baskets that hung between the columns; and as he +paused in his work, to observe the quaint gray figure below, she asked, +in a voice that was strained beyond its customary sweetness: +</P> + +<P> +"Please direct me to the Museum." +</P> + +<P> +"Follow the street along the cliff, and you can't miss it. Behind those +trees yonder, on the right hand side. To the best of my belief, it is +shut up this week." +</P> + +<P> +Turning south, she walked more leisurely, lest undue haste should +excite suspicion; and all the solemn sublimity of the scene confronted +her. The green crescent of the Horseshoe blanched to foam, as it leaped +to the stony gulf below, the wreaths of mist floating up, gilded by the +sunshine; the maddened rush of the tossing, frothing, whirling rapids +seething like melted gold as the western radiance smote the bubbling +surface; the scarlet flakes of foliage clinging to the trees on Goat +Island, and far above, on the wooded height beyond, the picturesque +outlines of the Convent, lifting its belfry against the azure sky. As +doomed swimmers lost in those rapids, swept head downward to +destruction, nearing the last wild plunge catch the glimmer of that +consecrated tower held aloft, so to Beryl's eyes it now seemed a symbol +of comfort; and faith once more girded her. +</P> + +<P> +A woman wearing a blue plaid handkerchief tied over her head and +knotted under her chin, and carrying a basket of red apples on one arm, +while with the other she led a lowing cow along the dusty road, paused +at a signal, in front of the gray clad stranger. +</P> + +<P> +"Which is the Museum?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yonder, where the goats are huddled." +</P> + +<P> +The building was closed, but in those days a garden lay to the north of +it; and a small gate that gave admittance to seats and flowers +connected with the Museum, now stood open. +</P> + +<P> +The walks were strewn with pale yellow poplar leaves, and bordered with +belated pink hollyhocks, and crimson chrysanthemums blighted by frost, +shivering in their death chill; and from a neighboring willow stripped +of curtaining foliage, a lonely bird piped its plaintive threnody, for +the loss of one summer's mate. At the extremity of the little garden, +under shelter of an ancient, gnarled tree, that screened a semicircular +seat from the observation of those passing on the street, Beryl sat +down to rest; to collect her thoughts. +</P> + +<P> +In the solitude, she threw back her veil, leaned her head against the +trunk of the tree where wan lichens made a pearly cushion, and shut her +eyes. The afternoon was wearing away; a keen wind shook the bare +boughs; only the ceaseless, unchanging chant of waters rose from the +vast throat of nature, invoking its God. +</P> + +<P> +She heard no footsteps; but some strange current attacked her veins, +thrilled along her nerves, strung as taut as the wires of a harp, and +starting up she became aware that a man was standing on the clover +sward close to her. A dark brown overcoat, a broad brimmed, soft wool +hat, drawn as a mask down to the bridge of the nose, and a bare hand +covering the mouth, was all she saw. +</P> + +<P> +Stretching out her arms, she sprang to meet him: +</P> + +<P> +"O Bertie! At last! At last!" +</P> + +<P> +The figure drew back slightly, lifted his hat; and where she had +expected to see her brother's golden curls, the crisp, black locks of +Mr. Dunbar met her gaze. +</P> + +<P> +"You! Here?" +</P> + +<P> +She staggered, and sank back on the bench; the realization of Bertie's +peril throttling the joy that leaped up in her heart, at sight of the +beloved features. +</P> + +<P> +"I am here. I come as promptly to fulfil my promise as you to keep your +tryst. Do you understand me so little, that you doubted my word?" +</P> + +<P> +Her bonnet had slipped back, and as all the chastened beauty of her +face framed in the dainty cap, became fully exposed, a heavy sigh +escaped him, and he set his teeth, like one nerved to endure torture. +</P> + +<P> +For months he had nourished the germ of a generous purpose, had tried +to accustom himself to the idea of ultimately surrendering her; but in +her presence, a certain bitter fury swept away the wretched figment, +and he remembered only how fair, how holy, how dear she was to him. +Once more the cry of his famishing heart was: "Death may part us. I +swear no man's arms ever shall." +</P> + +<P> +"Why waylay and torment me? Have I not suffered enough at your hands? +Between me and mine not even you can come." +</P> + +<P> +"Take care! For your sake I am here, hoping to spare you some pangs; to +allow you at least an opportunity to see him—" +</P> + +<P> +"What have you done? Don't tell me I am too late. Where is he? Oh! +where—where is he?" +</P> + +<P> +She had sprung up, and her hands closed around his arm, shaking it in +the desperation of her dread; while her voice quivered under the strain +of a conjecture that Bertie had already been arrested. +</P> + +<P> +"Where is your chivalrous, courageous, unselfish, devoted lover? To +ascertain exactly where he skulks, is my mission to Canada; for I +thought I had schooled myself to bear the pain of—" +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean? What have you done with my Bertie? Oh—" +</P> + +<P> +She threw herself suddenly on her knees, held up her hands, and a +wailing cry broke the stillness: +</P> + +<P> +"Save him, Mr. Dunbar! You will break my heart if you bring ruin upon +his dear head. He is all I have on earth, he is my own brother! My +brother! my brother!" +</P> + +<P> +The blood ebbed from his face; the haughty mouth twitched in a sudden +spasm, and he put his hand over his eyes. +</P> + +<P> +Could she adopt this ruse to thwart pursuit of the man whom she +idolized? For half a moment he stood, with whitened lips; then stooped, +took the face of the kneeling woman in his palms, and scanned it. +</P> + +<P> +"Your brother?" +</P> + +<P> +"My brother. Do you understand at last, why I must save him? Why you +must help me to screen him from ruin?" +</P> + +<P> +"Great God! After all, what a blind fool I have been!" +</P> + +<P> +He raised her, placed her on the bench; sat down and leaned his head on +his hand. To Beryl, the silence that followed was an excruciating +torture, beyond even her power of endurance. +</P> + +<P> +"Do not keep me in suspense. Where is Bertie? Let me see him, if he is +here." +</P> + +<P> +"He is not here. It was to assist you in finding him, that I enticed +you here." +</P> + +<P> +"You enticed me?" +</P> + +<P> +"I put the advertisement in the 'Herald', knowing that if you chanced +to see it, all the legions of Satan could not keep you away. I have +been here since Sunday, waiting and watching. I was obliged to see you, +for your own sake, as well as to satisfy my longing to look once more +into your face; and I felt assured the magnetic name of 'Bertie' would +draw you here swiftly." +</P> + +<P> +"Then it was only a snare, that advertisement? Oh! you are cruel!" +</P> + +<P> +"Not to you. It was to promote your peace of mind, by enabling you to +meet the man who, I supposed was your lover, that I invited you to this +place. Mark you, only to see, never to marry him." +</P> + +<P> +"Where is he?" +</P> + +<P> +"Exactly where, I do not yet know; but very soon you shall learn." +</P> + +<P> +"Is he in peril?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not from arrest at present, by human officers of retributive justice." +</P> + +<P> +"He is not coming here?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly not." +</P> + +<P> +"How did you learn his name?" +</P> + +<P> +"I suspected that the advertisement you published in the "Herald" after +leaving X—-, was a clue that would aid me. I clung to it, for I was +sure it referred to the man whom I have hunted so persistently." +</P> + +<P> +"You have something to tell me. Be merciful, and end my suspense." +</P> + +<P> +"First, answer one question. Why did you conceal from me the fact that +you had a brother? Why did you allow me to suffer from a false theory, +that you knew made my life a slow torture?" +</P> + +<P> +He leaned nearer, and under the blue fire of his eager eyes, the blood +mounted into her pale cheeks. +</P> + +<P> +"My motive belongs to a past, with which I trust I have done forever; +and you have no right to violate its buried ashes." +</P> + +<P> +"I must, and I will have all the truth, cost what it may. Between you +and me, no spectre of mystery shall longer stalk. If you had trusted +me, and confessed the facts before the trial, you would have muzzled me +effectually, and prevented the employment of detectives whom I have +hissed on your brother's track. Why did you lead me astray, and confirm +my suspicion that you were shielding a lover?" +</P> + +<P> +"I was innocent; but my name, my father's honored name, was in jeopardy +of dishonor, and to protect it, I would not undeceive you. Had my +brother been convicted, the established guilt would have tarnished +forever our only legacy, all that father left to Bertie and to me—his +spotless name." +</P> + +<P> +"You are quibbling. Did you shield the family name by enduring the +purgatory of seeing your own on the list of penitentiary convicts? You +deliberately fastened the odium of the crime upon your father's +daughter; and you knew, you understood perfectly, that by strengthening +my erroneous supposition, you were lashing me to a pursuit of the +person, whom you could have best protected by frankly telling me all. +If he is really your brother, what did you expect to accomplish by +fostering my belief that he was your lover?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Dunbar, spare me this inquisition. Release me from the rack of +suspense. Tell me why you set this snare, baited with Bertie's name?" +</P> + +<P> +"I must first end my own suspense. If you wish to find the man, you +tell me is your brother, I will aid you only when you have bared your +heart to me. You had some powerful incentive unrevealed. I will know +exactly, why you made me suffer all these years, the pangs of a +devouring jealousy, keener than a vulture's talons." +</P> + +<P> +With crimson cheeks, and shy, averted eyes, she sat trembling; +unconsciously locking and unlocking her fingers. Her head drooped, and +the voice was a low flutter: +</P> + +<P> +"If I had told you that the handkerchief was one I gave to my brother, +because he fancied the gay border, and that the pipe belonged to my +dear father, and if you had known that for more than a year before I +went to X—-no tidings from that brother had reached me, would you have +kept my secret, when you saw my life laid in the scales held by the +jury? Suppose they had condemned me to death? I expected that fate; but +knowing the truth, would you have permitted the execution of that +sentence?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly not; and you understand why I should never have allowed it." +</P> + +<P> +"I knew that in such an emergency I could not trust you." +</P> + +<P> +Five minutes passed, while he silently sought to unravel the web; and +Beryl dared not meet his gaze. +</P> + +<P> +"You had some stronger motive, else you would have confessed all, when +I started to Dakota. Anxiety for your brother's safety would have +unsealed your lips. What actuated you then? I mean to know everything +now." +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Gordon was my friend. She showed me kindness which I could never +forget." +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Gordon is a very noble woman, kinder to all the world than to +herself; but did gratitude to her involve sacrifice of me?" +</P> + +<P> +"You were betrothed. I owed it to her, to keep you loyal to your vows, +as far as my power extended. I tried faithfully to guard her happiness, +while endeavoring to shield my brother." +</P> + +<P> +"Knowing you had all my heart, you dared not let me learn that the +rival existed only in my imagination? loyal soul! Did you deem it a +kindness to aid in binding her to an unloving husband? Her womanly +instincts saved her from that death in life; and years ago, she set us +both free. She wears no willows, let me tell you; and those who should +know best, think that before very long she will sail for Europe as wife +of Governor Glenbeigh, the newly appointed minister to Z—-, a +brilliant position, which she will nobly grace. She will be happier as +Glenbeigh's wife than I could possibly have made her; for he loves her +as she deserves to be loved. So, for Miss Gordon's sake, you immolated +me?" +</P> + +<P> +Only the pathetic piping of the lonely bird made answer. +</P> + +<P> +Like the premonitory thrill that creeps through forest leaves, before +the coming burst of a tempest, he seemed to tremble slightly; his tone +had a rising ring, and a dark flush stained his swarthy face, deepened +the color in his brilliant eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, my white rose! A wonderful fragrance of hope steals into the air; +a light breaks upon my dreary world that makes me giddy! Can it be +possible that you—" +</P> + +<P> +He paused, and she covered her face with her hands. +</P> + +<P> +"Beryl, you are the only woman I have ever loved. You came suddenly +into my life, as an irresistible incarnation of some fateful witchery +that stole and fired my heart, subverted all my plans, made havoc of +lifelong hopes, dominated my will, changed my nature; overturned the +cool selfishness on the altar of my worship, and set up your own image +in a temple, swept, garnished, and sanctified forever by your +in-dwelling. You have cost me stinging humiliation, years of regret, of +bitter disappointment; and the ceaselessly gnawing pain of a jealous +dread that despite my vigilance, another man might some day possess +you. I have money, influence, professional success, gratified ambition, +and enviable social eminence; I have all but that which a man wants +most, the one woman in the great wide world whom he loves truly, loves +better than he loves himself; and who holds his heart in the hollow of +her hand. I want my beautiful, proud, pure, stately white rose. I want +my Beryl. I will have my own." +</P> + +<P> +He had risen, stood before her; took the hands that veiled her +countenance, and drew her to her feet. +</P> + +<P> +"You have been loyal to parents, to brother, to friends, to duty; be +loyal now to your own heart; answer me truly. What did you mean when +you once said, with a mournful pathos I cannot forget: 'We love not +always whom we should, or would, were choice permitted us?' You defied +me that day, and prayed God to bless your lover; taunted me with words +that have made days dreary, nights hideous: 'To whom I have given my +whole deep heart, you shall never know.' Did you mean—ah—will you +tell me now?" +</P> + +<P> +She bent her head till it almost touched him, but no answer came. +</P> + +<P> +"You will not? I swear you shall; else I shall hope, believe, know +beyond all doubt, that during these years, I have not been the only +sufferer; and that loyal as was your soul, your rebel heart is as truly +mine, as all my deathless love is surely yours." +</P> + +<P> +She tried to withdraw her hands; but his hold tightened, and infinite +exultation rang in his voice. +</P> + +<P> +"My darling! My darling—you dare not deny it? I shall wear my white +rose to make all the future sweet with a blessed love; but have you no +word of assurance for my hungry ears? Is my darling too proud?" +</P> + +<P> +He raised her hands, laid her arms around his neck, and folded very +close to his heart, the long coveted prize. +</P> + +<P> +"My Beryl, it was a stubborn battle, but Lennox Dunbar claims his own; +and will hold her safe forever. Will you be loyal to your tyrant?" +</P> + +<P> +Was it a white or a crimson rose that hid its lovely petals against his +shoulder, and whispered with lips that his kiss had rouged: +</P> + +<P> +"Have I ever been allowed a choice? Was I not foredoomed to be always +at the mercy of Tiberius?" +</P> + +<P> +The little garden was growing dusky, the gilded mist waving its +spectral banners over the thundering cataract, had whitened as the sun +went down behind the wooded crest that barred the western sky line; and +the shimmering gold on the heaving, whirling current of the Rapids +faded to leaden tints, flecked with foam, as like a maddened suitor, +parted by Goat Island from its beloved, it rushed to plunge into the +abyss, where the silvery bridal veil shook her signal, and all the +roaring gorge filled with purple gloom. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Dunbar drew his companion's hand under his arm, and led her toward +the Clifton House. +</P> + +<P> +"You and I have done with shadows. On the heights yonder, the sun still +shines. Up there waits one, who will tell you that which he refuses to +divulge to any one else. Ten days ago my agents notified me that a man +was searching for Mrs. Brentano and her daughter Beryl in New York; and +that he had gone to X—-, where he spent several days in consultation +with the Catholic priest. Singleton sent me a telegram, and I reached +X—-in time to accompany the stranger back to New York. To me he admits +only, that he lives in Montreal; and is the bearer of a message, the +import of which, sacred promises prevent him from revealing to any one +but Miss Brentano. He is an elderly man, and so wary, no amount of +dexterity can circumvent his caution. Very complex and inexplicable +motives brought me here; chiefly the longing to see you, to learn your +retreat, your mode of existence; and also the intention to exact one +condition, before I made it possible for you to find the object of your +search. When you had given me your promise not to marry him, it was my +purpose to allow you one final meeting; and if you forfeited your +compact, the dungeon and the gallows awaited him. Love makes women +martyrs; they are the apostles of the gospel of altruism. Love revives +in men of my stamp, the primeval and undifferentiated tiger. When I +think of all that you have endured, of how nearly I lost you, my +snowdrop, do you wonder I shall hasten to set you in the garden of my +heart, and shelter your dear head from every chill wind of adversity?" +</P> + +<P> +They had passed through a gate, crossed a lawn, and reached a long, +steep flight of steps leading straight up the face of a cliff, to the +grounds attached to a villa. With her hand clasped tightly in his, Mr. +Dunbar and Beryl slowly mounted the abrupt stairway, and when they +gained the elevated terrace, a man who was walking up and down the +sward, came quickly forward. +</P> + +<P> +Pressing her fingers tenderly, Mr. Dunbar released her hand. +</P> + +<P> +"When your interview is ended, come to me yonder at the side gate, +where I have a carriage to take you over the bridge. Father Beckx, this +is Miss Brentano. I leave her in your care." +</P> + +<P> +The sun was sending his last level shafts of light from the edge of the +sky, when a man dressed in long black vestments, a raven-haired, +raven-eyed, thin lipped and clean shaven personage, with a placid +countenance as coldly irresponsive as a stone mask, sat down on the top +step of the long stairs, beside the woman in gray, whose eager white +face was turned to meet his, in breathless and mute expectancy. +</P> + +<P> +The lingering twilight held at bay slowly marching night; the sunset +glory streamed up almost to the zenith in bands of amethyst and faint +opaline green, like the far reaching plumes of an archangel's pinions +beating the still, crystal air. Later, the vivid orange of the +afterglow burned with a transient splendor, as the dying smile of a day +that had gone to its eternal grave; and all the West was one vast +evening primrose of palest gold sprinkled with star dust, when Beryl +went slowly to join the figure pacing restlessly in front of the gate. +</P> + +<P> +Across the grassy lawn he came to meet her. In mute surrender she +lifted her arms, laid her proud head, with its bared wealth of +burnished bronze hair, down on his shoulder, and wept passionately. +</P> + +<P> +When he had placed her in the carriage, and held her close to his +heart, with his dark cheek resting on hers, where tears still trickled, +he whispered: +</P> + +<P> +"How much are you willing to tell me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Only that I must start at once on a long, lonely journey to a desolate +retreat, in mountain solitudes; far away in the wilderness of the +Northwest. Bertie is there; and I must see him once more." +</P> + +<P> +"How soon do you wish to start?" +</P> + +<P> +"Within the next three days." +</P> + +<P> +"You must wait one week. I cannot go before that time." +</P> + +<P> +"You—?" +</P> + +<P> +"Do you suppose I shall allow you to travel there without me? Do you +imagine I shall ever lose sight of you, till the vows are uttered that +make you my wife? You cannot see your brother's face, until you have +first looked into your husband's. In one week I can arrange to go, to +the ends of the earth if you will; but you will meet your brother only +when you are Beryl Dunbar." +</P> + +<P> +"No—no! You forget, ah!—You forget. I have worn the penitentiary +homespun, and the brand of the convict seared my fair name, scarred all +my life. The wounds will heal, but time can never efface the hard lines +of the cicatrice; and I could not bear to mar the lustre of your +honored name by—" +</P> + +<P> +"Hush!—hush. It is ungenerous in you to wound me so sorely. When I +remember the fiery furnace through which my wife walked unscorched, +with such sublime and patient heroism, is it possible that I should +forget whose rash hand, whose besotted idiocy consigned her to the +awful ordeal? Out of the black shadow where I thrust you, sprang the +halo that glorifies you. How often, in the silence of my sleepless +nights, have I heard the echo of your wild, despairing cry: 'You have +ruined my life!' Oh, my darling! If you withhold yourself, if you cast +me away, you will indeed ruin mine. If you could realize how I wince at +the recollection of your suffering, you would not cruelly remind me of +my own accursed work." +</P> + +<P> +"If the soul of my brother be ransomed thereby, I shall thank you, even +for all that X—-cost me. The world knows now, that no suspicion clings +to me; but, Mr. Dunbar, the disgrace blots forever the dear name I +tried to shield; and my vindication only blackens Bertie." +</P> + +<P> +"The world will never know. Your sad secret shall be kept, and my name +shall wrap you in ermine, and my love make your future redeem the past. +Having found my darling, can I afford to run the risk of losing her? +You belong to me, and I will not trust you out of my sight, until the +law gives me a husband's claim. The mother of one of my oldest friends +is boarding here in Niagara. I will commit you to her care until +to-morrow; then some church will furnish an altar where you shall +pledge me your loyalty." +</P> + +<P> +"Impossible! To-night a train will take me to Buffalo, where I can +catch the express going West. There are reasons why I must make no +delay; must hasten back to explain many things to the Matron of the +Sisterhood, where I have dwelt so safely and so peacefully since I left +X—-." +</P> + +<P> +"Give me the reasons. 'Impossible' ne me dites jamais ce bete de mot!' +Give me your reasons." +</P> + +<P> +His arm tightened around her. +</P> + +<P> +"Not now." +</P> + +<P> +"Then you shall not leave me. I will endure no more mysteries." +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Dunbar, I wear the uniform of a celibate Order of Gray Sisters; +and the matron trusted me in an unusual degree, when she consented that +I should undertake this journey on a secret mission. I came to Niagara, +as I supposed, to keep an appointment with my brother, and I met you. +If I lingered one instant here, it might reflect some discredit upon +this dear gray garb, which all hold so irreproachable. Sister Ruth +trusted me. I cannot, I will not, even in the smallest iota, appear to +betray her confidence; and I must go at once, and go as I came—alone. +Bid the driver take me to the railway station, and you must remain in +the carriage. I can have no escort. Your presence would subject me to +criticism, and I will guard the 'gray' that so mercifully guarded me." +</P> + +<P> +"Beryl, are you trying to elude me?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am faithfully trying to keep my compact with Sister Ruth. Here is a +card bearing the exact address of the 'Anchorage'. I am going there as +quickly as possible, to make speedy arrangements for my long journey +West, to that place almost within sound of the Pacific Ocean." +</P> + +<P> +"Put your hand in mine. Promise me before God, that you will not vanish +from me; that you will not leave the 'Anchorage' until I come and see +you there." +</P> + +<P> +"I promise; but time presses. I must hasten to find Bertie." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know exactly where to go?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. I have minute directions written down." +</P> + +<P> +"Wait until I come. I trust you to keep your promise. Ah! after to-day, +I could not bear to lose my 'Rosa Alba.' God make me more worthy of my +loyal and beautiful darling. After all, not Alcestis, but Antigone!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap35"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXXV. +</H3> + +<P> +White and still, lay the world of the far Northwest, wrapped in peace +as profound as that which reigned in primeval ages; when ancestral +Nahuas, dragging their sleds across frozen Behring Straits, or cast +amid other drift of the Japanese current upon the strange new Pacific +shore, climbed the mountains, and fell on their faces before the sun, +whose worshippers have sacrificed in all hemispheres. +</P> + +<P> +If civilization be the analogue of geologic accretion, how tortuous is +the trend and dip of the ethnological strata, how abrupt the +overlapping of myths. How many aeons divided the totem coyote from the +she-wolf of Romulus and Remus? Which is the primitive and parent flame, +the sacred fire of Pueblo Estufas, of Greek Prytaneum, of Roman Vesta, +of Persian Atish-khudahs? If the Laurentian system be the oldest +upheaval of land, and its "dawn animal" the first evolution of life +that left fossil footprints, where are all the missing links in +ethnology, which would save science that rejects Genesis—the paradox +of peopling the oldest known continent by immigration from those +incalculably younger? +</P> + +<P> +Winter had lagged, loath to set his snow shoes upon the lingering, +diaphanous train of Indian Summer, but December was inexorable, and the +livery of ice glittered everywhere in the mid-day sun. +</P> + +<P> +Along a well-worn bridle trail, now slippery as glass, winding around +the base of crags, through narrow gorges that almost overarched, +leaving a mere skylight of intense blue to mark the way, moved a party +of four persons in single file, slowly ascending a steep spiral. In +advance, mounted on a black pony, was a cowled monk, whose long, thin +profile suggested that of Savonarola; and just behind him rode a +Canadian half-breed guide, with the copperish red of aboriginal America +on his high cheek bones, and the warm glow of sunny France in his keen +black eyes. Guiding his horse with the left hand, his right led the +dappled mustang belonging to the third figure; a tall, +broad-shouldered man wearing an overcoat that reached to his knees, who +walked with his hand on the bridle bit of a white mule, whereon sat a +woman, wrapped in silver fox furs from throat to feet. A cap or hood of +the same soft, warm material was worn over her head, where a roll of +dark auburn hair coiled at the back; and around her white temples +clustered rings and tendrils of the glossy bronze locks that +contrasted so singularly with the black arch of the brows, and the +fringe that darkened the luminous gray eyes. +</P> + +<P> +One month had elapsed since the Umilta Sisters of the "Anchorage", +following Sister Ruth, walked in the star-lit dawn of a November day, +to a neighboring church, and watched Doctor Grantlin lead down the +aisle, a pale, trembling woman whose hand he placed in that of the man, +waiting in front of the altar. The Sisterhood had listened to the +solemn words of the marriage service, the interchange of vows, and the +benediction, while priestly hands were laid tapon two bowed heads. +</P> + +<P> +When the rising sun greeted the husband and wife, they were speeding +westward, on the first stage of their long journey. +</P> + +<P> +To-day, the quest would end; and into Beryl's face had crept the +wistful yearning that was a reflection of that strange blending of +patience and longing, which made her so beautiful in her husband's +eyes; so strong in faith, so serene in waiting resignation. Suddenly +the monk drew rein, threw up his drooping head, and listened. Clear and +sweet as the silvery chime of bells ringing in happy dreams, floated +through the crystal air the sound of the Angelus; and fainter and +fainter fell the echoes, dying in immeasurable distance. Low bent the +shaven head, and through brown, fingers stole the consecrated beads, +while with closed eyes the prayers were uttered; and in the pause, the +guide made the sign of the cross, and Mr. Dunbar instinctively took off +his hat. +</P> + +<P> +"Six hours' steady climbing is a severe tax. Are you very tired?" he +whispered, laying his arm around Beryl's waist, and lifting his +brilliant eyes eloquent with an infinite tenderness. +</P> + +<P> +With one hand on his shoulder as he stood beside her, she leaned down +until her lips touched the black hair tossed back from his forehead. +</P> + +<P> +"After waiting so many terrible years, what are a few more hours of +suspense? Since I have you, can I ever again feel tired?" +</P> + +<P> +Behind them lay a dark undulating line, where oak and cedar had made +their last stand on the upward march; nearer, the spectral ranks of +stunted firs showed the outposts of forest advance; and a few feet from +the narrow path, a perpendicular cliff formed one wall of a deep canon, +where a glittering ribbon of water hurried to leap into the Pacific, +ere pursuing Winter arrested and bound it with icy manacles to its +stony bed. To the north dazzling white peaks cut strange solemn shapes, +like silver cameos on a ground of indigo sky; and overhead, burnished +lines of snow geese printed their glittering triangles on the paler +blue of the zenith, as the winged host dipped southward. +</P> + +<P> +The monk moved on, and after a while his companions perceived that the +way descended rapidly until they reached the face of a rock that rose +straight and smooth as a wall of human masonry, and apparently barred +further progress. Taking from his bosom the twisted section of a +polished horn, only a finger's length, the cowled figure raised it to +his lips, and blew three whistles, that ended in a rising inflection +which waked all the wolfish pack of mountain echoes into fitful +barking. Two moments later, an answering signal seemed to issue from +the invisible jaws of Hades; a wild, quivering sepulchral cry, as of a +monster half throttled. Twenty feet beyond the spot where the party had +halted, a steep descent led them to a shelving canon, once the bed of a +broad mountain torrent, whose course some seismic upheaval had diverted +to other channels. Following for a few yards the sinuous stony way, +worn here and there into smooth circular cavities like miniature wells, +by the eddying of the ancient current and the grinding of pebbles, the +travellers turned a sharp angle, and found themselves at the mouth of +Tartarus. +</P> + +<P> +The force of the stream had originally cut a low arch in its egress, +which human needs and ingenuity had broadened, heightened and closed by +heavy iron bars, slipped into stone slots. Behind this gateway +glimmered a faint light that brightened into a red star; and soon, a +figure clad in the long, black monastic gown, and bearing a huge torch +of blazing pitch pine, emerged from the bowels of the earth. There was +the rattle of a chain, the creak of a pulley, and the bars were lowered. +</P> + +<P> +So vividly did the scene recall that black, stormy night in February, +when Mr. Dunbar had seen the lantern of the gaoler flash through the +penitentiary gates closing on the young convict, that he drew his +breath now through clinched teeth, and quickly laid his hand upon that +of his wife, which grasped the bridle resting upon the neck of her +mule. Silently the procession filed in, and with little delay the torch +bearer replaced the bars, advanced to the head of the column, and with +long, swift strides led the way down a wide tunnel. Between the monks +no salutation was exchanged; and only the ringing tramp of the horses' +feet on the stone pavement, jarred the profound stillness. The lurid +glare of the torch danced on the rocky vault, and the shadows projected +by men and beasts were gigantic and grotesque. Very soon a gray +twilight stole to meet them; an arch of light like a window opening +into heaven brightened, glared, and the party emerged into a courtyard +that seemed an entrance to some vast amphitheatre. +</P> + +<P> +Opposite the mouth of the tunnel, and distant perhaps two hundred +yards, lay an oval lake, bordered on the right by a valley running +southeast, while its northern shore rose abruptly in a parapet of rock, +that patient cloistered workmen had cut into broad terraces; and upon +which opened rows of cells excavated from the mountain side, and +resembling magnified swallow nests, or a huge petrified honeycomb +sliced vertically. +</P> + +<P> +A legend so hoary, that "the memory of man runneth not to the +contrary", had assigned the outlines of this stone cutting to that dim +dawn of primeval tribal life, which left its later traces in the Watch +Tower of the Mancos, the Casa del Eco, and the "niche stairway of the +Hovenweep". +</P> + +<P> +In the slow deposition of the human strata, cliff dwellers disappeared +beneath predatory, nomadic modern savages, who, hunting and fishing in +this lonely fastness, had increased its natural fortifications, and +made it an impregnable depot of supplies, until Hudson Bay trappers +wrenched it from their grasp, and appropriated it as a peltry magazine. +To the dynasty of traders had succeeded the spiritual rule of a Jesuit +Mission; then miners kindled camp fires in the deserted excavations, as +they probed the mountain for ores; and more recently the noiseless feet +of a band of holy celibates belonging to an austere Order, went up and +down the face of the cliff, with cross and bell and incense exorcising +haunting aboriginal spectres; while holy water sprinkled the uncanny, +dismal precincts of a circular room hollowed behind and beneath all +other apartments, the monumental, sacred Estufa. +</P> + +<P> +At a signal from the monk who had escorted them, Mr. Dunbar lifted +Beryl from her saddle, and hand in hand they followed him across the +courtyard, mounted a flight of steps cut in the rock, and passed into a +low, dim room, where the ceiling was crossed in squares by heavy, red +cedar beams. The floor was paved with diamond-shaped slabs of purple +slate, the whitewashed wall adorned with colored lithographs of the +Passion; and above the cavernous chimney arch, where cedar logs blazed, +ran the inscription: "Otiositas inimica est animae." +</P> + +<P> +Noiselessly as the wings of a huge bat, a leathern screen was folded +back from the corner of the room, and a venerable man advanced from the +gloom. +</P> + +<P> +A fringe of white hair surrounded his head like a laurel chaplet in old +statues, and the heavy, straight brows that almost met across the nose, +hung as snowflakes over the intensely black eyes as glowing as lamps +set in the sockets of an ivory image. Scholarly and magnetic as +Abelard, with a certain innate proud poise of the head and shoulders, +that ill accorded with the Carlo-Borromeo expression of seraphic +serenity and meekness, set like a seal on the large square mouth, he +looked a veritable type of the ecclesiastical cenobites who, since the +days of Pachomius at Tabennae, have made their hearts altars of the +Triple Vows, and girdled the globe with a cable of scholastic +mysticism. The pale, shrunken hand he laid on the black serge that +covered his breast, was delicate as a woman's, and checkered with +knotted lines where the blood crept feebly. +</P> + +<P> +Bowing low, he spoke in a carefully modulated voice, deep and resonant +as a bass viol: +</P> + +<P> +"Welcome to such hospitality as our poverty permits. A cipher telegram +forwarded from the nearest station, sixty miles hence, prepared us to +expect a newly-married woman searching for a man, known to the secular +world as Robert Luke Brentano. You claim to be his nearest blood +relative?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am his sister. How is he?" +</P> + +<P> +"Alive, but sinking fast; sustained beyond all human calculation by the +hope of seeing you. You have not come one moment too soon. The man you +seek is only a lay brother here. The rules of our Order forbid the +admission of women to the cloister, but in articulo mortis! can I deny +him now the confession he wishes to offer you? Our holy ordinances have +done their divine work; the last rites of the Church have soothed and +consecrated the heart of Brother Luke, and an hour ago, extreme unction +was administered. Follow me." +</P> + +<P> +"He knows that I am coming?" asked Beryl, raising her white, +tear-drenched face from her husband's shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"He knows; and holds death back to see you. His self-imposed penance +makes him steadfastly refuse the comparative comfort of our meagre +infirmary, and it is his wish to die, where he has spent so many nights +in penitential prayer. For several days, the paralysis of years has +been gradually loosening its fetters, and this morning, the distressing +and ghastly distortion of one side of his face almost disappeared. +Though his voice is well nigh gone, it returns fitfully, and his +strength seems supernatural. Fearing that you might not arrive in time, +I have written down his last confession, and here commit it to you." +</P> + +<P> +He placed a roll of paper in her hand, and drawing his cowl over his +head, led them up an easy stairway cut in the stone, to a second +terrace four feet wide, that projected as a roof beyond the lower tier +of cells. +</P> + +<P> +A hundred feet below lay the lakelet, shining as a mirror; to the +southeast stretched a valley bounded by buttes crowned with cedar, and +in the undulating field, locked from fierce winds, cattle and goats +sunned themselves, where in summer time grain waved, fruit ripened, and +bees hummed. +</P> + +<P> +From the parapet of a low wall facing west, rose a round tower heavily +buttressed, where swung the bell; and through an open arch in the side, +under the uplifted cross, the eye swept on and on, over a world of +snowy peaks, dark canons, mountain minarets girding the northern +horizon; and far, far away a scintillating thread of white fire marked +where the Pacific smiled behind the fiords that channelled the +rock-ribbed coast. +</P> + +<P> +In that still, cold and brilliant atmosphere, how dazzling the snow +blink, how sharp the outline of projected shadows, how close the +bending heavens seemed; but to the yearning soul of Beryl, the silent, +solemn sublimity of the mighty panorama made no appeal. +</P> + +<P> +Through slowly dripping tears she saw only the spectral flitting of her +mother's sad face, as in their last interview she had committed the +soul of the son to the guardianship of the daughter. +</P> + +<P> +The monk paused, and pointed to the third cell from the spot where he +stood. +</P> + +<P> +"It is but a step farther. Yonder, where the skull is set over the +entrance." +</P> + +<P> +"I will wait here," said Mr. Dunbar, relinquishing with a tight +pressure, his wife's cold hand. +</P> + +<P> +"No, come. Are we not one?" +</P> + +<P> +She hurried along the terrace, and reached the low open doorway +fronting the South, where the sunshine streamed in like God's smile of +forgiveness. +</P> + +<P> +On the stone floor was a straw pallet covered with coarse brown +blankets, whereon, half propped by one elbow, with head against the +gray rocky wall, lay the emaciated wreck of a man, whose pallid face +might have been mistaken for that of a corpse, but for the superhuman +splendor of the wide, deep brown eyes. +</P> + +<P> +Beryl sprang into the cave-like recess, and fell on her knees. She +snatched him to her heart, laid his head on her shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"Bertie! My darling! my darling!—" +</P> + +<P> +He tried to raise one arm to her neck, but it fell back. She lifted it, +held it close, and face to face with her lips on his, she broke into +passionate sobbing, rocking herself to and fro, in the tempest of grief. +</P> + +<P> +"Give me, give—me—air—" He struggled for breath, which her tight +clasp denied him; and for some minutes he panted, while Mr. Dunbar +fanned him with his hat. Then the heaving chest grew more quiet, and +after a moment, his eyes lighted with a happy smile as they fastened on +Beryl's face, bent over him. +</P> + +<P> +"Gigina, sweet, faithful sister, it is almost heaven to see you once +more. God is good, even to me." +</P> + +<P> +"If I could have found you sooner! All these dreadful years I have +lived at God's feet—with one prayer: let me help my Bertie, let me see +my brother's face," moaned Beryl, pressing her lips to the clammy, +fleshless hand she held against her throat. +</P> + +<P> +"I was too unworthy. I dreaded your pure eyes, and mother's, as I would +an accusing angel's. I did not know, then, that mother was already one +of the Beatified. I know now, that neither life nor death, nor sin nor +shame, nor the brand of disgrace can change mother's love; for I see +her to-day, smiling at the door, beckoning me to follow where the sun +shines forever. My sainted mother." +</P> + +<P> +"Her last breath was a blessing for you. See, Bertie! this was her +wedding ring. Her final message was, 'Give this to my darling!' Be +comforted, dear Bertie, she loved you even to the end—supremely. You +were her idol in death as in life. Our father's ring was the most +sacred relic she owned, and she left it to you." +</P> + +<P> +She attempted to place the gold band on one of his fingers, but he +closed that hand, and the dark eyes so like his mother's, were for an +instant dimmed by tears. +</P> + +<P> +"Keep it; no sin of theft soils your hands. You can wear it without a +blush. You never robbed an old man of his gold. That was my crime, I am +a thief." +</P> + +<P> +"Our God sees you have repented bitterly; and He has pardoned your sins +for His dear Son's sake. Tell me, Bertie, have you made your eternal +salvation sure? Are you, in your soul, at peace with God?" +</P> + +<P> +"At perfect peace. I want to die, because now I am no longer afraid to +meet Him, who forgives even thieves. Gigi, wait a little—" +</P> + +<P> +He seemed to make a desperate effort to rally his strength, and the +thin, fine nostril flared, in the battle for breath. +</P> + +<P> +"There has been a terrible mistake, and they made you suffer for what +they imagined happened. When I found I had only a few months to live, I +wrote to Father Beckx, whom I had known in Montreal, and asked him to +tell mother where I was. I never knew till he went to X—-and wrote us +about the trial, that you were suspected and punished for a crime that +was never committed. I thought you and mother were safe in New York, +all those years, and I knew that you would be sure to take care of her. +I have it all written down—and I can't tell you now—but I want to +look straight into your dear eyes—my brave sister, my loving +sister—and let you learn first from me—the reward you have won—your +Bertie is not a murderer. I did take the money from the vault which was +wide open, when first I saw it. I did steal and destroy the will, which +I thought unjustly robbed us all of our right to the Darrington estate, +but that was my sole offence. I am a thief, before God and man, but +there is no more stain of blood on my hands than on yours. General +Darrington was not murdered. He died by the hand of God alone—" +</P> + +<P> +A bluish shadow settled around his parted lips, and he panted. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Dunbar raised him, fanned him, rested his head more comfortably +against his sister's shoulder; and again he looked intently into her +eyes, as though his soul, plumed for departure, must right itself in +the presence of hers, before the final flight. +</P> + +<P> +"He struck me with the andiron, and broke my wrist here—then before I +ever touched him—as he raised it to assault me the second time—there +came an awful blinding glare—the world was wrapped in a blue fire—and +God struck us both down. When I became conscious, my senses were all +stunned, but after a while I knew I was lying on the floor, with a cold +hand resting like lead on my face. I got up; the figure didn't move, +and I supposed that like myself he was stunned by the shock. As I +passed a mirror on my way to the window—I saw myself—for the lamp was +burning bright. God had branded me a thief. Do you see +here—drawn—paralyzed, oh, Gina! All these years I have worn the dark +streak, and one eye was blind, one ear stone deaf. I was a walking +shadow of my own sin; horrible to look upon—and I fled to avoid the +gaze of my race. Somewhere, in Illinois I think, I heard two men on a +train speak of a large reward offered for the recovery of Gen'l +Darrington's will, which had been stolen by one of his heirs, whom the +police were hunting. I was branded—and on my breast here was printed +the face of the dead man—for he had torn my shirt open as he seized me +with one hand, and struck me with the other. I hid in mines, crossed +the plains, secreted myself in a bee ranche. Then the Canadian railroad +was partly built, and I joined the grading party and worked—until the +curse of my sin was more than I could bear. I heard of the holy +Brothers here, made my last journey, confessed my theft, and entered on +my penance. Gina, General Darrington was killed instantly by the +lightning." +</P> + +<P> +As the burden Beryl had long borne slipped suddenly from her heart, the +joy of release from blood-stain was so unexpected, so intense, that her +face blanched to a deadly pallor, and the glad eyes she lifted to her +husband's shone as those of an angel. +</P> + +<P> +"Bertie—Bertie—" Words failed her. She could only kiss the wasted +cold hands that were innocent of bloodshed. +</P> + +<P> +After some moments, the dying man said almost in a whisper: +</P> + +<P> +"I never knew you were punished for my sin, until it was too late to +save you, but God's witness cleared your pure name. The lightning that +scorched me, printed its testimony to set you free. My sister—my +sister—God will surely recompense your faithful—" The voice died in a +quivering gurgle. +</P> + +<P> +"I have my reward, dear Bertie. Oh, how much more than I deserve! I +have you in my arms, innocent of murder, thank God! thank God! I have +the blessed absurance that your pardoned soul goes to meet mother's in +Eternal Peace; and to secure that, I would have willingly died an +ignominious death. It was through the fiery flames of prison, and trial +and convict shame, that God led me to the most precious crown any woman +ever wore, my husband's confidence and love. Only behind dungeon bars +could I have won my husband's heart, which holds for me the whole wide +world of earthly peace and hope. For your sin, you have suffered. Its +consequences to others from the destruction of the will, have been +averted by the prompt transfer of all the property which Gen'l +Darrington left, to his chosen heir Prince. Pecuniarily no one was +injured by your act. Dear Bertie—Bertie, are you listening?" +</P> + +<P> +He smiled but made no answer, and his eyes had a strained and exultant +expression. After a long silence, he cried huskily: +</P> + +<P> +"The curse is taken away—out of my blinded eye I see—Agnus Dei qui +tollis peccata mundi—" +</P> + +<P> +A slight spasm shook him, and feeling his cheek grow colder, Beryl +threw off the fur cloak, and folded it closely around the wasted body +which leaned heavily against her. The sunny short rings of hair clung +to his sunken, blue veined temples, where cold drops gathered; and a +gray seal was set about the wan lips that writhed in the fight for +breath. +</P> + +<P> +"Bertie, kiss me—tell me you are not afraid." +</P> + +<P> +She fancied he nestled his face closer, but the wide eyes were fixed on +the golden light that was fading fast across the narrow doorway. +</P> + +<P> +Pressing her quivering lips to his, she sobbed: +</P> + +<P> +"Tell mother, her little girl was faithful—" +</P> + +<P> +Another spasm shook the form, and after a little while, the eyes +closed; the panting ceased, and the tired breath was drawn in long, +shuddering sighs. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Dunbar beckoned to the cowled form who, rosary in hand, paced the +terrace, and the two laid the dying man back on his pallet of straw. +</P> + +<P> +Fainter grew the slow breath, and the voice of the monk rolled through +the silence, like the tremolo swell of an organ: +</P> + +<P> +"Delicta juventutis, et ignorantias ejus, quoesumus, ne memineris, +Domine; sed secundum magnam misericordiam tuam memor esto illius in +gloria claritatis tuoe." +</P> + +<P> +On the stone floor Beryl knelt, with her brother's icy hand clasped +against her cheek, and as she watched, the twitching of the muscles +ceased, the lips so long distorted, took on their old curves of beauty. +A marble pallor blanched the dark stain of the branded cheek, and the +Bertie of innocent youth came slowly out of the long eclipse. +</P> + +<P> +Death, God's most tender angel, laid her divine lips upon the scars of +sin, that vanished at her touch; drew her white fingers across the +lines and shadows of suffering time, and leaving the halo of eternal +peace upon the frozen features, gave back to Beryl her beautiful Bertie +of old. +</P> + +<P> +The sun was setting; and far away the ice domes and minarets of +immemorial mountains took on the burnished similitude of the New +Jerusalem, which only the exiled saw from lonely Patmos. +</P> + +<P> +Lennox Dunbar lifted his wife from the form of the sleeper, whose +ransomed soul had entered early into Rest; and folded her tenderly to +the heart that henceforth was her refuge from all earthly woes. +</P> + +<P> +At midnight, the brooding silence of the snow-hooded solitude was +broken by the tolling of the monastery bell; and while all the mountain +echoes responded to the slow knell for the departed soul, there rose +from the chapel under the cliffs, the solemn chant of the monks for +their dead: +</P> + +<P> +"Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis." +</P> + +<P> +"Give them eternal rest, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon +them." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="finis"> +THE END. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's At the Mercy of Tiberius, by August Evans Wilson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT THE MERCY OF TIBERIUS *** + +***** This file should be named 4209-h.htm or 4209-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/2/0/4209/ + +Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. 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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: At the Mercy of Tiberius + +Author: August Evans Wilson + +Posting Date: July 7, 2009 [EBook #4209] +Release Date: July, 2003 +First Posted: December 11, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT THE MERCY OF TIBERIUS *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + + +AT THE MERCY OF TIBERIUS + +A NOVEL + + +By + +AUGUSTA EVANS WILSON + + +Author of "A Speckled Bird," "Infelice," "Vashti," "Beulah," "St. +Elmo," etc. + + + + + Fate steals along with silent tread, + Found oftenest in what least we dread; + Frowns in the storm with angry brow, + But in the sunshine strikes the blow. + --COWPER. + + + + +IN MEMORY OF MY MOTHER, WHO HAS ENTERED INTO REST. + + +JTABLE 10 35 1 + + + +AT THE MERCY OF TIBERIUS + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +"You are obstinate and ungrateful. You would rather see me suffer and +die, than bend your stubborn pride in the effort to obtain relief for +me. You will not try to save me." + +The thin, hysterically unsteady voice ended in a sob, and the frail +wasted form of the speaker leaned forward, as if the issue of life or +death hung upon an answer. + +The tower clock of a neighboring church began to strike the hour of +noon, and not until the echo of the last stroke had died away, was +there a reply to the appeal. + +"Mother, try to be just to me. My pride is for you, not for myself. I +shrink from seeing my mother crawl to the feet of a man, who has +disowned and spurned her; I cannot consent that she should humbly beg +for rights, so unnaturally withheld. Every instinct of my nature +revolts from the step you require of me, and I feel as if you held a +hot iron in your hand, waiting to brand me." + +"Your proud sensitiveness runs in a strange groove, and it seems you +would prefer to see me a pauper in a Hospital, rather than go to your +grandfather and ask for help. Beryl, time presses, and if I die for +want of aid, you will be responsible; when it is too late, you will +reproach yourself. If I only knew where and how to reach my dear boy, I +should not importune you. Bertie would not refuse obedience to say +wishes." + +The silence which followed was so prolonged that a mouse crept from its +covert in some corner of the comfortless garret room, and nibbled at +the fragments of bread scattered on the table. + +Beryl stood at the dormer window, holding aside the faded blue cotton +curtain, and the mid-day glare falling upon her, showed every curve of +her tall full form; every line in the calm, pale Sibylline face. The +large steel gray eyes were shaded by drooping lids, heavily fringed +with black lashes, but when raised in a steady gaze the pupils appeared +abnormally dilated; and the delicately traced black brows that +overarched them, contrasted conspicuously with the wealth of deep +auburn hair darkened by mahogany tints, which rolled back in shining +waves from her blue veined temples. While moulding the figure and +features upon a scale almost heroic, nature had jealously guarded the +symmetry of her work, and in addition to the perfect proportion of the +statuesque outlines, had bestowed upon the firm white flesh a gleaming +smoothness, suggestive of fine grained marble highly polished. Majesty +of mien implies much, which the comparatively short period of eighteen +years rarely confers, yet majestic most properly describes this girl, +whose archetype Veleda read runic myths to the Bructeri in the twilight +of history. + +Beryl crossed the room, and with her hands folded tightly together, +came to the low bed, on which lay the wreck of a once beautiful woman, +and stood for a moment silent and pre-occupied. With a sudden gesture +of surrender, she stooped her noble head, as if assuming a yoke, and +drew one long deep breath. Did some prophetic intuition show her at +that instant the Phicean Hill and its dread tenant, which sooner or +later we must all confront? + +"Dear mother, I submit. Obedience to your commands certainly ought not +to lead me astray; yet I feel that I stand at the cross-roads, longing +to turn and flee from the way whither your finger points. I have no +hope of accomplishing any good, and nothing but humiliation can result +from the experiment; but I will go. Sometimes I believe; that fate +maliciously hunts up the things we most bitterly abhor, and one by one +sets them down before us--labelled Duty. When do you wish me to start?" + +"To-night, at nine o'clock. In the letter which you will take to +father, I have told him our destitution; and that the money spent for +your railway ticket has been obtained by the sacrifice of the diamonds +and pearls, that were set around my mother's picture; that cameo, which +he had cut in Rome and framed in Paris. Beryl so much depends on the +impression you make upon him, that you must guard your manner against +haughtiness. Try to be patient, my daughter, and if he should seem +harsh, do not resent his words. He is old now, and proud and bitter, +but he once had a tender love for me. I was his idol, and when my child +pleads, he will relent." + +Mrs. Brentano laid her thin hot fingers on her daughter's hands, +drawing her down to the edge of the bed; and Beryl saw she was +quivering with nervous excitement. + +"Compose yourself, mother, or you will be so ill that I cannot leave +you. Dr. Grantlin impressed upon us, the necessity of keeping your +nervous system quiet. Take your medicine now, and try to sleep until I +come back from Stephen & Endicott's." + +"Do not go to-day." + +"I must. Those porcelain types were promised for a certain day, and +they should be packed in time for the afternoon express going to +Boston." + +"Beryl." + +"Well, mother?" + +"Come nearer to me. Give me your hand. My heart is so oppressed by +dread, that I want you to promise me something, which I fancy will +lighten my burden. Life is very uncertain, and if I should die, what +would become of my Bertie? Oh, my boy! my darling, my first born! He is +so impulsive, so headstrong; and no one but his mother could ever +excuse or forgive his waywardness. Although younger, you are in some +respects, the strongest; and I want your promise that you will always +be patient and tender with him, and that you will shield him from evil, +as I have tried to do. His conscience of course, is not sensitive like +yours--because you know, a boy's moral nature is totally different from +a girl's; and like most of his sex, Bertie has no religious instincts +bending him always in the right direction. Women generally have to +supply conscientious scruples for men, and you can take care of your +brother, if you will. You are unusually brave and strong, Beryl, and +when I am gone, you must stand between him and trouble. My good little +girl, will you?" + +The large luminous eyes that rested upon the flushed face of the +invalid, filled with a mist of yearning compassionate tenderness, and +taking her mother's hands, Beryl laid the palms together, then stooping +nearer, kissed her softly. + +"I think I have never lacked love for Bertie, though I may not always +have given expression to my feelings. If at times I have deplored his +reckless waywardness, and expostulated with him, genuine affection +prompted me; but I promise you now, that I will do all a sister +possibly can for a brother. Trust me, mother; and rest in the assurance +that his welfare shall be more to me than my own; that should the +necessity arise, I will stand between him and trouble. Banish all +depressing forebodings. When you are strong and well, and when I paint +my great picture, we will buy a pretty cottage among the lilacs and +roses, where birds sing all day long, where cattle pasture in clover +nooks; and then Bertie, your darling, shall never leave you again." + +"I do trust you, for your promise means more than oath and vows from +other people, and if occasion demand, I know you will guard my Bertie, +my high-strung, passionate, beautiful boy! Your pretty cottage? Ah, +child! when shall we dwell in Spain?" + +"Some day, some day; only be hopeful, and let me find you better when I +return. Sleep, and dream of our pretty cottage. I must hurry away with +my pictures, for this is pay day." + +Tying the strings of her hat under one ear, and covering her face with +a blue veil, Beryl took a pasteboard box from a table, on which lay +brushes and paints, and leaving the door a-jar, went down the narrow +stairs. + +At the window of a small hall on the next floor, a woman sat before her +sewing-machine, bending so close to her work that she did not see the +tall form, which paused before her, until a hand was laid on the steel +plate. + +"Mrs. Emmet, will you please be so good as to go up after a while, and +see if mother needs anything?" + +"Certainly, Miss, if I am here, but I have some sewing to carry home +this afternoon." + +"I shall not be absent more than two hours. To-night I am going South, +to attend to some business; and mother tells me you have promised to +wait upon her, and allow your daughter Maggie to sleep on a pallet by +her bed, while I am gone. I cannot tell you how grateful I shall be for +any kindness you may show her, and I wish you would send the baby often +to her room, as he is so sweet and cunning, and his merry ways amuse +her." + +"Yes, I will do all I can. We poor folks who have none of this world's +goods, ought to be rich at least in sympathy and pity for each other's +suffering, for it is about all we have to share. Don't you worry and +fret, for I will see your ma has what she needs. I was mothered by the +best woman God ever made, and since she died, every sick mother I see +has a sort of claim on my heart." + +Pausing an instant to adjust the tucker of her machine, Mrs. Emmet +looked up, and involuntarily the women shook hands, as if sealing a +compact. + +It was a long walk to the building whither Beryl directed her steps, +and as she passed through the rear entrance of a large and fashionable +photograph establishment, she was surprised to find that it was +half-past two o'clock. + +The Superintendent of the department, from whom she received her work, +was a man of middle-age, of rather stern and forbidding aspect; and as +she approached his desk, he pointed to the clock on the mantel-piece. + +"Barely time to submit those types for inspection, and have them packed +for the express going East. They are birthday gifts, and birthdays have +an awkward habit of arriving rigidly on time." + +He unrolled the tissue paper, and with a magnifying glass, carefully +examined the pictures; then took from an envelope in the box, two short +pieces of hair, which he compared with the painted heads before him. + +"Beautifully done. The lace on that child's dress would bear even a +stronger lens than my glass. Here Patterson, take this box, and letter +to Mr. Endicott, and if satisfactory, carry them to the packing +counter. Shipping address is in the letter. Hurry up, my lad. Sit down, +Miss Brentano." + +"Thank you, I am not tired. Mr. Mansfield, have you any good news for +me?" + +"You mean those etchings; or the designs for the Christmas cards? Have +not heard a word, pro or con. Guess no news is good news; for I notice +'rejected' work generally travels fast, to roost at home." + +"I thought the awards were made last week, and that to-day you could +tell me the result." + +"The awards have been made, I presume, but who owns the lucky cards is +the secret that has not yet transpired. You young people have no +respect for red tape, and methodical business routine. You want to +clap spurs on fate, and make her lower her own last record? 'Bide awee. +Bide awee'." + +"Winning this prize means so much to me, that I confess I find it very +hard to be patient. Success would save me from a painful and expensive +journey, upon which I must start to-night; and therefore I hoped so +earnestly that I might receive good tidings to-day. I am obliged to go +South on an errand, which will necessitate an absence of several days, +and if you should have any news for me, keep it until I call again. If +unfavorable it would depress my mother, and therefore I prefer you +should not write, as of course she will open any letters addressed to +me. Please save all the work you can for me, and I will come here as +soon as I get back home." + +"Very well. Any message, Patterson?" + +"Mr. Endicott said, 'All right; first-rate;' and ordered them shipped." + +"Here is your money, Miss Brentano. Better call as early as you can, as +I guess there will be a lot of photographs ready in a few days. Good +afternoon." + +"Thank you. Good-bye, sir." + +From the handful of small change, she selected some pennies which she +slipped inside of her glove, and dropping the remainder into her +pocket, left the building, and walked on toward Union Square. Absorbed +in grave reflections, and oppressed by some vague foreboding of +impending ill, dim, intangible and unlocalized--she moved slowly along +the crowded sidewalk--unconscious of the curious glances directed +toward her superb form, and stately graceful carriage, which more than +one person turned and looked back to admire, wondering when she had +stepped down from some sacred Panathenaic Frieze. + +Near Madison Square, she paused before the window of a florist's, and +raising her veil, gazed longingly at the glowing mass of blossoms, +which Nineteenth Century skill and wealth in defiance of isothermal +lines, and climatic limitations force into perfection, in, and out of +season. The violet eyes and crocus fingers of Spring smiled and +quivered, at sight of the crimson rose heart, and flaming paeony cheeks +of royal Summer; and creamy and purple chrysanthemums that quill their +laces over the russet robes of Autumn, here stared in indignant +amazement, at the premature presumption of snowy regal camellias, +audaciously advancing to crown the icy brows of Winter. All latitudes, +all seasons have become bound vassals to the great God Gold; and his +necromancy furnishes with equal facility the dewy wreaths of orange +flowers that perfume the filmy veils of December brides--and the blue +bells of spicy hyacinths which ring "Rest" over the lily pillows, set +as tribute on the graves of babies, who wilt under August suns. + +From early childhood, an ardent love of beauty had characterized this +girl, whose covetous gaze wandered from a gorgeous scarlet and gold +orchid nodding in dreams of its habitat, in some vanilla scented +Brazilian jungle, to a bed of vivid green moss, where skilful hands had +grouped great drooping sprays of waxen begonias, coral, faint pink, and +ivory, all powdered with gold dust like that which gilds the heart of +water-lilies. + +Such treasures were reserved for the family of Dives; and counting her +pennies, Beryl entered the store, where instantaneously the blended +breath of heliotrope, tube-rose and mignonette wafted her across the +ocean, to a white-walled fishing village on the Cornice, whose gray +rocks were kissed by the blue lips of the Mediterranean. + +"What is the price of that cluster of Niphetos buds?" + +"One dollar." + +"And that Auratum--with a few rose geranium leaves added?" + +"Seventy-five cents. You see it is wonderfully large, and the gold +bands are so very deep." + +She put one hand in her pocket and fingered a silver coin, but poverty +is a grim, tyrannous stepmother to tender aestheticism, and prudential +considerations prevailed. + +"Give me twenty-five cents worth of those pale blue double violets, +with a sprig of lemon verbena, and a fringe of geranium leaves." + +She laid the money on the counter, and while the florist selected and +bound the blossoms into a bunch, she arrested his finishing touch. + +"Wait a moment. How much more for one Grand Duke jasmine in the centre?" + +"Ten cents, Miss." + +She added the dime to the pennies she could ill afford to spare from +her small hoard, and said: "Will you be so kind as to sprinkle it? I +wish it kept fresh, for a sick lady." + +Dusky shadows were gathering in the gloomy hall of the old tenement +house, when Beryl opened the door of the comfortless attic room, where +for many months she had struggled bravely to shield her mother from the +wolf, that more than once snarled across the threshold. + +Mrs. Brentano was sitting in a low chair, with her elbows on her knees, +her face hidden in her palms; and in her lap lay paper and pencil, +while a sealed letter had fallen on the ground beside her. At the sound +of the opening door, she lifted her head, and tears dripped upon the +paper. In her faded flannel dressing-gown, with tresses of black hair +straggling across her shoulders, she presented a picture of helpless +mental and physical woe, which painted itself indelibly on the panels +of her daughter's heart. + +"Why did you not wait until I came home? The exertion of getting up +always fatigues you." + +"You staid so long--and I am so uncomfortable in that wretchedly hard +bed. What detained you?" + +"I went to see the Doctor, because I am unwilling to start away, +without having asked his advice; and he has prescribed some new +medicine which you will find in this bottle. The directions are marked +on the label. Now I will put things in order, and try my hands on that +refractory bed." + +"What did the Doctor say about me?" + +"Nothing new; but he is confident that you can be cured in time, if we +will only be patient and obedient. He promised to see you in the +morning." + +She stripped the bed of its covering, shook bolster and pillows; turned +over the mattress, and beat it vigorously; then put on fresh sheets, +and adjusted the whole comfortably. + +"Now mother, turn your head, and let me comb and brush and braid all +this glossy black satin, to keep it from tangling while I am away. What +a pity you did not dower your daughter with part of it, instead of this +tawny mane of mine, which is a constant affront to my fastidious +artistic instincts. Please keep still a moment." + +She unwrapped the tissue paper that covered her flowers, and holding +her hands behind her, stepped in front of the invalid. + +"Dear mother, shut your eyes. There--! of what does that remind you? +The pergola--with great amber grape clusters--and white stars of +jasmine shining through the leaves? All the fragrance of Italy sleeps +in the thurible of this Grand-Duke." + +"How delicious! Ah, my extravagant child! we cannot afford such +luxuries now. The perfume recalls so vividly the time when Bertie--" + +A sob cut short the sentence. Beryl pinned the flowers at her mother's +throat, kissed her cheek, and kneeling before her, crossed her arms on +the invalid's lap, resting there the noble head, with its burnished +crown of reddish bronze braids. + +"Mother dear, humor my childish whim. In defiance of my wishes and +judgment, and solely in obedience to your command, I am leaving you for +the first time, on a bitterly painful and humiliating mission. +To-night, let me be indeed your little girl once more. My heart brings +me to your knees, to say my prayers as of yore, and now while I pray, +lay your dear pretty hands on my head. It will seem like a parting +benediction; a veritable Nunc dimmitas." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +"I do not want a carriage. If the distance is only a mile and a half, I +can easily walk. After leaving town is there a straight road?" + +"Straight as the crow flies, when you have passed the factory, and +cemetery, and turned to the left. There is a little Branch running at +the foot of the hill, and just across it, you will see the white +palings, and the big gate with stone pillars, and two tremendous brass +dogs on top, showing their teeth and ready to spring. There's no +mistaking the place, because it is the only one left in the country +that looks like the good old times before the war; and the Yankees +would not have spared it, had it not been such comfortable bombproof +headquarters for their officers. It's our show place now, and General +Darrington keeps it up in better style, than any other estate I know." + +"Thank you. I will find it." + +Beryl walked away in the direction indicated, and the agent of the +railway station, leaning against the door of the baggage room, looked +with curious scrutiny after her. + +"I should like to know who she is. No ordinary person, that is clear. +Such a grand figure and walk, and such a steady look in her big solemn +eyes, as if she saw straight through a person, clothes, flesh and all. +Wonder what her business can be with the old general?" + +From early childhood Beryl had listened so intently to her mother's +glowing descriptions of the beauty and elegance of her old home "Elm +Bluff," that she soon began to identify the land-marks along the road, +alter passing the cemetery, where so many generations of Darringtons +slept in one corner, enclosed by a lofty iron railing; exclusive in +death as in life; jealously guarded and locked from contact with the +surrounding dwellers in "God's Acre." + +The October day had begun quite cool and crisp, with a hint of frost in +its dewy sparkle, but as though vanquished Summer had suddenly faced +about, and charged furiously to cover her retreat, the south wind came +heavily laden with hot vapor from equatorial oceanic caldrons; and now +the afternoon sun, glowing in a cloudless sky, shed a yellowish glare +that burned and tingled like the breath of a furnace; while along the +horizon, a dim dull haze seemed blotting out the boundary of earth and +sky. + +A portion of the primeval pine forest having been preserved, the trees +had attained gigantic height, thrusting their plumy heads heavenward, +as their lower limbs died; and year after year the mellow brown carpet +of reddish straw deepened, forming a soft safe nidus for the seeds that +sprang up and now gratefully embroidered it with masses of golden rod, +starry white asters, and tall, feathery spikes of some velvety purple +bloom, which looked royal by the side of a cluster of belated evening +primroses. + +Pausing on the small but pretty rustic bridge, Beryl leaned against the +interlacing cedar boughs twisted into a balustrade, and looked down at +the winding stream, where the clear water showed amber hues, flecked +with glinting foam bubbles, as it lapped and gurgled, eddied and sang, +over its bed of yellow gravel. Unacquainted with "piney-woods' +branches," she was charmed by the novel golden brown wavelets that +frothed against the pillars of the bridge, and curled caressingly about +the broad emerald fronds of luxuriant ferns, which hung Narcissus-like +over their own graceful quivering images. Profound quiet brooded in the +warm, hazy air, burdened with balsamic odors; but once a pine burr full +of rich nutty mast crashed down through dead twigs, bruising the satin +petals of a primrose; and ever and anon the oboe notes of that shy, +deep throated hermit of ravines--the russet, speckled-breasted +lark--thrilled through the woods, like antiphonal echoes in some vast, +cool, columned cloister. + +The perfect tranquillity of the scene soothed the travel-weary woman, +as though nestling so close to the great heart of nature, had stilled +the fierce throbbing, and banished the gloomy forebodings of her own; +and she walked on, through the iron gate, where the bronze mastiffs +glared warningly from their granite pedestal--on into the large +undulating park, which stretched away to meet the line of primitive +pines. There was no straight avenue, but a broad smooth carriage road +curved gently up a hillside, and on both margins of the graveled way, +ancient elm trees stood at regular intervals, throwing their boughs +across, to unite in lifting the superb groined arches, whose fine +tracery of sinuous lines were here and there concealed by clustering +mistletoe--and gray lichen masses--and ornamented with bosses of velvet +moss; while the venerable columnar trunks were now and then wreathed +with poison-oak vines, where red trumpet flowers insolently blared +defiance to the waxen pearls of encroaching mistletoe. + +On the other side, the grounds were studded with native growth, as +though protective forestry statutes had crossed the ocean with the +colonists, and on this billowy sea of varied foliage Autumn had set her +illuminated autograph, in the vivid scarlet of sumach and black gum, +the delicate lemon of wild cherry--the deep ochre all sprinkled and +splashed with intense crimson, of the giant oaks--the orange glow of +ancestral hickory--and the golden glory of maples, on which the hectic +fever of the dying year kindled gleams of fiery red;--over all, a +gorgeous blazonry of riotous color, toned down by the silver gray +shadows of mossy tree-trunks, and the rich, dark, restful green of +polished magnolias. + +Half a dozen fine Cotswold ewes browsed on the grass, and the small +bell worn by a staid dowager tinkled musically, as she threw up her +head and watched suspiciously the figure moving under the elm arches. +Beneath the far reaching branches of a patriarchal cedar, a small herd +of Jersey calves had grouped themselves, as if posing for Landseer or +Rosa Bonheur; and one pretty fawn-colored weanling ran across the sward +to meet the stranger, bleating a welcome and looking up, with +unmistakable curiosity in its velvety, long-lashed eyes. + +As the avenue gradually climbed the ascent, the outlines of the house +became visible; a stately, typical southern mansion, like hundreds, +which formerly opened hospitably their broad mahogany doors, and which, +alas! are becoming traditional to this generation--obsolete as the +brave chivalric, warm-hearted, open-handed, noble-souled, refined +southern gentlemen who built and owned them. No Mansard roof here, no +pseudo "Queen Anne" hybrid, with lowering, top-heavy projections like +scowling eyebrows over squinting eyes; neither mongrel Renaissance, nor +feeble, sickly, imitation Elizabethan facades, and Tudor towers; none +of the queer, composite, freakish impertinences of architectural style, +which now-a-day do duty as the adventurous vanguard, the aesthetic +vedettes "making straight the way," for the coming cohorts of Culture. + +The house at "Elm Bluff" was built of brick, overcast with stucco +painted in imitation of gray granite, and its foundation was only four +feet high, resting upon a broad terrace of brickwork; the latter +bounded by a graceful wooden balustrade, with pedestals for vases, on +either side of the two stone steps leading down from the terrace to the +carriage drive. The central halls, in both stories, divided the space +equally into four rooms on each side, and along the wide front, ran a +lofty piazza supporting the roof, with white smooth round pillars; +while the upper broad square windows, cedar-framed, and deeply +embrasured, looked down on the floor of the piazza, where so many +generations of Darringtons had trundled hoops in childhood--and +promenaded as lovers in the silvery moonlight, listening to the ring +doves cooing above them, from the columbary of the stucco capitals. +This spacious colonnade extended around the northern and eastern side +of the house, but the western end had formerly been enclosed as a +conservatory--which having been abolished, was finally succeeded by a +comparatively modern iron veranda, with steps leading down to the +terrace. In front of the building, between the elm avenue and the +flower-bordered terrace, stood a row of very old poplar trees, tall as +their forefathers in Lombardy, and to an iron staple driven into one of +these, a handsome black horse was now fastened. + +Standing with one foot on the terrace step, close to the marble vases +where heliotropes swung their dainty lilac chalices against her +shoulder, and the scarlet geraniums stared unabashed, Beryl's gaze +wandered from the lovely park and ancient trees, to the unbroken facade +of the gray old house; and as, in painful contrast she recalled the +bare bleak garret room, where a beloved invalid held want and death at +bay, a sudden mist clouded her vision, and almost audibly she murmured: +"My poor mother! Now, I can realize the bitterness of your suffering; +now I understand the intensity of your yearning to come back; the +terrible home-sickness, which only Heaven can cure." + +What is presentiment? The swaying of the veil of futurity, under the +straining hands of our guardian angels? Is it the faint shadow, the +solemn rustle of their hovering wings, as like mother birds they spread +protecting plumes between blind fledglings, and descending ruin? Will +theosophy ever explain and augment prescience? + + "It may be-- + The thoughts that visit us, we know not whence, + Sudden as inspiration, are the whispers + Of disembodied spirits, speaking to us + As friends, who wait outside a prison wall, + Through the barred windows speak to those within." + +With difficulty Beryl resisted an inexplicable impulse to turn and +flee; but the drawn sword of duty pointed ahead. + +Striking her hands together, as if thereby crushing her reluctance to +enter, she waited a moment, with closed eyes, while her lips moved in +silent prayer; then ascending the terrace, she crossed the stone +pavement, walked up the stops and slowly advanced to the threshold. The +dark mahogany door was so glossy, that she dimly saw her own image on +its polished panels, as she lifted and let fall the heavy silver +knocker, in the middle of an oval silver plate, around the edges of +which were raised the square letters of the name "Darrington." The +clanging sound startled a peacock, strutting among the verbena beds, +and his shrill scream was answered by the deep hoarse bark of some +invisible dog; then the heavy door swung open, and a gray-headed negro +man, who wore a white linen apron over his black clothes, and held a +waiter in one hand, stood before her. + +"I wish to see Mr. Darrington." + +"I reckon you mean Gin'l Darrington, don't you? Mr. Darrington, Marse +Prince Darrington, is in Yurope." + +"I mean Mr. Luke Darrington, the owner of this place." + +"Jess so; Gin'l Luke Darrington. Well, you can't see him." + +"Why not? I must see him, and I shall stay here until I do." + +"'Cause he is busy with his lie-yer, fixin' of some papers; and when he +tells me not to let nobody else in I'de ruther set down in a yaller +jacket's nest than to turn the door knob, after he done shut it. Better +leave your name and call ag'in." + +"No, I will wait until he is at leisure. I presume my sitting on the +steps here will not be a violation of your orders." + +"To be shore not. But them steps are harder than the stool of +repentance, and you had better walk in the drawing-room, and rest +yourself. There's pictures, and lots and piles of things there, you can +pass away the time looking at." + +He waved his waiter toward a long, dim apartment, on the left side of +the hall. + +"Thank you, I prefer to sit here." + +She seated herself on the top of the stone steps, and taking off her +straw hat, fanned her heated brow, where the rich waving hair clung in +damp masses. + +"What name, miss, must I give, when the lie-yer finishes his bizness?" + +"Say that a stranger wishes to see him about an important matter." + +"Its mighty uncertain how long he will tarry; for lie-yers live by +talking; turning of words upside down, and wrong side outards, and +reading words backards, and whitewashing black things, and smutting of +white ones. Marse Lennox Dunbar (he is our lie-yer now, since his pa +took paralsis) he is a powerful wrastler with justice. They do say down +yonder, at the court house, that when he gets done with a witness, and +turns him aloose, the poor creetur is so flustrated in his mind, that +he don't know his own name, on when he was born, or where he was born, +or whether he was ever born at all." + +Curiosity to discover the nature of the stranger's errand had +stimulated the old man's garrulity, but receiving no reply, he finally +retreated, leaving the front door open. By the aid of a disfiguring +scar on his furrowed cheek, Beryl recognized him as the brave, +faithful, family coachman, Abednego, (abbreviated to "Bedney")--who had +once saved his mother's life at the risk of his own. Mrs. Brentano had +often related to her children, an episode in her childhood, when having +gone to play with her dolls in the loft of the stable, she fell asleep +on the hay; and two hours later, Bedney remembering that he had heard +her singing there to her dolls, rushed into the burning building, +groped through the stifling smoke of the loft, and seizing the sleeping +child, threw her out upon a pile of straw. When he attempted to jump +after her, a falling rafter struck him to the earth, and left an +honorable scar in attestation of his heroism. + +Had she yielded to the promptings of her heart, the stranger would +gladly have shaken hands with him, and thanked him, in the name of +those early years, when her mother's childish feet made music on the +wide mahogany railed stairs, that wound from the lower hall to the one +above; but the fear of being denied an audience, deterred her from +disclosing her name. + +Educated in the belief that the utterance of the abhorred name of +Brentano, within the precincts of "Elm Bluff," would produce an effect +very similar to the ringing of some Tamil Pariah's bell, before the +door of a Brahman temple, Beryl wisely kept silent; and soon forgot her +forebodings, in the contemplation of the supreme loveliness of the +prospect before her. + +The elevation was sufficient to command an extended view of the +surrounding country, and of the river, which crossed by the railroad +bridge north of the town, curved sharply to the east, whence she could +trace its course as it gradually wound southward, and disappeared +behind the house; where at the foot of a steep bluff, a pretty boat and +bath house nestled under ancient willow trees. At her feet the foliage +of the park stretched like some brilliant carpet, before whose gorgeous +tints, ustads of Karman would have stood in despair; and beyond the +sea-green, undulating line of pine forest she saw the steeple of a +church, with its gilt vane burning in the sunshine, and the red brick +dome of the ante bellum court house. + +Time seemed to have fallen asleep on that hot, still afternoon, and +Beryl was roused from her reverie by the sound of hearty laughter in +the apartment opposite the drawing-room--followed by the tones of a +man's voice. + +"Thank you, General. That is my destination this afternoon, and I shall +certainly expect you to dance at my wedding." + +Quick, firm steps rang on the oil-cloth-covered floor of the hall, and +Beryl rose and turned toward the door. + +With a cigar in one hand, hat and riding-whip in the other, the +attorney stepped out on the colonnade, and pausing involuntarily, at +sight of the stranger, they looked at each other. A man, perhaps, more, +certainly not less than thirty years old, of powerful and impressive +physique; very tall, athletic, sinewy, without an ounce of superfluous +flesh to encumber his movements, in the professional palaestra; with a +large finely modeled head, whose crisp black hair closely cut, was +(contrary to the prevailing fashion) parted neither in the middle, nor +yet on the side, but brushed straight back from the square forehead, +thereby enhancing the massiveness of its appearance. + +Something in this swart, beardless face, with its brilliant +inquisitorial dark blue eyes, handsome secretive mouth veiled by no +mustache--and boldly assertive chin deeply cleft in the +centre--affected Beryl very unpleasantly, as a perplexing disagreeable +memory; an uncanny resemblance hovering just beyond the grasp of +identification. A feeling of unaccountable repulsion made her shiver, +and she breathed more freely, when he hewed slightly, and walked on +toward his horse. Upon the attorney her extraordinary appearance +produced a profound impression, and in his brief scrutiny, no detail of +her face, figure, or apparel escaped his keen probing gaze. + +Glancing back as he untied his bridle rein, his unspoken comment was: +"Superb woman; I wonder what brings her here? Evidently a +stranger--with a purpose." + +He sprang into the saddle, stooped his head to avoid the yellow poplar +branches, and disappeared under the elm arches. + +"Gin'l Darrington's compliments; and if your bizness is pressin' you +will have to see him in his bedcharmber, as he feels poorly to-day, and +the Doctor won't let him out. Follow me. You see, ole Marster remembers +the war by the game leg he got at Sharpshurg, and sometimes it lays him +up." + +The old servant led Beryl through a long room, fitted up as a library +and armory, and pausing before an open door, waved her into the +adjoining apartment. One swift glance showed her the heavy canopied +bedstead in one corner, the arch-shaped glass door leading out upon the +iron veranda; and at an oblong table in the middle of the floor, the +figure of a man, who rose, taller and taller, until he seemed a giant, +drawn to his full height, and resting for support on the hand that was +rested upon the table. Intensity of emotion arrested her breath, as she +gazed at the silvered head, piercing black eyes, and spare wasted framp +of the handsome man, who had always reigned as a brutal ogre in her +imagination. The fire in his somewhat sunken eyes, seemed to bid +defiance to the whiteness of the abundant hair, and of the heavy +mustache which drooped over his lips; and every feature in his +patrician face revealed not only a long line of blue-blooded ancestors, +but the proud haughtiness which had been considered always as +distinctively characteristic of the Darringtons as their finely cut +lips, thin nostrils, small feet and unusual height. + +Unprepared for the apparition that confronted him, Luke Darrington +bowed low, surveyed her intently, then pointed to a chair opposite his +own. + +"Walk in, Madam; or perhaps it may be Miss? Will you take a seat, and +excuse the feebleness that forces me to receive visits in my bed-room?" + +As he reseated himself, Beryl advanced and stood beside him, but for a +moment she found it impossible to utter the words, rehearsed so +frequently during her journey; and while she hesitated, he curiously +inspected her face and form. + +Her plain, but perfectly fitting bunting dress, was of the color, +popularly dominated "navy-blue," and the linen collar and cuffs were +scarcely whiter than the round throat and wrists they encircled. The +burnished auburn hair clinging in soft waves to her brow, was twisted +into a heavy coil, which the long walk had shaken down till it rested +almost on her neck; and though her heart beat furiously, the pale calm +face might have been marble, save for the scarlet lines of her +beautiful mouth, and the steady glow of the dilated pupils in her great +gray eyes. + +"Pray be seated; and tell me to whom I am indebted for the pleasure of +this visit?" + +"I am merely the bearer of a letter which will explain itself, and my +presence, in your house." + +Mechanically he took the preferred letter, and with his eyes still +lingering in admiration upon the classic outlines of her face and form, +leaned back comfortably against the velvet lining of his armchair. + +"Are you some exiled goddess travelling incognito? If we lived in the +'piping days of Pan' I should flatter myself that 'Ox-eyed Juno' had +honored me with a call, as a reward for my care of her favorite bird." + +Receiving no reply he glanced at the envelope in his hand, and as he +read the address--"To my dear father, Gen'l Luke Darrington"--the smile +on his face changed to a dark scowl and he tossed the letter to the +floor, as if it were a red-hot coal. + +"Only one living being has the right to call me father--my son, Prince +Darrington. I have repeatedly refused to hold any communication with +the person who wrote that letter." + +Beryl stooped to pick it up, and with a caressing touch, as though it +were sentient, held it against her heart. + +"Your daughter is dying; and this is her last appeal." + +"I have no daughter. Twenty-three years ago my daughter buried herself +in hopeless disgrace, and for her there can be no resurrection here. If +she dreams that I am in my dotage, and may relent, she strangely +forgets the nature of the blood she saw fit to cross with that of a +beggarly foreign scrub. Go back and tell her, the old man is not yet +senile and imbecile; and that the years have only hardened his heart. +Tell her, I have almost learned to forget even how she looked." + +His eyes showed a dull reddish fire, like those of some drowsy caged +tiger, suddenly stirred into wrath, and a grayish pallor--the white +heat of the Darringtons--settled on his face. + +Twice Beryl walked the length of the room, but each time the +recollection of her mother's tearful, suffering countenance, and the +extremity of her need, drove her back to the chair. + +"If you knew that your daughter's life hung by a thread, would you +deliberately take a pair of shears and cut it?" + +He glared at her in silence, and leaning forward on the table, pushed +roughly aside a salver, on which stood a decanter and two wine glasses. + +"I am here to tell you a solemn truth; then my responsibility ends. +Your daughter's life rests literally in your hands; for unless you +consent to furnish the money to pay for a surgical operation, which may +restore her health, she will certainly die. I am indulging in no +exaggeration to extort alms. In this letter is the certificate of a +distinguished physician, corroborating my statement. If you, the author +of her being, prefer to hasten her death, then your choice of an awful +revenge must be settled between your hardened conscience and your God." + +"You are bold indeed, to beard me in my own house, and tell me to my +face what no man would dare to utter." + +His voice was an angry pant, and he struck his clenched hand on the +table with a force that made the glasses jingle, and the sherry dance +in the decanter. + +"Yes, you scarcely realize how much bravery this painful errand +demands; but the tender love in a woman's heart nerves her to bear +fiery ordeals, that vanquish a man's courage." + +"Then you find that age has not drawn the fangs from the old crippled +Darrington lion, nor clipped his claws?" + +The sneer curved his white mustache, until she saw the outline of the +narrow, bloodless underlip. + +"That king of beasts scorns to redden his fangs, or flesh his claws, in +the quivering body of his own offspring. Your metaphor is an insult to +natural instincts." + +She laid the letter once more before him, and looked down on him, with +ill-concealed aversion. + +"Who are you? By what right dare you intrude upon me?" + +"I am merely a sorrowful, anxious, poverty-stricken woman, whose heart +aches over her mother's sufferings and vho would never have endured the +humiliation of this interview, except to deliver a letter in the hope +of prolonging my mother's life." + +"You do not mean that you are--my--" + +"I am nothing to you, sir, but the bearer of a letter from your dying +daughter." + +"You cannot be the child of--of Ellice?" + +After the long limbo of twenty-three years, the name burst from him, +and with what a host of memories its echo peopled the room, where that +erring daughter had formerly reigned queen of his heart. + +"Yes, Ellice is my dear mother's name." + +He stared at the majestic form, and at the faultless face looking so +proudly down upon him, as from an inaccessible height; and she heard +him draw his breath, with a labored hissing sound. + +"But--I thought her child was a boy?" + +"I am the youngest of two children." + +"It is impossible that you are the daughter of that infernal, low-born, +fiddling foreign vagabond who--" + +"Hush! The dead are sacred!" + +She threw up her hand, with an imperious gesture, not of deprecation, +but of interdict; and all the stony calm in her pale face seemed +shivered by a passionate gust, that made her eyes gleam like steel +under an electric flash. + +"I am the daughter of Ignace Brentano, and I love, and honor his +memory, and his name. No drop of your Darrington blood runs in my +veins; I love my dear mother--but I am my father's daughter--and I want +no nobler heritage than his name. Upon you I have no shadow of claim, +but I am here from dire necessity, at your mercy--a helpless, +defenseless pleader in my mother's behalf--and as such, I appeal to the +boasted southern chivalry, upon which you pride yourself, for immunity +from insult while I am under your roof. Since I stood no taller than +your knee, my mother has striven to inculcate a belief in the nobility, +refinement, and chivalric deference to womanhood, inherent in southern +gentlemen; and if it be not all a myth, I invoke its protection against +abuse of my father. A stranger, but a lady, every inch, I demand the +respect due from a gentleman." + +For a moment they eyed each other, as gladiators awaiting the signal, +then General Darrington sprang to his feet, and with a bow, stately and +profound as if made to a duchess, replied: + +"And in the name of southern chivalry, I swear you shall receive it." + +"Read your daughter's letter; give me your answer, and let us cut short +an interview--which, if disagreeable to you, is almost unendurable to +me." + +Turning away, she began to walk slowly up and down the floor; and +smothering an oath under his heavy mustache, the old man sank back in +his chair, and opened the letter. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +Holding in leash the painful emotions that struggled for utterance, +Beryl was unconscious of the lapse of time, and when her averted eyes +returned reluctantly to her grandfather's face, he was slowly tearing +into shreds the tear-stained letter, freighted with passionate prayers +for pardon, and for succor. Rolling the strips into a ball, he threw it +into the waste-paper basket under the table; then filled a glass with +sherry, drank it, and dropped his head wearily on his hand. Five leaden +minutes crawled away, and a long, heavy sigh quivered through Gen'l +Darrington's gaunt frame. Seizing the decanter, he poured the contents +into two glasses, and as he raised one to his lips, held the other +toward his visitor. + +"You must be weary from your journey; let me insist that you drink some +sherry." + +"Thank you, I neither wish nor require it." + +"I find your name is Beryl. Sit down here, and answer a few questions." +He drew a chair near his own. + +She shook her head: + +"If you will excuse me, I prefer to stand." + +In turning, so as to confront her fully, his elbow struck from the +table, a bronze paper-weight which rolled just beyond his reach. +Instinctively she stooped to pick it up, and in restoring it, her +fingers touched his. Leaning suddenly forward he grasped her wrists ere +she was aware of his intention, and drew her in front of him. + +"Pardon me; but I want a good look at you." + +His keen merciless eyes searched every feature, and he deliberately +lifted and examined the exquisitely shaped strong, white hands, the +dainty nails, and delicately rounded wrists with their violet tracery +of veins. It cost her an effort, to abstain from wrenching herself +free; but her mother's caution: "So much depends on the impression you +make upon father," girded her to submit to his critical inspection. + +A grim smile crossed his face, as he watched her. + +"Blood often doubles, like a fox; sometimes 'crops back,' but never +lies. You can't play out your role of pauper; and you don't look a +probable outcome of destitution and hard work. Your hands would fit +much better in a metope of the Elgin Marbles, than in a wash-tub, or a +bake-oven." + +Drawing away quickly, she put them behind her, and felt her palms +tingle. + +"It is expected I should believe that for some time past, you have +provided for your own, and your mother's wants. In what way?" + +"By coloring photographs; by furnishing designs for Christmas and +Easter cards, and occasionally (not often), by selling drawings used +for decorating china, and wallpaper. At one time, I had regular pay for +singing in a choir, but diphtheria injured my throat, and when I partly +recovered my voice, the situation had been given to another person." + +"I am informed also that before long, you intend to astonish the world +with a wonderful picture, which shall distance such laggards as Troyon, +Dore, and Ary Scheffer?" + +She was looking, not at him, but out through the glass door, at the +glowing western sky, where distant pine trees printed their +silhouettes. Now her gaze came back to his face, and he noted a faint +quiver in her full throat. + +"If God will mercifully spare my mother to me, my loftiest and holiest +ambition shall be to distance the wolfish cares and woes that have +hunted her, ever since she became a widow. Any and all honest labor +that can contribute to her comfort, will be welcome and sweet to me." + +"The laws of heredity must be occult and complex. The offspring of a +rebellious and disobedient child, is certainly entitled to no filial +instincts; and some day the strain will tell, and you will overwhelm +your mother with ingratitude, black as that which she showed me." + +"When I do, may God eternally forsake me!" + +A brief silence ensued, and the old man drummed on the table, with the +fingers of his right hand. + +"Who educated you?" + +"My dear father." + +"It seems there are two of you. Where is your brother?" + +"At present, I do not know exactly where he is, but I think in the far +West; possibly in Montana--probably in Canada." + +"How does he earn his bread? By daubing, or fiddling?" + +"Since he earns it honestly, that is his own affair. We have not heard +from him for some months." + +"I thought so! He inherits the worthless vagabond strain of--" + +"He is his mother's idol, and she glories in his resemblance to you, +sir; and to your father; hence his name--Robert L. Darrington." + +"Then she must have one handsome child! I am not surprised that he is +the favorite." + +"Bertie certainly is her darling, and he is very handsome; not in the +very least degree like me." + +For the first time, their eyes met in a friendly glance, and a covert +smile stirred the General's lips; but as he put out his hand toward +her, she moved a step beyond his reach. + +"Beryl, you consider me a dreadful, cruel old tyrant?" + +She made no reply. + +"Answer me." + +"You are my mother's father; and that word--father, means so much to +me, that it shall shield even you, from the shadow of disrespect." + +"Oh! very dutiful indeed, but dead as the days when daughters obeyed, +and honored their fathers! Beggarly foreign professors wiped all that +out of the minds of wealthy girls at boarding schools--just as they +changed their backwoods pronunciation of French and Italian. Don't +evade my question." + +"I did not come here, sir, to bandy words; and I ended my mission by +delivering the letter intrusted to me." + +"You regard me as a vindictive old bear?" + +"I had heard much of the Darringtons; I imagined a great deal more; but +now, like the Queen of Sheba, I must testify--'Behold, the half was not +told me.'" + +He threw back his lion-like head, and laughed. + +"That will do. Shake hands, child." + +"No, thank you." + +"And you will not sit down?" + +"Frankly, I prefer not. I long to get away." + +"You shall certainly be gratified, but there are a few things which I +intend you shall hear. Of course you know that your mother was my only +child, and an heiress; but you are ignorant probably of the fact that +when she returned to boarding school for the last session, she was +engaged in marriage to the son of my best friend--a man in every +respect desirable, and thoroughly acceptable to me." + +"So my mother told me." + +"Indeed? She should blush to remember it. While she wore his engagement +ring, she forgot her promise to him, her duty to me, her lineage, her +birth, her position--and was inveigled by a low adventurer who--" + +"Who was my own precious father--poor, but noble, and worthy of any +princess! Unless you can refer to him respectfully, name him not at +all, in his child's presence." + +She suddenly towered over him, like some threatening fate, and her +uplifted arm trembled from the intensity of her indignation. + +"At least--you are loyal to your tribe!" + +"I am, to my heart's core. You could pay me no higher compliment." + +"Ellice wrote that she had bestowed her affections on--on--the 'exiled +scion of a noble house,' who paid his board bill by teaching languages +and music in the school; and who very naturally preferred to marry a +rich fool, who would pay them for him. I answered her letter, which was +addressed to her own mother--then quite ill at home--and I told her +precisely what she might expect, if she persisted in her insane folly. +As soon as my wife convalesced sufficiently to render my departure +advisable, I started to bring my daughter home; but she ran away, a few +hours before my arrival, and while, hoping to rescue Ellice, I was in +pursuit of the precious pair, my wife relapsed and died--the victim of +excitement brought on by her child's disgrace. I came back here to a +desolate, silent house;--bereft of wife and daughter; and in the grave +of her mother, I buried every atom of love and tenderness I ever +entertained for Ellice. When the sun is suddenly blotted out at noon, +and the world turns black--black, we grope to and fro aimlessly; but +after awhile, we accommodate ourselves to the darkness;--and so, I +became a different man--very hard, and I dare say very bitter. The +world soon learned that I would tolerate no illusion to my disgrace, +and people respected my family cancer, and prudently refrained from +offering me nostrums to cure it. My wife had a handsome estate of her +own right, and every cent of her fortune I collected, and sent with her +jewelry to Ellice. Did you know this?" + +"I have heard only of the jewels." + +"As I supposed, the money was squandered before you could recollect." + +"I know that we were reduced to poverty, by the failure of some banking +house in Paris. I was old enough when it occurred, to remember ever +afterward, the dismay and distress it caused. My father no doubt placed +my mother's money there for safety." + +"I wrote one long, final letter when I sent the checks for the money, +and I told Ellice I wished never to see, never to hear from her again. +I told her also, I had only one wish concerning her, and that was, that +I might be able to forget her so completely, that if we should meet in +the Last Judgment, I could not possibly know her. I assured her she +need expect nothing at my death; as I had taken good care that my +estate should not fall into the clutches of--her--'exiled scion of a +noble house.' Now do you consider that she has any claim on me?" + +"You must not ask me to sit in judgment on my parents." + +"You shall decide a question of business facts. I provided liberally +for her once; can you expect me to do so again? Has she any right to +demand it?" + +"Having defied your parental wishes, she may have forfeited a +daughter's claim; but as a heart-broken sufferer, you cannot deny her +the melancholy privilege of praying for your help, on her death-bed." + +The proud clear voice trembled, and Beryl covered her face with her +hands. + +"Then we will ignore outraged ties of blood, and treat on the ground of +mere humanity? Let me conclude, for it is sickening and loathsome to a +man of my age, to see his long silent household graves yawn, and give +up uncalled--their sheeted dead. For some years the money sent, was a +quietus, and I was left in peace. I was lonely; it was, hard work to +forget, because I could never forgive; and the more desolate the gray +ruin, the more nature yearns to cover it close with vines and flowers; +so after a time, I married a gentle, pure hearted woman, who made the +best of what was left of me. We had no children, but she had one son of +a former marriage, who proved a noble trustworthy boy; and by degrees +he crept into my heart, and raked together the cinders of my dead +affections, and kindled a feeble flame that warmed my shivering old +age. When I felt assured that I was not thawing another serpent to +sting me for my pains, I adopted Thorton Prince, and with the aid of a +Legislative enactment, changed his name to Prince Darrington. Only a +few months elapsed, before his mother, of whom I was very fond, died of +consumption and my boy and I comforted each other. Then I made my +second and last will, and took every possible precaution to secure my +estate of every description to him. He is my sole heir, and I intend +that at my death he shall receive every cent I possess. Did you know +this?" + +"I did, because your last endorsement on a letter of my mother's +returned unopened to her, informed her of the fact." + +"Why? Because in violation of my wishes she had persisted in writing, +and soon began to importune me for money. Then I made her understand +that even at my death, she would receive no aid; and since that +endorsement, I have returned or destroyed her letters unread. My Will +is so strong--has been drawn so carefully--that no contest can touch +it; and it will stand forever between your mother and my property." + +As he uttered these words, he elevated his voice, which had a ring of +savage triumph in its harsh excited tones. Just then, a muffled sound +attracted his attention, and seizing his gold-headed cane, he limped +with evident pain to the threshold of the adjoining room. + +"Bedney." + +Receiving no reply, he closed the door with a violence that jarred the +whole room; and came slowly back to the table, where he stood leaning +heavily on his stick. + +"At least we will have no eavesdropping at this resurrection of my +dead. That Ellice is now a miserable woman, I have no doubt; for truly: +'Quien se casa por amores, ha de vivir con dolores.' Of course you +understand Spanish?" + +"No, sir; but no matter; I take it for granted that you intend some +thrust at my mother, and I have heard quite enough." + +"Don't know Spanish? Why I fancied your--your 'exiled scion of a noble +house'--taught all the languages under the sun; including that used by +the serpent in beguiling Eve! Well, the wise old adage means: 'Who +marries for love, lives with sorrow.' Ellice made her choice, and she +shall abide by it; and you--being unluckily her daughter--will share +the punishment. If 'fathers WILL eat sour grapes, the children's teeth +MUST be set on edge.' I repudiate all claims on my parental treasury, +save such as I have given to my son Prince. To every other draft I am +bankrupt; but merely as a gentleman, I will now for the last time, +respond to the petition of a sick woman, whose child is so loyal as to +arouse my compassion. Ellice has asked for one hundred dollars. You +shall have it. But first, tell me why she did not go to the hospital, +and submit to the operation which she says will cure her?" + +"Because I could not be with her there, and I will never be separated +from her. The aneurism has grown so alarmingly, that I became +desperate, and having no one to aid us, I reluctantly obeyed my +mother's requirement that I should come here. I could not summon my +brother, because I have no idea where a letter would reach him; and +with no friend--but the God of the friendless--I am before you. There +is one thing I ought to tell you; I have terrible forebodings of the +result of the operation, from which the Doctor encourages her to hope +so much. She will not be able to take anesthetics, at least not +chloroform, because she has a weak heart, and--" + +"Yes--a very weak heart! It was never strong enough to hold her to her +duty." + +"If you could see her now, I think even your vindictive hatred would be +sufficiently gratified. So wasted, so broken!--and with such a +ceaseless craving for a kind word from you. One night last week pain +made her restless, and I heard her sob. When I tried to relieve the +suffering, she cried bitterly: 'It is not my poor body alone--it is the +gnawing hunger to see father once more. He loved me so fondly once and +if I could crawl to his feet, and clasp his knees in my arms, I could +at least die in peace. I am starving for just one sight of him--one +touch.' My poor darling mother! My beautiful, bruised, broken flower." + +Through the glittering mist of unshed tears, her eyes shone, like +silver lamps; and for a moment Gen'l Darrington covered his face with +one hand. + +"If you could realize how bitterly galling to my own pride and self +respect is this appeal to a man who hates and spurns all whom I love, I +think, sir, that even you would pity me so heartily, that your hardened +heart would melt into one last farewell message of forgiveness to your +unfortunate daughter. I would rather carry her one word of love than +all your fortune." + +"No--I come of a flinty race. We never forgive insults; never condone +wrongs; and expecting loyalty in our own blood, we cannot live long +enough to pardon its treachery. Once, I made an idol of my beautiful, +graceful, high-bred girl; but she stabbed my pride, dragged my name +through the gutters, broke her doting mother's heart; and now, I tell +you, she is as dead to me as if she had lain twenty-three years in her +grave. I have only one message. Tell her she is reaping the tares her +own hand sowed. I know her no more as child of mine, and my son fills +her place so completely, I do not even miss her. That is the best I can +say. No doubt I am hard, but at least I am honest; and I will not feign +what I cannot feel." + +He limped across the floor, to a recess on one side of the chimney, +where a square vault with an iron door had been built into the wall. +Leaning on his cane, he took from his pocket a bunch of keys, fitted +one into the lock, and pushing the bolt, the door slid back into a +groove, instead of opening on hinges. He lifted a black tin box from +the depths of the vault, carried it to the table, sat down, and opened +it. Near the top, were numerous papers tied into packages with red +tape, and two large envelopes carefully sealed with dark-green wax. In +removing the bundles, to find something beneath them, these envelopes +were laid on the table; and as one was either accidentally or +intentionally turned, Beryl saw the endorsement written in bold black +letters, and heavily underscored in red ink: "Last Will and Testament +of Robert Luke Darrington." Untying a small chamois bag, the owner +counted out five twenty-dollar gold pieces, closed the bag, and +replaced it in the box. + +"Hold out your hand. Your mother asked fur one hundred dollars. Here is +the exact amount. Henceforth, leave me in peace. I am an old man, and I +advise you to 'let sleeping dogs lie.'" + +If he had laid a red-hot iron on her palm, it would scarcely have been +more scorching than the touch of his gold, and only the vision of a wan +and woeful face in that far off cheerless attic room, restrained her +impulse to throw it at his feet. + +An almost intolerable humiliation dyed her pale cheeks a deep purplish +crimson, and she proudly drew herself to her utmost height. + +"Because I cannot now help myself, I accept the money--not as a gift, +but as a loan for my mother's benefit; and so help me God! I will not +owe it to you one moment longer than by hard labor I can earn and +return it. Goodbye, Gen'l Darrington." + +She turned toward the closed door leading to the library, but raising +his cane, he held it out, to intercept her. + +"Wait a moment. There is one thing more." + +He took from the tin box an oblong package, wrapped in letter paper, +yellowed by age, and carefully sealed with red wax. As he held it up, +she read thereon: "My last folly." He tore off the paper, lifted an old +fashioned morocco case, and attempted to open it, but the catch was +obstinate, or rusty, and several ineffectual efforts were made, ere he +succeeded in moving the spring. The once white velvet cushion, had +darkened and turned very yellow, but time had robbed in no degree, the +lustre of the magnificent sapphires coiled there; and the blue fires +leaped out, as if rejoicing in the privilege of displaying their +splendor. "This set of stones was intended as a gift to your mother, +when she was graduated at boarding-school. The time fixed for the close +of the session was only one month later than the day on which she +eloped with that foreign fraud, who should never have been allowed in +the school. My wife had promised that if your mother won the honor of +valedictorian, she should have the handsomest present ever worn at a +commencement. These costly sapphires were my poor wife's choice. Poor +Helena! how often she admired them!" His voice faltered, and he bit his +under lip to still its quiver. + +Was there some necromancy in the azure flames, that suddenly revealed +the beloved face of the wife of his youth, and the lovely vision of +their only child? His eagle eyes were dim with tears, and his hand +shook; but, as if ashamed of the weakness, he closed the jewel case +with a snap, and held it out. + +"Here--take them. I had intended to give them as a bridal present to my +son's wife, when he marries to suit me--as he certainly will; but +somehow, such a disposal seems hard on my dear Helena's wishes, and for +her sake, I don't feel quite easy about leaving them to Prince's bride. +Your mother never saw them, never knew of their existence. They are +very valuable, and the amount they will bring must relieve all present +necessities. Tell Ellice the sight of the case disturbs me, like a +thorn in the flesh, so I send them away, to rid myself of an annoyance. +She must not thank me; they come from her--dead mother." + +"A knowledge of their history would give her infinitely more pain than +the proceeds of their sale could bring comfort. I would not stab her +aching heart for twenty times the value of the jewels." + +"Then sell them, or do as you like. It matters not what becomes of +them, if I am spared in future all reminders of the past. Put them in +your pocket. What? The case is too large? Where is your trunk--your +baggage?" + +"I have none, except my basket and shawl." + +She picked them up from the carpet near the library door, and dropped +the case into her basket. + +"You are a brave, and a loyal woman, and you appear to deserve far +better parents than fell to your lot. Before you go, let me offer you a +glass of wine, and a biscuit." + +"Thank you--no. I could not possibly accept it." + +"Well, we shall never meet again. Good-bye. Shake hands." + +"I will very gladly do so if you will only give me just one gentle, +forgiving kind word to comfort mother." + +He set his teeth, and shook his head. + +"Good-bye, Gen'l Darrington. When you lie down to die, I hope God will +be more merciful to your poor soul, than you have shown yourself to +your suffering child." + +He bowed profoundly. + +Her hand was on the knob of the door, when he pointed to the western +veranda. + +"You are going back to town? Then, if you please, be so good as to pass +out through that rear entrance, and close the glass door after you. A +side path leads to the lawn; and I prefer that you should not meet the +servants, who pry and tattle." + +When she stood on the veranda, and turned to close the wide arched +glass door, whence the inside red silk curtain had been looped back, +her last view of the gaunt, tall figure within, showed him leaning on +his stick, with the tin box held in his left hand, and the dying +sunlight shining on his silver hair and furrowed face. + +Along the serpentine path which was bordered with masses of brilliant +chrysanthemums, Beryl walked rapidly, feeling almost stifled by the +pressure of contending emotions. Recollecting that these spice censers +of Autumn were her mother's favorite flowers, she stooped and broke +several lovely clusters of orange and garnet color, hoping that a +lingering breath of perfume from the home of her girlhood, might afford +at least a melancholy pleasure to the distant invalid. + +Advancing into the elm avenue, she heard a voice calling, and looking +back, saw the old negro man, Bedney, waving his white apron and running +toward her; but at that moment his steps were arrested by the sudden, +loud and rapid ringing of a bell. He paused, listened, wavered; then +threw up his hands, and hurried back to the house, whence issued the +impatient summons. + +The sun had gone down in the green sea of far-off pine tops, but the +western sky glowed like some vast altar of topaz, whereon zodiacal +fires had kindled the rays of vivid rose, that sprang into the zenith +and cooled their flush in the pale blue of the upper air. Under the +elms, swift southern twilight was already filling the arches with +purple gloom, and when the heavy iron gate closed with a sullen clang +behind her, Beryl drew a long deep breath of relief. On the sultry +atmosphere broke the gurgling andante music of the "branch," as it +eddied among the nodding ferns, and darted under the bridge; and the +weary, thirsty woman knelt on the mossy margin, dipped up the amber +water in her palms, drank, and bathed her burning face which still +tingled painfully. + +Having learned from the station agent, who had already sold her a +return ticket, that the north bound railway train, by which she desired +to travel home, would not depart until 7.15, she was beguiled by the +brilliance of the sky into the belief that she had ample time, to +comply with her mother's farewell request. Mrs. Brentano had tied with +a scrap of ribbon the bouquet of flowers, bought by her daughter on the +afternoon of her journey south, and asked her to lay them on her +mother's grave. + +Anxious to accomplish this sacred mission Beryl took the faded blossoms +from her basket, added a cluster of chrysanthemums, a frond of fern +from the "branch" border, and hurried on to the cemetery. When she +reached the entrance, the gate was locked, but unwilling to return +without having gratified her mother's wish, she climbed into a +spreading cedar close by the low brick wall, and swung herself easily +down inside the enclosure. + +Some time was lost in finding the Darrington lot, but at last she stood +before a tall iron railing, that bristled with lance-like points, +between the dust, of her ancestors and herself. In one corner rose a +beautiful monument, bearing on its front, in gilt letters, the +inscription "Helena Tracy, wife of R. L. Darrington." + +Thrusting her hand through a space in the railing, Beryl dropped her +mother's withered Arkja tribute on the marble slab. Her dress was +caught by a sharp point of iron, and while endeavoring to disengage it, +she heard the shrill whistle of the R. R. engine. Tearing the skirt +away, she ran to the wall, climbed over, after some delay, and finding +herself once more in the open road, darted on as fast as possible +through the dusk, heedless of appearances, fearful only of missing the +train. How the houses multiplied, and what interminable lengths the +squares seemed, as she neared the brick warehouse and office of the +station! The lamps at the street corners beckoned her on, and when +panting for breath she rushed around the side of the tall building that +fronted the railway, there was no train in sight. + +Two or three coal cars stood on a siding, near a detached engine, where +one man was lighting the lamp before the reflector of the headlight, +and another, who whistled merrily, burnished the brass and copper +platings. In the door of the ticket office the agent lounged, puffed +his cigar, and fanned himself with his hat. + +"What time is it?" cried Beryl. + +"Seven-forty-five." + +"Oh! do not tell me I have missed the train." + +"You certainly have. I told you it left at 7:15 sharp. It was ten +minutes behind time on account of hot boxes, but rolled out just twenty +minutes ago. Did you get lost hunting 'Elm Bluff,' and miss your train +on that account?" + +"No, I had no difficulty in finding the place, but having no watch, I +was forced to guess at the time. Only twenty minutes too late!" + +"Did you see the old war-horse?" + +Beryl did not answer, and after a moment the agent added: + +"That is Gen'l Darrington's nick-name all over this section." + +"When will the next train leave here?" + +"Not until 3:05 A.M." + +Beryl sat down on the edge of a baggage truck, and pondered the +situation. She knew that her mother, who had carefully studied the +railway schedule, was with feverish anxiety expecting her return by the +train, now many miles away; and she feared that any unexplained +detention would have an injurious effect on the sick woman's shattered +nerves. + +Although she could ill afford the expense, she resolved to allay all +apprehension, by the costly sedative of a telegram. + +Only a wall separated the ticket office from that of the "telegraph," +and approaching the operator, Beryl asked for a blank form, on which +she wrote her mother's address, and the following message: + +"Complete success required delay. All will be satisfactory. Expect me +Saturday. B. B." + +When she had paid the operator, there remained in her purse, exclusive +of the gold coins received that afternoon, only thirty-eight cents. +Where could she spend the next seven hours? Interpreting the perplexed +expression of her face, the agent, who had curiously noted her +movements, said courteously: + +"There is a hotel a few blocks off, where you can rest until train +time." + +"I prefer to remain here." + +"We generally lock up this office about half-past eight, and re-open at +half-past two, which gives passengers ample accommodation for the 3:05 +train." + +"Would you violate regulations by leaving the waiting-room open +to-night?" + +"Not exactly; as of course we are obliged to keep open for delayed +trains; but it will be lonesome waiting, for no one stays here, except +the Night Train Despatcher, and the switch watchman. Still if it will +oblige you, miss, I will not lock up, and you can doze away the time by +spreading your shawl on two chairs. I am going to supper now, and shall +turn down the lights. One burner will be sufficient." + +"Thank you very much. Where can I find some water?" + +"In the cooler in the ladies' dressing-room. It is most unaccountably +hot tonight, and I never knew anything like it in October. There must +be a cyclone brewing somewhere not far off." + +He lifted his hat, as he passed her, and disappeared; and the tired +girl seated herself near a window and stirred the dense, impure air by +fanning herself with her straw hat. Gradually the few stragglers +loitering about the station wandered away; the engineer stepped upon +the locomotive; a piercing whistle broke suddenly on the silence +settling down over the whilom busy precincts, and as the rhythmic +measure of the engine bell rang farewell chimes, a pyramid of sparks +leaped high, and the mighty mechanism fled down the track, hunting its +own echoes. The man in charge of the express office came out, looked up +and down the street; yawned, lighted his pipe, and after locking the +office, wended his way homeward. + +From the adjoining room came the slow monotonous clicking of the +telegraph wires, as messages passed to other stations, and only the +switch watchman was visible, sitting on an inverted tub, and playing +snatches from "Mascotte" and "Olivette" upon a harmonicon. + +Heat seemed radiating from the brick pavement outside, from the inner +walls of the waiting-room; and Beryl, finding the atmosphere almost +stifling, went out under the stars. Up and down she paced, until weary +of the dusty thoroughfare, she turned into the street which, earlier in +the day, had conducted her toward the suburbs. She knew that a full +moon had climbed above the horizon, and some malign Morgana lured her +on, with visions of cool pine glades paved with silver mosaics, and +balmy with breath of balsam; where through vast forest naves echoed the +melodious monody chanted by the reddish gold wavelets of the "branch." +In the eastern sky the florid face of a hunter's moon looked down, from +the level line of a leaden cloud, which striped the star emblazoned +shield of night, like a bar sinister; and the white lustre of her rays +was dimmed to a lurid dulness solemn and presageful. + +As Beryl crossed the common near the station, and entered the pillared +aisles of the pines, the air was less oppressive, but a dun haze seemed +on every side to curtain the horizon, and the stars looked bleared and +tired in the breathless vault above her. A man driving two cows toward +town, stared at her; then a wagon drawn by four horses rattled along, +bearing homeward a gay picnic party of young people, who made the woods +ring with the echoes of "Hold the Fort." The grandeur of towering +pines, the mysterious dimness of illimitable arcades, and the peculiar +resinous odor that stole like lingering ghosts of myrrh, frankincense +and onycha through the vaulted solitude of a deserted hoary sanctuary, +all these phases of primeval Southern forests combined to weave a spell +that the stranger could not resist. + +After a while, fearful of straying too far, the weary woman threw her +shawl on the brown straw, and sat down quite near the road. She leaned +her bare head against the trunk of a pine, listened to the katydids +gossiping in a distant oak that shaded the "branch," to the quavering +strident song of a locust; and she intended, after resting for a few +moments, to return to the station-house; but unexpected drowsiness +overpowered her. Suddenly aroused from a sound sleep, she heard the +clatter of galloping hoofs, and as she sprang up, the horse, startled +by her movement, shied and reared within a few feet of the spot where +she stood. The moon shone full on the glossy black animal, and upon his +powerful rider, and Beryl recognized the massive head, swarthy face and +keen eyes of the attorney, Lennox Dunbar. He leaned forward and said, +as he patted the erect ears of his horse: + +"Madam, you seem a stranger. Have you lost your way?" + +"No, sir." + +"Pardon me; but having seen you this afternoon at 'Elm Bluff,' I +thought it possible you had missed the road." + +Standing so straight and tall, with the sheen of the moon on her +faultless features, he thought she looked the incarnation of some +prescient Norn, fit for the well of Urda. + +She made no reply; and he touched his hat, and rode rapidly away in the +direction of the town, carrying an indelible impression of the +mysterious picture under the pines. + +The sky had changed; the face of the moon had cleared, but tatters and +scuds of smoke-colored cloud fled northward, as if scourged by a stormy +current too high to stir the sultry stagnation of the lower atmospheric +stratum. From its vaporous lair somewhere in the cypress and palm +jungles of the Mexican Gulf borders, the tempest had risen, and before +its breath the shreds of cloud flew like avant couriers of disaster. +Already the lurid glare of incessant sheet lightning fought with the +moon for supremacy, and from a leaden wall along the southeastern sky, +came the long reverberating growl of thunder, that told where the +electric batteries had opened fire. A vague foreboding, which for +several days had haunted Beryl's mind, now pressed so heavily upon her, +that she hurried back to the station, which was near the edge of the +town; and more than once she started nervously at sight of grotesque +shadows cast by the trees across the sandy road. + +The streets were deserted, and lights gleamed only in upper windows of +apartments, where sick sufferers tossed, or tender mothers sang soft +lullabys to restless babies crooning in their cribs. Now and then a +sudden gust of wind shook the yellow berries from the china trees, that +bordered the pavements, and very soon the moonshine faded, then flashed +fitfully, and finally vanished, as the blackening cloud swept over the +face of earth and sky. The watchman dozed on his post of observation; a +porter slept on a baggage truck under the awning, and as Beryl peeped +into the telegraph office, she heard the snoring of the operator, whose +head rested upon the table close to the silent instrument. She listened +to the ticking of a clock in the ticket office, but could not see its +face; wondered how late it was, and how long she had been absent. +Feeling very lonely and restless she closed the door, and sat down in +the deserted waiting-room, glad of the companionship of a +tortoise-shell cat which was curled up on a chair next her own. + +Gradually the storm approached, and she thought that an hour had +elapsed, when the dust-tainted smell of rain came with the rush of cold +air. There was no steady gale, but the tempest broke in frantic +spasmodic gusts, as though it had lost its reckoning, and +simultaneously assaulted all the points of the compass; while the +lightning glared almost continuously, and the roar of the thunder was +uninterrupted. Now and then a vivid zig-zag flash gored the intense +darkness with its baleful blue death-light, followed by a crash, +appalling as if the battlements of heaven had been shattered. Once the +whole air seemed ablaze, and the simultaneous shock of the detonation +was so violent, that Beryl involuntarily sank on her knees, and hid her +eyes on a chair. The rain fell in torrents, that added a solemn sullen +swell to the diapason of the thunder fugue, and by degrees a delicious +coolness crept into the cisterns of the night. + +When the cloud had wept away its fury, and electric fires burned low in +the far west, a gentle shower droned on the roof, and lulled by its +cadence Beryl fell asleep, still kneeling on the floor, with her head +resting on the chair where the cat lay coiled. + +In dreams, she wandered with her father and brother upon a Tuscan +hillside draped with purple fruited grape vines, and Bertie was +crushing a luscious cluster against her thirsty lips, when some noise +startled her. Wide awake, she sprang to her feet, and listened. + +"There ain't no train till daylight, 'cepting it be the through +freight." + +"When is that due?" + +"Pretty soon; it's mighty nigh time now, but it don't stop here; it +goes on to the water tank, whar it blows for the railroad bridge." + +"How far is the bridge?" + +"Only a short piece down the track, after you pass the tank." + +Beryl had rushed to the window, and looked out, but no one was visible. +She could scarcely mistake that peculiar voice, and was so assured of +its identity, that she ran out under the awning and looked up and down +the platform in front of the station buildings. The rain had ceased, +but drops still pattered from the tin roof, and a few stars peeped over +the ragged ravelled edge of slowly drifting clouds. By the light of a +gas lamp, she saw an old negro man limping away, who held a stick over +his shoulder, on which was slung a bundle wrapped in a red +handkerchief; and while she stood watching, he vanished in some cul de +sac. With her basket in her hand, and her shawl on her arm, she sped +down the track, looking to right and left. + +"Bertie! Bertie!" + +Once she fancied she discerned a form flying ahead of her, leaping from +cross tie to cross tie to avoid the water, but when she called +vehemently, only the sound of her own voice broke the silence. + +Was it merely an illusion born of her vivid dream of her brother; and +while scarcely awake, had she confounded the tones of a stranger, with +those so long familiar? She could not shake off the conviction that +Bertie had really spoken only a few yards from her, and while she stood +irresolute, puzzling over the problem, the through freight train dashed +by the station and left a trail of sparks and cinders. To avoid it she +sprang on a pile of cross ties beside the track, and when the fiery +serpent wound out of sight, she reluctantly retraced her steps. How +long the night seemed! Would day never dawn again? She heard the +telegraph operator whistling at his work, and as she re-entered the +waiting-room, she saw the ticket agent standing in his office. + +"What time is it?" + +"Half-past two o'clock. I might as well have locked up as usual, for +after all, you did not stay here." + +"Yes I did." + +He eyed her suspiciously. + +"I came back from supper, and brought a pitcher of cold tea, thinking +you might relish it, but you were not here. I waited nearly an hour; +then I went home." + +"It was so hot, I walked about outside. What a frightful storm." + +"Yes, perfectly awful. Were you exposed to the worst of it?" + +"No, I was here." + +He shook his head, smiled, and went into the next room, knowing that +when he returned to unlock his office she was not in the building, and +that he had seen her coming up the railway track. The bustle of +preparation soon began; the baggage wagons thundered up to the +platform, porters called to one another; passengers collected in the +waiting-room, carriages and omnibuses dashed about; then at 2:50 the +long train of north bound cars swept in. With her shawl and basket in +one hand, and the odorous bunches of chrysanthemums clasped in the +other, Beryl stepped upon the platform. She found a seat at an open +window, and made herself comfortable; placing her feet upon the basket +which contained the jewels that constituted her sole earthly fortune. +The bell rang, the train glided on, and as it passed the office door, +she saw the agent watching her, with a strangely suspicious expression. + +The cars wound around a curve, and she sank back and shut her eyes, +rejoicing in the belief that her mission to "Elm Bluff," and its keen +humiliation, were forever ended. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +"I concede that point. Your lover is amply endowed with brains, and +moreover has a vast amount of shrewdness, all that is requisite to +secure success and eminence in his profession; but to-day, it seems as +much a matter of astonishment to me--as it certainly was six months +ago, when first you told me of your engagement--that you, Leo Gordon, +could ever fancy just such a man as Lennox Dunbar." + +"I am very sorry, Aunt Patty, that he finds no favor in your eyes, and +I think he is aware of the fact that he is not in your good graces. You +both look so vaguely uncomfortable when thrown into each other's +presence; but for my sake you must try to like Lennox." + +Miss Gordon bent her pretty head over a square of ruby velvet, whereon +she was embroidering a wreath of pansies, and the delicate flush on her +fair face, deepened to a vivid carnation. + +"My likes or dislikes are a matter of moonshine, in comparison with +your happiness. Because you are an orphan, I feel a sort of +responsibility; and sometimes I am not exactly easy over the account of +my stewardship I must render to my poor dead Marcia. The more I see of +your lover, the more I dread your marriage. A man who makes no +profession of religious belief, is an unsafe guardian of any woman's +peace of mind. You who have been reared almost in the shadow of the +altar, accustomed to hearing grace at your meals, to family prayers, to +strict observance of our ritual, will feel isolated indeed, when +transplanted to the home of a godless man, who rarely darkens the door +of the sanctuary. 'Be ye not unequally yoked together with +unbelievers.'" + +Miss Patty Dent took off her spectacles, wiped them with the string of +her white muslin cap, and adjusting them firmly on her nose, plucked +nervously at the fluted lace ruffles around her wrists. + +"Auntie, you are scarcely warranted in using such strong language. +Because a man refrains from the public avowal of faith, incident to +church membership, he is not necessarily godless; nor inevitably devoid +of true religious feeling. Mr. Dunbar has a strong, reticent nature, +habituated to repression of all evidences of emotion, but of the depth +and earnestness of his real feeling, I entertain no doubt." + +"I fear your line and plummet will never sound his depth. You often +speak of his strength; but, Leo, hardness is not always strength; and +he is hard, hard. I never saw a man with a chin like his, who was not +tyrannical, and idolatrous of his own will. My dear, such men are as +uncomfortable to live in the same house with, as a smoky chimney, or a +woman with shattered nerves, or creaking doors, or draughty windows. +They are a sort of everlasting east wind that never veers, blowing +always to the one point, attainment of their own ends, mildewing all +else. Ugh!" + +Miss Patty shivered, and her companion smiled. + +"What a grewsome picture, Auntie dear! Fortunately human taste is as +diverse and catholic as the variety of human countenances. For example: +Clara Morse raves over Mr. Dunbar's 'clear-cut features, so immensely +classical'; and she pronounces his offending 'chin simply perfect! fit +for a Greek God!'" + +"A very thin and gauzy partition divides Clara Morse's brains from +idiocy. In my day, all such feeble watery minds as hers were regarded +as semi-imbecile, pitied as intellectual cripples, and wisely kept in +the background of society; but, bless me! in this generation they skip +and prance to the very edge of the front, pose in indecent garments +without starch, or crinoline, or even the protection of pleats and +gathers; and insult good, sound, wholesome common sense with the +sickening affectations they are pleased to call 'aesthetics.' Don't +waste your time, and dilute your own mind by quoting the silly twaddle +of a poor girl who was turned loose too early on society, who falls on +her knees in ecstasies before a hideous broken-nose tea-pot from some +filthy hovel in Japan; and who would not dare to admire the loveliest +bit of Oiron pottery, or precious old Chelsea claret-colored china in +Kensington Museum, until she had turned it upside down, and hunted the +potter's mark with a microscope. I say Mr. Dunbar has a domineering and +tyrannical chin, and five years hence, if you do not agree with me, it +will be because 'Ephraim is joined to his idols'--clay feet and all." + +"Then follow the Bible injunction to 'let him alone.' I see Lennox +through neither Clara's rosy lenses, nor your jaundiced glasses; and +these circular discussions are as fruitless as they are unpleasant. Let +us select some more agreeable topic. I gave you Leighton's letter. What +think you of his scheme?" + +"That it is admirable, worthy of the brain that conceived it. What a +wonderful man he is, considering his age? Such a devout and fervent +spirit, and withal such a marvel of executive ability. Ah! happy the +woman who can command his wise guardianship, and renew her aspirations +after holiness, in his spiritual society. I honor, even more than I +love, Leighton Douglass." + +"So do I, Aunt Patty. He is quite my ideal pastor, and when he marries, +I hope his wife will be worthy of him in every respect. Only a very +noble woman would suit my cousin." + +A bright spot burned on Miss Dent's wrinkled cheek, and she knitted her +brows, and shook her head. + +"He is so absorbed in his holy work that he has no leisure for such +trifles as love-making; but if he should ever honor a woman by the +offer of his consecrated hand, it must be one of large fortune, who +will dedicate herself and her money to the accomplishment of his +ecclesiastical schemes." + +The corners of Miss Gordon's mouth twitched mutinously, but she +contrived to throw much innocent surprise and questioning into the +handsome brown eyes, which she lifted from her gold-hearted pansies, to +her Aunt's face. + +"Could you possibly associate mercenary motives with any step which he +might take? Such a supposition would be totally incompatible with my +estimate of his character." + +"When a man dedicates himself to a solemn mission, he is lifted far +above the ordinary plane, can dispense with sentimental +conventionalities, and must learn to regard all human relations as +merely means to an end. Want of money has palsied many an arm lifted to +advance the good of the Church; and zeal without funds, accomplishes as +little as rusty machinery stiff from lack of oil. If Dr. Douglass could +only control even a hundred thousand dollars, what shining monuments he +would leave to immortalize him! Indeed, it passes my comprehension how +persons who could so easily help him, deliberately turn a deaf ear to +the 'cry from Macedonia'." + +"There is far more eclat in trips to Macedonia, but the God of +recompense does not forget the steady, tireless help and sympathy +extended to the needy, who dwell within sight of our own doors. +Organized society work is good, but individual self-sacrifice and labor +are much better; and if every unit did full duty, co-operative systems +would not be so necessary; still, Leighton's scheme commends itself to +every woman's heart, and when I answered his letter, I expressed +cordially my approbation." + +"Did you prove your faith by your works, and send him a large check?" + +"Auntie, dear, do you expect me to stultify all your training, both +your example and precept--for lo! these many years--by setting my left +hand to gossip about my right? I am very sure." + +"Well, Andrew, what is it?" + +"A boy from Mr. Dunbar's office has just galloped up, and says I am to +tell you he can't ride to the Falls to-day, as he expected, because of +some pressing business; and he wants to know if the Judge will come +into town right away? Mr. Dunbar will explain when he comes late this +evening." + +"Very well. Tell Daniel I shall not want 'Rebel' saddled; and say to +the messenger that my Uncle is not at home. Aunt Patty, do you know +where he has gone?" + +"Doubtless to his office; where else should he be? He said he had a +pile of tiresome papers to examine to-day." + +Miss Gordon folded up her work, laid it away in a dainty basket lined +with blue satin and flounced with lace; and after pausing a moment to +pet her Aunt's white Maltese cat which lay dozing In the sunshine, +walked away toward a Small hot-house, built quite near the dining-room, +and connected with it by an arcade, covered in summer by vines, in +winter by glass. + +Twenty-four years before that day, when a proud, fond young mother +puffed and tucked the marvel of lace and linen cambric, which was +intended as a christening robe for her baby, and laid it away with +spicery of rose leaves and sachet of lavender and deer tongue, to wait +until a "furlough" allowed the child's father to be present at the +baptism, she had supposed that its delicate folds would one day adorn a +dimpled rosy-faced infant, for whom the name Aurelia Gordon had long +been selected. Fate cruelly vetoed all the details of the programme, +carefully arranged by maternal affection; and the lurid sun that set in +clouds of smoke on one of the most desperate battles of the +Confederacy, saw Colonel Gordon's brave, patriotic soul released on +that long "furlough" which glory granted her heroes; saw his devoted +wife a wailing widow. The red burial of battle had precluded the +solemnization of baptismal rites at the sacred marble font; and when +four days after Colonel Gordon's death, his frail young wife welcomed +the summons to an everlasting re-union, she laid her cold hands on her +baby's golden head, and died, as she whispered: + +"Name her Leo, for her father." + +So it came to pass, that the clergyman who read the burial service +beside the mother's coffin, lifted the cooing infant in the midst of a +weeping funeral throng, and with a faltering voice baptized her, in the +presence of the dead, Leo Gordon. + +To the care of her sister Patty, and of her widowed brother, Judge +Dent, Mrs. Gordon had consigned her child; and transplanted so early to +her uncle's house, the orphan knew no other home. + +When the problem of vast numerical preponderance had solved itself in +accordance with the rules of avoirdupois, and history--fond like all +garrulous old crones of repeating even her inglorious episodes--had +triumphantly inscribed on her bloody tablets, that once more the Few +were throttled and trampled by the Many, then the fabled "Ragnarok" of +the Sagas described only approximately the doom of the devastated +South. In the financial and social chaos that followed the invasion by +"loyal" hordes, rushing under "sealed orders" on the mission of +"Reconstruction," and eminently successful in "reconstructing" their +individual fortunes, an anomaly presented itself for the consideration +of political economists. The wealthy classes of ante bellum days were +the most destitute paupers that the newly-risen Union sun shone upon. + +The French Revolution and its subsequent eruptions of Communism failed +to destroy the value of land; and the emancipation of Russian serfs may +have stimulated agricultural activity, but that political and social +Communism which the Pandora of "reconstruction" let loose throughout +the conquered States of the South, accomplished all that the victors +could have desired. + +Abandoned by the laborers God had fitted to endure toil under climatic +conditions peculiar to the soil, vast silent fields of weeds stared +blankly, and the richer a man found himself in ancestral acres, the +more hopelessly was he manacled by taxes. "Reconstructionists" most +thoroughly inoculated with "Loyal" rabies, held in lofty disdain the +claims of widows and orphans, and the right of minors was as dead as +that of secession. In the general maelstrom, Colonel Gordon's large +estate went to pieces; but after a time, Judge Dent took lessons from +his new political masters in the science of wrecking, and by degrees, +as fragments and shreds stranded, he collected and secreted them. +Certain mining interests were protected, and some valuable plantations +in distant sugar belts, were secured. As guardian of his sister's +daughter, he changed, or renewed investments in stocks which rapidly +increased in value, until an unusually large fortune had accumulated: +and verifying figures justified his boast, that his niece and ward was +the wealthiest heiress in the State. + +Reared in a household which consisted of an elderly uncle and aunt, and +a middle-aged governess, Leo Gordon had never known intimate +association with younger people; and while her nature was gentle and +tranquil, she gradually imbibed the grave and rather prim ideas which +were in vogue when Miss Patty was the reigning belle of her county. +Although petted and indulged, she had not been spoiled, and remained +singularly free from the selfishness usually developed in the character +of an only child, nurtured in the midst of mature relatives. When +eighteen years old, Leo, accompanied by her governess, Mrs. Eldridge, +had been sent to New York and Boston for educational advantages, which +it was supposed that her own section of the country could not supply; +and subsequently the two went abroad, gleaning knowledge in the great +centres of European Art. During their sojourn in Munich, Mrs. Eldridge +died after a very brief illness; and returning to her southern home, +Leo found herself the object of social homage. + +Thoroughly well-bred, accomplished, graceful and pretty, she commanded +universal admiration; yet her manner was marked by a quiet, grave +dignity, and a peculiar reticence, at variance with the prevailing type +of young ladyhood, now alas! too dominant; whose premature emancipation +from home rule, and old-fashioned canons of decorum renders "American +girlhood" synonymous with flippant pertness. Moulded by two women who +were imbued with the spirit of Richter's admonition: "Girls like the +priestesses of old, should be educated only in sacred places, and never +hear, much less see, what is rude, immoral or violent"; the pate tendre +of Leo's character showed unmistakably the potter's marks. + +She shrewdly surmised that the knowledge of her unusual wealth +contributed to swell the number of her suitors, and she was twenty-four +years old when Lennox Dunbar, for whom she had long secretly cherished +a partiality, succeeded in placing his ring on her fair, slender hand. +In character they differed widely, and the deep and tender love that +filled her heart, found only a faint echo in his cold and more selfish +nature, which had carefully calculated all the advantages derivable +from this alliance. + +He cordially admired and esteemed his brown-eyed fair-haired fiancee, +considered her the personification of feminine refinement and delicacy; +and congratulated himself warmly on his great good fortune in winning +her affection; but tender emotions found little scope for exercise in +his intensely practical, busy life, which was devoted to the attainment +of eminence in his profession; and the merely dynamic apparatus which +did duty as his heart, had never been disturbed by any feeling +sufficiently deep to quicken his calm, steady pulse. + +There were times, when Leo wondered whether all accepted lovers were as +undemonstrative as her own, and she would have been happier had he +occasionally forgotten professional aspirations, in the charm of her +presence; but her confidence in the purity and fidelity of his +affection was unshaken, even by the dismal predictions of Miss Patty, +who found it impossible to reconcile herself to the failure of her +darling scheme, that Leo should marry her second cousin, Leighton +Douglass, D.D., and devote her fortune to the advancement of his church. + +To-day, as she sought pleasant work in arranging the ferns and +carnations of her conservatory, her thoughts reverted to the previous +evening, which Mr. Dunbar had spent with her; and she could not avoid +indulging regret, that he should have allowed business affairs to +interfere with their engagement for horseback riding, but her reverie +was speedily interrupted by the excited tones of her aunt's voice. + +"Leo! Leo! Where do you hide yourself?" + +"Here, Auntie, in the conservatory." + +"Oh! my child, such dreadful news! Such a frightful tragedy!" + +Pale and panting, Miss Patty ran down the arcade, and stumbled over a +barricade of potted plants on the threshold of the door. + +"What is the matter? Is it my Uncle, or--or Lennox?" + +Leo sprang to her feet, and caught her aunt's arm. + +"Horrible! horrible! General Darrington was robbed, and then most +brutally murdered last night!" + +"Murdered! Can it be possible? Murdered--by whom?" + +"How should I know? The whole town is wild about it. My brother is at +Elm Bluff, with the body, and I shall take the carriage and drive over +there at once. Dear me; I am so nervous I can't stand still, and my +teeth chatter like a pair of castanets." + +"Perhaps there may be some mistake. How did you hear it?" + +"Your Uncle Mitchell sent a boy to tell me why he was detained. There +has been a coroner's inquest, and of course, as an old and intimate +friend of General Darrington's, Mitchell feels he must do all he can. +Poor old gentleman! So proud and aristocratic! To be murdered in his +own house, like any common pauper! Positively it makes me sick. May the +Lord have mercy on his soul." + +"Amen!" murmured Leo. + +"Will you go with me to Elm Bluff?" + +"Oh, no! Not for worlds. Why should I? Women will only be in the way; +and who could desire to contemplate so horrible a spectacle? It will +merely harrow your feelings, Aunt Patty, and you can do no good." + +"It is my Christian duty as a neighbor; and I was always very fond of +the first Mrs. Darrington, Helena Tracey. What is this wicked world +coming to? Robbery and murder stalking bare-faced through the land. It +will be a dreadful blow to Mitchell, because he and Luke Darrington +have been intimate all their lives. I see the carriage coming round, so +I must get my bonnet and wrap." + +"I presume Mr. Dunbar is engaged in the same melancholy details which +occupy my uncle." + +"Doubtless he is, because his father was General Darrington's attorney +until his health failed; and Lennox is now his lawyer and business +agent. It is a thousand pities that Prince is away in Europe." + +Two hours after the carriage had disappeared on the road leading to Elm +Bluff, Leo crossed the grassy lawn, and sat down near the gate, on a +rustic bench under a cluster of tall lilacs, which gave their name to +her uncle's home. + +A keen north wind whistling through neighboring walnut tree tops, drove +the dying leaves like frightened flocks before it, and ever and anon +the ripened nuts pattered down, hiding themselves under the drift of +yellow foliage, that had sheltered them in cool greenery during summer +heats. Overhead a red squirrel barked and frisked, and across the +pale-blue sky, feathered nomads, teal or mallard, moved swiftly en +echelon, their quivering pinions flashing like silver, as they fled +southward. On a distant hillside cattle browsed, and sheep wandered; +and the drowsy tinkle of bells, as the herd wended homeward, seemed a +nocturne of rest, for the closing day. + +How serene, harmonious and holy all nature appeared; and yet a few +miles distant, into what a fierce seething whirlpool of conflicting +passions, of hatred and bloodthirsty vengeance, had human crime plunged +an entire community. We plume ourselves upon nineteenth century +civilization, upon ethical advancement, upon Christian progress; we +adorn our cathedrals, build temples for art treasures, and museums for +science, and listen to preludes of the "music of the future;" and we +shudder at the mention of vice, as at the remembrance of the tortures +of Regulus, but will the Cain type ever become extinct, like the dodo, +or the ichthyosaurus? When will the laws of heredity, and the by-laws +of agnation result in an altruism, where human bloodshed is an unknown +horror? + +The apostles of Evolution tell us, that in the genealogical ages during +which man has struggled upward, from the lower stages of vertebrate and +mammal to the genus of catarrhine apes, he has gradually thrown off +bestial instincts, and that the tiger taint will ultimately be totally +eliminated; that "original sin is neither more nor less than the brute +inheritance which every man carries with him, and that Evolution is an +advance toward true salvation." Meanwhile what becomes of the "Survival +of the Fittest", which is only a euphemism for the strangling of the +feeble by the strong? We can understand how perfection, or permanence +of type, individual and national, demands carnage, and entails all the +dire catalogue of human woes, but wherein is altruism evolved? How many +aeons shall we wait, to behold the leopard and the lamb pasturing +together in peace? + +Pondering this problem, as he rode along the public road outside the +boundary of Judge Dent's lawn, Mr. Dunbar caught a glimpse of his +betrothed, sitting behind the hedge of lilacs, and he lifted his hat, +hoping that she would meet him at the entrance; but although she bowed +in recognition, he was forced to open the gate and admit himself. +Throwing the bridle rein over one of the iron spikes of the fence, and +taking off his gloves, he approached the bench. + +"Dare I flatter myself, that my queen deigns to meet me half way?" + +He took her outstretched hand, and kissed it softly, while his glance +noted every detail of her handsome fawn-colored dress, with its jabot +of creamy lace, and the cluster of crimson carnations in her belt. The +touch of his lips on her fingers, deepened the flush in her cheeks, +and, making room for him beside her, she replied: + +"Sit down, and tell me if this dreadful news about General Darrington +be indeed true? I have hoped there might be some mistake, some +exaggeration." + +"Some horrors exceed the possibility of verbal exaggeration, and last +night's tragedy is one of that class. General Darrington was most +brutally murdered." + +"Poor old gentleman! How incredible it seems that such awful crimes can +be committed in our quiet neighborhood? who could have been so guilty; +and what motive could have prompted such a fiendish act?" + +"The one all-powerful evil passion of mankind--greed of gold; lust of +filthy lucre. He was first robbed, then murdered by the thief, to avoid +detection and punishment. There is unmistakable evidence that the +General was chloroformed while asleep; but he must have awakened in +time to discover the robber, with whom he struggled desperately, and by +whom he was struck down. The coroner's inquest developed some startling +facts." + +"Has any clue been discovered which would indicate the murderer?" + +"A handful of clues." + +"Then you have a theory concerning the person who perpetrated this +awful crime?" + +"My dear Leo, not a theory, but a conviction; I might almost say an +absolute knowledge." + +"Would it be pardonable for me to ask whom you suspect; would it be a +violation of professional etiquette for you to tell me?" + +"Certainly, my dearest, you can ask me anything, only--" he paused a +moment; and she put her hand quickly on his arm. + +"I see. Do not tell me mere suspicions; they might cruelly wrong an +innocent person; and I ought not to have asked the question." + +"My hesitation arose from a totally different source, and I was merely +wondering whether you, my sweet saint, could believe that a woman +committed the bloody deed." + +"Oh, Mr. Dunbar, impossible! A woman guilty of taking that old man's +life? The supposition is as horrible as the crime itself." + +Passing his hand lightly over her crimped fair hair, and looking down +into her eyes, as brown as the back of a thrush, her lover replied: + +"I find that the nobler and purer a woman's heart is, the less she +credits the existence of vice and the possibility of crime among her +own sex. You doubtless consider the Brinvilliers, Fredegonds, Fulvias +and Faustinas, quite as fabulous as Centaurs, Sirens and Were-wolves; +and I feel as reluctant to shake your fair faith in womanhood, as to +dash the dew from a rose-bud, or rudely brush the bloom a cluster of +tempting grapes; but the grim truth must be told, that our old friend +was robbed and murdered by a woman." + +"One of his servants? They all seemed devotedly attached to him." + +"No, by his granddaughter, a young and very beautiful woman; Beryl +Brentano, the child of General Darrington's daughter Ellice, whom he +had disowned on account of her wretched marriage with a foreigner, who +taught her music and the languages. Of course you have heard from your +aunt and uncle all the details of that family episode. Yesterday this +girl Beryl suddenly presented herself at Elm Bluff, and demanded money +from her grandfather; alleging that her mother's life was in danger for +want of it. I learn there was a stormy interview, part of the +conversation having been overheard by two persons; and the General, who +was as vindictive as a Modoc, or a Cossack, drove the young lady +through a door leading down to the rosery. This occurred in the +afternoon, immediately after I left Elm Bluff, where I went to obtain +his signature to a deed to some lands recently sold in Texas. I saw the +girl sitting on the front steps, and when she rose and looked at me, +her superb physique impressed me powerfully. She is as beautiful and +stately as some goddess stepping out of the Norse 'Edda', and +altogether a remarkable looking person. It will appear in evidence, +that the General harshly refused her pleadings, and made a point of +assuring her that his will, already prepared, would forever debar her +mother and herself from any inheritance at his death; as he had +bequeathed his entire estate to his adopted son Prince. Unfortunately, +she learned where the will was kept, as during the interview, persons +in the next room distinctly heard the peculiar noise made by the +sliding door of the iron vault, where General Darrington kept all his +valuable papers. She disappeared from Elm Bluff about sunset, going +toward town; and last night at ten o'clock, when I left you and rode +home, I saw her lurking in the pine woods not very far from the bridge +over the branch, near the park gate. She was evidently hiding, as she +sat on the ground half screened by a tree; but my horse shied and +plunged badly, and when she rose, the full moon showed her face and +figure distinctly. There was something so mysterious in her movements, +that I asked her if she had lost her way; to which she curtly replied +that she had not. I learn from Burk, the station agent, that her +actions aroused his suspicion, and that instead of leaving town, as she +said she intended, by the 7:15 train, she hung about the station, and +finally took the 3:05 express this morning. He said she had begged +permission to stay in the waiting-room, but that at 2:30 A.M., when he +went back to open the ticket office, she was nowhere to be found; and +that later, he saw her coming down the railroad track. She must have +gone back to Elm Bluff after I passed her on the road, and effected an +entrance through the window on the front piazza, as it was found open; +and the awful work of robbery and murder was accomplished during the +storm, which you know was so frightful that it drowned all minor +sounds. This morning when the General did not ring for his hot water at +the usual time, it was supposed that he was sleeping late, but finally +old Bedney knocked. Unable to arouse his master, he opened the door, +and found our old friend lying on the floor, near the fireplace. He had +been dead for hours, and close to his head was a heavy brass andiron, +which evidently had been snatched from the hearth by the murderess, who +must have dealt the fatal blow with it, as there was a dark spot on his +temple, and also on the left side near the heart. The room was in +disorder, and two glass vases on the mantel were shivered, as though +some missile had struck them--probably a heavy ledger which was found +on the floor." + +"How horrible! But no woman could have overpowered a man like General +Darrington." + +"Physically, his granddaughter was more than a match for him, +especially since his last illness; and I assure you she looks like some +daughter of the Vikings. She certainly is a woman of grand proportions, +and wonderfully symmetrical." + +"What is her age?" + +"About eighteen, I should think; though her size and a certain majestic +bearing might convey the impression that she was older." + +"How can you connect so dreadful a crime with a young and beautiful +woman, of whom you know absolutely nothing?" + +"My theory is, that she intended merely to get possession of the will, +the contents of which had been made known to her--and of the money, +that she knew or surmised was kept in the vault. When the effect of the +chloroform wore off, and the General waked to find her at the vault; a +struggle evidently took place, and in desperation at the thought of +being detected, she killed him. You do not understand all the bearings +of even slight circumstances in a case like this, but we who make a +study of such sad matters, know the significance of the disappearance +of the will; the destruction of which could benefit only her mother and +herself. The vault was open; the gold, silver, some valuable jewelry, +and the will are missing from the tin box. All the other papers were +left, even a package of bonds, amounting to thousands of dollars. She +seemed to know that the bonds might lead to detection, hence she did +not take them. On the floor, and in the bottom of the tin box were +found two twenty-dollar gold pieces. We are collecting all the +evidence, and it constitutes a powerful array of proof." + +"We? Do you mean that you are hunting down a woman?" + +Miss Gordon withdrew her hand from her lover's, and instinctively moved +farther from him. + +"I am most diligently hunting down the author of a foul and awful +crime; and it is my duty to my friend and client to use every possible +exertion, in discovering and bringing to punishment the person who +robbed and murdered him--be it man, woman or child. Feminine youth and +beauty are no aegis against the barbed javelins of justice and the +District Solicitor (Mr. Churchill) and I, have no doubt of the guilt of +the woman, who will soon be put on trial here for her monstrous and +unnatural crime." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +In a deep, narrow "railway cut," through Virginia hills, a south-bound +freight train had been so badly wrecked in consequence of a "washout," +that the southern passenger express going north was detained fourteen +hours; thereby missing connection at Washington City, where the +passengers were again delayed nearly twelve hours. Tired and very +hungry, having eaten nothing but a sandwich and a cup of coffee for +three days, Beryl felt profoundly thankful when the cars rolled into +Jersey City. In the bustle and confusion incident to arrival in that +Babel, she did not observe the scrutiny to which she was subjected by a +man genteelly dressed, who gave her his hand as she stepped down from +the train, and kept by her side while she hastened in the direction of +the ferry. + +Reaching the slip where the boat awaited passengers, she was vexed to +see it backing out into the stream, and leaned against the chain which +barred egress until the next trip. + +"You have only five minutes to wait for the boat. You seem to have had +a long and trying journey, madam?" + +Glancing at him for the first time, Beryl perceived that he held a slip +of yellow paper from which he looked now and then to her face. His +features were coarse and heavy, but his eyes were keen as a ferret's; +and without answering his question, she turned away and looked across +the water which teemed with craft of every description, laden with +freight animate and inanimate, passing to and from the vast city, whose +spires, domes and forest of masts rose like a gray cloud against the +sky, etching there their leaden outlines. + +"You live at No.--West--Street, between 8th and 9th Avenue?" + +"You are a stranger, and your questions are offensive and impertinent." + +As she turned and confronted him haughtily, he stepped closer to her, +threw back his blue overcoat, and pointed to the metal badge on his +breast. + +"I am an officer of the law, and have a warrant for your arrest. You +are Beryl Brentano." + +"I am Beryl Brentano, yes; but there is some blunder, some mistake. How +dare you annoy me? Arrest me? Me!" + +"Do not make a scene. My instructions are to deal with you as gently as +possible. Better come quietly into the station near, and I will read +you the warrant, otherwise I shall be obliged to use force. You see I +have two assistants yonder." + +"Arrested for what? By whom?" + +"I am ordered to arrest you for the murder of General Darrington." + +"Murder! General Darrington is alive and well. I have just left him. +Stand back! Do not touch me. I will call on the police to protect me." + +Laying his fingers firmly on her arm, he beckoned to two men clad in +police uniform, who promptly approached. + +"You see resistance is worse than useless, and since there is no +escape, come quietly." + +"You are insulting me, under some frightful mistake. I am a lady. Do I +look like a criminal?" + +"General Darrington has been robbed and murdered, and I have +telegraphic orders to arrest and hold a woman named Beryl Brentano, who +corresponds in every respect with the description of the person +suspected of having committed the crime." + +Hitherto she had attributed the insult of the interview to some +question of mistaken identity, but as she slowly comprehended the +possibility that she was the person accused, and intended for arrest, a +sickening horror seized and almost paralyzed her, blanching her face +and turning her to stone. As he led her along the street, she staggered +from the numbness that possessed her, and her eyes stared blankly, like +those of a somnambulist. When she had been ushered into a room where +several policemen were lounging and smoking, the intolerable sense of +shame and indignation shook off her apathy. + +"This is a cruel and outrageous wrong, and only base cowards could +wantonly insult an unprotected and innocent woman. You call yourselves +men? Have you no mothers, no sisters, whose memory can arouse some +reverence, some respect for womanhood in your brutal souls?" + +Electric lamps set in the sockets of some marble face, might perhaps +resemble the blaze that leaped up in her eyes, as she wrenched her arm +from the officer's profaning touch, and her voice rang like the clash +of steel. + +"Madam, we are allowed no discretion; we are only the blind and deaf +machines that obey orders. Read the warrant, and you will understand +that our duty is imperative." + +Again and again she read the paper, in which the sheriff of the county +where Elm Bluff is situated, demanded her arrest and return to X---, on +the charge of robbery and murder committed during the night which she +had spent at the station. Then several telegrams were placed before +her. The description of herself, her dress, even of the little basket +and shawl, was minutely accurate; and by degrees the horror of her +situation, and her utter helplessness, became frightfully distinct. The +papers fell from her nerveless fingers, and one desperate cry broke +from her white lips: + +"O just God! Will you permit such a shameful, cruel outrage? Save me +from this horrible injustice and disgrace!" + +Seeing neither the men, nor the room, her strained gaze seemed in her +great agony fixed upon the face of Him, who, silvering the lilies of +the field and watching the flight of sparrows, has tender care for all +who trust Him. Even in this terrible trial, the girl's first thought +was of her mother; and of the disastrous effect that the misfortune +would produce upon the invalid. + +"I am sorry to tell you, that we are required to search all persons +arrested under similar charges, and in the next room a female detective +will receive and retain every thing in your possession, except your +clothing. You are suspected of having secreted money, jewelry and some +very valuable papers." + +"Suspected of being a common thief! I am as innocent as any angel +beside the throne of Christ! Save me at least from the degradation of +being searched. Here is my basket, and here is my purse." + +She handed him the worn leather pocket-book, which contained only the +few pennies reserved to pay her passage across the ferry, and turned +the pocket of her dress inside cut. + +At the tap of a hand-bell, a tall, angular woman opened the door of an +adjoining room. + +"Mrs. Foster, you will very carefully examine the prisoner, and search +her clothing for papers, as well as valuables." + +"Spare me at least this indignity!" cried the shuddering girl. + +"Come with me, madam. We have no choice." + +When the door closed behind her, the constable walked up and down the +floor. + +"How deceitful appearances are! That woman looks as pure and innocent +as an angel, and I half believed her protestations; but here in the +basket, sure enough, hidden at the bottom, are the jewelry and the +gold. No sign of the papers, but she may have destroyed them. + +"Thief or not, she is a grand beauty; and if her heart was not in that +prayer she put up just now, she is a grand actress also. This is a +beastly trade of ours, hunting down and trapping the unwary. Sometimes +I feel no better than a sleuth-hound, and that girl's eyes went through +and through me a while ago like a two-edged dirk." + +As he vented his views of his profession, one of the policemen lighted +his pipe and puffed vigorously. + +Mrs. Foster came back, followed by her victim. + +"I find absolutely nothing secreted on the prisoner." + +"No papers of any description?" + +"None, sir." + +"Madam, your basket contains the missing jewelry and money, at least a +portion of it, and I shall place it in the hands of the sheriff." + +"The money and jewels are not mine. They belong to my mother, to whom +they were given by her father; and she needs the money at this moment--" + +"Let me advise you to say as little as possible for your own sake; +because your words will be weighed against you." + +"I speak only the truth, and it will, it must, vindicate me. What +papers are you searching for?" + +"General Darrington's will. It was stolen with the money. Here is +yesterday's paper, with an account of the whole affair, telegraphed +from X----. If you need to learn anything, you will understand when you +read it." + +The sight of the capital letters in the Telegraphic Despatches, +coupling her name with a heinous and revolting crime, seemed to stab +her eyes with red-hot thrusts; and shivering from head to foot, she +slowly realized the suspicious significance of the disappearance of the +will, which was the sole obstacle that debarred her from her +grandfather's wealth. Although sustained by an unfaltering trust in the +omnipotence of innocence, she was tormented by a dread spectre that +would not "down" at her bidding; how could she prove that the money and +jewels had been given to her? Would the shock of the tidings of her +arrest kill her mother? Was there any possible way by which she might +be kept in ignorance of this foul disgrace? + +Beryl hid her face in her hands, and tried to think, but the whole +universe appeared spinning into chaos. She had opposed the trip South +so steadily and vehemently: had so sorrowfully and reluctantly yielded +at last to maternal solicitation, and had been oppressed with such dire +forebodings of some resultant evil. So bitter was her repugnance to the +application to her grandfather, that she had set out on her journey +feeling as though it were a challenge to fate; and this was the answer? +The vague distrust, the subtle sombre presentiment, the haunting shadow +of an inexplicable ill, had all meant this; this bloody horror, +dragging her fair name down to the loathsome mire of the slums of +crime. Had some merciful angel leaned from the parapets of heaven and +warned her; or did her father's spirit, in mysterious communion of +deathless love and prescient guardianship, stir her soul to oppose her +mother's scheme? Sceptical and heedless Tarquins are we all, whom our +patient Sibylline intuitions finally abandon to the woes which they +sought to avert. + +In the maddening rush and whirl of Beryl's reflections, her mother's +image was the one centre around which all things circled; and at +length, rallying her energies, she turned to her captor. + +"You intend to take me to prison?" + +"I am obliged to detain and deliver you to the officer who has come +from X---with the warrant, and who will carry you back there for trial. +He knew from the detentions along the route, that he could easily +overhaul you here, so he went straight to Trenton with a requisition +from the Governor of his State upon Governor Mansfield, for your +surrender. It is but a short run to the Capital, and he expects to get +here in time to catch the train going South to-day. We had a telegram a +while ago, saying the papers were all right, and that he would meet us +at the train, as there will be only a few moments to spare." + +"But I must first see my mother. I must give her the money and +explain--" + +"The money will be claimed by the officer who takes charge of you." + +"Have you no mercy? My mother is ill, destitute; and she will die +unless I can go to her. Oh! I beg of you, for the sake of common +humanity, carry me home, if only for five minutes! Just let me see +mother, let me speak to her!" + +In the intensity of her dread, she fell upon her knees, and lifted her +hands imploringly; and the anguish in her white quivering face was so +piteous that the man turned his head away. + +"I would oblige you if I could, but it is impossible. The law is cruel, +as you say, but it is intended as a terror to evil-doers. Things look +awfully black for you, but all the same I am sorry for you, if your +mother is to suffer for your deeds. If you wish to write to her, I will +see that she receives your note; but you have very little time left." + +"O God! how hard! What a foul, horrible wrong inflicted upon the +innocent!" + +She cowered on the floor, unconscious that she still knelt; seeing only +the suffering woman in that dreary attic across the river, where sunken +feverish eyes watched for her return. + +Accidentally Beryl's gaze fell on the bunch of faded chrysanthemums +which had dropped unnoticed on the floor, and snatching them she buried +her face in their petals. Their perfume was the potent spell that now +melted her to tears, and the tension of her overtaxed nerves gave way +in a passionate burst of sobs. When she rose a few moments later, the +storm had passed; the face regained its stony rigidity, and henceforth +she fronted fate with an unnatural calmness. + +"Will you give me some paper and a pen?" + +"You can write here at the desk." + +Mrs. Foster approached her, and said hesitatingly: + +"Would it comfort you at all, for me to go and see your mother and +explain why you could not return to her? I am very sorry for you, poor +thing." + +"Thank you, but--you could not explain, and the sight of a stranger +would startle her. In one way you can help me; do you know Dr. Grantlin +of New York?" + +"Only by reputation; but I can find him." + +"Will you deliver into his hand the note I am writing?" + +"I certainly will." + +"How soon?" + +"Before nine o'clock to-night." + +"Thank you--a thousand times." + +After a while she folded a sheet containing these words: + +"DEAR DR. GRANTLIN: + +"In the extremity of my distress, I appeal to you as a Christian +gentleman, as a true physician, a healer of the suffering, and under +God, the guardian of my mother's life. You know why I went to my +grandfather. He gave me the money, one hundred dollars, and some +valuable jewels. When in sight of home, I have been arrested on the +charge of having murdered my grandfather, and stolen his will. Need I +tell you that I am as innocent as you are? The thought of my mother is +the bitterest drop in my cup of shame and sorrow. You can judge best, +how much it may be expedient to tell her, and you can devise the +kindest method of breaking the truth, if she must know it. Have her +removed to the hospital, and do not postpone the operation. O Doctor! +be pitiful, be tender to her, and do not let her need any little +comforts. Some day I will pay you for all expenses incurred in her +behalf, but at present I have not a dollar, as the money has been +seized. I am sure you will not deny my prayer, and may God reward and +bless you, for your mercy to my precious mother. + +"In grateful trust, + +"BERYL BRENTANO. + +"P.S.--If you approve, deliver the enclosed note." + +On a separate sheet she wrote: + +"MY DARLING MOTHER: + +"Finding it necessary to return to X---, I have requested Dr. Grantlin +to take particularly good care of you for a few days. Your father will +never forgive, never receive you, but he kindly complied with your +request and gave me one hundred dollars. Try to be patient until I can +come and tell you everything, and believe that God will not forsake us. +With these hurried lines, I send you a few chrysanthemums--your +favorite flowers--which I gathered in the rose garden of your old home. +When you smell them, think of your little girl who loves you better +than her own life, and who will hasten home at the earliest possible +moment, to take you in her arms. Mother, pray for me, and may God be +very merciful to you, my dearest, and to-- + +"Your devoted child, + +"BERYL." + +She had bound the withered flowers together with a strip of fringe from +her shawl, and now, with dry eyes and firm white lips, she kissed them +twice, pinned the last note around them and laid the whole in Mrs. +Foster's hand. + +"I trust you to deliver them in person to Dr. Grantlin before you sleep +to-night; and if I survive this awful outrage, perpetrated under the +name of law, I will find you some day, and thank you." + +Looking at the lovely face, pure in its frozen calm, as some marble +lily in the fingers of a monumental effigy, Mrs. Foster felt the tears +dimming her own vision and said earnestly: + +"Keep as silent as possible. The less you say, the safer you will be; +and run no risk of contradicting your own statements." + +"I appreciate your motive, but I have nothing to conceal." + +Beryl laid her hand on her shawl, then drew back. + +"Am I allowed the use of my shawl?" + +"Oh, certainly, madam." + +The officer would have opened and put it around her, but with an +indescribable movement of proud repulsion, she shook it out, then +wrapped it closely about her, and sat down, keeping her eyes fixed on +the face of the clock ticking over the fireplace. After a long and +profound silence, the man who had arrested her, said gravely and gently: + +"Time is up. I must deliver you to Officer Gibson at the train. Come +with me." + +She rose, gave her hand to Mrs. Foster, and stooping suddenly touched +with her lips the withered flowers, then followed silently. + +In subsequent years, when she attempted to recall consecutively the +incidents of the ensuing forty-eight hours, they eluded her, like the +flitting phantasmagoria that throng delirium; yet subtle links fastened +the details upon her brain, and sometimes most unexpectedly, that +psychic necromancer--association of ideas--selected some episode from +the sombre kaleidoscope of this dismal journey, and set it in lurid +light before her, as startling and unwelcome as the face of an enemy +long dead. Life and personality partook in some degree of duality; all +that she had been before she saw Elm Bluff, seemed a hopelessly +distinct existence, yet irrevocably chained to the mutilated and +blackened Afterward, like the grim and loathsome unions enforced by the +Noyades of Nantes. + +The sun did not forget to shine, nor the moon to keep her appointment +with the throbbing stars that signalled all along her circuit. Men +whistled, children laughed; the train thundered through tunnels, and +flew across golden stubble fields, where grain shocks and hay stacks +crowded like tents of the God of plenty, in the Autumnal bivouac; and +throughout the long days and dreary lagging nights. Beryl was fully +conscious of a ceaseless surveillance, of an ever-present shadow, which +was tall and gaunt, wore a drab overcoat and slouched hat, and was +redolent of tobacco. As silent as two mummies in the crypts of Karnac +they sat side by side; and twice when the officer touched her arm and +asked if she would take some refreshments, she merely shook her head, +and tightened the folds of her veil; shrinking closer to the window +against which she leaned. Not until they approached X---, and she +recognized some features of the landscape, were her lips unsealed: + +"What persons are responsible for my arrest?" + +"Our District Solicitor, Mr. Churchill, and Mr. Dunbar, the lawyer, who +made the affidavit under which the warrant was issued. I am only a +deputy, acting under orders from the sheriff." + +"You are taking me to prison?" + +"Perhaps not; it depends on the result of the preliminary examination, +and you may be allowed bail." + +A ray of hope silvered the shrouding gloom; there was a possibility of +escaping the stain of incarceration. + +"When will the examination take place?" + +"About noon to-day. You will have time to eat something and freshen up +a little. Here we are. What a crowd to welcome us! Don't stir. We will +just wait a while, and I will get you into a carriage as quietly as +possible." + +He whispered some directions to the conductor of the train, and +standing in the aisle with his arm across the seat, screened her from +the gaze of a motley crew of men and boys who rushed in to stare at the +prisoner, whose arrival had been impatiently expected. On the railway +platform and about the station house surged a sea of human heads, +straining now in the direction of the first passenger coach; and when +in answer to some question, the conductor pointed to the sleeping car +which was at the rear of the train, the mass swayed down the track. + +"Quick! Now is our time!" + +The deputy sheriff hurried her out, almost lifted her from the steps, +and pushing her forward, turned a corner of the street, and handed her +into a carriage which awaited them. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +To Beryl many hours seemed to have crept away, since she had been left +alone in a small dusty apartment, adjoining the office where the chief +magistrate of X---daily held court. Too restless to sit still, she +paced up and down the floor, trying to collect her thoughts, and at +last knelt by the side of a table, and laid her weight of dread and +peril before the Throne of the God she trusted. The Father of the +fatherless and Friend of the friendless, would surely protect her in +this hour of intolerable degradation. + +"O, Thou that hearest prayer; unto Thee shall all flesh come." + +The door opened, and a venerable, gray-haired man approached the table, +where her head was bent upon her crossed arms. When she lifted her +white face, with the violet circles under her dry eyes, making them +appear preternaturally large and luminous, and the beautiful mouth +contracted by a spasm of intense pain, a deep sigh of compassion passed +the stranger's lips. + +"I am Mitchell Dent, an old friend of General Darrington's, and of your +mother, who has often sat upon my knee. Because of my affection for +your grandfather, I have asked permission to see you for a few moments. +If you are unjustly accused, I desire to befriend you, and offer you +some advice. I am told you assert your innocence of the great crime of +which you are suspected. I hope you can prove it; but for your own sake +I advise you to waive an examination, and await the action of the Grand +Jury, as you have had no opportunity of consulting counsel, or +preparing your defence." + +"You knew my mother? Then you should require no other proof that her +child is not a criminal. I am innocent of every offence against General +Darrington, except that of being my father's daughter; and my +unjustifiable arrest is almost as foul a wrong as his murder." + +She drew herself proudly to her full height, and as his eyes dwelt in +irrepressible admiration upon her, his manhood did homage to her grace +and dignity, and he took off his hat. + +"I earnestly hope so; and the law holds every person innocent until her +guilt be fully proved and established." + +"Of the significance of law terms I know nothing; and of the usages of +courts I am equally ignorant. If, as you suggest, I should waive an +examination, should I escape imprisonment?" + +"No." + +"Then I must be tried at once; because I want to hurry back to my +mother who is ill, and needs me." + +"But you have no counsel as yet, and delay is your best policy." + +"Delay might cost my mother's life. I have no money to pay a lawyer to +stand up and mystify matters, and my best policy is to defend myself, +by telling the simple truth." + +Again Judge Dent sighed. Could guilt be masked by this fair semblance +of childlike guilelessness? + +"Can you summon any witnesses to prove that you were not at Elm Bluff +on the night of the storm?" + +"Yes, the ticket agent knows I was in the waiting-room during that +storm." + +He shook his gray head. + +"He will be one of the strongest witnesses against you." + +"Then I have no witnesses except--God, and my conscience." + +The door opened, and with his watch in his hand the deputy sheriff +entered. + +"Sorry to shorten your interview, Judge, but you know we have a +martinet in yonder, a regular Turk, and he splits seconds into +fractions." + +As Judge Dent withdrew, Beryl realized that her hour of woe had +arrived, and she began to pin her veil tightly over her face. + +"Come along--You can't keep your veil on. Try to be as non-committal as +possible when they ask you crooked questions. Of course I want justice +done, and I hope I am a faithful servant of the law; but if you are as +innocent as a flock of ring-doves, the lawyers will try to confuse you." + +He attempted to lead her, but she drew back. + +"I will follow you; but please do not hold my arm; do not touch me." + +A moment later, a door opened and closed, a glare of light showed her a +crowded room; a monotonous hum like the swell of the sea fell on her +ear; then stifled ejaculations, to which succeeded a sudden, deathlike +hush. The officer placed a chair for her in front of the platform where +the magistrate sat, and retired to the rear of the room. With some +difficulty Judge Dent made his way through the throng of spectators, +and seated himself beside Mr. Dunbar. + +"Well, sir, how did the prisoner impress you?" asked the latter, as he +folded up a paper. + +"Dunbar, you have made a mistake. I have spent the best of my life in +the study of criminals; and if that woman yonder is not innocent, I am +in my dotage." + +"Pardon me, Judge, if I dispute both propositions. I made no mistake; +and you are merely, in the goodness of your heart, and the fervor of +your chivalry, dazzled momentarily by the glamour of extraordinary +beauty and touching youth." + +When Beryl recovered in some degree from the shock of finding herself +actually on trial, she endeavored to collect her faculties; but the +violent palpitation of her heart was almost suffocating, and in her +ears the surging as of an ocean tide, drowned the accents of the +magistrate. At first the words were as meaningless as some Sanskrit +formula, but gradually her attention grasped and comprehended. In a +strident incisive voice he read from a paper on the desk before him: + +"At an inquisition held at X---, T---county, on the twenty-seventh day +of October, before me, Jeremiah Bateman, Coroner of said county, on the +body of Robert Luke Darrington, there lying dead, by the jurors whose +names are hereto subscribed; the said jurors upon their oath do say +that Robert Luke Darrington came to his death on the night of Thursday, +October twenty-sixth, by a murderous assault committed upon him by +means of a heavy brass andiron. And from all the evidence brought +before them, the jury believe that the fatal blow was feloniously given +by the hand of his granddaughter, Beryl Brentano. + +"In testimony whereof, the said jurors have hereunto set their hands, +this twenty-seventh day of October, A.D., 18--. + +"Signed------ + +"Attest, + +"JEREMIAH BATEMAN, Coroner." + +"In consequence of this verdict, and by virtue of a warrant issued at +the request of the District Solicitor, Governor Glenbeigh made a prompt +requisition for the arrest and detention of the said Beryl Brentano, +who has been identified and returned to this city, to answer the +charges brought against her. The prisoner will unveil and stand up. + +"Beryl Brentano, you are charged with the murder of Robert Luke +Darrington, by striking him with a brass andiron. Are you guilty, or +not guilty?" + +"Not guilty." Her voice was unsteady, but the words were distinct. + +Mr. Dunbar, Mr. Burk, and a middle-aged woman lean as Cassius, came +nearer to the platform, and after a leisurely survey of the girl's face +and figure, pronounced her the person whom they had severally accused +of the crime of causing the death of General Darrington. + +The canons that govern psychical phenomena are as occult as the +abstraction of the "fourth division of space"; and they defy the +realism of common-place probability, mock all analysis, and annihilate +distance. When Beryl had first met the keen scrutiny of Mr. Dunbar's +glittering blue eyes, their baleful influence made her shiver slightly; +and now at the instant in which he approached, and inspected her +closely, she forgot that she was on trial for her life, became +temporarily oblivious of her dismal entourage, and stood once more +before a marble image in the Vatican, where the light streamed full on +the cold face, that for centuries has been the synonym of blended +beauty and cruelty. In her ears rang again the words her father had +rend aloud at her side, while she sketched: "But he does not inspire +confidence, by the smile that would like to express goodness. The +finely cut underlip that rises from the strongly marked hollow over the +chin ought to sharpen with a dash of contempt the conscious superiority +that lies upon his broad, magnificent forehead. His smile is in strong +contrast with the cold gaze of the large open eyes; a gaze that +hesitates not, but without mercy verifies a judgment fixed in advance, +that gives up every one to condemnation." + +The dusty crowded court-room appeared to swim in the rich aroma +distilled from the creamy hearts of Roman hyacinths; and the velvet +lips of purple Roman violets suddenly babbled out the secret of the +mysterious repulsion which had puzzled her, from the hour in which she +first looked into Mr. Dunbar's face; his strange resemblance to the +Chiaramonti Tiberius, which she had studied and copied so carefully. In +days gone by, the subtle repose, the marvelous beauty of that marble +face, where as yet the demon of destruction had cast no stain, +possessed a singular fascination for her; and now the haunting likeness +which had perplexed her at Elm Bluff, became associated inseparably +with old Bedney's description of Mr. Dunbar's merciless treatment of +witnesses, and Beryl realized with alarming clearness that in her +grandfather's lawyer she had met the incarnation of her cruel fate. + +Standing quite near her, he gravely related, with emphatic distinctness +and careful detail, his first meeting with the prisoner on the piazza +at Elm Bluff, and the vivid impression she left on his mind; his return +to Elm Bluff about half-past nine the same evening, in order to get a +deed which he had forgotten to put into his pocket at the first visit. +Learning that General Darrington had not yet retired for the night, he +sent in to ask for the deed, and was summoned "to come and get it +himself." On entering the bedroom, he found his client wrapped in a +cashmere dressing-gown, and sitting in an easy chair by the window, +which opened on the north or front piazza. He appeared much perturbed +and harassed, and in reply to inquiries touching his health, answered +that he was "completely shaken up, and unnerved, by a very stormy and +disagreeable interview held that afternoon with the child of his +wayward daughter Ellice. "When witness asked: "Did not the great beauty +of the embassadress accomplish the pardon and restoration of the erring +mother?" General Darrington had struck his cane violently on the floor, +and exclaimed: "Don't talk such infernal nonsense! Did you ever hear of +my pardoning a wrong against my family name and honor? Does any man +live, idiotic enough to consider me so soft-hearted? No, no. On the +contrary, I was harsh to the girl; so harsh that she turned upon me, +savage as a strong cub defending a crippled helpless dam. They know now +that the last card has been played, and the game ended; for I gave her +distinctly to understand that at my death, Prince would inherit every +iota of my estate, and that my will had cut them off without a cent. I +meant it then, I mean it now. I swear that lowborn fiddler's brood +shall never darken these doors; but somehow, I am unable to get rid of +the strange, disagreeable sensation the girl left behind her, as a +farewell legacy. She stood there at that glass door, and raised her +hand like a prophetess. 'General Darrington, when you lie down to die, +may God have more mercy on your poor soul than you have shown to your +suffering child.'" + +Witness advised him to go to bed, and sleep off the unpleasant +recollections of the day, but he said it was so oppressively hot, he +wanted to sit at the window, which was wide open. Witness having +secured the deed, which was on the table in the room, bade his client +good-night, and left the house. + +He was riding toward town, and thought it was about ten o'clock, when +he saw the prisoner sitting under a pine tree near the road, and not +more than a half a mile from the bridge over the "Branch" that runs at +the foot of Elm Bluff. His horse had shied and plunged at sight of her, +and, the moonlight being bright as day, witness easily recognized her +as the same person he had seen earlier in the afternoon. Thinking her +appearance there at that hour was rather mysterious, he asked her if +she had lost her way; to which she replied "No, sir." On the following +morning, when the mournful news of the murder of General Darrington had +convulsed the entire community with grief and horror, witness had +smothered his reluctance to proceed against a woman, and a solemn sense +of duty forced him to bring these suspicious circumstances to the +knowledge of the District Solicitor. + +While he gave his testimony, Mr. Dunbar watched her closely for some +trace of emotion, but she met his gaze without the movement of a +muscle, and he detected not even a quiver of the jet lashes that +darkened her proud gray eyes. + +Antony Burk next testified that he had given the accused instructions +about the road to Elm Bluff, when she arrived at X--; and that after +buying her return ticket, she told him it was necessary she should take +the 7:15 train, and that she would be sure to catch it. The train was a +few minutes late, but had pulled out of the station twenty minutes +before the prisoner came back, when she appeared much annoyed at having +missed it. + +Then she had sent a telegram (a copy of which was in the possession of +the Solicitor), and requested him to allow her to remain in the ladies' +waiting-room until the next train at 3:05. He had directed her to a +hotel close by, but she declined going there. Thinking she was fatigued +and might relish it, he had, after supper, carried a pitcher of iced +tea to the waiting-room, but though he remained there until nine +o'clock she was nowhere visible. He went home and went to sleep, but +the violence of the storm aroused him; and when he took his lantern and +went back to unlock the ticket office, he searched the whole place, and +the prisoner was not in the building. This was at half-past two A.M., +and the pitcher of tea remained untouched where he had placed it. It +was not raining when he returned, and a few minutes after he had hunted +for the prisoner, he was standing in the door of his office and he saw +her coming down the railway track, from the direction of the water tank +and the bridge. She was breathing rapidly as if she had been running, +and witness noticed that her clothes were damp, and that some drops of +water fell from the edge of her hat. A lamp-post stood in front of the +station, and he saw her plainly; asked her why she did not stay in the +room, which he had left open for her? Prisoner said she had remained +there. Witness told her he knew better; that she was not there at nine +nor yet at half-past two o'clock. The accused did not appear inclined +to talk, and gave no explanation, but got aboard the 3:05 train. +Witness considered her actions so suspicious, that he had related all +he knew to Mr. Dunbar, who had summoned him before the magistrate. He +(witness) was very loath to think evil of a woman, especially one so +beautiful and noble looking, and if he wronged her, he hoped God would +forgive him; but he never dodged telling the truth. + +Here the female Cassius rose, and gave her name as Angeline Dobbs. + +"She had for several years attended to the sewing and mending at Elm +Bluff, being summoned there whenever her services were required. On the +afternoon previous to General Darrington's death she was sitting at her +needlework in the hall of the second story of his house. As the day was +very hot, she had opened the door leading out to an iron balcony, which +projected just over the front hall door downstairs; and since the +piazza was open from the roof to the floor, she had peeped over, and +seen the prisoner when she arrived and had watched her while she sat on +the steps, waiting to be admitted. After the accused had been inside +the house some time, she (witness) recollected that she had seen a hole +in one of the lace curtains in the library downstairs, and thought this +would be such a nice time to darn it. The library was opposite the +drawing room, and adjoined General Darrington's bed-room. The door was +open and witness heard what she supposed was a quarrel, as General +Darrington's voice was loud and violent; and she distinctly heard him +say: 'My will is so strong, no contest can touch it! and it will stand +forever between your mother and my property.' Soon after, General +Darrington had slammed the door, and though she heard loud tones for +some time, she could not make out the words. The impression left on +witness's mind was that the prisoner was very impudent to the old +gentleman; and not long afterward she saw accused standing in the rose +garden, pretending to gather some flowers, but really looking up and +down at the front windows. Witness knew the prisoner saw the vault +where the General kept his papers, because she heard it opened while +she was in the bed-room. The door of the vault or safe did not open on +hinges, but was iron, and slid on a metal rod, which made a very +peculiar squeaking sound. When she heard the noise she thought that +General Darrington was so enraged that he got the will to show prisoner +it was all fixed forever, against her and her mother." + +When Miss Dobbs sat down, a lame man, disfigured by a scar on his +cheek, learned upon a stick and testified: + +"My name is Belshazzar Tatem. Was an orderly sergeant attached to +General Darrington's staff dtiring the war; but since that time have +been a florist and gardener, and am employed to trim hedges and vines, +and transplant flowers at Elm Bluff." On the afternoon of the +prisoner's visit there, he was resetting violet roots on a border under +the western veranda, upon which opened the glass door leading out from +the General's bed-room. He had heard an angry altercation carried on +between General Darrington and some one, and supposed he was scolding +one of the servants. He went to a shed in the barn yard to get a spade +he needed, and when he came back he saw the prisoner walk down the +steps, and thought it singular a stranger should leave the house that +way. Wondered whom she could be, and wondered also that the General had +quarrelled with such a splendid looking lady. Next morning when he went +back to his work, he noticed the glass door was shut, but the red +curtain inside was looped back. He thought it was half-past eight +o'clock, when he heard a loud cry in the bed-room, and very soon after, +somebody screamed. He ran up the steps, but the glass door was locked +on the inside, and when he went around and got into the room, the first +thing he saw was General Darrington's body lying on the floor, with his +feet toward the hearth, and his head almost on a line with the iron +vault built in the wall. The servants were screaming and wringing their +hands, and he called them to help him lift the General, thinking that +he had dropped in a fit; but he found him stone cold and stiff. There +was no sign of blood anywhere, but a heavy, old-fashioned brass andiron +was lying close to the General's head, and he saw a black spot like a +bruise on his right temple. General Darrington wore his night clothes, +and the bed showed he had been asleep there. Some broken vases were on +the floor and hearth, and the vault was wide open. The tin box was +upside down on the carpet, and some papers in envelopes were scattered +about. + +Witness had picked up a leather bag carefully tied at the top with red +tape, drawn into hard knots; but in one side he found a hole which had +been cut with a knife, and at the bottom of the bag was a twenty-dollar +gold piece. Two more coins of the same value were discovered on the +floor, when General Darrington's body was lifted; and on the bolster of +the bed lay a bottle containing chloroform. Witness immediately sent +off for some of General Darrington's friends, and also notified the +coroner; and he did not leave the room again until the inquest was +held. The window on the front piazza was open, and witness had searched +the piazza and the grounds for tracks, but discovered no traces of the +burglar and murderer, who had escaped before the rain ceased, otherwise +the tracks would have been found. Witness was positive that the +prisoner was the same person whom he had seen coming out of the +bed-room, and with whom General Darrington had quarrelled. + +The sheriff here handed to the magistrate, the gold pieces found on the +floor at Elm Bluff, by the last witness; then the little wicker basket +which had been taken from the prisoner when she was arrested. The coins +discovered therein were taken out, and careful comparison showed that +they corresponded exactly with those picked up after the murder. The +case of sapphires was also shown, and Mr. Dunbar rose to say, that "The +prosecution would prove by the attorney who drew up General +Darrington's will, that these exceedingly valuable stones had been +bequeathed by a clause in that will to Prince Darrington, as a bridal +present for whomsoever he might marry." + +A brief silence ensued, during which the magistrate pulled at the +corner of his tawny mustache, and earnestly regarded the prisoner. She +stood, with her beautiful white hands clasped before her, the slender +fingers interlaced, the head thrown proudly back. Extreme pallor had +given place to a vivid flush that dyed her cheeks, and crimsoned her +delicate lips; and her eyes looking straight into space, glowed with an +unnatural and indescribable lustre. Tadmor's queen Bath Zabbai could +not have appeared more regal in her haughty pose, amid the exulting +shouts that rent the skies of conquering Rome. The magistrate cleared +his throat, and addressed the accused. + +"You are Beryl Brentano, the granddaughter of General Darrington?" + +"I am Beryl Brentano." + +"You have heard the charges brought against you. What have you to say +in defence?" + +"That I am innocent of every accusation." + +"By what witnesses will you prove it?" + +"By a statement of the whole truth in detail, if I may be allowed to +make it." + +Here the Solicitor, Mr. Churchill, rose and said: + +"While faithfully discharging my official duties, loyalty to justice +does not smother the accents of human sympathy; and before proceeding +any further, I hope your Honor will appoint some counsel to confer with +and advise the prisoner. Her isolation appeals to every noble instinct +of manhood, and it were indeed puerile tribute to our lamented General +Darrington, to bring his granddaughter before this tribunal, without +the aid and defence of legal advisers. Justice itself would not be +welcome to me, if unjustly won. My friend, Mr. Hazelton, who is +present, has expressed his desire to defend the prisoner; and while I +am aware that your Honor is under the impression she refuses to accept +counsel, I trust you will nevertheless commit her, until she can confer +with him." + +Mr. Hazelton rose and bowed, in tacit approval. + +Beryl advanced a few steps, and her clear pure voice thrilled every +heart in the crowded room. + +"I need no help to tell the truth, and I want to conceal nothing. Time +is inexpressibly valuable to me now, for a human life more precious +than my own is at stake; and if I am detained here, my mother may die. +May I speak at once, and explain the circumstances which you consider +so mysterious as to justify the shameful indignity put upon me?" + +"Since you assume the responsibility of your own defence, you may +proceed with your statement. Relate what occurred from the hour you +reached Elm Bluff, until you left X---next morning." + +"I came here to deliver in person a letter written by my mother to her +father, General Darrington, because other letters sent through the +mail, had been returned unread. It contained a request for one hundred +dollars to pay the expense of a surgical operation, which we hoped +would restore her health. When I reached Elm Bluff, I waited on the +steps, until General Darrington's attorney finished his business and +came out; then I was led by an old colored man to the bed-room where +General Darrington sat. I gave no name, fearing he might refuse to +admit me, and he was very courteous in his manner until I laid the +letter before him. He immediately recognized the handwriting, and threw +it to the floor, declaring that no human being had the right to address +him as father, except his son Prince. I picked up the letter, and +insisted he should at least read the petition of a suffering, and +perhaps dying woman. He was very violent in his denunciation of my +parents, and his voice was loud and angry. So painful was the whole +interview, that it was a bitter trial to me to remain in his presence, +but knowing how absolutely necessary it was that mother should obtain +the money, I forced myself to beg him to read the letter. Finally he +consented, read it, and seemed somewhat softened; but he tore it into +strips and threw it from him. He drank several glasses of wine from a +decanter on the table, and offered me some, expressing the opinion that +I must be tired from my journey. I declined it. General Darrington then +questioned me about my family, my mode of living; and after a few +moments became very much excited, renewing his harsh invectives against +my parents. It was at this stage of the interview that he uttered the +identical words quoted by the witness: 'My Will is so strong, no +contest can touch it, and it will stand forever between your mother and +my property.' + +"Immediately after, he went to the door leading into the library and +called 'Bedney!' No one answered, and he shut the door, kicking it as +it closed. When he came back to his chair, he said very bitterly: 'At +least we will have no eavesdroppers at this resurrection of my dead.' +He told me all the story of my mother's girlhood; of her marriage, +which had infuriated him; that he had sent her a certain proportion of +property, and then disowned and disinherited her. Afterward he +described his lonely life, his second marriage which was very happy, +and his adoption of his wife's son, who, he repeatedly told me, had +usurped my mother's place in his affections. Finally he said: + +"'Your mother has asked for one hundred dollars. You shall have it; not +because I recognize her as child of mine, but because a sick woman +appeals to a Southern gentleman.' + +"He took a bunch of keys from his pocket, and with one of them opened a +safe or iron closet on the wall near the chimney, and from that vault +he brought a square black tin box to the table, where he opened it. He +took out a leather bag, and counted into my hand five gold pieces of +twenty dollars each. The money was given so ungraciously that I told +him I would not accept it, save as a loan for mother's benefit; and +that as soon as I could earn it I would return the amount to him. I was +so anxious to get away, I started toward the library door, but he +called me back, and gave me the morocco case which contains the +sapphires. He said my mother's mother had bought them as a gift for her +daughter, to be worn when she was graduated at school; but as she +married and left school without his knowledge, the jewels had never +been seen by her. He told me he had intended to give them to his son +Prince, for his bride, but that now he would send them to mother, who +could sell them for a handsome sum, because they were valuable. He +showed so much sorrow at this time, that I begged him to give me some +message of pardon and affection, which she would prize infinitely more +than money or jewels; but he again became angry and bitter, and so I +left him. I came away by the door leading out on the iron veranda, +because he directed me to do so, saying that he did not wish me to meet +the servants, who would pry and tattle. When I closed the glass door I +saw him standing in the middle of the room, leaning on his cane, and he +had the black tin box in his hand. The sun was setting then, and now--" + +She ceased speaking for some seconds, then raised her hands toward +heaven, and with uplifted eyes that seemed in their strained gaze to +pierce beyond the veil, she added with solemn emphasis: + +"I call God to witness, that was the last and only time I ever saw +General Darrington. That was the last and only visit I ever made to Elm +Bluff." + +There was a general movement among the spectators, and audible +excitement, which was promptly quelled by the magistrate. + +"Silence there in front, or I shall order the room cleared." + +Turning toward Beryl, he said: + +"If you left Elm Bluff at sunset, why did you not take the 7:15 train?" + +"I tried to do so, but missed it because I desired to obey my mother's +injunctions as strictly as possible. She gave me a small bunch of +flowers, and asked me to be sure to lay them for her on her mother's +grave. When I reached the cemetery, which you know is in sight of the +road from Elm Bluff, the gate was locked, and it required some time to +enable me to climb over the wall and find the monument. It was growing +dark, and when I arrived at the station, I learned the train had just +gone." + +"Why did you not go to a hotel, as you were advised to do?" + +"Because after sending the telegram to my mother, I had no money to pay +for lodging; and I asked permission to stay in the ladies' +waiting-room." + +"State where and how you spent the night." + +"It was very hot and sultry in that room, and as there was a bright +moon shining, I walked out to get some fresh air. The pine woods had +appeared so pretty and pleasant that afternoon, that I went on and on +toward them, and did not realize how far they were. I met people +passing along the road, and it did not seem lonely. The smell of the +pines was new to me, and to enjoy it, I sat down on the straw. I was +tired, and must have fallen asleep at once, for I remember nothing till +some noise startled me, and there I saw the same man on horseback in +the road, whom I had met at Elm Bluff. He asked me if I had misled my +way, and I answered 'No, sir.' The height of the moon showed me it was +late, and as I was frightened at finding myself alone in the woods, I +almost ran back to the railway station, where I saw no one, except a +telegraph operator, who seemed to be asleep in his chair. I cannot say +what time it was, because I could not see the clock. Soon after, it +began to thunder, and all through that terrible storm I was alone in +the waiting-room. So great was my relief when the wind and lightning +ceased, that I went to sleep, and dreamed of a happy time when I lived +in Italy, and of talking with one very dear to me. Just then I awoke +with a start, and heard a voice talking outside, which seemed very +familiar. There were two persons; one, a negro, said: + +"'There ain't no train 'till daylight, excepting the through freight.' + +"The other person asked: 'When is it due?' The negro answered: + +"'Pretty soon, but it don't stop here; it goes to the water tank where +it blows for the railroad bridge; and that is only a short distance up +the track.' + +"I think I must have been only half awake, and with my mind fixed on my +dream, I ran out in front of the station house. An old negro man +limping down the street was the only person visible, and while I +watched him he suddenly vanished. I went along the track for some +distance but saw no one; and when I came back, the ticket agent was +standing in the door of his office. I cannot explain to you the +singular impulse which carried me out, when I heard the dialogue, +because it is inexplicable to myself, save by the supposition that I +was still dreaming; and yet I saw the negro man distinctly. There was a +lamp-post near him, and he had a bundle on his shoulder. When the 3:05 +train came, I went aboard and left X---." + +A smile parted Mr. Dunbar's lips, and his handsome teeth glittered as +he whispered to Judge Dent: + +"Even your chivalrous compassion can scarcely digest this knotty +solution of her movements that night. As a fabrication, it does little +credit to her ingenuity." + +"Her statement impresses me differently. She is either entirely +innocent, or she had an accomplice, whose voice she recognized; and +this clue should be investigated." + +The District Solicitor rose and bowed to the Magistrate. + +"With your Honor's permission, I should like to ask the prisoner whom +she expected to see, when she recognized the voice?" + +"A person who is very dear to me, but who is not in the United States." + +"What is the name of that person?" + +Her lips moved to pronounce his name, but some swift intuitive warning +restrained the utterance. Suddenly a new horror, a ghastly possibility, +thrust itself for the first time before her, and she felt as though +some hand of ice clutched her heart. + +Those who watched her so closely, saw the blood ebb from cheeks and +lips; noted the ashy pallor that succeeded, and the strange groping +motion of her hands. She staggered toward the platform, and when the +Magistrate caught her arm, she fell against him like some tottering +marble image, entirely unconscious. + + * * * * * + +So prolonged and death-like was the swoon, and so futile the usual +methods of restoration, that the prisoner was carried into the small +ante-room, and laid upon a wooden bench; where a physician, who chanced +to be in the audience, was summoned to attend her. Finding restoratives +ineffectual, he took out his lancet: + +"This is no ordinary fainting fit." + +He attempted to roll up one of her sleeves, but seeing this was +impracticable, would have unfastened her dress, had not Judge Dent +arrested his hand. + +"No, doctor; cut out the sleeve if necessary, but don't touch her +otherwise." + +"Let me assist you; I can easily bare the arm." + +As he spoke, Mr. Dunbar knelt beside the bench, and with a small, sharp +pen-knife ripped the seam from elbow to shoulder, from elbow to wrist, +swiftly and deftly folding back the sleeve, and exposing the perfect +moulding of the snowy arm. + +"Just hold the hand, Dunbar, so as to keep it steady." + +Clasping closely the hand, which the physician laid in his palm the +attorney noted the exquisite symmetry of the slender fingers and oval +nails. He bent forward and watched the frozen face. When the heavily +lashed lids quivered and lifted, and she looked vacantly at the grave +compassionate countenances leaning over her, a certain tightening of +the hold upon her fingers, drew her attention. Her gaze fastened on the +lawyer's blue eyes as if by a subtle malign fascination. The veil that +shrouded consciousness was rent, not fully raised; and as in some dream +the solemn eyes appeared to search his. A strange shivering thrill shot +along his nerves, and his quiet, well regulated heart so long the +docile obedient motor, fettered vassal of his will, bounded, strained +hard on the steel cable that held it in thrall. + +"You feel better now?" asked the physician, who was stanching the flow +of blood. + +Still her gaze seemed to penetrate the inmost recesses of the lawyer's +nature, calling into sudden revolt dormant elements that amazed and +defied him. + +A shadowy smile curved her pale lips. + +"At the mercy of Tiberius. At the mercy of Tiberius." + +Those present looked inquiringly at each other. + +"Her mind wanders a little. Sheriff, give her some of that brandy. She +is as weak as a baby." + +Judge Dent raised her head, and the officer held the tumbler to her +mouth; while the former said gently: + +"My poor girl, drink a little, it will strengthen you." + +With a gesture of loathing, she rejected it; and as she attempted to +raise herself, all the dire extremity of her peril rushed back upon her +mind, like a black overwhelming tide from the sea of the past. + +"Lie still, until I have bandaged your arm. Here, Dunbar, you acquitted +yourself so dexterously with your knife, just lend a hand. Hold the arm +until I secure the bandage." + +To find herself surrounded by men, helpless in the grasp of strangers, +with no womanly touch or glance to sustain her, served to intensify her +misery; and wrenching herself free, she struggled into a sitting +posture, then staggered to her feet. The heavy coil of hair loosened +when they bore her from the court-room, now released itself from +restraining pins, and fell in burnished waves to her knees, clothing +her with a glory, such as the world's great masters in art reserve for +the beatified. Had all the blood that fed her heart been drained, she +would not have appeared more deadly pale, and in her wide eyes was the +desperate look of a doomed animal, that feels the hot fangs of the +hounds, and the cold steel of the hunters. + +"Be persuaded for your own sake, to swallow some stimulant, of which +you are sadly in need. You will require all your strength, and, as a +physician, I insist upon your taking my prescription." + +"If I might have some water. Just a little water." + +Some one brought a brown stone pitcher, and she drank long and +thirstily; then looked for a moment at the faces of those who crowded +about her. + +"What will be done now?" + +Every eye fell to the floor, and after a painful silence Judge Dent +said very gently: + +"For the present, the Magistrate will retain you in custody, until the +action of the Grand Jury. Should they fail to indict you, then you will +at once be released." + +"I am to go to prison? I am to be thrust among convicts, vile +criminals! I--? My father's Beryl? O, righteous God! Where is Thy +justice? O, Christ! Is Thy mercy a mockery?" + +She stood, with her chin resting on her clenched hands, and twice a +long violent shudder shook her from head to foot. + +"I hope your imprisonment will be only temporary. The Grand Jury will +be in session next week. Meantime diligent search may discover the +persons whose conversation you overheard at the station; and if you be +innocent, we are all your friends, and the law, which now seems so +stern, will prove your strongest protector and vindicator." + +Judge Dent stood close beside her, as he essayed these words of +comfort, and saw that she caught her breath as though in mortal agony. +Her face writhed, and she shut her eyes, unable to contemplate some +hideous apparition. He suspected that she was fighting desperately an +impulse that suggested succor; and he was sure she had strangled it, +when her hands fell nerveless at her side, and she raised her bowed +head. If the finger of paralysis had passed over her features, they +would not have appeared more hopelessly fixed. Mechanically she twisted +and coiled her hair, and took the hat and shawl which the officer held +out to her. + +"If I can assist you in any way, you have only to send for me." + +She looked at Judge Dent intently, for an instant, then shook her head. + +"No one can help me now." + +She tied her veil over her face, and silently followed the deputy +sheriff to a carriage, that stood near the pavement. + +When he would have assisted her, she haughtily repelled him. + +"I will follow you, because I must; but do not put your hands on me." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +In ante bellum days, when States' Rights was a sacred faith, a revered +and precious palladium, State pride blossomed under Southern skies, and +State coffers overflowed with the abundance wherewith God blessed the +land. During that period, when it became necessary to select a site for +a new Penitentiary, the salubrity and central location of X---had so +strongly commended it, that the spacious structure was erected within +its limits, and regarded as an architectural triumph of which the State +might justly boast. Soon after this had been completed, the old county +jail, situated on the border of the town, was burned one windy March +night; then the red rain of war deluged the land, and when the ghastly +sun of "Reconstruction" smiled upon the grave of States' Rights, +Municipal money disappeared in subterranean channels. Thus it came to +pass, that with the exception of a small "lockup" attached to Police +Headquarters, X--had failed to rebuild its jail, and domiciled its +dangerous transgressors in the great stone prison; paying therefor to +the State an annual amount per capita. + +Built of gray granite which darkened with time and weather stains, its +massive walls, machicolated roof, and tall arched clock-tower lifted +their leaden outlines against the sky, and cast a brooding shadow over +the town, lying below; a grim perpetual menace to all who subsequently +found themselves locked in its reformatory arms. Separated from the +bustling mart and busy traffic, by the winding river that divided the +little city into North and South X--, it crested an eminence on the +north; and the single lower story flanking the main edifice east and +west, resembled the trailing wings of some vast bird of prey, an +exaggerated simulacrum of a monstrous gray condor perched on a "coigne +of vantage," waiting to swoop upon its victims. Encircled by a tall +brick wall, which was surmounted by iron spikes sharp as bayonets, that +defied escalade, the grounds extended to the verge of the swift stream +in front, and stretched back to the border of a heavily timbered tract +of pine land, a bit of primeval forest left to stare at the encroaching +armies of Philistinism. + +Within the precincts of the yard, the tender conservatism of our +great-hearted mother Nature, gently toned the savage stony features; +and even under the chill frown of iron barred windows, golden sunshine +bravely smiled, soft grasses wove their emerald velvet tapestries +starred and flushed with dainty satin petals, which late Autumn roses +showered in munificent contribution, to the work of pitying love. + +In a comfortably furnished room situated in the second story of the +main building, sat a woman apparently thirty-five years old, who was +singing to a baby lying face downward on her lap, while with one hand +she rocked the wicker cradle beside her, where a boy of four years was +tossing. Her hazel eyes were full of kindly light, the whole face +eloquent with that patient, limitless tenderness, which is the magic +chrism of maternity, wherewith Lucina and Cuba abundantly anoint +Motherhood. The blessed and infallible nepenthe for all childhood's +ills and aches, mother touch, mother songs, soon held soothing sway; +and when the woman laid the sleeping babe on her own bed, and covered +her with a shawl, she saw her husband leaning against the partly open +door. + +"Come here, Susie. The kids are snug and safe for the present, and I +want you." + +"For shame, Ned! To call our darlings such a beastly name. Kids, +indeed! My sweetest, loveliest lambs!" + +"There! Hear yourself! If I can see any choice of respectability +between kids and lambs, may I turn to a thoroughbred Southdown, and +take the blue ribbon at the next Fair. Beasts of the field, all of +them. The always-wide-awake-contrariness of womankind is a curious and +fearful thing. If I had called our beloved towheads, lambs, you would +have sworn through blue ruin that they were the cutest, spryest pair of +spotted kids, that ever skipped over a five-railed fence!" + +"So much the worse for you, Ned Singleton, that you are such a hopeless +heathen; you do not even know where the Elect are appointed to stand, +at that great day when the sheep come up on the right hand of the Lord, +and the goats go down to the left. If you read your Bible more, I +should have less to teach you." + +"Oh! but let me tell you, I thought of all that before I made up my +mind to marry the daughter of a Presbyterian preacher. I knew your dear +little blue-nose would keep the orthodox trail; and being one of the +Elect you could not get the points of the celestial compass mixed. +Don't you forget, that it is part of the unspoken marriage contract, +that the wife must not only keep her own soul white, but bleach her +husband's also; and no matter what a reprobate a man may be, he always +expects his better-half, by hook or by crook, to steer him into heaven." + +He put his hands on his wife's shoulders, shook her, in token of +mastery, and kissed her. + +"What do you want of my 'always-wide-awake-contrariness'? I have half a +mind not to help you out of your scrape; for of course you have mired +somewhere. What is the matter now, Ned?" + +"Yes--stuck hard and fast; so my dear little woman, don't you go back +on your wedding-day promises, but just lend a helping hand. I don't +know what is to be done with that poor young woman in No. 19. One of +the under-wardens, Jarvis, sleeps this week right under her cell, and +he tells me that all night long she tramps up and down, without +cessation, like some caged animal. This is her third day in, and she +has not touched a morsel; though at Judge Dent's request I ordered some +extras given her. Jarvis said she was not sullen, but he thought it +proper to report to me that she seemed to act very strangely; so I went +up to see after her. When I opened the door she was walking up and down +the floor, with her hands locked at the back of her head, and I +declare, Susie, she looks five years older than when she came here. +There are great dark hollows under her eyes, and two red spots like +coals of fire on her cheeks. I said: 'Are you sick, that you reject +your meals?' To which she replied: 'Don't trouble yourself to send me +food; I cannot eat!' Then I told her I understood that she was restless +at night, and I advised her to take a mixture which would quiet her +nerves. She shook her head, and I could not bear to look at her; the +eyes seemed so like a wounded fawn's, brimful of misery. I asked her if +there was anything I could do, to make her more comfortable; or if she +needed medicine. All this time she kept up her quick walk to and fro, +and she answered: 'Thank you. I need nothing--but death; and that will +come soon.' Now what could I say? I felt such a lump in my throat, that +if Solomon had whispered to me some kind speech, I could not have +uttered it, so I got out of the room just as fast as possible, to dry +the tears that somehow would blur my eyes. When they are surly, or +snappish, or violent, or insolent, I know exactly what to do, and have +no trouble; but hang me, if I can cope with this lady--there it is out! +She is a lady every inch, and as much out of place here as I should be +in Queen Victoria's drawing-room. Men are clumsy brutes, even in kid +gloves, and bruise much oftener than they heal. Whenever I am in that +girl's presence, I have a queer feeling that I am walking on eggs, and +tip-toe as I may, shall smash things. If something is not done, she +will be ill on our hands, and a funeral will balk the bloodhounds." + +"O, hush, Ned! You give me the shivers. My heart yearns toward that +beautiful young creature, and I believe she is as innocent as my baby. +It is a burning shame to send her here, unless there is no doubt of her +guilt. Judge Dent is too shrewd an old fox to be baited with chaff, and +I am satisfied from what he told you, that he believes her statement. +There is nothing I would not do to comfort her, but I would rather have +my ears boxed than witness her suffering. The day I carried to her a +change of clothes, until her own could be washed, and sewed up her +dress sleeve. I did nothing but cry. I could not help it, when she +moaned and wrung her hands, and said her mother's heart would break. I +have heard all my life that justice is blind; I have learned to believe +it, for it stumbles, and gropes, and lays iron claws on the wrong +person. As for the lawyers? They are fit pilots: and the courts are +little better than blind man's buff. Don't stand chewing your mustache, +Ned. Tell me what you want me to do, while baby is asleep. She has a +vexatious habit of taking cat naps." + +"Little woman, I turn over the case to you. Just let your heart loose, +and follow it." + +"If I do, will you endorse me?" + +"Till the stars fall." + +"Can you stay here awhile?" + +"Yes, if you will tell Jarvis where he can find me." + +"Mind you, Ned, you are not to interfere with me?" + +"No--I swear I won't. Hurry up, or there will be much music in this +bleating fold; and you know I am as utterly useless with a crying +child, as a one-armed man in a concert of fiddlers." + +The cell assigned to the new prisoner was in the centre of a line, +which rose tier above tier, like the compartments in a pigeon house, or +the sombre caves hewn out of rock-ribbed cliffs, in some lonely Laura. +Iron stairways conducted the unfortunates to these stone cages, where +the dim cold light filtered through the iron lattice-work of the upper +part of the door, made a perpetual crepuscular atmosphere within. The +bare floor, walls, and low ceiling were spotlessly clean and white; and +an iron cot with heavy brown blankets spread smoothly and a wooden +bench in one corner, constituted the furniture. Scrupulous neatness +reigned everywhere, but the air was burdened with the odor of carbolic +acid, and even at mid-day was chill as the breath of a tomb. Where the +doors were thrown open, they resembled the yawning jaws of rifled +graves; and when closed, the woful inmates peering through the black +lattice seemed an incarnation of Dante's hideous Caina tenants. + +When Mrs. Singleton stopped in front of No. 19, and looked through the +grating, Beryl was standing at the extremity of the cell, with her face +turned to the wall, and her hands clasping the back of her neck. The +ceiling was so low she could have touched it, had she lifted her arms, +and she appeared to have retreated as far in the gloomy den as the +barriers allowed. Thinking that perhaps the girl was praying, the +warden's wife waited some minutes, but no sound greeted her; and so +motionless was the figure, that it might have been only an alto rilievo +carved on the wall. Pushing the door open, Mrs. Singleton entered, and +deposited on the iron bed a waiter covered with a snowy napkin. At the +sound, Beryl turned, and her arms fell to her side, but she shrank back +against the wall, as if solitude were her only solace, and human +intrusion an added torture. + +Mrs. Singleton took both hands, and held them firmly: + +"Do you believe it right to commit suicide?" + +"I believe in everything but human justice, and Divine mercy." + +"Your conscience tells you that--" + +"Am I allowed a conscience? What ghastly mockery! Thieves and murderers +are not fit tenements for conscience, and I--I--am accused of stealing, +and of bloodshed. Justice! What a horrible sham! We--her victims--who +adored the beneficent and incorruptible attribute of God Himself--we +are undeceived, when Justice--the harpy--tears our hearts out with her +hideous, foul, defiling claws." + +She spoke through set teeth, and a spasm of shuddering shook her from +head to feet. + +"Listen to me. Suspicion is one thing, proof something very different. +You are accused, but not convicted, and--" + +"I shall be. Justice must be appeased, and I am the most convenient and +available victim. An awful crime has been committed, and outraged law, +screaming for vengeance, pounces like a hungry hawk on an innocent and +unsuspecting prey. Does she spare the victim because it quivers, and +dies hard?" + +"Hush! You must not despair. I believe in your innocence; I believe +every word you uttered that day was true, and I believe that our +merciful God will protect you. Put yourself in His hands, and His mercy +will save, for 'it endureth forever.'" + +"I don't ask mercy! I claim justice--from God and man. The wicked +grovel, and beg for mercy; but innocence lays hold upon the very throne +of God, and clutches His sword, and demands justice!" + +"I understand how you feel, and I do not wonder; but for your own sake, +in order to keep your mind clear and strong for your vindication, you +certainly ought to take care of your health. Starvation is the surest +leech for depleting soul and body. Do you want to die here in prison, +leaving your name tarnished, and smirched with suspicion of crime, when +you can live to proclaim your innocence to the world? Remember that +even if you care nothing for your life, you owe something to your +mother. You have two chances yet; the Grand Jury may not find a true +bill--" + +"Yes, that tiger-eyed lawyer will see that they do. He knows that the +law is a cunning net for the feet of the innocent and the unwary. He +set his snare dexterously, and will not fail to watch it." + +"You mean Mr. Dunbar? Yes, you certainly have cause to dread him; but +even if you should be indicted, you have twelve human hearts full of +compassion to appeal to--and I can't think it possible a jury of sane +men could look at you and condemn you. You must fight for your life; +and what is far more to you than life, you must fight for your good +name, for your character. Suspicion is not proof of crime, and there is +no taint on you yet; for sin alone stains, and if you will only be +brave and clear yourself as I know you can, what a grand triumph it +will be. If you starve yourself you seal your doom. An empty stomach +will do you more harm than the Grand Jury and all the lawyers; for it +utterly upsets your nerves, and makes your brain whirl like a top. For +three days and nights you have not tasted food: now just to please me, +since I have taken so much trouble, sit down here by me, and eat what I +have brought. I know you would rather not; I know you don't want it; +but, my dear child, take it like any other dose, which will strengthen +you for your battle. It is very fine to rant about heroism, but +starvation is the best factory for turning out cowards: and even the +courage of old Caesar would have had the 'dwindles,' if he had been +stinted in his rations." + +She removed the napkin, and displayed a tempting luncheon, served in +pretty, gilt-banded white china. What a contrast it presented, to the +steaming tin platter and dull tin quart cups carried daily to the +adjoining cell? + +Beryl laid her hand on Mrs. Singleton's shoulder, and her mouth +trembled. + +"I thank you, sincerely, for your sympathy--and for your confidence; +and to show my appreciation of your kindness, I wish I could eat that +dainty luncheon; but I think it would strangle me--I have such a +ceaseless aching here, in my throat. I feel as if I should stifle." + +"See here! I brought you some sweet rich milk in my little boy's cup. +He was my first-born, and I lost him. This was his christening present +from my mother. It is very precious, very sacred to me. If you will +only drink what is in it, I shall be satisfied. Don't slight my angel +baby's cup. That would hurt me." + +She raised the pretty "Bo-Peep" silver cup to the prisoner's lips, and +seeing the kind hazel eyes swimming in tears, Beryl stooped her head +and drank the milk. + +The warden's wife lifted the cup, looked wistfully at it, and kissed +the name engraved on the metal: + +"You know now I must think you pure and worthy. I have given you the +strongest possible proof; for only the good could be allowed to touch +what my dead boy's lips have consecrated. Now come out with me, and get +some pure fresh air." + +Beryl shrank back. + +"These close walls seem a friendly shelter from the horrible faces that +cluster outside. You can form no idea how I dread contact with the vile +creatures, whose crimes have brought them here for expiation. The +thought of breathing the same atmosphere pollutes me. I think the +loathsomeness of perdition must consist in association with the +depraved and wicked. Not the undying flames would affright me, but the +doom of eternal companionship with outcast criminals. No! No! I would +sooner freeze here, than wander in the sunshine with those hideous +wretches I saw the day I was thrust among them." + +"Trust me, and I will expose you to nothing unpleasant. Take your hat +and shawl; I shall not bring you back here. There is time enough for +cells when you have been convicted and sentenced; and please God, you +shall never stay in this one again. Come." + +"Stay, madam. What is your purpose? I have been so hunted down, I am +growing suspicious of the appearance of kindness. What are you going to +do?" + +Mrs. Singleton took her hand and pressed it gently. + +"I am going to trust, and help, and love you, if you will let me; and +for the present, I intend to keep you in a room adjoining mine, where +you will have no fear of wicked neighbors." + +"That will be merciful indeed. May God bless you for the thought." + +Down iron staircases, and through dim corridors bordered with dark +cells, gloomy as the lairs of wild beasts whom the besotted inmates +resembled, the two women walked; and once, when a clank of chains and a +hoarse human cry broke the dismal silence, Beryl clutched her +companion's arm, and her teeth chattered with horror. + +"Yes, it is awful! That poor woman is the saddest case we have. She +waylaid and stabbed her husband to death, and poisoned his mother. We +think she is really insane, and as she is dangerous at times, it is +necessary to keep her chained, until arrangements can be made to remove +her to the insane asylum." + +"I don't wonder she is mad! People cannot dwell here and retain their +reason; and madness is a mercy that blesses them with forgetfulness." + +Beryl shivered, and her eyes glittered with an unnatural and ominous +brilliance. + +The warden's wife paused before a large door with solid iron panels, +and rang a bell. Some one on the other side asked: + +"What is the order? Who rang?" + +"Mrs. Singleton; I want to get into the chapel. Let me out, Jasper." + +The door swung slowly back, and the guard touched his hat respectfully. + +Through an open arcade, where the sunlight streamed, Mrs. Singleton led +her companion; then up a short flight of stone steps, and they found +themselves in a long room, with an altar railing and pulpit at one end, +and rows of wooden benches crossing the floor from wall to wall. Even +here, the narrow windows were iron barred, but sunshine and the sweet, +pure breath of the outside world entered freely. Within the altar +railing, and at the right of the reading desk where a Bible lay, stood +a cabinet organ. Leaving the prisoner to walk up and down the aisle, +Mrs. Singleton opened the organ, drew out the stops, and after waiting +a few moments, began to play. + +At first, only a solemn prelude rolled its waves of harmony through the +peaceful sunny room, but soon the strains of the beautiful Motet "Cast +thy burden on the Lord," swelled like the voice of some divine +consoler. Watching the stately figure of the prisoner who wandered to +and fro, the warden's wife noticed that like a magnet the music drew +her nearer and nearer each time she approached the chancel, and at last +she stood with one hand on the railing. The beautiful face, sharpened +and drawn by mental agony, was piteously wan save where two scarlet +spots burned on her cheeks, and the rigid lips were gray as some +granite Statue's, but the eyes glowed with a strange splendor that +almost transfigured her countenance. + +On and on glided the soft, subtle variations of the Motet, and +gradually the strained expression of the shining eyes relaxed, as if +the soul of the listener were drifting back from a far-off realm; the +white lids quivered, the stern lines of the pale lips unbent. At that +moment, the face of her father seemed floating on the sunbeams that +gilded the pulpit, and the tones of her mother's voice rang in her +ears. The terrible tension of many days and nights of torture gave way +suddenly, like a silver thread long taut, which snaps with one last +vibration. She raised her hands: + +"My God! Why hast Thou forsaken me?" + +The cry ended in a wail. Into her burning eyes merciful tears rushed, +and sinking on her knees she rested against the railing, shaken by a +storm of passionate weeping. + +Mrs. Singleton felt her own tears falling fast, but she played for a +while longer; then stole out of the chapel, and sat down on the steps. + +Across the grass plot before the door, burnished pigeons cooed, and +trod their stately minuet, their iridescent plumage showing every +opaline splendor as the sunlight smote them; and on a buttress of the +clock tower, a lonely hedge-sparrow poured his heart out in that +peculiarly pathetic threnody which no other feathered throat +contributes to the varied volume of bird lays. Poised on the point of +an iron spike in the line that bristled along the wall, a mocking bird +preened, then spread his wings, soared and finally swept downward, +thrilling the air with the bravura of the "tumbling song"; and over the +rampart that shut out the world, drifted the refrain of a paean to +peace: + +"Bob White!" "Peas ripe?" "Not quite!" + +In the vast epic of the Cosmos, evoked when the "Spirit of God moved +upon the face of the waters"--an epic printed in stars on blue abysses +of illimitable space; in illuminated type of rose leaf, primrose petal, +scarlet berry on the great greenery of field and forest; in the +rainbows that glow on tropical humming birds, on Himalayan pheasants, +on dying dolphins in purple seas; and in all the riotous carnival of +color on Nature's palette, from shifting glory of summer clouds, to the +steady fires of red autumn skies--we find no blot, no break, no blurred +abortive passages, until man stepped into creation's story. In the +material, physical Universe, the divine rhythm flows on, majestic, +serene as when the "morning stars sing together" in the choral of +praise to Him, unto whom "all seemed good"; but in the moral and +spiritual realm evolved by humanity, what hideous pandemonium of +discords drowns the heavenly harmony? What grim havoc marks the swath, +when the dripping scythe of human sin and crime swings madly, where the +lilies of eternal "Peace on earth, good will to man," should lift their +silver chalices to meet the smile of God? + +A vague conception of this vexing problem, which like a huge +carnivorous spectre, flaps its dusky wings along the sky of sociology, +now saddened Mrs. Singleton's meditations, as she watched the +lengthening shadow cast by the tower upon the court-yard; but she was +not addicted to abstract speculation, and the words of her favorite +hymn epitomized her thoughts: "Though every prospect pleases, and only +man is vile." + +The brazen clang of the deep-throated bell rang out on the quiet air, +and a moment later, the piercing treble of a child's cry made her +spring to her feet. She peeped into the chapel all was still. + +On tiptoe she passed swiftly down the aisle to the chancel, and saw the +figure crouched at the altar, with one arm twined through the railing. +For many days and nights the tortured woman had not known an instant of +repose; nervous dread had scourged her to the verge of frenzy, but when +the flow of long-pent tears partly extinguished the fire in her brain, +overtaxed Nature claimed restitution, and the prisoner yielded to +overwhelming prostration. Death might be hovering near, but her twin +sister sleep intervened, and compassionately laid her poppies on the +snowy eyelids. + +Stooping close, Mrs. Singleton saw that tears yet hung on the black +lashes which swept the flushed cheeks, but the parted lips were at +rest, and the deep regularly drawn breath told her that at last the +weary soul reposed in the peaceful domain of dreams. Deftly, and softly +as thistledown falls, she spread her own shawl over the drooping +shoulders, then noiselessly hurried back to the door. Locking it, she +took the key, ran across the grass, into the arcade, and up to the +great iron barrier, which the guard opened as she approached. With +flying feet she neared her own apartments, whence issued the indignant +wail of her implacable baby girl. As she opened the door, her husband +held the disconsolate child toward her. + +"You are in time for your share of the fun; I have had enough and to +spare. How you stand this diabolical din day in, day out, passes my +comprehension. You had not been gone fifteen minutes when Missy tuned +up. I patted and, 'She-e-d' her, but she got her head above cover, +squinted around the room, and not finding you, set up a squall that +would have scared a wildcat. The more I patted, the worse she screamed, +and her feet and hands flew around like a wind-mill. I took her up, and +trotted her on my knee, but bless you! she squirmed like an eel, and +her little bald head bobbed up and down faster than a di-dapper. Then I +walked her, but I would as soon try to swing to a greased snake. She +wriggled and bucked, and tied herself up into a bow knot, and yelled--. +Oh! a Comanche papoose is a dummy to her. As if I had not hands full, +arms full, and ears full, Dick must needs wake up and pitch head +foremost out of the cradle, and turn a double summerset before he +landed upside down on the floor, whereupon he lifted up his voice, and +the concert grew lively. I took him under one arm, so, and laid Missy +over my shoulder, and it struck me I would join the chorus in self +defence, so I opened with all my might on 'Hold the Fort'; but great +Tecumseh! I only insulted them both, and finding my fifth fiddle was +nowhere in the fray, I feared Jarvis would hear the howling and ring +the alarm bell, so I just sat down. I spread out Dick in a soft place, +where he could not bump his brains out, and laying my lady across my +lap, I held her down by main force, while she screamed till she was +black in the face. If you had not come just when you did, I should have +turned gray and cross-eyed. Hello, Missy! If she is not cooing and +laughing! Little vixen! Oh! but--'lambs'!--I believe they are! +Hereafter tend your own flock; and in preference I will herd young +panthers." + +He wiped his forehead where the perspiration stood in drops, and +watched with amazement the sudden lull in the tempest. + +Clasped in her mother's arms, the baby smiled and gurgled, and Dick, +drying his eyes on the maternal bosom, showed the exact spot where she +must kiss his bruised head. + +"Ned, what have you done? This baby's hair is dripping wet, and so is +the neck of her dress." + +"Serves her right, too. I sprinkled her, that's all." + +"Sprinkled her! Have you lost your senses?" + +"Shouldn't wonder if I had; people in bedlam are apt to be crazy. Yes, +I sprinkled Missy, because she turned so black in the face, I thought +she was strangling; and my step-mother always sprinkled me when I had a +fit of tantrums. But let me tell you, Missy will never be a zealous +Baptist, she doesn't take to water kindly." + +"When I want my children step-mothered I will let you know. Give me +that towel, and baby's woollen cap hanging on the knob of the bureau. +Bless her precious heart! if she does not keep you up all night, with +the croup, you may thank your stars." + +"Susie, just tell me how you tame them, so that next time--" + +"Next time, sir, I shall not trust you. I just love them, and they know +it; that is what tames the whole world." + +Edward Singleton stooped over his wife, and kissed her rosy cheek. + +"Little woman, what luck had you in No. 19?" + +"The best I could wish. I have saved that poor girl from brain-fever, I +hope." + +"How did you manage it?" + +"Just simply because I am a flesh and blood woman, and not a +blundering, cast-iron man." + +"How does she seem now?" + +"She has had a good, hearty spell of wholesome crying; no hysterics, +mind you, but floods of tears; and now she is sound asleep with her +head on the altar railing, in the chapel. I locked her up there, and +here is the key. When she wakes, I want her brought up here, put in +that room yonder, and left entirely to me, until her trial is over. I +never do things half way, Ned, and you need not pucker your eyebrows, +for I will be responsible for her. I have put my hand to the plough, +and you are not to meddle with the lines, till I finish my furrow." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +In one of the "outhouses" which constituted the servants' quarters, in +that which common parlance denominated the "back-yard" at "Elm Bluff," +an old negro woman sat smoking a pipe. + +The room which she had occupied for more than forty years, presented a +singular melange of incongruous odds and ends, the flotsam of a long +term of service, where the rewards, if intrinsically incommensurate, +were none the less invaluable, to the proud recipient. The floor was +covered by a faded carpet, once the pride of the great drawing-room, +but the velvet pile had disappeared beneath the arched insteps and high +heels of lovely belles and haughty beaux, and the scarlet feathers and +peacock plumes that originally glowed on the brilliant buff ground, +were no longer distinguishable. + +An old-fashioned piece of furniture, coeval with diamond shoe-buckles, +ruffled shirts and queues, a brass bound mahogany chiffonier, with +brass handles and tall brass feet representing cat claws, stood in one +corner; and across the top was stretched a rusty purple velvet strip, +bordered with tarnished gilt gimp and fringe, a fragment of the cover +which belonged to the harp on which General Darrington's grandmother +had played. + +The square bedstead was a marvel in size and massiveness, and the heavy +mahogany posts nearly black with age, and carved like the twisted +strands of a rope, supported a tester lined with turkey-red pleatings, +held in the centre by the talons of a gilt spread-eagle. So tall was +the bed, that three steps were required to ascend it, and the space +thus left between the mahogany and the floor, was hidden by a valance +of white dimity, garnished with wide cotton fringe. Over this spacious +place of repose, a patchwork quilt of the "rising sun" pattern +displayed its gaudy rays, resembling some sprawling octopus, rather +than the face of Phoebus. + +The contents of a wide mantel board flounced with fringed dimity, +(venerable prototype of macrame and Arrasene lambrequins), would have +filled with covetousness the soul of the bric-a-brac devotee; and +graced the counters of Sypher. + +There were burnished brass candle-sticks, with extinguishers in the +shape of prancing griffins, and snuffers of the same metal, fashioned +after the similitude of some strange and presumably extinct saurian; +and a Dresden china shepherdess, whose shattered crook had long since +disappeared, peeped coquettishly through the engraved crystal of a tall +candle shade at the bloated features of a mandarin, on a tea-pot with a +cracked spout--that some Darrington, stung by the gad-fly of travel, +had brought to the homestead from Nanking. A rich blue glass vase +poised on the back of a bronze swan, which had lost one wing and part +of its bill in the combat with time, hinted at the rainbow splendors of +its native Prague, and bewailed the captivity that degraded its +ultra-marine depths into a receptacle for cut tobacco. + +The walls, ceiled with curled pine planks, were covered with a motley +array of pasted and tacked pictures; some engraved, many colored, and +ranging in comprehensiveness of designs, from Bible scenes cut from +magazines, to "riots" in illustrated papers; and even the garish glory +of circus and theatre posters. + +In one corner stood an oak spinning-wheel, more than centenarian in +age, fallen into hopeless desuetude, but gay with the strings of +scarlet pepper pods hung up to dry, and twined among its silent spokes. +On a trivet provided with lizard feet that threatened to crawl away, +rested a copper kettle bereft of its top, once the idol of three +generations of Darringtons, to whom it had liberally dispensed "hot +water tea," in the blessed dead and embalmed era of nursery rule and +parental power; now eschewed with its despised use, and packed to the +brim with medicinal "yarbs," bone-set, horse mint, life everlasting, +and snake-root. + +In front of the fire which roared and crackled in the cavernous +chimney, "Mam' Dyce" rocked slowly, enjoying her clay pipe, and +meditatively gazing up at an engraved portrait of "Our First +President," suspended on the wall. It was appropriately framed in +black, and where the cord that held it was twined around a hook, a bow +and streamers of very brown and rusty crape fluttered, when a draught +entered the apartment. + +Obese in form, and glossy black in complexion, "Mam' Dyce" retained in +old age the scrupulous neatness which had characterized her youth, when +promoted to the post of seamstress and ladies' maid, she had ruled the +servants' realm at "Elm Bluff" with a sway as autocratic as that of +Catherine over the Muscovites. Her black calico dress, donned as +mourning for her master, was relieved by a white apron tied about the +ample waist; a snowy handkerchief was crossed over the vast bosom, and +a checked white and black turban skilfully wound in intricate folds +around her gray head, terminated in a peculiar knot, which was the +pride of her toilet. A beautiful spotted pointer dog with ears like +brown satin, was lying asleep near the fire, but suddenly he lifted his +head, rose, stretched himself and went to the door. A moment later it +opened, and the whilom major-domo, Abednego, came in; put his stick in +one corner, hung his hat on a wooden peg, and approached the fireplace. + +"Well, ole man; you know I tole you so." + +"You wimmen would ruther say that, than eat pound cake. Supposin' you +did tell me, what's the upshot?" + +"That gimlet-eyed weasel is snuffing round you and me; but we won't +turn out to be spring chickens, ready picked." + +"Which is to signify that Miss Angerline smells a mouse? Don't talk +parables, Dyce. What's she done now?" + +"She is hankering after that hankchiff. 'Pears to me, if she only went +on four legs 'sted of two, she would sell high for a bloodhound." + +"Great Nebuckadanzer! How did she find out?" + +"Don't ax me; ax the witches what she has in cahoot. I always tole you, +she had the eyes of a cunjor, and she has sarched it out. Says she saw +you when you found it; which ain't true. Eavesdrapping is her trade; +she was fotch up on it, and her ears fit a key-hole, like a bung plugs +a barrel. She has eavesdrapped that hankchiff chat of our'n somehow. +Wuss than that, Bedney, she sot thar this evening and faced me down, +that I was hiding something else; that I picked up something on the +floor and hid it in my bosom, after the crowner's inquess. Sez I: +'Well, Miss Angerline, you had better sarch me and be done with it, if +you are the judge, and the jury, and the crowner, and the law, and have +got the job to run this case.' Sez she, a-squinting them venomous eyes +of her'n, till they looked like knitting needles red hot: 'I leave the +sarching to be done by the cunstable--when you are 'rested and +handcuffed for 'betting of murder.' Then my dander riz. Sez I, 'Crack +your whip and go ahead! You know how, seeing you is the offspring of a +Yankee overseer, what my marster, Gin'l Darrington, had 'rested for +beating one of our wimen, on our 'Bend' plantation. You and your pa is +as much alike, as two shrivelled cow peas out'en one pod. Fetch your +cunstable, and help yourselves.'" + +Dyce rose, knocked the ashes out of her pipe, and stood like a dusky +image of an Ethiopian Bellona. + +"Drat your servigerous tongue! Now the fat's in the fire, to be sho! +Ever since I tuck you for better for wuss, I have been trying to larn +you 'screshun! and I might as well 'a wasted my time picking a banjo +for a dead jackass tu dance by; for you have got no more 'screshun than +old Eve had, in confabulating with the old adversary! Why couldn't you +temperlize? Sassing that white 'oman, is a aggervating mistake." + +Under ordinary circumstances, Bedney and Dyce prided themselves on the +purity of their diction, and they usually abstained from plantation +dialect; but when embarrassed, frightened or excited, they invariably +relapsed into the lingo of the "Quarters." + +"Hush! What's that? A screech owull! Bedney, turn your pocket." + +With marvellous swiftness she plunged her hand into her dress pocket, +and turned it wrong side out, scattering the contents--thimble, thread, +two "scalybarks," and some "ground peas" over the floor. Then stooping, +she slipped off one shoe, turned it upside down, and hung it thus on a +horseshoe fastened to the mantel board. + +"Just lem'me know when you have appinted to hold your sarching, and I +will make it convenient to have bizness consarning that bunch of horgs +and cattle, I am raising on shares in the 'Bend' plantation: and you +can have your sarching frolic," said Bedney, too angry to heed the +superstitious rites. + +Dyce made a warning gesture, and listened intently. + +"I am a-thinking you will be chief cook and bottle-washer at that +sarching, for the appintment is at hand. Don't you hear Pilot baying +the cunstable?" + +She sank into her rocking-chair, picked up a gray yarn sock, and began +to knit unconcernedly; but in a significant tone, she added, nodding +her head: + +"Hold your own hand, Bedney; don't be pestered about mine. I'll hoe my +row; you 'tend to yourn." + +Then she leaned back, plying her knitting needles, and began to chant: +"Who will be the leader when the Bridegroom comes?" + +Hearing the knock on the door, her voice swelled louder, and Bedney, +the picture of perplexity, stood filling his pipe, when the bolt was +turned, and a gentleman holding a whip and wearing a long overcoat +entered the room. + +"Good evening, Bedney. Are you and Dyce holding a camp meeting all by +yourselves? I hallooed at the gate till your dog threatened to devour +me, and I had to scare him off with my buggy whip." + +"Why, how'dy, Mars Alfred? I am mighty glad to see you! Seems like old +times, to shake hands with you in my cabin. Lem'me take off your +overcoat, sir, and gim'me your hat, and make yourself comfortable, here +by the jam of the chimbly." + +"No, Bedney, I can't spare the time, and I only want a little business +matter settled before I get back to town to my office. Thank you, Dyce, +this is an old-time rocker sure enough. It is a regular 'Sleepy +Hollow.'" + +Mr. Churchill pushed back his hat, and held his gloved hand toward the +fire. + +"Bedney, I want to see that handkerchief you found in your master's +room, the day after he was murdered." + +"What hankchuf, Marse Alfred? I done tole everything I know, to the +Crowner's inquess." + +"I dare say you did; but something was found afterward. I want to see +it." + +"Who has been villifying of me? You have knowed me ever since you was +knee-high to a duck, and I--." + +"Nobody has vilified you, but Miss Dobbs saw you examining something, +which she says you pushed up your coat sleeve. She thinks it was a +handkerchief, but it may have been valuables. Now it is my duty, as +District Solicitor, to discover and prosecute the person who killed +your master, and you ought to render me every possible assistance. Any +unwillingness to give your testimony, or surrender the articles found, +will cast suspicion on you, and I should be sorry to have you arrested." + +"Fore Gord, Marse Alfred, I--" + +"Own up, husband. You did find a hankchef. You see, Marse Alfred, we +helped to raise that poor young gal's mother; and Bedney and me was +'votedly attached to our young Mistiss, Miss Ellie, and we thought ole +Marster was too hard on her, when she run off with the furrin fiddler; +so when this awful 'fliction fell upon us and everybody was cusing Miss +Ellie's child of killing her own grandpa, we couldn't believe no such +onlikely yarn, and Bedney and me has done swore our vow, we will stand +by that poor young creetur, for her ma's sake; for our young mistiss +was good to us, and our heart strings was 'rapped round her. We does +not intend, if we can help it, to lend a hand in jailing Miss Ellie's +child, and so, after the Crowner had 'liceted all the facts as he said, +and the verdict was made up, Bedney and me didn't feel no crampings in +our conscience, about holding our tongues. Another reason why we wanted +to lay low in this hiere bizness, was that we didn't hanker after +sitting on the anxious seats of witnesses in the court-house; and being +called ongodly thieves, and perjured liars, and turned wrong side out +by the lie-yers, and told our livers was white, and our hearts blacker +than our skins. Marse Alfred, Bedney and me are scared of that court; +what you call the law, cuts curous contarabims sometimes, and when the +broad axe of jestice hits, there is no telling whar the chips will fly; +it's wuss than hull-gull, or pitching heads and tails. You are a +lie-yer, Marse Alfred, and you know how it is yourself; and I beg your +pardon, sir, for slighting the perfession; but when I was a little gal, +I got my scare of lie-yers, and it has stuck to me like a kuckleburrow. +One Christmas eve jest before ole Marster got married, he had a egg-nog +party; and a lot of gentlemen was standing 'round the table in the +dining-room. One of 'em was ole Mr. Dunbar, Marse Lennox' father, and +he axed ole Marster if he had saved that game rooster for him, as he +promised, Marster told him he was very sorry, but some rogue had done +gone and burnt some sulphur the week before in his henhouse, and bagged +that 'dentical rooster. Presently Mr. Dunbar axed if Marster would let +him have one of the blue hen's roosters, if he would catch the rogue +for him before midnight. Of course Marster said he would. Mr. Dunbar +(Marse Lennox' pa), he was practicing law then, had a pot full of smut +on the bottom, turned upside down on the dining-room flo', and he and +Marster went out to the hen-'ouse and got a dominicker rooster and +shoved him under the pot. Then they rung the bell, and called every +darkey on the place into the dining-room, and made us stand in a line. +I was a little gal then, only so high, but I followed my daddy in the +house, and I never shall disremember that night, 'cause it broke up our +home preachment. Mr. Dunbar made a speech, and the upshot of it was, +that every darkey was to walk past the pot and rub his finger in the +smut; and he swore a solemn oath, that when the pusson that stole that +fine game rooster, touched the pot, the dominicker rooster would crow. +As Marster called our names, we every one marched out and rubbed the +pot, and when all of us had tried, the rooster hadn't crowed. Mr. +Dunbar said there was some mistake somewhere, and he made us step up +and show hands, and make prints on his hankcher; and lo, and behold! +one darkey had not touched the pot; his forefinger was clean; so Mr. +Dunbar says, 'Luke, here is your thief?' and shore 'nuff, it was our +preacher, and he owned up. I never forgot that trick, and from that day +'till now, I have been more scared of a lie-yer, than I am of a mad +dog. They is the only perfession that the Bible is agin, for you know +they jawed our Lord hisself, and he said, 'Woe! woe! to you lie-yers.' +Now, Marse Alfred, if you have made up your mind you are gwine to have +that hankcher, it will be bound to come; for if it was tied to a +millstone and drapped in the sea, you lie-yers would float it into +court; so Bedney, jest perduce what you found." + +"That is right, Dyce; I am glad your opinion of my profession has +forced you to such a sensible conclusion. Come, Bedney, no balking now." + +Perplexed by Dyce's tactics, Bedney stood irresolute, with his +half-filled pipe slipping from his fingers; and he stared at his wife +for a few seconds, hoping that some cue would be furnished. + +"Bedney, there's no use in being cantankerous. If you won't perduce it, +I will." + +Plunging her hand into the blue glass bowl, she pushed aside the +tobacco, and extracted a key; then crossed the room, lifted the valance +of the patriarchal bed, and dragged out a small, old-fashioned hair +trunk, ornamented with stars and diamonds of brass tack heads. Drawing +it across the floor, she sat down near Mr. Churchill, and bending over, +unlocked and opened it. After removing many articles of clothing, and +sundry heirlooms, she lifted from the bottom a bundle, which she laid +on her lap, and edging her chair closer to the Solicitor, proceeded to +unfold the contents. The outside covering was a richly embroidered +Canton crape shawl, originally white, now yellow as old ivory; but when +this was unwrapped, there appeared only an ordinary sized brown gourd, +with a long and singularly curved handle, as crooked as a ram's horn. +Bending one of her knitting needles into a hook, Dyce deftly inserted +it in the neck, where it joined the bowl, and after manoeuvring a few +seconds, laid down the needle, and with the aid of her thumb and +forefinger slowly drew out a long roll, tightly wrapped with thread. +Unwinding it, she shook the roll, and a small, gray object, about two +inches long, dropped into her lap. Mr. Churchill sat leaning a little +forward, as if intent on Dyce's movements, but his elbow rested on the +arm of the rocking chair, and holding his hand up to screen his face +from the blaze of the fire, he was closely watching Bedney. When Dyce +shook out and held up a faded, dingy blue silk handkerchief, the lawyer +noted a sudden twinkle in the old man's eyes, but no other feature +moved, and he stooped to take a coal of fire from the hearth. + +"There is the hankchuf that Bedney found. But mebbe you don't know what +this is, that I wrapped up in it, to bring us good luck?" + +She spread the handkerchief over his knee, and held up the small gray +furry object, which had fallen from its folds. + +"Rabbit's foot? Let me see; yes, that is the genuine left hind foot. I +know all about it, because when my regiment was ordered to the front, +my old colored Mammy--Ma'm Judy--who nursed me, sewed one just like +that, inside the lining of my coat skirt. But, Dyce, that rabbit's foot +was not worth a button; for the very first battle I was in, a cannon +ball killed my horse under me, and carried away my coat tail--rabbit's +foot and all. Don't pin your faith to left hind feet, they are fatal +frauds. You are positive, this is the handkerchief Bedney found? It +smells of asafoetida and camphor, and looks like it had recently been +tied around somebody's sore throat." + +"Marse Alfred, I will swear on a stack of Bibles high as the 'Piscopal +church steeple, that Bedney Darrington gim'me that same blue hankcher, +and he said he found it. I wasn't with him when he found it, but I +hardly think he would 'a stole a' old rag like that. I have perduced +it! now if you want to sarch behind it, you must tackle Bedney." + +She resumed her knitting and her lips closed like the spring of a steel +trap. + +"Dyce, I haven't heard the rooster crow yet. Somebody has fought shy of +the pot. See here, I am in earnest now, and I will give you both a +friendly word of warning. Your actions are so suspicious, that unless +you produce the real article you found, I shall be obliged to send you +to jail, and try you for the murder. How do I know that you and Bedney +are not the guilty parties, instead of General Darrington's +granddaughter? This soiled rag will impose neither upon me, nor upon +the court, and I give you five minutes to put into my possession the +real genuine handkerchief. I shall know it when I see it, because it is +white, with red spots on the border." + +"Paddle your own 'dug out,' Bedney, and show your s'creshun. If Marse +Alfred wants to set the red-eyed hounds of the Law on an innocent +'oman, let him blow his horn." + +She knitted assiduously, and looked composedly at her husband, whose +lower jaw had suddenly fallen, while his eyelids blinked nervously, as +though attacked by St. Vitus' dance. + +"Only five minutes, Bedney." + +Mr. Churchill took out his watch, and held it open. + +"You see, Marse Alfred, I--" + +"I don't see anything but an infernal fraud you two have planned. Only +three minutes more. There is a constable waiting at the gate, and if he +can not persuade you to--" + +"Bedney, step and fetch him in, and let Marse Alfred see the sarching +job done up all right." + +"No, I don't hunt foxes that way. Instead of searching this cabin, we +will just march you both instanter out of these comfortable quarters, +and let you try how soft the beds are, at the 'State boarding-house.' +You will sleep cold on iron bunks, and miss your feathers and your +crazy quilts. Time's up." + +He closed his watch, with a snap, and rose as he returned it to his +pocket. + +"Hold on, Marse Alfred! My head ain't hard enough to run it plum into a +wolf's jaws. I ain't 'sponsible for nobody's acts but my own, and if +Dyce have committed a pius fraud, in this here hank'cher bizness, to +screen Miss Ellie's child, why, you see yourself, I had no hand in it. +I did find that blue 'rag,' as you seen fit to call it, but it was nigh +on to twenty years ago, when I pulled it out of the breast pocket of a +dead Yankee officer, we found lying across a cannon, what my old +Marster's regiment captured at the battle of Manassas. I gin it to my +wife as a screw-veneer o' the war and she have treasured it accordin'. +You are a married man yourself, Marse Alfred, and you are obleedged to +know that wedlock is such a tight partnership, that it is an awfully +resky thing for a man to so much as bat his eyes, or squint 'em, toward +the west, when the wife of his bosom has set her'n to the east. I have +always 'lowed Dyce her head, 'pecially in jokes like that one she was +playing on you just now, 'cause St. John the Baptist said a man must +forsake father and mother and cleave unto his wife; but conjugular +harness is one thing, and the law is another, and I don't hanker after +forsaking my pine-knot fire, and feather bed, to cleave unto jail bars, +and handcuffs. I see you are tired of Dyce's jokes, and you mean +bizzness; and I don't intend to consume no more of your valuable +solicitous time. Dyce, fetch me that plank bottom cher to stand on." + +"Fetch it yourself. Paddling your own canoe, means headin' for the mill +dam." + +Bedney hastened to procure the designated chair, which he mounted in +front of the mantel piece, and thence reaching up to the portrait of +President Lincoln, took it carefully down from the hook. With the blade +of his pocket-knife, he loosened some tacks which secured the thin pine +slats at the back of the picture, and removed them. He took everything +from the frame, and blank dismay seized him, when the desired object +was nowhere visible. + +"Marse Alfred, I swear I tacked that hank'cher in the back of this here +portrait, between the pasteboard and the brown paper, only yestiddy; +and 'fore Gord! I haint seen it since." + +Grasping his wife's shoulder, he shook her, until her tall turban +quivered and bent over like the Tower of Pisa, and Mr. Churchill saw +that in his unfeigned terror, drops of perspiration broke out on his +wrinkled forehead. + +"Have you turned idjut, that you want us both to be devoured by the +roarin' lion of the Law? My mammy named me Bedney, not Dani-yell, and +she had oughter, for Gord knows, you have kept me in a fiery furnace +ever since I tuck you for better for wurser, mostly wurser. I want that +hank'cher, and you'd better believe--I want it quick. I found it, and +I'm gwine to give it up; and you have got no right to jeppardy my life, +if you are fool enough to resk your own stiff neck. Gim'me that +hank'cher! Fantods is played out. I would ruther play leap frog over a +buzz-saw than--than--pester and rile Marse Alfred, and have the +cunstable clawing my collar." + +"You poor, pitiful, rascally, cowardly creetur! Whar's that oath you +done swore, to help 'fend Miss Ellie's child? And you a deacon, high in +the church! If I had found that hank'cher, I would hide it, till +Gabriel's horn blows; and I would go to jail or to Jericho; and before +I would give testimony agin my dear young Mistiss's poor friendless +gal, I would chaw my tongue into sassage meat. That's the diffunce +between a palavering man full of 'screshun, and a 'oman who means what +she says; and will stand by her word, if it rains fire and brimstone. +Betrayin' and denying the innercent, has been men's work, ever since +the time of Judas and Peter. Now, Marse Alfred, Bedney did tack the +hank'cher inside the portrait of President Linkum, 'cause we thought +that was the saftest place, but I knowed the house would be sarched, so +I jest hid it in a better place. Since he ain't showed no more backbone +than a saucer of blue-mange, I shall have to give it up; but if I had +found it, you would never set your two eyes on it, while my head is +warm." + +She stooped, lifted the wide hem of her black calico skirt, and +proceeded to pick out the stitches which held it securely. When she had +ripped the thread about a quarter of a yard, she raised the edge of the +unusually deep hem, and drew out a white handkerchief with a colored +border. + +Bedney snatched it from her, and handed it to the Solicitor, who leaned +close to the fire, and carefully examined it. As he held it up by the +corners, his face became very grave and stern, and he sighed. + +"This is evidently a lady's handkerchief, and is so important in the +case, that I shall keep it until the trial is over. Bedney, come to my +office by nine o'clock to-morrow, as the Grand Jury may ask you some +questions. Good bye, Dyce, shake hands; for I honor your loyalty to +your poor young mistress, and her unfortunate child. You remind me of +my own old mammy. Dear good soul, she was as true as steel." + +As Mr. Churchill left the house, Bedney accompanied him to the gate. +When he returned, the door was locked. In vain he demanded admittance; +in vain tried the windows; every entrance was securely barred, and +though he heard Dyce moving about within, she deigned no answer to his +earnest pleadings, his vehement expostulations, or his fierce threats +of summary vengeance. The remainder of that night was spent by Pilot +and his irate master in the great hay bin of the "Elm Bluff" stables. +When the sun rose next morning, Bedney rushed wrathful as Achilles, to +resent his wrongs. The door of his house stood open; a fire glowed on +the well swept hearth, where a pot of boiling coffee and a plate of +biscuit welcomed him; but Dyce was nowhere visible, and a vigorous +search soon convinced him she had left home on some pressing errand. + +Two hours later, Mrs. Singleton opened the door of the small room +adjoining her own bedchamber, to which she had insisted upon removing +the prisoner. + +Beryl stood leaning against the barred window, and did not even turn +her head. + +"Here is a negro woman, begging to see you for a few moments. She says +she is an old family servant of General Darrington's." + +Standing with her back toward the door, the prisoner put out one hand +with a repellent gesture: + +"I have surely suffered enough from General Darrington and his friends; +and I will see nobody connected with that fatal place, which has been a +curse to me." + +"Just as you please; but old Auntie here, says she nursed your mother, +and on that account wants to see you." + +Without waiting for permission, Dyce darted past the warden's wife, +into the room, and almost before Beryl was aware of her presence, stood +beside her. + +"Are you Miss Ellie's daughter?" + +Listlessly the girl turned and looked at her, and Dyce threw her arms +around her slender waist, and falling on her knees hid her face in +Beryl's dress, sobbing passionately. In the violence of her emotion, +she rocked back and forth, swaying like a reed in some fierce blast the +tall form, to whom she clung. + +"Oh, my lovely! my lovely! To think you should be shut up here! To see +Miss Ellie's baby jailed, among the off-scourings of the earth! Oh, you +beautiful white deer! tracked and tore to pieces by wolves, and hounds, +and jackalls! Oh, honey! Just look straight at me, like you was facing +your accusers before the bar of God, and tell me you didn't kill your +grandpa. Tell me you never dipped your pretty hands in ole Marster's +blood." + +Tears were streaming down Dyce's cheeks. + +"If you knew my mother, how can you think it possible her child could +commit an awful crime?" + +"Oh, God knows--I don't know what to think! 'Peers to me the world is +turned upside down. You see, honey, you are half and half; and while I +am perfectly shore of Miss Ellie's half of you, 'cause I can always +swear to our side, the Darrington in you, I can't testify about your +pa's side; he was a--a--" + +"He was as much a gentleman, as my mother was a lady; and I would +rather be his daughter, than call a king my father." + +"I believe you! There ain't no drop of scrub blood in you, as I can +see, and if you ain't thoroughbred, 'pearances are deceitful. I loved +your ma; I loved the very ground her little feet trod on. I fed her out +of my own plate many a time, 'cause she thought her Mammy's vittils was +sweeter than what Mistiss 'lowed her to have; and she have slept in my +bosom, and these arms have carried her, and hugged her, and--and--oh, +Lord God A'mighty! it most kills me to see you, her own little baby +here! In this awful, cussed den of thieves and villi-yans! Oh, honey! +for God's sake, just gin me some 'surance you are as pure as you look; +just tell me your soul is a lily, like your face." + +Beryl stooped, put her hand on the turbaned head, and bending it back, +so as to look down into the swimming eyes, answered: + +"If I had died when I was a month old, my baby soul would not have +faced God any more innocent of crime then, than I am to-day. I had no +more to do with taking General Darrington's money and his life, than +the archangels in Heaven." + +"Bless God! Now I am satisfied. Now I see my way clare. But it sets my +blood afire to see you here; it's a burning shame to put my dear young +Mistiss' child in this beasts' cage. I can't help thinking of that poor +beautiful white deer, what Marster found crippled, down at our 'Bend' +Plantation, that some vagabond had shot. Marster fotch it up home, and +of all the pitifulist sights!" + +Dyce had risen, and covering her face with her white apron, she wept +for some minutes. + +"Are you not the wife of Bedney, who saved my mother's life, when the +barn burned?" + +"Yes, honey, I am Mam' Dyce, and if I am spared, I will try to save +your'n. That is what has brung me here. You are 'cused of the robb'ry +and the murder, and you have denied it in the court; but chile, the +lie-yers are aworking day and night fur to hang you, and little is made +of much, on your side, and much is spun out of little, on theirn. They +are more cunning than foxes, and bloodthirstier than panters, and they +no more git tired than the spiders, that spin and piece a web as fast +as you break it. Three nights ago, I got down on my knees, and I kissed +a little pink morocco slipper what your Ma wore the day when she took +her first step from my arm to her own mother's knees, and I swore a +solemn oath, if I could help free Miss Ellie's child, I would do it. +Now I want to ask you one thing. Did you lose anything that day you +come to our house, and had the talk with old Marster?" + +"Nothing, but my peace and happiness." + +"Are you shore you didn't drap your hank'cher?" + +"Yes, I am sure I did not, because I wrapped it around some +chrysanthemums I gathered as I went away." + +"Well, a lady's hank'cher was found in Marster's room, and it did smell +of chloryform. Bedney picked it up, and we said nothing and laid low, +and hid the thing; but that Godforsaken and predestinated sinner, Miss +Angeline, kept sarching and eavesdrapping, and set the lie-yers on the +scent, and they have 'strained Bedney on peril of jailing him, to +perduce it. When it got into their claws, and I thought it might belonk +to you, my teeth chattered, and I felt like the back of my frock was a +ice-warehouse. Now, honey, can you testify before God and man, that +hank'cher ain't yourn?" + +"I certainly can. I had only three handkerchiefs with me when I left +home, and I have them still. Here is one, the other two lie yonder. But +that handkerchief is worth everything; because it must belong to the +vile wretch who committed the crime, and it will help to prove my +innocence. Where is it?" + +"The Grand Jury is setting on it." + +Here Dyce looked cautiously around, and tip-toed to the door; finding +it ajar, closed it, then stole back. Putting her lips close to Beryl's +ear, she whispered: + +"Did you lose a sleeve button?" + +"No. I did not wear any." + +"Thank God! I feel like all the bricks in the court-house was lifted +off my heart, and flung away. I was in fear and trimbling about that +button, 'cause I picked it up, just under the aidge of the rug, where +ole Marster fell, when he got his death blow; and as sure as the coming +of the Judgment Day, it was drapped by the pusson who killed him. I was +so afeared it might belonk to you, that I have been on the anxious seat +ever since I found it; and I concluded the safest way was to bring it +here to you. I am scared to keep it at home, 'cause them yelping wolves +as wears the sheepskins of Justice, are on my tracks. I would never +give it up, if I was chopped to mince meat; but Bedney ain't got no +more than enuff backbone for half of a man, and the lie-yers +discomfrizzle him so, I could not trust him, when it comes to the +scratch. Now that button is worth a heap, and I am precious careful of +it. Look here." + +She took from her pocket two large pods of red pepper, which looked +exactly alike, but the end of one had been cut out around the stem, +then neatly fitted back, and held in place by some colorless cement. +Beckoning Beryl to follow, Dyce went closer to the window, and with the +aid of her teeth drew out the stem. Into her palm rolled a circular +button of some opaque reddish-brown substance, resembling tortoise +shell, and enamelled with gilt bunches of grapes, and inlaid leaves of +mother-of-pearl. Across the top, embossed in gilt letters ran the word +"Ricordo." + +The old woman lifted her open palm, and as Beryl saw the button, a +gasping, gurgling sound broke from her. She snatched it, stared at it. +Then the Gorgon head slipped through her fingers, she threw herself +against the window, shook the iron bar frantically; and one desperate +cry seemed to tear its way through her clinched teeth, over her ashy +lips: + +"Oh, Mother! Mother--Mother! You are nailing me to a cross." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +Nowhere in the vast vista of literature is there an episode more +exquisitely pathetic than that serene picture of the Grove at Colonus, +sacred to the "Semnai Theai;" where the dewy freshness, the floral +loveliness, the spicery, and all the warbling witchery of nature pay +tribute to the Avenging Goddesses. + +Twenty-two centuries have sifted their dust over the immortal figures +seated on the marble bench within the precincts consecrated to the +Eumenides, but in deathless tenacity, the rich aroma of Sophocles' +narcissus, and the soft crocus light linger there still; while from +thickets of olive, nightingales break their hearts in song, as +thrilling as the melody that smote the ears of doomed and dying Oedipus. + +So in all ages, we, born thralls of grief, lift streaming eyes, and +chant elegies to stony-hearted Mother-Earth, but her starry orbs shine +on, undimmed by sympathetic tears; her smiling lips show only sunshine +in their changeless dimples, and her myriad fingers sweeping the keys +of the Universal Organ, drown our De Profundis in the rhythmic thunders +of her Jubilate. Wailing children of Time, we crouch and tug at the +moss-velvet, daisy-sprinkled skirts of the mighty Mater, praying some +lullaby from her to soothe our pain; but human woe frets not her +sublime serenity, as deaf as desert sphinx, she fronts the future. + +Some echo of this maddening mystery sounded in the ears of the lonely +woman, who clutched the bars of her dungeon, and stared through its +iron lattice, at the peaceful, happy, outside world. At her feet lay +X---, divided by the silvery river, which, here rushed with arrowy +swiftness under the gray stone arches of the bridge, and there widened +into glassy lakelets, as if weary from the mad plunge over a distant +rocky ledge in mid-stream, whence the dull steady roar of the "falls" +thrilled the atmosphere, like the "tremolo" in a dim cathedral, where +fading daylight dies on painted apse and gilded pipes. As a chessboard +the squares of buildings were spread out, defined by wide streets, +where humanity and its traffic sped, busy as ants. In a green plot, the +sombre facade of the court-house surmounted by an eyeless stone statue +of Justice, frowned on the frivolous throng below; and along the verge +of the common, marble fingers pointed up to the heaven of blue that +bent above "God's Acre"; while now and then, bulbous towers, and +glittering steeple vanes, caught the sunshine on their polished crests. +Beyond the whole, and bounding the valley filled with a billowy sea of +bluish-green pine tops, rose a wooded eminence, wearing still its +Persian robe of autumn foliage, and on its brow the colonnade and +chimneys of "Elm Bluff" blotted the southern sky, like a threatening +phantom. + +To-day forest, stream, earth and sky, appeared branded with one fatal +word, as if the world's wide page held only "Ricordo! Ricordo!" + +Beryl shut her eyes and groaned; but the scene merely shifted to a dell +under the shadow of Carrara hills, where olives set "Ricordo" among +their silver leaves; and lemons painted "Ricordo" in their pale gold; +and scarlet pomegranates and nodding violets, burning anemones and +tender green of trailing maiden-hair ferns all blazoned "Ricordo." + +The fierce tide of wrath, that indignation and her keen sense of +outraged innocence had poured like molten lead through her throbbing +arteries, was oozing sluggishly, congealing under the awful spell of +that one word "Ricordo." Hitherto, the shame of the suspicion, the +degradation of the imprisonment had caught and empaled her thoughts; +but by degrees, these became dwarfed by the growing shadow of a +possibly ignominious death, which spread its sable pinions along the +rosy dawn of her womanhood, and devoured the glorious sun of her high +hopes. The freezing gloom was creeping nearer, and to-day she could +expect no succor, save by one avenue. + +Islam believes that only the cimeter edge of Al Sirat divides Paradise +from perdition. Beryl realized that in her peril, she trod an equally +narrow snare, over yawning ruin, holding by a single thread of hope +that handkerchief. Weak natures shiver and procrastinate, shunning +confirmation of their dread; but to this woman had come a frantic +longing to see, to grasp, to embrace the worst. She was in a death +grapple with appalling fate, and that handkerchief would decide the +issue. + +Physical exhaustion was following close upon the mental agony that had +stretched her on the rack, for so many days and nights. To sit still +was impossible, yet in her wandering up and down the narrow room, she +reeled, and sometimes staggered against the wall, dizzy from weakness, +to which she would not succumb. + +Human help was no more possible for her, than for Moses, when he +climbed Nebo to die; and alone with her God, the brave soul wrestled. +Wearily she leaned against the window bars, twining her hot fingers +around them, pressing her forehead to the cold barrier; and everywhere +"Ricordo" stabbed her eyes like glowing steel. + +The door opened, some words were uttered in an undertone, then the bolt +clicked in its socket, and Mr. Dunbar approached the window. +Mechanically Beryl glanced over her shoulder, and a shiver crept across +her. + +"I believe you know me. Dunbar is my name." + +He stood at her side, and they looked into each other's eyes, and +measured lances. Could this worn, pallid woman, be the same person who +in the fresh vigor of her youthful beauty, had suggested to him on the +steps of "Elm Bluff," an image of Hygeia? Here insouciante girlhood was +dead as Manetho's dynasties, and years seemed to have passed over this +auburn head since he saw it last. Human faces are Nature's highest type +of etchings, and mental anguish bites deeper than Dutch mordant; +heart-ache is the keen needle that traces finest lines. + +"Yes, I know you only too well. You are Tiberius." + +Her luminous deep eyes held his at bay, and despite his habitual, +haughty equipoise, her crisp tone of measureless aversion stung him. + +"Sarcasm is an ill-selected arbiter between you and me; and your fate +for all time, your future weal or woe is rather a costly shuttlecock to +be tossed to and fro in a game of words. I do not come to bandy +phrases, and in view of your imminent peril, I cannot quite understand +your irony." + +"Understand me? You never will. Did the bloodthirsty soul of Tiberius +comprehend the stainless innocence of the victims he crushed for +pastime on the rocks below Villa Jovis? There is but one arbiter for +your hatred, the hang-man, to whom you would so gladly hurry me. +Hunting a woman to the gallows is fit sport for men of your type." + +Unable to withdraw his gaze from the magnetism of hers, he frowned and +bit his lip. Was she feigning madness, or under the terrible nervous +strain, did her mind wander? + +"Your language is so enigmatical, that I am forced to conclude you +resort to this method of defence. The exigencies of professional duty +compel me to assume toward you an attitude, as painfully embarrassing +to me as it is threatening to you. Because the stern and bitter law of +justice sometimes entails keen sorrow upon those who are forced to +execute her decrees, is it any less obligatory upon the appointed +officers to obey the solemn behests?" + +"Justice! Into what a frightful mockery have such as you degraded her +worship! No wonder justice fled to the stars. You are the appointed +officer of a harpy screaming for the blood of the innocent. How dare +you commit your crimes, raise your red hands, in the sacred name of +justice? Call yourself the priest of a frantic vengeance, for whom some +victim must be provided; and libel no more the attribute of Jehovah." + +Scorn curled her lips, and beneath her glowing eyes, his grew restless, +as panoplied in conscious innocence she seemed to defy attack. + +"You evidently credit me with motives of personal animosity, which +would alike disgrace my profession and my manhood. For your sake, +rather than my own, I should like to remove this erroneous impression +from your mind. If you could only understand--" + +She threw up her hand, with an imperious gesture of disdain. + +"Save your sophistries; they are wasted here. Why multiply cobwebs? I +understand you. If doves have a sixth sense that warns them before they +hear the hawk's cry, or discern the shadow of his circling wings, and +if mice, dumb in a cat's claws, surmise the exact value of the +preliminary caresses, the graceful antics, the fatal fondling of the +velvet paw, so we, the prey of legal 'Justice' know instinctively what +the swinging of censers, and the chanting of her high priest mean, when +he draws near us. I understand you. You intend to hang me if you can." + +He drew his breath with a hissing sound, and a dark flush Stained his +broad smooth brow. + +"On my honor as a gentleman, I came here to-day solely to--" + +"Solely to assure yourself of some doubtful link you must weld into +your chain; solely to plunge the scalpel of some double-edged question. +If there must be an ante mortem examination, we will wait, if you +please, for the legal dissection when I am stretched before the +jury-box. Until then, you have no right to intrude upon the misery you +have brought on an innocent woman." + +They stood so near each other, that he could count the fierce throbbing +of the artery in her round snowy throat, and see the shadow of her long +lashes; and again some electric current flashed from her feverishly +bright eyes, burning its way to the secret chambers of his selfish +heart, melting the dross that ambition and greed had slowly cemented, +and dropping one deathless spark into a deep adytum, of the existence +of which he had never even dreamed. Unconsciously he leaned toward her, +but she pressed back against the iron bars, and drew her dress aside as +if shunning a leper. There was no petulance in the motion, but its +significance pricked him, like a dagger point. + +"It was the hope of finding you an innocent woman, that must plead my +pardon for what you consider an unwarrantable 'intrusion.' Will you +believe me, if I swear to you, that I have come as a friend?" + +"As a friend to me? No. As a friend to General Darrington and his +adopted son Prince? Yes. Oh, Tiberius! Your rosy apples are flavored +like those your forefather offered Agrippina." + +"Do you regard me as an unscrupulous, calculating villain, who +pretending kindness, plots treachery? Do you deliberately offer me this +wanton insult?" + +His swart face reddened, and the fine lines of his handsome mouth +hardened. + +She shrank a few inches closer to the window, and compressed her lips. + +"If you were a man, I should swiftly resent the affront you have thrust +upon me, and suitable redress would be peculiarly sweet and welcome; +but you are a defenceless and unfortunate woman, and my hands are tied. +I desire to help you; you repulse me and insult my manhood. I will do +my painful duty, because it is sternly and inexorably my duty; but, I +wish to God, I had never set my eyes on you." + +The sudden passionate ring in his voice surprised her, and she looked +searchingly at him, wondering into what pitfall it was intended to lure +her. + +"If you had never set your eyes on me? Ah, would to God I had died ten +thousand times before I encountered their evil spell! If you had never +set your eyes on me? I should be now, a happy, hopeful girl, with life +beckoning me like the rosy Syrian plains that smiled on the +desert-weary. The world looked so bright to me that day, when first I +smelled the sweet resinous pines, and dreamed of my work, and all the +glory of the victory, I knew that I should win over poverty and want. I +was so poor in worldly goods, but oh!--Croesus could not have bought my +proud hopes! So rich, so overflowing with high hope! As I think of my +feelings that day, among the primroses and pine cones, it seems a +hundred years ago, and I recall the image of a girl long dead; such a +proud girl; so happy in the beautiful world of the art she loved! Then +some strange awful curse that had lain in wait, ambushed among the +flowers I gathered that last day of my dead existence, fell upon me--I +saw you! No wonder I shivered, when you met me. I saw you. Then my sun +sickened and went out, and my hopes crumbled, and my youth shrivelled +and perished forever; and the wide world is a rayless dungeon, and the +girl Beryl is buried so deep, that the Angels of the Resurrection will +never find her!--and I?--I am only a withered, disgraced woman, hurled +into a den; trampled, branded; with a soul devoured by despairing +bitterness, with a broken heart, a brain on fire! If you had drawn a +knife across my throat, or sent a bullet through my temples, my spirit +might have rested in the Beyond, and I could have forgiven that which +hastened me to heaven; but you strangled my hopes, and mutilated my +youth, and dishonored my father's name!--You robbed me of my stainless +character, and cast me among outlaws and fiends!--Worse yet, oh! +blackest of all your crimes!--you have almost throttled my faith in +Christ. You have torn away my hold upon the eternal God! You are the +curse of my life. You wish you had never set your eyes on me? Take +courage, finish your work; the best of me is utterly dead already, and +when you have taken my blood, and laid my polluted body in a convict's +shallow grave, your enmity will be satiated. Then I, at least, I shall +be free from my hideous curse. If there be any comfort left me, it +lurks in the knowledge that when you succeed in convicting me, the same +world will no longer hold us both." + +Was it the fever of disease, or incipient madness that blazed in her +eyes, flamed on her cheeks, and lent such thrilling cadence to her pure +clear voice? Was she a consummate actress, or had he made a frightful +mistake, and goaded an innocent girl to the verge of frenzy? Some +occult influence seemed clouding his hitherto infallible perceptions, +melting his heart, paralyzing his will. He walked up and down the +floor, with his hands clasped behind him, then came close to the +prisoner. + +"If I have unjustly suspected and persecuted you, may God forgive me! +If I have wronged you by suspicion and accusation of a crime which you +did not commit, then my atonement shall be your triumphant vindication. +I would give a good deal to know that your hands are as pure as they +look, and innocent of theft and murder. Tell me--tell me the truth. I +will save you, I will give you back all that you have lost, and tenfold +more. For God's sake, for your own sake, and for mine, I entreat you to +tell me the truth. Did you go back to 'Elm Bluff' that night, after I +met you in the pine woods?" + +His dark face was close to hers, and his keen blue eyes seemed to probe +the recesses of her soul. If she answered, would the steel springs of +some trap close upon her? + +"I did not go back to 'Elm Bluff.' My hands, my heart, my soul are as +free from crime as they were when God sent them into the world. I am +innocent--innocent--innocent as any baby only a week old, lying dead in +its little coffin. Innocent--but defiled, disgraced; innocent as the +Lord Jesus was of the sins for which He died; but you can not save what +you have destroyed. You have ruined my life." + +He was a strong man, cold, collected, priding himself upon his superb +physique, his nerves of steel; but as he watched and listened, he +trembled, and the girl's eyes dilated, sparkled through the sudden +moisture that so strangely and unexpectedly gathered in his own. + +"Then you must prove the truth of your solemn words; and it was this +faint hope that induced me to come here to-day. Only one circumstance +stands between the Grand Jury and your indictment for murder; and time +presses. Now tell me, do you know this?" + +He took from his coat pocket a small parcel wrapped in paper, and tore +off the covering. Beryl stood faint and dizzy, resting against the +window, but erect, on guard and defiant. He shook out and held up a +square of fine linen, daintily hem-stitched. Along the border ran +graceful arabesques, swelling into scallops and dotted with stars, +embroidered in some rich red thread; and in one corner, enclosed in a +wreath of exquisitely designed fuchsias, the large, elaborately ornate +capitals "B. B." were worked in fadeless scarlet scrolls to match the +wreath. Above the drooping flowers, poised the red wings of a +descending butterfly. Artistic instincts had outlined, and deft +delicate touches filled in, with the glowing embroidery. + +Did she know it? Could she ever forget that serene May day when the air +was liquid gold, and the Mediterranean molten sapphire, wreathed with +pearls, as the wavelets crested; when the rosy oleanders and silvery +flakes of orange blossoms floated down upon the ferny cliff, where +sitting by her father's side, she had drawn this design, spreading the +linen on the back of her father's worn copy of Theocritus? If she lived +a thousand years, would it be possible to forget the thin, almost +transparent white hand, with its blue veins swollen like cords, which +had gently taken the pencil from her fingers, and retouched and rounded +the sweep of the curves; the dear wasted hand that she had stooped and +kissed, as it corrected her work? + +As on the golden background of a cherished Byzantine picture, memory +held untarnished every tint and outline of that blessed day, when she +and her father had looked for the last time on the sunny sea they loved +so well. + +Did fell fate hover, even then, in that sparkling perfumed air, and in +sinister prescience trace this tangling web of threads, with grim +intent to snare her unwary feet? + +Savants tell us, that ages ago, in the dim dawn, primeval rain drops +made their pattering print, and left it to harden on the stone pages, +awaiting decipherment by human eyes and human brains, not yet + + "Born of the brainless Nature, + Who knew not that which she bore." + +Is there an analogous iron chain linking the merest trifles, the +frivolous accidents, the apparently worthless coincidences that swell +the sum of what we are pleased to call the nobly independent life of +the "free-agent" Man? In the matrix of time, do human tears and human +blood-drops leave their record, to be conned when Nemesis holds her +last assize? + +As the handkerchief swayed in the lawyer's grasp, Beryl saw the red "B. +B." like a bloody brand. At that instant she felt that the death clutch +fastened upon her throat; that fate had cast her adrift, on the black +waves of despair. In her reeling brain kaleidoscopic images danced; her +father's face, the lateen sail of fishing boats rocking on blue +billows, white oxen browsing amid purple iris clusters; she heard her +mother's voice, her brother's gay laugh; she smelled the prussic acid +fragrance of the vivid oleanders, then over all, like tongues of +devouring flames, flickered "Ricordo." "B. B." + +In the frenzy of her desperation she sprang forward, seized the arms +that held up the fatal handkerchief, and shook the man, as if he had +been an infant. Her eyes full of horror, were fixed on the scrap of +linen, and a frantic cry rang from her lips. + +"Father! Father! There is no hereafter for you and me! Prayer is but +the mockery of fools! There is no heaven for the pure, because there is +no God! No God!--to hear, to save the innocent who trusted in Him. +Oh--no God!" + +Mr. Dunbar dropped the handkerchief, and as the irresistible conviction +of her guilt rolled back, crushing the hope he had cherished a moment +before, a spasm of pain seized his heart, and with a groan that would +not be repressed, he covered his eyes to shut out the vision of the +despairing woman, whose doom seemed sealed. Her right hand which +unconsciously clutched his left shoulder, shivered like an aspen, and +he knew that for the moment she was entirely oblivious of his presence; +blind to everything but the assurance of her ruin. + +After all, he had made no mistake; his keen insight was well nigh +infallible; but his triumph was costly. The luscious fruit of +professional success left an acrid flavor; the pungent dead sea ashes +sifted freely. He set his heel on the embroidered butterfly, and in his +heart cursed the hour he had first seen it. His coveted bread was +petrifying between his teeth. + +The grasp on his shoulder relaxed, the hand fell heavily. When he +looked in the face of his victim, he caught his breath at the strange, +inexplicable change a few minutes had wrought. Protest and resistance +had come to an end. Surrender was printed on every feature. The wild +fury of the passionate struggle that convulsed her, had spent itself; +and as after a violent wintry tempest the gale subsides, and the snow +compassionately shrouds the scene, burning the dead sparrows, the +bruised flowers, so submission laid her cold touch on this quivering +face, and veiled and froze it. + +From afar the sound of rushing waters seemed to smite Beryl's ears, to +surge nearer, to overflow her brain. She sank suddenly to the floor, +clinging with one hand to the window bar, and her auburn head fell +forward on the up-lifted arm. Thinking that she had fainted, Mr. +Dunbar stooped and raised her face, holding it in his palms. The eyes +met his, unflinching but mournful as those of a tormented deer whom the +hunters drag from worrying hounds. She writhed, freed herself from his +touch; and resting against the window sill, drew a long deep breath. + +"You have succeeded in your mission today. You have the only clue you +needed. You have no occasion to linger. Now--will you leave me?" + +He picked up the handkerchief. + +"This is your handkerchief?" + +She made no answer. A leaden hand was pressing upon her heart, her +brain, her aching eyes. + +"You have basely deceived me. You did go back that night, and you left +this, to betray you. Saturated with chloroform you laid it over your +grandfather's face. Load your soul with no more falsehoods. Confess the +deeds of that awful night." + +"I did not go back. I never saw 'Elm Bluff' after I met you. I know no +more of the chloroform than you do. I have told the truth first and +last, and always. I have no confession to make. I am as innocent as you +are. Innocent! Innocent! You are going to hang me for a crime I did not +commit. When you do, you will murder an innocent woman." + +She spoke slowly, solemnly, and at intervals, as if she found it +difficult to express her meaning. The passionless tone was that of one, +standing where the river of death flowed close to her feet, and her +beautiful face shone with the transfiguring light of conscious purity. + +"Hold up your hand, and tell me this is not your handkerchief; and I +will yet save you." + +"It was my handkerchief, but I am innocent. Finish your work." + +"How can you expect me to believe your contradictory statements?" + +Wearily she turned her head, and looked at him. A strange drowsiness +dimmed her vision, thickened her speech. + +"I expect nothing from you--but--death." + +"Will you explain how your handkerchief chanced to be found on your +grandfather's pillow? Trust me, I am trying to believe you. Tell me." + +In his eagerness he seized her hand, clasped it tightly, bent over her. +She made no reply, and the silky black lashes sank lower, lower till +they touched the violet circle suffering had worn under her eyes. Like +a lily too heavy for its stem, the glossy head fell upon her breast. +Her hot fingers throbbed in his palm, and when he felt her pulse, the +rapid bounding tide defied his counting. Kneeling beside her, he laid +the head against his shoulder. + +"Are you ill? What is the matter? Speak to me." + +Her parched lips unclosed, and she muttered with a sigh, like a child +falling asleep after long sobbing: + +"My handkerchief--Tiberius--my--han--" + +She had fought against fearful odds, with sleepless nights and fasting +days sapping her strength; and when the battle ended, though the will +was unfaltering, physical exhaustion triumphed, and delirium mercifully +took the tortured spirit into her cradling arms. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +When Leo Gordon celebrated her twenty-second birthday, Judge Dent, +appreciating the importance of familiarizing her with the business +details and technicalities of commercial usage, incident to the +management of her large estate, had insisted upon terminating his +guardianship, and transferring to her all responsibility for the future +conduct of her financial affairs. New books were placed in her hands, +in which he required her to keep systematically and legibly all her +accounts; she drew and signed her own checks, and semi-annually +furnished for his inspection a neat balance-sheet. + +As adviser, and agent for the collection of dividends and rents, the +change or renewal of investments, he maintained only a general +supervision, and left her untrammelled the use of her income. As a +dangerous innovation upon time-honored customs, which under the ante +bellum regime, had kept Southern women as ignorant of practical +business routine, as of the origin of the Weddas of Ceylon, Miss Patty +bitterly opposed and lamented her brother's decision; dismally +predicting that the result must inevitably be the transformation of +their refined, delicate, clinging "Southern lady", into that abhorred +monster--"a strong-minded independent business woman". + +Intensely loyal to the social standard, usages and traditions of an +aristocracy, that throughout the South had guarded its patrician ranks +with almost Brahmin jealousy, she sternly decried every infringement of +caste custom and etiquette. Nature and education had combined to +deprive her of any adaptability to the new order of things; and she +rejected the idea that "a lady should transact business", with the same +contemptuous indignation that would have greeted a proposition to wear +"machine-sewed garments", that last resort of impecunious plebeianism. +However unwelcome Leo had found this assumption of the grave duties of +mature womanhood, she met the responsibility unflinchingly, and +gathered very firmly the reins transferred to her fair hands for +guidance. Judge Dent and Miss Patty were the last of their family, +except the orphan niece who had been left to their care, and as their +earthly possessions would ultimately descend to her, she had been +reared in the conviction that their house was her only home. + +Study and travel, potent factors in the march of progress, had so +enlarged the periphery of Leo's intellectual vision, that she +frequently startled her prim aunt, by the enunciation of views much too +extended and cosmopolitan to fit that haughty dame's Procrustean limits +of "Southern ladyhood". Blessed with a discriminating governess and +chaperon, who while fostering a genuine love of the beautiful, had +endeavored to guard her pupil from straying into any of those +fashionable "art crazes", which in their ephemeral exaggeration +approach caricatures of aestheticism, Leo became deeply imbued with the +spirit of classic literature and art; and grew especially fond of the +study of Greek and Roman architecture. + +Believing that the similarity of climate in her native State, justified +the revival of an archaic style of building, she ardently desired and +finally obtained her uncle's consent to the erection (as an addition to +the Dent mansion), of a suite of rooms, designed in accordance with her +taste, and for her own occupancy. Hampered by no prudential economic +considerations, and fearless of criticism as regarded archaeological +anachronisms, Leo allowed herself a wide-eyed eclecticism, that +resulted in a thoroughly composite structure, eminently satisfactory at +least to its fastidious owner. A single story in height, it contained +only four rooms, and on a reduced scale resembled the typical house of +Pansa, except that the flat roof rose in the center to a dome. +Constituting a western wing of the old brick mansion which it adjoined, +the entrance fronting north, opened from a portico with clustered +columns, into a square vestibule; which led directly to a large, +octagonal atrium, surrounded by lofty fluted pillars with foliated +capitals that supported the arched and frescoed ceiling. In the centre, +a circular impluvium was sunk in the marble paved floor, where in +summer a jet of spray sprang from the water on whose surface lily pads +floated; and in winter, shelves were inserted, which held blooming pot +plants, that were arranged in the form of a pyramid. The dome +overarching this, was divided into three sections; the lower frescoed, +the one above it filled with Etruscan designs in stained glass; the +upper, formed of white ground glass sprinkled with gilt stars +representing constellations, was so constructed, that it could be +opened outward in panels, and thus admit the fresh air. + +On the east side of this atrium, Leo's bed-room connected with that +occupied by Miss Patty in the old house; and opposite, on the west, was +a large square Pompeian library, with dark red dado, daintily frescoed +panels, and richly tinted glowing frieze. At the end of this apartment, +and concealed by purple velvet curtains lined with rose silk, an arch +opened into a small semi-circular chapel or oratory, lighted by stained +glass windows, whose brilliant hues fell on a marble altar upheld by +two kneeling figures; and here lay the family Bible of Leo's +great-grandfather, Duncan Gordon, with tall bronze candelabra on each +side, holding wax candles. At the right of two marble steps that led to +the altar, was spread a rug, and upon this stood an ebony reading-desk +where a prayer-book rested. Filling a niche in the wall on the left +side, the gilded pipes of an organ rose to meet a marble console that +supported a Greek cross. + +In order to secure an unobstructed vista from the front door, that +portion of the building which corresponded to the ancient tablinum, was +used merely as an aviary, where handsome brass cages of various shapes +showed through their burnished wires snowy cockatoos, gaudy paroquets, +green and gold canaries, flaming red and vivid blue birds, and one huge +white owl, whose favorite perch when allowed his freedom, was a bronze +Pallas on a projecting bracket. + +Conspicuous among these, was a peculiar cage made of tortoise shell, +ivory and silver wire, which Leo had assigned to a scarlet-crested, +crimson-throated Australian cockatoo. Beyond this undraped rear +vestibule stretched the peristyle, a parallelogram, surrounded by a +lofty colonnade. The centre of this space was adorned by a rockery +whence a fountain rose; flower beds of brilliant annuals and coleus +encircled it like a mosaic, and the ground was studded with orange and +lemon trees, banana and pineapple plants; while at the farther side +delicate exotic grape vines were trained from column to column. + +In summer this beautiful court was entirely open to the sky, but at the +approach of winter a movable framework of iron pillars was erected, +which supported a glass roof, that sloped southward, and garnered heat +and sunshine. Neither chimneys nor fireplaces were visible, but a +hidden furnace thoroughly warmed the entire house, and in each +apartment the registers represented braziers of classic design. + +Except for the external entrances, doors had been abolished; portieres +of plush, satin, and Oriental silk closed all openings in winter; and +during long sultry Southern summers were replaced by draperies of lace, +and wicker-work screens where growing ivy and smilax trained their cool +green leaves, and graceful tendrils. Wooden floors had accompanied the +doors to Coventry; and everywhere squares of marble, and lemon and blue +tiles showed shimmering surfaces between the costly rugs, and fur robes +scattered lavishly about the rooms. Surrounded by a gilded wreath of +olive leaves, and incised on an architrave fronting the vestibule, the +golden "Salve" greeted visitors; just beneath it, on an antique shaped +table of topaz-veined onyx, stood a Vulci black bowl or vase, decorated +in vermilion with Bacchanal figures; and this Leo filled in summer with +creamy roses, in winter, with camellias. Where the shrines and Lares +stood in ancient houses, a square, burnished copper pedestal fashioned +like an altar had been placed, and upon it rose from a bed of carved +lilies, a copy in white marble of Palmer's "Faith". + +From the front portico, one could look through the vestibule, the +atrium, the aviary, and on into the peristyle, where among vine +branches and lemon boughs, the vista was closed by a flight of stone +steps with carved cedar balustrade, leading up to the flat roof, where +it sometimes pleased the mistress to take her tea, or watch the sunset. +In selecting and ordering designs for the furniture, a strict adherence +to archaic types had been observed; hence the couches, divans, chairs, +and tables, the pottery and bric-a-brac, the mirrors and draperies, +were severely classic. + +An expensive whim certainly, far exceeding the original estimate of its +cost; and Miss Patty bewailed the "wicked extravagance of squandering +money that would have built a handsome church, and supported for life +two missionaries in mid-China"; but Judge Dent encouraged and approved, +reviving his classical studies to facilitate the successful +accomplishment of the scheme. When the structure was completed and Leo +declared herself perfectly satisfied with the result, it was her uncle +who had proposed to celebrate her twenty-fourth birthday by a mask-ball +in which every costume should be classic, distinctively Roman or Greek; +and where the mulsum dispensed to the guests should be mixed in a +genuine Cratera. + +To this brilliant fete, one cloudless June night, friends from distant +States were invited; and fragrant with the breath of its glowing roses, +the occasion became memorable, embalmed forever in Leo's happy heart, +because then and there, beside the fountain in the peristyle, she had +pledged her hand and faith to Mr. Dunbar. + +Sitting to-day in front of the library window, whence she had looped +back the crimson curtains, to admit the November sunshine, Leo was +absorbed in reading the description of the private Ambar-valia +celebrated by Marius at "White Nights". Under the spell of the Apostle +of Culture, whose golden precept: "BE PERFECT IN REGARD TO WHAT IS HERE +AND NOW," had appealed powerfully to her earnest exalted nature, she +failed to observe the signals of her pet ring-doves cooing on the ledge +outside. Finally their importunate tapping on the glass arrested her +attention, and she raised the sash and scattered a handful of rice and +millet seed; whereupon a cloud of dainty wings swept down, and into the +library, hovering around her sunny head, and pecking the food from her +open palms. One dove seemed particularly attracted by the glitter of +the diamond in her engagement ring, and perched on her wrist, made +repeated attempts to dislodge the jewel from its crown setting. +Playfully she shook it off several times, and amused by its +pertinacity, finally closed her hands over it, and rubbed her soft +cheek against the delicate silvery plumage. + +"No, no, you saucy scamp! I can't afford to feed you on diamonds from +my sacred ring! Did you get your greedy nature from some sable Dodonean +ancestress? If we had lived three thousand years ago, I might be +superstitious, and construe your freak into an oracular protest against +my engagement. Feathered augurs survive their shrines. Clear out! you +heretic!" + +As she tossed it into the garden and closed the window, the portiere of +the library was drawn aside, and her maid approached, followed by a +female figure draped in a shawl and wearing a lofty turban. + +"Miss Leo, Aunt Dyce wants to see you on some particular business." + +"Howdy do, Aunt Dyce? It is a long time since you paid us a visit. +Justine, push up a chair for her, and then open the cages and let the +birds out for an hour. What is the matter, Aunt Dyce, you look +troubled? Sit down, and tell me your tribulations." + +"Yes, Miss Leo, I am in deep waters; up to my chin in trouble, and my +heart is dragging me down; for it's heavier 'an a bushel of lead. You +don't remember your own ma, do you?" + +"I wish I did; but I was only five months old when I lost her." + +"Well, if she was living to-day, she would stretch her two hands and +pull me out of muddy waves; and that's why I have come to you. You see, +Miss Marcia and my young Mistiss, Miss Ellice, was bosom friends, +playmates, and like sisters. They named their dolls after one another, +and many a time your ma brought her wax doll to our house, for me to +dress it just like Miss Ellice's, 'cause I was the seamstus in our +family, and I always humored the childun about their doll clothes. They +had their candy pullins, and their birthday frolics, and their shetlan' +ponies no bigger 'an dogs, and, oh Lord! what blessed happy times them +was! Now, your ma's in glory, and you is the richest belle in the +State; and my poor young mistiss is in the worst puggatory, the one +that comes before death; and her child, her daughter that oughter be +living in style at 'Elm Bluff', like you are here, where is she? Where +is she? Flung down among vilyans and mallyfactors, and the very +off-scourings of creation, in the penitenchery! Tears to me like, if +old mistiss is as high-headed and proud as she was in this world, her +speerit would tear down the walls and set her grandchild free. When I +saw that beautiful young thing beating her white hands agin the iron +bars, it went to my heart like a carving knife, and--" + +Dyce burst into tears, and covered her face with her apron, Leo patted +her shoulder softly, and essayed to comfort her. + +"Don't cry so bitterly; try to be hopeful. It is very, very sad, but if +she is innocent, her stay in prison will be short." + +"There ain't no 'ifs'--when it comes to 'cusing my mistiss' child of +stealing and murdering. Suppose the sheriff was to light down here this +minute, and grab you up and tell folks 'spectable witnesses swore you +broke open your Uncle Mitchell's safe, and brained him with a handi'on? +Would you think it friendly for people to say, if she didn't they will +soon turn her aloose? Would that be any warm poultice to your hurt +feelin's? It's the stinging shame and the awful, disgrace of being +'spicioned, that you never would forgive." + +"Yes, it is very dreadful, and I pity the poor girl; but it seems that +appearances are all against her, and I fear she will find it difficult +to explain some circumstances." + +"If your ma was here to-day, she wouldn't say that. When she was a +friend, she was stone deaf and mole blind to every evil report agin +them she loved. Miss Marcia would go straight to that jail, and put her +arms 'round Miss Ellice's child, and stand by her till her last breath; +and the more she was pussecuted, the closer she would stick. Miss Leo, +you must take your ma's place, you must heir her friendship just like +you do her other property. I have come to you, 'cause I am going away +to New York, and can't feel easy 'till you promise me you will do what +you can. Miss Ellice is laying at the pint of death, and her poor child +is so deestracted about her needing comforts, that I tole her I'de go +on an' nuss her ma for her, 'till she was sot free and could hurry +back. I dreampt last night that ole mistiss called me and Bedney, and +said 'Take good care of Ellice'; and I got right out of bed and packed +my trunk. I'm just from the penitenchery, and that poor tormented child +don't know me, don't know nothing. Trouble have run her plum crazy, and +what with brain fever and them lie-yers, God only knows what's to +become of her. Handi'ons ain't the only godforsaken things folks are +murdered with. Miss Leo, promise me you will go to see her while I am +gone, and 'tend to it that she has good nussing." + +"I will do what is possible for her comfort; and as it will be an +expensive journey to you, I will also help you to pay your passage to +New York. How much money--" + +"I don't want your money, Miss Leo. Bedney and me never is beholdin' to +nobody for money. We was too sharp to drap our savings in the +'Freedman's Bank', 'cause we 'spicioned the bottom was not soddered +tight, and Marster's britches' pocket was a good enough bank for us. We +don't need to beg, borrow, nor steal. As I tole you, I was the +seamstress, and just before Miss Ellice run away from the school, ole +mistiss had a fine lot of bran-new clothes made ready for her when she +come home to be a young lady. She never did come home, and when ole +mistiss died I jist tuck them new clothes I had made, and packed 'em in +a wooden chist, and kept 'em hid away; 'cause I was determed nobody but +Miss Ellice should wear 'em. I've hid 'em twenty-three years, and now +I've had 'em done up, and one-half I tuck to that jail, for that poor +young thing, and the rest of 'em I'm gwine to carry to Miss Ellice. +They shan't need money nor clothes; for Bedney and me has got too much +famly pride to let outsiders do for our own folks; but Miss Leo, you +can do what nobody else in this wide world can. I ain't a gwine to walk +the devil 'round the stump, and you mustn't take no 'fence when I jumps +plum to the pint. Mars Lennox is huntin' down Miss Ellice's child like +a hungry hound runs a rabbit, and I want you to call him off. If he +thinks half as much of you as he oughter, you can stop him. Oh, Miss +Leo, for God's sake--call him off--muzzle him!" + +Leo rose haughtily, and a quick flush fired her cheek; but as she +looked at the old woman's quivering mouth and streaming eyes, +compassion arrested her displeasure. + +"Aunt Dyce, there are some things with which ladies should not meddle; +and I cannot interfere with any gentleman's business affairs." + +"Oh, honey! if Miss Marcia was living, she wouldn't say that! She would +just put her arm round Miss Beryl and tell Mars Lennox: 'If you help to +hang my friend's child, you shan't marry my daughter!' Your ma had +pluck enuff to stop him. Mark what I say; that poor child is innercent, +and the Lord will clear up everything some day, and then He will +require the blood of them that condemned the innercent. Suppos'n +appearances are agin her? Wasn't appearances all agin Joseph's bruthren +when the money and the silver cup was found in their bags, and them +afleein home? And if the 'Gyptian lie-yers could have got their claws +on that case, don't you know they would have proved them innercent boys +guilty, and a hung em? Oh, I am afeerd of Mars Lennox, for he favors +his pa mightily; he has got the keenest scent of all the pack; and he +went up yonder, and 'cused, and 'bused, and browbeat and aggervated and +tormented that poor, helpless young creetur,'till she fell down in a +dead faint on the jail floor; and sence then, the Doctor says her mind +is done clean gone. Don't get mad with me, Miss Leo; I am bound to +clare my conscience, and now I have done all I could, I am gwine to +leave my poor young mistiss' child in God's hands, and in yourn, Miss +Leo; and when I come back, you must gim'me an account of your +stewudship. You are enuff like Miss Marcia, not to shirk your duty; and +as you do, by that pussecuted child, I pray the Lord to do by you." + +She seized Leo's hand, kissed it, and left the room. + +For some moments Leo sat, with one finger between the creamy leaves of +her favorite book, but the charm was broken; her thoughts wandered far +from the stories of Apuleius, and the oration of Aurelius, and after +mature deliberation, she put aside the volume and rang the library bell. + +"Justine, is Mrs. Graham here?" + +"She is coming now; I see the carriage at the gate." + +"Do not invite her into Aunt Patty's room, until I have seen her. Tell +Andrew to harness Gypsy, and bring my phaeton to the door; and Justine, +carry my felt hat, driving gloves and fur jacket to Aunt Patty's room." + +Confined to her bed by a severe attack of her chronic foe, inflammatory +rheumatism, Miss Dent had sent for her dearest friend and faithful +colleague in church work, Mrs. Graham, who came to spend a day and +night, and discuss the affairs of the parish. + +"Aunt Patty, Mrs. Graham is in the parlor, and as I am well aware you +can both cheerfully dispense with my society for the present, I am +going into town. Dyce Darrington has been here, and I have promised to +go and see that unfortunate girl who is in prison." + +"Leo Gordon, you don't mean to tell me that you are going into the +penitentiary!" + +"Why not?" + +"It is highly improper for a young lady to visit such places, and I am +astonished that you should feel any inclination to see the countenances +of the depraved wretches herded there. I totally disapprove of such an +incomprehensible freak." + +"Then I will hold the scheme in abeyance, until I ask Uncle Mitchell's +advice. I shall call at his office, and request him to go with me." + +"Don't you know that the Grand Jury brought in a true bill against that +young woman? She is indicted for murder, robbery and the destruction of +her grandfather's will. Mitchell tells me the evidence is overwhelming +against her, and you know he was disposed to defend her at first." + +"Yes, Aunty. I am aware that everything looks black for the unfortunate +girl; but I learn she is very ill, and as it cannot possibly injure me +to endeavor to contribute to her physical comfort. I shall go and sec +her, unless Uncle Mitchell refuses his consent to my visit to the +prison." + +"But, Leo, what do you suppose Mr. Dunbar will think and say, when he +hears of this extraordinary procedure?" + +"Mr. Dunbar is neither the custodian of my conscience, nor the guardian +and dictator of my actions. Good-bye, Aunty dear. Justine, show Mrs. +Graham in." + +"Mr. Dunbar will never forgive such a step; because, like all other +men, no matter how much license he allows himself, he is very exacting +and fastidious about the demeanor of his lady-love." + +"I shall not ask absolution of Mr. Dunbar, and I hope my womanly +intuitions are a safer and more refined guide, than any man's +fastidiousness. Remember, Aunt Patty, religion's holiest work consists +in ministering to souls steeped in sin. Are we too pure to follow where +Christ led the way?" + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +"Madam, I ordered the prisoner's head shaved. Did you understand my +instructions?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Why were my orders not obeyed?" + +"Because I don't intend you shall make a convict of her, before she has +been tried and sentenced. She has the most glorious suit of hair I ever +looked at, and I shall save it till the last moment. Doctor Moffat, you +need not swear and fume, for I don't allow even my husband to talk ugly +to me. You directed a blister put on the back of the neck, as close as +possible to the skull; it is there, and it is drawing fast enough to +satisfy any reasonable person. I divided the hair into four braids and +plaited them, and you can see I have hung up the ends here just loose +enough to save any pulling, and yet the hair is out of the way, so that +I keep her head cool with this India-rubber ice-bag. I will be +responsible for the blister." + +Mrs. Singleton spread her arms over the sick girl, as a hen shelters +her brood from a swooping hawk. + +"But, Susie, the Doctor knows better what is--" + +"Hush, Ned. Perhaps he does; but I 'detailed' myself to nurse this +case; and I don't propose to surrender all my common sense, and all my +womanly judgment, and maternal experience, in order to keep the Doctor +in a good humor. I will have my own head shaved before hers shall be +touched." + +Mr. Singleton discreetly withdrew from the conference, softly closing +the door behind him; and Doctor Moffat bent over the thermometer with +which he was testing the temperature. When he raised his head, a kindly +smile lurked in his deep set eyes: + +"I can't afford to quarrel with you, madam; you are too faithful and +watchful a nurse. After all, the chances are, that it will ultimately +make very little difference; she grows worse so rapidly. I will come in +again before bed-time, and meanwhile make no change in the medicine." + +The warden's wife replenished the ice in a bowl, whence a tube supplied +the cap or bag on the head of the sufferer, and taking a child's apron +from her work-basket on the floor, resumed her sewing. After a while, +the door opened noiselessly, and glancing up, she saw Mr. Dunbar. + +"May I come in?" + +"Yes. You need repentance; and this is a good place to begin." + +"Is there any change?" + +"Only for the worse. No need now to tip-toe; she is beyond being +disturbed by noise. I think the first sound she will notice, will be +the harps of the angels." + +"I trust the case is not so hopeless?" + +"Queer heart you must have! You are afraid she will slip through your +fingers, and get to heaven without the help of the gallows and the +black cap? Death cheats even the lawyers, sometimes, and seems to be +snatching at your prey. You don't believe in prayer, and you have no +time to waste that way. I do; and I get down here constantly on my +knees, and pray to my God to take this poor young thing out of the +world now, before you all convict her, and punish her for crimes she +never committed." + +"Madam, her conviction would grieve me as much as it possibly could +you; and unless she can vindicate herself, I earnestly hope she may +never recover her consciousness." + +The unmistakable sincerity of his tone surprised the little woman, and +scanning him keenly as he stood, hat in hand, at the foot of the cot, +her heart relented toward him. + +"You still consider her guilty?" + +"Since my last interview with her, I have arrived at no conclusion. +Whether she be innocent or guilty, is known only by her, and her God. +All human judgments in such cases are but guesses at the truth. Is she +entirely unconscious, or has she lucid intervals?" + +"Mr. Dunbar, on your honor as a gentleman, answer me. Are you here +hunting evidence on a death-bed? Would you be so diabolical as to use +against her any utterances of delirium?" The flash of his eyes +reminded her of the peculiar blue flame that leaps from a glowing bed +of anthracite coal; and she had her reply before his lips moved. + +"Am I a butcher, madam? Your insinuations are so insulting to my +manhood, that it is difficult for me to remember my interrogator is a +lady; doubly difficult for me to show you the courtesy your sex +demands. Sooner than betray the secrets of a sick room, or violate the +sanctity of the confidence which that poor girl's condition enjoins, I +would cut off my right arm." + +"I intend no discourtesy, sir; but my feelings are so deeply enlisted, +that I cannot stop to choose and pick phrases, in talking to the person +who caused that child to be shut up here. She thinks you are the most +vindictive and dangerous enemy she has; and I had no reason to +contradict her. Don't be offended, Mr. Dunbar." + +He deigned no answer, but the dilation of his thin nostrils, and the +stern contraction of his handsome lips, attested his wrath. Mrs. +Singleton rose and laid her fingers on his coat sleeve. + +"If I felt sure I could trust you--" + +"I decline your confidence. Madam, if I could only tell you, that your +vile suspicions are too contemptible to merit the indignation they +arouse, I should to some extent feel relieved." + +"Then having said it, I will let you off without an apology; and wipe +the slate, and start fresh. You are sensitive about your honor, and I +am determined to find out just how much it is worth. Trusting you as an +honorable gentleman, I am going to ask you to do something for me, +which may be of service to my patient; and I ask it, because I have +unlimited faith in your skill. Find out who 'Ricordo' is." + +"Why? I must thoroughly understand the import of whatever I undertake, +and if your reasons are too sacred to be communicated to me, you must +select some other agent. I do not solicit your confidence, mark you; +but I must know all, or nothing." + +"The day she was taken so ill, I was undressing her, and she looked at +me very strangely, and said she believed she was losing her mind. Then +she raised her hands and prayed: + +"'Lord, be merciful! Lord, seal my lips! Seal my lips!' + +"Since then she has not known me, but several times she cried out +'Ricordo'! Last night she sat up suddenly, and stared at something she +seemed to see right before her in the air. She shook her head at first, +and said--'Oh, no! it cannot be possible'. Then she clutched at some +invisible object, and a look of horror came into her eyes. She struck +her palms together, and I never heard such an agonizing cry, 'There is +no help! I must believe it--oh Ricordo!--Ricordo--Ricordo'. She fell +back and shivered as if she had an ague. I tried to soothe her, and +told her she had a bad dream. She kept saying: 'Oh, horrible--it was, +it was Ricordo!' Once, early this morning, she pulled me down to her +and whispered: 'Don't tell mother--it would break her heart to know it +was Ricordo!' She has not spoken distinctly since, though she mutters +to herself. Now, Mr. Dunbar, if I did not feel as sure of her innocence +as I am of my own, I should never tell you this; but I want your aid to +hunt and catch this 'Ricordo', because I am satisfied it will help to +clear her." + +"Was it not 'Ricardo'?" + +"No, sir--it sounded as if spelled with an o not an a--and it was +'Ricordo'." + +"Ricardo is a proper name, but I am under the impression that 'Ricordo' +is an Italian word that means simply a remembrance, a souvenir, +sometimes a warning. I am glad, however, to have the clue, and I will +do all I can to discover what connection exists between that word, and +the crime. Can you tell me nothing more?" + +"Sometimes she seems to be drawing and painting, and talks to her +father about pictures; and once she said: 'Hush! hush--mother is ill. +She must not know I died, because I promised her I would bear +everything. She made me promise'." + +At this moment the keen wail of a young child, summoned the warden's +wife to her own apartment, and Mr. Dunbar sat down in the rocking-chair +beside the iron cot. + +In that strange terra incognita, the realm of psychology, are there +hidden laws that defy alike the ravages of cerebral disease, and the +intuitions of the moral nature; inexorable as the atomic affinities, +the molecular attractions that govern crystallization? Is the day +dawning, when the phenomena of hypnotism will be analyzed and +formulated as accurately as the symbols of chemistry, or the +constituents of protoplasm, or the weird chromatics of spectroscopy? +Beryl's head, that hitherto had turned restlessly on its pillow, became +motionless; the closed eyes opened suddenly, fastened upon the +lawyer's; and some inexplicable influence impelled her to stretch out +her hand to him. + +"Tiberius, you have come for me." + +"I have come to ask if you are better to-day." + +Her burning fingers closed tightly over his, and the fever flame lent +an indescribable splendor to eyes that seemed to penetrate his heart. +Bending over her, he gently lifted a shining fold of hair from her +white temple, and still clasping her hand, said in a low voice: + +"Beryl, do you know me? Are you better?" + +"Wait till I finish the sketch from San Michele. After I am hung, you +will sell it. The light is so lovely." + +Up and down, her right hand moved through the air, making imaginary +strokes as on canvas, but her luminous gaze, held by some powerful +fascination, never left his. The gray depths had darkened, swallowed by +the widening pupils that made them almost black; and as Mr. Dunbar +recognized the complete surrender of physical and mental faculties, her +helplessness stirred some unknown sea of tenderness in the man's hard, +practical, realistic nature. + +Phlegmatic rather than emotional, and wholly secretive, he had +accustomed himself to regard romantic ideality, and susceptibility to +sentimentality as a species of intellectual anaemia; holding himself +always thoroughly in hand, when subjected to the softening influences +that now and then invaded professional existence, and melted the +conventional selfish crust over the hearts of his colleagues, as the +warm lips and balmy breath of equatorial currents kiss away the jagged +ledges of drifting icebergs. In his laborious life, that which is +ordinarily denominated "love" had been so insignificant a factor, that +he had never computed its potentiality; much less realized its +tremendous importance in solving the problem of his social, financial, +and professional success. Beauty had not allured, nor grace enthralled +his fancy; and his betrothal was a mere incident in the quiet tenor of +business routine, a necessary means for the accomplishment of a +cherished plan. + +To-day, while those hot slender fingers clung to his, and he leaned +over the pillow, watching his victim, a rising tide surged, rolled up +from some unexplored ocean of strange sensations, and its devouring +waves threatened to demolish and engulf the stately structure pride and +ambition had combined to rear. A brilliant alliance that insured great +wealth, that promised a secure stepping-stone to political preferment, +was apparently a substantial bulwark against the swelling billows of an +unaccountable whim; yet he was impotent to resist the yearning +tenderness which impelled him to forget all else, in one determined +effort to rescue and shelter the life he had been the chief agent in +imperilling. Clear eyed, keen witted, he did not for an instant deceive +himself; and he knew that neither compassion for misfortune, nor yet a +chivalrous remorse for having consigned a helpless woman to a dungeon, +explained this new emotion that threatened to dominate all others. + +Cool reason assured him that under existing entanglements, the girl's +speedy death would prove the most felicitous solution of this devouring +riddle, which so unexpectedly crossed his smooth path; then what meant +the vehement protest of his throbbing heart, the passionate longing to +snatch her from disease, and disgrace, and keep her safe forever in the +close cordon of his arms? + +The door was cautiously opened and closed, and noiselessly as a +phantom, Leo Gordon stood within the room. One swift survey enabled her +to grasp all the details. The small, comfortless, dismal apartment, the +barred narrow window, the bare floor, the low iron cot in one corner, +with its beautiful burden; the watching attitude of the man, who for +years had possessed her heart. Resting one elbow on his knee, his chin +leaned on his left hand, but the light fell full on his handsome face, +and she started, marvelled at the expression of the brilliant eyes +fixed upon the sufferer; eyes suffused and eloquent with tenderness, +never before seen in their cold sparkling depths. + +Mighty indeed must be the compassion, evocative of that intense +yearning look in his usually guarded, irresponsive countenance. A +painfully humiliating sense of her own personal incompetence to arouse +the feeling, so legibly printed on her lover's features, jarred upon +Leo's heart like a twanging dissonance breaking the harmonious flow of +minor chords; but a noble pity strangled this jealous thrill, and she +softly approached the cot. + +The rustle of her dress attracted his attention, and glancing up, he +saw his betrothed at his side. One might have counted ten, while they +silently regarded each other; and as if conscious of having unmasked +some disloyalty, scarcely yet acknowledged to himself, haughty defiance +hardened and darkened his face. Involuntarily his hold on Beryl's +fingers tightened. + +"Prison wards are not proper fields for the cultivation and display of +Miss Gordon's amateur kid glove charity. I hope, at least, it was a +species of exaggerated high-flown sentimentality, rather than mere +feminine curiosity that tempted you to precincts revolting to the +delicacy and refinement with which my imagination invested you." + +"My motives I shall not submit to the crucible of your criticism; and a +little reflection will probably suggest to you, that perhaps you are +unduly enlarging the limits, and prematurely exercising the rights of +anticipated censorship. There are blunders that trench closely upon the +borders of crime, and if professional zeal has betrayed you into the +commission of a great wrong upon an innocent woman, it is a sacred duty +to your victim, as well as my privilege as your betrothed, to alleviate +her suffering as much as possible, and to repair the injury for which +you are responsible. When human life and reputation are at stake, +hypercritical fastidiousness is less pardonable than the deplorable +mistake that endangers both." + +"And if I have not blundered; and she be guilty?" + +"Then your presence here, can only be explained by motives so malignant +and contemptible, that I blush to ascribe them to you." + +"If I am morbidly sensitive about your line of conduct you should +understand and pardon my jealous espionage." + +"If I, realizing that you are act infallible, entertain a nervous dread +that unintentionally you may have inflicted an irreparable wrong, you +at least should not feel offended, because I am sensitive as regards +reflections upon your honor as a gentleman, and your astuteness as a +lawyer." + +Her fair face had flushed; his grew pale. + +"Leo, is this to be our first quarrel?" + +"If so, you are entitled to the role of protagonist." + +He put out his left hand, and took hers, while his right was closely +clasping one that lay upon the chintz coverlid. + +What strange obliquity of vision, what inscrutable perversity possessed +him, he asked himself, as he looked up at the slight elegant figure, +clad in costly camel's-hair garments, with Russian sables wrapped about +her delicate throat, with a long drifting plume casting flickering +shadows over her sweet flowerlike face; the attractive embodiment of +patrician birth and environment of riches, and all that the world +values most--then down at the human epitome of wretchedness, +represented by a bronze-crowned head, with singularly magnetic eyes, +crimsoned cheeks, and a perfect mouth, whose glowing, fever-rouged lips +were curved in a shadowy smile, as she muttered incoherently of +incidents, connected with the life of a poverty-stricken adventuress? +Was friendly fate flying danger signals by arranging and accentuating +this vivid contrast, in order to recall his vagrant wits, to cement his +wavering allegiance? + +He was a brave man, but he shivered slightly, as he confronted his own +insurgent and defiant heart; and involuntarily, his fingers dropped +Leo's, and his right hand tightened on the hot palm throbbing against +it. + +On that dark tossing main, where delirium drove Beryl's consciousness +to and fro like a rudderless wreck, did some mysterious communion of +spirits survive? Did some subtle mesmeric current telegraph her soul, +that her foul wrongs were at last avenged? Whatever the cause, +certainly a strangely clear, musical laugh broke suddenly from her +lovely lips, mingled with a triumphant "Che sara, sara!" The heavy lids +slowly drooped, the head turned wearily away. + +Smothering a long drawn sigh, which his pride throttled, Mr. Dunbar +rose and stood beside his fiancee. + +"You have been feeling her pulse, how is the fever?" asked Leo. + +"About as high as it can mount. The pulse is frightfully rapid. I did +not even attempt to count it." + +"Mrs. Singleton tells me she is entirely unconscious--recognizes no +one." + +"At times, I think she has partly lucid glimpses; for instance, a +little while ago she called me 'Tiberius', the same appellation she +unaccountably bestowed on me the day of her preliminary examination. +Evidently she associates me with every cruel, brutal monster, and even +in delirium maintains her aversion." + +Miss Gordon's hand stole into his, pressing it gently in mute +attestation of sympathy. After a moment, she said in a low tone: + +"She is very beautiful. What a noble, pure face? How exquisitely turned +her white throat, and wrists, and hands." + +He merely inclined his head in assent. + +"It seems a profanation to connect the idea of crime with so lovely and +refined a woman. Lennox?" + +He turned, and looked into her brown eyes, which were misty with tears. + +"Well, my dear Leo, what is burdening your generous heart?" + +"Do you, can you, believe her guilty? Her whole appearance is a +powerful protest." + +"Appearances are sometimes fatally false. I think you told me, that the +purest and loveliest face, guileless as an angel's, that you saw in +Europe, was a portrait of Vittoria Accoramboni; yet she was veritably +the 'White Devil', 'beautiful as the leprosy, dazzling as the +lightning'. Do I believe her guilty? From any other lips than yours, I +should evade the question; but I proudly acknowledge your right to an +expression of my opinion, when--" + +"I withdraw the question, because I arrogate no 'rights'. I merely +desire the privilege of sympathizing, if possible, with your views; of +sharing your anxiety in a matter involving such vital consequences. +Privilege is the gift of affection; right, the stern allotment of law. +Tell me nothing now; I shall value much more the privilege of receiving +your confidence unsolicited." + +He took both her hands, drew her close to him, and looked steadily down +into her frank tender eyes. + +"Thank you, my dear Leo. Only your own noble self could so delicately +seek to relieve me from a painful embarrassment; but our relations +invest you with both rights and privileges, which for my sake at least, +I prefer you should exercise. You must allow me to conclude my +sentence; you are entitled to my opinion--when matured. As far as I am +capable of judging, the evidence against her is--overwhelmingly +condemnatory. I thought so before her arrest; believed it when her +preliminary examination ended, and subsequent incidents strengthen and +confirm that opinion; yet a theory has dawned upon me, that may +possibly lighten her culpability. I need not tell you, that I feel +acutely the responsibility of having brought her here for trial, and +especially of her present pitiable condition, which causes me sleepless +nights. If she should live, I shall make some investigation in a +distant quarter, which may to some extent exculpate her, by proving her +an accessory instead of principal. My--generous Leo, you shall be the +first to whom I confide my solution--when attained. I am sorely +puzzled, and harassed by conflicting conjectures; and you must be +patient with me, if I appear negligent or indifferent to the privileges +of that lovely shrine where my homage is due." + +"If you felt less keenly the distressing circumstances surrounding you, +I should deeply regret my misplaced confidence in your character; and +certainly you must acquit me of the selfishness that could desire to +engross your attention at this juncture." + +Desirous of relieving him of all apprehension relative to a possible +misconstruction of his motives and conduct, she left one hand in his, +and laid the other with a caressing touch on his arm; an unprecedented +demonstration, which at any other time would have surprised and charmed +him. + +"Ah, what a melancholy sight! So much delicate refined beauty, in this +horrible lair of human beasts! Lennox, let us hope that the mercy of +God will call her speedily to His own bar of justice, before she +suffers the torture and degradation of trial, by earthly tribunals." + +She felt the slight shudder that crept over him, the sudden start with +which he dropped her hand, and bent once more over the cot. + +"God forbid she should die now, leaving the burden of her murder on my +soul!" + +His countenance was averted, but the ferver of his adjuration filled +her with a vague sense of painful foreboding. + +"Is it friendly to desire the preservation of a life, whose probable +goal seems the gallows, or perpetual imprisonment? Poor girl! In the +choice of awful alternatives, death would come here as an angel of +mercy." + +Leo took Beryl's hand in hers, and tears filled her eyes as she noted +the symmetry of the snowy fingers, the delicate arch of the black +brows, the exceeding beauty of the waving outline where the rich +mahogany-hued hair touched the forehead and temples, that gleamed like +polished marble. + +"Is it friendly to wish an innocent girl to go down into her grave, +leaving a name stained for all time by suspicion, if not absolute +conviction of a horrible crime?" + +Mr. Dunbar spoke through set teeth, and Leo's astonishment at the +expression of his countenance, delayed an answer, which was prevented +by the entrance of Mrs. Singleton. + +"Miss Gordon, your uncle wishes to know whether you are ready to go +home; as he has an engagement that calls him away?" + +Did Leo imagine the look of relief that seemed to brighten Mr. Dunbar's +face, as he said promptly: + +"With your permission, I will see you safely down stairs, and commit +you to Judge Dent's care." + +Standing beside the cot, she watched Mrs. Singleton measure the +medicine from a vial into a small glass. When the warden's wife knelt +down, and putting one arm under the pillow elevated it slightly, while +she held the glass to the girl's lips, Beryl attempted to push it aside. + +"Take it for me, dear child; it will make you sleep, and ease your +pain." + +The beautiful eyes regarded her wistfully, then wandered to the face of +the lawyer and rested, spellbound. + +"Here, swallow this. It is not bad to take." + +Mrs. Singleton patted her cheek and again essayed to administer the +draught, but without success. + +"Let me try." + +Mr. Dunbar took the glass, but as he bent down, the girl began to +shiver as though smitten with a mortal chill. She writhed away, put out +her shuddering hands to ward it off; and starting up, her eyes filled +with a look of indescribable horror and loathing, as she cried out: + +"Ricordo! Oh, mother--it is Ricordo! I see, it! Father--it was my Pegli +handkerchief!--with the fuchsias you drew! Father--ask Christ to pity +me!" + +She sank back quivering with dread, pitiable to contemplate; but after +a few moments her hands sought each other, and her trembling lips moved +evidently in prayer, though the petition was inaudible. Mrs. Singleton +sponged her forehead with iced water, and by degrees the convulsive +shivering became less violent. The wise nurse began in a subdued tone +to sing slowly, "Nearer my God to Thee," and after a little while, the +sufferer grew still, the heavy lids lifted once or twice, then closed, +and the laboring brain seized on some new vision in the world of +fevered dreams. + +Mrs. Singleton took the medicine from the attorney, and put it aside. + +"Sleep is her best physic. When these nervous shivers come on, I find a +hymn chanted, soothes her as it does one of my babies. Poor child! she +makes my heart ache so sometimes, that I want to scream the pain away. +How people with any human nature left in them, can look at her and +listen to her pitiful cries to her dead father, and her dying mother, +and her far-off God, and then believe that her poor beautiful hands +could shed blood, passes my comprehension; and all such ought to go on +four feet, and browse like other brutes. I am poor, but I vow before +the Lord, that I would not stand in your shoes, Mr. Dunbar, for all the +gold in the Government vaults, and all the diamonds in Brazil." + +Tears were dripping on the costly furs about Leo's neck, as she moved +closer to the attorney, and linked her arm in his: + +"Mr. Dunbar, we will detain my uncle no longer. Mrs. Singleton has told +me, that one of her children is ill, had a spasm last night; and since +maternal duties are most imperative, it is impossible for her to give +undivided attention to this poor sufferer. If you will kindly take me +down stairs, I will call at the 'Sheltering Arms', and secure the +services of one of the 'Sisters' who is an experienced nurse. This will +relieve Mrs. Singleton, and we shall all feel assured that our poor +girl has careful and tender watching, and every comfort that anxious +sympathy can provide." + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +It was midnight in November, keenly cold, but windless; and in the +purplish sky, the wintry crown of stars burned with silvery lustre, +unlike the golden glow of constellations throbbing in sultry summer, +and their white fires sparkled, flared as if blown by interstellar +storms. The large family of Lazarus huddled over dying embers on +darkening hearths, and shivered under scanty shreds of covering; but +the house of Dives was alight with the soft radiance of wax candles, +fragrant with the warm aroma of multitudinous exotics, and brimming +with waves of riotous music, on which merry-hearted favorites of +fashion swam in measured mazes. The "reception" given by Judge Parkman +to the Governor and his staff, on the occasion of a review of State +troops at X--, was at its height; and several counties had been skimmed +for the creme de la creme of most desirable representatives of wit, +wealth and beauty. + +Miss Gordon had arrived unusually late, and as she entered the room, +leaning on her uncle's arm, she noticed that Mr. Dunbar was the centre +of a distinguished group standing under the chandelier. He was gently +fanning his hostess, who stood beside the Governor, and evidently he +was narrating some spicy incident, or uttering some pungent witticism, +whereat all laughed heartily. The light fell full on his fine figure, +which rose above all surrounding personages, and was faultlessly +apparelled in evening dress; and Leo's heart filled with tender pride, +at the consciousness that he was all her own. The exigencies of +etiquette prevented for more than an hour any nearer approach, but when +Mr. Dunbar had rendered "Caesar's things" to social Caesar, and paid +tribute of bows, smiles, compliments and persiflage into the coffer of +custom, he made his way through the throng, to the spot where his +betrothed stood resting after her third dance. + +"Will Miss Gordon grant me a promenade in lieu of the dance, which +misfortunes conspired to prevent me from securing earlier in the +evening?" + +He drew her hand under his arm, and his eyes ran with proprietorial +freedom over the details of her costume, pale blue satin, creamy foam +of white lace, soft sheen of large pearls, and bouquet of exquisite +half blown La France roses. + +Since their betrothal, he had claimed the privilege of sending the +flowers she wore, on special occasions, and she had invariably +expressed her appreciation through the dainty lips of a boutonniere +arranged by her own fingers. Now while he recognized the roses resting +on her corsage, her eyes dwelt on her favorite double lilac violets, +nestling in the buttonhole of his coat. + +"You were very late to-night. I loitered in ambush about the precincts +of the dressing-room, hoping for the pleasure of conducting you +down-stairs; but 'the best laid schemes o' mice and men gang aft +aglee', and I became the luckless prey of similar tactics. That +marauding Tomyris, Mrs. Halsey, sallied out at the head of her column +of daughters, espied me lurking behind the portiere, and proclaiming +her embarras de richesse, 'paid me the compliment' of consigning one +fair campaigner, Miss Eloise Hermione, to my care. Fancy the strain on +courtesy, as I accepted my 'quite unexpected good fortune'!" + +He spoke with a nervous rapidity, at variance with his usual +imperturbable deliberateness of manner, and she thought she had never +seen his eyes so restless and brilliant. + +"I was unusually late, owing to the fact that the Governor and staff +dined with Uncle Mitchell, and they lingered so long over their cigars +and wine, that I was delayed in the drawing-room, waiting for them; +consequently was very late in changing my dress. We were sorry you were +prevented from joining us. Uncle pronounced the dinner a perfect +success; and certainly Governor Glenbeigh was in his happiest mood, and +particularly agreeable." + +"Given his hostess, and entourage, could he possibly have been less? +Rumor's hundred tongues wag with the announcement, that his Excellency +is no longer inconsolable for his wife's death; and desires to testify +to the happiness of conjugal relations, by a renewal of the sweet +bondage; a curiously subtile compliment to the deceased. If I may be +pardoned the enormity of the heresy, I think Shakspeare blundered +supremely, when he gave Iago's soul to a man. Diabolical cunning, +shrewd malevolence pure and simple, armed with myriads of stings for +hypodermic incisions that poison a man's blood, should be appropriately +costumed in a moss-green velvet robe, should wear frizzled bangs as +yellow as yonder bouquet of Marechal Neils, so suggestive of the +warning flag flying over pest-houses!" + +"It is very evident you are not equally generous in surrendering the +amiability of Timon, along with the depravity of Iago, to the arsenal +of feminine weapons. What corroding mildew of discontent has fallen +from Mrs. Parkman's velvet dress, and rusted the bright blade of your +chivalry?" + +"The very breath of Iago, filling my ears and firing my heart with the +architectural details of her coveted 'castle in Spain.' Glenbeigh is +her cousin. The ladder of his preferment is set up before my eyes, and +his Excellency springs up the rounds, from Governor to Senatorship, +thence to a place in the Cabinet, certainly to an important foreign +embassy; where, in the eternal fitness of things, somebody, somebody +with tender brown eyes like a thrush's, and the voice of a siren, and +the red lips of Hebe--will be invited to reign as l'ambassadrice! If I +am not as mad with jealous despair as Othello, attribute my escape +either to a sublime faith in your adorable constancy and +incorruptibility, or to my own colossal vanity, fatuous beyond +absolution." + +He pressed her arm closer to his side, and covered with one hand the +gloved fingers resting on his sleeve; then added: + +"You must permit me to congratulate you upon your beautiful toilette +to-night. The harmony of the dress, and the grace of the wearer leave +nothing to be desired. Although debarred the pleasure of dining with +you, I had hoped to enter, at least, with the coffee, but the freight +train upon which I returned, was delayed; and I had no choice but to +await your arrival here." + +He indulged so rarely in verbal compliments, that she flushed with +profound gratification at flip fervor of his tone. + +"I am glad you like my dress, to which your roses lend the loveliest +garniture. I was not aware that X--could furnish at this season such +superb La France buds. Where did you find them?" + +"They travelled several hundred miles, for the privilege of nestling +against my Leo's heart." + +Spartan thieves are not the only heroic sufferers who smile and make no +moan, clasping close the hidden fangs ravening on their vitals. + +"As you mentioned in your note that very important business had called +you unexpectedly away, I hope your mission proved both pleasant and +successful." + +A shadow drifted over his countenance, like that cast by some summer +cloud long becalmed, which sets sail before a sudden gust. + +"Only a modicum of success to counterbalance the disagreeable features +of a journey in a freight train caboose." + +"Why do you hazard that dangerous schedule, instead of waiting for the +passenger express?" + +"Business exigencies narrow the limits of choice; moreover, had I +waited for the express, I should have missed the coveted pleasure of +this meeting with you. The rosy glamour of happy anticipation conquers +even the discomfort of a freight caboose." + +Did she suspect that some sullen undercurrent of intense feeling drove +these eddying foam bells of flattery into the stream of conversation; +or was her reply merely a chance ricochet shot, more accurately +effective than direct fire? + +"This afternoon I had a note from Sister Serena, asking for a few +articles conducive to the comfort of a sick room; and I really cannot +determine whether we should feel regret, or relief at the tidings that +that unfortunate girl--can scarcely--" + +"Spare me the Egyptian mummy at my feast! The memento mori when I would +fain forget. Let me inhale the perfume of your roses, without hearing +that possibly a worm battens on their petals. Will you ride with me +tomorrow afternoon?" + +"I am sorry that an engagement to dine will prevent, as the afternoons +are so short." + +"Are you going to the Percy's?" + +"Yes. Will you not be there?" + +"Too bad! I have just declined attending that dinner, because I had +planned the horseback ride. Formerly fate seemed to smile upon me; now +she shows herself a scowling capricious beldam. I have lost this +evening, waiting to see you, and now, I must steal away unnoticed; +because of an important matter which admits of no delay. Have you +promised to dance with Mayfield? Here he comes. Good-night, my dear +Leo, expect to see me at 'The Lilacs' at the earliest possible moment." + +Unobserved he made his escape, and hurried away. At a livery stable he +stopped to order his horse saddled, and brought to his door, and a few +moments later, stood before the grate in his law office, where the red +glow of the coals had paled under ashy veils. From the letter-rack over +the mantel, he took a note containing only a line: + +"She has reached the crisis. We have no hope." "SINGLETON." + +In the hot embers, it smoked, shrivelled, disappeared; and the attorney +crossed his arms over his chest to crush back the heavy sigh struggling +for escape. The long overcoat buttoned from throat to knee, enhanced +his height, and upon his stern, handsome features had settled an +expression of sorrowful perplexity; while his keen eyes showed the +feverish restlessness that, despite his efforts, betrayed heartache. +Above the heads of the gay throng he had just left, he had seen all +that evening a slender white hand beckoning to him from the bars of a +dungeon; and dominating the music of the ball room, the laughter of its +dancers, had risen the desperate, accusing cry: + +"You have ruined my life!" + +Was it true, that his hand had dashed a foul blot of shame upon the +fall pure page of a girl's existence, and written there the fatal +finis? If she died, could he escape the moral responsibility of having +been her murderer? Amid the ebb and flow of conflicting emotions, one +grim fact stared at him with sardonic significance. If he had ruined +her life, retribution promptly exacted a costly forfeit; and his +happiness was destined to share her grave. + +He neither analyzed nor understood the nature of the strange +fascination which he had ineffectually striven to resist; and he ground +his teeth, and clinched his hands with impotent rage, under the +stinging and humiliating consciousness that his unfortunate victim had +grappled his heart to hers, and would hold it forever in bondage. No +other woman had ever stirred the latent and unsuspected depths of his +tenderness; but at the touch of her hand, the flood burst forth, +sweeping aside every barrier of selfish interest, defying the ramparts +of worldly pride. Guilty or innocent, he loved her; and the +wretchedness he had inflicted, was recoiling swiftly upon himself. + +Unbuttoning his overcoat, he took from an inside pocket, the torn half +of a large envelope, and unlocking the drawer of his desk, hunted for a +similar fragment. Spreading them out before him, he fitted the zigzag +edges with great nicety, and there lay the well-known superscription: +"Last Will and Testament of Robert Luke Darrington." One corner of the +last found bit was brown and mud-stained, but the handwriting was in +perfect preservation. As he stooped to put it all back in a secret +drawer, something fell on the floor. He picked up the dainty +boutonniere of pale sweet violets, and looked at it, while a frown +darkened his countenance, as though he recognized some plenipotentiary +pleading for fealty to a sacred compact. + +"Poor Leo! how little she suspects disloyalty. How infinite is her +trust, and what a besotted ingrate I am!" + +He tossed the accusing flowers into the grate, took his riding-whip and +went down to the door, where his horse was champing the bit, and pawing +with impatience. Along the deserted streets, out of the sleeping town, +he rode toward the long stone bridge that spanned the winding river. +When he had reached the centre, his horse darted aside, because of the +sudden leap of a black cat from the coping of the nearest pier, whence +she sped on, keeping just ahead of him. The spectral sickle of a waning +moon hung on the edge of the sky, and up and down the banks of the +stream floated phantoms of silvery mist, here covering the water with +impalpable wreaths, and there drifting away to enable Andromeda to +print her starry image on the glassy surface. + +Behind stretched the city, marked by lines of gas lamps; in front rose +the hill clothed with forests; and frowning down upon the rider, the +huge shadow of the dismal dungeon crouched like a stealthy beast ready +to spring upon him. Dark as the deeds of its inmates, the mass of stone +blotted the sky, save in one corner, where a solitary light shone +through iron lattice work. Was it a beacon of hope, or did the rays +fall on features cold under the kiss of death? + +Spurring his horse up the rocky hill, Mr. Dunbar was greeted by the +baying of two bloodhounds within the enclosure; and soon after, Mr. +Singleton conducted him up the steps leading to the room where Beryl +had been placed. + +"She is alive; that is all. The doctor said she could not last till +midnight, but it is now half-past one; and my wife has never lost hope. +She has sent the nurse off to get some sleep, and you will find Susie +in charge." + +The hazel eyes of the gaoler's wife were humid with tears, as she +glanced up at the attorney, and motioned him to the low chair she +vacated. + +"I knew you would come, and when I heard you gallop across the bridge, +I sent Sister Serena off to bed. There is nothing to be done now, but +watch and pray. If she ever wakes in this world she will be rational, +and she will get well. The nurse thinks she will pass away in this +stupor; but I have faith that she will not die, until she clears her +name." + +Nature makes some women experts in the fine art of interpreting +countenance and character, and by a mysterious and unerring divination, +Mrs. Singleton knew that her visitor desired no companion in his +vigils; hence, after flitting about the room for a few moments, she +added: + +"If you will sit here a while, I can look after my babies. Should any +change occur, tap at my door; I shall not be long away." + +What a melancholy change in the sleeper, during the few days of his +absence; how much thinner the hollow cheek, how sunken the closed eyes; +how indescribably sharpened the outlines of each feature. The face +which had formerly suggested some marble statue, had now the finer +tracery as of an exquisite cameo; and oblivion of all earthly ills had +set there the seal of a perfect peace. She lay so motionless, with her +hands on her breast, that Mr. Dunbar bent his head close to hers, to +listen to her respiration; but no sound was audible, and when his ear +touched her lips, their coldness sent a shiver of horror through his +stalwart frame. Pure as the satin folds of an annunciation lily pearled +with dew, was the smooth girlish brow, where exhaustion hung heavy +drops; and about her temples the damp hair clung in glossy rings, +framing the pallid, deathlike face. + +At her wrist, the fluttering thread eluded his grasp, and kneeling +beside the cot, he laid his head down on her breast, dreading to find +no pulsation; but slow and faint, he felt the tired heart beat feebly +against his cheek; and tears of joy, that reason could neither explain +nor justify, welled up and filled his eyes. Leaning his head on her +pillow, he took one hand between both his, and watched the profound +sleep that seemed indeed twin sister of death. + +Softened by distance came the deep mellow sound of the city clock +striking two. Down among the willows fringing the river bank, some +lonely water-fowl uttered its plaintive cry, whereat the bloodhounds +bayed hoarsely; then velvet-sandalled silence laid her soothing touch +upon the world, and softly took all nature into her restful arms. + +In the searching communion which he held with his own heart, during +that solemn watch, Mr. Dunbar thrust aside all quibbles and disguises, +and accepted as unalterable, two conclusions. + +She was innocent of crime, and he loved her; but she knew who had +committed the murder, and would suffer rather than betray the criminal. +The conjecture that she was shielding a lover, was accompanied by so +keen a pang of jealous pain, that it allowed him no room to doubt the +nature or intensity of the feeling which she had inspired. + +In her wan loveliness, she seemed as stainless as a frozen snowdrop, +and while his covetous gaze dwelt upon her he felt that he could lay +her in her coffin now, with less suffering, than see her live to give +her brave heart to any other man. To lift her spotless and untrampled +from the mire of foul suspicion, where his hand had hurled her, was the +supreme task to which he proposed to devote his energies; but +selfishness was the sharpest spur; she must be his, only his, otherwise +he would prefer to see her in the arms of death. + +So the night waned; and twice, when the warden's wife stole to the +door, he lilted his head and waved her back. When the clock in the +tower struck four, he felt a slight quiver in the fingers lying within +his palm, and Beryl's face turned on the pillow, bringing her head +against his shoulder. Was it the magnet of his touch drawing her +unconsciously toward him, or merely the renewal of strength, attested +already by the quickened throb of the pulse that beat under his clasp? +By degrees her breathing became audible to his strained ear, and once a +sigh, such as escapes a tired child, told that nature was rallying her +physical forces, and that the tide was turning. Treacherous to his +plighted troth, and to the trusting woman whom he had assiduously wooed +and won, he yielded to the hungry yearning that possessed him, and +suddenly pressed his lips to Beryl's beautiful mouth. Under that +fervent touch, consciousness came back, and the lids lifted, the dull +eyes looked into his with drowsy wonder. Stepping swiftly to the door +which stood ajar, he met Mrs. Singleton, and put his hand on her +shoulder. + +"She is awake, and will soon be fully conscious, but perfect quiet is +the only safeguard against relapse. When she remembers, leave her as +much alone as possible, and answer no questions." + +Holding her baby on her breast, Mrs. Singleton whispered: + +"Put out the lamp, so that she can see nothing to remind her." + +As he took his hat, and put his hand on the lamp, he looked back at the +cot, and saw the solemn eyes fixed upon him. He extinguished the light, +and passed into the room where Susie Singleton stood waiting. + +"She will not know Sister Serena, and for a day or two I will keep out +of sight when she is awake. Mr. Dunbar, God has done His part, now see +that you do yours. Have you found out who 'Ricordo' is?" + +"Certainly, it is a thing; not a person. As yet the word has given no +aid." + +"Then you have discovered nothing new during your absence?" + +"Yes, I have found the missing half of the envelope which contained +General Darrington's will; but ask me no questions at present. For her +sake, I must work quietly. Send me a note at twelve o'clock, that I may +know her exact condition, and the opinion of the doctor. Has nothing +been heard from Dyce?" + +"As far as I know, not a syllable." + +They shook hands, and once more Mr. Dunbar sprang into his saddle. +Overhead the constellations glowed like crown jewels on black velvet, +but along the eastern horizon, where the morning-star burned, the sky +had blanched; and the air was keen with the additional iciness that +always precedes the dawn. Earth was powdered with rime, waiting to +kindle into diamonds when the sun smote its flower crystals, and the +soft banners of white fog trailed around the gray arches and mossy +piers of the old bridge. At a quick gallop Mr. Dunbar crossed the +river, passed through the heart of the city, and slackened his pace +only when he found himself opposite the cemetery, on the road leading +to "Elm Bluff." As the iron gate closed behind him, he walked his +horse, up the long avenue, and when he fastened him to the metal ring +in the ancient poplar, which stood sentinel before the deserted House, +the deep orange glow that paves the way for coming suns, had dyed all +the sky, blotting out the stars; and the new day smiled upon a sleeping +world. The peacock perched upon the balustrade of the terrace greeted +him vociferously, and after some moments his repeated knock was +answered by the cautious opening of the front door, and Bedney's gray +head peered out. + +"Lord--Mars Lennox! Is it you? What next? 'Pears to me, there's nothing +left to happen; but howsomever, if ther's more to come, tell us what's +to pay now?" + +"Bedney, I want you to help me in a little matter, where your services +may be very valuable; and as it concerns your old master's family, I am +sure you will gladly enter into my plan--" + +"Bless your soul, Mars Lennox, you are too good a lieyer to be shore of +anything, but the undertaker and the tax collector. I am so old and +broke down in sperrits, that you will s'cuse me from undertaking of any +jobs, where I should be obleeged to pull one foot out'en the grave +before I could start. I ain't ekal to hard work now, and like the rest +of wore-out stock, I am only worth my grabs in old fields." + +Sniffing danger, Bedney warily resolved to decline all overtures, by +taking refuge in his decrepitude; but the attorney's steady prolonged +gaze disconcerted him. + +"You have no interest, then, in discovering the wretch who murdered +your master? That is rather suspicious." + +"What ain't 'spicious to you, Mars Lennox? It comes as natchal to you +to 'spicion folks, as to eat or sleep, and it's your trade. You believe +I know something that I haven't tole; but I swear I done give up +everything to Mars Alfred; and if my heart was turned inside out, and +scraped with a fine-tooth comb, it wouldn't be no cleaner than what it +is. I know if I was lying you would ketch me, and I should own up +quick; 'cause your match doesn't go about in human flesh; but all the +lancets and all the doctors can't git no blood out'en a turnup." + +"You are quite willing, then, to see General Darrington's granddaughter +suffer for the crime?" + +"'Fore Gord! Mars Lennox, you don't tote fair! 'Pears to me you are +riding two horses. Which side is you on?" + +"Always on the side of justice and truth, and it is to help your poor +young mistress that I came to see you; but it seems you are too +superannuated to stretch out your hand and save her." + +"Ain't you aiming to prove she killed old marster? That's what you sot +out to do; and tarrapin's claws are slippery, compared to your grip, +when you take holt." + +The old negro stood with his white head thrown back, and unfeigned +perplexity printed on his wrinkled features, while he scanned the swart +face, where a heavy frown gathered. + +"I set out this morning to find a faithful, old family servant, whose +devotion has never before been questioned; but evidently I have wasted +my confidence as well as my time. Where is Dyce? She is worth a hundred +superannuated cowards." + +"Don't call no names, Mars Lennox. If there's one mean thing I nachally +despises as a stunnin' insult, it's being named white-livered; and my +Confederate record is jest as good as if I wore three gilt stars on my +coat collar. You might say I was a liar and a thief, and maybe I would +take it as a joke; but don't call Bedney Darrington no coward! It +bruises my feelins mor'n I'le stand. Lem'me tell you the Gord's truth; +argufying with lie-yers is wuss than shootin' at di-dappers, and that +is sport I don't hanker after. I ain't spry enuff to keep up with the +devil, when you are whipping him around the stump; and I ain't such a +forsaken idjut as to jump in the dark. Tell me straight out what you +want me to do. Tote fair, Mars Lennox." + +"I am about to offer a reward of two hundred and fifty dollars, and I +thought I would allow you privately the opportunity of securing the +money, before I made it public. Where is Dyce?" + +"You might as well ax the man in the moon. The only satisfaction she +gin me when she left home, was--she was gwine to New York to hunt for +Miss Ellie. I tole her she was heading for a wild goose chase, and her +answer signified she was leaving all of them fowls behind. If she was +here, she'd be only a 'clean chip in your homny pot'; for she wouldn't +never touch your job with a forty-foot pole, and what's more, she'd tie +my hands. I ain't afeard of my ole 'oman, but I respects her too high +to cross her; and if ever you git married, you will find it's a mighty +good rule to 'let sleeping dogs lay'. Who do you expect me to ketch for +two hundred and fifty dollars?" + +"A lame negro man, about medium size, who was seen carrying a bundle on +the end of a stick, and who was hanging about the railroad station on +the night of General Darrington's death. He probably lives on some +plantation south of town, as he was travelling in that direction, after +the severe storm that night. I want him, not because he had any +connection with your master's murder, but to obtain from him a +description of a strange white man, whom he directed to the railroad +water-tank. If you can discover that lame negro, and bring him to my +office, I will pay you two hundred and fifty dollars, and give him a +new suit of clothes. The only hope for General Darrington's +granddaughter is in putting that man on the witness stand, to +corroborate her statement of a conversation which she heard. This is +Wednesday. I will give you until Saturday noon to report. If you do not +succeed I shall then advertise. If you wish to save Miss Brentano, help +me to find that man." + +He swung himself into the saddle, and rode away, leaving Bedney staring +after him, in pitiable dubiety as to his own line of duty. + +"Wimmen are as hard to live peaceable with as a hatful of hornets, but +the'r brains works spryer even than the'r tongues; and they do think as +much faster 'an a man, as a express train beats er eight ox-team. Dyce +is the safest sign-post! If she was only here now, I couldn't botch +things, for she sees clare through a mill-stone, and she'd shove me the +right way. If I go a huntin', I may flounder into a steel trap; if I +stand still, wuss may happen. Mars Lennox is too much for me. I +wouldn't trust him no further 'n I would a fat possum. I am afeard of +his oily tongue. He sot out to hang that poor young gal, and now he is +willing to pay two hundred and fifty dollars to show the court he was a +idjut and a slanderer! I ain't gwine to set down on no such spring gun +as that! Dyce ought to be here. When Mars Lennox turns summersets in +the court, before the judge, I don't want to belong to his circus--but, +oh Lord! If I could only find out which side he raily is on?" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +During the early stages of her convalescence, Beryl, though perfectly +rational, asked no questions, made no reference to her gloomy +surroundings and maintained a calm, but mournful taciturnity, very +puzzling to Mrs. Singleton, who ascribed it at first to mental +prostration, which rendered her comparatively obtuse; but ere long, a +different solution presented itself, and she marvelled at the silence +with which a desperate battle was fought. With returning consciousness, +the prisoner had grasped the grievous burden of her fate, unflinchingly +lifted and bound it upon her shoulders; and though she reeled and bent +under it, made no moan, indulged no regret, uttered no invective. + +One cold dismal day, when not a rift was visible in the leaden sky, and +a slanting gray veil of sleety rain darkened the air and pelted the +dumb, shivering earth, Beryl sat on the side of her cot, with her feet +resting on the round of a chair, and her hands clasped at the back of +her head. Her eyes remarkably large from the bluish circles illness had +worn beneath them, were fixed in a strained, unwinking, far-away gaze +upon the window, where black railing showed the outside world as +through some grim St. Lawrence's gridiron. + +From time to time the warden's wife glanced from her sewing toward the +motionless figure, reluctant to obtrude upon her revery, yet equally +loath to leave her a prey to melancholy musing. After a while, she saw +the black lashes quiver, and fall upon the waxen cheeks, then, as she +watched, great tears glittered, rolled slowly, dripped softly, but +there was no sigh, no sound of sobs. Leaning closer, she laid her arm +across the girl's knee. + +"What is it, dearie? Tell me." + +There was no immediate reply; when Beryl spoke, her voice was calm, low +and measured, as in one where all the springs of youth, hope, and +energy are irreparably broken. + +"Every Gethsemane has its strengthening Angels. The agony of the Garden +brought them to Christ. I thank God, mine did not fail me. If they had +not come, I think I could never have borne this last misery that earth +can inflict upon me. My mother is dead." + +"Why distress yourself with sad forebodings? Weakness makes you +despondent, but you must try to hope for the best; and I dare say in a +few days, you will have good news from your mother." + +"I shook hands with Hope, and in her place sits the only companion who +will abide with me during the darkness that is coming on--Patience, +pale-browed, meek-eyed, sad-lipped Patience. If I can only keep my hold +upon her skirts, till the end. To me, no good news can ever come. As +long as mother lived, I had an incentive to struggle; now I am alone, +and they who thirst for my blood are welcome to take it speedily. I +know my mother is dead; I have seen her." + +"Wake up, child. Your brain is weak yet and full of queer delirious +visions, and when you doze, realities and dreams are all jumbled +together. You have a deal too much sense to harbor any crazy spiritual +crankiness. Take your wine, and lie down. You have sat up too long, and +tired yourself." + +"No. I have wanted to tell you for several days, because you have been +so good, and I have heard you praying here at night that God would be +merciful to me; but I waited until I had strength to be calm. I have +lain here day after day, and night after night, face to face with +desolation and despair, and now I have grown accustomed to the horror. +I know that in this world there is no escape, no help, no hope; so--the +worst is over. When you consent to fate, and stretch out your arms to +meet death, there is no more terror, only waiting, weary waiting. I am +not superstitious, and unfortunately I am not one of the victims of +dementia, whose spectral woes are born of disordered brains. I am sadly +sane; and what I am about to tell you is no figment of feverish fancy. +I do not know how long I have been sick, but one night great peace and +ease came suddenly upon me. I swung in some soft tender arms, close to +the gates of Release, and the iron bars melted away, and my soul was +borne toward the wonderful light; but suddenly a shock, a strange +thrill ran through me, and the bars rose again, and the light faded. +Then all at once my father and my mother stood beside me, bent over me. +Father said: 'Courage, my daughter, courage! Bear your cross a little +longer,' My mother wept, and said, 'My good little girl. So faithful, +so true. I died in peace, trusting your promise. For my sake can you +endure till the end?' They faded away; and sorrow sat down once more, +clutching my heart; and death, the Angel who keeps the key of the Gate +of Release, turned his back upon me. I had almost escaped; I was close +to the other world, and I was conscious. I saw my mother's spirit; it +was no delirious fancy. I know that she is dead. Even in the world of +the released, she grieves over the awful consequences of my obedience +to her wishes. Mortal agony of body and soul brings us so near to the +borderland, that we have glimpses; and those we love, lean across the +boundary line and compassionate us. So my Gethsemane called down the +one strengthening Angel of all the heavenly hosts, who had most power +to comfort my heart, and gird me for my fate, my father, my noble +father. God, in pity, sent him to exhort me to bear my cross bravely." + +The low solemn voice ceased, and in the silence that followed, only the +dull patter of the rain, and the persistent purring of a kitten curled +up on the cot were audible. Mrs. Singleton finished the buttonhole in +Dick's apron, and threaded her needle. + +"If it comforts you at all to believe that, I have no right to say +anything." + +"You think, however, that I am the victim of some hallucination?" + +"Not even that. I think you had a very vivid dream, and being +exhausted, you mistook a feverish vision for a real apparition. I can't +believe your mother is dead, because if such were the case, Dyce would +have returned at once, and told us." + +"Dyce has a kind heart, and shrinks from bringing me the sad news; for +she knows my cup was already full. I know that my mother is dead. Time +will show you that I make no mistake. The veil was lifted, and I saw +beyond." + +"Maybe so; may be not. I am stubborn in my opinions, and I never could +think it possible for flesh to commune with spirits. Don't let us talk +about anything that disturbs you, until you regain your strength. Why +will you not try a little of this port wine? Miss Gordon brought it +yesterday, and insisted I should give it to you, three times a day. It +is very old and mellow. Look at things practically. God kept you alive +for some wise purpose, and since you are obliged to face trouble, is it +not better to arm yourself with all the physical vigor possible? Drink +this, and lie down." + +As Beryl mechanically drained the glass and handed it back, Mrs. +Singleton added: + +"I believe I told you, Miss Gordon is Mr. Dunbar's sweetheart. Their +engagement is no secret, and he is a lucky man; for she is as good as +she is pretty, and as sweet as she is rich. She has shown such a tender +interest in you, and manifests so much sympathy, that I am sure she +will influence him in your favor, and I feel so encouraged about your +future." + +A shadowy smile crossed the girl's wan face, + +"Invest no hope in my future; for escape is as impossible for me, as +for that innocent victim foreordained to entangle his horns in the +thicket on Mount Moriah. He could have fled from the sacrificial fire, +and from Abraham's uplifted knife, back to dewy green pastures +poppy-starred, back to some cool dell where Syrian oleanders flushed +the shade, as easily as I can defy these walls, loosen the chain of +fate, elude my awful doom." + +"It is because you are not yet yourself, that you take such a +despairing view of matters. After a while, things will look very +different, and you are too plucky to surrender your life without a +brave fight. A great change has come over Mr. Dunbar, and there is no +telling what he cannot do, when he sets to work. If ever a lawyer's +heart has been gnawed by remorse, it is his. He and Miss Gordon +together can pull you out of the bog, and I believe they will." + +"Mr. Dunbar's professional reputation is more precious in his sight +than a poor girl's life; moreover, even if he desired to undo his work, +he could not. I am beyond human succor. Fate nails me to a cross, but +God consents; so I make no struggle, for behind fate stands God--and my +father." + +Wearily she leaned back on her pillows, and turned her face to the +wall. Mrs. Singleton drew the blankets over her, folded her own shawl +about the shoulders, and smoothing away the hair, kissed her on the +temple; then stole into the adjoining room, where her children slept. + +Before the fire that leaped and crackled in the wide chimney, and +leaning forward to rest her turbaned head against the mantelpiece, +while she spread her hands toward the blaze, stood a much muffled +figure. + +"Dyce!" + +Mrs. Singleton had left the door ajar, and the old woman turned and +pointed to it, laying one finger on her lips; but the warning came too +late. + +"Hush! I don't want her to know I am here. Your husband told me she was +sitting up, and in her right mind, but too weak to stand any more +trouble. I wish I could run away, and never see her again, for when I +go in there, I feel like I was carrying a knife to cut the heart out of +a fawn, what the hounds had barely left life in. I can't bear the +thought of having to tell her--" + +Dyce covered her face with her shawl, to stifle her sobs, and her large +frame shook. Mrs. Singleton whispered: + +"Tell me quick. What is it." + +"Miss Ellie is dead. I got there three days after she was buried." + +The warden's wife sank into a chair, and drew the weeping negro into +one beside her. + +"Do you know exactly what time she died?" + +"Yes--I had it all put down in black and white. She died on Tuesday +night, just as the clock struck two; and the hospital nurse says--Lord, +amercy, Miss Susan! are you going to faint? You have turned ashy!" + +As Mrs. Singleton's thoughts recurred to the fact that it was at that +hour that Beryl lay in the stupor of the crisis, from which she awoke +perfectly conscious, and recalled the dream that the sick girl held as +a vision, she felt a vague but bewildering dread seize her faculties, +in defiance of cool reason, and scoffing scepticism. + +"Go on, Dyce. I felt a little sick. Tell me--" + +She paused and listened to an unusual and inexplicable noise issuing +from the next room; the harsh sound of something scraping the bare +floor. + +"You must pick your time to break this misery to that poor young thing. +I can't do it. I would run a mile sooner than face her with the news, +that her ma is dead; and I have grieved and cried, till I feel like my +brains had been put in a pot and biled. The Lord knows His bizness, of +course; yes, of course He knows the best to do; but 'pears to me, His +mercy hid its face behind His wrath, when He saw fit to let that poor +innercent young creetur in there get well, after her ma was laid in the +grave. It will be a harder heart than mine what can stand by, and tell +her she is motherless." + +"There is no need to tell her. She knows it." + +"How? Did she get the letter the Doctor said he wrote?" + +"No. She thinks her mother--" + +The noise explained itself. Too feeble to walk alone, Beryl had pushed +a chair before her, until she reached the door, and now stood grasping +it, swaying to and fro, as she endeavored to steady herself. One hand +held at her throat the black shawl, whose loosened folds fell like a +mourning mantle to her feet, the other clutched the door, against the +edge of which she leaned for support. + +"Dyce, I have known for some days that I have no mother in this world. +I have seen her. Your kind heart dreads giving me pain, but nothing can +hurt me now. I cannot suffer any more, because I am bruised and beaten +to numbness. I want to see you alone; I want to know everything." + +At sight of her, the old woman darted forward and caught the tall, +wasted, tottering form in her strong arms. Lifting her as though she +had been a child, she bore her back to her small bleak room, laid her +softly on her cot, then knelt down, and burst into a fit of passionate +crying. + +As if to shut out some torturing vision, Beryl clasped her hands over +her eyes, and when she spoke, her voice was very unsteady: + +"Did you see mother alive?" + +"Oh, honey, I was too late! I was three days too late to see her at +all. When I got to New York, and found the Doctor's house, he was not +at home; had just gone to Boston a half hour before I rung the bell. +His folks couldn't tell me nothin', so I had to wait two days. When I +give him your note, he looked dreadful cut up, and tole me Miss Ellie +had all the care and 'tention in the world, but nothin' couldn't save +her. He said she didn't suffer much, but was 'lirious all the time, +until the day before she died, when all of a sudden her mind cleared. +Then she axed for you, honey--God bless you, my poor lamb! I hate to +harrify your heart. The Doctor comforted her all he could, and tole her +bizness of importance had done kept you South. Miss Ellie axed how long +she could live; he said only a few hours. She begged him to prop her +up, so she could write a few words. He says he held the paper for her, +and she wrote a little, and rested; and then she wrote a little mere +and fell back speechless. He pat the piece of paper in a invellop and +sealed it, and axed her if she wished it given to her daughter Beryl. +She couldn't talk then, but she looked at him and nodded her head. That +was about four o'clock in the evening of Tuesday. She had a sort of +spasm, and went to sleep. At two o'clock, she woke up in Heaven. He +said he felt so sorry for you--dear lamb! He wouldn't let them burry +her where most was hurried that died in the hospital. He had her laid +away in his own lot in some graveyard, where his childun was burried, +'till he could hear from you. He tole me, she was tenderly handled, and +everything was done as you would have wanted it; and he cut off some of +the beautiful hair--and--" + +Dyce smothered her sobs in the bedclothes, but Beryl lay like a stone +image. + +"Oh, honey! It jest splits my heart in two, to tell you all this--" + +"Go on, Dyce." + +"The doctor gin me a note to the nuss at the hospital, what 'tended the +ward Miss Ellie was in, and I got all her clothes, and packed 'em in a +box and brought 'em home. She told me pretty much what the doctor had +said, only she was shore your ma spoke jest before she died, and called +twice--'Ignace! Ignace!' She said she was beautiful as a angel and her +hair was a wonder to all who saw her, it was so long and so lovely. She +tole me the doctor hissef put a big bunch of white carnations and +tuberoses in her hand, after they put her in the coffin, and she looked +like a queen. The doctor wrote you a letter 'splainin' everything, and +sent it to the postmaster here. He seemed dreadfull grieved and +'stonished when I tole him how I had left you, and said if he could +help you, he would be very glad to do it. I tole him we would pay his +bill, as soon as this here trial bizness was over; and he answered: +'Tut--tut; bill indeed! That poor unfortunate girl need never worry +over any bill of mine. I did all I could for her mother, but the best +of us fail sometimes. Tell that poor child to come and see me, as soon +as she gets out of the clutches of those fire-eating devils down +South.' Honey, I couldn't be satisfied without seeing for myself, where +they had laid my dear young mistiss. I got 'rections from the doctor, +and I spent good part of a day huntin' the cemetery, and at last a man +in a uniform showed me Doctor Grantlin's lot. Oh, my lamb! That was the +first and only comfort I had, when I stood in front of that grand +lovely marble potico--with great angels kneeling on the four corners, +and knew my dear young mistiss was resting in such a beautiful place. I +felt so proud that ole mistiss' chile was among the best people, +sleeping with flowers in her hands, in that white marble house! I +wanted to be shore there warn't no mistake, and the keeper of the +graveyard tole me a lady had been put 'temporary' in the vault, four +days before. I had bought a bunch of violets from a flower shop, but I +could not get nearer than the door, where some brass rods was stretched +like a kind of a net; so I laid my little bunch down on the marble +steps, close as I could push it agin the rod; and though I couldn't see +my dear young mistiss, maybe--up in heaven--she will know her poor ole +mammy did not forgit her, and--" + +The old woman cried bitterly, and one thin hand, white as a snowflake, +fell upon her bowed head, and softly stroked her black wrinkled face. +After some minutes, when the paroxysm of weeping had spent itself, Dyce +took the hand, kissed it reverently, and pressed into it a package. + +"The doctor tole me to put that into your hands. He said he knew it +would be very precious to you, but he felt shore he could trust me to +bring it safe. Now, honey, I know you want to be by yourself, when you +read your ma's last words. I will go and set in yonder by the fire, +till you call me. My heart aches and swells fit to bust, and I can't +stan' no more misery jest now, sech as this." + +For some moments, Beryl lay motionless, then the intolerable agony +clutched her throat with an aching sense of suffocation, and she sat +up, with nerveless hands lying on the package in her lap. She was +prepared for, expectant of the worst, but the details added keener +stings to suffering that had benumbed her. At last, with a shuddering +sigh, she broke the seal, and took from folds of tissue paper, a long +thick tress of the beautiful black hair. Shaking it out of its satin +coil, she held it up, then wrapped it smoothly over her hand, and laid +it caressingly against her cheek. + +Prison walls melted away; she stood again in the New York attic, and +combed, and brushed, and braided those raven locks, and saw the wan +face of the beloved invalid, and the jasmine and violets she had pinned +at her throat. + +What had become of the proud, high-spirited ambitious girl, who laughed +at adverse fortune, and forgot poverty in lofty aspirations? How long +ago it seemed, since she kissed the dear faded cheek, and knelt for her +mother's farewell benediction. Was it the same world? Was she the same +Beryl; was the eternal and unchanging God over all, as of yore? She had +shattered and ruined the sparkling crystal goblet of her young life, +scattering in the dust the golden wine of happy hope, in the effort to +serve and comfort that loved sufferer, who, languishing on a hospital +cot, had died among strangers; had been shrouded by hirelings. That any +other hand than hers had touched her sacred dead, seemed a profanation; +and at the thought of the last rites rendered, the loyal child shivered +as though some polluting grasp had been laid upon herself. Out of the +envelope rolled a broad hoop of reddish gold, her mother's wedding +ring; and in zigzag lines across a sheet of paper was written the last +message: + +"My dear, good little girl, so faithful, so true, my legacy of love is +your mother's blessing. You must be comforted to know I am dying in +peace, because I trust in your last promise--" + +Then a blot, some unintelligible marks, and a space. Lower still, +scarcely legible characters were scrawled: + +"Tell my darling--to wear my ring as a holy--" + +In death as in life, the last word, and the deepest feeling were not +for her; the sacred souvenir was left for the hand that had so often +stabbed the idolatrous heart, now stilled forever. + +In all ages the ninety and nine that go not astray, never feel the +caressing touch which the yearning Shepherd lays on the obstinate +wanderer, who would not pasture in peace; and from the immemorial dawn +of inchoate civilization, prodigals have possessed the open sesame to +parental hearts that seemed barred against the more dutiful. By what +perverted organon of ethics has it come to pass in sociology, that the +badge of favoritism is rarely the guerdon of merit? + +To the orphaned, forsaken, disgraced captive, sitting amid the sombre +ruins of her life, drinking the bitter lees of the fatal cup a mother's +hand had forced to her reluctant lips, there seemed nothing strange in +the injustice meted out; for had not the second place in maternal love +always been hers? As the great gray eyes darkening behind their tears, +like deep lakes under coming rain, read and re-read the blurred lines, +the frozen mouth trembled, and Beryl kissed the hair, folded it away in +the letter, and pinned both close to her heart. Staggering to her feet, +she held up the ring, and said in a broken, half audible voice: + +"When I am dead, your darling shall have it; until then lend it to your +little girl, as a strengthening amulet. The sight of it will hold me +firm, will girdle my soul with fortitude, as it girdles my finger; will +set a yet holier seal to the compact whereby I pledged my life, that +you might die in peace. If, in the last hour, you had known all my +peril, all that my promise entails, would you have released me? Would +you have died content knowing that your idol was guarded and safe, +behind the cold shield of your little girl's polluted body? The blood +in my veins flowed from yours; I slept on your heart, I was the last +baby whose lips fed at your bosom. Mother! Mother, if you had known +all, could you have seen the load of guilt and shame and woe laid on +your innocent child, and bought the life of your first-born, by the +sacrifice of a scapegoat? Dear mother, my mother, would you shelter +him, and leave your baby to die?" + +Slipping the ring on her finger, she kissed it twice. The hot flood of +tears overflowed, and she fell on her knees beside the cot, clasping +her hands above her bowed head. + +"Alone in my desolation! Oh, father! keep close to my soul, and pray +that I may have strength to bear my burden, even to the end. My God! My +God! sustain me now. Help me to be patient, and when the sacrifice is +finished, accept it for Christ's sake, and grant that the soul of my +brother may be ransomed, because I die for his sins." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +"Well, dear child, what is the trouble? Into what quagmire have your +little feet slipped? When you invite me so solemnly to a private +conference in this distractingly pretty room, the inference is +inevitable that some disaster threatens. Have you overdrawn your bank +account?" + +Judge Dent leaned back, making himself thoroughly comfortable in a deep +easy chair in Leo's luxurious library; and taking his niece's hand, +looked up into her grave, sweet face. + +"I want you to honor my draft for a large amount. I am about to draw +upon your sympathy; can I ever overdraw my account with that royal +bank?" + +"Upon my sympathy, never; but mark you, this does not commit me to +compliance with all your Utopian schemes. If you were raving mad, I +should sympathize, but nevertheless I should see that the strait-jacket +was brought into requisition. When your generosity train dashes +recklessly beyond regulation schedules of safety, I must discharge +engineer sympathy, and whistle down the brakes. What new hobby do you +intend that I shall ride?" + +"I have no intention of sharing that privilege even with you; I merely +desire you to inspect the accoutrements, to examine reins, and girth, +and stirrup. I lend my hobby to no one, and it is far too mettlesome to +'carry double'. Uncle Mitchell, I feel so unhappy about that poor girl, +that I must do something to comfort her, and only one avenue presents +itself. I want you to have her brought into court on a writ of Habeas +Corpus, and to use your influence with Judge Parkman to grant her bail. +I desire to give the amount of bond he may require, because I think it +would gratify her, to have this public assurance that she possessed the +confidence of her own sex; for nothing so strengthens and soothes a +true woman as the sympathy and trust of women." + +"Looking at the case dispassionately from a professional point of view, +I am sorry to tell you that the judge would scarcely be warranted in +granting bail. Were I still upon the bench, I could not conscientiously +release her, in the face of constantly accumulating evidence against +her, although she has my deepest compassion. Conceding, however, for +the moment, that Parkman consents to the petition and the girl is set +at liberty, are you prepared to pay the large forfeit, if she, +realizing the fearful odds against her acquittal, should take permanent +bail by absconding before the trial? Abstract sympathy and generous +sentiments are one phase of this matter; positively paying a fifteen or +a twenty-thousand-dollar-bond is quite another. Weigh it carefully. We +pity this unfortunate prisoner, but we know absolutely nothing in her +favor, to counterbalance the terrible array of accusing circumstances +fate has piled against her. If she be guilty, can she resist the +temptation to escape by flight; and if indeed she be innocent, how much +more difficult to await all that is involved in this trial, and abide +the issue? Because she is beautiful, has a refined and noble air, and +seems unsullied as some grand snow image, do not blind yourself to the +fact, that for aught we can prove to the contrary, she may have a heart +as black as Tullias', hands as bloody as Brunehaut's." + +"You believe that as little as I do. I have pondered the matter in all +its aspects, and I take the risk." + +"You can afford to pay for her flight?" + +"I will pay for her flight, no matter what it may cost." + +Judge Dent took her hand between both his. + +"Let us be frank." + + "'The things we do-- + We do; we'll wear no mask, as if we blushed!'" + +"Are you so assured of the woman's fidelity; or do you deliberately +leave the door ajar, foreseeing the result, deeming this the most +expedient method of cutting the Gordian knot?" + +For a moment she hesitated, then her soft brown eyes looked down +bravely into his. + +"I believe she is innocent, and that she will be loyal if released on +bail; but if I mistake her character, and she should flee for her life +from the lifted sword of justice, then I shall gladly pay the expense +of playing Alexander's role; and shall feel rejoiced that she lives to +repent her crime; and that the man to whom I have promised my hand, has +been relieved of the awful responsibility of hunting her to death." + +"Have you made him acquainted with this scheme?" + +"Certainly not. I owed it to you to secure your approbation and +co-operation, before mentioning the matter to him." + +"Have you considered the opposition which, without inconsistency, he +cannot fail to offer? As prosecuting attorney for the Darringtons he +would be recreant to his client, if he consented to release on bail." + +"His sympathy is deeply enlisted in her behalf, and I do not anticipate +opposition; nevertheless, it would not deter me from the attempt to +free her, at least temporarily from prison. As you have no connection +with the trial, I can see no impropriety in your telling Judge Parkman, +that the girl's health demands a change of air and scene, and that it +is my desire to furnish any bond he may deem suitable, and then bring +the prisoner under my own roof, until the day fixed for her trial. If +you are unwilling to speak to him, will you permit me to mention the +subject to him?" + +"I fear enthusiasm is hurrying you into a proposal, the possibly grave +consequences of which you do not realize. You would run a great risk in +bringing here that unfortunate woman, over whose head has gathered so +black a cloud of suspicion. In becoming her gaoler, you assume a +fearful responsibility." + +"I fully comprehend all the hazard, and with your permission, I shall +not shrink. I have a conviction, for which I can offer no adequate +grounds, that this girl is as innocent as I am; and if all the world +hissed and jeered, I should stretch out my hand to her. Do you +recollect Ortes' booty when Antwerp fell into Alva's hands? The keys of +the dungeons. I would rather swing wide the barred doors of yonder +human cage across the river, and lead that woman out under God's free +sky, than wear all of Alva's jewels, own his gold. Uncle, will you +speak, or shall I?" + +"I must first talk with Churchill and Dunbar. Your effort might result +only in injury to the prisoner; because if she were brought into Court +on writ of Habeas Corpus, and refused bail, as I fear would be the +case, the failure would operate very unfavorably for her cause, on +public opinion, of which after all, in nineteen cases out of twenty, +the jury verdict is a reflection. Some new evidence has been presented +since the preliminary examination, and its character will determine the +question of bail. If I can see any chance of your success I will speak +to Parkman; for, indeed, my dear child, I honor your motive, and share +your hope; but unless I find more encouragement than I expect, I will +not complicate matters by a futile attempt, which would certainly +recoil disastrously." + +"Thank you, Uncle Mitchell. Please act promptly. I have set my heart of +hearts on having that poor young woman here to spend Christmas. Her +freedom to walk about in the sunshine, is the one Christmas gift I +covet; and I know you will gratify me if possible. You have only four +days in which to secure my present." + +"When do you expect to see Dunbar?" + +"I promised to ride with him this afternoon; but I prefer not to +discuss this subject, as he has earnestly requested me 'to abstain from +any reference to that gloomy business during his hours of recreation;' +and I have no intention of setting black care en croupe to share our +canter to-day. Having told me that when he leaves his office to visit +us, he locks his professional affairs in his desk, you can readily +understand that good taste enforces respect for his wishes, at least in +the matter of avoiding tabooed topics." + +"Does it occur to you that he will object very strenuously to seeing +the personification of 'that gloomy business' sitting at your +hearth-stone? That he may refuse to lock up in his law office the +significant and disagreeable reflection, that the woman whom he +arrested find prosecutes for a vile crime, is championed and housed by +one whom he claims as his promised wife? Dunbar has a keen eye for the +'eternal fitness of things,' and, where you are concerned, is a jealous +stickler for social convenance. I warn you he will be bitterly +offended, if you bring General Darrington's granddaughter under this +roof." + +Her delicate flower-like face flushed; and the slight figure became +proudly erect. + +"It is my house, and I acquit him of the presumption of desiring to +dictate to whom its doors shall be opened. If he has no confidence in +my discretion, no respect for my motives, no tolerance for difference +of opinion in a matter of vital importance, then the sooner our +engagement is annulled the better for both of us. When I have taken my +vows, I hope I shall steadfastly keep them, but meantime I am still a +Gordon. The irrevocable ubi tu Caius, ego Caia, has not yet been +uttered, and while it would grieve me very much to wound his feelings, +I claim the exercise of my own judgment. I am not indifferent to his +wishes; on the contrary, I ardently desire, as far as is consistent +with my self-respect, to defer to them; but when I pledged him my +faith, I did not surrender my will, nor obliterate my individuality." + +Judge Dent rose, put his arm around her shoulders, and drew the sunny +head to his breast. + +"Leo, listen to me. There is no heaven on earth, but the nearest +approach to it, the outlying suburbs whence we get bewildering glimpses +of beatitude beyond, is the season of courtship and betrothal. In the +magical days of sweetheartdom, a silvery glorifying glamour wraps the +world, brims jagged black chasms with glittering mist, paves rugged +paths with its shimmering folds, and tenderly covers very deep in rose +leaves, the clay feet of our idols. That wonderful light shines only +once full upon us, but the memory of it streams all along the +succeeding journey; follows us up the arid heights, throws its mellow +afterglow on the darkening road, as we go swiftly down the slippery +hill of life. It comes to all, as hope's happy prophecy, this sparkling +prologue, and we never dream that it is the sweetest and best of the +drama that follows; but let me tell you, enjoy it while you may. +Beautiful, hallowing sweetheart days, keep them unclouded, guard them +from strife; hold them for the precious enchantment they bring, and +take an old man's advice, do not quarrel with your sweetheart." + +He kissed her cheek, and when the door closed behind him, she sat down +and covered her face with her hands. + +Was that witching light already fading in her sky? Was the storm even +now muttering, that would rudely toss aside the rose leaves that +garlanded the feet of her beloved? In the midst of her eloquent +prologue would darkness smite suddenly, and end the drama? Life had +poured its richest wine into the cup she held to her lips; should she +risk spilling the priceless draught? She could turn a deaf ear to +teazing whispers of suspicion, she could shut her eyes to the spectre +that threw up warning hands, and so drift on; but the dream would be +broken perhaps too late, and all time could not repair the possible +shipwreck. Into the chill shadow of this problem plunged Miss Patty, +bringing through the room the penetrating spicery of an apron full of +pinks, which she was sorting and tying in star-shaped clusters. + +"An extraordinary and most unexpected thing has happened, and I know +you will be surprised." + +"What is it, Aunt Patty? Something very pleasant, I hope." + +"I have actually changed my opinion; and you know how tenacious I +usually am of my well-matured views, because they are always founded on +such sound reasons. Quite surprised, aren't you, dear?" + +"That is far too mild and inadequate a term to express my sensations. +Your views and opinions bear the same royal, inviolable seal as those +of the Medes and Persians, and from their unchangeableness must have +floated down the stream of Aryan migration, from some infallible +fountain in Bactria. I should not be much more astonished to hear that +Cynosure had grown giddy, had swung down and waltzed in the arms of +Sirius." + +"Leo, that sounds very pedantic, and there is nothing I dislike more. A +woman bedecked with rags and tags of farfetched learning, is about as +attractive an object as if she had turned out a full beard and +mustache. I am very sure you have heard me assert more than once, that +I verily believe Venus herself would scare all the men into +monasteries, if she wore blue stockings. Too much learning in a lady's +conversation is as utterly unpardonable as a waste of lemon and nutmeg +in a chicken-pie; or a superfluity of cheese in Turbot a la creme; just +a hint of the flavor, the merest soupcon is all that is admissible in +either. I came in to tell you, that I have experienced quite a change +of feeling with reference to that poor young lady, whom Mr. Dunbar with +such officious haste arrested and threw into gaol. I am now convinced +that a great wrong has been committed." + +For a moment Leo stooped to stroke the head of her Siberian hound, +crouching on the velvet rug at her feet; then she frankly met the +twinkling black eyes that peered over their gold-rimmed spectacles. + +"I am glad to hear it; but to what circumstance is so deckled a +revulsion of sentiment attributable?" + +"You know I have great confidence in Sister Serena's sagacity, and +during the past fortnight she has talked frequently with me on the +subject of the prisoner. When she undertook to nurse the poor child, +she too considered her guilty of the unnatural crime; but by degrees +she began to doubt it. About ten days ago, she says she went to the +penitentiary, and found the prisoner reading a Bible which she had +borrowed from the gaoler's wife. She asked her if she would like her to +offer up a prayer, in her behalf, and they knelt down side by side. +Sister Serena prayed that God would melt her heart if she was guilty, +and help her to repent. While they were still on their knees, Sister +Serena put one arm around her and said: + +"'God knows whether you are the criminal; and if so, let me beg of you +to make a full confession; it will unload your conscience, and may be +the means of arousing more sympathy in the public heart.' She says that +the poor girl looked at her a moment so reproachfully, and answered: +'When we meet in heaven, you will understand how cruelly your words +hurt me. I know that appearances are hopelessly against me, and I +expect to die; but I am so innocent, I keep my soul close to God, for +He who knows the truth, will help me to bear man's injustice.' Then she +prayed aloud for herself, that she might endure patiently and meekly an +awful punishment which she did not deserve; and while she prayed, her +countenance was so pure, so angelic, and there was such unmistakable +fervor and sincerity in her petition, that Sister Serena says she could +not help bursting into tears, and she actually begged the girl's pardon +for having doubted her innocence. She has fallen completely in love +with the poor young creature, and tells me she finds her wonderfully +talented and cultivated. This morning she showed me some of the most +beautiful designs for decorating our altar on Christmas, which the +prisoner sketched for her. She cut all the models for her, and gave her +such lovely suggestions, and when Sister Serena thanked her, she says +the most touching smile she ever saw came into that child's face, as +she answered: 'I ought to thank you for the privilege of decorating my +Savior's altar, at the last Christmas I shall spend on earth. Next +year, I shall spend Jesus' birthday with Him.' I felt so uncomfortable +when I heard all that passed between her and Sister Serena, that I +could not be easy until I had seen for myself; and as Sister Serena was +going over to carry some letters to be painted and gilded, I went with +her. I have seen her, and talked with her, and I pity the hard, bitter, +unregenerate and vindictive heart of the man who is prosecuting her for +murder. I do not believe that in all the world, Mr. Dunbar can find +twelve men idiotic and vicious enough to convict that beautiful orphan +girl; and his failure will do as little credit to his intellect, as +success would to his moral nature." + +"While I prefer to exclude Mr. Dunbar's name from our discussions, I +think it merely bare justice to the absent, to assure you that he +desires her conviction even less than you or I; and will do all in his +power to avert it. I feel more interest in this matter than you can +possibly realize, and, believing her innocent, I will befriend her to +the last extremity. Did Sister Serena succeed in fitting the black +dress I sent?" + +"The poor child had on a mourning dress, but I was not aware you sent +it. Losing her mother seems almost to have broken her heart. Poor +Ellice Darrington! Petted and fostered like a hot-house flower, and +then to die a pauper in a hospital! What an awful retribution for her +disobedience to her parents? There is the bell." + +"Yes, Auntie, and I must ask you to excuse me. Some of my Sunday-school +class are coming to practise their carols, and conclude a little +holiday preparation, and I hear them now on the steps." + +"Did Mitchell show you Leighton's telegram?" + +"He told me the good news, that at the last moment Leighton had filled +his pulpit for the holidays, and would preach for us on Christmas. How +delightfully it will revive the dear old days to have him back? Fancy +our hanging up our stockings once more at the foot of Uncle Mitchell's +bed! Your letter must have been eloquent, indeed, to entice him from +the splendors of the metropolis, to the yule log at our quiet 'Lilacs'; +and his coming is a tribute of gratitude to you, for all your loving +care of him. I know you are so happy at the thought of taking the Holy +Communion from the hand of your dear boy, that it will consecrate this +Christmas above all others; and I congratulate you heartily, dear Aunt +Patty." + +It was late in the afternoon of Saturday, Christmas Eve, when Leo +knocked at the door of Mrs. Singleton's room. A dispirited expression +characterized the countenance usually serene and happy, and between her +brows a perpendicular line marked the advent of anxious foreboding. Her +hopeful scheme had dissolved, vanished like a puff of steam on icy air, +leaving only a teazing memory of mocking failure. Judge Dent's +conference with the District Solicitor, had convinced him of the +futility of any attempt to secure bail; moreover, a message from the +prisoner earnestly exhorted them to abandon all intercessory designs in +her behalf, as she would not accept release on bail, and preferred to +await her trial. + +"Good evening, Miss Gordon. If you want to see her, Ned will show you +the way to the chapel, where I left her a while ago. Since her mother's +death, the only comfort she gets, is from the organ; so we let her go +there very often. I would go with you, but I want to finish a black +shawl I am crocheting for her." + +The warden escorted his visitor through the chill dim corridors that +had formerly so appalled Beryl's soul, and upon the steps of the +chapel, both paused to listen. On the small cabinet organ, a skilful +hand was playing a grand and solemn aria, which Leo had heard once +before in the cool depths of Freiburg Cathedral. It had impressed her +then most powerfully, as the despairing invocation of some doomed +Titan; to-day it thrilled her with keen and intolerable pain. Waving +the warden back, she softly entered the chapel, closed the door, and +sat down. + +Through the narrow windows, the afternoon sunlight, fettered by shadowy +bars, fell on the bare floor, and the radiance smote the organ and the +wan face of the musician, gilding the dark reddish-brown hair coiled +loosely on her nobly poised head. Her black dress enhanced the extreme +pallor of delicate features, which, outlined against that golden +background, bore a strong resemblance to the lovely portrait of +Titian's wife in the Louvre. Unmindful of the keys, across which her +fingers strayed, she was gazing off into space, as if seeking some +friendly face; and to the same sombre, passionate, plaintive melody she +sang: + + "The way is dark, my Father! Cloud upon cloud + Is gathering thickly o'er my head, and loud + The thunders roar above me. O, see--I stand + Like one bewildered! Father, take my hand-- + And through the gloom lead safely home Thy Child! + The day declines, my Father! and the night + Is drawing darkly down. My faithless sight + Sees ghostly visions. Fears like a spectral band + Encompass me. O, Father, take my hand, + And from the night lead up to light Thy Child! + The cross is heavy, Father! I have borne + It long, and still do bear it. I cannot stand + Or go alone. O, Father, take my hand, + And reaching down, lead to the crown Thy Child!" + +The voice was wonderfully sweet and rich, vibrating with the intense +pathos of minor chords in a mellow old violoncello, and either from +physical weakness, or the weight of woe, it quivered at last into a +thrilling cry. Tears were dripping over Leo's cheeks, as she went up to +the chancel railing, and leaning across, put out her hand. Beryl rose +and came forward, and so, with only the pine balustrade between, the +two stood palm in palm. No moisture dimmed the prisoner's eyes, but +around her beautiful mouth sorrowful curves betokened the fierceness of +the ordeal she was enduring; and her lips trembled a little, like rose +leaves under a sudden rude gust. + +"I have wanted very much to see you, Miss Gordon, to thank you for the +great kindness that prompted your effort to help me; and yet, I have no +hope of expressing adequately the comfort I derived from this +manifestation of your confidence. The knowledge that you offered +security for me, above all, that you were willing to take me--an +outcast, almost a convicted criminal--into the holy shelter of your own +home, oh! you can never realize, unless you stood in my place, how it +soothes my heart, how it will always make a bright spot in the +blackness of my situation. The full sympathy of a noble woman is the +best tonic for a feeble sufferer, who knows the world has turned its +back upon her. If I were unworthy, your goodness would be the keenest +lash that could scourge me; but forlorn though I seem, your friendship +brings me measureless balm, and while I could never have accepted your +generous offer, I thank you sincerely." + +"Why were you so unwilling that I should try to release you?" + +"I have not a dollar to pay my expenses anywhere, and I appreciated too +fully all that was involved in your hospitable offer, to take me under +your roof, to be willing to avail myself of it. Here I am provided for, +by those who believe me guilty; and here I have the kind sympathy of +Mr. and Mrs. Singleton, who were my first friends when the storm broke +over my doomed head. To go out of prison into the world now, would be +torturing, because I am proud and sensitive; and these dark walls +screen me from the curious observation from which I shrink, as from +being flayed. To the desolate and homeless, change of place brings no +relief; and since there is no escape for me, I prefer to wait here for +the end, which, after all, cannot be very distant." + +"Do you refer to the trial next month?" + +"No, to that which yawns behind the trial; a shallow gash out there +under the pines, where the sound of the penitentiary bell tolls +requiems for the souls of its mangled victims." + +"Hush! hush! You wrong yourself by imagining the possibility of such +horrible results. Gloomy surroundings, coupled with your great +bereavement, render you morbidly despondent; and it was the hope of +cheering you, that made me so anxious to get you away. If I could only +take you home, even for one week!" + +"The wish has cheered me inexpressibly. How good, how noble, how tender +you are! Miss Gordon, because I am so grateful, let me now say one +thing. You cannot help me in future, and it would grieve me to think +that I fell, as an unlifting shadow, between your heart and the +sunshine that warms it. In the night of my wretchedness, you have +groped your way to me, and in defiance of the circumstances that are so +cruelly leagued to strangle me, you throw your confidence like a warm +mantle around my shivering soul; you have courageously laid your pure, +womanly hands in mine--oh, God bless you! God reward you! Do you think +I could bear to know that I had caused even a hand's breadth of cloud +to drift over the heavenly blue of your happy sky? The bow of promise +that spans your life is no secret. Let no thought of me jar the harmony +that reigned before I came here. Leave me to my doom, which human hands +cannot avert now; and be happy without questioning. Inexorable fate +stands behind men; makes them, sometimes, irresponsible puppets." + +A deep flush had risen to Leo's temples, and withdrawing her hand, she +shaded her face for a moment. The great bell below the tower clock rang +sullenly. + +"Good-bye, Miss Gordon. I had permission to stay here only till the +bell sounded. Pray for me, but do not come again. Visits to me could +bring you nothing but sorrow in return for your compassion, and that +would add to my misery. I wish you a pleasant Christmas, a happy New +Year, and as cloudless a life as your great goodness deserves." + +Once more their hands met, in a long close clasp, then Leo laid on the +chancel railing a large square envelope. + +"It is only a Christmas card, but so lovely, I know your artistic taste +cannot fail to admire it; and it may brighten your cheerless room. It +is the three-hundred-dollar-prize-card, and particularly beautiful." + +"Thank you, dear Miss Gordon. It may help to deaden the merciless +stings of memory, which all day long has tortured me by unrolling the +past, where my Christmas days stand out like illuminated capitals on +black-letter pages." + +Deaden the stings of memory? What spell suddenly evoked the image of +her invalid mother, all the details of the attic room, the litter of +pencils on the table; the windows of a florist's shop where, standing +on the pavement, she had studied hungrily the shapes of the blossoms +poverty denied her as models; the interior of the Creche, which she had +penetrated in order to sketch the heads of sleeping babies, as a study +for cherubs? + +Leo had almost reached the door, when a passionate, indescribably +mournful cry arrested her steps. + +"Too late!--too late! O, God! What a cruel mockery!" + +Beryl stood leaning against the railing of the altar, with the light of +the setting sun falling aslant on the gilded card she held up in one +hand; on her white convulsed face, where tears fell in a scalding +flood. Retracing her steps, Leo said falteringly: + +"In my efforts to comfort you, have I only wounded more sorely? How +have I hurt you? What can I do?" + +"No--no! you are an angel of pity, hovering over an abyss of ruin, +whose darkest horrors you only imagine faintly. What can you do? +Nothing, but pray to God to paralyze my tongue, and grant me death, +before I lose my last clutch on faith, and curse my Creator, and drift +down to eternal perdition! It was hard enough before, but this mockery +maddens." + +With a sudden abandonment, she hurled the card away, threw her arms +around Leo's neck and sobbed unrestrainedly. Tenderly the latter held +her shivering form, as the proud head fell on her shoulder; and after a +time, Beryl lifted a face white as an annunciation lily, drenched by +tropical rain. + +"I thought misfortune had emptied all her vials, and that I was nerved, +because there was nothing more to dread. But the worst is always +behind, and this is the irony of fate. You think that merely a +rhetorical metaphor, a tragic trope? How should you know? That +Christmas card is the solitary dove I sent out to hunt a resting-place +for mother and for me, when the flood engulfed us. It was my design +sent to Boston, to compete for the prizes offered. How I dreamed, how I +toiled! Haunting the flower shops for a glimpse of heartsease, and +passion flowers, and stars of Bethlehem; begging a butcher at the +abattoir to spare a lamb, until I could sketch it; kneeling by cradles +in the public Creche to get the full red curve of a baby's sucking +lips, as they forsook the bottle, the dimple in the tiny hands, the +tendrils of hair on the satin brow! Over that card I sang, and I wept; +I worked, hoped, prayed, believed! So much depended upon it! Could the +Christ to whom I dedicated it, fail to answer my prayer for success? +Three hundred dollars! What a mint! It would pay the doctor, and make +mother comfortable, and get her a warm new suit for coming winter. Oh! +it is so easy to believe in God, until He denies us; and to trust +Christ, till He hurls our prayers back, and the stones crush us. Only +three hundred dollars between life and death; between a happy, proud +girl with a noble future, and a disgraced, broken-hearted wreck +trampled into a convict's grave! It would have saved all; all the awful +consequences of the journey here, which only dire extremity of need +forced upon me. On the fatal day I started South, I went at the last +moment, hoping that some tidings from my card would come on angel +wings. The decision had been made, but the awards were not yet +published, and so my doom was sealed. To-morrow, happy women, no more +innocent than I am, will smile at my Christmas card, and give it with +warm kisses and loving words to their dear ones; and to-day, my white +dove of hope, flies back in my face, with the talons of a harpy, to +devour me with maddening reminders of 'what might have been'. My +coveted three hundred dollars! Three hundred taunting fiends! to jeer +and torment me. The Christmas sun will shine on a pauper's empty cot in +a charity hospital; on a disgraced, insulted, forsaken convict. Take +away this last mockery, it is more than I can bear. There on the back +in gilt letters--Prize Card--Three Hundred Dollars! Yet a stranger paid +for my mother's coffin, and--. Three hundred furies to lash my heart +out! Too late! Take it away! too late! oh, too late! This is worse than +the pangs of death." + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +The Christmas Sabbath dawned cold and dim, and along the eastern sky +gray marbled masses of cloud with dun, stratified bases, built +themselves into the likeness of vast teocallis to Tonatiuh, over whose +apex the struggling rays fell red and presageful. Dulled by the stained +glass windows, the light that filled the semi-circular chapel at "The +Lilacs", was chill and sombre, until the fair sacristan held a taper +over the tall wax candles on each side of the altar, whence a mellow +radiance soon streamed over all; flashing along the golden letters +under the cross, and upon the gilded pipes of the little organ. On the +marble steps in front of the altar were two baskets filled with white +camellias, and great spikes of pink and blue hyacinths, that seemed to +break their hearts in waves of aromatic incense. The family Bible of +the Gordons lay open, on the reading desk, and upon its yellow pages +rested a Maltese cross of snowy Roman hyacinths. Looping back the +purple velvet portiere over the arch leading into the library, Leo sat +down on the organ bench to await the coming of the family, leisurely +arranged the stops, and marked in her prayer-book the Collect for +Christmas. In her morning robe of crimson cashmere, with its cascade of +soft rich lace foaming from throat to feet, and wearing a dainty +cluster of double white violets fastened just below one ear, where the +wax light kissed her sunny hair, she appeared a St. Cecilia, very fair +and sweet, to the eyes of the man who stood a moment unperceived +beneath the arch. A figure of medium height, clad in priestly garments, +with a white surplice sweeping to the marble floor; a finely modelled +head thickly fleeced with light brown hair, a serene pleasant face, +with regular features, deep-set black eyes magnified by spectacles, and +an expression of habitual placidity, that bespoke a soul consecrated by +noble aims, and at perfect peace with his God. + +Hearing his step as he crossed the floor, Leo looked over her shoulder, +smiled, and began to play softly, while he ascended the steps and knelt +before the altar. After some moments Miss Patty rustled in, sank on her +knees and finally settled herself comfortably on one of the +crescent-shaped, cushioned sofas; then Judge Dent entered, followed by +Justine and the aged negro butler, Joel, the two servants finding seats +just behind their master. Doctor Leighton Douglass selected his hymns, +and the leaves of five prayer-books fluttered, as Collects were found, +but Leo continued to play. + +Twice she turned and looked around the chapel, seeking some one, +delaying the commencement of the service. Finally accepting defeat, her +pretty fingers fell from the keys, and with them dropped two tears, +forced from her by the keen disappointment that robbed this occasion of +all its anticipated pleasure. Singularly free from fashionable +elocutionary affectations, and certain declamatory stage tricks, by +which the recitation of the Creed and the Lord's Prayer becomes a +competitive test of lungs in the race for breath, Leighton Douglass +read the morning service, in a well-modulated voice, and with a +profound solemnity that left its impress on each heart. The responses +were fervent, and the Christmas hymns were sung with joyful +earnestness; then priestly arms rose like the wings of a great snowy +dove, and from holy, priestly lips fell the mellow music of the +benediction: + +"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the +fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all evermore. Amen." + +Even while he pronounced the words, a whirring rustle filled the +beautiful oratory, and two of Leo's pet ring-doves, fluttering round +and round the frescoed ceiling, descended swiftly. One perched upon her +head, cooing softly, and its mate nestled down with outspread pinions, +pecking at the white muslin folds on Doctor Douglass' shoulder. + +"Paracletes, dun plumed! Leo, let us accept them as happy auguries, +prophetic of divine blessing on our future work in the Master's +vineyard. My cousin, I wish you a very happy Christmas." + +He had approached the organ where she sat, and held out his hand. + +"Happy Christmas, Leighton, and many thanks to you for this +consecrating service in my place of prayer. After today, it will always +seem a more hallowed shrine, and before you leave us, we will gather +here as a family, and join in the celebration of the Holy Communion." + +They stood a moment hand in hand, looking into each other's eyes; and +watching them, Miss Patty's heart swelled with pardonable pride in the +two, whom her loving arms had so tenderly cradled. Pinching her +brother's hand, as she walked with him under the velvet draperies, she +whispered: + +"What a noble match for both! And he's only her second cousin." + +Leo's eyes were wet with tears, which Doctor Douglass ascribed to +devotional fervor; and withdrawing her hand, she opened one of the +windows, and called the doves to the stone ledge, putting them very +gently out upon the ivy wreaths that clambered up the wall, and peeped +into the chapel. + +"I believe you are sacristan here?" he said, pointing to the candles +that flared, as the wind rushed in. + +"Yes, here I sweep, dust, decorate daily, allowing no other touch; and +here I bring my daintiest, rarest flowers, as tribute to Him who +tapestried the earth with blossoms, and sprinkled it with +perfumes--when? Not until just before the advent of humanity, whose +material kingdom was perfected, and furnished in anticipation of his +arrival." + +Extinguishing the candles, she closed the old Bible, covered it with a +square of velvet, and hung the cross of hyacinths upon the folded hands +of one of the marble angels that upheld the altar. + +"Pure-handed women are natural priestesses, meet for temple +ministration; and I have no doubt your exoteric labors here, merely +typify the secret daily sweeping out of evil thoughts, the dusting away +of motes of selfishness, the decorating with noble beautiful aims, and +holy deeds, whereby you sanctify that inner shrine, your own soul." + +"Praise from you means so much, that you need not stoop to flatter me. +The very vestments of you Levites should exhale infectious humility; +and I especially need exhortations against pride, my besetting sin. I +built this chapel, not because I am good, but in order to grow better. +Every dwelling has its room in which the inmates gather to eat, to +study, to work, to sleep; why not to pray, the most important privilege +of many that divide humanity from brutes? After all, the pagans were +wiser than we, and the heads of families were household priests, +setting examples of piety at every rising of the sun." + +"Let us see. Greek and Roman fathers laid a cake dripping with wine, a +wreath of violets, a heart of honey-comb, a brace of doves on the home +altar, and immediately thereafter, set the example of violating every +clause in the Decalogue. Mark you, paganism drew fine lines in morals, +long anterior to the era of monotheism and of Moses, and furnished +immortal types of all the virtues; yet the excess of its religious +ceremonial, robbed it of vital fructifying energies. The frequency and +publicity of sacerdotal service, usurped the place of daily individual +piety. The tendency of all outward symbolical observances, unduly +multiplied, is to substitute mere formalism for fervor." + +"Leighton, humanity craves the concrete. All the universe is God's +temple, yet the chill breath of the abstract freezes our hearts; and we +pray best in some pillared niche consecrated and set apart, I recall a +day in Umbria, when the wonderful light of sunset fell on ilex and +olive, on mountain snows, on valleys billowing between vine-mantled +hills, on creamy marble walls, on columned campaniles; and standing +there, I seemed verily to absorb, to become saturated as it were, with +the reigning essence of beauty. I walked on, a few steps, lifted a +worn, frayed leather curtain, and looked into a small gray, dingy +church, where a mist of incense blurred the lights on the ancient +altar, and the muffled roll of an organ broke into sonorous waves, like +reverberations of far-away thunder; and why was it, tell me, that the +universal glory thrilled me only as a sensuous chord of color, but in +the dark corner consecrated to the worship of our God, my soul +expanded, as if a holy finger touched it, and I fell on my knees, and +prayed? Each of us comes into this world dowered with the behest to +make desperate war against that indissoluble 'Triple Alliance, the +World, the Flesh and the Devil,' and needing all the auxiliaries +possible, I resort to conscription wherever I can recruit. Since I am +two thousand years too young to set up a statue of Hestia yonder in my +imitation prostas, I have built instead this small sacred nook for +prayer, which helps me spiritually, much as the Ulah aids Islam." + +"Your oratory is lovely, and I wish its counterpart adorned every +homestead in our land; but are you quite sure that in your individual +experience you are not mistaking effect for cause? Your holy heart +demands fit shrine for--" + +"I am quite sure I will not allow you to stand a moment longer on this +cold floor; and I do not intend that you shall pay me undeserved +compliments. It is derogatory to your dignity, and dangerous to my +modicum of humility. As soon as you are ready for breakfast, come to +the dining-room, where Santa Klaus left his remembrances last night. O, +Leighton! I had half a mind to hang up two stockings at uncle's bed, +for the sake of dear old lang syne. If we could only shut our eyes, and +drift back to the magical time of aprons, short clothes, and +roundabouts, when a sugar rooster with green wings and pink head, and a +doll that could open and shut her eyes, were considered more precious +than Tiffany's jewels, or Collamore's Crown Derby! Can Delmonico offer +you a repast half as appetizing as the hominy, the tea cakes, the honey +and the sweet milk which you and I used to enjoy at our supper just at +sunset, at our own little table set under the red mulberry trees in the +back yard?" + +"Why should my cousin, whose present is so rose-colored, whose future +so blissful, turn to rake amid the ashes of the past?" + +"Because, like Lot's wife, we are all prone to stare backward. Who +lives in the present? Do you? When we are young we pant for the future, +that pitches painted tents before us. When we are older, we live in the +past, that wraps itself in a sacred gilding glamour, and is vocal with +the happy echoes which alone survive. Far-off fields before and behind +us are so dewy, so vividly green; and the present is gray and stony, +and barren of charm, and we turn fretfully. It is part of the grim +tyranny of Time that it is tideless; that the stream bears +remorselessly on, and on, never back to the dear old spots; always on, +to lose itself in the eternal and unknown. So, to-day's Christmas lacks +the zest of its predecessors." + +Leo loosened the gilded chain that looped the curtains, and as the +purple folds fell behind her, hiding the arch, Doctor Douglass said +gently: + +"There is a solemn truth and wise admonition in one of Rabbi Tyra's +dicta: 'Thy yesterday is thy past; thy to-day is thy future; thy +to-morrow is a secret.'" + +"Leo, here is a package and a note which arrived during service, and as +Mr. Dunbar's servant said there was no answer expected, he did not +wait." + +As Miss Patty delivered the parcel to her niece, the minister walked +away to lay aside his vestments, but he noted the sudden hardening of +his cousin's face, the flush of displeasure, the haughty curl of her +lips; and on his ears fell his aunt's voice: + +"You expected and waited for him at morning prayer?" + +"I invited him to join us, if he felt disposed to do so." + +"What possible excuse can he offer for such negligence, when he knew +that Leighton would read the service?" + +An uwonted sparkle leaped into Leo's mild hazel eyes, and without +examination she handed the package and note to Justine. + +"Lay them in the drawer of my writing-desk, and then call all the +servants into the dining-room. Auntie, tardy excuses must wait longer +for an audience than we waited for the writer. Come to breakfast; uncle +will be impatient, and I want to enjoy his surprise when he sees his +Santa Klaus." + +She was sorely disappointed, deeply affronted by Mr. Dunbar's failure +to present himself on an occasion at which she had especially desired +his presence; and as she recalled the affectionate phraseology of her +note of invitation, her fair cheek burned with an intolerable sense of +humiliation. Was it partition, or total loss, of her precious kingdom? +In after years, she designated this Christmas as the era when the +"sceptre departed from Judah;" but putting away the chagrin, and +sealing the well of bitterness in her heart, she exchanged holiday +greetings, and proudly wore her royal robes throughout the day, holding +sternly off the spectre, which grimly bided its time--the hour of her +abdication. + +Through the benevolent and compassionate efforts of Mr. and Mrs. +Singleton, some faint reflection of the outside world festivities +penetrated the dismal monotony of prison routine; and the hearts of the +inmates were softened and gladdened by kind tokens of remembrance, that +carried the thoughts of bearded convicts back to Christmas carols in +innocent youth, and to the mother's knees where prayers were lisped. + +Illness had secured to Beryl immunity from contact with her comrades in +misery, and except to visit the little chapel, she never left the +sheltering walls of her small comfortless room, grateful for the +unexpected boon of silent seclusion. Her Christmas greeting had been +little Dick's sweet lips kissing her cheek, as he deposited upon her +narrow bed the black and white shawl his mother had knitted, and a box +left by Miss Gordon on the previous day, which contained half a dozen +pretty handkerchiefs with mourning borders, some delicate perfume and +soaps, toilet brushes and a sachet. + +An hour later, when Mrs. Singleton and her babies had gone to spend the +day with relatives in the city, Beryl went to the window, pushed the +sash up, and listened to the ringing of the Sabbath-school bells, as +every church beyond the river called its nursery to the altar, to +celebrate the day. The metallic clangor was mellowed by distance, +rising and falling like rhythmic waves, and the faint echo, filtered +through dense pine forests behind the penitentiary, had the ghostly +iteration of the Folge Fond. + +A gaunt yellow kitten, with a faded red ribbon knotted about its neck, +and vicious, amber-colored eyes that were a perpetual challenge, had +fled from the tender mercies of Dick to the city of refuge under +Beryl's cot; and community of suffering had kindled an attachment that +now prompted the lesser waif to spring into the girl's folded arms, and +rub its head against her shoulder. Mechanically Beryl's hand stroked +the creature's ear, while it purred softly under the caress; but +suddenly its back curved into an arch, the tail broadened, the purr +became a growl. Had association lifted the brute's instincts to the +plane of human antipathies? + +The warden had opened the door and quickly closed it, after ushering in +a tall figure, who wore an overcoat which was buttoned from throat to +knees. At sight of Mr. Dunbar, the cat plunged to the floor, and sped +away to the darkest corner under the iron bedstead. + +"Good morning. I dare not utter here the greetings of the day, because +you would construe it into a heartless mockery." + +He came forward hesitatingly, and she turned swiftly away, pressing her +face against the bars of the window, waving him back. + +"Why will you persist in regarding as an enemy, the one person in all +the world who is most anxious to befriend you?" + +Still no answer; only the repellent gesture warning him away. + +"Will you allow me, this Christmas morning, to comfort myself in some +degree, by leaving here a few flowers to brighten your desolate +surroundings?" + +He held out a bouquet of rare and brilliant hothouse blossoms, whose +delicious fragrance had already pervaded the room. They stood side by +side, yet she shrank farther, and kept her face averted, shivering +perceptibly. Lifting one arm he drew down the sash to shut out the +freezing air. + +"You are resolved neither to look at nor speak to me? So be it. At +least you must listen to me. You may not care to hear that I have been +absent, but perhaps it will interest you to know that I went in search +of the man for whose crime you are paying the penalty." + +If he expected her to wince under the probe, her nerves were taut, and +she defied the steel; but the face she now turned fully to him was so +blanched by illness, so hopeless in its rigid calm, that he felt a keen +pain at his own heart. + +"Prisoners, victims of justice, have, it seems, no privileges; else my +one request, my earnest prayer to be shielded from your presence, might +have protected me from this intrusion. Are you akin to Parrhasius that +you come to gloat over the agonies of a moral and mental vivisection? +The sight of suffering to which you have brought a helpless woman, is +scarcely the recompense I was taught to suppose agreeable to a +chivalrous Southern gentleman. If, wearing the red livery of Justice, +undue zeal for vengeance betrayed you into the fatal mistake of +trampling me into this horrible place, there might be palliation; but +for the brutal persistency with which you thrust your tormenting +presence upon me, not even heavenly charity could possibly find pardon. +Literally you are heaping insult upon awful injury. Is it a refinement +of cruelty that brings you here to watch and analyze my suffering, as a +biologist looks through lenses at an insect he empales, or Pasteur +scrutinizes the mortal throes of the victims into whose veins he has +injected poison?" + +If she had drawn a lash across his face, it would not have stung more +keenly than her words, so expressive of detestation. + +"Will you consider for a moment the possibility that other motives +actuate me; that ceaseless regret, remorse, if you choose, for a +terrible mistake, impels me to come here in the hope of making +reparation?" + +"Such a supposition is as inconceivable as the idea of reparation. When +a reaper goes forth to his ripe harvest, his lawful labor, and wantonly +turns aside into a by-path, to try the edge of his sickle on an humble, +unoffending stalk that fights for life among the grass and weeds, and +struggles to get its head sufficiently in the sunshine to bloom--when +he cuts it off unopened, crushes it into the sod, can he make +reparation? Although it is neither bearded yellow wheat, nor yet a +black tare, it proved the temper of his blade; and all the skill, all +the science of universal humanity, cannot re-erect the stem, cannot +remove the stains, cannot unfold the bruised petals. There are wrongs +that all time will never repair. Your sword of justice needs no +whetting; one stroke has laid me low." + +"I purpose to file it two-edged, in order to make no more mistakes. +Before long I shall cut down the real criminal, the principal, who +shall not escape, and for whom you shall not suffer." + +"Then 'a life for a life' no longer satisfies? How many are required? +The law has need of a sacrificial stone wide as that of the Aztecs. Is +justice a'daughter of the horse-leech'?" + +"So help me God--" + +"Hush! Take not His name upon your lips. Men like you cannot afford to +credit the existence of a holy God. This is Christmas--at least +according to the almanac--now as a 'chivalrous Southern gentleman,' +will you grant me a very great favor if I humbly crave it? Ah, noblesse +oblige! you cannot deny me. I beg of you, then, leave me instantly; +come here no more. Never let me see your face again, or hear your +voice, except in the court-room, when I am tried for the crime which +you have told the world I committed. This boon is the sole possible +reparation left you." + +She had clasped her hands so tightly, that the nails were bloodless, +and the fluttering in her white throat betrayed the throbbing of her +heart. + +"You are afraid of me, because you dread my discovering your secret, +which is--" + +"You have done your worst. You have locked me away from a dying mother; +disgraced an innocent life; broken a girl's pure, happy heart; what +else is there to dread? Although a bird knows full well when it has +received its death wound, instinct drives it to flutter, drag itself as +far as possible from the gaze of the sportsman, and gasp out its agony +in some lonely place." + +"When I hunt birds, and a partridge droops its wings, and hovers almost +at my feet, inviting capture, I know beyond all peradventure that it is +only love's ruse; that something she holds dearer than her own life, is +thereby screened, saved. You are guilty of a great crime against +yourself, you are submitting tacitly, consenting to an awful doom, in +order to spare and protect the real murderer." + +He bent closer, watching breathlessly for some change in her white +stony face; but her sad eyes met his with no wavering of the lids, and +only her delicate nostrils dilated slightly. She raised her locked +hands, rested her lips a moment on her mother's ring, as if drinking +some needed tonic, and answered in the same low, quiet tone: + +"Then, prime minister of justice, set me free, and punish the guilty. +Who murdered General Darrington?" + +"You have known from the beginning; and I intend to set you free, when +that cowardly miscreant has been secured. You would die to save your +lover; you, proud, brave, noble natured, would sacrifice your precious +life for that wretched, vile poltroon, who flees and leaves you to +suffer in his stead! Truly, there is no mystery so profound, so +complex, so subtle as a woman's heart. To die for his crimes, were a +happier fate than to sully your fair soul by alliance with one so +degraded; and, by the help of God, I intend to snatch you from both!" + +He had put his hands for an instant upon her shoulders, and his +handsome face flushed, eloquent with the feeling that he no longer +cared to disguise, was so close to hers, that she felt his breath on +her cheek. + +Swiftly, unerringly she comprehended everything; and the suddenness of +the discovery dazzled, awed her, as one might feel under the blue flash +of a dagger when thrust into one's clasp for novice fingers to feel the +edge. Was the weapon valued merely because of the possibility of +fleshing it in the heart of him who had darkened her life? Did he +understand as fully the marvellous change in the beautiful face, that +had lured him from his chapel tryst with his betrothed? He was on the +alert for signals of distress, of embarrassment, of terror; but what +meant the glad light that leaped up in her eyes, the quick flush +staining her wan cheek, the triumphant smile curving lips that a moment +before might have belonged to Guercino's Mater Dolorosa, the relaxation +of figure and features, the unmistakable expression of intense relief +that stole into the countenance? + +"Will you be so good as to tell me my lover's name, and where the fox +terriers of the law unearthed him?" + +"I will tell you something which you do not already know; that I have +found a clue, that I shall hunt him out, hide, crouch where he may; +that here, where he sinned, he shall expiate his crime, and that when +your lover is hung, your name, your honor, shall be vindicated. So +much, Lennox Dunbar promises you, on his honor as a gentleman." + +"Words, vapid words! Empty, worthless as last year's nests. My lover," +she laughed scornfully, "is quite safe even from your malevolence. If +indeed 'one touch of nature makes the whole world kin,' one might +expect some pity from the guild of love swains; and it augurs sadly for +Miss Gordon's future, that the spell is so utterly broken." + +His dark face reddened, lowered. + +"If you please, we will keep Miss Gordon's name out of the +conversation, and hereafter when--" + +"Enough! I shall keep her image in my grateful heart, the few tedious +months I have to live; and there seems indeed a sort of poetic justice +in the fact that the bride you covet, has become the truest, tenderest +friend of the hapless girl whom you are prosecuting for murder." + +"Beryl--" + +"I forbid such insolent presumption! You shall not utter the name my +father gave me. It is holy as my baptism; it must be kept unsullied for +my lover's lips to fondle. This is your last visit here, for if you +dare to intrude again, I will demand protection from the warden. I will +bear no more." + +As he looked at her, the witchery of her youthful loveliness, +heightened by the angry sparkle in her deep eyes, by the vivid +carnation of her curling lips, mastered him; and when he thought of the +brown-haired woman to whom he was pledged, he set his teeth tight, to +smother an execration. He moved toward the door, paused, and came back. + +"Will it comfort you to know that I suffer even more than you do; that +I am plunged into a fiercer purgatory than that to which I have +condemned you? I am devoured by regret; but I will atone. I came here +as your friend; I can never be less, and in defiance of your hatred, I +shall prove my sincerity. Because I bemoan my rash haste, will you say +good-bye kindly? Some day, perhaps, you will understand." + +He held out his hand, and his blue eyes lost their steely glitter, +filled with a prayer for pardon. + +She picked up the bouquet which had fallen from the window sill to the +floor, and without hesitation put it into his fingers: + +"I think I understand all that words could ever explain. My short +stream of life is very near the great ocean of rest. I have ceased to +struggle, ceased to hope; and since the end is so close, I wish no +active warfare even with those who wronged me most foully. If you will +spare me the sight of you, I will try to forget the added misery of the +visits you have forced upon me, and perhaps some of the bitterness may +die out. Take the flowers to Miss Gordon; leave no trace to remind me +of your persecution. We bear chastisement because we must, but the +sight of the rod renews the sting; so, henceforth, I hope to see you no +more. When we meet before our God, I may have a new heart, swept clean +of earthly hate, but until then--until then--" + +He caught her fingers, crushed his lips against them, and walked from +the room, leaving the bouquet a shattered mass of perfume in the middle +of the floor. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +Standing before Leon Gerome's tragic picture, and listening to the +sepulchral echo that floats down the arcade of centuries. "Ave, +Imperator, morituri te salutant," nineteenth century womanhood frowns, +and deplores the brutal depravity which alone explains the presence of +that white-veiled vestal band, whose snowy arms are thrust in signal +over the parapet of the bloody arena; yet fair daughters of the latest +civilization show unblushing flower faces among the heaving mass of the +"great unwashed" who crowd our court-rooms--and listen to revolting +details more repugnant to genuine modesty, than the mangled remains in +the Colosseum. The rosy thumbs of Roman vestals were potent ballots in +the Eternal City, and possibly were thrown only in the scale of mercy; +but having no voice in verdicts, to what conservative motive may be +ascribed the presence of women at criminal trials? Are the children of +Culture, the heiresses of "all the ages", really more refined than the +proud old dames of the era of Spartacus? + +Is the spectacle of mere physical torture, in gladiatorial combats, or +in the bloody precincts of plaza de toros, as grossly demoralizing as +the loathsome minutiae of heinous crimes upon which legal orators +dilate; and which Argus reporters, with magnifying lenses at every eye, +reproduce for countless newspapers, that serve as wings for +transporting moral dynamite to hearthstones and nurseries all over our +land? Is there a distinction, without a difference, between police +gazettes and the journalistic press? + +If extremes meet, and the march of human progress be along no asymtotic +line, is the day very distant when we shall welcome the Renaissance of +that wisdom which two thousand years ago held its august tribunal in +the solemn hours of night, when darkness hid from the Judges everything +save well-authenticated facts? The supreme aim of civil and criminal +law being the conservation of national and individual purity, to what +shall we attribute the paradox presented in its administration, whereby +its temples become lairs of libel, their moral atmosphere defiled by +the monstrous vivisection of parental character by children, the +slaughter of family reputation, the exhaustive analysis of every +species of sin forbidden by the Decalogue, and floods of vulgar +vituperation dreadful as the Apocalyptic vials? Can this generation + + "--in the foremost files of time--" + +afford to believe that a grim significance lurks in the desuetude of +typical judicial ermine? + +Traditions of ante bellum custom proclaimed that "good society" in the +town of X--, formerly considered the precincts of courts as unfit for +ladies as the fetid air of morgues, or the surgical instruments on +dissecting tables; but the vanguard of cosmopolitan freedom and +progress had pitched tents in the old-fashioned place, and recruited +rapidly from the ranks of the invaded; hence it came to pass, that on +the second day of the murder trial, when the preliminaries of jury +empanelling had been completed, and all were ready to launch the case, +X--announced its social emancipation from ancient canons of decorum, by +the unwonted spectacle of benches crowded with "ladies", whose silken +garments were crushed against the coarser fabrics of proletariat. +Despite the piercing cold of a morning late in February, the mass of +human furnaces had raised the temperature to a degree that encouraged +the fluttering of fans, and necessitated the order that no additional +spectators should be admitted. + +Viewed through the leaden haze of fearful anticipation, the horror of +the impending trial had seemed unendurable to the proud and sensitive +girl, whom the Sheriff placed on a seat fronting the sea of curious +faces, the battery of scrutinizing eyes turned on her from the +jury-box. Four months of dread had unnerved her, yet now when the cruel +actuality seized her in its iron grasp, that superb strength which the +inevitable lends to conscious innocence, so steeled and fortified her, +that she felt lifted to some lonely height, where numbness eased her +aching wounds. + +Pallid and motionless, she sat like a statue, save for the slow strokes +of her right hand upon the red gold of her mother's ring; and the sound +of a man's voice reading a formula, seemed to echo from an immeasurable +distance. She had consented to, had deliberately accepted the worst +possible fate, and realized the isolation of her lot; but for one thing +she was not prepared, and its unexpectedness threatened to shiver her +calmness. Two women made their way toward her: Dyce and Sister Serena. +The former sat down in the rear of the prisoner, the latter stood for a +few seconds, and her thin delicate hand fell upon the girl's shoulder. +At sight of the sweet, placid countenance below the floating white +muslin veil, Beryl's lips quivered into a sad smile; and as they shook +hands she whispered: + +"I believe even the gallows will not frighten you two from my side." + +Sister Serena seated herself as close as possible, drew from her pocket +a gray woollen stocking, and began to knit. For an instant Beryl's eyes +closed, to shut in the sudden gush of grateful tears; when she opened +them, Mr. Churchill had risen: + +"May it please the Court, Gentlemen of the Jury: If fidelity to duty +involved no sacrifice of personal feeling, should we make it the +touchstone of human character, value it as the most precious jewel in +the crown of human virtues? I were less than a man, immeasurably less +than a gentleman, were I capable of addressing you to-day, in obedience +to the behests of justice, and in fulfilment of the stern requirements +of my official position, without emotions of profound regret, that +implacable Duty, to whom I have sworn allegiance, forces me to hush the +pleading whispers of my pitying heart, to smother the tender instincts +of human sympathy, and to listen only to the solemn mandate of those +laws, which alone can secure to our race the enjoyment of life, liberty +and property. An extended professional career has hitherto furnished me +no parallel for the peculiarly painful exigencies of this occasion; and +an awful responsibility scourges me with scorpion lash to a most +unwelcome task. When man crosses swords with man on any arena, innate +pride nerves his arm and kindles enthusiasm, but alas, for the man! be +he worthy the name, who draws his blade and sees before him a young, +helpless, beautiful woman, disarmed. Were it not a bailable offence in +the court of honor, if his arm fell palsied? Each of you who has a +mother, a wife, a lily browed daughter, put yourself in my place, lend +me your sympathy; and at least applaud the loyalty that strangles all +individuality, and renders me bound thrall of official duty. Counsel +for the defence has been repeatedly offered, nay, pressed upon the +prisoner, but as often persistently rejected; hence the almost +paralyzing repugnance with which I approach my theme. + +"The Grand Jury of the county, at its last sitting, returned to this +court a bill of indictment, charging the prisoner at the bar with the +wilful, deliberate and premeditated murder of Robert Luke Darrington, +by striking him with a brass andiron. To this indictment she has +pleaded 'Not Guilty,' and stands before her God and this community for +trial. Gentlemen of the jury, you represent this commonwealth, jealous +of the inviolability of its laws, and by virtue of your oaths, you are +solemnly pledged to decide upon her guilt or innocence, in strict +accordance with the evidence that may be laid before you. In fulfilling +this sacred duty, you will, I feel assured, be governed exclusively by +a stern regard to the demands of public justice. While it taxes our +reluctant credulity to believe that a crime so hideous could have been +committed by a woman's hand, could have been perpetrated without +provocation, within the borders of our peaceful community, +nevertheless, the evidence we shall adduce must inevitably force you to +the melancholy conclusion that the prisoner at the bar is guilty of the +offence, with which she stands charged. The indictment which you are +about to try, charges Beryl Brentano with the murder. + +"In outlining the evidence which will be presented in support of this +indictment, I earnestly desire that you will give me your dispassionate +and undivided attention; and I call God to witness, that disclaiming +personal animosity and undue zeal for vengeance, I am sorrowfully +indicating as an officer of the law, a path of inquiry, that must lead +you to that goal where, before the altar of Truth, Justice swings her +divine scales, and bids Nemesis unsheathe her sword. + +"On the afternoon of October the twenty-sixth, about three o'clock, a +stranger arrived in X--and inquired of the station agent what road +would carry her to 'Elm Bluff', the home of General Darrington; +assuring him she would return in time to take the north-bound train at +7.15, as urgent business necessitated her return. Demanding an +interview with Gen'l Darrington, she was admitted, incognito, and +proclaimed herself his granddaughter, sent hither by a sick mother, to +procure a certain sum of money required for specified purposes. That +the interview was stormy, was characterized by fierce invective on her +part, and by bitter denunciation and recrimination on his, is too well +established to admit of question; and they parted implacable foes, as +is attested by the fact that he drove her from his room through a rear +and unfrequented door, opening into a flower garden, whence she +wandered over the grounds until she found the gate. The vital import of +this interview lies in the great stress Gen'l Darrington placed upon +the statement he iterated and reiterated; that he had disinherited his +daughter, and drawn up a will bequeathing his entire estate to his +step-son Prince. + +"Miss Brentano did not leave X--at 7.15, though she had ample time to +do so, after quitting 'Elm Bluff'. She loitered about the station house +until nearly half-past eight, then disappeared. At 10 P.M. she was seen +and identified by a person who had met her at 'Elm Bluff', crouching +behind a tree near the road that led to that ill-fated house, and when +questioned regarding her presence there, gave unsatisfactory answers. +At half-past two o'clock she was next seen hastening toward the station +office, along the line of the railroad, from the direction of the water +tank, which is situated nearly a mile north of town. Meanwhile an +unusually severe storm had been followed by a drenching rain, and the +stranger's garments were wet, when, after a confused and contradictory +account of her movements, she boarded the 3.05 train bound north. + +"During that night, certainly after ten o'clock, Gen'l Darrington was +murdered. His vault was forced open, money was stolen, and most +significant of all, the WILL was abstracted. Criminal jurisprudence +holds that the absence of motive renders nugatory much weighty +testimony. In this melancholy cause, could a more powerful motive be +imagined than that which goaded the prisoner to dip her fair hands in +her grandfather's blood, in order to possess and destroy that will, +which stood as an everlasting barrier between her and the estate she +coveted? + +"Crimes are referrible to two potent passions of the human soul; +malice, engendering thirst for revenge, and the insatiable lust of +money. If that old man had died a natural death, leaving the will he +had signed, his property would have belonged to the adopted son, to +whom he bequeathed it, and Mrs. Brentano and her daughter would have +remained paupers. Cut off by assassination, and with no record of his +last wishes in existence, the beloved son is bereft of his legacy, and +Beryl Brentano and her mother inherit the blood-bought riches they +covet. When arrested, gold coins and jewels identified as those +formerly deposited in Gen'l Darrington's vault, were found in +possession of the prisoner; and as if every emissary of fate were armed +with warrants for her detection, a handkerchief bearing her initials, +and saturated with the chloroform which she had administered to her +victim, was taken from the pillow, where his honored gray head rested, +when he slept his last sleep on earth. Further analysis would insult +your intelligence, and having very briefly laid before you the intended +line of testimony, I believe I have assigned a motive for this +monstrous crime, which must precipitate the vengeance of the law, in a +degree commensurate with its enormity. Time, opportunity, motive, when +in full accord, constitute a fatal triad, and the suspicious and +unexplainable conduct of the prisoner in various respects, furnishes, +in connection with other circumstances of this case, the strongest +presumptive evidence of her guilt. These circumstances, far beyond the +realm of human volition, smelted and shaped in the rolling mills of +destiny, form the tramway along which already the car of doom thunders; +and when they shall have been fully proved to you, by unassailable +testimony, no alternative remains but the verdict of guilty. Mournful +as is the duty, and awfully solemn the necessity that leaves the issue +of life and death in your hands, remember, gentlemen, Curran's immortal +words: 'A juror's oath is the adamantine chain that binds the integrity +of man to the throne of eternal justice'." + +No trace of emotion was visible on the prisoner's face, except at the +harsh mention of her mother's name; when a shudder was perceptible, as +in one where dentist's steel pierces a sensitive nerve. In order to +avoid the hundreds of eyes that stabbed her like merciless probes, her +own had been raised and fixed upon a portion of the cornice in the room +where a family of spiders held busy camp; but a fascination song +resisted, finally drew their gaze down to a seat near the bar, and she +encountered the steady, sorrowful regard of Mr. Dunbar. + +Two months had elapsed since the Christmas morning on which she had +rejected his floral offering, and during that weary season of waiting, +she had refused to see any visitors except Dyce and Sister Serena; +resolutely denying admittance to Miss Gordon. She knew that he had been +absent, had searched for some testimony in New York, and now meeting +his eyes, she saw a sudden change in their expression--a sparkle, a +smile of encouragement, a declaration of success. He fancied he +understood the shadow of dread that drifted over her face; and she +realized at that instant, that of all foes, she had most to apprehend +from the man who she knew loved her with an unreasoning and +ineradicable fervor. How much had he discovered? She could defy the +district solicitor, the judge, the jury; but only one method of +silencing the battery that was ambushed in those gleaming blue eyes +presented itself. To extinguish his jealousy, by removing the figment +of a rival, might rob him of the motive that explained his persistent +pursuit of the clue she had concealed; but it would simultaneously +demolish, also, the barrier that stretched between Miss Gordon's happy +heart and the bitter waves of a cruel disappointment. If assured that +her own affection was unpledged, would the bare form and ceremonial of +honor bind his allegiance to his betrothed? Absorbed in these +reflections, the prisoner became temporarily oblivious of the +proceedings; and it was not until Sister Serena touched her arm, that +she saw the vast throng was watching her, waiting for some reply. The +Judge repeated his question: + +"Is it the desire of the prisoner to answer the presentation of the +prosecution? Having refused professional defence, you now have the +option of addressing the Court." + +"Let the prosecution proceed." + +There was no quiver in her voice, as cold, sweet and distinct it found +its way to the extremity of the wide apartment; yet therein lurked no +defiance. She resumed her seat, and her eyes sank, until the long black +fringes veiled their depths. Unperceived, Judge Dent had found a seat +behind her, and leaning forward he whispered: + +"Will you permit me to speak for you?" + +"Thank you--no." + +"But it cuts me to the heart to see you so forsaken, so helpless." + +"God is my helper; He will not forsake me." + +The first witness called and sworn was Doctor Ledyard, the physician +who for many years had attended General Darrington; and who testified +that when summoned to examine the body of deceased, on the morning of +the inquest, he had found it so rigid that at least eight hours must +have elapsed since life became extinct. Had discovered no blood stains, +and only two contusions, one on the right temple, where a circular +black spot was conspicuous, and a bluish bruise over the region of the +heart. He had visited deceased on the morning of previous day, and he +then appeared much better, and almost relieved of rheumatism and pains +attributable to an old wound in the right knee. The skull had not been +fractured by the blow on the temple, but witness believed it had caused +death; and the andiron, which he identified as the one found on the +floor close to the deceased, was so unusually massive, he was positive +that if hurled with any force, it would produce a fatal result. + +Mr. Churchill: "Did you at that examination detect any traces of +chloroform?" + +"There was an odor of chloroform very perceptible when we lifted the +hair to examine the skull; and on searching the room, we found a vial +which had contained chloroform, and was beside the pillow, where a +portion had evidently leaked out." + +"Could death have occurred in consequence of inhaling that chloroform?" + +"If so, the deceased could never have risen, and would have been found +in his bed; moreover, the limbs were drawn up, and bent into a position +totally inconsistent with any theory of death produced by anaesthetics; +and the body was rigid as iron." + +The foregoing testimony was confirmed by that of Doctor Cranmar, a +resident physician, who had been summoned by the Coroner to assist +Doctor Ledyard in the examination, reported formally at the inquest. + +"Here, gentlemen of the jury, is the fatal weapon with which a woman's +hand, supernaturally nerved in the struggle for gain, struck down, +destroyed a venerable old man, an honored citizen, whose gray hairs +should have shielded him from the murderous assault of a mercenary +adventuress. Can she behold without a shudder, this tell-tale +instrument of her monstrous crime?" + +High above his head, Mr. Churchill raised the old-fashioned andiron, +and involuntarily Beryl glanced at the quaint brass figure, cast in the +form of a unicorn, with a heavy ball surmounting the horn. + +"Abednego Darrington!" + +Sullen, crestfallen and woe-begone was the demeanor of the old negro, +who had been brought vi et armis by a constable, from the seclusion of +a corner of the "Bend Plantation", where he had secreted himself, to +avoid the shame of bearing testimony against his mistress' child. When +placed on the witness stand, he crossed his arms over his chest, +planted his right foot firmly in advance, and fixed his eyes on the +leather strings that tied his shoes. + +After some unimportant preliminaries, the District Solicitor asked: + +"When did you first see the prisoner, who now sits before you?" + +"When she come to our house, the evening before ole Marster died." + +"You admitted her to your Master's presence?" + +"I never tuck no sech libberties. He tole me to let her in." + +"You carried her to his room?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"About what time of the day was it?" + +"Don't know." + +"Gen'l Darrington always dined at three o'clock. Was it before or after +dinner?" + +"After." + +"How long was the prisoner in the General's room?" + +"Don't know." + +"Did she leave the house by the front door, or the side door?" + +"Can't say. Didn't see her when she come out." + +"About how long was she in the house?" + +"I totes no watch, and I never had no luck guessing. I'm shore to land +wrong." + +"Was it one hour or two?" + +"Mebbe more, mebbe less." + +"Where were you during that visit?" + +"Feedin' my game pullets in the backyard." + +"Did you hear any part of the conversation between the prisoner and +Gen'l Darrington?" + +"No, sir! I'm above the meanness of eavesdrapping." + +"How did you learn that she was the granddaughter of Gen'l Darrington?" + +"Miss Angerline, the white 'oman what mends and sews, come to the back +piazer, and beckoned me to run there. She said ther must be a 'high ole +fracas', them was her words, agoin' on in Marster's room, for he was +cussin' and swearin', and his granddaughter was jawing back very +vicious. Sez I, 'Who'? Sez she, 'His granddaughter; that is Ellice's +chile'. Sez I, 'How do you know so much'? Sez she, 'I was darning them +liberry curtains, and I couldn't help hearing the wrangle'. Sez I, 'You +picked a oncommon handy time to tackle them curtains; they must be +mighty good to cure the ear-itch'. She axed me if I didn't see the +family favor in the 'oman's face; and I tole her no, but I would see +for myself. Sez she, to me, 'No yow won't, for the Gen'l is in a +tearing rage, and he's done drove her out, and kicked and slammed the +doors. She's gone.'" + +"Then you did not see her?" + +"I went to the front piazer, and I seen her far down the lawn, but +Marster rung his bell so savage, I had to run back to him." + +"Did he tell you the prisoner was his granddaughter?" + +"No, sir." + +"Did you mention the fact to him?" + +"I wouldn't 'a dared to meddle with his fambly bizness!" + +"He appeared very angry and excited?" + +"He 'peard to want some ole Conyyac what was in the sideboard, and I +brung the bottle to him." + +"Do you remember whether his vault in the wall was open, when you +answered the bell?" + +"I didn't notice it." + +"Where did you sleep that night?" + +"On a pallet in the middle passage, nigh the star steps." + +"Was that your usual custom?" + +"No, sir. But the boy what had been sleepin' in the house while ole +Marster was sick, had gone to set up with his daddy's corpse, and I +tuck his place." + +"Did you hear any unusual noise during the night?" + +"Only the squalling of the pea-fowul what was oncommon oneasy, and the +thunder that was ear-splitting. One clap was so tremenjous it raised me +plum off'en the pallet, and jarred me to my backbone, as if a cannon +had gone off close by." + +"Now, Bedney, state carefully all the circumstances under which you +found your master the next morning; and remember you are on your oath, +to speak the truth, and all the truth." + +"He was a early riser, and always wanted his shavin' water promp'. When +his bell didn't ring, I thought the storm had kep' him awake, and he +was having a mornin' nap, to make up for lost time. The clock had +struck eight, and the cook said as how the steak and chops was as dry +as a bone from waitin', and so I got the water and went to Marster's +door. It was shet tight, and I knocked easy. He never answered; so I +knocked louder; and thinkin' somethin' was shorely wrong, I opened the +door--" + +"Go on. What did you find?" + +"Mars Alfred, sir, it's very harryfyin to my feelins." + +"Go on. You are required to state all you saw, all you know." + +Bedney drew back his right foot, advanced his left. Took out his +handkerchief, wiped his face and refolded his arms. + +"My Marster was layin' on the rug before the fireplace, and his knees +was all drawed up. His right arm, was stretched out, so--and his left +hand was all doubled up. I know'd he was dead, before I tetched him, +for his face was set; and pinched and blue. I reckon I hollered, but I +can't say, for the next thing I knowed, the horsler and the cook, and +Miss Angerline, and Dyce, my ole 'oman, and Gord knows who all, was +streamin' in and out and screamin'." + +"What was the condition of the room?" + +"The front window was up, and the blinds was flung wide open, and a +cheer was upside clown close to it. The red vases what stood on the +fire-place mantle was smashed on the carpet, and the handi'on was close +to Marster's right hand. The vault was open, and papers was strowed +plentiful round on the floor under it. Then the neighburs and the +Doctor, and the Crowner come runnin' in, and I sot down by the bed and +cried like a chile. Pretty soon they turned us all out and hilt the +inquess." + +"You do not recollect any other circumstance?" + +"The lamp on the table was burnin'--and ther' wan't much oil left in +it. I seen Miss Angerline blow it out, after the Doctor come." + +"Who found the chloroform vial?" + +"Don't know." + +"Did you hear any name mentioned as that of the murderer?" + +"Miss Angerline tole the Crowner, that ef the will was missin', Gen'l +Darrington's granddaughter had stole it. They two, with some other +gentleman, sarched the vault, and Miss Angerline said everything was +higgledy piggledy and no will there." + +"You testified before the Coroner?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Why did you not give him the handkerchief you found?" + +"I didn't have it then." + +"When and where did you get it? Be very careful now." + +For the first time Bedney raised his eyes toward the place where Dyce +sat near the prisoner, and he hesitated. He took some tobacco from his +vest pocket, stowed it away in the hollow of his cheek, and re-crossed +his arms. + +"When Marster was dressed, and they carried him out to the +drawing-room, Dyce was standin' cryin' by the fireplace, and I went to +the bed, and put my hand under the bolster, where Marster always kep' +his watch and his pistol. The watch was ther' but no pistol; and just +sorter stuffed under the pillow case--was, a hank'cher. I tuk the watch +straight to the gentlemen in the drawin'-room, and they come back and +sarched for the pistol, and we foun' it layin' in its case in the table +draw'. Of all the nights in his life, ole Marster had forgot to lay his +pistol handy." + +"Never mind about the pistol. What became of the handkerchief?" + +"When I picked it up, an injun-rubber stopper rolled out, and as ther' +wan't no value in a hank'cher, I saw no harm in keepin' it--for a'mento +of ole Marster's death." + +"You knew it was a lady's handkerchief." + +"No, sir! I didn't know it then; and what's more, I don't know it now." + +"Is not this the identical handkerchief you found?" + +"Cant say. 'Dentical is a ticklish trap for a pusson on oath. It do +look like it, to be shore; but two seed in a okrey pod is ezactly +alike, and one is one, and t'other is t'other." + +"Look at it. To the best of your knowledge and belief it is the +identical handkerchief you found on Gen'l Darrington's pillow?" + +"What I found had red specks sewed in the border, and this seems jest +like it; but I don't sware to no dentical--'cause I means to be +kereful; and I will stand to the aidge of my oath; but--Mars +Alfred--don't shove me over it." + +"Can't you read?" + +"No, sir; I never hankered after book-larnin' tomfoolery, and other +freedom frauds." + +"You know your A B C's?" + +"No more 'n a blind mule." + +As the solicitor took from the table in front of the jury box, the +embroidered square of cambric, and held it up by two corners, every eye +in the court-room fastened upon it; and a deadly faintness seized the +prisoner, whitening lips that hitherto had kept their scarlet outlines. + +"Gentlemen of the jury, if the murdered man could stand before you, for +one instant only, his frozen finger would point to the fatal letters +which destiny seems to have left as a bloody brand. Here in indelible +colors are wrought 'B. B.'!--Beryl Brentano. Do you wonder, gentlemen, +that when this overwhelming evidence of her guilt came into my +possession, compassion for a beautiful woman was strangled by supreme +horror, in the contemplation of the depravity of a female monster? If +these crimson letters were gaping wounds, could their bloody lips more +solemnly accuse yonder blanched, shuddering, conscience-stricken woman +of the sickening crime of murdering her aged, infirm grandfather, from +whose veins she drew the red tide that now curdles at her heart?" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +As the third day of the trial wore away, the dense crowd in the +court-room became acquainted with the sensation of having been unjustly +defrauded of the customary public peruisite; because the monotonous +proceedings were entirely devoid of the spirited verbal duels, the +microscopic hair splitting, the biting sarcasms of opposing counsel, +the brow-beating of witnesses, the tenacious wrangling over invisible +legal points, which usually vary and spice the routine and stimulate +the interest of curious spectators. When a spiritless fox disdains to +double, and stands waiting for the hounds, who have only to rend it, +hunters feel cheated, and deem it no chase. + +To the impatient spectators, it appeared a very tame, one-sided, and +anomalous trial, where like a slow stream the evidences of guilt oozed, +and settled about the prisoner, who challenged the credibility of no +witness, and waived all the privileges of cross-examination. Now and +then, the audience criticised in whispers the "undue latitude" allowed +by the Judge, to the District Solicitor; but their "exceptions" were +informal, and the prosecution received no serious or important rebuff. + +Was the accused utterly callous, or paralyzed by consciousness of her +crime; or biding her time for a dramatic outburst of vindicating +testimony? To her sensitive nature, the ordeal of sitting day after day +to be stared at by a curious and prejudiced public, was more torturing +than the pangs of Marsyas; and she wondered whether a courageous Roman +captive who was shorn of his eyelids, and set under the blistering sun +of Africa, suffered any more keenly; but motionless, apparently +impassive as a stone mask, on whose features pitiless storms beat in +vain, she bore without wincing the agony of her humiliation. Very white +and still, she sat hour by hour with downcast eyes, and folded hands; +and those who watched most closely could detect only one change of +position; now and then she raised her clasped hands, and rested her +lips a moment on the locked fingers, then dropped them wearily on her +lap. + +Even when a juryman asked two searching questions of a witness, she +showed no sign of perturbation, and avoided meeting the eyes in the +jury-box, as though they belonged to basilisks. Was it only three days +since the beginning of this excruciating martyrdom of soul; and how +much longer could she endure silently, and keep her reason? + +At times, Sister Serena's hand forsook the knitting, to lay a soft, +caressing touch of encouragement and sympathy on the girl's shoulder; +and Dyce's burning indignation vented itself in frequent audible +grating of her strong white teeth. So passed Monday, Tuesday, +Wednesday, in the examination of witnesses who recapitulated all that +had been elicited at the preliminary investigation; and each nook and +cranny of recollection in the mind of Anthony Burk, the station agent; +of Belshazzer Tatem, the lame gardener; of lean and acrid Miss +Angeline, the seamstress, was illuminated by the lurid light of Mr. +Churchill's adroit interrogation. Thus far, the prosecution had been +conducted by the District Solicitor, with the occasional assistance of +Mr. Wolverton, who, in conjunction with Mr. Dunbar, had appeared as +representative of the Darrington estate, and its legal heir, Prince; +and when court adjourned on Wednesday, the belief was generally +entertained that no defence was possible; and that at the last moment, +the prisoner would confess her crime, and appeal to the mercy of the +jury. As the deputy sheriff led his prisoner toward the rear entrance, +where stood the dismal funereal black wagon in which she was brought +from prison to court, Judge Dent came quickly to meet her. + +"My niece, Miss Gordon, could not, of course, come into the court-room, +but she is here in the library, with her aunt, and desires to see you +for a moment?" + +"Tell her I am grateful for her kind motives, but I wish to see no one +now." + +"For your own sake, consider the--ah! here is my niece." + +"I hope you need no verbal assurance of my deep sympathy, and my +constant prayers," said Leo, taking one passive hand between hers, and +pressing it warmly. + +"Miss Gordon, I am comforted by your compassion, and by your unwavering +confidence in a stranger whom your townsmen hold up as a 'female +monster'. Because I so profoundly realize how good you are, I am +unwilling that you should identify yourself with my hopeless cause. My +sufferings will soon be over, and then I want no shadowy reflex cast +upon the smiling blue sky of your future. I have nothing more to lose, +save the burden of a life--that I shall be glad to lay down; but you--! +Be careful, do not jeopardize your beautiful dream of happiness." + +"Why do you persist in rejecting the overtures of those who could +assist, who might successfully defend you? I beg of you, consent to +receive and confer with counsel, even to-night." + +"You will never understand why I must not, till the earth gives up her +dead. You tremble, because only one more link can be added to the chain +that is coiling about my neck, and that link is the testimony of the +man whose name you expect to bear. Miss Gordon"--she stooped closer, +and whispered slowly: "Do not upbraid your lover; be tender, cling to +him; and afford me the consolation of knowing that the unfortunate +woman you befriended, and trusted, cast not even a fleeting shadow +between your heart and his. Pray for me, that I may be patient and +strong. God bless you." + +Turning swiftly, she hurried on to the officer, who had courteously +withdrawn a few yards distant. As he opened the door of the wagon, he +handed her a loosely folded sheet of paper. + +"I promised to deliver your answer as soon as possible." + +By aid of the red glow, burning low in the western sky, she read: + +"Mr. Dunbar requests that for her own sake, Miss Brentano will grant +him an interview this evening." + +"My answer must necessarily be verbal. Say that I will see no one." + +To the solitude and darkness of prison she fled for relief, as into +some merciful sheltering arms; and not even the loving solicitude of +Mrs. Singleton was permitted to penetrate her seclusion, or share her +dreary vigil. Another sleepless night dragged its leaden hours to meet +the dawn, bringing no rest to the desolate soul, who silently grappled +with fate, while every womanly instinct shuddered at the loathsome +degradation forced upon her. Face downward on her hard, narrow cot, she +recalled the terrible accusations, the opprobrious epithets, and +tearless, convulsive sobs of passionate protest shook her from head to +foot. + +Tortured with indignation and shame, at the insults heaped upon her, +yet sternly resolved to endure silently, these nights were veritable +stations along her Via Dolorosa; and fortified her for the daily +flagellation in front of the jury-box. + +On Thursday a slow, sleeting rain enveloped the world in a gray cowl, +bristling with ice needles; yet when Judge Parkman took his seat at +nine o'clock, there was a perceptible increase in the living mass, +packed in every available inch of space. + +For the first time, Mr. Dunbar's seat between his colleagues was +vacant; and Mr. Churchill and Mr. Wolverton were conversing in an +animated whisper. + +Clad in mourning garments, and with a long crape veil put back from her +face, the prisoner was escorted to her accustomed place; and braced by +a supreme effort for the critical hour, which she felt assured was at +hand, her pale set features gleamed like those of a marble statue +shrouded in black. + +Called to the stand, Simon Frisby testified that "he was telegraph +operator, and night train despatcher for railway in X--. On October the +twenty-sixth, had just gone on duty at 8 P.M. at the station, when +prisoner came in, and sent a telegram to New York. A copy of that +message had been surrendered to the District Solicitor. Witness had +remained all night in his office, which adjoined the ladies' +waiting-room, and his attention having been attracted by the unusual +fact that it was left open and lighted, he had twice gone to the door +and looked in, but saw no one. Thought the last inspection was about +two o'clock, immediately after he had sent a message to the conductor +on train No. 4. Saw prisoner when she came in, a half hour later, and +heard the conversation between her and Burk, the station agent. Was +very positive prisoner could not have been in the ladies' waiting-room +during the severe storm." + +Mr. Churchill read aloud the telegram addressed to Mrs. Ignace +Brentano: "Complete success required delay. All will be satisfactory. +Expect me Saturday. B. B." + +He commented on its ambiguous phraseology, sent the message to the jury +for inspection, and resumed his chair. + +"Lennox Dunbar." + +Sister Serena's knitting fell from her fingers; Dyce groaned audibly, +and Judge Dent, sitting quite near, uttered a heavy sigh. The statue +throbbed into life, drew herself proudly up; and with a haughty poise +of the head, her grand eloquent gray eyes looked up at the witness, and +for the first time during the trial bore a challenge. For fully a +moment, eye met eye, soul looked into soul, with only a few feet of +space dividing prisoner from witness; and as the girl scanned the dark, +resolute, sternly chiselled face, cold, yet handsome as some faultless +bronze god, a singular smile unbent her frozen lips, and Judge Dent and +Sister Serena wondered what the scarcely audible ejaculation meant: + +"At the mercy of Tiberius!" + +No faintest reflection of the fierce pain at his heart could have been +discerned on that non-committal countenance; and as he turned to the +jury, his swart magnetic face appeared cruelly hard, sinister. + +"I first saw the prisoner at 'Elm Bluff', on the afternoon previous to +Gen'l Darrington's death. When I came out of the house, she was sitting +bareheaded on the front steps, fanning herself with her hat, and while +I was untying my horse, she followed Bedney into the library. The +blinds were open and I saw her pass the window, walking in the +direction of the bedroom." + +Mr. Churchill: "At that time did you suspect her relationship to your +client, Gen'l Darrington?" + +"I did not." + +"What was the impression left upon your mind?" + +"That she was a distinguished stranger, upon some important errand." + +"She excited your suspicions at once?" + +"Nothing had occurred to justify suspicion. My curiosity was aroused. +Several hours later I was again at 'Elm Bluff' on legal business, and +found Gen'l Darrington much disturbed in consequence of an interview +with the prisoner, who, he informed me, was the child of his daughter, +whom he had many years previous disowned and disinherited. In referring +to this interview, his words were: 'I was harsh to the girl, so harsh +that she turned upon me, savage as a strong cub defending a crippled, +helpless dam. Mother and daughter know now that the last card has been +played; for I gave the girl distinctly to understand, that at my death +Prince would inherit every iota of my estate, and that my will had been +carefully written in order to cut them off without a cent.'" + +"You were led to infer that Gen'l Darrington had refused her +application for money?" + +"There was no mention of an application for money, hence I inferred +nothing." + +"During that conversation, the last which Gen'l Darrington held on +earth, did he not tell you he was oppressed by an awful presentiment +connected with his granddaughter?" + +"His words were: 'Somehow I am unable to get rid of the strange, +disagreeable presentiment that girl let behind her as a farewell +legacy. She stood there at the glass door, and raised her hand: 'Gen'l +Darrington, when you lie down to die, may God have more mercy on your +poor soul, than you have shown to your suffering child.' + +"I advised him to sleep off the disagreeable train of thought, and as I +bade him good night, his last words were: + +"'I shall write to Prince to come home.'" + +"What do you know concerning the contents of your client's will?" + +"The original will was drawn up by my father in 187-, but last May, +Gen'l Darrington required me to re-write it, as he wished to increase +the amount of a bequest to a certain charitable institution. The +provisions of the will were, that with the exception of various +specified legacies, his entire estate, real and personal, should be +given to his stepson Prince; and it was carefully worded, with the +avowed intention of barring all claims that might be presented by +Ellice Brentano or her heirs." + +"Do you recollect any allusion to jewelry?" + +"One clause of the will set aside a case of sapphire stones, with the +direction that whenever Prince Darrington married, they should be worn +by the lady as a bridal present from him." + +"Would you not deem it highly incompatible with all you know of the +Gen'l's relentless character, that said sapphires and money should have +been given to the prisoner?" + +"My surmises would be irrelevant and valueless to the Court; and facts, +indisputable facts, are all that should be required of witnesses." + +"When and where did you next see the prisoner?" + +Cold, crisp, carefully accentuated, his words fell like lead upon the +ears of all present, whose sympathies were enlisted for the desolate +woman; and as he stood, tall, graceful, with one hand thrust within his +vest, the other resting easily on the back of the bench near him, his +clear cut face so suggestive of metallic medallions, gave no more hint +of the smouldering flame at his heart than the glittering ice crown of +Eiriksjokull betrays the fierce lava tides beating beneath its frozen +crust. + +"At 10 o'clock on the same night, I saw the prisoner on the road +leading from town to 'Elm Bluff', and not farther than half a mile from +the cedar bridge spanning the 'branch', at the foot of the hill where +the iron gate stands." + +"She was then going in the direction of 'Elm Bluff?'" + +"She was sitting on the ground, with her head leaning against a pine +tree, but she rose as I approached." + +"As it was at night, is there a possibility of your having mistaken +some one else for the prisoner?" + +"None whatever. She wore no hat, and the moon shone full on her face." + +"Did you not question her about her presence there, at such an hour?" + +"I asked: 'Madam, you seem a stranger; have you lost your way?' She +answered, 'No, sir.' I added: 'Pardon me, but having seen you at "Elm +Bluff" this afternoon, I thought it possible you had missed the road.' +She made no reply, and I rode on to town." + +"She betrayed so much trepidation and embarrassment, that your +suspicion was at once aroused?" + +"She evinced neither trepidation nor embarrassment. Her manner was +haughty and repellent, as though designed to rebuke impertinence. Next +morning, when informed of the peculiar circumstances attending Gen'l +Darrington's death, I felt it incumbent upon me to communicate to the +magistrate the facts which I have just narrated." + +"An overwhelming conviction of the prisoner's guilt impelled you to +demand her arrest?" + +"Overwhelming conviction rarely results from merely circumstantial +evidence, but a combination of accusing circumstances certainly pointed +to the prisoner; and following their guidance, I am responsible for her +arrest and detention for trial. To the scrutiny of the Court I have +submitted every fact that influenced my action, and the estimate of +their value decided by the jurymen, must either confirm the cogency of +my reasoning, or condemn my rash fallibility. Having under oath +conscientiously given all the evidence in my possession, that the +prosecution would accept or desire, I now respectfully request, that +unless the prisoner chooses to exercise her right of cross-examination, +my colleagues of the prosecution, and his Honor, will grant me a final +discharge as witness." + +Turning toward Beryl, Judge Parkman said: + +"It is my duty again to remind you, that the cross-examination of +witnesses is one of the most important methods of defence; as thereby +inaccuracies of statement regarding time, place, etc., are often +detected in criminal prosecutions, which otherwise might remain +undiscovered. To this invaluable privilege of every defendant, I call +your attention once more. Will you cross-question the witness on the +stand?" + +Involuntarily her eyes sought those of the witness, and despite his +locked and guarded face, she read there an intimation that vaguely +disquieted her. She knew that the battle with him must yet be fought. + +"I waive the right." + +"Then, with the consent of the prosecuting counsel, witness is +discharged, subject to recall should the necessities of rebuttal demand +it." + +"By agreement with my colleagues, I ask for final discharge, subject to +your Honor's approval." + +"If in accordance with their wishes, the request is granted." + +The clock on the turret struck one, the hour of adjournment, and ere +recess was declared, Mr. Churchill rose. + +"Having now proved by trustworthy and unquestioned witnesses, a dark +array of facts, which no amount of additional testimony could either +strengthen, or controvert, the prosecution here rest their case before +the jury for inspection; and feeling assured that only one conclusion +can result, will call no other witness, unless required in rebuttal." + +Desiring to be alone, Beryl had shut out even Sister Serena, and as the +officer locked her into a dark antechamber, adjoining the court-room, +she began to pace the floor. One tall, narrow window, dim with inside +dust, showed her through filmy cobwebs the gray veil of rain falling +ceaselessly outside, darkening the day that seemed a fit type of her +sombre-hued life, drawing swiftly to its close, with no hope of rift in +the clouds, no possibility of sunset glow even to stain its grave. Oh! +to be hidden safely in mother earth--away from the gaping crowd that +thirsted for her blood!--at rest in darkness and in silence; with the +maddening stings of outraged innocence and womanly delicacy stilled +forever. Oh! the coveted peace of lying under the sod, with only +nodding daisies, whispering grasses, crystal chimes of vernal rain, +solemn fugue of wintry winds between her tired, aching eyes and the +fair, eternal heavens! Harrowing days and sleepless, horror-haunted +nights, invincible sappers and miners, had robbed her of strength; and +the uncontrollable shivering that now and then seized her, warned her +that her nerves were in revolt against the unnatural strain. The end +was not far distant, she must endure a little longer; but that last +battle with Mr. Dunbar? On what ground, with what weapons would he +force her to fight? Kneeling in front of a wooden bench that lined one +side of the room, she laid her head on the seat, covered her face with +her hands, and prayed for guidance, for divine help in her hour of +supreme desolation. + +"God of the helpless, succor me in my need. Forbid that through +weakness the sacrifice should be incomplete. Lead, sustain, fortify me +with patience, that I may ransom the soul I have promised to save." + +After a time, when she resumed her walk, a strange expedient presented +itself. If she sent for Mr. Dunbar, exacted an oath of secrecy, and +confided the truth to his keeping, would it avail to protect her +secret; would it silence him? Could she stoop so low as to throw +herself upon his mercy? Therein lay the nauseous lees of her cup of +humiliation; yet if she drained this last black drop, would any pledge +have power to seal his lips, when he saw that she must die? + +The deputy sheriff unlocked the door, and she mechanically followed him. + +"I wish you would drink this glass of wine. You look so exhausted, and +the air in yonder is so close, it is enough to stifle a mole. This will +help to brace you up." + +"Thank you very much, but I could not take it. I can bear my wrongs +even to the end, and that must be very near." + +As he ushered her into the court-room, Judge Dent met her, took her +hand, and led her to the seat where Dyce and Sister Serena awaited her +return. + +"My poor child, be courageous now; and remember that you have some +friends here, who are praying God to help and deliver you." + +"Did He deliver His own Son from the pangs of death? Pray, that I may +be patient to endure." + +One swift glance, showed her that Mr. Dunbar, forsaking his former +place beside the district attorney, was sitting very near, just in +front of her. The jurymen filed slowly into their accustomed seats, and +the judge, who had been resting his head on his hand, straightened +himself, and put aside a book. There was an ominous hush pervading the +dense crowd, and in that moment of silent expectancy, Beryl shut her +eyes and communed with her God. Some mystical exaltation of soul +removed her from the realm of nervous dread; and a peace, that this +world neither gives nor takes away, settled upon her. Sister Serena +untied and took off the crape veil and bonnet, and as she resumed her +seat, Judge Parkman turned to the prisoner. + +"In assuming the responsibility of your own defence you have adopted a +line of policy which, however satisfactory to yourself, must, in the +opinion of the public, have a tendency to invest your cause with +peculiar peril; therefore I impress upon you the fact, that while the +law holds you innocent, until twelve men agree that the evidence proves +you guilty, the time has arrived when your cause depends upon your +power to refute the charges, and disprove the alleged facts arrayed +against you. The discovery and elucidation of Truth, is the supreme aim +of a court of justice, and to its faithful ministers the defence of +innocence is even more imperative than the conviction of guilt. The law +is a Gibraltar, fortified and armed by the consummate wisdom of +successive civilizations, as an impregnable refuge for innocence; and +here, within its protecting bulwarks, as in the house of a friend, you +are called on to plead your defence. You have heard the charges of the +prosecution; listened to the testimony of the witnesses; and having +taken your cause into your own hands, you must now stand up and defend +it." + +She rose and walked a few steps closer to the jury, and for the first +time during the trial, looked at them steadily. White as a statue of +Purity, she stood for a moment, with her wealth of shining auburn hair +coiled low on her shapely head, and waving in soft outlines around her +broad full brow. Unnaturally calm, and wonderfully beautiful in that +sublime surrender, which like a halo illumines the myth of Antigone, it +was not strange that every heart thrilled, when upon the strained ears +of the multitude fell the clear, sweet, indescribably mournful voice. + +"When a magnolia blossom or a white camellia just fully open, is +snatched by violent hands, bruised, crushed, blackened, scarred by +rents, is it worth keeping? No power can undo the ruin, and since all +that made it lovely--its stainless purity--is irrevocably destroyed, +why preserve it? Such a pitiable wreck you have made of the young life +I am bidden to stand up and defend. Have you left me anything to live +for? Dragged by constables before prejudiced strangers, accused of +awful crimes, denounced as a female monster, herded with convicts, can +you imagine any reason why I should struggle to prolong a disgraced, +hopelessly ruined existence? My shrivelled, mutilated life is in your +hands, and if you decide to crush it quickly, you will save me much +suffering; as when having, perhaps unintentionally, mangled some +harmless insect, you mercifully turn back, grind it under your heel, +and end its torture. My life is too wretched now to induce me to defend +it, but there is something I hold far dearer, my reputation as an +honorable Christian woman; something I deem most sacred of all--the +unsullied purity of the name my father and mother bore. Because I am +innocent of every charge made against me, I owe it to my dead, to lift +their honored name out of the mire. I have pondered the testimony; and +the awful mass of circumstances that have combined to accuse me, seems +indeed so overwhelming, that as each witness came forward, I have asked +myself, am I the victim of some baleful destiny, placed in the grooves +of destroying fate-foreordained from the foundations of the world to +bear the burden of another's guilt? You have been told that I killed +Gen'l Darrington, and stole his money and jewels, and destroyed his +will, in order to possess his estate. Trustworthy witnesses have sworn +to facts, which I cannot deny, and you believe these facts; and yet, +while the snare tightens around my feet, and I believe you intend to +condemn me, I stand here, and look you in the face--as one day we +thirteen will surely stand at the final judgment--and in the name of +the God I love, and fear, and trust, I call you each to witness, that I +am innocent of every charge in the indictment. My hands are as +unstained, my soul is as unsullied by theft or bloodshed, as your +sinless babes cooing in their cradles. + +"If you can clear your minds of the foul tenants thrust into them, try +for a little while to forget all the monstrous crimes you have heard +ascribed to me, and as you love your mothers, wives, daughters, go back +with me, leaving prejudice behind, and listen dispassionately to my +most melancholy story. The river of death rolls so close to my weary +feet, that I speak as one on the brink of eternity; and as I hope to +meet my God in peace, I shall tell you the truth. Sometimes it almost +shakes our faith in God's justice, when we suffer terrible +consequences, solely because we did our duty; and it seems to me +bitterly hard, inscrutable, that all my misfortunes should have come +upon me thick and fast, simply because I obeyed my mother. You, +fathers, say to your children, 'Do this for my sake,' and lovingly they +spring to accomplish your wishes; and when they are devoured by agony, +and smothered by disgrace, can you sufficiently pity them, blind +artificers of their own ruin? + +"Four months ago I was a very poor girl, but proud and happy, because +by my own work I could support my mother and myself. Her health failed +rapidly, and life hung upon an operation and certain careful subsequent +treatment, which it required one hundred dollars to secure. I was +competing for a prize that would lift us above want, but time pressed; +the doctor urged prompt action, and my mother desired me to come South, +see her father, deliver a letter and beg assistance. As long as +possible, I resisted her entreaties, because I shrank from the +degradation of coming as a beggar to the man who, I knew, had +disinherited and disowned his daughter. + +"Finally, strangling my rebellious reluctance, I accepted the bitter +task. My mother kissed me good-bye, laid her hands on my head and +blessed me for acceding to her wishes; and so--following the finger of +Duty--I came here to be trampled, mangled, destroyed. When I arrived, I +found I could catch a train going north at 7.15, and I bought a return +ticket, and told the agent I intended to take that train. I walked to +'Elm Bluff,' and after waiting a few moments was admitted to Gen'l +Darrington's presence. The letter which I delivered was an appeal for +one hundred dollars, and it was received with an outburst of wrath, a +flood of fierce and bitter denunciation of my parents. The interview +was indescribably painful, but toward its close, Gen'l Darrington +relented. He opened his safe or vault, and took out a square tin box. +Placing it on the table, he removed some papers, and counted down into +my hand, five gold coins--twenty dollars each. When I turned to leave +him, he called me back, gave me the morocco case, and stated that the +sapphires were very costly, and could be sold for a large amount. He +added, with great bitterness, that he gave them, simply because they +were painful souvenirs of a past, which he was trying to forget; and +that he had intended them as a bridal gift to his son Prince's wife; +but as they had been bought by my mother's mother as a present for her +only child, he would send them to their original destination, for the +sake of his first wife, Helena. + +"I left the room by the veranda door, because he bade me do so, to +avoid what he termed 'the prying of servants.' I broke some clusters of +chrysanthemums blooming in the rose garden, to carry to my mother, and +then I hurried away. If the wages of disobedience be death, then fate +reversed the mandate, and obedience exacts my life as a forfeit. Think +of it: I had ample time to reach the station before seven o'clock, and +if I had gone straight on, all would have been well. I should have +taken the 7.15 train, and left forever this horrible place. If I had +not loitered, I should have seen once more my mother's face, have +escaped shame, despair, ruin--oh! the blessedness of what 'might have +been!' + +"Listen, my twelve judges, and pity the child who obeyed at all +hazards. Poor though I was, I bought a small bouquet for my sick mother +the day that I left her, and the last thing she did was to arrange the +flowers, tie them with a wisp of faded blue ribbon, and putting them in +my hand, she desired me to be sure to stop at the cemetery, find her +mother's grave in the Darrington lot, and lay the bunch of blossoms for +her upon her mother's monument. Mother's last words were: 'Don't forget +to kneel down and pray for me, at mother's grave.'" + +The voice so clear, so steady hitherto, quivered, ceased; and the heavy +lashes drooped to hide the tears that gathered; but it was only for a +few seconds, and she resumed in the same cold, distinct tone: + +"So I went on, and fate tied the last millstone around my neck. After +some search I found the place, and left the bunch of flowers with a few +of the chrysanthemums; then I hastened toward town, and reached the +station too late; the 7.15 train had gone. Too late!--only a half hour +lost, but it carried down everything that this world held for me. I +used to wonder and puzzle over that passage in the Bible, 'The stars in +their courses fought against Sisera!' I have solved that mystery, for +the stars in their courses' have fought against me; heaven, earth, man, +time, circumstances, coincidences, all spun the web that snared my +innocent feet. When I paid for the telegram to relieve my mother's +suspense, I had not sufficient money (without using the gold) to enable +me to incur hotel bills; and I asked permission to remain in the +waiting-room until the next train, which was due at 3.05. The room was +so close and warm I walked out, and the fresh air tempted me to remain. +The moon was up, full and bright, and knowing no other street, I +unconsciously followed the one I had taken in the afternoon. Very soon +I reached the point near the old church where the road crosses, and I +turned into it, thinking that I would enjoy one more breath of the pine +forest, which was so new to me. It was so oppressively hot I sat down +on the pine straw, and fanned myself with my hat. How long I remained +there, I know not, for I fell asleep; and when I awoke, Mr. Dunbar rode +up and asked if I had lost my way. I answered that I had not, and as +soon as he galloped on, I walked back as rapidly as possible, somewhat +frightened at the loneliness of my position. Already clouds were +gathering, and I had been in the waiting-room, I think about an hour, +when the storm broke in its fury. I had seen the telegraph operator +sitting in his office, but he seemed asleep, with his head resting on +the table; and during the storm I sat on the floor, in one corner of +the waiting-room, and laid my head on a chair. At last, when the +tempest ended, I went to sleep. During that sleep, I dreamed of my old +home in Italy, of some of my dead, of my father--of gathering grapes +with one I dearly loved--and suddenly some noise made me spring to my +feet. I heard voices talking, and in my feverish dreamy state, there +seemed a resemblance to one I knew. Only half awake, I ran out on the +pavement. Whether I dreamed the whole, I cannot tell; but the +conversation seemed strangely distinct; and I can never forget the +words, be they real, or imaginary: "'There ain't no train till +daylight, 'cepting it be the through freight.' + +"Then a different voice asked: 'When it that due?'" + +"'Pretty soon I reckon, it's mighty nigh time now, but it don't stop +here; it goes on to the water tank, where it blows for the bridge.'" + +'"How far is the bridge?'" + +"'Only a short piece down the track, after you pass the tank.'" + +"When I reached the street, I saw no one but the figure of an old man, +I think a negro, who was walking away. He limped and carried a bundle +on the end of a stick thrown over his shoulder. I was so startled and +impressed by the fancied sound of a voice once familiar to me, that I +walked on down the track, but could see no one. Soon the 'freight' came +along; I stood aside until it passed, then returned to the station, and +found the agent standing in the door. When he questioned me about my +movements; I deemed him impertinent; but having nothing to conceal, +stated the facts I have just recapitulated. You have been told that I +intentionally missed the train; that when seen at 10 P.M. in the pine +woods, I was stealing back to my mother's old home; that I entered at +midnight the bedroom where her father slept, stupefied him with +chloroform, broke open his vault, robbed it of money, jewels and will; +and that when Gen'l Darrington awoke and attempted to rescue his +property, I deliberately killed him. You are asked to believe that I am +'the incarnate fiend' who planned and committed that horrible crime, +and, alas for me! every circumstance seems like a bloodhound to bay me. +My handkerchief was found, tainted with chloroform. It was my +handkerchief; but how it came there, on Gen'l Darrington's bed, only +God witnessed. I saw among the papers taken from the tin box and laid +on the table, a large envelope marked in red ink, 'Last Will and +Testament of Robert Luke Darrington'; but I never saw it afterward. I +was never in that room but once; and the last and only time I ever saw +General Darrington was when I passed out of the glass door, and left +him standing in the middle of the room, with the tin box in his hand. + +"I can call no witnesses; for it is one of the terrible fatalities of +my situation that I stand alone, with none to corroborate my +assertions. Strange, inexplicable coincidences drag me down; not the +malice of men, but the throttling grasp of circumstances. I am the +victim of some diabolical fate, which only innocent blood will appease; +but though I am slaughtered for crimes I did not commit, I know, oh! I +know, that BEHIND FATE, STANDS GOD!--the just and eternal God, whom I +trust, even in this my hour of extremest peril. Alone in the world, +orphaned, reviled, wrecked for all time, without a ray of hope, I, +Beryl Brentano, deny every accusation brought against me in this cruel +arraignment; and I call my only witness, the righteous God above us, to +hear my solemn asseveration: I am innocent of this crime; and when you +judicially murder me in the name of Justice, your hands will be dyed in +blood that an avenging God will one day require of you. Appearances, +circumstances, coincidences of time and place, each, all, conspire to +hunt me into a convict's grave; but remember, my twelve judges, +remember that a hopeless, forsaken, broken-hearted woman, expecting to +die at your hands, stood before you, and pleaded first and last--Not +Guilty! Not Guilty!--" + +A moment she paused, then raised her arms toward heaven and added, with +a sudden exultant ring in her thrilling voice, and a strange rapt +splendor in her uplifted eyes: + +"Innocent! Innocent! Thou God knowest! Innocent of this sin, as the +angels that see Thy face." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +As a glassy summer sea suddenly quivers, heaves, billows under the +strong steady pressure of a rising gale, so that human mass surged and +broke in waves of audible emotion, when Beryl's voice ceased; for the +grace and beauty of a sorrowing woman hold a spell more potent than +volumes of forensic eloquence, of juridic casuistry, of rhetorical +pyrotechnics, and at its touch, the latent floods of pity gushed; +people sprang to their feet, and somewhere in the wide auditory a woman +sobbed. Habitues of a celebrated Salon des Etrangers recall the +tradition of a Hungarian nobleman who, apparently calm, nonchalant, +debonair, gambled desperately; "while his right hand, resting easily +inside the breast of his coat, clutched and lacerated his flesh till +his nails dripped with blood." With emotions somewhat analogous, Mr. +Dunbar sat as participant in this judicial rouge et noir, where the +stakes were a human life, and the skeleton hand of death was already +outstretched. Listening to the calm, mournful voice which alone had +power to stir and thrill his pulses, he could not endure the pain of +watching the exquisite face that haunted him day and night; and when he +computed the chances of her conviction, a maddening perception of her +danger made his brain reel. + +To all of us comes a supreme hour, when realizing the adamantine +limitations of human power, the "thus far, no farther" of relentless +physiological, psychological and ethical statutes under which humanity +lives, moves, has its being--our desperate souls break through the +meshes of that pantheistic idolatry which kneels only to "Natural +Laws"; and spring as suppliants to Him, who made Law possible. We take +our portion of happiness and prosperity, and while it lasts we wander +far, far away in the seductive land of philosophical speculation, and +revel in the freedom and irresponsibility of Agnosticism; and lo! when +adversity smites, and bankruptcy is upon us, we toss the husks of the +"Unknowable and Unthinkable" behind us, and flee as the Prodigal who +knew his father, to that God whom (in trouble) we surely know. + +Certainly Lennox Dunbar was as far removed from religious tendencies as +conformity to the canons of conventional morality and the habits of an +honorable gentleman in good society would permit; yet to-day, in the +intensity of his dread, lest the "consummate flower" of his heart's +dearest hope should be laid low in the dust, he involuntarily invoked +the aid of a long-forgotten God; and through his set teeth a prayer +struggled up to the throne of that divine mercy, which in sunshine we +do not see, but which as the soul's eternal lighthouse gleams, glows, +beckons in the blackest night of human anguish. In boyhood, desiring to +please his invalid and slowly dying mother, he had purchased and hung +up opposite her bed, an illuminated copy of her favorite text; and now, +by some subtle transmutation in the conservation of spiritual energy, +each golden letter of that Bible text seemed emblazoned on the dusty +wall of the court-room: "God is our refuge and strength, a very present +help in trouble." + +When a stern reprimand from the Judge had quelled all audible +expression of the compassionate sympathy that flowed at the prisoner's +story--as the flood at Horeb responded to Moses' touch--there was a +brief silence. + +Mr. Dunbar rose, crossed the intervening space and stood with his hand +on the back of Beryl's chair; then moved on closer to the jury box. + +"May it please your Honor, and Gentlemen of the Jury: Sometimes +mistakes are crimes, and he who through unpardonable rashness commits +them, should not escape 'unwhipped of justice'. When a man in the +discharge of that which he deemed a duty, becomes aware that +unintentionally he has perpetrated a great wrong, can he parley with +pride, or dally, because the haunting ghost of consistency waves him +back from the path of a humiliating reparation? Error is easy, +confession galling; and stepping down from the censor's seat to share +the mortification of the pillory, is at all times a peculiarly painful +reverse; hence, powerful indeed must be the conviction which impels a +man who prided himself on his legal astuteness, to come boldly into +this sacred confessional of truth and justice and plead for absolution +from a stupendous mistake. Two years ago, I became Gen'l Darrington's +attorney, and when his tragic death occurred in October last, my +professional relations, as well as life-long friendship, incited me to +the prompt apprehension of the person who had murdered him. After a +careful and apparently exhaustive examination of the authenticated +facts, I was convinced that they pointed only in one direction; and in +that belief, I demanded and procured the arrest of the prisoner. For +her imprisonment, her presence here to-day, her awful peril, I hold +myself responsible; and now, gentlemen of the jury, I ask you as men +having hearts of flesh, and all the honorable instincts of manhood, +which alone could constitute you worthy umpires in this issue of life +or death, do you, can you wonder that regret sits at my ear, chanting +mournful dirges, and remorse like a harpy fastens her talons in my +soul, when I tell you, that I have committed a blunder so frightful, +that it borders on a crime as heinous as that for which my victim +stands arraigned? Wise was the spirit of a traditional statute, which +decreed that the author of a false accusation should pay the penalty +designed for the accused; and just indeed would be the retribution, +that imposed on me the suffering I have entailed on her. + +"Acknowledging the error into which undue haste betrayed me, yet +confident that divine justice, to whom I have sworn allegiance, has +recalled me from a false path to one that I can now tread with absolute +certainty of success, I come to-day into this, her sacred temple, lay +my hand on her inviolate altar, and claiming the approval of her +officiating high-priest, his Honor, appeal to you, gentlemen of the +jury, to give me your hearty co-operation in my effort to repair a foul +wrong, by vindicating innocence. + +"Professors of ophthalmology in a diagnosis of optical diseases, tell +us of a symptom of infirmity which they call pseudoblepsis, or 'false +sight.' Legal vision exhibits, now and then, a corresponding phase of +unconscious perversion of sight, whereby objects are perceived that do +not exist, and objects present become transformed, distorted; and such +an instance of exaggerated metamorphosia is presented to-day, in the +perverted vision of the prosecution. In the incipiency of this case, +prior to, and during the preliminary examination held in October last, +I appeared in conjunction with Mr. Wolverton, as assistant counsel in +the prosecution, represented by the Honorable Mr. Churchill, District +Solicitor; the object of said prosecution being the conviction of the +prisoner, who was held as guilty of Gen'l Darrington's death. +Subsequent reflection and search necessitated an abandonment of views +that could alone justify such a position; and after consultation with +my colleagues I withdrew; not from the prosecution of the real +criminal, to the discovery and conviction of whom I shall dedicate +every energy of my nature, but from the pursuit of one most unjustly +accused. Anomalous as is my attitude, the dictates of conscience, +reason, heart, force me into it; and because I am the implacable +prosecutor of Gen'l Darrington's murderer, _I_ COME TO PLEAD IN DEFENSE +OF THE PRISONER, whom I hold guiltless of the crime, innocent of the +charge in the indictment. In the supreme hour of her isolation, she has +invoked only one witness; and may that witness, the God above us, the +God of justice, the God of innocence, grant me the inspiration, and +nerve my arm to snatch her from peril, and triumphantly vindicate the +purity of her noble heart and life." + +Remembering the important evidence which he had furnished to the +prosecution, only a few hours previous, when on the witness stand, +people looked at one another questioningly; doubting the testimony of +their own senses; and VOX POPULI was not inaptly expressed by the +whispered ejaculation of Bedney to Dyce. + +"Judgment day must be breaking! Mars Lennox is done turned a double +summersett, and lit plum over on t'other side! It's about ekal to a +spavinned, ring-boned, hamstrung, hobbled horse clearin' a ten-rail +fence! He jumps so beautiful, I am afeered he won't stay whar he lit!" + +Comprehending all that this public recantation had cost a proud man, +jealous of his reputation for professional tact and skill, as well as +for individual acumen, Beryl began to realize the depth and fervor of +the love that prompted it; and the merciless ordeal to which he would +subject her. Inflicting upon himself the smarting sting of the keenest +possible humiliation, could she hope that in the attainment of his aim +he would spare her? If she threw herself even now upon his mercy, would +he grant to her that which he had denied himself? + +Dreading the consequences of even a moment's delay, she rose, and a hot +flush crimsoned her cheeks, as she looked up at the Judge. + +"Is it my privilege to decide who shall defend me? Have I now the right +to accept or reject proffered aid?" + +"The law grants you that privilege; secures you that right." + +"Then I decline the services of the counsel who offers to plead in my +defence. I wish no human voice raised in my behalf, and having made my +statement in my own defence, I commit my cause to the hands of my God." + +For a moment her eyes dwelt upon the lawyer's, and as she resumed her +seat, she saw the spark in their blue depths leap into a flame. +Advancing a few steps, his handsome face aglow, his voice rang like a +bugle call: + +"May it please your Honor: Anomalous conditions sanction, necessitate +most anomalous procedure, where the goal sought is simple truth and +justice; and since the prisoner prefers to rest her cause, I come to +this bar as Amicus Curiae, and appeal for permission to plead in behalf +of my clients, truth and justice, who hold me in perpetual retainment. +In prosecution of the real criminal, in order to unravel the curiously +knitted web, and bring the culprit to summary punishment, I ask you, +gentlemen of the jury, to ponder dispassionately the theory I have now +the honor to submit to your scrutiny. + +"The prisoner, whom I regard as the victim of my culpable haste and +deplorably distorted vision, is as innocent of Gen'l Darrington's +murder as you or I; but I charge, that while having no complicity in +that awful deed, she is nevertheless perfectly aware of the name of the +person who committed it. Not particeps crimmis, neither consenting to, +aiding, abetting nor even acquainted with the fact of the crime, until +accused of its perpetration; yet at this moment in possession of the +only clue which will enable justice to seize the murderer. Conscious of +her innocence, she braves peril that would chill the blood of men, and +extort almost any secret; and shall I tell you the reason? Shall I give +you the key to an enigma which she knows means death? + +"Gentlemen of the jury, is there any sacrifice so tremendous, any +anguish so keen, any shame so dreadful, any fate so overwhelmingly +terrible as to transcend the endurance, or crush the power of a woman's +love? Under this invincible inspiration, when danger threatens her +idol, she knows no self; disgrace, death affright her not; she extends +her arms to arrest every approach, offers her own breast as a shield +against darts, bullets, sword thrusts, and counts it a privilege to lay +down life in defence of that idol. O! loyalty supreme, sublime, +immortal! thy name is woman's love. + +"All along the march of humanity, where centuries have trailed their +dust, traditions gleam like monuments to attest the victory of this +immemorial potency, female fidelity; and when we of the nineteenth +century seek the noblest, grandest type of merely human +self-abnegation, that laid down a pure and happy life, to prolong that +of a beloved object, we look back to the lovely image of that fair +Greek woman, who, when the parents of the man she loved refused to give +their lives to save their son, summoned death to accept her as a +willing victim; and deeming it a privilege, went down triumphantly into +the grave. Sustained, exalted by this most powerful passion that can +animate and possess a human soul, the prisoner stands a pure, +voluntary, self-devoted victim; defying the terrors of the law, +consenting to condemnation--surrendering to an ignominious death, in +order to save the life of the man she loves. + +"Grand and beautiful as is the spectacle of her calm mournful heroism, +I ask you, as men capable of appreciating her noble self-immolation, +can you permit the consummation of this sacrifice? Will you, dare you, +selected, appointed, dedicated by solemn oaths to administer justice, +prove so recreant to your holy trust as to aid, abet, become +accessories to, and responsible for the murder of the prisoner by +accepting a stainless victim, to appease that violated law which only +the blood of the guilty can ever satisfy? + +"In order to avert so foul a blot on the escutcheon of our State +judiciary, in order to protect innocence from being slaughtered, and +supremely in order to track and bring to summary punishment the +criminal who robbed and murdered Gen'l Darrington, I now desire, and +request, that your Honor will permit me to cross-examine the prisoner +on the statement she has offered in defence." + +"In making that request, counsel must be aware that it is one of the +statutory provisions of safety to the accused, whom the law holds +innocent until proved guilty, that no coercion can be employed to +extort answers. It is, however, the desire of the court, and certainly +must accrue to the benefit of the prisoner, that she should take the +witness stand in her own defence." + +For a moment there was neither sound nor motion. + +"Will the prisoner answer such questions as in the opinion of the court +are designed solely to establish her innocence? If so, she will take +the stand." + +With a sudden passionate movement at variance with her demeanor +throughout the trial, she threw up her clasped hands, gazed at them, +then pressed them ring downward as a seal upon her lips; and after an +instant, answered slowly: + +"Now and henceforth, I decline to answer any and all questions. I am +innocent, entirely innocent. The burden of proof rests upon my +accusers." + +As Mr. Dunbar watched her, noted the scarlet spots burning on her +cheeks, the strange expression of her eyes that glowed with unnatural +lustre, a scowl darkened his face; a cruel smile curved his lips, and +made his teeth gleam. Was it worth while to save her against her will; +to preserve the heart he coveted, for the vile miscreant to whom she +had irrevocably given it? With an upward movement of his noble head, +like the impatient toss of a horse intolerant of curb, he stepped back +close to the girl, and stood with his hand on the back of her chair. + +"In view of this palpable evasion of justice through obstinate non +responsion, will it please the Court to overrule the prisoner's +objection?" + +Several moments elapsed before Judge Parkman replied, and he gnawed the +end of his grizzled mustache, debating the consequences of dishonoring +precedent--that fetich of the Bench. + +"The Court cannot so rule. The prisoner has decided upon the line of +defence, as is her inalienable right; and since she persistently +assumes that responsibility, the Court must sustain her decision." + +The expression of infinite and intense relief that stole over the +girl's countenance, was, noted by both judge and jury, as she sank back +wearily in her chair, like one lifted from some rack of torture. +Resting thus, her shoulder pressed against the hand that lay on the top +of the chair, but he did not move a finger; and some magnetic influence +drew her gaze to meet his. He felt the tremor that crept over her, +understood the mute appeal, the prayer for forbearance that made her +mournful gray eyes so eloquent, and a sinister smile distorted his +handsome mouth. + +"The spirit and intent of the law, the usages of criminal practice, +above all, hoary precedent, before which we bow, each and all sanction +your Honor's ruling; and yet despite everything, the end I sought is +already attained. Is not the refusal of the prisoner proof positive, +'confirmation strong as proofs of Holy Writ' of the truth of my theory? +With jealous dread she seeks to lock the clue in her faithful heart, +courting even the coffin, that would keep it safe through all the +storms of time. Impregnable in her citadel of silence, with the cohorts +of Codes to protect her from escalade and assault, will the guardians +of justice have obeyed her solemn commands when they permit the +prisoner to light the funeral pyre where she elects to throw herself--a +vicarious sacrifice for another's sins? For a nature so exalted, the +Providence who endowed it has decreed a nobler fate; and by His help, +and that of your twelve consciences, I purpose to save her from a +species of suicide, and to consign to the hangman the real criminal. +The evidence now submitted, will be furnished by the testimony of +witnesses who, at my request, have been kept without the hearing of the +Court." + +He left Beryl's chair, and once more approached the jury, + +"Isam Hornbuckle." + +A negro man, apparently sixty years old, limped into the witness stand, +and having been sworn, stood leaning on his stick, staring uneasily +about him. + +"What is your name?" + +"Isam Clay Hornbuckle." + +"Where do you live?" + +"Nigh the forks of the road, close to 'Possum Ridge." + +"How far from town?" + +"By short cuts I make it about ten miles; but the gang what works the +road, calls it twelve." + +"Have you a farm there?" + +"Yes'ir. A pretty tolerable farm; a cornfield and potato patch and +gyarden, and parsture for my horgs and oxin, and a slipe of woods for +my pine knots." + +"What is your business?" + +"Tryin' to make a livin', and it keeps me bizzy, for lans is poor, and +seasons is most ginerally agin crops." + +"How long have you been farming?" + +"Only sence I got mashed up more 'an a year ago on the railroad." + +"In what capacity did you serve when working on the road?" + +"I was fireman under ingeneer Walker on the lokymotive 'Gin'l +Borygyard,' what most ginerally hauled Freight No. 2. The ingines goes +now by numbers, but we ole hands called our'n always 'Borygyard'." + +"You were crippled in a collision between two freight trains?" + +"Yes'ir; but t'other train was the cause of the--" + +"Never mind the cause of the accident. You moved out to 'Possum Ridge; +can you remember exactly when you were last in town?" + +"To be shore! I know exactly, 'cause it was the day my ole 'oman's +step-father's granny's funeral sarmont was preached; and that was on a +Thursday, twenty-sixth of October, an' I come up to 'tend it." + +"Is it not customary to preach the funeral sermons on Sunday?" + +"Most generally, Boss, it are; but you see Bre'r Green, what was to +preach the ole 'oman's sarmont, had a big baptizin' for two Sundays +han' runnin', and he was gwine to Boston for a spell, on the next +comin' Saddy, so bein' as our time belonks to us now, we was free to +'pint a week day." + +"You are positive it was the twenty-sixth?" + +"Oh, yes'ir; plum postiv. The day was norated from all the baptiss +churches, so as the kinfolks could gether from fur and nigh." + +"At what hour on Thursday was the funeral sermon preached?" + +"Four o'clock sharp." + +"Where did you stay while in town?" + +"With my son Ducaleyon who keeps a barber-shop on Main Street." + +"When did you return home?" + +"I started before day, Friday mornin', as soon as the rain hilt up." + +"At what hour, do you think?" + +"The town clock was a strikin' two, jes as I passed the express office, +at the station." + +"Now, Isam, tell the Court whom you saw, and what happened; and be very +careful in all you say, remembering you are on your oath." + +"I was atoting a bundle so--slung on to a stick, and it gaided my +shoulder, 'cause amongst a whole passel of plunder I had bought, ther +was a bag of shot inside, what had slewed 'round oft the balance, and I +sot down, close to a lamp-post nigh the station, to shift the heft of +the shot bag. Whilst I were a squatting, tying up my bundle, I heered +all of a suddent--somebody runnin', brip--brap--! and up kern a man +from round the corner of the stationhouse, a runnin' full tilt; and he +would a run over me, but I grabbed my bundle and riz up. Sez I: 'Hello! +what's to pay?' He was most out of breath, but sez he: 'Is the train in +yet?' Sez I: 'There ain't no train till daylight, 'cepting it be the +through freight.' Then he axed me: 'When is that due?' and I tole him: +'Pretty soon, I reckon, but it don't stop here; it only slows up at the +water tank, whar it blows for the Bridge.' Sez he: 'How fur is that +bridge?' Sez I: 'Only a short piece down the track, after you pass the +tank.' He tuck a long breath, and kinder whistled, and with that he +turned and heeled it down the middle of the track. I thought it mighty +curus, and my mind misgive me thar was somethin' crooked; but I always +pintedly dodges; 'lie-lows to ketch meddlers,' and I went on my way. +When I got nigh the next corner whar I had to turn to cross the river, +I looked back and I seen a 'oman standin' on the track, in front of the +station-house; but I parsed on, and soon kem to the bridge (not the +railroad bridge), Boss. I had got on the top of the hill to the left of +the Pentenchry, when I hearn ole 'Bory' blow. You see I knowed the +runnin' of the kyars, 'cause that through freight was my ole +stormpin-ground, and I love the sound of that ingine's whistle more 'an +I do my gran'childun's hymn chunes. She blowed long and vicious like, +and I seen her sparks fly, as she lit out through town; and then I +footed it home." + +"You think the train was on time?" + +"Bound to be; she never was cotched behind time, not while I stuffed +her with coal and lightwood knots. She was plum punctchul." + +"Was the lamp lighted where you tied your bundle?" + +"Yes'ir, burnin' bright." + +"Tell the Court the appearance of the man whom you talked with." + +Mr. Dunbar was watching the beautiful face so dear to him, and saw the +prisoner lean forward, her lips parted, all her soul in the wide, +glowing eyes fastened on the countenance of the witness. + +"He was very tall and wiry, and 'peared like a young man what had +parstured 'mongst wild oats. He seemed cut out for a gintleman, but run +to seed too quick and turned out nigh kin to a dead beat. One-half of +him was hanssum, 'minded me mightly of that stone head with kurly hair +what sets over the sody fountin in the drug store, on Main Street. Oh, +yes'ir, one side was too pretty for a man; but t'other! Fo' Gawd! +t'other made your teeth ache, and sot you cross-eyed to look at it. He +toted a awful brand to be shore." + +"What do you mean by one side? Explain yourself carefully now." + +"I dun'no as I can 'splain, 'cause I ain't never seed nothing like it +afore. One 'zact half of him, from his hair to his shirt collar was +white and pretty, like I tell you, but t'other side of his face was +black as tar, and his kurly hair was gone, and the whiskers on that +side--and his eye was drapped down kinder so, and that side of his +mouth sorter hung, like it was unpinned, this way. Mebbee he was born +so, mebbee not; but he looked like he had jes broke loose from the +conjur, and caryd his mark." + +For one fleeting moment, the gates of heaven seemed thrown wide, and +the glory of the Kingdom of Peace streamed down upon the aching heart +of the desolate woman. She could recognize no dreaded resemblance in +the photograph drawn by the witness; and judge, jury and counsel who +scrutinized her during the recital of the testimony, were puzzled by +the smile of joy that suddenly flashed over her features, like ilie +radiance of a lamp lifted close to some marble face, dim with shadows. + +"Do you think his face indicated that he had been engaged in a +difficulty, in a fight? Was there any sign of blood, or anything that +looked as if he had been bruised and wounded by some heavy blow?" + +"Naw, sir. Didn't seem like sech bruises as comes of fightin'. 'Peared +to me he was somehow branded like, and the mark he toted was onnatral." + +"If he had wished to disguise himself by blackening one side of his +face, would he not have presented a similar appearance?" + +"Naw, sir, not by no manner of means. No minstrel tricks fotch him to +the pass he was at. The hand of the Lord must have laid too heavy on +him; no mortal wounds leave sech terrifyin' prints." + +"How was he dressed?" + +"Dunno. My eyes never drapped below that curus face of his'n." + +"Was he bareheaded?" + +"Bar headed as when he come into the world." + +"He talked like a man in desperate haste, who was running to escape +pursuit?" + +"He shorely did." + +"Did you mention to any person what you have told here to-day?" + +"I tole my ole 'oman, and she said she reckoned it was a buth mark what +the man carryd; but when I seen him I thunk he was cunjured." + +"When you heard that Gen'l Darrington had been murdered, did you think +of this man and his singular behavior that night?" + +"I never hearn of the murder till Christmas, 'cause I went down to +Elbert County arter a yoke of steers what a man owed me, and thar I +tuck sick and kep my bed for weeks. When I got home, and hearn the talk +about the murder, I didn't know it was the same night what I seen the +branded man." + +"Tell the Court how your testimony was secured." + +"It was norated in all our churches that a 'ward was offered for a lame +cullud pusson of my 'scription, and Deacon Nathan he cum down and axed +me what mischief I'de been a doin', that I was wanted to answer fur. He +read me the 'vertisement, and pussuaded me to go with him to your +office, and you tuck me to Mr. Churchill." + +Mr. Dunbar bowed to the District Solicitor, who rose and cross-examined. + +"Can you read?" + +"Naw, sir." + +"Where is your son Deucalion?" + +"Two days after I left town he want with a 'Love and Charity' +scurschion up north, and he liked it so well in Baltymore, he staid +thar." + +"When Deacon Nathan brought you up to town, did you know for what +purpose Mr. Dunbar wanted you?" + +"Naw, sir." + +"Was it not rather strange that none of your friends recognized the +description of you, published in the paper?" + +"Seems some of 'em did, but felt kind of jub'rus 'bout pinting me out, +for human natur is prone to crooked ways, and they never hearn I +perfessed sanctification." + +"Who told you the prisoner had heard your conversation with the man you +met that night?" + +"Did she hear it? Then you are the first pusson to tell me." + +"How long was it, after you saw the man, before you heard the whistle +of the freight train?" + +"As nigh as I kin rickolect about a half a hour, but not quite." + +"Was it raining at all when you saw the woman standing on the track?" + +"Naw, sir. The trees was dripping steady, but the moon was shining." + +"Do you know anything about the statement made by the prisoner?" + +"Naw, sir." + +"Fritz Helmetag." + +As Isam withdrew, a middle-aged man took the stand, and in answer to +Mr. Dunbar's questions deposed: "That he was 'bridge tender' on the +railroad, and lived in a cottage not far from the water tank. On the +night of the twenty-sixth of October, he was sitting up with a sick +wife, and remembered that being feverish, she asked for some fresh +water. He went out to draw some from the well, and saw a man standing +not far from the bridge. The moon was behind a row of trees, but he +noticed the man was bareheaded, and when he called to know what he +wanted, he walked back toward the tank. Five minutes later the freight +train blew, and after it had crossed the bridge, he went back to his +cottage. The man was standing close to the safety signal, a white light +fastened to an iron stanchion at south end of the bridge, and seemed to +be reading something. Next day, when he (witness) went as usual to +examine the piers and under portions of the bridge, he had found the +pipe, now in Mr. Dunbar's possession. Tramps so often rested on the +bridge, and on the shelving bank of the river beneath it, that he +attached no importance to the circumstance; but felt confident the pipe +was left by the man whom he had seen, as it was not there the previous +afternoon; and he put it in a pigeon-hole of his desk, thinking the +owner might return to claim it. On the same day, he had left X--to +carry his wife to her mother, who lived in Pennsylvania, and was absent +for several weeks. Had never associated the pipe with the murder, but +after talking with Mr. Dunbar, who had found the half of an envelope +near the south end of the bridge, he had surrendered it to him. Did not +see the man's face distinctly. He looked tall and thin." + +Here Mr. Dunbar held up a fragment of a long white em elope such as +usually contain legal documents, on which in large letters was written +"LAST WILL"--and underscored with red ink. Then he lifted a pipe, for +the inspection of the witness, who identified it as the one he had +found. + +As he turned it slowly, the Court and the multitude saw only a +meerschaum with a large bowl representing a death's head, to which was +attached a short mouth-piece of twisted amber. + +The golden gates of hope clashed suddenly, and over them flashed a +drawn sword, as Beryl looked at the familiar pipe, which her baby +fingers had so often strained to grasp. How well she knew the ghastly +ivory features, the sunken eyeless sockets--of that veritable death's +head? How vividly came back the day, when asleep in her father's arms, +a spark from that grinning skull had fallen on her cheek, and she awoke +to find that fond father bending in remorseful tenderness over her? +Years ago, she had reverently packed the pipe away, with other articles +belonging to the dead, and ignorant that her mother had given it to +Bertie, she deemed it safe in that sacred repository. Now, like the +face of Medusa it glared at her, and that which her father's lips had +sanctified, became the polluted medium of a retributive curse upon his +devoted child. So the Diabolus ex machina, the evil genius of each +human life decrees that the most cruel cureless pangs are inflicted by +the instruments we love best. + +Watching for some sign of recognition, Mr. Dunbar's heart was fired +with jealous rage, as he marked the swift change of the prisoner's +countenance; the vanishing of the gleam of hope, the gloomy desperation +that succeeded. The beautiful black brows met in a spasm of pain over +eyes that stared at an abyss of ruin; her lips whitened, she wrung her +hands unconsciously; and then, as if numb with horror, she leaned back +in her chair, and her chin sank until it touched the black ribbon at +her throat. When after a while she rallied, and forced herself to +listen, a pleasant-faced young man was on the witness stand. + +"My name is Edgar Jennings, and I live at T----, in Pennsylvania. I am +ticket agent at that point, of----railway. One day, about the last of +October (I think it was on Monday), I was sitting in my office when a +man came in, and asked if I could sell him a ticket to St. Paul. I told +him I only had tickets as far as Chicago, via Cincinnati. He bought one +to Cincinnati and asked how soon he could go on. I told him the train +from the east was due in a few minutes. When he paid for his ticket he +gave me a twenty-dollar gold piece, and his hand shook so, he dropped +another piece of the same value on the floor. His appearance was so +remarkable I noticed him particularly. He was a man about my age, very +tall and finely made, but one half of his face was black, or rather +very dark blue, and he wore a handkerchief bandage-fashion across it. +His left eye was drawn down, this way, and his mouth was one-sided. His +right eye was black, and his hair was very light brown. He wore a +close-fitting wool hat, that flapped down and his clothes were +seal-brown in color, but much worn, and evidently old. I asked him +where he lived, and he said he was a stranger going West, on a +pioneering tour. Then I asked what ailed his face, and he pulled the +handkerchief over his left eye, and said he was partly paralyzed from +an accident. Just then, the eastern train blew for T----. He said he +wanted some cigars or a pipe, as he had lost his own on the way, and +wondered if he would have time to go out and buy some. I told him no; +but that he could have a couple of cigars from my box. He thanked me, +and took two, laying down a silver dime on top of the box. He put his +hand in the inside pocket of his coat, and pulled out an empty +envelope, twisted it, lit it by the coal fire in the grate, and lighted +his cigar. The train rolled into the station; he passed out, and I saw +him jump aboard the front passenger coach. He had thrown the paper, as +he thought, into the fire, but it slipped off the grate, fell just +inside the fender, and the flame went out. There was something so very +peculiar in his looks and manner, that I thought there was some mystery +about his movements. I picked up the paper, saw the writing on it, and +locked it up in my cash drawer. He had evidently been a very handsome +man, before his 'accident', but he had a jaded, worried, wretched look. +When a detective from Baltimore interviewed me, I told him all I knew, +and gave him the paper." + +Again Mr. Dunbar drew closer to the jury, held up the former fragment +of envelope, and then took from his pocket a second piece. Jagged edges +fitted into each other, and he lifted for the inspection of hundreds of +eyes, the long envelope marked and underscored:-"LAST WILL AND +TESTAMENT OF ROBERT LUKE DARRINGTON." The lower edge of the paper was +at one corner brown, scorched, somewhat burned. + +"Lucullus Grantlin." + +An elderly man of noble presence advanced, and Mr. Dunbar met and shook +hands with him, accompanying him almost to the stand. At sight of his +white head, and flowing silvery beard, Beryl's heart almost ceased its +pulsation. If, during her last illness her mother had acquainted him +with their family history, then indeed all was lost. It was as +impossible to reach him and implore his silence, as though the ocean +rocked between them; and how would he interpret the pleading gaze she +fixed upon his face? The imminence of the danger, vanquished every +scruple, strangled her pride. She caught Mr. Dunbar's eye, beckoned him +to approach. + +When he stood before her, she put out her hand, seized one of his, and +drew him down until his black head almost touched hers. She placed her +lips close to his ear, and whispered: + +"For God's sake spare the secrets of a death-bed. Be merciful to me +now; oh! I entreat you--do not drag my mother from her grave! Do not +question Doctor Grantlin." + +She locked her icy hands around his, pressing it convulsively. Turning, +he laid his lips close to the silky fold of hair that had fallen +across her ear: + +"If I dismiss this witness, will you tell me the truth? Will you give +me the name of the man whom I am hunting? Will you confess all to me?" + +"I have no sins to confess. I have made my last statement. If you laid +my coffin at my feet, I should only say I am innocent; I would tell you +nothing more." + +"Then his life is so precious, you are resolved to die, rather than +trust me?" + +She dropped his hand, and leaned back in her chair, closing her eyes. +When she opened them, Doctor Grantlin was speaking: + +"I am on my way to Havana, with an invalid daughter, and stopped here +last night, at the request of Mr. Dunbar." + +"Please state all that you know of the prisoner, and of the +circumstances which induced her to visit X----." + +"I first saw the prisoner in August last, when she summoned me to see +her mother, who was suffering from an attack of fever. I discovered +that she was in a dangerous condition in consequence of an aneurism +located in the carotid artery, and when she had been relieved of +malarial fever, I told both mother and daughter that an operation was +necessary, to remove the aneurism. Soon after, I left the city for a +month, and on my return the daughter again called me in. I advised that +without delay the patient should be removed to the hospital, where a +surgeon--a specialist--could perform the operation. To this the young +lady objected, on the ground that she could not assist in nursing, if +her mother entered the hospital; and she would not consent to the +separation. She asked what amount would be required to secure at home +the services of the surgeon, a trained nurse, and the subsequent +treatment; and I told her I thought a hundred dollars would cover all +incidentals, and secure one of the most skilful surgeons in the city. I +continued from time to time to see the mother, and administered such +medicines as I deemed necessary to invigorate and tone up the patient's +system for the operation. One day in October, the young lady came to +pay me for some prescriptions, and asked if a few weeks' delay would +enhance the danger of the operation. I assured her it was important to +lose no time, and urged her to arrange matters so as to remove the +patient to the hospital as soon as possible, offering to procure her +admission. She showed great distress, and informed me that she hoped to +receive very soon a considerable sum of money, from some artistic +designs that she felt sure would secure the prize. A week later she +came again, and I gave her a prescription to allay her mother's +nervousness. Then, with much agitation, she told me that she was going +South by the night express, to seek assistance from her mother's +father, who was a man of wealth, but had disowned Mrs. Brentano on +account of her marriage. She asked for a written statement of the +patient's condition, and the absolute necessity of the operation. I +wrote it, and as she stood looking at the paper, she said: + +"'Doctor do you believe in an Ahnung?' I said, 'A what?' She answered +slowly and solemnly: 'An Ahnung--a presentiment? I have a crushing +presentiment that trouble will come to me, if I leave mother; and yet +she entreats, commands me to go South. It is my duty to obey her, but +the errand is so humiliating I shrink, I dread it. I shall not be long +away, and meanwhile do please be so kind as to see her, and cheer her +up. If her father refuses to give me the one hundred dollars, I will +take her to the hospital when I return.' I walked to the door with her, +and her last words were: 'Doctor, I trust my mother to you; don't let +her suffer.' I have never seen her again, until I entered this room. I +visited Mrs. Brentano several times, but she grew worse very rapidly. +One night the ensuing week, my bell was rung at twelve o'clock, and a +woman gave me this note, which was written by the prisoner immediately +after her arrest, and which enclosed a second, addressed to her mother." + +As he read aloud the concluding lines invoking the mother's prayers, +the doctor's voice trembled. He took off his spectacles, wiped them, +and resumed: + +"I was shocked and distressed beyond expression, for I could no more +connect the idea of crime with that beautiful, noble souled girl, than +with my own sinless daughter; and I reproached myself then, and doubly +condemn myself now, that I did not lend her the money. All that was +possible to alleviate the suffering of that mother, I did most +faithfully. Under my personal superintendence she was made comfortable +in the hospital; and I stood by her side when Doctor--operated on the +aneurism; but her impaired constitution could not bear the strain, and +she sank rapidly. She was delirious, and never knew why her daughter +was detained; because I withheld the note. Just before the end came, +her mind cleared, and she wrote a few lines which I sent to the +prisoner. From all that I know of Miss Brentano, I feel constrained to +say, she impressed me as one of the purest, noblest and most admirable +characters I have ever met. She supported her mother and herself by her +pencil, and a more refined, sensitive woman, a more tenderly devoted +daughter I have yet to meet." + +"Does your acquaintance with the family suggest any third party, who +would be interested in Gen'l Darrington's will, or become a beneficiary +by its destruction?" + +"No. They seemed very isolated people; those two women lived without +any acquaintances, as far as I know, and apared proudly indifferent to +the outside world. I do not think they had any relatives, and the only +name I heard Mrs. Brentano utter in her last illness was, +'Ignace,--Ignace.' She often spoke of her'darling,' and her 'good +little girl'." + +"Did you see a gentleman who visited the prisoner? Did you ever hear +she had a lover?" + +"I neither saw any gentleman, nor heard she had a lover. In January, I +received a letter from the prisoner enclosing an order on S--& E--, +photographers of New York, for the amount due her, on a certain design +for a Christmas card, which had received the Boston first prize of +three hundred dollars. With the permission of the Court, I should like +to read it. There is no objection?" + + +"PENITENTIARY CELL, JANUARY 8TH + +"In the name of my dead, whom I shall soon join--I desire to thank you, +dear Doctor Grantlin, for your kind care of my darling; and especially +for your delicate and tender regard for all that remains on earth of my +precious mother. The knowledge that she was treated with the reverence +due to a lady, that she was buried--not as a pauper, but sleeps her +last sleep under the same marble roof that shelters your dear departed +ones, is the one ray of comfort that can ever pierce the awful gloom +that has settled like a pall over me. I am to be tried soon for the +black and horrible crime I never committed; and the evidence is so +strong against me, the circumstances I cannot explain, are so accusing, +the belief of my guilt is so general in this community, that I have no +hope of acquittal; therefore I make my preparations for death. Please +collect the money for which I enclose an order, and out of it, take the +amount you spent when mother died. It will comfort me to know, that we +do not owe a stranger for the casket that shuts her away from all +grief, into the blessed Land of Peace. Keep the remainder, and when you +hear that I am dead, unjustly offered up an innocent victim to appease +justice, that must have somebody's blood in expiation, then take my +body and mother's and have us laid side by side in the Potter's field. +The law will crush my body, but it is pure and free from every crime, +and it will be worthy still to touch my mother's in a common grave. Oh, +Doctor! Does it not seem that some terrible curse has pursued me; and +that the three hundred dollars I toiled and prayed for, was kept back +ten days too late to save me? My Christmas card will at least bury us +decently--away from the world that trampled me down. Do not doubt my +innocence, and it will comfort me to feel that he who closed my +mother's eyes, believes that her unfortunate child is guiltless and +unstained. In life, and in death, ever + +"Most gratefully your debtor, + +"BERYL BRENTANO." + + +A few moments of profound silence ensued: then Doctor Grantlin handed +some article to Mr. Dunbar, and stepping down from the stand, walked +toward the prisoner. + +She had covered her face with her hands, while he gave his testimony: +striving to hide the anguish that his presence revived. He placed his +hand on her shoulder, and whispered brokenly: + +"My child, I know you are innocent. Would to God I could help you to +prove it to these people!" + +The terrible strain gave way suddenly, her proud head was laid against +his arm, and suppressed emotion shook her, as a December storm smites +and bows some shivering weed. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +Friday, the fifth and last day of the trial, was ushered in by a +tempest of wind and rain, that drove the blinding sheets of sleet +against the court-house windows with the insistence of an icy flail; +while now and then with spasmodic bursts of fury the gale heightened, +rattled the sash, moaned hysterically, like invisible fiends tearing at +the obstacles that barred entrance. So dense was the gloom pervading +the court-room, that every gas jet was burning at ten o'clock, when Mr. +Dunbar rose and took a position close to the jury-box. The gray pallor +of his sternly set face increased his resemblance to a statue of the +Julian type, and he looked rigid as granite, as he turned his brilliant +eyes full of blue fire upon the grave, upturned countenances of the +twelve umpires: + +"Gentlemen of the Jury: The sanctity of human life is the foundation on +which society rests, and its preservation is the supreme aim of all +human legislation. Rights of property, of liberty, are merely +conditional, subordinated to the superlative divine right of life. +Labor creates property, law secures liberty, but God alone gives life; +and woe to that tribunal, to those consecrated priests of divine +justice, who, sworn to lay aside passion and prejudice, and to array +themselves in the immaculate robes of a juror's impartiality, yet +profane the loftiest prerogative with which civilized society can +invest mankind, and sacrilegiously extinguish, in the name of justice, +that sacred spark which only Jehovah's fiat kindles. To the same astute +and unchanging race, whose relentless code of jurisprudence demanded +'an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life,' we owe the +instructive picture of cautious inquiry, of tender solicitude for the +inviolability of human life, that glows in immortal lustre on the pages +of the 'Mechilti' of the Talmud. In the trial of a Hebrew criminal, +there were 'Lactees,' consisting of two men, one of whom stood at the +door of the court, with a red flag in his hand, and the other sat on a +white horse at some distance on the road that led to execution. Each of +these men cried aloud continually, the name of the suspected criminal, +of the witnesses, and his crime; and vehemently called upon any person +who knew anything in his favor to come forward and testify. Have we, +supercilious braggarts of this age of progress, attained the prudential +wisdom of Sanhedrim? + +"The State pays an officer to sift, probe, collect and array the +evidences of crime, with which the criminal is stoned to death; does it +likewise commission and compensate an equally painstaking, lynx-eyed +official whose sole duty is to hunt and proclaim proofs of the +innocence of the accused? The great body of the commonwealth is +committed in revengeful zeal to prosecution; upon whom devolves the +doubly sacred and imperative duty of defence? Are you not here to give +judgment in a cause based on an indictment by a secret tribunal, where +ex parte testimony was alone received, and the voice of defence could +not be heard? The law infers that the keen instinct of +self-preservation will force the accused to secure the strongest +possible legal defenders; and failing in this, the law perfunctorily +assigns counsel to present testimony in defence. Do the scales balance? + +"Imagine a race for heavy stakes; the judges tap the bell; three or +four superb thoroughbreds carefully trained on that track, laboriously +groomed, waiting for the signal, spring forward; and when the first +quarter is reached, a belated fifth, handicapped with the knowledge +that he has made a desperately bad start, bounds after them. If by dint +of some superhuman grace vouchsafed, some latent strain, some most +unexpected speed, he nears, overtakes, runs neck and neck, slowly +gains, passes all four and dashes breathless and quivering under the +string, a whole length ahead, the world of spectators shouts the judges +smile, and number five wins the stakes. But was the race fair? + +"Is not justice, the beloved goddess of our idolatry, sometimes so +blinded by clouds of argument, and confused by clamor that she fails +indeed to see the dip of the beam? If the accused be guilty and escape +conviction, he still lives; and while it is provided that no one can be +twice put in jeopardy of his life for the same offence, vicious +tendencies impel to renewal of crime, and Nemesis, the retriever of +justice, may yet hunt him down. If the accused be innocent as the +archangels, but suffer conviction and execution, what expiation can +justice offer for judicially slaughtering him? Are the chances even? + +"All along the dim vista of the annals of criminal jurisprudence, stand +grim memorials that mark the substitution of innocent victims for +guilty criminals; and they are solemn sign-posts of warning, melancholy +as the whitening bones of perished caravans in desert sands. History +relates, and tradition embalms, a sad incident of the era of the +Council of Ten, when an innocent boy was seized, tried and executed for +the murder of a nobleman, whose real assassin confessed the crime many +years subsequent. In commemoration of the public horror manifested, +when the truth was published, Venice decreed that henceforth a crier +should proclaim in the Tribunal just before a death sentence was +pronounced, 'Ricordatevi del povero Marcolini! remember the poor +Marcolini;' beware of merely circumstantial evidence. + +"To another instance I invite your attention. A devoted Scotch father +finding that his own child had contracted an unfortunate attachment to +a man of notoriously bad character, interdicted all communication, and +locked his daughter into a tenement room; the adjoining apartment (with +only a thin partition wall between) being occupied by a neighbor, who +overheard the angry altercation that ensued. He recognized the voices +of father and daughter, and the words 'barbarity,' 'cruelty, 'death,' +were repeatedly heard. The father at last left the room, locking his +child in as a prisoner. After a time, strange noises were heard by the +tenant of the adjoining chamber; suspicion was aroused, a bailiff was +summoned, the door forced open, and there lay the dying girl weltering +in blood, with the fatal knife lying near. She was asked if her father +had caused her sad condition, and she made an affirmative gesture and +expired. At that moment the father returned, and stood stupefied with +horror, which was interpreted as a consciousness of guilt; and this was +corroborated by the fact that his shirt sleeve was sprinkled with +blood. In vain he asserted his innocence, and showed that the blood +stains were the result of a bandage having become untied where he had +bled himself a few days before. The words and groans overheard, the +blood, the affirmation of the dying woman, every damning circumstance +constrained the jury to convict him of the murder. He was hung in +chains, and his body left swinging from the gibbet. The new tenant, who +subsequently rented the room, was ransacking the chamber in which the +girl died, when, in a cavity of the chimney where it had fallen +unnoticed, was found a paper written by this girl, declaring her +intention to commit suicide, and closing with the words: 'My inhuman +father is the cause of my death'; thus explaining her dying gestures. +On examination of this document by the friends and relatives of the +girl, it was recognized and identified as her handwriting; and it +established the fact that the father had died innocent of every crime, +except that of trying to save his child from a degrading marriage. + +"Now, mark the prompt and satisfactory reparation decreed by justice, +and carried out by the officers of the law. The shrivelled, dishonored +body was lowered from the gibbet, given to his relatives for decent +burial, and the magistrates who sentenced him, ordered a flag waved +over his grave, as compensation for all his wrongs. + +"Gentlemen of the jury, to save you from the commission of a wrong even +more cruel, I come to-day to set before you clearly the facts, elicited +from witnesses which the honorable and able counsel for the prosecution +declined to cross-examine. An able expounder of the law of evidence has +warned us that: 'The force of circumstantial evidence being exclusive +in its nature, and the mere coincidence of the hypothesis with the +circumstances, being, in the abstract, insufficient, unless they +exclude every other supposition, it is essential to inquire, with the +most scrupulous attention, what other hypothesis there may be, agreeing +wholly or partially with the facts in evidence.' + +"A man of very marked appearance was seen running toward the railroad, +on the night of the twenty-sixth, evidently goaded by some unusual +necessity to leave the neighborhood of X--before the arrival of the +passenger express. It is proved that he passed the station exactly at +the time the prisoner deposed she heard the voice, and the half of the +envelope that enclosed the missing will, was found at the spot where +the same person was seen, only a few moments later. Four days +afterward, this man entered a small station in Pennsylvania, paid for a +railroad ticket, with a coin identical in value and appearance with +those stolen from the tin box, and as if foreordained to publish the +steps he was striving to efface, accidentally left behind him the +trumpet-tongued fragment of envelope, that exactly fitted into the torn +strip dropped at the bridge. The most exhaustive and diligent search +shows that stranger was seen by no one else in X--; that he came as a +thief in the night, provided with chloroform to drug his intended +victim, and having been detected in the act of burglariously +abstracting the contents of the tin box, fought with, and killed the +venerable old man, whom he had robbed. + +"Under cover of storm and darkness he escaped with his plunder, to some +point north of X--where doubtless he boarded (unperceived) the freight +train, and at some convenient point slipped into a wooded country, and +made his way to Pennsylvania. Why were valuable bonds untouched? +Because they might aid in betraying him. What conceivable interest had +he in the destruction of Gen'l Darrington's will? It is in evidence, +that the lamp was burning, and the contents of that envelope could have +possessed no value for a man ignorant of the provisions of the will; +and the superscription it was impossible to misread. Suppose that this +mysterious person was fully cognizant of the family secrets of the +Darringtons? Suppose that he knew that Mrs. Brentano and her daughter +would inherit a large fortune, if Gen'l Darrington died intestate? If +he had wooed and won the heart of the daughter, and believed that her +rights had been sacrificed to promote the aggrandizement of an alien, +the adopted step-son Prince, had not such a man, the accepted lover of +the daughter, a personal interest in the provisions of a will which +disinherited Mrs. Brentano, and her child? Have you not now, motive, +means, and opportunity, and links of evidence that point to this man as +the real agent, the guilty author of the awful crime we are all leagued +in solemn, legal covenant to punish? Suppose that fully aware of the +prisoner's mission to X--, he had secretly followed her, and +supplemented her afternoon visit, by the fatal interview of the night? +Doubtless he had intended escorting her home, but when the frightful +tragedy was completed, the curse of Cain drove him, in terror, to +instant flight; and he sought safety in western wilds, leaving his +innocent and hapless betrothed to bear the penalty of his crime. The +handkerchief used to administer chloroform, bore her initials; was +doubtless a souvenir given in days gone by to that unworthy miscreant, +as a token of affection, by the trusting woman he deserted in the hour +of peril. In this solution of an awful enigma, is there an undue strain +upon credylity; is there any antagonism of facts which the torn +envelope, the pipe, the twenty-dollar gold pieces in Pennsylvania, do +not reconcile? + +"A justly celebrated writer on the law of evidence has wisely said: 'In +criminal cases, the statement made by the accused is of essential +importance in some points of view. Such is the complexity of human +affairs, and so infinite the combinations of circumstances, that the +true hypothesis which is capable of explaining and reuniting all the +apparently conflicting circumstances of the case, may escape the +acutest penetration: but the prisoner, so far as he alone is concerned, +can always afford a clue to them; and though he may be unable to +support his statement by evidence, his account of the transaction is, +for this purpose, always most material and important. The effect may be +to suggest a view, which consists with the innocence of the accused, +and might otherwise have escaped observation.' + +"During the preliminary examination of this prisoner in October, she +inadvertently furnished this clue, when, in explaining her absence from +the station house, she stated that suddenly awakened from sleep, 'she +heard the voice of one she knew and loved, and ran out to seek the +speaker'. Twice she has repeated the conversation she heard, and every +word is corroborated by the witness who saw and talked with the owner +of that 'beloved voice'. When asked to give the name of that man, whom +she expected to find in the street, she falters, refuses; love seals +her lips, and the fact that she will die sooner than yield that which +must bring him to summary justice, is alone sufficient to fix the guilt +upon the real culprit. + +"There is a rule in criminal jurisprudence, that 'presumptive evidence +ought never to be relied on, when direct testimony is wilfully +withheld'. She shudders at sight of the handkerchief; did she not give +it to him, in some happy hour as a tender Ricordo? When the pipe which +he lost in his precipitate flight is held up to the jury, she +recognizes it instantly as her lover's property, and shivers with +horror at the danger of his detection and apprehension. Does not this +array of accusing circumstances demand as careful consideration, as the +chain held up to your scrutiny by the prosecution? In the latter, there +is an important link missing, which the theory of the defence supplies. +When the prisoner was arrested and searched, there was found in her +possession only the exact amount of money, which it is in evidence, +that she came South to obtain; and which she has solemnly affirmed was +given to her by Gen'l Darrington. We know from memoranda found in the +rifled box, that it contained only a few days previous, five hundred +dollars in gold. Three twenty-dollar gold coins were discovered on the +carpet, and one in the vault; what became of the remain ing three +hundred and twenty dollars? With the exception of one hundred dollars +found in the basket of the prisoner, she had only five copper pennies +in her purse, when so unexpectedly arrested, that it was impossible she +could have secreted anything. Three hundred and twenty dollars +disappeared in company with the will, and like the torn envelope, two +of those gold coins lifted their accusing faces in Pennsylvania, where +the fugitive from righteous retribution paid for the wings that would +transport him beyond risk of detection. + +"Both theories presented for your careful analysis, are based entirely +upon circumstantial evidence; and is not the solution I offer less +repugnant to the canons of credibility, and infinitely less revolting +to every instinct of honor able manhood, than the horrible hypothesis +that a refined, cultivated, noble Christian woman, a devoted daughter, +irreproachable in antecedent life, bearing the fiery ordeal of the past +four months with a noble heroism that commands the involuntary +admiration of all who have watched her--that such a perfect type of +beautiful womanhood as the prisoner presents, could deliberately plan +and execute the vile scheme of theft and murder? Gentlemen, she is +guilty of but one sin against the peace and order of this community: +the sin of withholding the name of one for whose bloody crime she is +not responsible. Does not her invincible loyalty, her unwavering +devotion to the craven for whom she suffers, in vest her with the halo +of a martyrdom, that appeals most powerfully to the noblest impulses of +your nature, that enlists the warmest, holiest sympathies lying deep in +your manly hearts? Analyze her statement; every utterance bears the +stamp of innocence; and where she cannot explain truthfully, she +declines to make any explanation. Hers is the sin of silence, the +grievous evasion of justice by non-responsion, whereby the danger she +will not avert by confession recoils upon her innocent head. Bravely +she took on her reluctant shoulders the galling burden of parental +command, and stifling her proud repugnance, obediently came--a fair +young stranger to 'Elm Bluff.' Receiving as a loan the money she came +to beg for, she hurries away to fulfil another solemnly imposed +injunction. + +"Gentlemen, is there any spot out yonder in God's Acre, where violets, +blue as the eyes that once smiled upon you, now shed their fragrance +above the sacred dust of your dead darlings; and the thought of which +melts your hearts and dims your vision? Look at this mournful, touching +witness, which comes from that holy cemetery to whisper to your souls, +that the hands of the prisoner are as pure as those of your idols, +folded under the sod. Only a little bunch of withered brown flowers, +tied with a faded blue ribbon, that a poor girl bought with her hard +earned pennies, and carried to a sick mother, to brighten a dreary +attic; only a dead nosegay, which that mother requested should be laid +as a penitential tribute on the tomb of the mother whom she had +disobeyed; and this faithful young heart made the pilgrimage, and left +the offering--and in consequence thereof, missed the train that would +have carried her safely back to her mother--and to peace. On the +morning after the preliminary examination I went to the cemetery, and +found the fatal flowers just where she had placed them, on the great +marble cross that covers the tomb of 'Helena Tracey--wife of Luke +Darringtun.' + +"You husbands and fathers who trust your names, your honor, the peace +of your hearts-almost the salvation of your souls--to the women you +love: staking the dearest interest of humanity, the sanctity of that +heaven on earth--your stainless homes--upon the fidelity of womanhood, +can you doubt for one instant, that the prisoner will accept death +rather than betray the man she loves? No human plummet has sounded the +depths of a woman's devotion; no surveyor's chain will ever mark the +limits of a woman's faithful, patient endurance; and only the wings of +an archangel can transcend that pinnacle to which the sublime principle +of self-sacrifice exalts a woman's soul. + +"In a quaint old city on the banks of the Pegnitz, history records an +instance of feminine self-abnegation, more enduring than monuments of +brass. The law had decreed a certain provision for the maintenance of +orphans; and two women in dire distress, seeing no possible avenue of +help, accused themselves falsely of a capital crime, and were executed; +thereby securing a support for the children they orphaned. + +"As a tireless and vigilant prosecutor of the real criminal, the +Cain-branded man now wandering in some western wild, I charge the +prisoner with only one sin, suicidal silence; and I commend her to your +must tender compassion, believing that in every detail and minutiae she +has spoken the truth; and that she is as innocent of the charge in the +indictment as you or I. Remember that you have only presumptive proof +to guide you in this solemn deliberation, and in the absence of direct +proof, do not be deluded by a glittering sophistry, which will soon +attempt to persuade you, that: 'A presumption which necessarily arises +from circumstances,--is very often more convincing and more +satisfactory than any other kind of evidence; it is not within the +reach and compass of human abilities to invent a train of +circumstances, which shall be so connected together as to amount to a +proof of guilt, without affording opportunities of contradicting a +great part, if not all, of these circumstances.' + +"Believe it not; circumstantial evidence has caused as much innocent +blood to flow, as the cimeter of Jenghiz Khan. The counsel for the +prosecution will tell you that every fact in this melancholy case stabs +the prisoner, and that facts cannot lie. Abstractly and logically +considered, facts certainly do not lie; but let us see whether the +inferences deduced from what we believe to be facts, do not sometimes +eclipse Ananias and Sapphira! Not long ago, the public heart thrilled +with horror at the tidings of the Ashtabula railway catastrophe, in +which a train of cars plunged through a bridge, took fire, and a number +of passengers were consumed, charred beyond recognition. Soon +afterward, a poor woman, mother of two children, commenced suit against +the railway company, alleging that her husband had perished in that +disaster. The evidence adduced was only of a circumstantial nature, as +the body which had been destroyed by flames, could not be found. +Searching in the debris at the fatal spot, she had found a bunch of +keys, that she positively recognized as belonging to her husband, and +in his possession when he died. One key fitted the clock in her house, +and a mechanic was ready to swear that he had made such a key for the +deceased. Another key fitted a chest she owned, and still another +fitted the door of her house; while strongest of all proof, she found a +piece of cloth which she identified as part of her husband's coat. A +physician who knew her husband, testified that he rode as far as +Buffalo on the same train with the deceased, on the fatal day of the +disaster; and another witness deposed that he saw the deceased take the +train at Buffalo, that went down to ruin at Ashtabula. Certainly the +chain of circumstantial evidence, from veracious facts, seemed +complete; but lo! during the investigation it was ascertained beyond +doubt, to the great joy of the wife, that the husband had never been +near Ashtabula, and was safe and well at a Pension Home in a Western +State. + +"The fate of a very noble and innocent woman is now committed to your +hands, and only presumptive proof is laid before you. 'The circumstance +is always a fact; the presumption is the inference drawn from that +fact. It is hence called presumptive proof, because it proceeds merely +in opinion.' Suffer no brilliant sophistry to dazzle your judgment, no +remnant of prejudice to swerve you from the path of fidelity to your +oath. To your calm reasoning, your generous manly hearts, your +Christian consciences, I resign the desolate prisoner; and as you deal +with her, so may the God above us, the just and holy God who has +numbered the hairs of her innocent head, deal here and hereafter with +you and yours." + +That magnetic influence, whereby the emotions of an audience are +swayed, as the tides that follow the moon, was in large measure the +heritage of the handsome man who held the eyes of the jurymen in an +almost unwinking gaze; and when his uplifted arm slowly fell to his +side, Judge Dent grasped it in mute congratulation, and Mr. Churchill +took his hand, and shook it warmly. + +Mr. Wolverton came forward to sum up the evidence for the prosecution, +and laboriously recapitulated and dwelt upon the mass of facts which he +claimed was susceptible of but one interpretation, and must compel the +jury to convict, in accordance with the indictment. + +Upon the ears of the prisoner, his words fell as a harsh, meaningless +murmur; and above the insistent mutter, rose and fell the waves of a +rich, resonant voice, that surrounded, penetrated, electrified her +brain; thrilled her whole being with a strange and inexplicable +sensation of happiness. For months she had fought against the singular +fascination that dwelt in those brilliant blue eyes, and lurked in +every line of the swart, stern face; holding at bay the magnetic +attraction which he exerted from the hour of the preliminary +examination. Of all men, she had feared him most, had shrunk from every +opportunity of contact, had execrated him as the malign +personification, the veritable incarnation of the evil destiny that had +hounded her from the day she first saw X----. + +Listening to his appeal for her deliverance, each word throbbing with +the fervent beat of a heart that she knew was all her own, an exquisite +sense of rest gradually stole over her; as a long-suffering child spent +with pain, sinks, soothed at last in the enfolding arms of protective +love. That dark, eloquent face drew, held her gaze with the spell of a +loadstone, and even in the imminence of her jeopardy, she recalled the +strange resemblance he bore to the militant angel she had once seen in +a painting, where he wrestled with Satan for possession of the body of +Moses. Disgrace, peril, the gaunt spectre of death suddenly dissolved, +vanished in the glorious burst of rosy light that streamed into all the +chill chambers of her heart; and she bowed her head in her hands, to +hide the crimson that painted her cheeks. + +How long Mr. Wolverton talked, she never knew; but the lull that +succeeded was broken by the tones of Judge Parkman. + +"Beryl Brentano, it is my duty to remind you that this is the last +opportunity the law allows you, to speak in your own vindication. The +testimony has all been presented to those appointed to decide upon its +value. If there be any final statement that you may desire to offer in +self-defence, you must make it now." + +Could the hundreds who watched and waited ever forget the sight of that +superb, erect figure, that exquisite face, proud as Hypatia's, patient +as Perpetua's; or the sound of that pathetic, unwavering voice? +Mournfully, yet steadily, she raised her great grey eyes, darkened by +the violet shadows suffering had cast, and looked at her judges. + +"I am guiltless of any and all crime. I have neither robbed, nor +murdered; and I am neither principal, nor accomplice in the horrible +sin imputed to me. I know nothing of the chloroform; I never touched +the andiron; I never saw Gen'l Darrington but once. He gave me the gold +and the sapphires, and I am as innocent of his death, and of the +destruction of his will as the sinless little children who prattle at +your firesides and nestle to sleep in your arms. My life has been +disgraced and ruined by no act of mine, for I have kept my hands, my +heart, my soul, as pure and free from crime as they were when God gave +them to me. I am the helpless prey of suspicion, and the guiltless +victim of the law. O, my judges! I do not crave your mercy--that is the +despairing prayer of conscious guilt; I demand at your hands, justice." + +The rushing sound as of a coming flood filled her ears, and her words +echoed vaguely from some immeasurably distant height. The gaslights +seemed whirling in a Walpurgis maze, as she sat down and once more +veiled her face in her hands. + +When she recovered sufficiently to listen, Mr. Churchill had risen for +the closing speech of the prosecution. + +"Gentlemen of the Jury: I were a blot upon a noble profession, a +disgrace to honorable manhood, and a monster in my own estimation, if I +could approach the fatal Finis of this melancholy trial, without +painful emotions of profound regret, that the solemn responsibility of +my official position makes me the reluctant bearer of the last stern +message uttered by retributive justice. How infinitely more enviable +the duty of the Amicus Curiae, my gallant friend and quondam colleague, +who in voluntary defence has so ingeniously, eloquently and nobly led a +forlorn hope, that he knew was already irretrievably lost? Desperate, +indeed, must he deem that cause for which he battles so valiantly, when +dire extremity goads him to lift a rebellious and unfilial voice +against the provisions of his foster-mother, Criminal Jurisprudence, in +whose service he won the brilliant distinction and crown of laurel that +excite the admiration and envy of a large family of his less fortunate +foster-brothers. I honor his heroism, applaud his chivalrous zeal, and +wish that I stood in his place; but not mine the privilege of mounting +the white horse, and waving the red flag of the 'Lactees.' Dedicated to +the mournful rites of justice, I have laid an iron hand on the +quivering lips of pity, that cried to me like the voice of one of my +own little ones; and very sorrowfully, at the command of conscience, +reason and my official duty, I obey the mandate to ring down the black +curtain on a terrible tragedy, feeling like Dante, when he confronted +the doomed-- + +"'And to a part I come, where no light shines.'" + +So clearly and ably has my distinguished associate, Mr. Wolverton, +presented all the legal points bearing upon the nature and value of the +proof, submitted for your examination, that any attempt to buttress his +powerful argument, were an unpardonable reflection upon your +intelligence, and his skill; and I shall confine my last effort in +behalf of justice, to a brief analysis and comparison of the hypothesis +of the defence, with the verified result of the prosecution. + +"Beautiful and sparkling as the frail glass of Murano, and equally as +thin, as treacherously brittle, is the theory so skilfully manufactured +in behalf of the accused; and so adroitly exhibited that the ingenious +facets catch every possible gleam, and for a moment almost dazzle the +eyes of the beholder. In attempting to cast a lance against the shield +of circumstantial evidence, his weapon rebounded, recoiled upon his +fine spun crystal and shivered it. What were the materials wherewith he +worked? Circumstances, strained, well nigh dislocated by the effort to +force them to fit into his Procrustean measure. A man was seen on the +night of the twenty-sixth, who appeared unduly anxious to quit +X--before daylight; and again the mysterious stranger was seen in a +distant town in Pennsylvania, where he showed some gold coins of a +certain denomination, and dropped on the floor one-half of an envelope, +that once contained a will. In view of these circumstances (the +prosecution calls them facts), the counsel for the defence PRESUMES +that said stranger committed the murder, stole the will; and offers +this opinion as presumptive proof that the prisoner is innocent. The +argument runs thus: this man was an accepted lover of the accused, and +therefore he must have destroyed the will that beggared his betrothed; +but it is nowhere in evidence, that any lover existed, outside of the +counsel's imagination; yet Asmodeus like he must appear when called +for, and so we are expected to infer, assume, presume that because he +stole the will he must be her lover. Does it not make your head swim to +spin round in this circle of reasoning? In assailing the validity of +circumstantial evidence, has he not cut his bridges, burned his ships +behind him? + +"Gentlemen, fain would I seize this theory were it credible, and +setting thereon, as in an ark, this most unfortunate prisoner, float +her safely through the deluge of ruin, anchor her in peaceful security +upon some far-off Ararat; but it has gone to pieces in the hands of its +architect. Instead of rescuing the drowning, the wreck serves only to +beat her down. If we accept the hypothesis of a lover at all, it will +furnish the one missing link in the terrible chain that clanks around +the luckless prisoner. The disappearance of the three hundred and +twenty dollars has sorely perplexed the prosecution, and unexpectedly +the defence offers us the one circumstance we lacked; the lover was +lurking in the neighborhood, to learn the result of the visit, to +escort her home; and to him the prisoner gave the missing gold, to him +intrusted the destruction of the will. If that man came to 'Elm Bluff' +prepared to rob and murder, by whom was he incited and instigated; and +who was the accessory, and therefore particeps criminis? The prisoner's +handkerchief was the medium of chloroforming that venerable old man, +and can there be a reasonable doubt that she aided in administering it? + +"The prosecution could not explain why she came from the direction of +the railroad bridge, which was far out of her way from 'Elm Bluff'; but +the defence gives the most satisfactory solution: she was there, +dividing her blood-stained spoils with the equally guilty +accomplice--her lover. The prosecution brings to the bar of retribution +only one criminal; the defence not only fastens the guilt upon this +unhappy woman, by supplying the missing links, but proves +premeditation, by the person of an accomplice. Four months have been +spent in hunting some fact that would tend to exculpate the accused, +but each circumstance dragged to light serves only to swell the dismal +chorus, 'Woe to the guilty'. To-day she sits in the ashes of +desolation, condemned by the unanimous evidence of every known fact +connecred with this awful tragedy. To oppose this black and frightful +host of proofs, what does she offer us? Simply her bare, solemnly +reiterated denial of guilt. We hold our breath, hoping against hope +that she will give some explanation, some solution, that our pitying +hearts are waiting so eagerly to hear; but dumb as the Sphinx, she +awaits her doom. You will weigh that bare denial in the scale with the +evidence, and in this momentous duty recollect the cautious admonition +that has been furnished to guide you: 'Cosceding that asseverations of +innocence are always deserving of consideration by the executive, what +is there to invest them with a conclusive efficacy, in opposition to a +chain of presumptive evidence, the force and weight of which falls +short only of mathematical demonstration?' The astute and eloquent +counsel for defence, has cited some well-known cases, to shake your +faith in the value of merely presumptive proof. + +"I offer for your consideration, an instance of the fallibility of +merely bare, unsupported denial of guilt on the part of the accused. A +priest at Lauterbach was suspected, arrested and tried for the murder +of a woman, under very aggravated circumstances. He was subjected to +eighty examinations; and each time solemnly denied the crime. Even when +confronted at midnight with the skull of the victim murdered eight +years before, he vehemently protested his innocence; called on the +skull to declare him not the assassin, and appealed to the Holy Trinity +to proclaim his innocence. Finally he confessed his crime; testified +that while cutting the throat of his victim, he had exhorted her to +repentance, had given her absolution, and that having concealed the +corpse, he had said masses for her soul. + +"The forlorn and hopeless condition of the prisoner at this bar, +appeals pathetically to that compassion which we are taught to believe +coexists with justice, even in the omnipotent God we worship; yet in +the face of incontrovertible facts elicited from reliable witnesses, of +coincidences which no theory of accident can explain, can we stifle +convictions, solely because she pleads 'not guilty'? Pertinent, indeed, +was the ringing cry of that ancient prosecutor: 'Most illustrious +Caesar! if denial of guilt be sufficient defence, who would ever be +convicted?' You have been assured that inferences drawn from probable +facts eclipse the stupendous falsehood of Ananias and Sapphira! Then +the same family strain inevitably crops out, in the loosely-woven web +of defensive presumptive evidence--whose pedigree we trace to the same +parentage. God forbid that I should commit the sacrilege of arrogating +His divine attribute--infallibility--for any human authority, however +exalted; or claim it for any amount of proof, presumptive or positive. +'It is because humanity even when most cautious and discriminating is +so mournfully fallible and prone to error, that in judging its own +frailty, we require the aid and reverently invoke the guidance of +Jehovah.' In your solemn deliberations bear in mind this epitome of an +opinion, entitled to more than a passing consideration: 'Perhaps strong +circumstantial evidence in cases of crime, committed for the most part +in secret, is the most satisfactory of any from whence to draw the +conclusion of guilt; for men may be seduced to perjury, by many base +motives; but it can scarcely happen that many circumstances, especially +if they be such over which the accuser could have no control, forming +altogether the links of a transaction, should all unfortunately concur +to fix the presumption of guilt on an individual, and yet such a +conclusion be erroneous.' + +"Gentlemen of the jury: the prosecution believes that the overwhelming +mass of evidence laid before you proves, beyond a reasonable doubt, +that the prisoner did premeditatedly murder and rob Robert Luke +Darrington; and in the name of justice, we demand that you vindicate +the majesty of outraged law, by rendering a verdict of 'guilty'. All +the evidence in this case points the finger of doom at the prisoner, as +to the time, the place, the opportunity, the means, the conduct and the +motive. Suffer not sympathy for youthful womanhood and wonderful +beauty, to make you recreant to the obligations of your oath, to decide +this issue of life or death, strictly in accordance with the proofs +presented; and bitterly painful as is your impending duty, do not allow +the wail of pity to drown the demands of justice, or the voice of that +blood that cries to heaven for vengeance upon the murderess. May the +righteous God who rules the destinies of the universe guide you, and +enable you to perform faithfully your awful duty." + +Painfully solemn was the profound silence that pervaded the court-room, +and the eyes of the multitude turned anxiously to the grave countenance +of the Judge. Mr. Dunbar had seated himself at a small table, not far +from Beryl, and resting his elbow upon it, leaned his right temple in +the palm of his hand, watching from beneath his contracted black brows +the earnest, expectant faces of the jurymen; and his keen, glowing eyes +indexed little of the fierce, wolfish pangs that gnawed ceaselessly at +his heart, as the intolerable suspense drew near its end. + +Judge Parkman leaned forward. + +"Gentlemen of the jury: before entering that box, as the appointed +ministers of justice, to arbitrate upon the most momentous issue that +can engage human attention--the life or death of a fellow creature--you +called your Maker to witness that you would divest your minds of every +shadow of prejudice, would calmly, carefully, dispassionately consider, +analyze and weigh the evidence submitted for your investigation; and +irrespective of consequences, render a verdict in strict accordance +with the proofs presented. You have listened to the testimony of the +witnesses, to the theory of the prosecution, to the theory of the +counsel for the defence; you have heard the statement of the accused, +her repeated denial of the crime with which she stands charged; and +finally you have heard the arguments of counsel, the summing up of all +the evidence. The peculiar character of some of the facts presented as +proof, requires on your part the keenest and most exhaustive analysis +of the inferences to be drawn from them, and you 'have need of +patience, wisdom and courage'. While it is impossible that you can +contemplate the distressing condition of the accused without emotions +of profound compassion, your duty 'is prescribed by the law, which +allows you no liberty to indulge any sentiment, inconsistent with its +strict performance'. You should begin with the legal presumption that +the prisoner is innocent, and that presumption must continue, until her +guilt is satisfactorily proved. This is the legal right of the +prisoner; contingent on no peculiar circumstances of any particular +case, but is the common right of every person accused of a crime. The +law surrounds the prisoner with a coat of mail, that only irrefragable +proofs of guilt can pierce, and the law declares her innocent, unless +the proof you have heard on her trial satisfies you, beyond a +reasonable doubt, that she is guilty. What constitutes reasonable +doubt, it becomes your duty to earnestly and carefully consider. It is +charged that the defendant, on the night of the twenty-sixth of +October, did wilfully, deliberately, and premeditatedly murder Robert +Luke Darrington, by striking him with a brass andiron. The legal +definition of murder is the unlawful killing of another, with malice +aforethought; and is divided into two degrees. Any murder committed +knowingly, intentionally and wantonly, and without just cause or +excuse, is murder in the first degree; and this is the offence charged +against the prisoner at the bar. If you believe from the evidence, that +the defendant, Beryl Brentano, did at the time and place named, +wilfully and premeditatedly kill Robert Luke Darrington, then it will +become your duty to find the defendant guilty of murder; if you do not +so believe, then it will be your duty to acquit her. A copy of the +legal definition of homicide, embracing murder in the first and second +degrees, and of manslaughter in the first and second degrees, will be +furnished for your instruction; and it is your right and privilege +after a careful examination of all the evidence, to convict of a lesser +crime than that charged in the indictment, provided all the evidence in +this case, should so convince your minds, to the exclusion of a +reasonable doubt. + +"In your deliberations you will constantly bear in memory, the +following long established rules provided for the guidance of jurors: + +"'I.--The burden of proof rests upon the prosecution, and does not +shift or change to the defendant in any phase or stage of the case. + +"'II.--Before the jury can convict the accused, they must be satisfied +from the evidence that she is guilty of the offence charged in the +indictment, beyond a reasonable doubt. It is not sufficient that they +should believe her guilt only probable. No degree of probability +merely, will authorize a conviction; but the evidence must be of such +character and tendency as to produce a moral certainty of the +prisoner's guilt, to the exclusion of reasonable doubt. + +"'III.--Each fact which is necessary in the chain of circumstances to +establish the guilt of the accused, must be distinctly proved by +competent legal evidence, and if the jury have reasonable doubt as to +any material fact, necessary to be proved in order to support the +hypothesis of the prisoner's guilt, to the exclusion of every other +reasonable hypothesis, they must find her not guilty. + +"'IV.--If the jury are satisfied from the evidence, that the accused is +guilty of the offence charged, beyond reasonable doubt, and no rational +hypothesis or explanation can be framed or given (upon the whole +evidence in the cause) consistent with the innocence of the accused, +and at the same time consistent with the facts proved, they ought to +find her guilty. The jury are the exclusive judges of the evidence, of +its weight, and of the credibility of the witnesses. It is their duty +to accept and be governed by the law, as given by the Court in its +instructions.' + +"The evidence in this case is not direct and positive, but presumptive; +and your attention has been called to some well known cases of persons +convicted of, and executed for capital crimes, whose entire innocence +was subsequently made apparent. These arguments and cases only prove +that, 'all human evidence, whether it be positive or presumptive in its +character, like everything else that partakes of mortality, is +fallible. The reason may be as completely convinced by +circumstantial--as by positive evidence, and yet may possibly not +arrive at the truth by either.' + +"The true question, therefore, for your consideration, is not the kind +of evidence in this case, but it is, what is the result of it in your +minds? If it has failed to satisfy you of the guilt of the accused, and +your minds are not convinced, vacillate in doubt, then you must acquit +her, be the evidence what it may, positive or presumptive; but if the +result of the whole evidence satisfies you, it you are convinced that +she is guilty, then it is imperatively your duty to convict her, even +if the character of the evidence be wholly circumstantial." Such is the +law. + +"In resigning this case to you, I deem it my duty to direct your +attention to one point, which I suggest that you consider. If the +accused administered chloroform, did it indicate that her original +intention was solely to rob the vault? Is the act of administering the +chloroform consistent with the theory of deliberate and premeditated +murder? In examining the facts submitted by counsel, take the +suggestion just presented, with you, and if the facts and circumstances +proved against her, can be accounted for on the theory of intended, +deliberate robbery, without necessarily involving premeditated murder, +it is your privilege to put that merciful construction upon them. + +"Gentlemen of the jury, I commit this mournful and terrible case to +your decision; and solemnly adjure you to be governed in your +deliberations, by the evidence as you understand it, by the law as +furnished in these instructions, and to render such verdict, as your +reason compels, as your matured judgment demands, and your conscience +unhesitatingly approves and sanctions. May God direct and control your +decision." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + +Drifting along the stream of testimony that rolled in front of the +jury-box, an eager and excited public had with scarcely a dissenting +voice arrived at the conclusion, that the verdict was narrowed to the +limits of only two possibilities. It was confidently expected that the +jury would either acquit unconditionally, or fail to agree; thus +prolonging suspense, by a mistrial. It was six o'clock when, the +jurors, bearing the andiron, handkerchief, pipe, and a diagram of the +bedroom at "Elm Bluff", were led away to their final deliberation; yet +so well assured was the mass of spectators, that they would promptly +return to render a favorable verdict, that despite the inclemency of +the weather, there was no perceptible diminution of the anxious crowd +of men and women. + +The night had settled prematurely down, black and stormy; and though +the fury of the gale seemed at one time to have spent itself, the wind +veered to the implacable east, and instead of fitful gusts, a steady +roaring blast freighted with rain smote the darkness. The officer +conducted his prisoner across the dim corridor, and opened the door of +the small anteroom, which frequent occupancy had rendered gloomily +familiar. + +"I wish I could make you more comfortable, and it is a shame to shut +you up in such an ice-box. I will throw my overcoat on the floor, and +you can wrap your feet up in it. Yes, you must take it. I shall keep +warm at the stove in the Sheriff's room. The Judge will not wait later +than ten o'clock, then I'll take you back to Mrs. Singleton. It seems +you prefer to remain here alone." + +"Yes, entirely alone." + +"You are positive, you won't try a little hot punch, or a glass of +wine?" + +"Thank you, but I wish only to be alone." + +"Don't be too down-hearted. You will never be convicted under that +indictment, at least not by this jury, for I have a suspicion that +there is one man among them, who will stand out until the stars fall, +and I will tell you why. I happened to be looking at him, when your +Christmas card was shown by Mr. Dunbar. The moment he saw it, he +started, stretched out his hand, and as he looked at it, I saw him +choke up, and pass his hand over his eyes. Soon after Christmas, that +man lost his only child, a girl five years old, who had scarlet fever. +To divert her mind, they gave her a Christmas card to play with, that +some friend had sent to her mother. She had it in her hand when she +died, in convulsions, and it was put in her coffin and buried with her. +My wife helped to nurse and shroud her, and she told me it was the card +shown in court; it was your card. The law can't cut out the +heartstrings of the jury, and I don't believe that man would lift his +hand against your life, any sooner than he would strike the face of his +dead child." + +He locked the door, and Beryl found herself at last alone, in the +dreary little den where a single gas burner served only to show the +surrounding cheerlessness. The furniture comprised a wooden bench along +the wall, two chairs, and a table in the middle of the floor; and on +the dusty panes of the grated window, a ray of ruddy light from a lamp +post in the street beneath, broke through the leaden lances of the +rain, and struggled for admission. + +The neurotic pharmacopoeia contains nothing so potent as despair to +steady quivering nerves, and steel to superhuman endurance. For Beryl, +the pendulum of suspense had ceased to swing, because the spring of +hope had snapped; and the complete surrender, the mute acceptance of +the worst possible to come, had left her numb, impervious to dread. As +one by one the discovered facts spelled unmistakably the name of her +brother, allowing no margin to doubt his guilt, the necessity of +atonement absorbed every other consideration; and the desire to avert +his punishment extinguished the last remnant of selfish anxiety. If by +suffering in his stead, she could secure to him life--the opportunities +of repentance, of expiation, of making his peace with God, of saving +his immortal soul--how insignificant seemed all else. The innate love +of life, the natural yearning for happiness, the once fervent +aspirations for fame--the indescribable longing for the fruition of +youth's high hopes, which like a Siren sang somewhere in the golden +mists of futurity--all these were now crushed beyond recognition in the +whirlwind that had wrecked her. + +Her father slept under silvery olives in a Tuscan dell, her mother +within hearing of the waves that broke on the Atlantic shore; and if +the wanderer could be purified by penitential tears, what mattered the +shattering of the family circle on earth, when in the eternal Beyond, +it would be indissolubly reformed? Over the black gulf that yawned in +her young, pure life, the wings of her Christian faith bore her +steadily, unwaveringly to the heavenly rest, that she knew remained for +the people of God; and so, she seemed to have shaken hands with the +things of time and earth, and to stand on the border land, girded for +departure. To meet her beloved dead, with the blessed announcement that +Bertie must join them after a while, because she had ransomed his +precious soul; and that the family would be complete under the heavenly +roof, was recompense so rich, that the fangs of disgrace, of physical +and mental torture were effectually extracted. By day and by night the +ladder of prayer lifted her soul into that serene realm, where the +fountains of balm are never drained; and into her face stole the +reflection of that peace which only communion with the Christian's God +can bring to those whom grief has claimed for its own. + +To-night, as she listened to the Coronach chanted by the gale, and the +dismal accompaniment of the pelting rain, she realized how utterly +isolated was her position, and kneeling on the bare floor, crossed her +arms on the table, bowed her bead upon them, and prayed for patience +and strength. The ordeal had been fiery, but the end was at hand, and +release must be near. + +She heard quick steps in the corridor, and the key was turned in the +lock. Had the jury so promptly decided to destroy her? For an instant +only, she shut her eyes; and when she opened them, Mr. Dunbar was +leaning over her, folding closely about her shoulders some heavy wrap, +whose soft fur collar his fingers buttoned around her throat. She had +not known that she was cold, until the delicious sensation of warmth +crept like a caressing touch over her chilled limbs. She did not stir, +and neither spoke; but after a moment he turned toward the door; then +she rose. + +"There is something I wish to say, and this is my last opportunity, as +after to-night we shall not meet again. During the past four months I +have said harsh, bitter things to you, and have unjustly judged you. In +grateful recognition of all that you have so faithfully essayed to +accomplish in my behalf, I ask you now to forget everything but my +gratitude for your effort to save me; and I offer my hand to you, as +the one friend who sacrificed even his manly pride, and endured +humiliation in order to redress my wrongs. I thank you very sincerely, +Mr. Dunbar." + +He took her outstretched hand, pressed it against his cheek, his eyes, +held it to his lips; then a half smothered groan escaped him, and +afraid to trust himself, he went quickly out. + +Believing that she stood on the confines of another world, she had +possessed her soul in patience, waiting for the consummation of the +sacrifice; yet at the crisis of her fate, that singular, +incomprehensible influence, long resisted, drew her thoughts to him, +whom she regarded as the chosen puppet of destiny to hurry her into an +untimely grave. She had fought the battle with him, under fearful odds; +conscious of sedition in the heart that defied him, warily clutching +with one hand the throat of rebellion in her citadel, while with the +other, she parried assault. + +Keeping lonely vigil, amid the strewn wreck of life and hope, she had +waved away one persistent thought, that lit up the blackness with a +sudden glory, that came with the face of an angel of light, and babbled +with the silvery tongue of sorcery. As far as her future was concerned, +this world had practically come to a premature end; but above the roar +of ruin, and out of the yawning graves of slaughtered possibilities, +rose and rang the challenge: If she had never come South, if she could +have been allowed the chance of happiness that seemed every woman's +birthright, if she had met and known Mr. Dunbar, before he was pledged +to another; what then? If she were once more the Beryl of old, and he +were free? If? What necromancy so wonderful, as the potentiality of if? +Weighed in that popular balance--appearances--how stood the poor +friendless prisoner, loaded with suspicion, tarnished with obloquy, on +the verge of an ignominious death; in comparison with the fair, proud +heiress, dowered with blue blood, powerful in patrician influence, rich +in all that made her the envy of her social world? + +In the dazzling zenith of temporal prosperity, Leo Gordon considered +the heart of her betrothed her most precious possession; the one jewel +which she would gladly have given all else to preserve; and yet, fate +tore it from her grasp, and laid it at the feet, nay thrust it into the +white hand of the woman who must die for a fiendish crime. A latter-day +seer tells us, that in all realms, "Between laws there is no analogy, +there is Continuity"; then in the universe of ethical sociology, who +shall trace the illimitable ramifications of the Law of Compensation? + +Up and down, back and forth, slowly, wearily walked the prisoner; and +when the town clock struck eight, she mechanically counted each stroke. +As in drowning men, the landmarks of a lifetime rise, huddle, almost +press upon the glazing eyes, so the phantasmagoria of Beryl's past, +seemed projected in strange luminousness upon the pall of the present, +like profiles in silvery flame cast on a black curtain. + +Holding her father's hand, she walked in the Odenwald; sitting beside +her mother on a carpet of purple vetches, she stemmed strawberries in a +garden near Pistoja; clinging to Bertie's jacket, she followed him +across dimpling sands to dip her feet in the blue Mediterranean waves, +that broke in laughter, showing teeth of foam, where dying sunsets +reddened all the beach. Through sunny arcades, flushed with +pomegranate, glowing with orange, silvered with lemon blossoms, came +the tinkling music of contadini bells, the bleating of kids, the +twittering of happy birds, the distant chime of an Angelus; all the +subtle harmony, the fragmentary melody that flickers through an +Impromptu of Chopin or Schubert. She saw the simulacrum of her former +self, the proud, happy Beryl of old, singing from the score of the +"Messiah", in the organ loft of a marble church; she heard the rich +tenor voice of her handsome brother, as he trilled a barcarole one +night, crossing the Atlantic; she smelled the tuberoses at Mentone, the +faint breath of lilies her father had loved so well, and then, blotting +all else, there rose clear as some line of Morghen's, that attic room; +the invalid's bed, the low chair beside it, the wasted figure, the +suffering, fever-flushed face of the beloved mother, as she saw her +last, with the Grand Duke jasmine fastened at her throat. + +The door was thrown open, and the officer beckoned her to follow him. +Back into the crowded court-room, where people pressed even into the +window sills for standing room, where Judge and counsel sat gravely +expectant; where the stillness of death had suddenly fallen. The +officer conducted her to the bar, then drew back, and Mr. Dunbar came +and stood at her side; resting his hand on the back of her chair. + +In that solemn hush, the measured tramp of the jury advancing, and +filing into their box, had the mournful, measured beat as of pall +bearers, keeping step to a dismal dirge; and when the foreman laid upon +the table the fatal brass unicorn, the muffled sound seemed ominous as +the grating of a coffin lowered upon the cross bars of a gaping grave. +As the roll was called, each man rose, and answered in a low but +distinct tone. Then the clerk of the court asked: + +"Gentlemen of the jury, have you agreed upon your verdict?" + +"We have," replied the foreman. + +"What say you! Guilty, or not guilty?" + +Beryl had risen, and the gaslight shining full upon her pale, Phidian +face, showed no trace of trepidation. Only the pathetic patience of a +sublime surrender was visible on her frozen features. The eyes +preternaturally large and luminous were raised far above the sea of +heads, and their strained gaze might almost have been fixed upon the +unveiled face of the God she trusted. Her hands were folded over her +mother's ring, her noble head thrown proudly back. + +"We the jury, in the case of the State against Beryl Brentano, find +defendant not guilty as charged in the indictment; but guilty of +manslaughter in the first degree; and we do earnestly commend her to +the mercy of the Court." + +The girl staggered slightly, as if recoiling from a blow, and Mr. +Dunbar caught her arm, steadied her. The long pent tide of popular +feeling broke its barriers, and the gates of Pandemonium seemed to +swing open. Women sobbed; men groaned. In vain the Judge thundered +"Silence", "Order!" and not until an officer advanced to obey the +command, to clear the court-room, was there any perceptible lull, in +the storm of indignation. + +Turning to the Judge, Mr. Dunbar said: + +"In behalf of the prisoner, I most respectfully beg that the Court will +end her suspense; and render her return to this bar unnecessary by +promptly pronouncing sentence." + +"Is it the wish of the prisoner, that sentence should not be delayed?" + +"She wishes to know her fate." + +She had uttered no sound, but the lashes trembled, fell over the tired, +aching, strained eyes; and lifting her locked hands she bowed her chin +upon them. + +Some moments elapsed, before Judge Parkman spoke; then his voice was +low and solemn. + +"Beryl Brentano, you have been indicted for the deliberate and +premeditated murder of your grandfather, Robert Luke Darrington. Twelve +men, selected for their intelligence and impartiality, have patiently +and attentively listened to the evidence in this case, and have under +oath endeavored to discover the truth of this charge. You have had the +benefit of a fair trial, by unbiased judges, and finally, the jury in +the conscientious discharge of their duty, have convicted you of +manslaughter in the first degree, and commended you to the mercy of the +Court. In consideration of your youth, of the peculiar circumstances +surrounding you, and especially, in deference to the wishes and +recommendation of the jury--whose verdict, the Court approves, I +therefore pronounce upon you the lightest penalty which the law affixes +to the crime of manslaughter, of which you stand convicted; which +sentence is--that you be taken hence to the State Penitentiary, and +there be kept securely, for the term of five years." + +With a swift movement, Mr. Dunbar drew the crape veil over her face, +put her arm through his, and led her into the corridor. Hurriedly he +exchanged some words in an undertone with the two officers, who +accompanied him to the rear entrance of the court-house; and then, in +answer to a shrill whistle, a close carriage drawn by two horses drew +up to the door, followed by the dismal equipage set apart for the +transportation of prisoners. The deputy sheriff stepped forward, trying +to shield the girl from the driving rain, and assisted her into the +carriage. Mr. Dunbar sprang in and seated himself opposite. The officer +closed the door, ordered the coachman to drive on, and then entering +the gloomy black box, followed closely, keeping always in sight of the +vehicle in advance. + +The clock striking ten, sounded through the muffling storm a knell as +mournful as some tolling bell, while into that wild, moaning Friday +night, went the desolate woman, wearing henceforth the brand of +Cain--remanded to the convict's home. + +She had thrown back her veil to ease the stifling sensation in her +throat, and Mr. Dunbar could see now and then, as they dashed past a +street lamp, that she sat upright, still as stone. + +At last she said, in a tone peculiarly calm, like that of one talking +in sleep: + +"What did it mean--that verdict?" + +"That you went back to 'Elm Bluff' with no intention of attacking Gen'l +Darrington." + +"That I went there deliberately to steal, and then to avoid detection, +killed him? That was the verdict of the jury?" + +She waited a moment. + +"Answer me. That was the meaning? That was the most merciful verdict +they could give to the world?" + +Only the hissing sound of the rain upon the glass pane of the carriage, +made reply. + +They had reached the bridge, when a hysterical laugh startled the man, +who leaned back on the front seat, with his arms crossed tightly over a +heart throbbing with almost unendurable pain. + +"To steal, to rob, to plunder. Branded for all time a thief, a rogue, a +murderess. I!--I--" + +A passionate wail told the strain was broken: "I, my father's darling, +my father's Beryl! Hurled into a living tomb, herded with convicts, +with the vilest outcasts that disgrace the earth--this is worse than a +thousand deaths! It would have been so merciful to crush out the life +they mangled; but to doom me to the slow torture of this loathsome +grave, where death brings no release! To die is so easy, so blessed; +but to live--a convicted felon! O, my God! my God! Hast Thou indeed +forsaken me?" + +In the appalling realization of her fate, she rocked to and fro for a +moment only, fiercely shaken by the horror of a future never before +contemplated. Then the proud soul stifled its shuddering sigh, lifted +its burden of shame, silently struggled up its awful Via Crucis. Mute +and still, she leaned back in the corner of the carriage. + +"I could have saved you, but you would not accept deliverance. You +thwarted every effort, tied the hands that might have set you free; and +by your own premeditated course throughout the trial, deliberately +dragged this doom down upon your head. You counted the cost, and you +elected, chose of your own free will to offer yourself as a sacrifice, +to the law, for the crime of another. You are your own merciless fate, +decreeing self-immolation. You were willing to die, in order to save +that man's life; and you can certainly summon fortitude to endure five +years' deprivation of his society; sustained by the hope that having +thereby purchased his security, you may yet reap the reward your heart +demands, reunion with its worthless, degraded idol. I have watched, +weighed, studied you; searched every stray record of your fair young +life, found the clear pages all pure; and I have doubted, marvelled +that you, lily-hearted, lily-souled, lily-handed, could cast the pearl +of your love down in the mire, to be trampled by swinish feet." + +The darkness of the City of Dis that seemed to brood under the wings of +the stormy night, veiled Beryl's face; and her silence goaded him +beyond the limits of prudence, which he had warily surveyed for himself. + +"Day and night, I hear the maddening echo of your accusing cry, 'You +have ruined my life!' God knows, you have as effectually ruined mine. +You have your revenge--if it comfort you to know it; but I am incapable +of your sublime renunciation. I am no patient martyr; I am, instead, an +intensely selfish man. You choose to hug the ashes of desolation; I +purpose to sweep away the wreck, to rebuild on the foundation of one +hope, which all the legions in hell cannot shake. Between you and me +the battle has only begun, and nothing but your death or my victory +will end it. You have your revenge; I intend to enjoy mine. Though he +burrow as a mole, or skulk in some fastness of Alaska, I will track and +seize that cowardly miscreant, and when the law receives its guilty +victim, you shall be freed from suspicion, freed from prison, and most +precious of all boons, you shall be freed forever from the vile +contamination of his polluting touch. For the pangs you have inflicted +on me, I will have my revenge: you shall never be profaned by the name +of wife." + +Up the rocky hill toiled the horses, arching their necks as they +stooped their faces to avoid the blinding rain: and soon the huge blot +of prison walls, like a crouching monster ambushed in surrounding +gloom, barred the way. + +In two windows of the second story, burned lights that borrowed lurid +rays in their passage through the mist, and seemed to glow angrily, +like the red eyes of a sullen beast of prey. The carriage stopped. A +moment after, the deputy-sheriff sprang from his wagon and rang the +bell close to the great gate. Two dogs bayed hoarsely, and somewhere in +the building an answering bell sounded. + +Beryl leaned forward. + +"Mr. Dunbar, there is one last favor I ask at your hands. I want +my--my--I want that pipe, that was shown in court. Will you ask that it +may be given to me? Will you send it to me?" + +A half strangled, scarcely audible oath was his only reply. + +She put out her hand, laid it on his. + +"You dare caused me so much suffering, surely you will not deny me this +only recompense I shall ever ask." + +His hand closed over hers. + +"If I bring it to you, will you confess who smoked it last?" + +"After to-night, sir, I think it best I should never see your face +again." + +The officer opened the carriage door, the warden approached, carrying a +lantern in one hand and an umbrella in the other. Mr. Dunbar stepped +from the carriage and turning, stretched out his arms, suddenly +snatched the girl for an instant close to his heart, and lifted her to +the ground. + +The warden opened the gate, swinging his lantern high to light the way, +and by its flickering rays Lennox Dunbar saw the beautiful white face, +the wonderful, sad eyes, the wan lips contracted by a spasm of pain. + +She turned and followed the warden; the lights wavered; the great iron +gate swung back in its groove, the bolt fell with a sullen clang; the +massive key rattled, a chain clanked, and all was darkness as she was +locked irrevocably into her living tomb. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + +The annual resurrection had begun; the pulse of Nature quickened, rose, +throbbed under the vernal summons; pale, tender grass-blades peeped +above the mould, houstonias lifted their blue disks to the March sun, +and while the world of birds commenced their preludes where silky young +leaves shyly fluttered, earth and sky were wrapped in that silvery haze +with which coy Springtime half veils her radiant face. The vivid +verdure of wheat and oat fields, the cooler aqua marina of long +stretches of rye, served as mere groundwork for displaying in bold +relief the snowy tufts of plum, the creamy clusters of pear, and the +glowing pink of peach orchards that clothed the hillsides, and brimmed +the valleys with fragrant prophecies of fruitful plenty. + +Dimmed by distance to fine lines of steel, wavered the flocks of wild +geese flying from steaming bayous to icy lakes in the far North, and +now and then as the ranks dipped, a white flash lit the vignettes +traced against the misty, pearl-gray sky. + +Spring sunshine had kissed the lips of death, and universal life sprang +palpitating to begin anew the appointed yearly cycle; yet amid the +flush and stir of mother earth, there lay hopelessly still and cold +some human hopes, which no divine "Come forth" would ever revivify. + +Into the face of Leo Gordon had crept that strange and indescribable +change, which is analogous to the peculiar aspect of the clear heavens +when dark clouds just faintly rim the horizon, below which they heap +their sombre, sullen masses, projecting upward weird shadows. + +Apparently the sun of prosperity burned in the zenith and gilded her +path with happiness, but analyzed by the prism of her consciousness +the brightness faded, the colors paled, and grim menace crossed all, +like the dark lines of Fraunhofer. To be chosen, loved, wooed and won +exclusively for herself, irrespective of all extraneous appurtenances +and advantages, is the supreme hope innate in every woman, and the +dread that her wealth might invest her with charms not intrinsic, had +made Leo unusually distrustful of the motives of her numerous suitors. +That Leighton Douglass loved the woman, not the heiress, she knew +beyond the possibility of cavil or doubt, and when, after mature +deliberation, she promised her hand to Mr. Dunbar, she had felt equally +sure that no mercenary consideration biased his choice or inspired his +professions of attachment. + +For a nature so proudly poised, so averse to all impulsive +manifestations of emotion, her affections were surprisingly warm and +clinging, and she loved him with all the depth and fervor of her +tender, generous heart; hence the slow torture of her humiliation in +the hour of disenchantment. To women who love is given a sixth sense, a +subtile instinct whereby, as in an occult alembic, they discern the +poison that steals into their wine of joy; so Leo was not long in +ignorance that her coveted kingdom belonged by right of conquest to +another, and that she reigned only nominally and by courtesy. + +The evil we most abhor generally espies us afar off, chases tirelessly, +crouches at our feet, grimacing triumphantly at our impotence to escape +its loathsome clutches; and Leo's pride bled sorely in the realization +that she had sold her hand and heart for base counterfeit equivalents. +In a crisis of keen disappointment, only very noble natures can remain +strictly just, yet in arraigning her lover for disloyalty, this +sorrowing woman abstained from casting all the blame upon him. He had +not intentionally deceived her, had not deliberately betrayed her +trust; he was the unwilling victim of an inexplicable fascination +against which she felt assured he had struggled sullenly and +persistently; and which, in destroying the beautiful edifice of their +mutual hopes, offered him nothing but humiliation in exchange. + +Standing to-day beside the pyramid of scarlet geraniums, and velvety, +gold-powdered begonias in the centre of the octagonal room, where the +warm Spring sun shone down through the dome, falling aslant on the +great snowy owl and the rose-colored cockatoo smoothing their plumes on +the top of the glittering brass cages--Leo contrasted the luxurious and +elegant details of her lovely home with the grim and bleak cell where, +in shame and ignominy, dwelt the young stranger who had stolen her +throne. A beggar by the road-side had filched from the queen in her +palace, her crown and sceptre, and the pomp and splendor of royal +surroundings only mocked and emphasized an empty sham. Merely a trifle +paler than usual, and somewhat heavy-eyed from acquaintance with +midnight vigils, she proudly bore her new burden of grief with her +wonted easy grace; but the pretty mouth was compressed into harder, +narrower lines, and the delicate nose dilated in a haughtier curve. +Sooner or later we all learn the wisdom of the unwelcome admonition: +"Fortune sells what we believe she gives." + +For two months Leo's relations with Mr. Dunbar had been distinctly +strained, and while both carefully avoided any verbal attempt at +explanation, her manner had grown more distant, his more scrupulously +courteous, but pre-occupied, guarded and cold. Knowing that abdication +was inevitable, she slowly revolved the best method of release, which +promised the least sacrifice of womanly dignity, and the greatest +economy of unpleasantness on the part of her betrothed. + +During the week of the trial, she had seen him but twice, and +immediately after he had been summoned to attend some suit in New +Orleans, and had hurriedly bidden her adieu in the presence of others. +With punctilious regularity he wrote studiedly polished, graceful yet +merely friendly letters, and like ice morsels they slowly widened the +glacier creeping between the two. + +To her council she admitted only her bruised pride, her bleeding heart, +her relentless incorruptible conscience; and over the conclusion, she +shed no tears, made no moan, allowed no margin for pity. Early on that +Spring morning, she had received a glowing sheaf of La France and +Duchess de Brabant roses, accompanied by a brief note announcing Mr. +Dunbar's return, and requesting an interview at noon. The tone of her +reply was markedly cordial, and after offering congratulations upon +his birthday, she begged his acceptance of a souvenir made for the +occasion by her own hands, a dainty "bit of embroidery which she +flattered herself, he would value for the sake of the donor." + +Who doubts that Vashti made a most elaborate toilette, on that day of +humiliation, when discarded and discrowned she trailed her royal robes +for the last time across the marble courts of Shushan, going forth to +make room for Queen Esther? Amid the loops of lace at her throat, and +into the jewelled clasp of her belt, Leo had fastened the exquisite +roses, noting the perfect harmony of her costume, as she smoothed the +folds of the sapphire velvet robe which she knew that Mr. Dunbar +particularly admired. The lofty, beautiful room was aglow with rich +color from oriental rugs strewn about the marble floor, from masses of +hyacinths and crimson camellias in stands, baskets, vases; from +brilliant tropical birds flitting to and fro; and through the gilt +wire vista of the aviary, the fountain in the peristyle beyond threw up +its silvery hands to arrest attention, and softly beat time to the +music of the gold and green canaries. The large white owl with wide, +prescient, berylline eyes, rose suddenly, and on slow wings circled +round and round, flying gradually to the ceiling of the dome, then +swooped back to its perch; and the Siberian hound, a huge, dun-hued +creature, lifted his head from the velvet rug and rubbed it against his +mistress' dress. + +As the sound of a step she knew so well, rang in the vestibule, the +blood leaped to Leo's cheeks, but she walked quickly forward, and met +her visitor just beneath the "Salve" in the scroll of olives, putting +out her hands across the onyx table with its red and black bowl of +violets. Thus at arm's length, she held him a moment. + +"I am very glad to see you; and I wish you a happy birthday, hoping +your new year may be as bright as the sun that ushers it in; and as +full of fragrance as these lovely roses, which I wear in honor of the +day." + +Hand in hand, she smiled up into his handsome face, and certainly he +had never looked more kingly, more worthy of her homage. + +"Thank you, dear Leo. The light and sweetness of my future can be +blotted out, only by losing you. You must be the fulfilment of your own +kind wishes." + +He raised her left hand, kissed it lightly, and as she withdrew her +fingers and resumed her seat, in front of an ottoman ablaze with a +tangled mass of brilliant Berlin wool, he sat down at her side. + +Ere she was aware of his intention, he pushed the ottoman beyond her +reach, and dexterously catching her hand, took the gold thimble from +her finger and dropped it into his vest pocket. + +"Perish the fetich of needle-work, crochet and knitting! To-day at +least it shall not come between us;--and I claim your eyes, your +undivided attention. Now tell me how many of my rivals, how many +audacious suitors you have held at bay, by these gay Penelope webs +woven in my absence?" + +"Has Ulysses the right to be curious? Should not memories of Calypso +incline him to unlock the fetters of Penelope?" + +"Did she ever for one instant deem the silken cords she hugged to her +loyal, tender heart--fetters? Sweet, patient incarnation of +unquestioning fidelity, she stands the eternal antithesis of Mrs. +Caudle. From Kittie's letter, I inferred you were not well; but +certainly, my dear Leo, I never saw you look more lovely than to-day." + +"Just now Kittie's perceptions are awry, dazzled by the rose light that +wrap? her world. Has Prince arrived?" + +"Yes, he came yesterday, and my little sister is entirely and +overwhelmingly happy, for he is literally her Prince. Physically he is +much improved; has developed surprisingly, but has the shy, taciturn +manner of a student, and is, I fear, a hopeless bookworm." + +"Why should his literary taste disquiet you? He went to Germany to +foster his scholarly inclination." + +"Why? Why should a man apprentice himself to a carpenter, and become an +expert joiner, when he can never obtain the tools requisite to enable +him to work successfully? His aspirations run along the grooves of +science; and after dear little Kittie, his favorite Goddess is Biology. +Trained in the laboratory of a German scientist, where every imaginable +facility for researches in vivisection, and for the investigation of +certain biological problems was afforded him, he lands in America +empty-handed, and behold my carpenter minus tools." + +"Having fitted himself for the profession, you surely will not attempt +now to discourage or dissuade him." + +"The logic of impecuniosity will doubtless accomplish more than the +dissuasion of friends. Microscopic inspection of red and white +corpuscles, of virus, tissues, protoplasm and chlorophyl is probably +very interesting to lovers of microbes, and students of segmentation, +but such abstract pursuits appertain to purple and fine linen. A +profession means much; but ability to practise, infinitely more. Just +now the paramount problem is, how Prince can best make his bread. Six +months ago, he was prospectively so rich that he could indulge the whim +of blowing scientific soap-bubbles labelled with abstruse symbols; at +present, necessity directs his attention to paying his board bills." + +"I thought a liberal allowance had been settled upon him, and ample +provision made for his future?" + +"So there certainly was, on paper; but the destruction of the record +invalidated the gift." + +"All the world knows that he has the rights of an adopted son." + +"All the world knows equally well, that failing to produce the will, +Prince has lost his legacy, and must enlist in the army of +'bread-winners'." + +"Then what becomes of 'Elm Bluff' and its fine estate?" + +"They descend in the line decreed alike by law and nature, to the +nearest blood relation." + +Leo felt the blood reddening her throat and cheeks, but under the quick +glance of her hazel eyes, his handsome face always en garde showed no +embarrassing consciousness. Fearful of silence, she said in a +perplexed, inconsequent tone: + +"How manifestly unjust. Poor Kittie!" + +"Why poor Kittie? Her beaming face is eloquent repudiation of your +pity, and she verily believes her blond-headed, scholarly Prince a +bountiful equivalent for all Croesus' belongings. Rich little Kittie! +After all, where genuine love reigns, worldly environment matters +comparatively little; love makes happiness, and happiness is the +reconciler." + +A throb of pain shook the woman's heart as she realized the bitter +truth that he spoke from an experience born out of season: that he was +athirst for that which her fortune, her love, her own fair, graceful +self could never give him. + +She looked at him, with an arch smile lighting her face, but he saw the +trembling of her lips, noted the metallic ring in her voice. + +"'Et in Arcadia Ego?' Recent associations have rendered you idyllic. I +can recall a period when 'love in a cottage' was the target that +challenged the keenest arrows of your satire. Rich little Kittie has my +warmest congratulations. Will Prince remain in X--?" + +"How can he? The demand here for amateur scientists is not sufficiently +encouraging; and I rather think he gravitates toward a college +professorship, which might at least supply him abundantly with rabbits, +turtles, frogs and guinea-pigs for biological manipulation and +experiment. One of the gay balloons floating through his mind, is a +series of lectures to be delivered in the large cities. Heredity is his +pet hobby, and he proposes to canter it under the saddle of Weismann's +theory (whatever that may be), expounding it to scientific Americans. +As yet no plans have crystallized. His allowance was paid +semi-annually, but of course it failed him last January, and no +alternative presents itself but some attempt to utilize his technical +lore. There is a vacancy in the faculty of C---University, and I shall +write at once to the board of trustees." + +Like a moth, Leo flitted closer to the flame. + +"Will he make no attempt to secure his rights?" + +"He is too wise to waste his time in so fruitless an endeavor." + +"Have you advised him to submit tamely to the deprivation of his +fortune?" + +"He has not consulted me, but Wolverton, who is his cousin, convinced +him of the futility of any legal proceedings." + +"Does General Darrington's granddaughter understand that Prince's +career will be ruined for want of the money to which he is entitled?" + +"I am not acquainted with the views Gen'l Darrington's granddaughter +entertains concerning Prince, as I have not seen her since the trial +ended. Have you?" + +Each looked steadily at the other, and under the gleam of his eyes, +hers fell, and her color flickered. + +"I went once, but was denied admission. Even Sister Serena sees her no +longer. You doubtless know that she is recovering slowly from a severe +attack of illness." + +"I have heard nothing since the night she was convicted and sentenced. +To-day I found a message at my office from Singleton, asking me to call +at my earliest convenience at the penitentiary, on a matter of legal +business. To what it refers, I know not, as I came immediately here." + +There was a brief silence, in which his gaze mercilessly searched her +fair, proud face; then with a supreme effort she laid her hand suddenly +on his, and looked up smiling: + +"I believe I was growing very impatient over your prolonged absence in +New Orleans. Time dragged dismally, and I was never more rejoiced than +when I received your last letter, and knew that I should see you +to-day. Lennox, I have set my heart on something, which only your +consent and acquiescence will secure to me. I am about to ask for a +mammoth sugar-plum that has dangled temptingly before my eyes for +nearly a year, and I shall enjoy it the more if you bestow it +graciously. Can you be generous and indulge my selfish whim?" + +He felt a quiver in the cold fingers over which his warm hand closed, +saw the throbbing of the artery in her white throat, the ebbing of the +scarlet in lips that bravely held their coaxing, smiling curves, and he +knew that the crisis he had long foreseen was drawing near. + +Leaning closer, he looked down into her brown eyes. The end must come; +but he would not precipitate it. Like Francis at Pavia, he acknowledged +to himself that all was lost, save honor. + +"Whenever my Leo convinces me she can be selfish, I promise all that +she can possibly ask; but the selfishness must first be +incontrovertibly established." + +He had never been dearer to her than at that moment, when his brilliant +eyes seemed to search her soul and magnetize her; yet she did not +falter and the aching of her heart was a goad to her will. + +"You merely shower lesser sugar-plums, intending they shall surfeit. +Lennox, you know how often I have longed to make the journey to Greece, +Asia Minor and Egypt; you remember I have repeatedly expressed the +wish? You--" + +"Pardon me, sweetheart, but this is the first time I ever heard it." +"You forget. At last the consummation unfolds itself as smoothly as the +fourth act of a melodrama. My friend and schoolmate, Alma Cutting, of +New York, invites a small party of ladies and gentlemen to accompany +her in a cruise through the Levant, on her father's new and elegant +steam yacht 'Cleopatra'. I have pressing letters from Alma and Mr. +Cutting, kindly urging me to join them in New York by the first of May, +at which time they expect to start on a preliminary cruise through the +North and Baltic seas; drifting southward so as to reach Sicily and +Malta as soon as cool weather permits. Do you wonder that so charming +and picturesque a tour tempts me sorely?" + +Unconsciously she had hurried her enunciation, but imperturbable as the +bronze he resembled, Mr. Dunbar listened; merely passing his left arm +around her, drawing her resisting form closer to him, holding her +firmly. + +"I am waiting for the selfish aspect of this scheme, else I should +answer at once, the coveted sugar-plum is yours, and we will make the +tour whenever you like, with the minor difference of mere details; we +will go in our own yacht." + +She caught her breath, and for an instant the world swam in a burst of +dazzling light. Beyond the reach of the usurper's witchery, was it not +possible that she might regain the alienated heart? Love chanted, it +is worth the trial; take him away, win him back. Pride sternly set foot +upon this spark of hope, with cruel insistence answering: his love has +never been yours; defrauded of the diamond, will you accept and +patiently wear paste? The quick revulsion was tantalizing as would +have been the vanishing of the ram from Abraham's gladdened sight; the +swift withdrawal of Diana's stag into the miraculous cloud at Aulis. + +"That would be too severe a tax upon your good nature and indulgence, +and involves a sacrifice of your professional plans, which I certainly +am not so intensely and monstrously selfish as to permit you to make. I +am so well aware of the reasons that necessitate your remaining in +America, in order to secure the appointment you are laboring to obtain, +that I refuse the sugar plum if bought with your disappointment." + +"Selfishness not established; you must plead on some better ground. +Suppose that the happiness of the woman who has done me the honor to +promise me her hand, is just now my supreme aim, paramount to every +other ambitious scheme; and that to insure it, I hazard all else? +Remember the privilege of choice is mine." + +It was the instinct not of affection, but of honor straining hard to +hold him to his allegiance, and her proud spirit thrilled under the +consciousness of his motive in striving to spare her. A crimson spot +burned on each cheek, a spark kindled in the soft, tender eyes. She +struggled to free herself, but his clasp tightened. + +"Conceding the generosity that would impel you to immolate your +feelings, in order to gratify my willies, I decline the sacrifice. You +must indulge my desire to receive my sugar plum in the bonbonniere of +the 'Cleopatra'." + +He pressed her sunny head against his shoulder, and rested his cheek on +hers. + +"Is it my Leo's wish to leave me, to go alone?" + +"Yes, to accompany Alma." + +"For an absence of indefinite duration?" + +"Certainly for a year; possibly longer; but you must be gracious in +yielding. If you really desire to promote my happiness, let me go +feeling that you consent freely." + +He comprehended fully all that he was surrendering, the noble, pure, +devoted heart; the refining, elevating companionship, the control of a +liberal fortune, the proud distinction of calling her his wife; and yet +above the refrain of many mingled regrets, he felt an infinite relief +that he had been spared the responsibility of the estrangement. + +"Whatever your happiness demands, I cannot refuse to concede, but you +can scarcely require me to receive 'graciously' the only construction I +can possibly place upon your request; that I am no longer an essential +element in your happiness." + +Knowing that he owed her every possible reparation, he was resolved to +shield her womanly pride from any additional wounds. He withdrew his +encircling arm, released her hand, walked to the end of the aviary, and +stood watching the shimmer of the fountain, where two of the ring-doves +held their wings aslant to catch the spray. After some moments she +joined him, and laid her slender fingers on his arm. + +"Dear Lennox, I propose at least a temporary change in our relations, +and even at the risk of incurring your displeasure, I prefer to be +perfectly frank. When you asked me to become your wife, neither of us +contemplated the long separation involved in this cruise abroad, which +I ardently desire for many reasons to make; and I am unwilling to +fetter either you or myself by an engagement during my absence. I want +to be entirely free, bound by no promise; and could I ask release, +unless you accepted yours?" + +He put his palm under her chin, and lifted the sweet, pure face, +forcing her to return his gaze. + +"Have I forfeited your confidence?" + +"No. Lennox. I have an indestructible faith in your honor." + +Her clear, truthful eyes assured him she acquitted him of all intention +to violate in any jot or tittle the forms of his allegiance. + +"You deem me incapable of intentionally betraying your noble trust?" + +"I do--indeed I do." + +"My peerless Leo, have you ceased to love me?" + +She shut her eyes an instant, and the delicate, flower face blanched; +the treacherous lips quivered: + +"No." + +"Who has supplanted me in your heart, for once I know it was all my +own?" + +"Lennox, you are still more to me than all the world beside; but I ask +time, I must be free at present. Let me go away untrammelled; consider +yourself as unfettered, as before our engagement, and when the year +expires, if you deem me absolutely necessary to your happiness, you can +readily ask a renewal of your bonds, and I can be sure by that time +whether my happiness depends upon becoming your wife. After to-day I +shall not wear your ring; and if, while away, I send it back to you, +interpret it as a final decision that in the future we can only be very +faithful and attached friends. I have sadly mistaken your character if +you refuse me release from a compact which I now certainly desire to +cancel." + +A shadow fell over his face, and he sighed heavily; but whether the +utterance of regret or relief she never knew. + +"Your heart shall no longer be burdened by bonds which I can loosen. +Because your peace and happiness are more to me than my own, I grant +you complete release. When my ring affronts you with disagreeable +memories of a past, which will always be hallowed and precious to me, +as the one beautiful dream that brightened my youth, that crowned me +for a season at least with the trust and love of the noblest woman I +have ever known, do not return it; let it slip from the hand it made my +own, and find in the blue sea a grave as deep as the chasm--that you +will--shall divide our lives. I honor you too profoundly to question +your course; yet there is an explanation which I owe to myself as well +as to you. Leo, no man can ever be worthy to call you wife, but perhaps +I am less unworthy than you probably deem me? While in New Orleans, I +wrote a long letter, which I afterward decided not to send by mail. I +brought it to-day, intending to put it into your hand." + +He took from the inside pocket of his coat, an envelope addressed to +her, broke the seal and pointed at the head of the sheet to the date, +some three weeks earlier. She surmised by that wonderful instinct which +God grants women as armor against the slow, ponderous aggressiveness of +man's tyranny, the nature of its contents. Had she merely anticipated +by an hour his petition for release? Even the bitterness of this +conjecture was neutralized by the testimony it bore to his integrity of +purpose, his unwillingness to conceal his disloyalty. When temples are +shattered and altars crumble, we save our idol and flee into the +wilderness, exulting in the assurance that no clay feet defile it. + +Leo shook her head and gently put aside the proffered letter. + +"You wrote it for the eyes of one who had pledged herself to bear your +name; the revocation of that promise annuls my right to read it." + +Mr. Dunbar understood the apprehension that made her shiver slightly. +She was marching away proudly with flying colors, having dictated the +terms of his capitulation. Should he suffer the imputation of treachery +and intentional deception, rather than turn the tide of battle, trail +her banner in the dust, and add to her pain by mortally stabbing that +intense womanly pride which now swallowed up every emotion of her soul? + +The more thoroughly chivalrous a man's nature, the keener his craving +for the honors of war. + +"Because henceforth our paths diverge, I prefer to offer you my +exculpation, desiring amid the general wreck, to retain at least your +undiminished esteem. Will you read my confession?" + +"No; that would entail the necessity of absolution, and I might not be +able to command the requisite amiability, should occasion demand it. We +have shaken hands with the past, and you owe me nothing now but pardon +for any pain I may have given you, and occasional kind thoughts when +the ocean divides us. I promise you my unwavering esteem; in exchange +grant me your cordial friendship." + +She was growing strangely white, and her breath fluttered, but eyes and +lips came to the rescue with a steadfast smile. + +"You allow me no alternative but submission to your will; yet remember, +dear Leo, that in surrendering your pledged faith, I hold myself as +free from any intentional forfeiture, as on the day you gave me your +promise." + +"In token that I believe it, I salute and wear your roses." + +She bent her head, touched with her lips the flowers at her throat, and +smiling bravely, held out both hands. He took them, joined the palms, +and kissed her softly, reverently on the forehead. + +"God bless you, dear Leo. To have known so intimately a nature as noble +and exalted as yours, has left an indelible impression for good upon my +life, which must henceforth be very kinely. Good-bye." + +With beat of drum, and blare of bugles, pride claimed the victory; but +as Leo watched the tall, fine form pass out from the beautiful home she +had fondly hoped to share with him, she clasped her hands across her +lips to stifle the cry that told how dearly she had bought the +semblance of triumph. + +When the quick echo of his horse's hoofs died away, she went swiftly to +her writing desk. + +"Dear Uncle: Please send the enclosed telegram to Mr. Cutting. I had a +sad but decisive interview with Mr. Dunbar, and after obtaining his +consent to my tour, we thought it best to annul our engagement. Tell +Aunt Patty, and spare me all questions. I have not been hasty, and I +asked to be released, because I have deemed it best to leave him +entirely free." + +Sealing the note she rang for Justine. + +"Take this to my uncle's study, and tell Andrew to bring my phaeton to +the door at four o'clock. Until then, see that no one disturbs me." + +With averted face she held out the envelope, then the curtain fell; and +in solitude the aching heart went over the fatal field, silently +burying its slain hopes, realizing the bitterness of its Cadmean +victory. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + +"Certainly, Prince, I understand your motives and applaud your +decision, which is creditable alike to your heart and head. At +father's death he confided Kittie to my guardianship, and I cannot +consent to her scheme of going abroad with you, until your studies have +been completed. She has a few thousands, it is true, but her slim +fortune would not suffice to accomplish your scientific object, and +even if it were larger, you are quite right to decline with thanks'. +Kittie must be patient, and you must be firm, for you are both quite +young enough to afford to wait a few years. Loving little heart! She +longed to aid you, and this was the only method that presented itself. +If we can secure the commission I mentioned last week, your marriage +need only be deferred until Kittie is twenty-one. After all, Prince, +when you bartered your name and became a Darrington, for sake of this +fair heritage, you only accomplished early in life that into which +sooner or later all men are betrayed, the sale of a birthright for a +mess of pottage; the clutching at the shadowy present, thereby losing +the substantial future." + +"On that score I indulge no regrets. General Darrington was the only +father I ever knew, and since it was his wish, I shall gladly wear the +name with which he endowed me, in grateful recognition of the +affection, confidence and generous kindness he lavished upon me. That +the rich legacy he designed for me has been diverted into the channel +of all others most repugnant to him, is my misfortune, not his fault; +for ho took every possible precaution to secure my inheritance. Had I +been indeed his own son, he could not have done more, and I have a +son's right to mourn sincerely over his cruel and untimely end." + +The two men sat on the front steps at "Elm Bluff", and as Prince's eyes +wandered over the exceeding beauty of the "great greenery" of velvet +lawn, the stately, venerable growth of forest trees, wearing the +adolescent mask of tender young foliage, the outlying fields flanking +the park, the sunny acres now awave with crinkling mantles of grain, he +sighed very heavily at the realization of all that adverse fortune had +snatched away. + +Blond as Baldur of the Voluspa, with a wealth of golden brown beard +veiling his lips and chin, he appeared far more than six years the +junior of the clear cut, smoothly shaven face that belonged to his +prospective brother-in-law; and their countenances contrasted as +vividly as the portraiture of bland phlegmatic Norse Aesir, with some +bronze image of Mercury, as keenly alert as his sacred symbolic cocks. + +Strolling leisurely through the flowery decoying fields, that beckon +all around the outskirts of the vast, lonely wilderness of positive +Science, the dewy freshness of the youthful amateur still clung to +Prince's garments; even as souvenirs gathered by flitting Summer +tourists prattle of glimpses of wild, towering fastnesses, where strewn +bones of martyr pioneers whiten as monuments of failure. In the guise +of a green-kirtled enchantress, with wild poppies and primroses +wreathed above her starry eyes, Science was luring him through the +borderland of her kingdom, toward that dark, chill, central realm +where, transformed as a gnome, she clutches her votaries, plunges into +the primeval abyss-the matrix of time--and sets them the Egyptian task +of weighing, analyzing the Titanic "potential" energy, the +infinitesimal atomic engines, the "kinetic" force, the chemical motors, +the subtle intangible magnetic currents, whereby in the thundering, +hissing, whirling laboratory of Nature, nebulae grow into astral and +solar systems; the prophetic floral forms of crystals become, after +disintegration, instinct with organic vegetable germs,--and the Sphinx +Life--blur-eyed--deaf, blind, sets forth on her slow evolutionary +journey through the wastes of aeons; mounting finally into that throne +of rest fore-ordained through groping ages, crowned with the soul of +Shakspeare, sceptred with the brain of Newton. + +Like a child with some Chinese puzzle far beyond the grasp of his +smooth, uncreased baby brain, Prince played in unfeigned delight with +his problem: "Given the Universe, to explain the origin and permanence +of Law," without any assistance from the exploded hypothesis of a law +maker. Equipped with hammer, chisel, microscope, spectroscope and +crucibles, he essayed the solution, undismayed by memories of his +classics, of Sisyphus and Tantalus; seeing only the nodding poppies, +the gilded primroses of his dancing goddess. + +Will he discover ere long, that a lesser riddle would have been to +stand in the manufactory of the Faubourg St. Marcel, and abolishing the +pattern of the designers, the directing touch of Lebrun, the restraint +of the heddle, demand that the blind, insensate automatic warp and +woof should originate, design and trace as well as mechanically execute +the weaving of the marvellous tapestries? + +"Prince. I learn from Kittie that you visited the penitentiary last +week." + +"Yes. I could not resist the curiosity to see the author of my recent +misfortunes; but I regret the sight. I am haunted by the painful +recurrence of that blanched, hopeless, beautiful face, which reminds me +of a pathetic picture I saw abroad--Charlotte Corday peering through +the bars of her dungeon window." + +"With a difference surely! Marat's murderess gloried in her crime; an +innocent prisoner languishes yonder, in that stone cage beyond the +river." + +Mr. Dunbar pointed over the billowing sea of green tree tops, toward an +irregular dark shadow that blurred the northern sky line; and his eagle +eyes darkened as they discerned the prison outlines. + +"Did you ever see a sketch of Rossetti's 'Pandora'?" asked Prince. + +"No." + +"The face is somewhat like that young prisoner's; the same mystical, +prescient melancholy in the wide eyes, as if she realized she was +predestine to work woe. I am heartily glad I was spared the pain of the +prosecution, for had I been here, compassion would almost have +paralyzed the effort to secure justice; and now, while my loss is +irreparable, the law insures punishment for father's wrongs. As I walk +about this dear old place, which he intended I should possess, and +recall all that we had planned, it seems hard indeed that I find myself +so unable to execute his wishes. After a few days, when I shall leave +it, I suppose that for the next five years the house will become an owl +roost and den of bats and spiders. On Thursday I go temporarily to +Charleston to visit my uncle, Doctor Thornton, who offers me a place in +his office, and a home at his hearthstone." + +"Why specifically for five years?" + +"That is the term of her imprisonment. At the expiration of her +sentence, I presume Gen. Darringtor's grand-daughter will hasten to +take possession of her dearly-bought domain." + +A derisive smile unbent the tight lines of the lawyer's mouth. + +"Come here to live? She would sooner spring into the jaws of hell!" + +Prince Darrington's large light eyes opened wide, in a questioning +stare. + +"If she is innocent, as you believe, why should she shrink from +occupying the family homestead? If she be guilty, which I (having seen +her) cannot credit, there is no probability that remorseful scruples +would influence her. No conceivable contingency can ever again make it +my home, and on Thursday I go away forever." + +"That which a man claims and expects, generally deserts and betrays +him; it is the unforeseen, the unexpected that comes in the form of +benediction. Time is the master magician, and 'Tout went a qui sait +attendre'. Kittie may yet trail her velvet robe as chatelaine through +these noble old halls and galleries. Come to my office at ten o'clock +tomorrow; I may have an answer to my letter to Doctor Balfour." + +Six months before, Mr. Dunbar had walked down these steps, mounted his +horse and hurried away to keep tryst with the fair, noble woman, whose +promised hand was the guerdon of ambitious schemes, and years of +patient, persistent wooing. To-day he rode slowly to a parting +interview, which would sever the last link that Bad so long held their +lives in tender association. Whatever of regret mingled with the +contemplation of his ruined matrimonial castle, lay hidden so deep in +the debris, that no faintest reflection was visible in his inscrutable +face. + +When he reached the railway station where a special car containing a +small party, awaited the arrival of the north bound train that would +attach it to its sinuous length, a number of friends had assembled to +say good-bye to the departing favorite. The announcement of Miss +Gordon's extended yachting trip, had excited much comment in social +circles, and while people wondered at the prolongation of the +engagement, none but her immediate family suspected that the betrothal +had been cancelled. + +Leo's wonted gracious composure betrayed no hint of the truth, and she +greeted Mr. Dunbar with outstretched hand and a friendly smile. + +"I am indebted to your kind courtesy, Lennox, for the most auspicious +omen at the outset of my long journey; and I shall not attempt to tell +you how cordially I appreciate your tasteful souvenir. Your roses are +exquisite, and fragrant as the message they bring me." + +She glanced up at a large horseshoe made of her favorite pink roses, +which had been hung by a silver wire directly over the seat she +occupied. + +"Will you give me your interpretation of their message?" + +He swept aside a shawl and reticule, and sat down beside her. + +"It is written legibly all over their lovely petals. You wish me a +rose-strewn itinerary, all conceivable forms of 'good luck'; as though +you stood on tip-toe and shouted after me: 'Gluck auf.' As a happy +augury, I accept it. Like the old Romans, you have offered up for me a +dainty sacrifice to propitiate Domiduca--the goddess who grants +travellers a safe return home." + +"Meanwhile I hope you see quite as clearly, that the thorns have all +been stripped off and set thickly along my path?" + +Her smiling eyes met his steadily, and the brave heart showed no +quailing. + +"If I imagine that complimentary inference is written between the +lines, is it not pardonable to welcome the assurance that you will +sometimes be sharply pricked into remembrance of your absent friend?" + +At this moment, with clanging bells and thundering wheels the train +swept in, and Leo rose to exchange last greetings with numerous friends +Judge Dent and Miss Patty accompanied her as far as New York, and when +the car had been coupled at the end of the long line, and all was in +readiness, Mr. Dunbar took his companion's hand. + +"When we parted last, I was angry and hasty. Now I desire to make one +farewell request. You ask a release from our engagement. I grant it. I +hold you perfectly free; but I will consider myself bound, pledged to +you until the expiration of one year. Nothing you can say shall alter +my determination; but twelve months hence, if you can trust your +happiness to my hands, send me this message: 'I wear your ring.' Once +more I offer you my letter of confession. Will you receive it now; will +you look into the heart which I have bared for your scrutiny?" + +"No. I voluntarily forfeited that right, when I asked my freedom. If +your letter contains aught that would change my high regard, my +confidence, my affectionate interest in your happiness, I am doubly +anxious to avoid acquaintance with its contents. You have long held the +first place in my esteem, why seek to impair my valuation of your +character? Let us be friends, now and forever." + +"Remember you broke your fetters; I hug mine--a year longer. Forget me +if you will; but Leo, when your heart refuses to be strangled, suffer +its cry to reach me. Whatever the future may decree, you shall always +be my noble ideal of exalted womanhood, my own proud, sensitive, +unselfish Leo; and from the depth of my heart I wish you a pleasant +tour, and a safe and speedy return." + +A premonitory thrill shook the ear, and dropping the fingers that lay +cold as marble in his, Mr. Dunbar swung himself to the station +platform. The train moved off, but he knew that it would return in +switching, and so he stood hat in hand. + +As it slowly glided back, he stepped close to the open window, and +Leo's last look at the man she had loved so long and well, showed him +with the sun shining on his superb form, and coldly locked face. He saw +her hazel eyes dim in their mist of unshed tears, and the sweet, +blanched lips trembling from the spasm that held her heart. She leaned +down, laid her hand on his shoulder. + +"Dear Lennox, open your hand carefully; there--hold it close. Good-bye." + +Into his palm she dropped something; their faces almost touched, eyes +met, heart looked into heart; then Leo smiled and drew back, lowering +her veil, and as the cars shivered, lurched, moved on, Mr. Dunbar put +on his hat and unclosed his fingers. + +The white fire leaping in the diamonds destroyed the last vestige of a +betrothal, that he had once regarded as the summum bonum of his +successful career; consumed in its incipiency the farewell compact, +which his regard for Leo's womanly pride, and an honorable desire to +cling as closely as possible to at least the loyal forms of allegiance, +had prompted him to impose upon himself. + +Apparently unwounded, she would sail away victrix, with gay pennons +flying through distant summer seas, while he remained, stranded on the +reefs of adverse fate, a target for cynical society batteries, a victim +of the condolence of sympathizing friends. + +In reality he felt the benignant touch of fortune still upon his head, +and thanked her heartily that Leo had taken the initiative; that no +overt act of disloyalty blurred his escutcheon, and above all, that he +had been spared the humiliation of acknowledging his inability to +resist the strange fascination that dragged him from his allegiance, as +Auroras swing the needle from the pole. He did not attempt to underrate +the vastness of his loss, nor to condone the folly which he designated +as "infernal idiocy"; yet conscience acquitted him of intentionally +betraying the trust a noble woman had reposed; and his vanity was +appeased by the conviction that though Leo had cast him out of her +life, she went abroad because she loved him supremely. Putting the ring +in his pocket, he turned away as from a grave that had closed forever +over that which once held ail the promise of life. + +Three hours later, that carefully written letter acknowledging to his +fiancee that his heart had rebelliously swung from its moorings, under +the magnetic strain of another woman, and asking her tender forbearance +to aid him in conquering a weakness for which he blushed, had been +reduced to a drab shadow on his office hearth; and the lawyer was +engrossed by the preparation of a testamentary document, which embraced +several pages of legal cap. Again and again he read it over, pausing +now and then as if striving to recall some invisible scroll, and at +last as if satisfied with the result, placed it in an envelope, thrust +it into his pocket, and once more mounted his horse. The ceaseless and +intense yearning to see again the young stranger, who seemed destined +to play the role of Ate in so many lives, would no longer be denied; +and at a swift gallop he took the road leading to the penitentiary. + +Four or five carriages were drawn up in front of the iron gate, and +when, in answer to the bell, Jarvis, the underwarden, came forward to +admit Mr. Dunbar, he informed him that the State Inspectors were making +a tour of investigation through the building. + +"I want to see Singleton." + +"Just now he is engaged showing the inspectors around, and they +generally turn everything upside down, and inside out. If you will step +into the office and wait awhile, he will be at leisure." + +"Where is Mrs. Singleton?" + +"She has just gone into the women's workroom. One of the sewing gang is +epileptic, and fell in a fit a few minutes ago, so I sent for her. Come +this way and I will find her." + +The visitor hesitated, drew back. + +"Is Miss Brentano there also?" + +"No. She is still on the infirmary list." + +Jarvis opened the door of a long, well-lighted but narrow room, in the +centre of which was a table extending to the lower end; and on each +side of it sat women busily engaged in stitching and binding shoes, and +finishing off various articles of clothing; while two were ticketing a +pile of red flannel and blue hickory shirts. Four sewing-machines stood +near the wall where grated windows admitted sunshine, and their hymn to +Labor was the only sound that broke the brooding silence. The room was +scrupulously clean and tidy, and the inmates, wearing the regulation +uniform of blue-striped homespun, appeared comparatively neat; but +sordid, sullen, repulsively coarse and brutish were many of the +countenances bent over the daily task, and now and then swift, furtive +glances from downcast eyes betrayed close kinship with lower animals. + +At one of the machines sat a woman whose age could not have exceeded +twenty-eight years, with a figure of the Juno type, and a beautiful +dark face where tawny chatoyant eyes showed the baleful fire of a +leopardess. Winding a bobbin, she leaned back in her chair, with the +indolent, haughty grace of a sultana, and when she held the bobbin up +against the light for an instant, her slender olive hand and rounded +wrist might have belonged to Cleopatra. + +"Who is that woman winding thread?" + +"Her name is Iva Le Bougeois, but we call her the 'Bloody Duchess'. She +was sent up here two years ago, from one of the lower counties, for +wholesale butchery. Seems her husband got a divorce, and was on the eve +of marrying again. She posted herself about the second wedding, and +managed to make her way into the parlor, where she hid behind the +window curtains. Just as the couple stood up to be married, she cut her +little boy's throat with a razor, dragged the body in front of the +bride, and before any one could move, drew a revolver, blew the top of +her husband's head off, and then shot herself. The ball passed through +her shoulder and broke her arm, but as you see, she was spared, as many +another wildcat has been. Her friends and counsel tried to prove +insanity, but the plea was too thin; so she landed here for a term of +twenty years, and it will take every day of it to cut her claws. She is +as hard as flint, and her heart is as black as a wolf's mouth." + +"Medea's wrongs generally end in Medea's crimes," answered the visitor; +watching the defiant poise of the small shapely head, covered with +crisp, raven locks. Having less acquaintance with the classics than +with the details of prison discipline, the under-warden stared. + +After a moment he pointed to a diminutive figure standing at the end of +the long table, and engaged in folding some white garments. + +"See that pretty little thing, with the yellow head? Shouldn't you say +she looks like an angel, and ought to be put on the altar to hear the +prayers of sinners? Would you believe she is a mother? Arson is her +hobby. She is a regular 'fire-bug'. She was adopted by a German couple, +and one night, when the old farmer had come home with the money paid +him for his sheep and hogs, she stole the last cent he had, pocketed +all the oold frau's silver spoons, poured kerosene around the floor, +set fire to the house in several places, locked the door and ran for +her life. A peddler happened to seek quarters for the night, and +finding the place on fire, managed to break through the windows and +save the old folks from being roasted alive. When the case came to +trial it was proved that she had set fire to two other buildings, but +on account of her youth had escaped prosecution. They could not hang +her, though she deserved the gallows, and her child was born three +months after she came here. Looks innocent as a wax doll doesn't she? +Eve Werneth she calls herself; and she is well named after the original +mother of all sin. She is Satan's own imp, and we chain her every +night, for she boasts that when things grow tiresome to her she always +burns her way out. I think she is the worst case we have, except the +young mulatto--I don't see her here just now--who was sent up for life, +for poisoning a baby she was hired to nurse. There is Mrs. Singleton." + +The warden's wife came forward with a vial in one hand, and at sight of +the visitor, paused and held out the other. + +"How'dy do, Mr. Dunbar. You are waiting to see Ned?" + +"I much prefer seeing you, if you have leisure for an interview. +Singleton can join us when the inspectors take their leave." + +"Very well; come up stairs. Jarvis, send Ned up as soon as you can." + +She led the way to the room where her two children were at play, and +breaking a ginger cake between them, dragged their toys into one +corner, and bade them build block houses, without a riot. + +"I have never received even a verbal reply to the note which I +requested your husband to place in Miss Brentano's hands." + +"Probably you never will. She took cold by being dragged back and forth +to court during that freezing weather, and two days after her +conviction she was taken ill with pneumonia. First one lung, then the +other, and the case took a typhoid form. For six weeks she could not +lift her head, and now though she goes about my rooms, and into the +yard a little, she is awfully shattered, and has a bad cough, Once when +we had scarcely any hope, she asked the doctor to give her no more +medicine; said that it would be a mercy to let her die. Poor thing! her +proud spirit is as broken as her body, and the thought of being seen +seems to torture her. Dyce is the only person whom she allows to come +near her." + +"Where is she?" + +"We were obliged to move her, after she was sentenced, but the doctor +said one of those cells down stairs would be certain and quick death +for her, with her lungs in such a condition; so we put her in the +smallest room on this floor; the last one at the end of the corridor. +It is only a closet it is true, but it is right in the angle, and has +two narrow slits of windows, one opening south, the other west, and the +sunshine gets in. The day after her trial ended, she sent for the +sheriff, who happened to be here, and asked him if solitary confinement +was not considered a more severe penalty than any other form here? When +he told her it was, she said: Then it could not be construed into +clemency or favoritism if you ordered me into solitary confinement? +Certainly not, he told her. Whereupon she begged him to allow her to be +shut up away from the others, as she would sooner sit in the dark and +see no human being, than be forced to associate with the horrible, +guilty outcasts down stairs. While he and Ned were consulting about her +case, she was taken very ill. Of course you know Ned has a good deal of +latitude and discretion allowed him, and the doctor is on our side, but +even at best, the rules are stern. She takes her meals alone, and the +only place where she meets the other convicts--isn't it a shame to call +her one!--is the chapel; and even there she is separated, because Ned +has given her charge of the organ. Everybody under sentence is obliged +to work, but she does not go down into the general sewing room. The +superintendent of that department apportions a certain amount of +sewing, and her share is sent up daily to her. She really is not able +to work, but begged that we should give her some employment." + +"She consented to see Mr. Prince Darrington?" + +"Oh, no! It was the merest accident that he succeeded in speaking to +her. He happened to come the day that I took her out for the first time +in the garden, for a little fresh air in the sunshine; and we met him +and Ned on the walk. O, Mr. Dunbar! It was pitiful to see her face, +when the young man took off his hat, and said: + +"'I am General Darrington's adopted son.' + +"She was so weak she had been leaning on me, but she threw up her head, +and her figure stiffened into steel. 'You imagine that I am the person +who robbed you of Gen'l Darrington's fortune? I suffer for crimes I did +not commit; and am the innocent victim selected to atone for your +injuries. My wrongs are more cruel than yours. You merely lost lands +and money. Can you, by the wildest flight of fancy conjecture that +aught but disgrace and utter ruin remain for me?' Ned and I walked +away; and when we came back she had stepped into the hall, and drawn +the inside door between them. He was standing bareheaded, gazing up at +her, and she was looking down at him through the open iron lattice, as +if he were the real culprit. That night she had a nervous chill that +lasted several hours, and we promised that no one should be allowed to +see her. Of course the inspectors go everywhere, and when Ned opened +her door, I was with her, giving her the tonic the Doctor ordered three +times a day. I had prepared her for their visit, but when the gentlemen +crowded in, she put her hands over her face and hid it on the table. +There was not a syllable uttered, and they walked out quickly." + +"Will you do me the kindness to persuade her to see me?" + +"I am sure, sir, she will refuse; because she desires most especially +to be shielded from your visits." + +"Nevertheless, I intend to see her. Please say that I am here, and have +brought the papers Mr. Singleton desired me to prepare for her." + +Ten minutes elapsed before the warden's wife returned, shaking her head: + +"She prefers not seeing you, but thanks you for the paper which she +wishes left with Mr. Singleton. When she has read it, Mr. Singleton +will probably bring you some message. She hopes you will believe that +she is very grateful for your attention to her request." + +"Go back and tell her that unless she admits me, she shall never see +the paper, for I distinctly decline to put it in any hand but hers; +and, moreover, tell her she asked me to obtain for her a certain +article which, for reasons best known to herself, she holds very dear. +This is her only opportunity to receive it, which must be directly from +me. Say that this is the last time I will insist upon intruding, and +after to-day she shall not be allowed the privilege of refusing me an +audience. I am here solely in her behalf, and I am determined to see +her now." + +When Mrs. Singleton came back the second time, she appeared unwontedly +subdued, perplexed; and her usually merry eyes were gravely fixed with +curious intentness upon the face of her visitor. + +"The room straight ahead of you, with the door partly open, at the end +of this corridor. She sees you 'only on condition that this is to be +the final annoyance'. Mr. Dunbar, you were born to tyrannize. It seems +to me you have merely to will a thing, in order to accomplish it." + +"If that were true, do you suppose I would allow her to remain one hour +in this accursed cage of blood-smeared criminals?" + +Down the dim corridor he walked slowly, as if in no haste to finish his +errand, stepped into the designated cell, and closed the door behind +him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + +The apartment eight by twelve feet possessed the redeeming feature of a +high ceiling, and on either side of the southwest corner wall, a window +only two feet wide allowed the afternoon sunshine to print upon the +bare floor the shadow of longitudinal iron bars fastened into the stone +sills. A narrow bedstead, merely a low black cot of interlacing iron +straps, stood against the eastern side, and opposite, a broad shelf, +also of iron, ran along the walls and held a tin ewer and basin, a few +books, and a pile of clothing neatly folded. + +Across the angle niche between the windows a wooden bench had been +drawn; in front of it stood a chair and oval table, on which lay some +sheets of paper, pen and ink, and a great bunch of yellow jasmine, and +wild pink azaleas that lavishly sprinkled the air with their delicate +spicery. Pencils, crayons, charcoal and several large squares of +cardboard and drawing-paper were heaped at one end of the bench, and +beside these sat the occupant of the cell, leaning with folded arms on +the table in front of her; and holding in her lap the vicious, +ocelot-eyed yellow cat. + +Against the shimmering glory of Spring sunshine streaming down upon +her, head and throat were outlined like those of haloed martyrs that +Mantegna and Sodoma left as imperishable types of patient suffering. + +When the visitor came forward to the table that barred nearer approach, +she made no attempt to rise, and for a moment both were mute. He saw +the noble head shorn of its splendid coronal of braids, and covered +thickly with short, waving, bronzed tendrils of silky hair, that held +in its glistening mesh the reddish lustre of old gold, and the deep +shadows of time-mellowed mahogany. That most skilful of all sculptors, +hopeless sorrow, had narrowed to a perfect oval the wan face, waxen in +its cold purity; and traced about the exquisite mouth those sad, +patient curves that attest suffering which sublimates, that belong +alone to the beauty of holiness. Eyes unusually large and shadowy now, +beneath their black fringes, were indescribably eloquent with the +pathos of a complete, uncomplaining surrender to woes that earth could +never cure; and the slender wasted fingers, in their bloodless +semi-transparency, might have belonged to some chiselled image of +death. Every jot and tittle of the degrading external badges of felony +had been meted out, and instead of the mourning garment she had worn in +court, her dress to-day was of the coarse dark-blue home-spun checked +with brown, which constituted the prison uniform of female convicts. + +As Mr. Dunbar noted the solemn repose, the pathetic grace with which +she endured the symbols that emblazoned her ignominous doom, a dark red +glow suffused his face, a flush of shame for the indignity which he had +been impotent to avert. + +"Who dared to cut your hair--and thrust that garb upon you? They +promised me you should be exempt from brands of felony." + +"When one is beaten with many stripes, a blow more or less matters +little; is not computed. They kindly tell me that illness and the +doctor's commands cost me the loss of my hair; and after all, why +should I object to the convict coiffure? Nothing matters any more." + +"Why not admit at once that, Bernice-like, you freely offered up your +beautiful hair as love's sacrifice?" + +He spoke hotly, and an ungovernable rage possessed him as he realized +that though so near, and apparently so helpless, she was yet so +immeasurably removed, so utterly inaccessible. Her drooping white lids +lifted; she looked steadily up at him, and the mournful eyes held no +hint of denial. He stretched his hand across the table, and all the +gnawing hunger at his heart leaped into his voice, that trembled with +entreaty. + +"For God's sake give me your hand just once, as proof that you forgive +my share in this cruel, dastardly outrage." + +"Do not touch me. When we shake hands it must be as seal upon a very +sacred compact, which you are not yet ready to make." + +She straightened herself, and her hands were removed from the table; +fell to stroking the cat lying on her knee. + +"What conditions would you impose upon me?" + +"Sit down, Mr. Dunbar, and let us transact the necessary business which +alone made this interview possible." + +With an imperious gesture, befitting some sovereign who reluctantly +accords audience, she motioned him to the chair, and as he seated +himself his eyes gleamed ominously. + +"It pleases you to ignore our past relations?" + +"Even so. To-day we meet merely as attorney and client to arrange the +final QUID PRO QUO. You have brought the paper?" + +"I inferred from your message that you desired as exact a copy as +memory permitted. Here it is." + +He took from his pocket a long legal envelope. + +"I believe you stated that your father originally drew up this paper, +and that recently you altered and re-wrote it?" + +"Those are the facts relative to it." + +"Can you recall the date of the revision?" + +"Nearly a year ago. Last May it was signed in the presence of Doctor +Ledyard and Colonel Powell, who also signed as witnesses, though +ignorant of its contents." + +"You offer me this as a correct expression of Gen'l Darrington's wishes +regarding the distribution of his estate, real and personal?" + +"At your request I furnish from memory a copy of Gen'l Darrington's +will, which I have faithfully endeavored to recall, and I +conscientiously believe this to be strictly accurate. Shall I read it?" + +A severe and prolonged fit of coughing delayed her reply; and when she +held out her hand for the paper, her breathing was painfully rapid and +labored. + +"I will not tax you. Let me glance over it." + +Spreading the long sheets open before her, she leaned over the table +and read. + +In the palm of her right hand rested her temple, and the left smoothed +and turned the leaves. Crossing his arms on the top of the table, the +attorney bent forward and surrendered himself to the coveted delight of +studying the face, that had made summary shipwreck of his matrimonial +fortune. No slightest detail escaped him; the burnished locks curled +loosely around the forehead smooth as a sleeping baby's, the broad arch +of the delicately-pencilled black brows, the Madonna droop of the lids +whose heavy sable fringes deepened the bluish shadows beneath the eyes, +the straight, flawless nose, the perfect chin with its deeply-incised +dimple, the remarkably beautiful mouth, which despairing grief had +kissed and made its own. + +Pale as marble, the proud, patrician face was pure as some bending lily +frozen on its graceful, rounded stem: and the tapering fingers with +daintily curved, polished nails would have suited better the lace and +velvet of royal robes than the rough home-spun sleeves folded back from +the white wrists. + +Mr. Dunbar had met many lovely, gracious, high-bred women, yet escaped +heart whole; and even the nobility and sweetness of his pretty fiancee, +enhanced by the surrounding glamour of heiresship, failed to touch the +flood gates of tender love that a pauper's hand had suddenly unloosed, +to sweep as a destroying torrent through the fair garden of his most +cherished hopes. What was the spell exerted by the young convict when +she grappled his heart, and in the havoc of her own life carried down +all the possibilities of his future peace? Personal ambition, +calculating mercenary selfishness had melted away in the volcanic +madness that seized him, and to his own soul he acknowledged that his +dominant and supreme wish was to gather in his arms and hold forever +the condemned woman, who wore with such sublime serenity the livery of +felony. + +After all, have we misread our classics? Had not Homer a prevision of +the faith that Aphrodites' altar belonged in the Temple of the Fates? + +Beryl refolded the paper and looked up. In the face so close to hers, +she saw all the yearning tenderness, the over-mastering love that had +convulsed his nature, and before the pleading magnetic eyes that +essayed to probe her soul, hers fell. + +As out of a cloud, some burst of sunlight striking through the ruby +vestments of apostles in a cathedral window falls aslant and suddenly +crimsons the marble features of a sculptured angel guarding the high +altar, so unexpectedly a vivid blush dyed the girl's cheeks. Her lips +trembled; she swept her hand across her eyes as though blotting out +some fascination upon which it was not her privilege to dwell; then the +glow faded, she moved back on the bench, and leaned her head against +the wall. + +"Where are the bonds and other securities described in this paper?" + +"In a compartment of the safety deposit vault of the--Bank, of which +Gen'l Darrington was a large stockholder and director. His box was +opened last week in presence of his adopted son, and we hoped to find +perhaps a duplicate of the lost will; but there was not even a +memorandum to indicate his last wishes." + +"Can you tell me whether Mr. Prince Darrington will take any legal +steps to recover the legacy which the loss of the will appears to have +cancelled?" + +"He certainly has no such intention." + +"Are you quite sure of his views?" + +"Absolutely sure, having talked with him this morning. I speak +authoritatively." + +"He was entirely dependent on Gen'l Darrington?" + +"Wholly so with regard to pecuniary resources." + +"At present he is as much a beggar as I was that day when I first saw +X--? Is it true that want of money obliged him to quit Germany before +he obtained the university degree, for which his studies were intended +to fit him?" + +"Strictly true. He sorely laments his inability to complete the course +of study, and hopes at some future day to return and reap the +distinction which he feels sure awaits him in scientific fields." + +A brief silence followed, and the girl's thoughts seemed to drift far +from her gloomy surroundings to some lofty plane of peace beyond the +ills of time. Once more a spasm of coughing seized her; then she looked +at the attorney. + +"I learned in court that the destruction of Gen'l Darrington's will +would secure to my mother the possession of all his estate. She has +entered into Rest; into possession of her heritage in Christ's kingdom. +Am I, her child, the lawful heir of Gen'l Darrington's fortune? Are +there any legal quibbles that could affect my rights?" + +"I am aware of none. The estate is certainly yours, and the law will +sustain your claims." + +"Claim? I only claim the right to repair as far as possible a wrong for +which I suffer, yet am not responsible. I sent for a copy of the will +because--" + +"May I tell you why? Because in order to execute its provisions, it was +essential that you should know them accurately." + +The assurance that he interpreted so correctly her motive, brought a +quick throb to her tired Heart, and a faint flush of pleasure to her +thin cheeks. + +"Had you read as accurately my intentions, six months ago, when you +woke me from my sleep under the pine trees, how different the current +of many lives! Mr. Dunbar, my ignorance of legal forms constrains me to +accept your assistance in a matter which I am unwilling to delay--" She +hesitated, and he smiled bitterly. + +"You need be at no trouble to emphasize your reluctance. I quite +understand your ineradicable repugnance. Nevertheless good luck ordains +that only I can serve you at present, so be pleased to command me." + +"Thank you. I wish you to help me make my will." + +"Why?" + +"How long do you suppose I can endure this 'death in life?' I am +patient because I hope and believe my release is not far distant. +Galloping consumption is a short avenue to freedom." + +He caught his breath, and the blood ebbed from his lips, but he hurled +aside the suggestion as though it were a coiled viper. + +"Life has for you one charm which will successfully hold death at bay. +Love has sustained you thus far; it will lend wings to the years that +must ultimately bring the recompense for which you long, the sight of +him whose crime you expiate." + +He could not understand the peculiar smile that parted her lips, nor +the far-away, preoccupied expression that crept into her sad eyes. + +"Nevertheless I have decided to make my will. I desire that in every +detail it shall duplicate the provisions of the instrument I am +punished for having stolen and destroyed; and I charge you to write it +so carefully, that when all the legacies shall have been paid, the +residue of the estate cannot fail to reach the hands of the son for +whom it was intended. To Mr. Prince Darrington I give and bequeath, +mark you now, ALL MY RIGHT AND TITLE to the fortune left by Gen'l +Darrington." + +"Before I pledge myself to execute this commission, I wish you to know +that of such testamentary disposition of your estate, I should become +remotely a beneficiary. Mr. Darrington has asked my only sister to be +his wife, and their marriage is contingent merely on his financial +ability to maintain her comfortably. Mine is scarcely the proper hand +to pour the rich stream of your possessions into his empty coffers." + +"I am well aware of the tie that binds your sister and Mr. Darrington." + +"Since when have you known it?" + +"No prison walls are sufficiently thick to turn the stream of gossip; +it trickles, oozes through all barriers. Exactly when or how I became +acquainted with your family secret is not germane to the subject under +consideration." + +"Cognizant of the fact that Gen'l Darrington's adopted son was my +prospective brother-in-law, you have paid me the compliment of +believing that selfish, pecuniary motives incited my zeal in securing +your prosecution, for the loss of the fortune I coveted? Your heart +garners that insult to me?" + +The only storm signal that defied his habitual control, was the intense +glow in his eyes where an electric spark rayed out through the blue +depths. + +"I might tell you, that my heart is a sepulchre too crowded with dead +hopes to hold resentment against their slayer; but you have a right to +something more. I pay you the just tribute of grateful admiration for +the unselfish heroism that prompted you to plead so eloquently in +defence of a forsaken woman who, living or dead, defrauded your sister +of a brilliant fortune. You fought courageously to save me, and I am +quite willing you should know that it is partly due to my recognition +of your bravery in leading that forlorn hope, that I am anxious by +immediate reparation to restore matters to their original status. Life +is so uncertain I can leave nothing to chance; and when my will is +signed and sealed, and in your possession, I shall know that even if I +should be suddenly set free, Mr. Darrington and your sister will enjoy +their heritage. When you will have drawn up the paper send it to Mr. +Singleton. I will sign it in his presence and that of the doctor, which +will suffice for witnesses." + +"In view of the peculiar provisions of the will, I prefer you should +employ some other instrument for its preparation. Judge Dent, Churchill +or Wolverton, will gladly serve you, and I will send to you whomsoever +you select. I decline to become the medium of transferring the accursed +money that cost you so dearly, to the man whom my sister expects to +marry." + +"As you will; only let there be no delay. Ask Judge Dent to prove his +friendship for Gen'l Darrington by enabling me to execute his wishes." + +"Judge Dent went this morning to New York; but by the latter part of +the week you may expect the paper for signature." + +"That relieves one anxiety, for while I was so ill I was tortured by +the thought that I could not make just restitution to innocent +sufferers. Mr. Dunbar, a yet graver apprehension now oppresses me. If I +should live, how can I put the rightful owners in immediate possession? +What process does the law prescribe for conveying the property directly +to Mr. Darrington?" + +"Ordinarily the execution of a deed of gift from you to him, would +accomplish that object." + +"Will you please write out the proper form on the paper in front of +you?" + +"I certainly will not." + +"May I know why?" + +"For two reasons. Personally, the deed of gift would embarrass me even +more than the will. Professionally, it occurs to me you are not of age; +hence the transfer would be invalid at present. Pardon me, how old are +you?" + +"I was eighteen on the fourth of July last. Grim sarcasm is it not, +that the child of Independence Day should be locked up in a dungeon?" + +"The law of the State requires the age of twenty-one years to insure +the validity of such a transaction as that which you contemplate." + +"Do you mean that my hands are tied; that if I should live, I can do +nothing for more than two years?" + +"Such is the law." + +"Then the justice that fled from criminal law, steers equally clear of +the civil code? What curious paradoxes, what subtleties of finesse lurk +in those fine meshes of jurisprudence, ingeniously spread to succor +wary guilt, to tangle and trip the careless feet of innocence! All the +world knows that the dearest wish that warmed General Darrington's +heart was to disinherit and repudiate his daughter, and to secure his +worldly goods to his adopted son; and yet because a sheet of paper +expressing that desire could not be produced in court, the will of the +dead is defied, and the fortune is thrust into the hated hands which +its owner swore should never touch it; hands that the law says murdered +in order to steal. When the child of the disowned and repudiated, +holding sacred the unfortunate man's wishes, refuses to accept the +blood-bought heritage, and attempts to replace the fatal legacy in the +possession of those for whom it was notoriously intended--this Tartufe +of justice strides forward and forbids righteous restitution; postpones +the rendering of 'Caesar's things to Caesar' for two years, in order to +save the condemned the additional pang of regretting the generosity of +her minority! Human wills, intentions and aims, no matter how laudable +and well known, are blandly strangled by judicial red tape, and laid +away with pompous ceremonial in the dusty catacombs of legal form. +Grimly grotesque, this masquerade of equity! Something must be done for +Mr. Darrington, to enable him to finish his studies and embark on the +career his father designed." + +"He is a man, and can learn to carve his way unaided." + +She sighed wearily, and a troubled look crossed her face; while the +visitor followed with longing eyes the slow motion of her delicate +hand, beautiful as Herses', that softly stroked the cat purring against +her shoulder. + +"Surely there is an outlet to this snare. You could help me if you +would." + +"I? Do you imagine that after all the injuries I have inflicted on you, +I can consent to help you beggar yourself?" + +"You know that I would sooner handle red-hot ploughshares, than touch a +dollar, a cent, of that fortune. It would greatly relieve my mind and +comfort me, if you would indicate some method by which I can convey to +Mr. Darrington that which really belongs to him. Unless he can enjoy +it, it might as well be in the grave now with its former owner. Do help +me." + +The pathetic pleading of face and voice almost unnerved him, but he sat +silent. + +"Cannot I dispose at least of the income or interest? If a definite +amount should be allowed me each year, during my minority, could I do +as I please with that sum?" + +"Certainly you have that right. I may as well tell you, there is one +method of accomplishing your aim, by applying to the Legislature to +legalize your acts by declaring you of age. At present the estate is in +the hands of Mr. Wolverton, whom the Probate Court has appointed +administrator; and at the expiration of eighteen months from the date +of Gen'l Darrington's death, the control of the whole will devolve to +some extent upon you. Meanwhile the administrator will allow you +annually a reasonable amount." + +"Do you know what sum Mr. Darrington required while abroad?" + +"I am told his allowance was four thousand dollars per annum. +Histology, morphology, and aetiology are whims too costly for +impecunious students. Prince must reduce his stable of hobbies." + +"No, he is entitled to canter as many as he likes, and the money could +not be better spent than in promoting the noble work of the advancement +of Science. The problem is solved, and my earthly cares are at an end. +Leave the copy you brought, and ask Mr. Wolverton to see me to-morrow. +He shall write both the will and the deed of gift, which you think can +be made valid, and meanwhile the annual allowance must be paid as +formerly to the son. Whether I live or die, the wishes of the dead will +be respected, and Prince Darrington shall have his own. It is an +intense relief to know that two innocent and happy lives will never +feel the fatal chill of my shadow; and when your sister enters 'Elm +Bluff' as its mistress, the balance-sheet will be complete." + +As if some dreaded task had been finally accomplished, she drew a deep +sigh of weariness that was cut short by a spell of coughing. + +"There is a Scriptural injunction concerning kindness to enemies, which +amounts to heaping coals of fire on their heads; and to my unregenerate +nature, it savors more of subtile inquisitorial cruelty, than of +Christian charity." + +"Your sister is not my enemy, I hope, and need I so rank your sister's +brother? There is one thing more, which even your sarcasm shall not +prevent." + +She drew from beneath the cardboard a paper box, placed it on the table +and removed the lid. + +"I presume the Sheriff meant kindly when he sent me this as my +property, which having testified to suit the prosecution, was returned +to the burglar in whose possession it was found. The sight of it was as +humiliating as a blow on the cheek. Some gifts are fatal; nevertheless, +you must ascribe no sinister motive to me, when I fulfil that +injunction of Gen'l Darrington's last Will and Testament, which set +apart these sapphires for his son's bride. They are just as I received +them from his hands. My mother, for whom they were intended, never saw +them; I thank God that she wears the eternal jewels that He provides +for the faithful and the pure in heart. I wish you to deliver this +case, and the gold pieces, one hundred dollars, to Mr. Darrington; and +it will be a mercy to rid me of torturing reminders." + +She looked at the azure flame leaping from the superb stones, and +pushed the box away with a gesture of loathing. + +"Beautifully blue as those weird nebulae in the far, far South; that +brood over the ocean wastes where cyclones are born; but to me and to +mine, the baleful medium of an inherited curse. Having accomplished my +doom, may they bring only benison to your sister." + +"I would see adders fastened in her ears and twined around her neck +sooner than those--" + +"At least take them out of my sight; give them to Mr. Darrington. They +are maddening reminders of a perished past. Now, to the last iota, I +have made all possible restitution, and the account is squared; for in +exchange for that life, which I am condemned as having taken, my own is +the forfeit. The expiation is complete." + +She seemed to have forgotten his presence, as her gaze rested on the +ring she wore, and a happy smile momentarily glorified the pale face. + +"Beryl!--" + +She started, winced, shivered; and threw up her hand with the haughty +denial he so well remembered. + +"Hush! Only my precious dead ever called me so. You must not dare!" + +Something she read in the face that leaned toward her, filled her with +vague dread, and despite her efforts, she trembled visibly. + +"Mr. Dunbar, I am very weary; tired--oh! how tired, body and soul." + +"You dismiss me? Recollect I was warned that this would be the last +interview accorded me, and I beg your indulgence. If you knew all, if +you could imagine one-half the sorrow you have caused me, you would +consider our accounts as satisfactorily balanced as your settlement +with the Darringtons. Whether you have ruined my life, or are destined +to purify and exalt it, remains to be determined. To see you as you +are, is almost beyond my powers of endurance, and for my own sake--mark +you--to ease my own heart, I shall redouble my efforts to have you +liberated. There is one speedy process, the discovery of the man whom, +thus far, you have shielded so effectually; and next week I begin the +hunt in earnest by going West." + +He saw her fingers clutch each other, and the artery in her throat +throb quickly. + +"How many victims are required to appease the manes of Gen'l +Darrington? Be satisfied with having sacrificed me, and waste no more +time in search that can bring neither recompense to you, nor +consolation to me. If I can bear my fate, you, sir, have no right to +interfere." + +"Then, like the selfish man I am, I usurp the right. What damnable +infatuation can bind you to that miserable poltroon, who skulks in +safety, knowing that the penalty of his evil deeds falls on you? One +explanation has suggested itself: it haunts me like a fiend, and only +you can exorcise it. Are you married to that brute, and is it loyalty +that nerves you? For God's sake do not trifle, tell me the truth." + +He leaned across the table, caught her hands. She shook off his touch, +and her eyes were ablaze. + +"Are you insane? How dare you cherish such a suspicion? The bare +conjecture is an insult, and you must know it is false. Married? I?" + +"Forgive me if I wound you, but indeed I could conceive of no other +solution of the mystery of your self-sacrifice; for it is utterly +incredible that unless some indissoluble tie bound you, that cowardly +knave could command your allegiance. It maddens me to think that you, +so far beyond all other women, can tolerate the thought of that--" + +"Hush! hush! You conjure phantoms with which to taunt and torture. You +pity me so keenly, that your judgment becomes distorted, and you chase +chimeras. Banish imaginary husbands, Western journeys, even the thought +of my wretched doom, and try henceforth to forget that I ever saw X--." + +"What does this mean? It was not on your hand when I held it so long +that day--in my own. Tell me, and quiet my pain." + +He pointed to the heavy ring, which was much too large for the wasted +finger where it glistened. + +"What does it mean? A tale of woe. It means that when my broken-hearted +mother was dying among strangers, in a hospital, she kissed her wedding +ring, and sent it with her love and blessing to the child--she +idolized. It means--" She held up her waxen hand, and into her voice +stole immeasurable tenderness: "Shall I tell you all it means? This +little gold hoop inscribed inside 'I. B. to E. D.,' girdles all that +this world has left for me; memories of father, mother, sunny childhood +in a peaceful home, lofty ambitions, happy, happy beautiful hopes that +once belonged to the girl Beryl, whom pitiless calamity has broken on +her cruel wheel. Walled up, dying slowly in a convict's tomb, the only +light that shines into my desolate heart, flickers through this little +circle; and clasping it close through the long, long nights, when +horrible images brood like vampires, it soothes me, like the touch of +the dear hand which it graced so long, and brings me dreams of the +fair, sweet past." + +Was it the mist in his eyes that showed her almost glorified by the +level rays of the setting sun, as like a tired child she leaned her +head against the wall, a pale image of resignation? + +To lose her was a conjecture so fraught with pain, that his swart face +blanched, and his voice quivered under its weight of tender entreaty. + +"What is it that sustains you in your frightful martyrdom? Why do you +endure these horrors which might be abolished? You hurl me back upon +the loathsome thought that love, love for a depraved, brutal wretch is +the secret that baffles me. I might be able to see you die, to lay you, +stainless snowdrop that you are, in the coffin that would keep you +sacred forever; but please God! I will never endure the pain of seeing +you leave these sheltering walls to walk into that man's arms. I swear +to you by all I hold most precious, that if he be yet alive, I will +hand him over to retribution." + +He had pushed aside the table, and stood before her, with the one +wholly absorbing love of his life glowing in his face. She dared not +meet the gaze that thrilled her with an exquisite happiness, and +involuntarily rose. Had she not strangled the impulse, her fluttering +heart would have prompted her to lean forward, rest her head against +his arm, and tell him all; but close as they stood, and realizing that +she reigned supreme in his affection, one seemed to rise reproachfully +between them; that generous, gentle woman to whom his faith was +pledged. No matter at what cost, she must guard Leo's peace of mind; +and to dispel his jealous illusion now, would speedily overwhelm the +tottering fabric of his allegiance. Folding her arms tightly across her +breast, she answered proudly: + +"So be it then. Do your worst." + +"You admit it!" + +"I admit nothing." + +"You defy me?" + +"Defy? It seems I am always at the mercy of Tiberius." + +"Can you look at me, and deny that you are screening your lover?" + +She quickly lifted her head, with a peculiar haughty movement that +reminded him of a desperate stag at bay, and he never forgot the +expression of her eyes. + +"I deny that Miss Gordon's accepted lover has any right to catechise me +concerning a subject which, were his suspicions correct, should invest +it with a sanctity inviolable by wanton curiosity." + +He recoiled slightly as from a lash. + +"Miss Gordon is on the eve of sailing through the sunny isles of +Greece; and while she is absent I purpose finding my nepenthe in my +hunt for murderers among Montana wilds. You have defied me, and I will +do my worst, nay, my very best to catch and hang that cowardly rogue +who adroitly used your handkerchief as the instrument to aid his crime." + +She walked a few steps, putting once more between them the table, +against which she leaned. + +"If you are successful, and the mystery of that awful murder should be +unravelled, you will then comprehend something of the desperation that +makes me endure even this crucifixion of soul; and in that day, when +you discover the fugitive lover, you will blush for the taunts aimed at +a defenceless and sorely-stricken woman." + +"Nevertheless, I bend my energies henceforth to his capture and +punishment." + +"Because he is my lover? Or because he may be a criminal? Ask that +question of your honor. Answer it to your own conscience, and to the +noble heart of the trusting woman you asked to become your wife. Mr. +Dunbar, you must leave me now; my strength is almost spent." + +Baffled, exasperated, he approached the table and took something from +his vest-pocket. + +"I hold my honor flawless, and with the sanction of my conscience I +prefer to answer to you--you alone--because he is your lover, I will +have his life." + +She smiled, and her eyes drooped; but there was strange emphasis in her +words as she clasped her hands: + +"God keep my lover now and forever. Mr. Dunbar, when you discover him, +I have no fear that you will harm one hair in his dear head." + +"If you knew all you have cost me, you might understand why I will +never forego my compensation. I bide my time; but I shall win. You +asked me, as a special favor, to preserve and secure for you something +which you held very valuable. Because no wish of yours can ever be +forgotten, I have complied with your request and brought you this +'precious souvenir' of a tender past." + +He tore away the paper wrapping, and held toward her the meerschaum +pipe, then dropped it on the table as though it burned his fingers. + +At sight of it, a sudden faintness made the girl reel, and she put her +hand to her throat, as if to loosen a throttling touch. Her eyes +filled, and in a whirling mist she seemed to see the beloved face of +the father long dead, of the gay, beautiful young brother who had +wrought her ruin. Weakness overpowered her, and sinking to her knees, +she drew the pipe closer, laid it against her cheek, folded her arms +over it on the table and bowed her head. + +What a host of mocking phantoms leaped through the portals of the +Bygone--babbling of the glorious golden dawn that was whitening into a +radiant morning, when the day-star fell back below the horizon, and +night devoured the new-born day. Memory comes, sometimes, in the guise +of an angel, wearing fragrant chaplets, singing us the perfect +harmonies of a hallowed past; but oftener still, as a fury scourging +with serpents; and always over her shoulder peers the wan face and +pitying eyes of a divine Regret. + +The sun had gone down behind the dense pine forest stretching beyond +the prison, but the sky was a vast shifting flame of waning rose and +deepening scarlet, and the glow from the West still defied the shadows +gathering in the cell. Beryl was so still, that Mr. Dunbar feared she +had fainted from exhaustion. + +He stepped to her side, and laid his hand on the bronzed head, +smoothing caressingly yet reverently the short, silky hair. Ah, the +unfathomable tenderness with which he bent over the only woman he ever +loved; the intolerable pain of the thought that after all he might lose +her. He heard the shuddering sob that broke from her overtaxed and +aching heart, and despite his jealous rage he felt unmanned. When she +raised her face, tears hung on her lashes. + +"I will thank you, Mr. Dunbar, as long as I live, for this last and +greatest kindness. If I could tell you what this precious relic +represents to me, oh, if you knew! you would pity me indeed." + +"Tell me. Trust me. God knows I would never betray your confidence, no +matter what it cost me." + +It was a powerful temptation to divulge the truth, and her heart +whispered that Bertie's safety would be secured by removing all jealous +incentive to his pursuit; but she remembered the fair, sweet, heroic +woman who had dared her fiance's wrath in order to unbar those prison +doors; who had faithfully and delicately thrown over the convict the +mantle of her friendship; and the loyal soul of the prisoner strangled +its weakness. + +Perishing in the desert where scorching sands stifled her, she had +surrendered to death, when love sprang to her side, lifted her into the +heavenly peace of dewy palms, and held to parched lips the sparkling +draught a glimpse of which electrified her. Would starvation entitle +her to drink? Over the head of pleading love stretched the arm of +stony-eyed duty, striking into the dust the crystal drops, withering +the palms; and following her stern beckon, the thirsty pilgrim re-trod +the sands of surrender, more intolerable than before, because the oasis +was still in sight. Duty! Rugged incorruptible Spartan dame, whose +inflexible mandate is ever: "With your shield, or on it." + +Beryl put up her hand, drew his from her head to her lips, kissed it +softly. + +"Good-bye, Mr. Dunbar. I promise you one thing. If I find I cannot +live, I will send for you. Upon the border of the grave I will open my +heart. You shall see all; and then you will understand, and deliver a +message which I must leave in your hands. Give my grateful remembrance +to Miss Gordon. Make her happy; and ask her to pray for me, that I may +be patient. Now leave me, for I can bear no more." + +She put aside his hand, and hid her face once more. He stooped, laid +his lips on the shining hair, and walked away. At the door he paused. +The long corridor was very dim and gloomy, and the deep-toned bell in +the tower was ringing slowly. Looking back into the cell, he saw that +Beryl had risen, and against the sullen red glow on the western window, +her face and figure outlined a silhouette of hopeless desolation. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + +Each human soul is dowered with an inherent adaptability to its +environment, with an innate energy which properly directed, grapples +successfully with all assailing ills; and Time, the tireless +reconciler, flies always low at our side, hardening the fibre of +endurance, stealthily administering that supreme and infallible +anaesthetic whereby the torturing throes of human woe are surely +stilled. Existence involves strife; mental and moral growth depend upon +the vigor with which it is waged, and scorning cowardice, Nature +provides the weapons essential to victory. The evils that afflict +humanity are meted out with a marvellously accurate reference to the +idiosyncrasies of character; and no weight is imposed which cannot by +heroic effort be sustained. The Socratic belief that if all misfortunes +were laid in a heap, whence every man and woman must draw an equal +portion, each would select the burden temporarily laid down and walk +away comforted, was merely an adumbration of the sublimer truth, "As +thy day, so shall thy strength be." + +Very slowly physical health and spiritual patience came back to Beryl; +but by degrees she bravely lifted the stained and mutilated wreck of +life, and staggered on her lonely way, finding that repose which means +the death of hope. + +At one time death had smilingly pushed ajar the door that opened into +eternal peace, and beckoned her bruised soul to follow; then mockingly +barred escape, and left her to renew the battle. From that double +window in the second story of the prison, she watched the silver of +full moons shining on the spectral white columns that crowned "Elm +Bluff", the fire of setting suns that blazed ruby-red as Gubbio wine, +along the line of casements that pierced the front facade, a bristling +perpetual reminder of the tragedy that cried to heaven for vengeance. +She learned exactly where to expect the first glimpse of the slender +opal crescent in the primrose west; followed its waxing brilliance as +it sailed out of the green bights of the pine forest, its waning +pallor, amid the sparkling splendor of planets that lit the far east. + +As the constellations trod the mazes of their stately minuet across the +distant field of blue, their outlines grew familiar as human +countenances; and from the darkness of her cell she turned to the great +golden stars throbbing in midnight skies, peering in through the iron +bars like pitying eyes of heavenly guardians. Locked away from human +companionship, and grateful for the isolation of her narrow cell, the +lonely woman found tender compensation in the kindly embrace of +Nature's arms, drawn closely about her. + +The procession of the seasons became to her the advent of so many +angels, who leaned in at her window and taught her the secret of floral +runes; the mysterious gamut of bird melodies, the shrill and weird +dithyrambics of the insect world; the recitative and andante and +scherzo of wind and rain, of hail and sleet, in storm symphonies. + +The Angel of Spring, with the snow of dogwood, and the faint pink of +apple blossoms on her dimpling cheeks; with violet censers swinging +incense before her crocus-sandalled feet, and the bleating of young +lambs that nestled in her warm arms. + +The Angel of Summer, full blown as the red roses flaunting amid the +golden grain and amber silk tassels that garlanded her sunny brow; +poised languorously on the glittering apex of salmon clouds at whose +base lightning flickered and thunder growled,--watching through drowsy +half shut lids the speckled broods of partridges scurrying with frantic +haste through the wild poppies of ripe wheat fields, the brown covey of +shy doves ambushed among purple morning glories swinging in the dense +shade of rustling corn; listening as in a dream to the laughter of +reapers, whetting scythes in the blistering glare of meadow slopes, yet +hearing all the while, the low, sweet babble of the slender stream that +trickled through pine roots, down the hillside, and added its silvery +tinkle to the lullaby crooned by the river to its fringe of willows, +its sleeping lily pads. + +The Angel of Autumn, radiant through her crystal veil of falling rain, +as with caressing touches she deepened the crimson on orchard +treasures, mellowed the heart of vineyard clusters, painted the leaves +with hectic glory that reconciled to their approaching fall, smiled on +the chestnuts that burst their burrs to greet her, whispered to the +squirrels that the banquet was ready; kissed into starry bloom blue +asters crowding about her knees, and left the scarlet of her lips on +the kingdom of berries ordained to flush the forest aisles, where +wolfish winds howled, when leaves had rustled down to die, and verdure +was no more. + +The Angel of Winter, a sad, mute image, wan as her robes of snow, +stretching white wings to shelter perishing birds huddled on the cold +pall that covered a numb world,--crowned with icicles that clasped her +silver locks, shedding tears that froze upon her marble cheeks; +standing on the universal grave where Nature lay bound in cerements, +hearkening to the dismal hooting of the owl at her feet, the sharp +insistent cry of gray killdees hovering above icy marshes, the wailing +tempest dirge over the dead earth; and while with one benignant hand +she tenderly folded her mantle about the sleepers, the other kindled a +conflagration along the western sky, that reddened and warmed even the +wastes of snow, and when she beckoned, the attendant stars seemed to +circle closer and closer, burning with an added lustre that made night +glorious. Answering her call, the Auroral arch sprang out of the North, +spanning the sky with waving banners of orange and violet flame, that +illumined the Niobe of the Seasons, as she hovered with out-stretched +glittering pinions, and mournful ice-dimmed eyes above her shrouded +dead children. + +With returning health, had come to Beryl activity of those artistic +instincts, which for a time, had slumbered in the torpor of despair; +and when her daily task of work had been accomplished, the prisoner +leaned with folded arms on the stone ledge of the window, and studied +every changing aspect of earth and atmosphere. By degrees the old +ambition stirred, and she began to sketch the slow panorama of July +clouds, built of mist and foam into the likeness of domes of burnished +copper, and campaniles of silver; the opaque mountain masses, +stratified along the horizon, leaden in hue, with sullen bluish gorges +where ravening January winds made their lair; the intricate, graceful +tracery of gnaried bare boughs and interlacing twigs, that would serve +as a framework when May hung up her green portieres to screen the +down-lined boudoirs where happy birds nestled; the gray stone arches of +the bridge in the valley below, the groups of cattle couched on the +rocky hillside, up which the pine forest marched like ranks of giants. + +On sultry afternoons she watched lengthening tree-shadows creep across +the reddish-brown carpeting of straw, and in the long nights when +sleeplessness betrayed her into the clutches of torturing +retrospection, she waited and longed for the pearly lustre that paved +the east for the rosy feet of dawn; listened to the beating of Nature's +heart in the solemn roar of the Falls two miles away, in the strophe +and anti-strophe of winds quivering through pine tops, the startled cry +of birds dozing in cedar thickets, the shrill droning of crickets, the +monotonous recrimination of katydids, the peculiar, querulous call of a +family of flying squirrels housed in the cleft of an old magnolia, the +Gregorian chant of frogs cradled in the sedge and ferns, where the +river lapped and gurgled. + +Humanity had turned its back upon her; but the sinless world of +creation, with all its glorious chords of beautiful color, and the +soothing witchery of the solemn voices of the night, ministered +abundantly to eye and ear. She had hoped and prayed to die; God denied +her petition; and sent, instead of His Angel of Death, two to comfort +her, the Angel of Health and the Angel of Resignation; whereby she +understood, that she had not yet earned surcease from suffering, but +was needed for future work in the Master's vineyard. + +If live she must, through the five years of piacular sacrifice, why +vitiate its efficacy by rebellious repining, that seemed an affront to +the divine arbiter of human destinies? She could not escape the cross; +and bitterness of heart might jeopardize the crown. Beggared by time, +could she afford to risk the eternal heritage? The deepest conviction +of her soul was, "Behind fate, stands God"; hidden for a season, deaf +and blind and mute, it seemed, but always surely there; waiting His own +appointed season of rescue, and of recompense. So strong was her faith +in His overruling wisdom and mercy, that her soul found rest, through +perpetual prayer for patience; and as weeks slipped into months, and +season followed season, she realized that though no roses of happiness +could ever bloom along her arid path, the lilies of peace kissed her +tired feet. + +Somewhere in the wicked world, Bertie was astray; and perhaps God has +kept her alive, intending she should fulfil her mission years hence, by +bringing him out of the snares of temptation, back into the fold of +Christ's redeemed. Five years of penal servitude to ransom his soul; +was the price exorbitant? + +One dull, wintry afternoon as she pressed close to the window, to catch +the fading light on the page of her Bible, it chanced to be the chapter +in St. Luke, which contained the parable of the Pharisee and the +Publican; and while she read, a great compunction smote her; a +remorseful sense of having scorned as utterly unclean and debased, her +suffering fellow prisoners. + +Was there no work to be done for the dear Master, in that moral +lazaretto--the long rows of cells down stairs, where some had been +consigned for 'ninety-nine years'? Hitherto, she had shrunk from +contact, as from leprous contagion; meeting the Penitentiary inmates +only in the chapel where, since her restoration to health, she went +regularly to sing and play on the organ, when the chaplain held +service. The world had cruelly misjudged her; was she any more lenient +to those who might be equally innocent? + +Next day she went humbly, yet shyly, down to the common work-room, and +took her place among the publicans, hoping that the soul of some +outcast might be won to repentance. Now and then messages of sympathy +reached her from the outside world, in the form of flowers, books, +magazines; and two of the jurors who convicted her, sent from time to +time generous contributions of dainty articles that materially promoted +her comfort; while a third, whose dead child had clung to her Christmas +card, eased his regretful pangs by the gift of a box containing paper, +canvas, crayons, brushes, paints, and all requisite appliances for +artistic work. + +Sister Serena had gone on a labor of love, to a distant State; and +faithful Dyce, hopelessly crippled by a fall from the mule which she +was forcing across the bridge leading to the State dungeon, had been +permanently consigned to the wide rocking chair, beside her cabin +hearth at "Elm Bluff". + +It was a bleak night in January, and intensely cold, when Mrs. +Singleton wrapped a shawl about her head, and ran along the dark +corridor to the cell, where Beryl was walking up and down to keep +herself warm. Only the moonlight illumined it, as the rays fell on the +bare floor, making a broad band of silver beneath the window. + +"I forgot to tell you, that something very dreadful happened at the +'Lilacs' last week. Judge Dent had a stroke of paralysis and died the +same night. As if that were not trouble enough to last for a while at +least, the house took fire in that high wind yesterday, and burned to +the ground; leaving poor Miss Patty Dent without a roof to cover her. +She had gone to the cemetery to carry flowers to her brother's grave, +and when she returned, it was too late to save anything. Miss Gordon's +new wing cost thousands of dollars and was furnished like a palace, so +I am told; but the flames destroyed every vestige of the beautiful +house, and the pictures and statues. It seems that it was heavily +insured, but money can't buy the old portraits and family silver, the +mahogany and glass, and the yellow damask--that have been kept in the +Dent family since George Washington was a teething baby; and Miss Patty +wails loudest over the loss of an old, old timey communion service, +that the Dents boasted Queen Anne gave to one of them, who was an +Episcopal minister. The poor old soul is almost crazy, I hear, and Mr. +Dunbar carries her to New York to-morrow, where she has a nephew +living; and next month she will go to Europe to join Miss Gordon. It is +reported in town, that when Judge Dent died so suddenly, Miss Patty +sent a cable telegram to her niece to come home; but early yesterday, +just before the fire, an answer came by cable, asking Miss Patty to +come to Europe. Some people think Mr. Dunbar intends escorting her, and +that when he meets Miss Gordon, the marriage will take place over +there; but I never will believe that, till it happens." + +She peered curiously into the face of her listener, but the light was +too dim to enable her to read its expression. + +"Why not? Under the circumstances, such a course seems eminently +natural and proper." + +"Do you really think he intends marrying?" + +"I am the confidant of neither the gentleman nor the lady; but you told +me long ago, that a marriage engagement existed between them; and since +both have shown me much kindness and sympathy, I sincerely hope their +united lives may be very happy. If Mr. Dunbar searched the universe, he +could scarcely find Miss Gordon's equal, certainly not her superior; +and he cannot fail to appreciate his good fortune in winning her." + +Mrs. Singleton lifted her shoulder significantly. "Perhaps! but you can +never be sure of men. They are about as uncertain calculations as the +hatching of guinea eggs, or the sprouting of parsley seed. What is +theirs can't be worth much; but what belongs to somebody else, is +invaluable; moreover, they are liable to sudden tantrums of sheer +obstinacy, that hang on like whooping-cough, or a sprain in one's +joints. Did you never see a mule take the sulks on his way to the corn +crib and the fodder rack, and refuse to budge, even for his own +benefit? Some men are just that perverse. Mr. Dunbar is trailing game, +worth more to him at present, than a sweetheart across the Atlantic +Ocean; which reminds me of what brought me here. He asked Ned to-day, +if you saw Mr. Darrington yesterday when he came here; and learning +that you did not, he gave him this paper, which he said would explain +what the Legislature did last month, about declaring you of age. Ned +told him you signed some document Mr. Wolverton brought here last week, +which secured all the property to Mr. Darrington, and he said he had +been informed of the transaction, and that Mr. Darrington would soon go +back to Germany. Then he added: 'Singleton, present my respects to Miss +Brentano and tell her, I am happy to say that my trip West last summer +was not entirely unsuccessful. It has furnished me with a very valuable +clue. She will understand.' Oh, dear! how bitterly cold it is! Come to +my room, and get thoroughly thawed; Ned is down stairs, and the +children are asleep." + +"No, thank you; I should only feel the cold more, when I came back." + +"Then take my shawl and cover your ears and throat. There, you must. +Good night." + +She closed the door, and fled down the long black passage, to the +bright cozy room, where her babes slumbered. + +Slowly Beryl resumed her walk from window to door, from bar to bar, but +of the stinging cold she grew oblivious; and the blood burned in her +cheeks and throbbed with almost suffocating violence at her heart. + +She comprehended fully the significance of the message, and dared not +comfort herself with the supposition that it was prompted by a spirit +of bravado. + +To what quarter of the globe was he tracking the desperate culprit, who +had fled sorely wounded from his murderous assault? Ignorant of his +mother's death, and of his sister's expiatory incarceration, might not +Bertie venture back to the great city, where she had last seen him; and +be trapped by those wily "Quaestores Paricidii" of the nineteenth +century--special detectives? + +Fettered, muzzled by the stone walls of her dungeon, she could send him +no warning, could only pray and endure, while she and her reckless, +wayward brother drifted helplessly down the dark, swift river of doom. +At every revival of fears for his safety, up started the mighty +temptation that never slumbered, to confess all to Mr. Dunbar; but as +persistently she took it by the throat, and crushed it back, resolved +at all hazards to secure, if possible, the happiness of the woman who +had trusted her. + +In the midst of the wreck of her life, out of the depths of the dust of +humiliation, had sprung the beautiful blossom of love, shedding its +intoxicating fragrance over ruin; yet, because the asp of treachery +lurked in the exquisite, folded petals, she shut her eyes to the +bewildering loveliness, and loyalty strove to tear it up by the roots, +to trample it out; learning thereby, that the fibrous thread had struck +deep into her own heart, defying ejectment. + +She had forbidden his visits, interdicted letters; but she could not +expel the vision of a dear face that haunted her memory; nor exorcise +the spell of a voice that had first thrilled her pulses when pleading +with the jury in her behalf. + +Sometimes she wondered whether she had been created as a mere sentient +plummet to sound every gulf of human woe; then humbly recanted the +impious repining, and thanked God that, at least, she had been spared +that deepest of all abysses, the Hades of remorse. That which comes to +most women as the supreme earthly joy--the consciousness of possessing +the heart of the man they love, fell upon Beryl like the lash of +flagellation; rendering doubly fierce the battle of renunciation, which +she fought, knowing that sedition and treason were raising the standard +of revolt within the fortress. + +During the eight months that had elapsed since Leo sailed for Europe, +Beryl had exchanged no word with Mr. Dunbar; but twice a sudden, +tumultuous leaping of her heart surprised her at sight of him, standing +in the door of the chapel; watching her as she sat within the altar +rail, playing the little organ, while the convict congregation stood up +to sing. Although no name was ever appended, she knew what hand had +directed the various American and foreign art magazines, which brought +their argosy of beauty to divert and gladden her sombre meditations. + +On Christmas morning, the second of her sojourn within penitentiary +walls, the express messenger had brought to the door of her cell, two +packages, one a glowing heart of crimson and purple passion flowers, +the other an exquisite engraving of Sir Frederick Leighton's "Hercules +Wrestling with Death"; and below the printed title, she recognized the +bold characters traced in red ink: "The Alcestis you emulate." + +To-night, a ray of moonlight crept across the wall, and shivered its +silver over the rigid face of the dead wife in the picture; and the +prisoner, gazing mournfully at it, comprehended that her own fate was +sadder than that of the immortal Greek devotee. To die for Admetus +after he had sworn on the altar of his gods, that he would spend alone +the remainder of his days, solaced by no fair successor, dedicating his +fidelity to appease her manes, was comparatively easy; but to turn +away, voluntarily resign the man she loved, and assist in forging the +links which she must live to see chaining him to a happy rival, were an +ordeal more appalling to Alcestis than premature descent into the dusky +realm of Persephone. + +To secure to her brother immunity from pursuit, and to Miss Gordon the +allegiance of the husband of her choice, was the problem that banished +sleep and kept Beryl pacing the floor, until welcome day hung her +orange mantle over the quivering splendor of the morning star. One +final effort was all that seemed possible now; and kneeling before the +table she wrote and sealed a note, to be delivered before the express +train bore the lawyer away on his journey: + +"Your message was received, and it has so disquieted and alarmed me +that I am forced to treat for peace. If you will cancel your police +contracts, cease your search, go to Europe with Miss Dent, and pledge +me your honor to marry Miss Gordon before you return, I will solemnly +promise, bind myself in the sight of the God I serve, to live and to +die Beryl Brentano; and never, without your consent and permission, +will I look again on the face of the man whom you are hunting to death. +The assurance of his safety will atone for all you have made me suffer; +will nerve me to bear whatever the future may hold. You will imagine +you understand, but it is impossible that you can ever realize the +nature of the pain this proposal involves for me; nevertheless, if you +accept and keep the compact, I believe you know that, at all costs, I +shall never forfeit the pledged word of + +"BERYL BRENTANO." + +When marriage vows had irrevocably committed Leo's happiness to his +honor, it might then be safe to tell him the truth, and solicit release +from the self-imposed terms. Five hours later, she received an answer: + +"A trifle too late, you unfurled the flag of truce. With my game in +sight, I decline to forego the chase. For your solicitude regarding my +marriage, I tender my thanks; and the assurance, that no magnet can +draw, not all the charms of Circe lure me across the Atlantic, until I +have accomplished my purpose. The tardiness of your proposal is +unerring appraiser of its costliness; and I were a monster of cruelty +to debar you the sight of your idol, though I bring him with the grim +garniture of chains and handcuffs. When I consign Miss Dent to her +relatives in New York, I go to a miners' camp in Dakota, to identify a +man bearing the marks of one who fled from X---, and lost his pipe, on +the night he murdered Gen'l Darrington. + +"DUNBAR." + +To temporize longer would be fatal to Bertie; and no alternative +remained but to tell the simple truth. + +Without an instant's delay she took up her pen, but ere half a line had +been traced on the paper, a hoarse whistle, somewhat muffled by +distance, told her the attempt was futile; and through the valley +beyond the river a trailing serpent of black smoke showed the express +train darting northward. The attorney had left X---, but might linger +in New York sufficiently long for a letter to reach him; and doubtless +his address could be learned at his office: + +"If Mr. Dunbar will give me an opportunity of acquainting him with some +facts, he is anxious to discover, he shall find it unnecessary to +travel to Dakota; and will thank me for saving him from the long +journey he contemplates. + +"B. B." + +The sun was setting when Mr. Singleton returned from the attorney's +office, and held out the note which he had been instructed to address +and deposit in the mail. + +"If it is a matter of any importance, I am sorry to tell you that this +cannot reach Mr. Dunbar immediately. He goes only as far as +Philadelphia, where Miss Dent's nephew meets her; then Dunbar travels +right on West without stopping, till he reaches Bismarck. He left +instructions at his office to retain all mail matter here, for a couple +of weeks, then forward to Washington City; as business would detain him +there some days after his return from the west. Good gracious! how +white your lips are. Sit down. What ails you?" + +She put her hand over her eyes, and tried to collect her thoughts. To +suffer so long, so keenly, and yet lose the victory; could it be +possible that her sacrifice would prove utterly futile? + +"Mr. Singleton, you have shown me many times your friendly sympathy, +and I am again forced to tax your kindness. It is important that I +should see or communicate with Mr. Dunbar within the next forty-eight +hours. Could you induce the telegraph operator here to have a message +delivered to him on the train, before it reaches Washington City?" + +"I will certainly do my best; and to insure it I will go to the +railroad operator, who understands the stations, and can catch Dunbar +more easily than a message from the general office. Write our your +telegram, while I order my buggy." + +"MR. DUNBAR. On board Train No. 2. + +"Please let me see you before you go West. I promise information that +will render you unwilling to make the journey to Bismarck." + +"B." + +Anxiously she computed the time within which an answer might reasonably +be expected; and her heart dwelt as a suppliant before God, that the +message would avail to arrest pursuit; but hours wore wearily away, +tedious days trod upon the slow skirts of dreary nights; and no +response lifted the burden of dread. Hope whispered feebly that his +failure to send a telegraphic reply, implied his intention of returning +to X---from Philadelphia; and she clung to this rope of sand until a +week had passed. Then the conviction was inevitable that he regarded +her appeal as merely a ruse to divert his course, to delay the seizure +of his prey; and that while he misinterpreted the motive that prompted +her message, she had merely furnished an additional goad to his jealous +hatred. + +As helpless wrack borne on the sullen tide of destiny, she struck her +trembling hands together, and cried out in the dark solitude of her +cell: "Verily! The stars in their courses fought against Sisera." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + +The winter was marked by an unusual severity of cold, which prolonged +the rigor of mid-season until late in February, and despite the efforts +of penitentiary officials who made unprecedented requisitions upon the +board of inspectors, for additional clothing, the pent human herd +suffered keenly. + +Alarmed by the rapidly increasing rate of sickness within the "walls," +Mr. Singleton demanded a sanitary commission, which, after apparently +thorough investigation, reported no visible local cause for the +mortality among the convicts; but the germs of disease grew swiftly as +other evil weeds, and the first week in March saw a hideous harvest of +diphtheria of the most malignant type. + +At the earliest intimation of the character of the pestilence, the +warden's wife fled with her little children to her mother's home in a +neighboring county; maternal solicitude having extinguished her womanly +reluctance to desert her husband, at a juncture when her presence and +assistance would so materially have cheered, and lightened his labors. +An attempt was made to isolate the first case in the hospital, but the +cots in that spacious apartment filled beyond the limits of +accommodation; and soon, a large proportion of the cells on the ground +floor held each its victim of the fatal disease, that as the scythe of +death cut a wide swath through convict ranks. Consulting physicians +walked through the infected ward, altered prescriptions, advised +disinfectants which were liberally used, until the building seemed to +exhale pungent, wholesome, but unsavory odors; yet there was no +abatement in the virulence of the type. When the twenty-third case was +entered on the hospital list, the trustees and inspectors determined to +remove all who showed no symptom of the contagion, to an old, +long-abandoned cotton factory several miles distant; where the vacant +houses of former operatives would afford temporary shelter; and to +diminish the chances of carrying infection, each prisoner was carefully +examined by the attending physician, and then furnished with an +entirely new suit of clothing. + +When the nature of the epidemic could no longer be concealed from the +inmates, instinctive horror drove them from the neighborhood of the +victims, and like frightened sheep they huddled in remote corners, +removed as far as possible from the infected precincts, and loath to +minister to the needs of the sufferers. + +Two men, and as many women, selected and detailed as nurses in their +respective wards, openly rebelled; and while Doctor Moffat and Mr. +Singleton were discussing the feasibility of procuring outside +assistance, the door of the dispensary adjoining the hospital, opened, +and Beryl walked up to the table, where medicines were weighed and +mixed. + +"Put me to work among the sick. I want to help you." + +"You! What could you do? I should as soon take a magnolia blossom to +scrub the pots and pans of a filthy kitchen," answered the doctor, +looking up over his spectacles from the powder he was grinding in a +glass mortar. + +"I can follow your directions; I can obey orders; and physicians deem +that the sine qua non in nurses. Closed lips, open ears, willing hands +are supposed to outweigh any amount of unlicensed brains. Try me." + +"No. I am not willing. Go back up-stairs, and stay there," said the +warden. + +"Why may I not assist in nursing?" + +"In the first place you are not fit to mix with those poor creatures, +in yonder; their oaths would curdle your blood; and in the second, you +are not strong, and would be sure to take the disease at once." + +"I am perfectly well; my lungs are now as healthy as yours, and I am +not afraid of diphtheria. You detailed nurses, who refused to serve; I +volunteer; have you any right to reject me?" + +"Yes, the right to protect and save your life, which is worth twenty of +those already in danger," replied Mr. Singleton, pausing in his task of +filling capsules with quinine. + +"Who made you a judge of the value of souls? My life belongs first to +God, who gave it, next to myself; and if I choose to jeopardize it, in +work among my suffering comrades in disgrace, you must not usurp the +authority to prevent me." + +"Has it become so intolerable that you desire to commit suicide, under +the specious plea of philanthropic martyrdom?" said Doctor Moffat, +whose keen black eyes scanned her closely, from beneath shaggy gray +brows. + +"I think I may safely say, no such selfish motive underlies my +resolution. My heart is full of pity, and of dread for some women here, +who admit their guilt, yet have sought no pardon from the Maker their +sins insult. Sick souls cry out to me louder than dying bodies; and who +dare deny me the privilege of ministering to both? The parable of the +sparrows is no fable to me; and if, while trying to comfort my unhappy +associates here, God calls me out of this dark stony vineyard, His will +alone overrules all; and I can meet His face in peace. We say: 'Lord +what wilt Thou have us to do?' and when the answer comes, pointing us +to perilous and loathsome labors, will He forget if we shut our eyes, +and turn away, coveting the sunny fields into which He sent others to +toil? Let me go to my work." + +During almost eighteen months, both men had studied her character as +manifested in the trying phases of prison existence, finding no flaw; +to-day they looked up reverently at the graceful form in its homespun +uniform, at the calm, colorless face, wearing its crown of meekness, +with an inalienable, proud air of cold repose. + +"To keep you here is about as sacrilegious as it would have been to +thrust St. Catherine among the chain-gang in the galleys," muttered the +doctor. + +"No doubt duty called her to much worse places; therefore, when she +died, the angels buried her on Sinai," answered the prisoner; before +whose wistful eyes drifted the memory of Luini's picture. + +"You have set your heart on this; nothing less will content you?" + +"While the necessity continues, nothing less will content me." + +"Remember, you voluntarily take your life in your own hands." + +"I assume the entire responsibility for any risk incurred." + +"Then, I wish you God speed; for the harvest is white, the laborers +few." + +"Why, doctor! I relied on you to help me keep her out of reach. If +anything happens, how shall I pacify Susie? She made me promise every +possible care of her favorite. Look here, only an hour ago I received a +letter and this package marked, 'One for Ned; the other for Miss +Beryl.' Two little red flannel safety bags, cure-alls, to be tied +around our necks, close to our noses, as if we could not smell them a +half mile off? Assafoetida, garlic, camphor, 'jimson weed,' valerian +powder--phew! What not? Mixed as a voudoo chowder, and a scent twice as +loud!" + +"Be thankful your wife is not here to enforce the wearing of the +sanitary sachet," said the doctor, allowing himself a grimace of +contemptuous disgust. + +"So I am! but being a bachelor, answerable only to yourself, you cannot +understand how absence does not exonerate me from the promise made when +she started away. I would sooner face an 'army with banners,' than that +little brown-eyed woman of mine when she takes the lapel of my coat in +one hand, raises the forefinger of the other, turns her head sideways +like a thrush watching a wriggling worm, and says, in a voice that +rises as fast as the sound a mouse makes racing up the treble of the +piano keys: 'Ump! whew! Didn't I tell you so? The minute my back was +turned, of course you made ducks and drakes of all your promises. Show +me a "Flying Jenney," that the tip end of any idiot's little finger can +spin around, and I'll christen it Edward McTwaddle Singleton!' Seems +funny to you, doctor? Just wait till you are married, and your Susan +shuts the door and interviews you, picking a whole flock of crows, till +you wonder if it isn't raining black feathers. When I am taken to taw +about this nursing business, I shall lose no time in laying the blame +on you." + +"I will assure Mrs. Singleton that you endeavored to dissuade me; and +that you faithfully kept your promise to shield me from danger." + +"Which she will not believe, because she knows that I have the power to +lock you up indefinitely. Besides, if you live to explain matters, +there will be no necessity; but suppose you do not? You are running +into the jaws of an awful danger, and if--" + +His frank, pleasant countenance clouded, he gnawed his mustache, and +the question ended in a long sigh. After a moment, a low, sweet voice +completed the sentence: + +"If I should die, your tender-hearted wife is so truly and faithfully +my friend, that she could not regret to hear I have entered into my +rest." + +There was a brief silence, during which the physician crossed the +floor, opened a glass door and surveyed the stock of drugs. When he +came back, and took up the pestle, he spoke with solemn emphasis: + +"This is the most malignant type of an always dangerous disease that I +have ever encountered; and constant exposure to it, without the +careful, persistent use of tonic and disinfectant precautions, would be +tantamount to walking unvaccinated into a pest-house, where people were +dying of confluent small-pox. I have no desire to frighten, but it is +proper that I should warn you; and insist upon the duty of watching +your own health as closely as the symptoms of the victims you are +desirous of nursing. Will you follow the regimen I shall prescribe for +yourself?" + +"Implicitly." + +The warden finished filling the capsules, rose and looked at his watch. + +"As far as the chances go, it is 'heads I win, tails you lose'; and +sorry enough I am to see you come down and dare the pestilence; but +since you are, I might as well say what I was asked to tell you last +night. For your sake I kept silent; now since you persist, I wash my +hands of all responsibility for the consequences. You have heard the +history of the woman Iva Le Bougeois, better known in the 'walls' as +the 'Bloody Duchess'. Two days ago the scourge struck her down; she is +very ill, the worst symptoms have appeared, and she is almost frantic +with terror. Last night, at 12 o'clock, I was going the rounds of the +sick wards, and found her wringing her hands, and running up and down +the cell like a maniac. I tried to quiet and encourage her, but she +paid no more attention than if stone deaf; and when I started to leave +her, she seized my arm, and begged me to ask you to come and stay with +her. She thinks if you would sing for her, she could listen, and forget +the horrible things that haunt her. It is positively sickening to see +her terror at the thought of death. Poor, desperate creature." + +"Yet you withheld her message when I might have comforted her?" + +"It was a crazy whim. In hardened cases like hers, death-bed remorse +counts for very little. Her conscience is lashing her; could you quiet +that? Could you bleach out the blood that spots her soul?" + +"Yes, by leading her to One who can." + +"Remember, you asked me as a special favor to keep you as far apart as +possible from all of her class." + +"At that time, overwhelmed by the misery of my own fate, I was pitiless +to the sufferings of others. The rod that smote me was very cruel then; +but by degrees it seems to bud like Aaron's with precious promise, that +may expand into the immortal flowers of souls redeemed. I dwelt too +long in the seat of the Pharisees; I shall live closer to God, walking +humbly among the Publicans. Will you show me the way to the woman who +wishes to see me?" + +"Not yet. There are some instructions that must be carefully weighed +before I can install you as nurse, in that dismal mire of moral and +physical corruption. Singleton, send the hospital steward to me." + +There are spectacles which brand themselves so ineffaceably upon +memory, that time has no power to impair their vividness; and of such +were some of the scenes witnessed by the new nurse. + +Sitting on the side of her cot, from which the gray blanket had been +dragged and folded half across her shoulders, where one hand held it, +while the other clutched savagely at her throat; with her bare delicate +feet beating a tattoo on the white sanded floor, and her thin nostrils +dilated in the battle for breath, Iva Le Bougeois moaned in abject +terror. The coarse, unbleached "domestic" night-gown that fell to her +ankles was streaked across the bosom with some dark brown fluid; and +similar marks stained the pillow where her restless head had tossed. +The hot eyes and parched red lips seemed to have drained all the +tainted blood from her olive cheeks, save where, just beneath the lower +lids, ominous terra-cotta rings had been painted and glazed by the +disease. + +As Beryl pushed open the iron door, and held up the lantern, that its +brightness might stream into the cell, where even at five o'clock in +the afternoon of a rainy day darkness reigned, the rays flashed back +from the glowing eyes chatoyant as a cougar's. + +"Your message was not delivered until to-day, and I lost no time in +coming." + +The small head, where short, straight, blue-black locks, rumpled and +disordered, were piled elfishly around the low brow, was thrown up with +the swift movement of some startled furry animal, alert even in the +throes of death. + +"Is all hope over? Did they tell you there is no chance for me?" + +The voice was hoarse and thick, the articulation indistinct and +smothered. + +"No. They think you very ill, but still hope the remedies will save +you. The doctor says your fine constitution ought to conquer the +disease." + +"I am beyond the remedy--because I can't swallow any longer. Since the +doctor left me, I have tried and tried. See--" + +From a bench within reach, she lifted a small yellow bowl, which +contained a dark mixture, put it to her lips, and chafing her swollen +glands, attempted several times to swallow the liquid. A gurgling sound +betrayed the futility of the effort, the medicine gushed from her nose, +the eyes seemed starting from their sockets, and even the husky cry of +the sufferer was strangled, as she cowered down. + +"Compose yourself; nervousness increases the difficulty. Once I had +diphtheria, and could not swallow for two days, yet I recovered. Be +quiet, and let me try to help you." + +Kneeling in front of her, Beryl turned up the wick of the lantern, and +with a small brush attached to a silver wire, finally succeeded in +cauterizing and removing a portion of the poisonous growth that was +rapidly narrowing the avenue of breath. The spasm of coughing that +ensued was Nature's auxiliary effort, and temporarily relieved the +tightening clutch. + +After a few moments, a dose of the medicine was successfully +administered; and then the slender, shapely brown hand of the woman +grasped the nurse's blue homespun dress. + +"Don't leave me! Save me. Oh, don't let me strangle here alone--in the +dark; don't let me die! I'm not fit. I know where I shall go. It's not +the devil I dread; I have known many devils in this world,--but God. I +am afraid of God!" + +"Lie down, and cover your shoulders. If it comforts you to have me, I +will stay gladly. The doctor, the warden, all of us will do what we can +to cure you; but the help you need most, can come only from one whose +pity is greater and tenderer than ours, your merciful God. Lift up your +heart in prayer to him; ask him to forgive your sins, and spare you to +lead a better life." + +"He would not hear, because He knows how black my heart has been all +these years; since I gave myself up to hate and cursing. You can't +understand--you are not one of us. You are as much out of place here, +as one of the angels would be, held over the flames of torment till the +wings singed. From the first time we saw you in the chapel, and more +and more ever since, we found out you did not belong here. I have been +so wicked--so wicked--!" + +She paused, panting, then hurried on. + +"When the chaplain tried to talk to me, and gave me a book to read, I +dashed it back in his face, and insulted him. One Saturday they sent me +to sweep out and dust the chapel, and when I finished, I laid down on +one of the benches to rest. You went in to practise, not knowing I was +there; and began to sing. As I listened, something seemed to stir and +wake up in my heart, and somehow the music shook me out of myself. +There was one hymn, so solemn, so thrilling, and the end of every verse +was, 'Oh, Lamb of God! I come!'--and you sang it with a great cry, as +if you were running to meet some one. I had not wept--for oh! I don't +know how long--not since--. Then you played on the organ some +variations on a tune--'The Sweet By-and-by'--and the tears started, and +I seemed but a leaf in a wild storm. That was the song my little boy +used to sing! There was a Sunday-school in the basement of a church +next to our house, and he would stand at the window, and listen till he +caught the tune, and learned the words. Oh, that hymn! Every note stung +me like a whip lash when I heard it again. My child's face as I saw him +the last time I put him to bed; when he opened his drowsy eyes, and +raised up to kiss me good-night, came back to me, and seemed to sing, +'In the sweet by-and-by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore.' +No--never--never! Oh, my boy! My beautiful angel Max--there is no room +for me, on that heavenly shore! Oh! my darling--there is NO 'Sweet +by-and-by' FOR MOTHER NOW." + +She had started up, with arms clasped around her knees, and her +convulsed face lifted toward the low ceiling of the cell, writhed, as +she drew her breath in hissing gasps. + +"You loved your little boy?" + +"You are not a mother, or you wouldn't ask me that If ever you had felt +your baby's sweet warm lips on yours, you would know that it is +mother-love that makes tigers of women. Because I idolized my little +one, I could not bear the cruel wrong of having him torn from me, +taught to despise me; and so I loved him best when I slew him, and I +was so mad, with the delirium of pain and rage and despair, that I +forgot I was putting the gulf of perdition between us. Rather than +submit to separation in this world, than have him raised by them, to +turn away from his mother as a thing too vile to wear his father's +name, I lost him for ever and ever! My son, my star-eyed darling." + +"Listen to me. You loved him so tenderly, that no matter how wilful or +disobedient he might have been, you forgave him every offence; and when +he sobbed on your bosom, you felt he was doubly dear, and hugged him +closer to your heart? Even stronger and deeper is God's love for us. +Dare you call yourself more pitiful, more tender than your Father in +heaven, who gave you the capacity to love your child, because He so +compassionately loves His children? We sin, we go far astray, we think +mercy is exhausted, and the door shut against us; but when we truly +repent and go back, and kneel, and pray to be forgiven, Christ Himself +unbars the door and leads us in; and our Father, loving those whom He +created, pardons all; and only requires that we sin no more. God does +not follow us; we must humbly go back all the distance we have put +between us by our wickedness; but the heavens will fall before He fails +to keep His promise to forgive, when we do genuinely repent of our +wrongdoing." + +"It is easy for the good to believe that. You are innocent of any +crime, and you are punished for other people's sins, not for your own; +so you can't understand how I dread the thought of God, because I know +the blackness of my heart, when, to get my revenge, I sold my soul to +Satan. Oh! the horror of feeling that I can't undo the bargain; that +pay-day has come! I had the vengeance, I snatched out of God's hands, +and for a while I gloated over it; but now the awful price! My little +one in heaven with the angels; knowing that his mother is a +devil--eternally." + +Her head had fallen upon her knees, and in the frenzy of despair she +rocked to and fro. + +"Don't you remember that the most sinful woman Christ met on earth, was +the one of all others that He first revealed Himself to, when He came +out of the grave? Because she was so nearly lost, and He had forgiven +so much, in order to save her, her purified heart was doubly dear, and +he honored her more than the disciples, who had escaped the depth of +her wickedness. Try to find comfort in the belief, that if sincere +remorse and contrition redeemed the soul of Mary Magdalen, the same +Savior who pitied and pardoned her will not deny your prayer." + +"God believed her, because she proved her repentance by leading a new, +purer life. But I have no chance left to prove mine. If she had been +cut off in the midst of her sins, as I am, she would have been obliged +to pay in her ruined soul to the Satan she had served so long. When I +am called to the settlement, it seems an insult and a mockery to ask +God, whom I have defied, to save me. If I could only have a little time +to show my penitence." + +"Perhaps you may be spared; but if not, God sees your contrition just +as fully now as if you lived fifty years to show it in good works. He +sees you are sincerely remorseful, and would be a true Christian, if He +allowed you an opportunity. That is the blessedness of our religion, +that when Christ gives us a new heart, purified by repentance and faith +in Him, He says it makes clean hands, in His sight, no matter how black +they might have been. One of the thieves was already on the cross, in +the agonies of death, with his sins fresh on his soul, and no possible +chance of atoning for his past, by future dedication of his life to +good; but Christ saw his heart was genuinely repentant, and though the +man did not escape crucifixion by humanity, his pardoned soul met Jesus +that same day in Paradise. It is not acceptance of our good deeds, +though they are required, it is forgiveness of our sins, that makes +Christ so precious. Pray from the very bottom of your heart, to God, +and try to take hold of the promise to the truly penitent; and +trust--trust Him." + +For a moment the crouching figure was still, as if the sufferer +mentally grasped at some shred of hope; then she fell back on her +pillow, and groaned. + +"Do you know all I have done? Do you think there is any mercy for--" + +"Hush, every word taxes your failing strength. Compose yourself." + +"I can't! As long as I have breath let me tell you. If I shut my eyes, +horrible things seem to be pouncing upon me; dreadful shapes laugh, and +beckon to me, and I see--oh! pity me! I see my murdered child, with the +blood spouting, foaming, the velvety brown eyes I loved to kiss, +staring and glazed as I dragged his little body to--" + +With a gurgling scream she paused, shivered, panted. + +"It is a feverish dream. Your child is safe in heaven; ask your Father +to let you see his face among the angels." + +"It's not fever; it's the past, my own crimes that come to follow me to +judgment and accuse me. The hand of my first-born pointing over the +last bar at the mother who killed him! Do you wonder I am afraid to +die? I don't deny my bloody deeds--but after all it was a foul wrong +that drove me to desperation; and God knows, man's injustice brought me +to my sin. I was a spoiled, motherless child, married at sixteen to a +man whose family despised me, because my pretty face had ruined their +scheme of a match with an heiress, whose money was needed to retrieve +their fortunes. They never forgave the marriage, and after a few years, +mischief began to brew. + +"I loved my husband, but his nature was too austere to deal patiently +with my freakish, petulant, volcanic temper; and when he lectured me +for my frivolity, obstinacy plunged me into excesses of gayety, that at +heart I did not enjoy. His mother and sister shunned me more and more, +poisoned his mind with wicked and unfounded suspicions, and so we grew +mutually distrustful. He tired of me, and he showed it. I loved him. +Oh! I loved him better, and better, as I saw him drifting away. He +neglected me, spent his leisure where he met the woman he had once +intended to marry. I was so maddened with jealous heart-ache, some evil +spirit prompted me to try and punish him with the same pangs. That was +my first sin of deception; I pretended an attachment I never felt, +hoping to rekindle my husband's affection. Like many another heart-sick +wife, I was caught in my own snare; and while I was as innocent of any +wrong as my own baby boy, his father was glad of a pretext to excuse +his alienation. People slandered me; and because I loved Allen so +deeply, I was too proud to defend myself, until too late. + +"God is my witness, my husband was the only man I ever loved; ah! how +dear he was to me! His very garments were precious; and I have kissed +and cried over his gloves, his slippers. The touch of his hand was +worth all the world to me, but he withheld it. When you know your +husband loves you, he may ill treat, may trample you under his feet, +but you can forgive him all; you caress the heel that bruises you. +Allen ceased to show me ordinary consideration, stung me with sneers, +threatened separation; even shrunk from the boy, because he was mine. + +"There came a day, when some fiend forged a letter, and the same vile +hand laid it in my husband's desk. Only God knows whose is the guilt of +that black deed, but I believe it was his sister's work. Allen cursed +me as unworthy to be the mother of his child, and swore he would be +free. On my knees I begged him to hear, and acquit me. I confessed all +my yearning love for him, I assured him I was the victim of a foul +plot; and that if he would only take me back to the heaven of his +heart, he would find that no man ever had a more devoted wife. He +wanted an excuse to put me out of his way; he repulsed me with scorn, +and before the sun set, he forsook me, and took up his abode with his +mother and sister. Oh! the cruel wrong of that dreadful, parting scene!" + +She sprang from the cot, breathless from the passionate recital, +beating the air with one small slender hand, while the other tore at +the swollen cords of her tortured throat. + +Beryl caught the round, prettily turned wrist, and felt the feeble +thread of pulse that was only a wild flutter, under the olive satin of +the hot skin. + +"This excitement only hastens the end you dread. Lie down, and I will +pray for you." + +"I shall soon lie down for ever. Let me walk a little, before my feet +slide into the grave." + +She staggered twice across the length of the cell, then tottered and +fell back on the cot. At every respiration the thin nostrils flared, +and the glazed ring below the eyes lost its sullen red tinge, took on +blue shadows. + +"I did not know then I was to lose my child also; but before long, all +the scheme was made clear. Allen sued for a divorce. He wanted to shake +me off; and he persuaded himself all the foul things my enemies had +concocted must be true. I had lost his love; I was too proud to show my +torn heart to the world; and men make the laws to suit themselves, and +they help each other to break chains that gall, so Allen was set free. +I shut myself up in two rooms, with my boy, and saw no one. Even then, +though my heart was breaking, and I wept away the lonely days--longing +for the sight of my husband's face, starving for the sound of his +voice--I bore up; because I knew I was innocent, and unjustly censured, +and I had my child to comfort me. He slept in my arms and kept me +human; and we were all the world to each other. + +"Then the last blow fell. There came a note, whose every word bit my +heart like an adder. Allen demanded the boy, whom the law gave to his +guardianship; and I was warned I must make no attempt to see him after +he was taken away, because he would be taught to forget me. I refused. +I dared the officer to lay hands on my little one, and I was so frantic +with grief, the man had compassion, and left me. Two nights afterward, +I rocked him to sleep and put him in bed. His arms fell from my neck; +half aroused, he nestled his face to mine--kissed me. I went into the +next room, to finish a shirt I was making for him, and I shut the door, +fearing the noise of the machine would wake him. I sewed half an hour, +and--when I went back, the bed was empty, my child was gone. + +"I think I went utterly mad then. I can remember putting my lips to the +dent on the little ruffled pillow, where his head had lain, and +swearing that I would have my revenge. + +"That night turned me to stone; every tender feeling seemed to petrify. +When I learned that Allen was soon to marry the woman for whom he had +cast me off, and that my boy was to have a new mother to teach him to +hate me, it did not grieve me; I had lost all power of suffering; but +it woke up a legion of fiends where my heart used to beat, and I bided +my time. Happy women in happy homes think me a monster. With their +husbands' arms around them, and their babies prattling at their knees, +they bear my wrongs so meekly, and shudder at my depravity. When I +thought of Allen, who was my first and last and only love, giving my +place to some other woman, who was no more worthy than I knew myself to +be; and of the baby, who had slept on my heart, and was so dear because +he had his father's eyes and his father's brown curls, growing up to +deny and condemn his innocent but disgraced mother, it was more than I +could bear. I was not insane; oh, no! But I was possessed by more than +seven devils; and revenge was all this world could give me. My +husband's family had ruined me; so I would spoil their match a second +time. + +"The wedding was to be very private, but I bribed a servant and got +into the house, and stood behind the damask curtains. Allen's mother +and sister came in, leading my boy; and they were so close to me I +could see the long silky lashes resting against my baby's brow, as his +great brown eyes looked wonderingly at a horseshoe of roses dangling +from the chandelier. Then my husband, my handsome husband--my darling's +father, walked in, with the bride on his arm, and the minister met +them, saying: 'Dearly beloved--.' I ceased to be a woman then, I was a +fury, a wild beast--and two minutes later my darlings were mine once +more, safe from that other woman--dead at my feet. Then the ball I +aimed at my own breast missed its destination. I fell on my slaughtered +idols; seeing in a bloody mist the wide eyes of my baby boy, and the +mangled face of the husband whose kiss was the only heaven I shall ever +know. I meant to die with them, but I failed; so they sent me here. +That was years ago; but I was a stone until that day in the chapel, +when you sang my Max's song, 'By-and-By'." + +There was a brief silence, and Beryl's voice wavered as she said very +gently: + +"Your trials were fiery; and though the crime was frightfully black, +God judges us according to the natures we are born with, and the +temptations that betray us; and He forgives all, if we are true +penitents and throw ourselves trustingly on His mercy. Now take this +powder; it will make you sleep." + +"Will you stay with me? I shall not trouble anybody much longer. Say a +prayer for my sinful soul, that is going down into the eternal night." + +"Let us pray together, that your pardoned soul may find blessed and +eternal peace." + +Coming softly to the door, the doctor looked in through the iron +lattice, saw the figure of the nurse kneeling on the sanded floor, with +her bronzed head close to the pillow where the moaning victim's lay; +and involuntarily he took off his cloth cap, and bowed his gray head to +listen to the brief but solemn petition that went up from the dungeon +to the supreme and unerring Judge. + +When he returned to the same spot an hour later, Beryl sat on the side +of the cot, with one hand clasping the brown wrist thrown across her +lap, the other pressed gently over the sufferer's hot, aching eyes; and +wonderfully sweet was the rich voice that chanted low: + + "Just as I am, without one plea, + But that Thy blood was shed for me. + And that Thou bidd'st me come to Thee, + O Lamb of God! I come, I come! + Just as I am, and waiting not + To rid my soul of one dark blot, + To Thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot, + O Lamb of God! I come, I come!" + +The noon sun was shining over a wet world, kindling into diamonds the +crystal fringe of rain drops hanging from the green lances of willows, +where a tufted red bird arched his scarlet throat in madrigal--when +four men lifted a cot, and bore it with its apparently dying burden to +a spot upon which the warm light fell in a golden flood. + +Between the Destroying Angel and his gasping prey, stepped two, +anointed with the chrism of the Priesthood of Cure; and undismayed by +the strident, sibilant, fitful breath that distorted the blue lips of +the victim, they parried the sweep of the scythe of death, with the +tiny, glittering steel blade surgery cunningly fashions; and through +its silver canula, tracheotomy recalled the vanishing spirit, +triumphantly renewed the lease of life. + +At sunset on the same day, Beryl followed the warden to the door of the +large hospital. + +"Of all pitiful sights here, this has harrowed me the most. The doctors +did all they could, and the chaplain worked hard to save her soul, but +she was like flint, till just before the end, when she raised up, and +heard her child crying down in the work-room, where it had been put to +sleep. We could scarcely hold her; she fought like a panther to get out +of bed, till the blood gushed from her nose, and though she could not +speak plainly, she pointed, and we made out: 'Baby--Dovie'. The doctor +would not consent that we should expose the child to the risk, but I +could not hold out against that poor creature's pleading wild eyes, so +I just brought the little one. What a strangling cry she gave, when I +put it in her arms, and how the tears poured! She was almost gone, and +we saw that she wanted to tell us something about the child, but we +could not understand. The doctor put a pencil in her hand, and held a +sheet of paper before her, and she tried to scrawl her wishes, but all +we can read is: 'Her father won't ever own her. Baptize--her Dovie--Eve +Werneth's baby. Don't ever tell her she was born in jail. Raise her a +good--good--.' She had a sort of spasm then, and squeezed the child so +tight, it screamed. In five minutes, she was dead. Only nineteen years +old, and the little one just two years; and not yet weaned! I don't +know what to do; so I brought you. If I touch the child, it seems +frightened almost to death, but maybe you can coax it away. Poor little +thing! What a mercy if it could die!" + +"Will you let me have the care of it? Take it, and keep it up in my +cell?" + +"I shall be only too thankful, if you will lift the load from my +shoulders." + +"Tell the steward to bring me a cup of warm, sweetened milk and a +cracker. The poor little lamb must be almost famished." + +Through an open window streamed the radiance of a daffodil sky, flecked +with curling plumes of drifting fire, and the glory fell like a +benediction on the iron cot, where lay the body of the early dead; a +small, slight, blond girl wearing prematurely the crown of maternity, +whose thorns had torn and stained the smooth brow of mere childhood. +The half-opened eyes, fixed in their filmy blue glaze, seemed a prayer +for the pretty infant, whose head, a glistening tangle of yellow curls, +was nestled down against the bare white throat of the rigid mother; +while the dimpled hands pulled fretfully at the blood-spattered gown, +that was buttoned across the breast. + +As clusters of wild snowy violets springing up in the midst of mud and +mire, in a noxious swamp, look doubly pure and sweet because of fetid +surroundings,--so this blossom of the slums, this human bud, with +petals of innocence folded close in the calyx of babyhood, seemed +supremely and pathetically fair, as she stood leaning against the cot, +the little rosy feet on tip-toe, pressing toward her mother; tears on +the pink velvet of the round cheeks, on the golden lashes beneath the +big blue eyes that grew purplish behind the mist. + +The Macedonia of suffering humanity lies always within a stone's throw; +and the "cry for help" had found speedy response in more than one +benevolent heart. + +A gray-haired widow from the "Sheltering Arms," to which Sister Serena +belonged, and a Sister of Charity from the hospital in X---, were +already ministering tenderly in the crowded ward; and both had essayed +to coax away the little figure clutching her mother's gown; but the +flaring white cap of one, and the flapping black drapery of the other, +frightened the trembling child. + +Into the group stole Beryl; followed closely by the yellow cat, which +had become her shadow. Kneeling beside the baby, she kissed it softly, +took one of the hands, patted her own cheek with it, and lifted the cat +to the mattress, where it began to purr. The silky shock of yellow +curls was lifted, the wide eyes stared wonderingly first at Beryl's +face bending near, then at the cat; and by degrees, the lovely waif +suffered an arm to draw her farther and farther, while her rose-red +mouth parted in a smile, that showed six little teeth, and with one +hand fastened in the cat's fur, she was finally lifted and borne away; +Beryl's soft cheek nestled against hers, the bronzed head bent down to +the yellow ringlets; one arm holding the baby and the cat, while the +other white hand closed warmly over the child's bare, cold, dimpled +feet. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + +Fair and flowery as in the idyllic dawn when Theocritus sang its +pafatoral charms, was that sunny Sicilian land where, one May morning, +Leo Gordon wandered with a gay party in quest of historic sites, which +the slow silting of the stream of time had not obliterated. Viewed from +the heights of Achradina, whence all the vestiges of magnificence and +luxury have vanished, and only the hideous monument of "man's +inhumanity to man" remains, what a vast panorama stretched far as the +horizon on every side. + +To the north, girding the fire-furrowed plain of Catania where olive, +lemon, oleander and orange springing out of black lava, mingled hues +like paints on an ebony palette--rose vast, lonely, purple at base, +snowy at summit, brooding Etna; dozing in the soft, sweet springtime, +with red, wrathful eyes veiled by a silvery haze. An unlimited expanse +of crinkling blue sea, shot like Persian silk with gleams of gold, and +laced here and there with foam scallops, bounded the east; smiling +treacherously above the ghastly wreck sepultured in its coral crypts, +that might have told of the crash of triremes, the flames of sinking +galleys, which twenty-two centuries ago lit the bloody waves that +closed over slaughtered hosts. + +Westward lay green, wimpling vales, studded with laurel, arched with +vine-draped pergolas, dotted widi flocks, dimpled with reedy marshes +where red oxen browsed; and beyond the pale pink flush of almond +groves-- + +"A smoke of blue olives, a vision of towers." + +Bucolic paradise of Battus and Bombyce, of Corydon and Daphnis, may it +please the hierophants of Sanskrit lore, of derivative Aryan philology, +of iconoclastic euhemerism, to spare us yet awhile the lovely myths +that dance across the asphodel meads of sunny Sicily. + +On the verge of the parapet of the Latomia, where the breath of the +sirocco, the gnawing tooth of time, and the slow ravelling of rain had +serrated the ledge, stood Leo, gazing into the dizzying depths of the +charnel house that swarmed with the ghosts of nine thousand men, who +once were huddled within its stony embrace. + +As if pitying nature had striven to appease the manes of the unburied +dead, a pall of luxuriant ivy and glossy acanthus covered the bottom +and sides of the quarry, one hundred feet below; but out of the dust of +centuries stared the rayless eyes of corpses, and the gaunt despairing +faces seemed still uplifted, now in invocation, anon in imprecation to +the overarching sky, where blistering suns mocked them by day, and +glittering moons and silver stars paused in their westward march +through dewy night, to tell them tantalizing tales of how musically +Aegean wavelets broke against the marbles at Piraeus; how loud the +nightingales sang in the plane and poplar groves at home; how the white +glory of the Parthenon smiled down on violet-crowned Athens, where +their wives and children thronged the temples, in sacrificial rites to +insure their safety. + +In crevices of the perpendicular walls lush creepers tapestried the +gray stone, and far down, out of the mould of the subterranean dungeon, +sprang slim lemon trees snowed over with fragrant bloom, clumps of +oleander waving banners of vivid rose, and golden-green pomegranate +bushes, where scarlet flakes glowed like the wings of tropical birds. + +"Well, is the game worth the candle? After voyaging thousands of miles, +do you feel repaid; or down there, in the heart of the desolation, do +you see only the grinning mask of jeering disappointment, which +generally follows American realists into the dusty haunts of Old World +idealism?" + +As she spoke, Alma Cutting stepped back under the cool canopy of a +spreading fig-tree, and fanned herself with a tuft of papyrus leaves. +She was a tall, handsome woman, pronouncedly brunette in type, with +large black eyes whose customary indolent indifference of expression +did not entirely veil the fires "banked" under the velvet iris; and a +square, firm mouth, around whose full crimson lips lurked a certain +haughtiness, that despite the curb of good breeding, bordered at times +closely upon insolence. Thirty years had tripped over this dark head, +where the hair, innocent of crimp or curl, hung in a straight jet +fringe low on her wide forehead; and though no lines marred the smooth, +health-tinted skin, she was perceptibly "sun burnt by the glare of +life," and the dew of youth had vanished before the vampire lips of +ennui. + +"Disappointed? Certainly not; and I were exacting and unreasonable +indeed, if I did not feel abundantly repaid. Alma, since the days when +I pored over Thucydides, Plutarch, Rollin and Grote, this spot has +beckoned to my imagination with all the uplifted hands of the nine +thousand captives; and the longing of years is to-day completely +gratified." + +"Am I unusually stupid, or are you rapt, beyond the realm of reason and +mid-day common sense? Pray what is the fascination? It is neither so +vast, nor so picturesque as the Colosseum. There, one expects to hear +the roar of the beasts springing on their human prey; the ring of steel +on steel, when the gladiators have bowed like dancing-masters to the +bloated old bald-headed Neros and Vespasians; and you fancy that you +smell the fountains of perfume that toss their spray from tier to tier; +and see the rainbow of the silk awning flapping overhead. Better than +all, you imagine you can watch the ravishing toilettes of the +Faustinas, and Fulvias and Messalinas who flirt with the handsome, +straight-nosed beaux so immensely classical in their togas; and when +their thunder-browed husbands unexpectedly step in behind, it is so +easy to conjecture the sudden change of theme, as they spread their +fans to cover the message just written on their ivory tablets, and +straightway fall to clawing the characters of all the Cornelias, and +Calpurnias, and Octavias and Julia Domnas, and other respectable wives! +All that I quite enjoyed because I understood. Eight years' campaigning +in New York, and London and Paris would teach even an idiot that +nineteenth century 'best society' can lift you so close to the +naughtiness of the golden Roman era, that one only has to strain a very +little on tip-toe, to feel at one's ease with the jeunesse doree of +dead ages. Here--what do you find in a huge stone well sunk into the +bowels of the earth? About as enticing as a plunge into a dry cistern, +suddenly unroofed? If spectres we must hunt, do let them be festive, +like those Faust danced with on the Brocken!" + +"You should be ashamed, Alma! Miss Gordon is the very soul of courteous +toleration, or she would resent the teasing goad of your Philistinism," +cried the brother, Rivers Cutting, who in his new style yachting suit +of blue cloth appeared veritably the jaunty genius of fashionable +modernity, confronting the ghost of antiquity. + +"You forget, Rivers, some of the sage dicta you brought back from the +'Summer School of Philosophy', when you followed your last Boston flame +to Concord, where she went poaching on the sacred preserves of the +'Illuminati,' hunting a new sensation. 'We must be as courteous to +human beings as we are to a picture, which we are willing to give the +advantage of a good light.' Now being Leo's very sincere friend, and +knowing that the supreme moment of her facial triumph is when, like a +startled fawn, she opens her eyes wide in horrified amazement at some +inconceivable heresy, do you suppose I am so recreant to loyalty as to +fail in providing her occasionally with the necessary Gorgon, ethical +or archaeolegical, as surroundings warrant? + +"History was never the fetich of my girlhood, and that quartette of +dry-as-dust worthies whom Leo carries around in leash, as other women +carry pugs and poodles, came near giving me meningitis in my tender +years. My first governess, a Puritan spinster, full of zeal, and +conscientiously bent on earning her wages, by exercising my brains to +their utmost capacity, undertook to introduce me to all the highly +immoral personages and practices that made the Punic Wars famous. By +way of making Imilco a lifelong acquaintance, she illustrated the siege +of Agrigentum by a huge, hideous image of Phalaris' 'Brazen Bull,' +drawn with chalk on the school-room blackboard. + +"A wonderful beast it certainly was; that taurus with head lowered, +tail lashing the air, one hoof pawing savagely, worthy representative +of all the horrors it typified, and which she explained with maddening +perspicuity. That night, when papa tore himself away from the club room +at one o'clock, and met mamma on the doorstep--just coming home from a +supper at Delmonico's after an opera party--they were ascending the +stairs, when frantic cries drove from her ears the echoes of +'Traviata's' witching strain. Thinking only a conflagration would +justify the din, papa threw up the hall sash and shouted 'fire!' and +the police sounded the alarm, and all pandemonium broke loose. +Investigation discovered me, wriggled half way down to the foot of my +bed, buried under the blankets, and shrieking 'Perillus' Bull! I am +roasting in the Brass Bull!' Being not very ardent disciples of Clio, +my solicitous parents failed to understand the nightmare; hence cracked +ice was folded over my head (mid-winter), and the family physician +ordered a mustard plaster half a yard long, down my spine. I vividly +remember Imilco, and the bovine fury pawing the blackboard; but of the +three Punic Wars, then and there tabooed, I recall only the brass +monster at Agrigentum. Leo, when we reach Girgenti, the remaining Mecca +of your historic hopes, some time to-morrow, you will understand why, +instead of climbing to the temples of the cliff, I shall lock the door +of our cabin, and drown the bellowing of the beast in Daudet's new +book." + +"I wish, indeed I do, that you had staid there to-day, instead of +coming ashore to dampen all our ardor and enthusiasm by your constant +thin drizzle of scorn. One should suppose that in this idyllic region, +some ray of poetic warmth must melt your frigid, scoffing soul. Daudet +suits my sister far better than Theocritus," answered her brother, +fastening a sprig of orange blossom in his button hole. + +Pushing back her sailor hat, Alma looked obliquely at him from beneath +her drooping lids. + +"Try me. Perhaps infection haunts the air. Spare us the Greek, come +down from your Yale and Harvard heights to the level of my ignorance, +and warble for me in English some of your Sicilian lark's melodies. At +least I have heard of Amaryllis and Simaetha." + +Mr. Cutting shook his head. + +"What--? Ashamed of your bucolic hobby! No wonder--since after all it's +only a goat. I dare you, brother mine, to produce me a Theocritan +fragment." + +"Take the consequences of your rash levity; though I have a dawning +suspicion some 'Imp of the Perverse' has coached you for the occasion." + +He stroked his mustache, pondered a moment, then struck an attitude, +and declaimed: + +"I go a serenading to Amaryllis; what time my flocks browse on the +mountains, and Tityrus drives them. Tityrus beloved of me in the +highest degree, feed my flocks and lead them to the fountain, etc." + +Mimicking his tone exactly, Alma finished the line: + +"And mind, Tityrus, that tawny Libyan he-goat lest he butt thee!' Come, +Rivers; free translation is allowable, considering surroundings, but +not garbling; and every time you know you substituted flocks for goats. +Proceed, and do not insult your pet author with emendations." + +With his hat on the back of his head, and his thumbs in the armholes of +his vest, Mr. Cutting resumed: + + "Sweet Amaryllis! though by death defiled, + Thee shall I ne'er forget; dear to my heart + As are my frisking goats, thou did'st depart. + To what a lot--was I, unhappy, born!" + +Again the mocking voice responded: + + "But see! yon calves devour + The olive branches. Pelt them off I pray. + +"Confound the calves! 'St--! you white-skin thief--away!' Thanks, no +more at present. Doubtless it sounds very fine in Greek, because then, +I could not possibly understand that it is the melody and the rhythmic +dance of bleating calves, and capering goats. Here come the stragglers +laden with plunder. Oh, papa! Do give me those exquisite acacia +clusters." + +"My dear, I have ordered luncheon spread down there, in that strange +garden. It is the queerest place imaginable; and looking up, the effect +is quite indescribable." + +"Have you had the skulls polished for drinking cups, and printed the +menus on cross-bones? What shocking taste to add insult to injury by +spreading all our wealth of canned dainties on the very stones where +sit the ghosts of those who perished from hunger and thirst! Eminently +Dantesque, but the sacrilege appalls Leo. She would sooner attend an +oyster supper, or a clam-bake in the Catacombs, or--" bowing to a young +Englishman standing near, "lead a German in the Poets' corner of +Westminster Abbey. My dear girl, under which flag do you fight? +Athenian, Roman, Carthagenian, Syracusan? + +"The child of a man who fell in defence of his own fireside, could +scarcely fail to sympathize with the holy cause of the invaded; yet +here, in view of the horrors inflicted upon the captives, one almost +leans to Athens. It seems to me the most enduring monument of Syracusan +glory survives in the eloquent protest of Nicolaus against her cruelty; +especially when we recollect that it came from one who, of all others, +had most to forgive. Old, decrepit, unable to walk, the venerable +sorrow-laden man whose only children, two sons, had died fighting to +save Syracuse--was carried on a litter into the midst of the shouting +thousands, who were drunk with the wine of victory. 'Behold an unhappy +father, who has most cause to detest the Athenians, the authors of this +war, the murderers of my children! But I am less sensible of my private +afflictions than of the honor of my country, when I see it ready to +expose itself to eternal infamy by violating the law of nations, and +dishonoring our victory by barbarous cruelty. What! Will you tarnish +your glory, and have all the world say that a nation who first +dedicated a temple in their city, to Clemency, found none in yours? +Triumphs and victories do not give immortal glory to a city; but the +use of moderation in the greatest prosperity, the exercise of mercy +toward a vanquished enemy, the fear of offending the gods by a haughty +and insolent pride.' What a theme for Dore or Munkacsy?" + +"Thank you ever so much, Miss Gordon, for brushing away the library +dust from that historic cameo. I had so utterly forgotten it lay in the +musty tomes, that it has all the charm of a curio." Mr. Cutting took +off his hat, and bowed. + +"Acknowledgments are due rather to my cousin, Dr. Douglass, who called +my attention to the passage. The best of all things good abide with +him; and out of his overflowing store, he shares with the needy. Only +last night he reminded me of an illustration of the vanitas vanitatum +of human fame and national gratitude, to be found over yonder in the +necropolis. Less than a hundred and forty years after his death, +Archimedes was so completely forgotten by the city he had immortalized, +that Syracuse denied he was buried on her soil; and a foreigner had the +honor of clearing away rubbish and brambles, in order to show the grave +to his own countrymen." + +Leighton Douglass handed to his cousin a bunch of the delicate lilac +blossoms of acanthus, tied with a wisp of some ribbon-like grass, and +taking off his spectacles, replied: + +"Leo unduly exalts my memory at the expense of her own; and we have all +levied heavily on her fund of topographical accuracy." + +"If I travel much longer with two such learned and philosophical +scholars, I shall inevitably degenerate into an intellectual Dodder," +yawned Alma. + +"Into a what?" asked her father. + +"A Dodder, sir. Pray, papa, be more considerate than to force Doctor +Douglass to believe that instead of listening to the sermon he preached +us last year, you either slept ignominiously throughout its delivery, +or else allowed your unregenerate thoughts to dwell on those devices of +Lucifer, 'puts,' 'calls, 'spreads,' 'corners, 'spots' and 'futures'. Of +course you remember that he believes in evolution? There was a time, +even in my extremely recent day, when that word was more frightful to +the orthodox than a ton of nitro-glycerine; was to the elect, a fouler +abomination even than opera bouffe and the can can. But 'the thoughts +of men are widened with the process of the suns', and now it appears +that the immortal soul of us must be evolved, somewhat in the same +fashion as protoplasm, and unless we fight for 'survival' elsewhere, we +shall not be numbered among the spirited 'fittest', but degenerate into +parasites, dodders, backsliders. So, drawing nutriment from the +Doctor's historic brains, and from Leo's, I fall back into worse than a +dodder, a torpid violator of the Law of Work, a hopeless Sacculina! +Doctor Douglass, it was the bravest hour of your life when you stood up +in--church pulpit, and told us the scientists whom we were wont to +regard as more dreadful than the cannibals and Calmucks, are only a +devoted sect of truth seekers, preaching from older texts, and drawing +nearer and nearer to the kingdom of Heaven. To throw that ethical bomb, +required more courage than Balaklava." + +"Mine was merely a feeble attempt to follow out the analogical +reasoning of one of the most original and scientific thinkers of our +day in Great Britain; but the fact that you recall so correctly the +line of argument in a sermon delivered more than a year ago, is +certainly complimentary assurance of at least approximate success in my +effort." + +"After all, I am sorry I humored Leo's whim, and persuaded papa to +bring us here." + +"Why, my dear? We are enjoying it immensely," said her father. + +"Because Syracuse has proved my 'crumpled rose leaf', by destroying the +prestige of the 'Cleopatra'. Hitherto, I deemed our yacht quite the +most complete and gorgeous floating palace since the days of its highly +improper namesake's marauding sails on the Cydnus." + +"And so she is; there is nothing afloat comparable to her in speed, +appointments, comfort and beauty," interrupted Mr. Cutting. + +"Poor papa! How he bristles at the bare suggestion of rivalry. Be +comforted, sir, in the knowledge that at least we shall not be run down +by a phantom cruiser. It is very humiliating to American pride--after +winning the international prizes, and boasting so inordinately, to find +out that we are only about--how many centuries, Leo?--twenty-five +centuries behind Syracuse in building pleasure crafts. Think of a +superb cabin with staterooms containing beds (not bunks) for one +hundred and twenty guests, and the floors all covered with agates and +other precious stones, that formed a mosaic copy of the Iliad! If you +wished to emphasize a discussion on connubial devotion, behold! there +on your right, Andromache and Hector; if one's husband objected to a +harmless flirtation, lo! on the left, Agamemnon and Briseis; and to +point the moral of 'pretty is, as pretty does'--how very convenient to +indicate with the tip of your satin slipper, the demure figure of Helen +standing on the walls, to watch the duel between Menelaus and Paris! +Fancy the consolation a person of my indolent Sacculina temperament +might have derived from the untimely fate of Cassandra, oppressed with +knowledge in advance of her day and generation! There was the gymnasium +for the beaux; and for the belles bona fide gardens, with walks and +arbors covered with ivy and flowering vines whose roots rested in great +stone vessels filled with earth. Imagine the boudoir and bathrooms +paved with precious stones, encrusted with carved ivory and statues--" + +"Pooh! Alma. That rigmarole is not in the guide books. Come, Dixon is +waving his handkerchief down there, as a signal that luncheon is ready." + +"I prefer to wait here. Alma, bring me some anemones, and a sprig of +ivy from the circular garden, when you come back," said Leo. + +Doctor Douglass drew closer, and asked: + +"Will you let me stay also, and enjoy with you the wonderful charm of +this opalescent air, this beautiful cincturing sea?" + +"I would rather be alone. Solitude is a luxury rarely allowed on a +yacht cruise; and I want a few quiet moments. By day, poor Aunt Patty +has so much to tell me; at night, Alma is a chattering owl." + +There are hours when the ghost of a happy past, from which we have +persistently fled, constrains us to give audience; and Leo surrendered +herself to memories that brought a very mournful shadow into her brave +brown eyes. Thirteen months had passed since her departure from X---and +despite changing scenes and novel incidents, she could not escape the +haunting face that met her on mountains, was mirrored in every sea; the +brilliant mesmeric face set in its frame of crisp black locks, with +dark blue eyes whose intense lustre had the cold, hard gleam of jewels. +Sleeping or waking, always that dear, powerful face daring her to +forget. + +When Doctor Douglass and Miss Patty joined the yacht party at Palermo, +the former had brought a letter and a package, which sorely tested +Leo's strength of will. Leaning to-day against the twisted body of an +old olive tree, she opened and read once more, the final message. + + +"When Leighton places this sheet in your hands, the year of release +which I could not refuse you, will have expired. Once your noble heart +was wholly mine; and the proudest moment of my life was, and will be, +that in which you promised to be my wife. All that you ever were, you +shall always remain to me; and if you can confide your happiness to my +keeping, I will never betray the sacred trust. Life has grown sombre to +me, during the past eighteen months; and the only companionship that I +can hope to cheer it, you alone can bring me. I have not willingly or +intentionally forfeited your confidence; but that I have suffered, I +shall not deny. If you love me, as in days gone by, our future rests +once more in your hands; and you must renew the pledges that at your +request I surrendered. In behalf of our past, I beg that you will +retain the ring, hallowed forever by the touch of your hand; and its +acceptance will typify, if not a renewal of our engagement, at least +the perpetuity of a sacred friendship. Awaiting your final decision, I +am, my dear Leo, + +"Yours as of yore, LENNOX." + + +All that she had ever been; no more. The graceful, well-bred heiress +whom he admired, who commanded his profoundest respect, whom he had +known from his boyhood, and who of all others he had desired should +preside over his home and wear his name; but not the woman who reigned +in his heart; whose touch had lighted the glowing tenderness that so +transfigured his countenance, as she saw it that day, bending over a +sick convict in a penitentiary. + +He offered her formal allegiance, and that pale phantom of affection +grounded in reverence, which is to the ardent love that a true woman +demands in exchange for her own, as-- + +"Moonlight unto sunlight; and as water unto wine." + +She knew that he was no willing victim of a fascination, which had +audaciously deranged his carefully mapped campaign of life; that he +would have set his heel on his own insurgent heart, had it been +possible; and she honored him for the stern integrity that forbade his +affectation of a warmth of feeling which she was now conscious she had +never evoked. + +Accepting the theory that the young convict was sustained and animated +by her devotion to a guilty lover, Leo fully understood that Lennox, +even were he mad enough to sacrifice his pride, could indulge no +expectation of ever winning the love of the prisoner; and despite her +efforts to regard their rupture as final, she had faintly hoped that he +would cross the ocean, and in person urge a renewal of the betrothal. +The test of absence had proved as effectual as she intended it should +be, and his letter proclaimed the humiliating fact, that while honor +inspired him to hold out his wrists for conjugal manacles, honor +equally constrained him to spare her the wrong and insult of insincere +professions of tenderness. + +Had she found it possible to condemn him as unworthy, it would have +diminished the pain of surrendering the brightest hope of her life; for +contempt is the balm a lofty soul offers a bruised heart, but she was +just, even in her anguish; and that when barbed the arrow, was the +mortifying consciousness that compassion for her was the strongest +motive which dictated the carefully phrased letter. She was far too +proud to parley with the temptation to accept the shadow in lieu of the +substance; and twenty-four hours after the arrival of the final appeal, +her answer was speeding with wings of steam across the ocean. + + +"DEAR LENNOX: + +"My heart overflows with gratitude for all the affectionate interest, +the kind solicitude, the innumerable thoughtful attentions you have so +indefatigably shown to Aunt Patty, in the sad complication of +misfortunes that so suddenly overwhelmed her; and I feel the inadequacy +of any attempt to express my thanks. Your letter can only rivet more +indissolubly the links of an affectionate friendship that must always +bind you and me; but the future can hold no renewal of pledges which I +feel assured would conduce neither to your happiness, nor to mine. Let +us embalm the past and bury it tenderly; raising no mound to trip our +friendly feet in years to come. The serenity of our future might be +marred by retrospective gleams of the beautiful ring that once enclosed +two lives; hence, I have ordered the diamonds reset in the form of a +four-leaved clover, which will be sent to dear Kittie as an auspicious +omen. + +"With undiminished esteem, and unshaken confidence, and with a prayer +for your happiness, which will always be dear to me, I remain, + +"Your sincerely attached friend, + +"LEO." + + +The majority of men, and a large class of women, bury their dead, and +straightway begin assiduously the cultivation of all that promises +oblivion; but Leo's nature was deeper, more intense; and while she made +no audible moan, and shed no tears, she accepted the fact that earthly +existence had lost its coveted crown, and that her aching heart was the +dark grave of a beautiful hope that could know no resurrection. To-day +she asked herself: "What shall I do with my life?" + +Upon the warm air, sweet with the breath of lemon flowers, floated the +peculiar, jeering, yet subdued and musical laughter, which told that +Alma had flown straight at some luckless quarry. She held in one hand a +cluster of crimson anemones, and purple stars of periwinkle, and +walking between two English gentlemen, whose yacht, the "Albatross", +lay anchored close to the "Cleopatra" in the harbor below, slowly +approached Leo, saying: + +"Don't stone your prophets. Especially one hedged about with the triple +sanctity of Brasenose! 'Consider that thy marbles are but the earth's +callosities, thy gold and silver its faeces; thy silken robe but a +worm's bedding; and thy purple an unclean fish.' That is one +sugar-coated pill that I administer to my humility now and then to keep +it healthy. Hear him again;--'sitting on the marble bench of one of the +exhedrea on the edge of the Appian Way, close to the fragrant borders +of a rose farm': 'So it is, with the philosophers; all alike are in +search of happiness, what kind of thing it is. It is pleasure, it is +virtue; what not? All philosophers, so to speak, are but fighting about +the ass' shadow. I saw one who poured water into a mortar, and ground +it with all his might with a pestle of iron, fancying he did a thing +useful; but it remained water only, none the less.' Stoicism, hedonism, +the gospel of 'Sweetness and Light'; what is it, may I ask, that your +aesthetic priests furnish, to feed immortal British souls? Knee +breeches, sun flowers, niello, cretonne, Nanking bowls, lily dados? To +us it savors sorrowfully of that which one of your prophets +foreshadowed, 'Despair, baying as the poet heard her, in the ruins of +old Rome'." + +"Beg pardon, Miss Cutting; but you quite surprise me. The tone of many +American papers and magazines led us to suppose, really, that the rosy +dawn of Culture was beginning to flush the night of Philistinism +brooding over your Western world." + +"Believe it not. Primeval gloom, raw realism so weigh upon our +apathetic souls, that we rub our eyes and stare at sight of your +aesthetic catechism: 'Harmony, but no system; instinct, but no logic; +eternal growth and no maturity; everlasting movement, and nothing +attained; infinite possibilities of everything; the becoming all +things, the being nothing.' We have too much Philistine honesty to +pretend that we understand that, but like other ambitious parrots we +can commit to memory. One of your seers tells us that: 'Renaissance art +will make our lives like what seems one of the loveliest things in +nature, the iridescent film on the face of stagnant water!' Now it will +require at least a decade, to train us to appreciate the subtile +symphonies of ditch slime. An English friend compassionating my +American stupidity, essayed to initiate me in the cult of 'culture', +and gave me a leaf to study, from the latter-day gospel. I learned it +after a time, as I did the multiplication table. 'Culture steps in, and +points out the grossness of untempered belief. It tells us the beauty +of picturesque untruth; the grotesqueness of unmannerly conviction; +truth and error have kissed each other in a sweet, serener sphere; this +becomes that, and that is something else. The harmonious, the suave, +the well bred waft the bright particular being into a peculiar and +reserved parterre of paradise, where bloom at once the graces of +Panthism, the simplicity of Deism, and the pathos of Catholicism; where +he can sip elegances and spiritualities from flowerets of every faith!' +Fancy my crass ignorance, when I assure you that I actually laughed +over that verbal syllabub, thinking it intended as a famous bit of +satire." + +"Then it is pathetically true that reverence for the Renaissance has +not crossed the Atlantic?" asked one of the "Albatross" party, who with +his sketch book half open, was surreptitiously making an +"impressionist" view of Leo's profile, as she stood listening to Alma's +persiflage, and mechanically arranging her lilac acanthus blossoms. + +"Devoted British colporteurs have philanthropically scattered a few art +primers and tracts, and there is a possibility that in the near future, +our people may search the maps for Orvieto, and the dictionaries for +Campo Santo, to compass the mysteries of the 'Triumph of Death', and of +'Symmetria Prisca'. Some of us have even heard of 'Aucassin et +Nicolette', and of 'Nencia da Barberino', picking salad in her garden; +and I am almost sure a Vassar girl once spoke to me of Delia Quercia's +Ilaria; but with all my national pride, candor compels me to admit +that it is a 'far cry' to the day when we can devoutly fall on our +knees before the bronze Devil of Giovanni da Bologna. Aesthetic +paupers, we sit on the lowest bench at the foot of the class, in your +Dame's Art School, to learn the alphabet of the wonderful Renaissance; +and in our chastened and reverent mood, it almost takes our breath away +when your high-priestess unrolls the last pronunciamento, and tells us +her startling story of 'Euphorion!' Why? Ah!--don't you know? The +Puritan leaven of prudery, and the stern, stolid, phlegmatic decorum of +Knickerbockerdom mingle in that consummate flower of the nineteenth +century occident, the 'American Girl', who pales and flushes at sight +of the carnival of the undraped--in English art and literature. Here, +Leo, take your anemones; red, are they not, as the blood once chilled +down yonder, in that huge stone kennel? Dr. Douglass has the ivy root; +and he and I have concluded, that after all, Syracuse was not more +cruel here in the Latomia, than some States in America, where convicts +are leased to mining companies, and kept quarrying coal, without even +the sweet consolation of staring up at this magical blue sky. We leave +hideous moral and physical leprosy at home, and come here to shed +dilettante tears over classic tatters twenty-five centuries old! O +immortal and ubiquitous Tartufe!" + +As Leo walked with her cousin toward the spot, where the "Cleopatra" +rose and fell on the crest of waves racing before Libeccio, she +suddenly laid her hand on his arm. + +"Leighton, I have decided to leave the yacht at Venice and take Aunt +Patty to Udine for rest and quiet. When summer is over, I shall be +ready to make arrangements for the journey to Syria and Egypt, and you +must complete your church mission to England in time to accompany us to +Jerusalem." + +"Is this your itinerary, or Aunt Patty's?" + +"She has set her heart upon it; and it will be agreeable to me." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + +Is it true that in abstract valuation, "the bird in hand, is worth two +in the bush?" + +We stand beneath a loaded apricot tree, and would give all the bushel +within reach, for one crimson satin globe pendent on the extreme tip of +the most inaccessible bough; and the largest, luscious, richest colored +orange always glows defiantly, high up, close to the body of the tree, +hedged away from our eager grasp by its impenetrable chevaux de frise +of bristling thorns. The wonderful water lily we covet is smiling on +its green cushion of leaves just beyond the danger line, where death +lurks; the rhododendron flame that burned brightest amid surrounding +floral fires, and lured us, springs from the crevice of some beetling +precipice, waving a challenge over fatal chasms that bar possession; +and with fretful dissatisfaction we repine, because the colors of the +feathered captives in our gilt cages are so dull, so faded in +comparison with their brothers, flashing wings of scarlet, and breasts +of vivid blue high in the sunlight of God's free air. + +The gold and silver dust that powder velvet butterflies, tarnish at a +touch, stain the fingers that clutch them; and the dewy bloom on purple +and amber grape clusters, never survives the handling of the vintager. + +Leaning back in the revolving chair in front of his office desk, Mr. +Dunbar slowly tore into strips a number of notes and letters, and +suffered the fragments to fall into a waste basket somewhat faded, yet +much too elegant to harmonize with its surroundings. + +When Leo quilted the lining of ruby silk and knotted the ribbons that +tied it to the wicker lace work, love pelted her cheek with roses, and +happy hope sang so loud in her ear, that she could not have divined the +cruel fact that she was preparing the dainty coffin, destined to +receive the mutilated remains of a betrothal, that typified supreme +earthly happiness to her. One by one dropped the shreds of Leo's last +message from Palermo, like torn crumpled petals of a once beloved and +sacred flower; and the faint, delicate perfume that clung to the +fragments, was one which Mr. Dunbar recognized as characteristic of the +library at the "Lilacs". The contents of the farewell note had in no +degree surprised him; for though fully persuaded that her heart was +irrevocably pledged to the past, he was equally sure that only the +ardor he scorned to feign, would avail to melt the wall of ice her +outraged pride had built between them. There were times when he +deplored bitterly the loss of her companionship; at others he exulted +in the consciousness of perfect freedom to indulge an overmastering +love, amenable to no chastisement by violated loyalty. He had +scrupulously endeavored, by careful employment of forms of deference, +to spare his betrothed as far as possible, the stinging humiliation and +anguish which every woman suffers, when the man whom she loves shows +her that she fills only a subordinate and insignificant place in his +affection; and yet, while her nobler nature commanded his homage, and +the brilliancy of the alliance seems to jeer at his blind fatuity, his +heart throbbed and yearned with an intolerable longing for one upon +whom the world had set the seal of an ineradicable disgrace. + +Nature and education had made him a coldly calculating man, jealous of +his honor, but immersed in schemes for his own aggrandizement, and +superbly invulnerable to the blandishments of sentimentality; hence his +amazement, when the deep and engrossing love of his life burned away +that selfishness which was citadel of his affections. Because his +infatuation had cost him so much, that was alluring alike to vanity, +pride, and ambition, a fierce hunger for revenge possessed him; and +herein differs the nature of the love of men and women; the one can +sacrifice itself for the happiness of the beloved; the other will +crucify its darling to appease jealous pangs in view of happiness it +can neither inspire nor share. + +"Good morning, Churchill. Come in. Glad to see you. Sit down." + +"When did you get back, Lennox?" + +"Last night." + +"Well, what luck?" + +"A rather leaky promise. Kneading slag or cold pig iron into Bessemer +steel would be about as easy as pounding the law of evidence into the +Governor's brains. I emphasized the moral weight of the petition, by +calling his attention to the signatures of the judge, jury, prosecuting +counsel and especially of Prince, who presumably has most to forgive. +The memorial of the inspectors, warden and physician was appended, and +constituted a eulogy upon the behavior and character of the prisoner; +especially the heroic service rendered by her during the recent fatal +epidemic. Human nature is an infernally vexing bundle of paradoxes, and +when a man throws his conscience in your teeth, what then? The argument +from which I hoped most, proved a Greek horse, and well-nigh wrought +ruin. When I dwelt upon the fact that the prisoner had voluntarily +conveyed to Prince all right and title to the fortune, which was +supposed to have tempted her to commit the crime, he bristled like a +Skye terrier, and grandiloquently assured me he valued his 'prerogative +as something too sacred to be prostituted to nepotism!' Prince being +his cousin, a readiness to exercise Executive clemency by pardoning the +prisoner, might be construed into a species of bargain and sale; and +his Excellency could not condone a crime merely because the culprit had +relinquished a fortune to his relative. Braying an ordinary fool in a +mortar is an unpromising job; but an extraordinary official +leatherhead, PLUS thin-skinned conscience, and religious scruples, +requires the upper and nether mill stone. You know, Churchill, it is +tough work to straighten a crooked ramrod." + +"I see; a case of moral curvature of the spine. When he was inaugurated +last December, I chanced to be at the Capital, and heard two old +codgers from the piney woods felicitating the State upon having a +Governor, 'Fit to tie to; honest as the day is long, and walks so +straight, he is powerful swaybacked.' Dunbar, did he refuse outright?" + +"He holds the matter in abeyance for maturer deliberation; but promises +that, unless he sees cogent reasons to the contrary, he may grant a +pardon when eighteen months of the sentence have expired. That will be +the last week in August, and almost two years since she was thrown into +prison. I should have made application to his predecessor, Glenbeigh, +had I not been so confident of overtaking the man who killed Gen'l +Darrington; but the clue that promised so much merely led me astray. I +went with the detective down into the mines, and found the man, who +certainly had a hideous facial deformity, but he was gray as a badger, +and moreover proved an ALIBI, having been sick with small-pox in the +county pest-house on the night of the murder. It is a tedious hunt, but +I will not be balked of my game. I will collar that wretch some day, +and meantime I will get the pardon." + +"I hope so; for I shall never feel easy until that poor girl is set +free. The more I hear of her deportment and character, especially of +the religious influence she seems to be exerting through some Bible +readings she holds among the female convicts, the more painfully am I +oppressed with the conviction that we all committed a sad blunder, and +narrowly escaped hanging an innocent woman." + +"Speak for yourself. I disclaim complicity in the disgraceful wrong of +the conviction." + +"Well, I confess I would rather stand in your place than mine; +especially since my wife's brother Garland was called in as consulting +physician, last month at the penitentiary. He has so stirred her +sympathies for the woman whom he pronounces a paragon of all the +virtues and graces, that I begin to fidget now at the sound of the +prisoner's name, and can hardly look my wife straight in the face. When +I go up to court next week, I will call on the Governor, and add a +personal appeal to the one I have already signed. According to the +evidence, she is guilty; but when justice is vindicated, one can afford +to listen to the dictates of pity. Now, Dunbar, let me congratulate you +on your recent good luck. We hear wonderful accounts of your new +fortune." + +"Rumor always magnifies such matters; still it is true that I have +inherited a handsome estate." "Does your sister share equally?" + +"A very liberal legacy was left to her, but you are aware that I was +named for my mother's brother, Randall Lennox, and he has for many +years regarded me as his heir; hence, gave me the bulk of the property." + +"It is rather strange that he never married. I recall him as a very +distinguished looking man." + +"He had a love affair very early in life, while at college, with the +daughter of his Greek professor. Surreptitiously he took her to drive +one afternoon, and the horse became frightened, ran away and killed the +girl. He was a peculiar man, and seems never to have swerved from his +allegiance to her memory." + +"I hope it is not true that the conditions of the will require you to +remove from X---and settle in New Orleans? We can't afford to lose you +from our bar." + +"There are no restrictions in my Uncle Lennox's will; the legacy was +unconditional; but the obligation of complying with his urgent desire +to have me live in New Orleans will probably induce me to make that my +future home. For several years he has associated me with him in the +conduct of some important suits; and I understand now, that his motive +was to introduce me gradually to a new field of professional labor. Not +the least valuable of my new possessions is his superb law library, +probably the finest in the South. Of course my business will keep me +here, for the present, and I have matured no plans." + +"Did you reach New Orleans before his death?" + +"No, I was in Dakota, and missed a letter designed to acquaint me with +his illness. While in Washington on my return, arguing a case before +the Supreme Court, a telegram was forwarded from the office here, and I +hurried off by the first train, but arrived about ten hours too late. +Another grudge I have to settle with that bloody thief, when I unearth +him." + +"After all, Dunbar, you are a deucedly lucky fellow,--and--Hello! +historic Hebrew! Bedney, have you seen a ghost?" + +"Yes--Mars Alfred--two of 'em." + +Spent with fatigue, panting, with an ashen pallor on his leathery, +wrinkled face, the old negro ran in to the office, and leaned heavily +against the oak table. + +"What is the matter? Positively, you are turning a grayish white. What +is the secret of the bleaching? Police after you? Or does the Sheriff +want you?" + +"Mars Alfred, this ain't no fitten time to crack your on'-Gawdly jokes, +for I am scared all but into fits. I started in a brisk walk, but every +step I got more and more afeered to look behind, and I struk a fox +trot, and now my wind is clean gone." + +"What is the trouble? What are you running from?" + +"'Fore Gawd, Mars Alfred, sperrits! Sperrits, sir." + +"Do you mean that you want a dram to steady your nerves?" + +"I'm that frustrated I couldn't say what I want; but I didn't signify +bottle and jimmyjohn liquor, I mean sperrits, sir, ghosts what walk, +and make the hair rise like wire all over your head. The ole house is +hanted shore 'nuff; and I can't stay there. Lem'me tell you, Lord! Mars +Alfred, don't laugh! It's the Gawd's truth, ole Marster's sperrit is +fighting up yonder in his room with the man what killed him. I seen +him, in the broad daylight, and I have cum for you and Mars Lennox to +git there, jest as quick as you kin, so you kin see it fur yourselves. +I know you won't believe it till you see it; nuther should I, but it's +there. The sperrits have cum back, to show my young mistiss' child +never killed her grandpa." + +Mr. Dunbar rose quickly, handed a glass of water to the old man, and +then placed a chair for him. + +"Tell me at once what you saw." + +"Ole Marster standin' in the flo' close to the vault, with his arm up +so--and the handi'on in his own hand--" + +"How dare you come here, with this cock-and-bull story? You are either +drunk or in your dotage. Your master has been in his grave for eighteen +months, and--" + +"Oh! to be shore I know'd what you'd say. Cuss me for an idjut; but I +swar, Mars Lennox, I am that scared I dasn't to tell you no lie. The +proof of the pudden is jest chawin' the bag, an' I want you both to git +a carridge quick, and take me up home; and if you don't see what I tell +you is thar, you may kick me from the front door clean down to the big +gate. The grave is busted wide open, and the dead walks, for I seen +him; and I'll sho' him to you. Come on, I want you to see for yourself." + +"You imbecile old nincompoop! Go home, and tell Dyce to give you some +catnip tea, and tie you to a chair," laughed Mr. Churchill. + +"You'll laugh t'other side of your mouth, Mars Alfred, when you see +that awful sight up yonder. Ole Marster has come back, to clare the +name of his grandchile, for he and his murderer is a wrastling, and it +ain't no 'oman, it's a man! A tall, pretty man, with beard on his face." + +Mr. Dunbar struck a bell at his side, and a clerk came promptly from +the rear room. + +"Nesbitt, step over to the livery stable, and order a carriage sent up +at once." Turning to Bedney he continued: + +"I suppose the gist of all your yarn-spinning is, that you have found a +stranger prowling about the place. How did you discover him?" + +"Lem'me tell you, as fur as I can, how I cum to see ole Marster. Mr. +Prince gin orders that the house should be opened and arred reglar, and +he pintedly enjined us to have that room well cleaned and put in order. +We had all pintedly gin it a wide berth, and kep' ourselves on t'other +side of the house, 'cause all such places is harryfying; but this +morning, I thought I would open the outside blind door on the west +gallery, and look in through the glass door. I know'd Mr. Prince had +stirred round considerable in there, the day before he left, but I +didn't know he had drapped the curting what was looped back the last +time I was inside. So I went up the steps and clared away a rose vine +what was hanging low down from the i'on pillar of the piazzar, and +almost screening the door, and I walked up, I did, and looked in. Lord +Gawd Amighty! The red curting was down on the inside, and I seen +through it, I swar to Gawd I did, sir! I seen clar spang through into +that room, and thar stood Marster in his night clothes, jest so--and +thar stood that murdering vil'yan close to him, holding the tin box +so--and Marster with the handi'on jest daring him to cum on--and--and +oh! I am glad to know my Marster was game to the last, died game! Never +show'd no white feather while thar was breath in his body. Mars Lennox, +I jest drapped on my knees, and I trimbled, and my teeth chattered, and +I felt the hair as it riz straight up. I was afeer'd to stay, and I was +afeer'd to move; but I shet my eyes and crawled back'ards easy to the +aidge of the steps, and then run as fast as I could. I wanted Dyce to +see, too, but the poor cretur is so crippled she can't walk, and as she +weighs two hundred and twenty pounds, I couldn't tote her; so I tole +her what I seen, and she sent me straight to find Mars Alfred fust, and +you next. I run to Mars Alfred's office, and he was out, so I kep' on +here. I know'd you lie'yers was barking up the wrong tree, and +wrongfully pussecutin' that poor young gal; and now the very sperrits +have riz up to testify fur her. If you two can face ole Marster's +ghost, and tell him you know better than he did who killed him, you've +got better pluck and backbone than I give you credit fur." + +"What did you eat last night, Bedney? Baked possum, and fried +chitterlings? Evidently you have had a heavy nightmare." + +Mr. Churchill drew a match across the heel of his boot, and lighted a +cigar; looking quizzically at the old man, who was wiping the +perspiration from his face. + +"There's the carridg, I hear the wheels. Mars Lennox and Mars Alfred, +there is one thing I insists on havin'. The law is all lop-sided from +fust to last in this here case, and I want it squoze into shape, till +t'other side swells out a little. I want the Crowner to go up yonder +now, and hold another inquess. He's done sot all wrong on the body, and +now let him set on the sperrit if he kin. I'm in plum earnest. The +Crowner swore that poor young gal knocked Marster in the head with the +handi'on; and yonder stands Marster, ready to brain that man--with that +handi'on hilt tight in his own right hand. Now what I wants to know is, +WHAR is the 'delectible corpus' what you lieyers argufied over?" + +"You doting old humbug! If you decoy us on a wild goose chase I shall +feel like cutting one of your ears off!" + +"Slit 'em both and welcome, Mars Alfred, if you don't find I'm telling +you the Gawd's truth. I feel all tore up, root and branch, and if folks +could be scared to death, I should be stretched out this minute on the +west piazzar. I had my doubts about ghosts and sperrits, and I lost my +religion when I cotch our preacher brandin' one of my dappled +crumple-horned hefers with his i'on; but Bedney Darrington is a changed +pusson. Come en, let's see which of you will dar to laugh up yonder." + +"Are you really bent on humoring this insane or idiotic vagary?" asked +Mr. Churchill, as he saw his companion take his hat and prepare to +follow the negro, who had left the room. + +"His terror is genuine, and his superstitious tale is probably the +outer shell of some kernel of fact that may possibly be valuable. In +cases of circumstantial evidence, you and I know the importance of +looking carefully into the merest trifles. Come with me; you can spare +an hour." + +Leaving the carriage at the front entrance of the deserted and stately +old house, the attorneys crossed the terrace and walked around to the +western veranda, preceded by Bedney, who paused at the steps, and waved +them to ascend. + +"Go up and see for yourselves. I am nigh as I want to git." + +The stone floor was strewn with branches of rose vine, and the pruning +shears lay open upon them, just as they had fallen from the old man's +hand. The sun had passed several degrees below the meridian, and the +shadows of the twisted iron columns were aslant eastward, but the glare +of light shone on the plate-glass door, which was rounded into an arch +at top, and extended within four inches of the surface of the floor, +where it fitted into the wooden frame. It was one wide sheet, unbroken +into panes, and on the outside dust had collected, and a family of +spiders had colonized in the lower corner, spinning their gray lace +quite across the base. It was evident that the Venetian blinds had long +been closed, and recently opened, as a line of dust and dried drift +leaves attested; and behind the glass hung the dull red, plush curtain, +almost to the floor. + +Both gentlemen pressed forward, and looked in; but saw nothing. + +"Hang your head kinder sideways, down so, and look up, Mars Lennox." + +Mr. Dunbar changed his position, and after an instant, started back. + +"Do you see it, Churchill? No hallucination; it is as plain as print, +just like the negative of a photograph." + +"Bless my soul! It beats the Chinese jugglers! What a curious thing!" + +"Stand back a little; you obstruct the light. Now, how clearly it comes +out." + +Printed apparently on the plush background, like the images in a +camera, were the distinctly outlined and almost life-size figures of +two men. Clad in a long gown, with loose sleeves, Gen'l Darrington +stood near the hearth, brandishing the brass unicorn in one hand, the +other thrown out and clinched; the face rather more than profile, +scarcely three-quarters, was wonderfully distinct, and the hair much +dishevelled. In front was the second portrait, that of a tall, slender +young man who appeared to have suddenly wheeled around from the open +vault, turning his countenance fully to view; while he threw up a dark, +square object to ward off the impending blow. A soft wool hat pushed +back, showed the curling hair about his temples, and the remarkable +regularity of his handsome features; while even the plaid pattern of +his short coat was clearly discernible. + +As the attorneys came closer, or stepped back from the door, the images +seemed to vary in distinctness, and viewed from two angles they became +invisible. + +Mr. Churchill stared blankly; Mr. Dunbar's gaze was riveted on the face +of the burglar, and he took his underlip between his teeth, as was his +habit in suppressing emotion. + +"Of course there is some infernal trick about this; but how do you +account for it? It is beyond Bedney's sleight of hand," said the +District Solicitor. + +"I think I understand how it came here. Bedney, go around and open the +library door leading into this room, and loop back the curtain for a +moment." + +"No, sir, Mars Lennox. Forty railroad ingines couldn't pull me in there +alive. I wouldn't dar tamper with ole Marster's ghost; not for all the +money in the bank. Go yourself; I doesn't budge on no sech bizness as +prying and spying amongst the sperrits. It would fling me into a fit." + +"You miserable coward. Is the house open? Where is the key of this +room?" + +"Hanging on the horseshoe under my chimbly board. I'll fetch it and +unlock the front door, so you kin git in, and hold your inquess inside." + +"Will you go, Churchill, or shall I?" + +"What is your idea?" + +"To ascertain whether the images are on the glass, as I believe, and if +they can be seen without the background. Stand just here--and watch. +When I pull back the curtain, tell me the effect." + +Some moments later, the red folds shook, swayed aside, the curtain was +pushed out of sight on its brass rod. The interior of the apartment +came into view, the articles of furniture, the face and figure of Mr. +Dunbar. + +"Is it still there; do you see it?" shouted the latter. + +"No. It vanished with the curtain. Drop it back. There! I see it. Now +loop it. Gone again. Must be on the curtain," shouted the Solicitor, +peering through the glass at his colleague. + +Mr. Dunbar turned a key on the inside, pushed back a bolt, and threw +open the door, which swung outward on the veranda. Then he carefully +let fall the plush curtain once more. + +"Do you see it?" + +"No. A blank show. I can't see into the trick. Dunbar, change places +with me and satisfy yourself." + +The solicitor went inside, and Mr. Dunbar watched from the veranda a +repetition of the experiment. + +"That will do, Churchill. It is all plain enough now, but you cease to +wonder at Bedney's superstitious solution. You understand it perfectly, +don't you?" + +"No, I'll be hanged if I do! It is the queerest thing I ever saw." + +"Do you recollect that there was a violent thunder-storm the night of +the murder?" + +"Since you mention it, I certainly recall it. Go on." + +"All the witnesses testified that next morning this door was closed as +usual, but the outside blinds were open, and the red curtain was looped +back." + +"Yes, I remember all that." + +"The images are printed on the glass, and were photographed by a flash +of lightning." + +"I never heard of such a freak. Don't believe it." + +"Nevertheless it is the only possible solution; and I know that several +similar instances have been recorded. It is like the negative of a +common photograph, brought out by a dark background; and do you notice +the figures are invisible at certain angles? It is very evident the +storm came up during the altercation that night, and electricity +printed the whole scene on this door; stamping the countenance of the +murderer, to help the instruments of justice. While the blinds were +closed, and the curtain was looped aside, of course this wonderful +witness could not testify; but Prince let down the folds just before +his departure, and the moment Bedney opened the blinds, there lay the +truthful record of the awful crime. Verily, the 'irony of fate!' An +overwhelming witness for the defence, only eighteen months too late, to +save a pure, beautiful life from degradation and ruin. Well may Bedney +ask, 'where is your corpus delicti?' Alfred Churchill, I wish you joy +of the verdict, you worked so hard to win." + +Turning on his heel Mr. Dunbar walked the length of the veranda, and +stood gazing gloomily across the tangled mass of the neglected rose +garden, taking no cognizance of the garlands of bloom, seeing +everywhere only that lithe elegant figure and Hyperion face of the man +who reigned master of Beryl's heart. + +The Solicitor leaned one shoulder against the door facing, and with his +hands in his pockets, and his brows drawn into a pucker, pondered the +new fact, and eyed the strange witness. + +After a time, he approached his companion. + +"If your hypothesis be correct, and it seems plausible, if science +asserts that electricity can photograph,--then certainly I am sorry, +sorry enough for all I did in the trial; yet I cannot reproach myself, +because I worked conscientiously; and the evidence was conclusive +against the girl. The circumstantial coincidences were strong enough to +have hung her. We all make mistakes, and no doubt I am responsible for +my share; but thank God! reparation can be made! I will take the night +train and see the Governor before noon to-morrow. The pardon must come +now." + +"Pardon! He cannot pardon a crime of which she now stands acquitted. +The only pardon possible, she may extend to those who sacrificed her. +His Excellency need exercise no prerogative of mercy; his aid is +superfluous. Churchill, go in as soon as you can, and send out the +Sheriff, with as many of the jurors as you can get together; and ask +Judge Parkman to drive out this afternoon, and bring Stafford, the +photographer, with him. Tell Doctor Graham I want to see him here, as +he is an accomplished electrician. I will stay here and guard this door +till all X---has seen it." + +Winged rumor flew through the length and breadth of the town, and +before sunset a human stream poured along the road leading to "Elm +Bluff", overflowed the green lawn under the ancient poplars, surged +across the terrace, and beat against the railing of the piazza. Men, +women, children, lawyers, doctors, newspaper reporters, all pressing +forward for a glimpse of the mysterious and weird witness, that, in the +fulness of time, had arisen to reprove the world for a grievous and +cruel wrong. + +The hinges had been removed; the door was set up at a certain angle, +carefully balanced against the hanging curtain; and there the curious +crowd beheld, in a veritable vision of the dead, torn as it were from +the darkness and silence of the grave, the secret of that stormy night, +when unseen powers had solemnly covenanted in defence of trusting +innocence. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + +On Saturday the regulations of prison discipline reduced the working +hours much below the daily quota, and at two o'clock the ringing of the +tower bell announced that the busy convicts of the various industrial +rooms were allowed leisure during the remainder of the afternoon, to +give place to the squad of sweepers and scrubbers, who flooded the +floors and scoured the benches. + +June heat had followed fast upon the balmy breath of May, and though +the air at dawn was still iced with crystal dew, the sun that shone +through the open windows of the little chapel, burned fiercely on the +unpainted pine seats, the undraped reading-desk of the pulpit, the +tarnished gilt pipes of the cabinet organ within the chancel railing. + +On one of the front benches sat Iva Le Bougeois, with a pair of +crutches resting beside her on the arm of the seat, and her hands +folded in her lap. Recovering slowly from the paralysis resulting from +diphtheria, she had followed Beryl into the chapel, and listened to the +hymns the latter had played and sung. The glossy black head was bent in +abject despondency upon her breast, and tears dripped over the smooth +olive cheeks, but no sound escaped the trembling mouth, once so red and +riotous, now drawn into curves of passionate sorrow; and the topaz +gleams that formerly flickered in her sullen hazel eyes were drowned in +the gloom of dejection. For her, memory was an angel of wrath, driving +her into the hideous Golgotha of the past, where bloody spectres +gibbered; the present was a loathsome death in life, the future a +nameless torturing horror. Helpless victim of her own outraged +conscience, she seemed at times sinking into mental apathy more +pitiable than that which had seized her physically; and the only solace +possible, she found in the encouraging words uttered by the voice that +had prayed for her during that long night of mortal agony, in the +gentle pressure of the soft hand that often guided her tottering +footsteps. + +The organ stops had been pushed back, the musical echoes vibrated no +longer; and the bare room, filled with garish sunshine, was so still +that the drowsy droning of a bee high up on the dusty sash of the +barred window, became monotonously audible. + +Within the chancel and to the right of the pulpit, a large reversible +blackboard had recently been placed, and on a chair in front of it +stood Beryl, engrossed in putting the finishing touches to a sketch +which filled the entire board; and oblivious for the moment of Eve +Werneth's baby, who, having emptied her bottle of milk, had pulled +herself up by the chair, and with the thumb of her right hand in her +mouth, was staring up at the picture. + +The lesson selected for the Sunday afternoon Bible class, which Beryl +had so successfully organized among a few of the female convicts, was +the fifteenth chapter of Luke; and at the top of the blackboard was +written in large letters: "Rejoice with Me, for I have found My sheep +which was lost." She had drawn in the foreground the flock couched in +security, rounded up by the collie guard in a grassy meadow; in the +distance, overhanging a gorge, was a bald, precipitous crag, behind +which a wolf crouched, watching the Shepherd who tenderly bore in his +arms the lost wanderer. On the opposite side of the blackboard had been +carefully copied the Gospel Hymn beginning:-- + +"There were ninety and nine that safely lay, In the shelter of the +fold, But one was out on the hills away, Far off from the gates of +gold--Away on the mountains wild and bare, Away from the tender +Shepherd's care." + +Mental processes are strangely dualistic, and it not unfrequently +happens that while one is consciously intent upon a certain train of +thought, some secret cunning current of association sets in vibration +the coil of ideas locked in the chambers of memory, and long forgotten +images leap forth, startling in their pristine vividness. + +Absorbed by the text she was illustrating, the artist insensibly +followed lines she deemed imaginary, yet when the sketch was +completed, the ensemble suddenly confronted her as a miniature +reproduction of a very distant scene, that had gladdened her childish +heart in the blessed by-gone. Far away from the beaten track of travel, +in a sunny cleft of the Pistoian Apennines, she saw the white fleeces +grouped under vast chestnuts, the flash of copper buckets plunged by +two peasant women into a gurgling fountain, the curly head of Bertie +bowed over the rude stone basin, as he gayly coaxed the bearers to let +him drink from the beautiful burnished copper; the rocky terraces cut +in the beetling cliffs above, where dark ruby-red oleanders flouted the +sky with fragrant banners; and the pathetic face of a vagrant ewe +tangled among vines, high on a jagged ledge, bleating for the lamb +asleep under the chestnuts down in the dell. + +Across the chasm of years floated the echo of the tinkling bell, that +told where cows climbed in search of herbage; the singular rhythmic +cadence of the trescone, danced in a neighboring vineyard; the deep, +mellow, lingering tones of a monastery bell, rung by hermit hands in a +gray tower on a mountain eyry, that looked westward upon the sparkling +blue mirror of the Mediterranean. + +Then she was twelve years old, dreaming glorious midsummer day-dreams, +as she wandered with parents and brother on one of her father's +sketching tours through unfrequented nooks; now--? + +A petulant cry, emphasized by the baby hand tugging at the hem of her +dress skirt, recalled Beryl's attention; and as she looked down at the +waif, whom the chaplain had christened "Dovie" on the day of her +mother's burial, the little one held up her arms. + +"So tired, Dulce? You can't be hungry; you must want your nap. There +don't fret, baby girl. I will take you directly." + +She stepped down, turned the side of the blackboard that contained the +sketch to the wall; lowered the sash which she had raised to admit +fresh air, and lifted the child from the floor. Approaching the figure +who sat motionless as a statue of woe, she laid a hand on the drooping +shoulder. + +"Shall I help you down the steps?" + +"No, I'll stay here a while. This is the only place where I can get +courage enough to pray. Couldn't you leave her--the child--with me? It +has been years since I could bear the sight of one. I hated children, +because my heart was so black--so bitter; but now, I yearn toward this +little thing. I am so starved for the kiss of--of--," she swept her +hand across her throat, where a sob stifled her. + +"Certainly, if she will stay contentedly. See whether she will come to +you." + +At sight of the extended arms, the baby shrank closer to Beryl, nestled +her head under the girl's chin, and put up her lower lip in ominous +protest. With an indescribably mournful gesture of surrender, the +childless mother sank back in the corner of the bench. + +"I don't wonder she is afraid; she knows--everybody, everything knows I +killed my baby--my own boy, who slept for nearly four years on my +heart--oh!--" + +"Hush--she was frightened by your crying. She is sleepy now, but when +she has had her nap, and wakes good-humored, I will fill her bottle, +and bring her down to you. Try not to torment yourself by dwelling upon +a distressing past, which you cannot undo; but by prayer anchor your +soul in God's pardoning mercy. When all the world hoots and stones us, +God is our 'sure refuge'." + +"That promise is to pure hearts and innocent hands; not to such as I +am, steeped to the lips in crime--black, black--" + +"No. One said: 'The whole need not a physician; but they that are +sick.' Your soul is sick unto death; claim the pledged cure. Yonder I +have copied the hymn for to-morrow's lesson. While you sit here, commit +it to memory; and the Shepherd will hear your cry." + +Glancing back from the chapel door, she saw that the miserable woman +had bowed her face in her hands, and with elbows supported on her +knees, was swaying back and forth in a storm of passionate sobs. + +"O! my beautiful baby, my angel Max, pray for mother now. +Max--Max--there is no 'Sweet By and By'--for mother--" + +Hurrying from the wail of anguish that no human agency could lighten, +Beryl carried the orphan across the yard, and up the stairs leading to +the corridor, whence she was allowed egress at will. She noticed +casually, signs of suppressed excitement among some of the convicts, +who were lounging in groups, enjoying the half holiday, and three or +four men stood around the under-warden who was gesticulating +vivaciously; but at her approach he lowered his voice, and she lived so +far aloof from the jars and gossip of the lower human strata, that the +suspicious indications failed to arouse any curiosity. + +The southwest angle of the building was exposed fully to the force of +the afternoon sun, and the narrow cell was so hot that Beryl opened the +door leading into the corridor, in order to create a draught through +the opposite window. + +The tired child was fretfully drowsy, but with the innate perversity of +toddling babyhood, resented and resisted every effort to soothe her to +sleep. Refusing to lie across the nurse's lap, the small tyrant +clambered up, wrapped her arms about her neck, and finally Beryl rose +and walked up and down, humming softly Chopin's dreamy "Berceuse"; +while the baby added a crooning accompaniment that grew fainter and +intermittent until the blue eyes closed, one arm fell, and the thumb +was plunged between the soft full lips. + +Warily the nurse laid her down in a cradle, which consisted of an oval +basket mounted on roughly fashioned wooden rockers, and drawing it +close to the table, Beryl straightened the white cross-barred muslin +slip that was too short to cover the rosy dimpled feet; and smoothed +the flossy tendrils of yellow hair crumpled around the lovely face. + +The Sister of Charity, who, in the darkest hours of the pestilence had +shrouded the poor young mother, did not forget the human waif astray in +the world; but having secured a home for it in an "asylum," to which +she promised it should be removed so soon as all danger of carrying +contagion was over, had appointed the ensuing Monday on which to bear +it away from the gloomy precincts, where sinless life had dawned in +disgrace and degradation. This pretty toy, dowered with an immortal +soul, stained by an inherited criminal strain, had appealed to the +feminine tenderness in Beryl's nature, and she stood a moment, lost in +admiration of the rounded curves and dainty coloring. + +"Poor little blossom. Nobody's baby! A lily bud adrift on a dead sea of +sin. Dovie--Eve Werneth's child--but you will always be to me Dulce, my +pretty clinging Dulce, my velvet-eyed cherub model." + +Turning away, she bathed her face and hands, and leaned for a while +against the southern window; listening to the exultant song of a red +bird hovering near his brooding brown mate, to the soothing murmur of +the distant falls, borne in on the wings of the thievish June breeze +that had rifled some far-off garden of the aroma of honeysuckle. The +current of air had swung the door back, leaving only a hand's breadth +of open space, and while she sang to the baby, her own voice had +drowned the sound of footsteps in the corridor. + +On the whitewashed wall of the cell, a sheet of drawing paper had been +tacked, and taking her crayons, Beryl returned to the cradle, changed +the position of the child's left hand, and approaching the almost +completed sketch on the wall, retouched the outline of the sleeping +figure. Now and then she paused in her work, to look down at the golden +lashes sweeping the slumber-flushed cheeks, and pondering the mystery +of the waif's future, she chanted in a rich contralto voice, the solemn +"Reproaches" of Gounod's "Redemption." + +"Oh, my vineyard, come tell me why thy grapes are bitter? What have I +done, my People? Wherein hast thou been wronged?" + +For weeks the elaboration of this sketch had employed every moment +which was not demanded for the execution of her allotted daily task in +the convict workroom; and knowing that on Monday she would be bereft of +her pretty model, she had redoubled her exertions to complete it. + +Beside a bier knelt a winged figure, in act of stealing the rigid form, +and to the awful yet strangely beautiful face of the messenger of +gloom, she had given the streaming hair, the sunken, cavernous but +wonderfully radiant eyes of Moritz Retzsch's weird image of Death. A +white butterfly fluttered upward, and in mid-air--neither descending +nor drifting, but waiting--poised on outspread pinions, hovered the +Angel of the Resurrection holding out his hands. Behind and beneath the +Destroyer, rolled dense shadows, and all the light in this picture +rayed out from the plumes above, and fell like a glory on the baby's +face. + +Cut off from all congenial companionship, thrown upon her own mental +resources, the prisoner had learned to live in an ideal world; and her +artistic tastes proved an indestructible heritage of comfort, while +memory ministered lavishly with images from the crowded realm of +aesthetics. Victorious over the stony limitations of dungeon walls and +dungeon discipline, fetterless imagination soared into the kingdom of +beauty, and fed her lonely soul, as Syrian ravens fed God's prophet. + +Fourteen months had passed since Mr. Dunbar walked away from this cell, +after the interview relative to Gen'l Darrington's will; and though his +longing to see the prisoner had driven him twice to the entrance of the +chapel, whence he heard the marvellously sweet voice, and gazed at the +figure before the organ, no word was exchanged. + +To-day, with his hand on the bolt of the door, and his heart in his +eyes, he leaned against the facing, and through the opening studied the +occupant of the cell that held the one treasure which fate had denied +him. + +The ravages of disease, the blemish of acute physical suffering had +vanished; the clear pallor of her complexion, the full white throat, +the rounded contour of the graceful form, bespoke complete restoration +of all the vital forces; and never had she appeared so incomparably +beautiful. + +Oppressed by the heat, she had pushed back the hair from her temples, +and though hopeless sadness reigned over the profound repose of her +features, the expression of her eyes told that the dream of the artist +had borne her beyond surrounding ills. + +Where the button of her blue homespun dress fastened the collar, she +wore a sprig of heliotrope and a cluster of mignonette, from the +shallow box in the window-ledge where they grew together. + +How long he stood there, surrendering himself to the happiness of +watching the woman whom, against his will, he loved with such +unreasoning and passionate fervor, Mr. Dunbar never knew; but a sudden +recollection of the face printed on the glass, the face, beautiful as +fabled Hylas--of the man for whose sake she was willing to die--stung +him like an adder's bite; and setting his teeth hard, he rapped upon +the door held ajar; then threw it open. + +At sight of him, her arm, lifted to the sketch, fell; the crayon +slipped from her nerveless fingers, and a glow rich as the heart of +some red June rose stained her cheeks. + +As he stepped toward her, she leaned against the wall, and swiftly drew +the baby's cradle between them. He understood, and for a moment +recoiled. + +"You barricade yourself as though I were some loathsome monster! Are +you afraid of me?" + +"What is there left to fear? Have you spared any exertion to accomplish +that which you believe would overwhelm me with sorrow?" + +"You cannot forgive my rejection of the overtures for a compromise +wrung from you by extremity of dread, when I started to Dakota?" + +"That rejection freed me from a self-imposed, galling promise; and +hence I forgive all, because of the failure of your journey." + +"Suppose I have not failed?" + +She caught her breath, and the color in her cheeks flickered. + +"Had you succeeded, I should not have been allowed so long the +comparative mercy of suspense." + +"Am I so wantonly cruel, think you, that I gloat over your sufferings +as a Modoc at sight of the string of scalps dangling at his pony's +neck?" + +"When the spirit of revenge is unleashed, Tiberius becomes a law unto +himself." + +He leaned forward, and his voice was freighted with tenderness that he +made no attempt to disguise. + +"Once after that long swoon in the court-room, when I held your hand, +you looked at me without shrinking, and called me Tiberius. Again, when +for hours I sat beside your cot, watching the crisis of your first +terrible illness, you opened your eyes and held out your hand, saying: +'Have you come for me, Tiberius?' Why have you told me you were at the +mercy of Tiberius?" + +Hitherto she had avoided looking at him, and kept her gaze upon the +sleeping child, but warned by the tone that made her heart throb, she +bravely lifted her eyes. + +"When next you write to your betrothed, ask her to go to the Museo +Chiaramonti while in Rome, and standing before the crowned Tiberius, +she will fancy her future husband welcomes her. Your wife will need no +better portrait of you than a copy of that head." + +Into his eyes leaped the peculiar glow that can be likened unto nothing +but the clear violet flame dancing over a bed of burning anthracite +coal, and into his voice an exultant ring: + +"Meantime, like my inexorable prototype, 'I hold a wolf by the ears'. +Shall I tell you my mission here?" + +"As it appears I am indeed always at the mercy of Tiberius, your +courtesy savors of sarcasm." + +"Oh, my stately white rose! My Rosa Alba, I will see to it, that no +polluting hand lays a grasp on you. My errand should entitle me to a +more cordial reception, for I bring you good news. Will you lay your +hand in mine just once, while I tell you?" + +He extended his open palm, but she shook her head and smiled sadly. + +"In this world no good news can ever come to me." + +"Do you know that recently earnest efforts have been made to induce the +Governor to pardon you? That I have just returned from a visit to him?" + +"I was not aware of it; but I am grateful for your effort in my behalf." + +"I was disappointed. The pardon was not granted. Since then, fate, who +frowned so long upon you, has come to your rescue. The truth has been +discovered, proclaimed; and I came here this afternoon with an order +for your release. For you the prison doors and gates stand open. You +are as free as you were that cursed day when first you saw me and +robbed my life of peace." + +For a moment she looked at him bewildered; then a great dread drove the +blood from her lips, and her voice shook. + +"What truth has been discovered?" + +"The truth that you are innocent has been established to the entire +satisfaction of judge and jury, prosecution and Governor, sheriff, +warden, and you are free. Not pardoned for that which all the world +knows now you never committed; but acquitted without man's help, by the +discovery of a fact which removes every shadow of suspicion from your +name. You are at liberty, owing no thanks to human mercy; vindicated by +a witness subpoenaed by the God of justice, in whom you trusted--even +to the end." + +"Witness? What witness? You do not mean that you have hunted down--" + +She paused, and her white face was piteous with terror, as pushing away +the cradle she came close to him. + +"I have seen the face of the man who killed Gen'l Darrington." + +She threw up her arms, crossing them over her head. + +"O, my God! Have I suffered in vain? Shall I be denied the recompense? +After all my martyrdom, must I lose the one hope that sustained me?" + +Despite the rage which the sight of her suffering woke within his +heart, he could not endure to witness it. + +"Can you find no comfort in release? No joy in the consciousness of +your triumphant vindication?" + +"None! If you have robbed me of that which is all I care for on earth, +what solace can I find in release? Vindication? What is the opinion of +the world to me? Oh! how have I ever wronged you, that you persecute me +so vindictively, that you stab the only comfort life can ever hold for +me?" + +"And you love him so insanely, that to secure his safety, existence +here in this moral sty is sweet in comparison with freedom unshared +with him? Listen! That belief stirs the worst elements in my nature; it +swings the whip of the furies. For your own sake, do not thrust your +degrading madness upon my notice. I have labored to liberate you; have +subordinated all other aims to this, and now, that I have come to set +you free, you repulse and spurn me!" + +She was so engrossed by one foreboding, that it was evident she had not +even heard him, as moving to the bench in front of the window she sat +down, shivering. Her black brows contracted till they met, and the +strained expression of her eyes told that she was revolving some +possibility of succor. + +"Where did you see my--my--?" + +"Not in Dakota mines, where I expected to find him." + +"Mr. Dunbar." She pointed to the chair at her side. + +He shook his head, but approached and stood before her. + +"I am waiting to hear you." + +"I sent you a telegram, promising information that would have prevented +that journey." + +"It failed to reach me." + +Unconsciously she was wringing her hands as her thoughts whirled. + +"I will tell you something now, if you will promise me that no harm +shall--" + +He laughed scornfully. + +"As if I had anything to learn concerning that cowardly villain! Thanks +for your confidence, which comes much too late." + +"You do not know that--" + +"Yes, I know all I want to know; more than you shall ever tell me, and +I decline to hear a confession that, in my eyes, defiles you; that +would only drive me to harsh denunciation of your foul idol. Moreover, +I will not extort by torture what you have withheld so jealously. Do +not wring your hands so desperately. You are goaded to confession now, +because you believe that I have secured your lover? Take courage, he +has not yet been arrested; he is still a wanderer hiding from +retribution." + +She sprang up, trembling. + +"But you said you had seen his face?" + +"Yes, and I have come to take you where you can identify that face?" + +"Then, he is dead." She covered her face with her hands. + +"No, I wish to God he was dead! Sit down. I will not see you suffer +such agony. He is safe for the present. If you will try to think of +yourself for a moment, and pay me the compliment of listening, I will +explain. Do you recollect that during the storm on the night of the +murder the lightning was remarkably vivid and severe?" + +"Yes; can I ever forget any details of that night? Go on." + +"Do you recall the position of the glass door on the west veranda; and +also that the crimson drapery or curtain was drawn aside?" + +"I recall it distinctly because, while Gen'l Darrington was reading my +mother's letter, I looked out through the glass at the chrysanthemums +blooming in the garden." + +"That door was almost opposite the chimney, and the safe or vault in +the wall was very near the fireplace. It appears that when the +chloroform failed to stupefy Gen'l Darrington, he got up and seized one +of the andirons on the hearth, and attacked the thief who was stealing +his money. While they were struggling in front of the vault, a burst of +electricity, some peculiarly vivid flash of lightning, sent by fate, by +your guardian angel, it may have been by God himself--photographed both +men, and the interior of the room on the wide glass panel of that door. +Forms, faces, features, even the pattern of the cloth coat, are printed +plainly there, for the whole world to study. The murderer and the +victim in mortal combat over the tin box. Accident--shall I say +Providence--unexpectedly brought this witness to light. The curtain so +long looped back, was recently lowered, and when, two days ago, the +outside blinds were opened, there lay your complete vindication. Crowds +have seen it; the newspaper issued an 'extra', and so general was the +rejoicing, that a public demonstration would have been made here at the +gaol, had not Churchill and I harangued the people and assured them it +would only annoy and embarrass you. So you are free. Free to shake the +dust of X---forever from your feet; and it must comfort your proud soul +to know that you do not owe your liberty to the mercy of a community +which wronged you. I forbade Singleton to tell you, to allow any +premature hint to reach you; for I claimed the privilege of bringing +the glad tidings. Last night I spent in that room at 'Elm Bluff', +guarding that door; and the vigil was cheered by the picture hope drew, +that when I came to-day you would greet me kindly; would lay your dear +hands in mine, and tell me that, at least, gratitude would always keep +a place for me warm in your noble heart. I have my recompense in the +old currency of scorn. It were well for you if you had shown me your +hatred less plainly; now I shall indulge less hesitation in following +the clue the lightning lays in my grasp. I warn you that your release +only expedites his arrest; for you can never pass beyond my +surveillance; and the day you hasten to him, seals his fate. Long +imprisoned doves, when set free, fly straight to their distant mates; +so--take care--lest the hawk overtake both." + +Looking up at him, listening almost breathlessly to the tale of a +deliverance that involved new peril for Bertie, the color came slowly +back to her blanched face, and her parted lips quivered. + +"If the picture means anything, it proves that Gen'l Darrington made +the assault with the brass andiron, and in the struggle that followed, +the man you saw might have killed him in self defence." + +"When he is brought to trial in X--he shall never be allowed the +benefit of your affectionate supposition. I promise you, that I will +annihilate your tenderly devised theory." + +He ground his teeth in view of the transparent fact, that she was too +intently considering the bearing of the revelation upon the safety of +another, to heed the thought of her own escape from bondage. + +The little cluster of flowers fastened at her throat had become +loosened, and fell unnoticed into her lap. He stooped, picked them up, +and straightened them on his palm. When his eyes returned to Beryl, she +had bowed her face in her shielding hands. + +How little he dreamed that she was silently praying for strength to +deny the cry of her own beating heart, and to keep him from making +shipwreck of the honor which she supposed was still pledged to Leo! +Security for her brother, and unswerving loyalty to the absent woman +who had befriended her in the darkest hours of the accusation, were +objects difficult to accomplish simultaneously; yet at every hazard she +would struggle on. Because she had learned to love so well this man, +who was the promised husband of another, conscience made her merciless +to her own disloyalty. + +Mr. Dunbar laid on the bench a small package sealed in yellow paper. + +"Knowing that your detention here has necessarily forfeited all the +industrial engagements by which you maintained yourself, before you +came South, I have been requested to ask your acceptance of this purse, +which contains sufficient money to defray your expenses until you +resume your art labors. It is an offering from your twelve jurors." + +"No--no. I could never touch it. Tell them for me that I am not +vindictive. I know they did the best they could for me, in view of the +evidence. Tell them I am grateful for their offer, but I cannot accept +it. I--" + +"You imagine I am one of the generous contributors? Be easy; I have not +offered you a cent. I am merely the bearer of the gift, or rather the +attempt at restitution. Your refusal will grieve them, and add to the +pangs of regret that very justly afflict them at present." + +"I have some money which Doctor Grantlin collected for my Christmas +card. He retained only a portion of the amount, and sent me the +remainder. Mr. Singleton keeps it for me, and it is all that I need +now." + +"The purse contains also a ticket to New York, as it has been supposed +that you would desire to return there at once." + +"Take all back, with my earnest thanks. I prefer to owe X--only the +remembrance of the great kindness which some few have shown me. The +officers here have been uniformly considerate and courteous to me; Mr. +and Mrs. Singleton will ever be very dear to me for numberless kind +deeds; and Sister Serena was a staff of strength during that frightful +black week of the trial." + +She paused, and her voice betrayed something of the tumult at her +heart, as while a sudden wave of scarlet overflowed her cheeks, she +rose and held out both hands. + +"Mr. Dunbar, if I have seemed unappreciative of your great exertions in +my behalf, it is merely because there are some matters which I can +never explain in this world. One thing I ask you to believe when I am +gone. I will never, so long as I live, cease to remember the debt I owe +you. I am and shall be inexpressibly grateful to you, and whenever I +think of my terrible sojourn here, be sure I shall recall tenderly--oh! +how tenderly! the two friends who trusted and believed in my innocence, +when all the world denounced me; the two who generously clung to me +when public opinion branded me as an outcast--you two--my best friends, +you and Miss Gordon. It makes me proud and happy to know in this hour +of my vindication, that in her, and in your good opinion, I needed +none. Out of your united lives, let me pass as a fleeting gray shadow." + +"Out of my life you can never pass. Into it you have brought +disappointment, humiliation, and a keenness of suffering such as I +never imagined I was capable of enduring; and some recompense I will +have. You hope to plunge into the vortex of a great city, where you can +elude observation and obliterate all traces. Do not cherish the ghost +of such a delusion. Go where you may, but I give you fair warning, you +cannot escape me; and the day you meet that guilty vagabond, you betray +him to the scouts of justice." + +He held her hands in a close, warm clasp, and a flush crossed his brow, +as he looked down into her quivering face where a smile which he could +not interpret, seemed only a challenge. + +"Would a generous man, worthy of Miss Gordon, harass and persecute a +very unhappy and unfortunate woman, who asks at his hands only to be +forgotten completely, to be left in peace?" + +"I lay no claim to generosity, and, where you are concerned, I am +supremely selfish. Miss Gordon has no need of your championship; she is +quite equal to redressing her own wrongs, when the necessity presents +itself. You are struggling to free your hands, so be it. I have a close +carriage at the gate, and to make assurance doubly sure, I have come to +take you to 'Elm Bluff'; to show you the face, and ask you to identify +it. Understand me, I will harass you with no questions; nor will I +intrude upon you there. I have ordered the grounds cleared, have posted +police to prevent the possibility of any occurrence unpleasant to you; +and all I ask is, that alone, you will examine this witness, produced +so strangely for your justification. I shall wait for you in the rose +garden, and if you can come down from that gallery and tell me that the +face is unknown to you, that the man photographed in the act of +stealing, is a stranger, is not the man you love so well that you bore +worse than death to save him from punishment, then I will give up the +quest; and you may flee unwatched to the ends of the earth." + +"Never again will I see that place which has blasted every hope that +life held for me." + +"Not even to clear away aspersion from his beloved name?" + +"I pray God, his beloved and sacred name may never be associated with a +crime so awful." + +"You will not go to see the face? Remember, I shall ask you neither yea +nor nay. I shall need only to look once into your eyes, after you have +seen the Gorgon. Beryl, my white rose! Are you ashamed to show me your +idol's face?" + +"I will never go to 'Elm Bluff'." + +"It is no longer necessary. You know already the features printed +there, and your avoidance stamps them with infamy. How can your lofty +soul, your pure heart, tolerate a creature so craven, so vile?" + +"We love not always whom we would, or should, were choice permitted us; +and to whom I have given my heart, my whole deep heart, you shall never +learn." + +The mournful smile that lent such wistful loveliness to her flushed +face, seemed to him merely a renewed defiance. + +"I bide my time, knowing it will surely come. You are free, but be +careful. Once when you lay upon the brink of the grave, unconscious, I +knelt at your side and took you in my arms; laid your head on my heart, +felt your cheek touch mine. Then and there I made a covenant with my +soul; and no other man's arms shall ever enfold you. Ah, my Rosa Alba! +I could dig your grave with my own hands, sooner than see that thief +claim you. I am a proud man, and you have dragged me through the slough +of humiliation, but to-day, as I bid you good-bye, I realize how one +felt, who looking at the bust of him she loved supremely, said with her +last breath: 'Voila mon univers, mon espoir, et mes dieux!' How soon we +meet again depends solely on your future course. You know the +conditions; and I promise you I will not swerve one iota." + +He took her hand, drew it across his cheek, laid it on his lips; and a +moment later walked away, with the faded flowers folded close in his +palm. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + + +Conveniently contiguous to the busy centre of a wide and populous city, +situated on the shore of one of those great inland fresh-water seas, +whose lake line girdles the primeval American upheaval, the Laurentian +rocks,--stands in the middle of a square, enclosed by a stone coping +and an iron railing, a stately pile of brick and granite several +stories high, flanked by wings that enclose in the rear a spacious +court. The facade was originally designed in the trabeated style, and +still retained its massive entrance, with straight, grooved lintel over +the door which was adorned by four round columns; but subsequent +additions reflected the fluctuations of popular architectural taste, in +the later arched windows, the broad oriel with its carved corbel, and +in the new eastern wing, that had flowered into a Tudor tower with +bulbous cupola. The strip of velvet sward between the street and the +house entrance, was embossed with brilliant coleus set in the form of +anchors; and a raised border, running the entire length under the +windows of the basement, was ablaze with geraniums of various hues. + +On a granite pediment above the portico, a large bronze anchor was +supported, and beneath it was cut, in projecting letters: "The Umilta +Anchorage". + +In front of the building ran a broad, paved boulevard; in the rear, the +enclosure was bounded by a stone wall, overgrown with ivy, and built +upon the verge of the blue lake, whose waves broke against the base, +and rolled away in the distance beyond the northern horizon. + +Fully in accord with the liberal eclecticism that characterized its +exterior, was the wide-eyed, deep, tender-hearted charity which, +ignoring all denominational barriers, opened its doors in cordial +welcome to worthy, homeless women, whom misfortune had swept away from +family moorings, and whose clean hands and pure hearts sought some +avenue to honest work. The institution was a memorial erected and +endowed by a wealthy man, whose only child Umilta, just crossing the +threshold of womanhood, had been lost in a sudden storm on the lake; +whose fair, drowned face had been washed ashore just below the stone +wall, and whose statue stood, guarded by marble angels, in the small +chapel in the centre of the building, which was designed as an enduring +monument to commemorate her untimely fate, and perpetuate her name. + +Divided into various industrial departments, the "Anchorage" was +maintained almost entirely by the labor of its inmates; and it had +rarely been found necessary to draw from the reserve endowment fund, +that was gradually accumulating for future contingencies. + +Trained nurses, trained housekeepers were furnished on demand; lace +curtains mended, laundered; dainty lingerie of every description, from +a baby's wardrobe to a bride's trousseau; ornamental needle-work on all +fabrics; artificial flowers, card engraving, artistic designs for +upholstering, menus, type-writing, all readily supplied to customers; +and certain confectionery put up in pretty boxes made by the inmates, +and bearing the "Anchor" stamp. A school of drawing, etching, painting, +and embroidery attracted many pupils; and a few pensioners who had +grown too infirm and dim-eyed for active work, had a warm, bright room +where they knitted stockings and underwear of various kinds. + +At one end of the long refectory was emblazoned on the wall: "For +whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in Heaven, the same +is my brother and sister and mother." At the other: "Bear ye one +another's burdens." The chapel contained no pulpit, but on a marble +altar stood a life-size figure of a woman clinging to the cross: and on +the walls hung paintings representing the Crucifixion, the Descent, the +Resurrection and the Mater Dolorosa; while in a niche at the extremity, +behind the altar, an Ecce Homo of carved ivory was suspended above a +gilt cross, and just beneath it glittered the motto "Faith, Hope, +Charity". Every morning and evening the band of women gathered here, +and recited the Apostles' Creed, and the Lord's Prayer; but on Sabbath +the members attended the church best suited to their individual tenets. + +The infirmary was a cheerful, airy room, and here professional nurses +were trained under the guidance of visiting physicians; and in an +adjoining kitchen were taught to prepare the articles of diet usually +belonging to the regimen of sick rooms. + +Widows, maidens, Catholics, Protestants, admitted from the age of +eighteen to forty, these "Umilta Sisters" were received on probation +for eighteen months; then entered upon a term of five years, subject to +renewal at will; bound by specified rules, but no irrevocable vow. +Yielding implicit obedience to the matron, elected by themselves every +four years--subject to approval and ratification by the Chapter of +Trustees, they were recognized wherever they went by the gray garb, the +white aprons, and snowy mob caps peculiar to the institution. + +Fashionable women patronized and fondled the "Anchorage", for much the +same reason that led them to pamper their pugs; and since the Chapter +of Trustees consisted of men of wealth and prominence, their wives, as +magnates in le beau monde, set the seal of "style" upon articles +manufactured there, by ordering quilted satin afghans with anchors of +pansies embroidered in the centre, for their baby carriages; painted +tea gowns; favors for a "German", or fans and bonbonnieres for birthday +parties. + +If children of the Brahmin caste of millionairdom were seized by the +Pariah ills of measles, or chicken-pox, or mumps, it was deemed quite +as imperatively the duty of doting parents to provide an "Anchorage" +nurse, as to secure an eminent physician, and the most costly brand of +condensed milk. In the name of sweet charity, gay gauzy-winged +butterflies of fashion harnessed themselves in ropes of roses, and +dragged the car of benevolence; as painted papillons drew chariots of +goddesses on ancient classic walls; so in the realm of social economy +the ubiquitous law of correlation of industrial force--of conservation +of energy--transmuted the arrested labor of the rich and idle into the +fostering heat that stimulated the working poor. + +Scarcely a month previous to her unexpected release from prison, Beryl +had received a letter from Doctor Grantlin, enclosing one addressed to +"Sister Ruth, Matron of Anchorage". He wrote that his daughter's health +demanded some German baths; and on the eve of sailing, he desired to +secure for the prisoner a temporary refuge, should the efforts which he +had heard were made to obtain her pardon, prove successful. As a nephew +of the founder, and a cousin of the young lady for whom the "Anchorage" +was intended as a lasting memorial, he had always been accorded certain +privileges by the trustees; and the letter, if presented to the matron, +would insure at least an entrance into the haven of rest, until the +prisoner could mature some plan for her future. + +Spurred away from X--by the dread of another interview with the man +whom she had assiduously shunned, and of being required to visit "Elm +Bluff" and scrutinize the accusing picture, Beryl had shrouded herself +in her heavy mourning, and fled from the scene of her suffering, on the +3 A.M. train Sunday morning; ten hours after receiving the certificate +of her discharge. Shrinking from observation, she refused Mr. Singleton +permission to accompany her to the station house, and bade him good-bye +three squares distant; promising to write soon to his still absent +wife, and assured by him that a farewell letter of affectionate +gratitude should be promptly delivered to Dyce. Fortunately a stranger +stood in the office and sold her a ticket; and in the same corner, +where twenty months before she had knelt during the storm, she waited +once more for the sound of the train. How welcome to her the shuddering +shriek that tore its way through the dewy silence of the star-lit +summer night, and she hurried out, standing almost on the rails, in her +impatience to depart. + +Several travellers were grouped near a pile of luggage awaiting the +train, but as it rolled swiftly in and jarred itself to a standstill, +she saw even through her crape veil a well known figure, leaning +against an iron post that held an electric lamp. She sprang up the +steps leading to the platform, and took the first vacant seat, which +was in front of an open window. + +The silvery radiance from the globe just opposite, streamed in, and her +heart seemed to cease beating as the tall form moved forward and taking +off his hat, stood at the side of the car. Neither spoke. But when the +brass bell rang its signal and the train trembled into motion, a hand +was thrust in, and dropped upon her lap a cluster of exquisite white +roses, with one scarlet passion flower glowing in the centre. + +During the three days spent in New York, Beryl's wounds bled afresh, +and she felt even more desolate than while sheltered behind prison +walls. The six-storied tenement house where she had last seen her +mother's face, and kissed her in final farewell, had been demolished to +make room for a new furniture warehouse. Strange nurses in the hospital +could tell her nothing concerning the last hours of the beloved dead; +and the only spot in the wide western world that seemed to belong to +her, was a narrow strip of ground in a remote corner of the great +cemetery, where a green mound held its square granite slab, bearing the +words "Ellice Darrington Brentano." + +With her face bowed upon that stone, the lonely woman had wept away the +long hours of an afternoon that decided her plan for the future. + +Dr. Grantlin had gone abroad for an indefinite period, and no one knew +the contents of his last letter. In New York her movements would be +subject to the SURVEILLANCE she most desired to escape; but in that +distant city where the "Anchorage" was situated, she might disappear, +leaving no more trace than that of a stone dropped in some stormy, +surging sea. + +To find Bertie and reclaim him, was the only goal of hope life held for +her, and to accomplish this, the first requisite was to effectually +lose herself. + +Anxious and protracted deliberation finally resulted in an +advertisement, which she carried next morning to the "Herald" office, +to be inserted for six months in the personal column, unless answered. + +"BERTIE, IF YOU WANT THE LOST BUTTON WE BOUGHT AT LUCCA, WHEN CAN +GIGINA HAND IT TO YOU IN ST. CATHERINE'S, CANADA?" + +She wore her old blue bunting dress, and a faded blue veil when she +delivered the notice at the office of the newspaper, and paid in +advance the cost of its publication. Later in the same day, clad in her +mourning garments, she went down to the Grand Central Depot and bought +a railway ticket; and the night express bore her away on her long +journey westward. + +It was on the fourth of July, her twenty-first birthday, that she +entered the reception room at the "Anchorage", and presented in +conjunction with Doctor Grantlin's letter, a copy of the newspaper +printed at X--, which contained an article descriptive of the discovery +of the picture on the glass door; and expressive of the profound +sympathy of the public for the prisoner so unjustly punished by +incarceration. + +For twenty years a resident of the institution, over which she had +repeatedly presided, Sister Ruth was now a woman of fifty-five, whose +white hair shone beneath her cap border like a band of spun silver, and +whose yellowish, dim eyes seemed unnaturally large behind their +spectacles. Thin and wrinkled, her face was nobly redeemed by a +remarkably beautiful, patient mouth; and her angular, wiry figure, by +small feet and very slender hands, where the veins rose like blue cords +lacing ivory satin. Over the shoulders of her gray flannel dress was +worn the distinctive badge of her office, a white mull handkerchief +pleated surplice fashion into her girdle, whence hung by a silver chain +a set of tablets; and the folds of mull were fastened at her throat by +a silver anchor. + +Having deliberately read letter and paper, she put the former in her +pocket, and returned the latter with a stately yet graceful inclination +of the head, that would have been creditable in Mdm. Recamier's salon. + +"I have expected you for some weeks, an earlier letter from Doctor +Grantlin having prepared me for your arrival; but it appears you have +not been released from prison by the pardon he anticipated?" + +"No, madam; the authorities who caused my arrest and imprisonment, +considered the discovery of the printed door a complete refutation of +the accusation against me, and ordered my release. I come here not as a +pardoned criminal, but as an unfortunate victim of circumstantial +evidence; acquitted of all suspicion by a circumstance even stranger +than those which seemed to condemn me. In the darkest days of my +desolation, Doctor Grantlin believed me innocent, honored me with his +confidence and friendship, soothed my mother's dying hour; and he will +rejoice to learn that acquittal anticipated the mockery of a pardon. +Only his generous encouragement emboldened me to hope for a temporary +shelter here." + +"Then you have no desire to become a permanent resident?" + +"At present, I shall be grateful if allowed to enjoy the privilege of +hiding my sore heart for a while from the gaze of a world that has +cruelly wronged me. I want to rest where wicked men and women do not +pollute the air, where I can try to forget the horrors of convict life; +and the rest I need is not idleness, it is labor of some kind that will +so fully employ my hands and brain, that when I lie down at night my +sad, aching heart and wounded soul can find balm in sleep. Locked at +night into a dark cell has made existence for nearly eighteen months a +mere hideous vigil, broken by fitful nightmare. To see only pure faces, +to listen to sweet feminine voices that never knew the desecration of +blasphemy, to exchange the grim, fetid precincts of a penitentiary for +a holy haven such as this, is indeed a glimpse of paradise to a +tortured spirit." + +"Have you special reasons for wishing to shun observation?" + +The dim eyes probed like some dull blade that tears the tissues. + +"Yes, madam, special cause to want to be forgotten by the public, who +have stared me at times almost to frenzy." + +"You are an orphan, I am told; with no living relatives in America." + +"I am an orphan; and think I have no relative in the United States." + +"In the very peculiar circumstances that surround and isolate you, I +should imagine you would esteem it a great privilege to cast your lot +here, and become one of the permanently located Sisters of the +'Anchorage'. Ours is a noble and consecrated mission." + +"Knowing literally nothing of your institution, except that it is a +hive of industrious good women, offering a home and honest work to +homeless and innocent unfortunates, I could not pledge myself to a life +which might not prove suitable on closer acquaintance. Take me in; give +me employment that will prevent me from being a tax upon your +hospitality and mercifully shelter me from pitiless curiosity and +gossip." + +"Even were our sympathies not enlisted in your behalf, Doctor +Grantlin's request would insure your admission, at least for a season. +Where is your luggage?" + +"I have only a trunk, for which I have retained the railway check, +until I ascertained your willingness to receive me." + +"Give it to me." + +She crossed the room and pressed the knob of a bell on the opposite +wall. Almost simultaneously a door opened, and to a stout, middle-aged +woman who appeared on the threshold, the matron gave instructions in an +under tone. + +Returning to the stranger, she resumed: + +"I infer from the Doctor's letter, that you are a gifted person. In +what lines do your talents run?" + +"Perhaps I should not lay claim to talent, but I am, by grace of study, +a good musician; and I draw and paint, at least with facility. At one +time I supported my mother and myself by singing in a choir, but +diphtheria closed that avenue of work. With the restoration of health, +I think I have recovered my voice. I am an expert needle woman, and can +embroider well, especially on fine linen." + +"Do you feel competent to teach a class in 'water color', in our Art +School? Our aquarelle Sister is threatened with amaurosis, and the +oculist prohibits all work at present." + +"You can form an opinion of my qualifications by examining some +sketches which are in my trunk. I have furnished several designs for +the 'Society of Decorative Art', and have sold a number of painted +articles at the Woman's Exchange." + +"Then I think you have only to step into a vacant niche, and supply a +need which was beginning to perplex us. During the latter part of +September, an International Scientific Congress will be held in this +city, and one of our patrons, Mr. Brompton, who expects to entertain +the distinguished foreign delegates, has given us an order for dinner +cards for eight courses, and each set for twenty-four covers. As nearly +as we can comprehend the design, his intention is to represent the +order of creation in fish, game, fruits and flowers; and each card will +illustrate some special era in geology and zoology. The cream and ices +set are expected to show the history of Polar regions as far as known, +and at the conclusion of the banquet, each guest will be presented with +a velvet smoking cap, to which must be attached a card representing +'scientific soap-bubbles pricked by the last scientists' junta'. Now +while the 'Anchorage's' cultured art standard claims to be as high as +any, East, we should scarcely venture to fill this order, had not two +of the professors in our University, promised to map out the order, and +furnish some dots in the way of engravings, which will aid the +accomplishment of the work; and we are particularly desirous of +pleasing our patron, from whom the 'Anchorage' expects a bequest. If +you think you can successfully undertake a portion of this order, given +us by Mr. Brompton, we shall make you doubly welcome." + +"I think I may safely promise satisfactory work in the line you +designate; and at least, I shall be grateful for the privilege of +making the attempt." + +"You are aware, I presume, that all inmates of the 'Anchorage' are +required to wear its regulation uniform." + +"I shall be very glad to don it; hoping it may possess some spell to +exorcise memories of the last uniform I wore; the blue homespun of +penitentiary convicts." + +"You must try to forget all that. The 'Anchorage' gates shut fast on +the former lives we led; here we dwell in a busy present, hoping to +secure a blessed future. Come with me to the cutting room, and be +measured for your flannel uniform; then one of the Sisters will show +you to your own cell in this consecrated bee-hive, which you will find +as peaceful as its name implies." + +The first story contained the reception rooms, chapel, schoolroom, +apartments for the display of sample articles manufactured; the +refectory, kitchen and laundry; and one low wide room with glass on +three sides, where orchids and carnations, the floral specialties of +the institution, were grown. On the second floor were various +workrooms, supplied with materials required for the particular fabric +therein manufactured or ornamented; and cut off from communication, was +the east wing, used exclusively as an infirmary, and provided with its +separate kitchen and laundry. The third story embraced the dormitory, a +broad, lofty apartment divided by carved scroll work and snowy +curtains, into three sets of sleeves running the entire length of the +floor; separated by carpeted aisles, and containing all the articles of +furniture needed by each occupant. On the ceiling directly over every +bed, was inscribed in gilt letters, some text from the Bible, exhorting +to patience, diligence, frugality, humility, gentleness, obedience, +cheerfulness, honesty, truthfulness and purity; and mid-way the central +aisle, where a chandelier swung, two steps led to a raised desk, whence +at night issued the voice of the reader, who made audible to all the +occupants the selected chapter in the Bible. At ten o'clock a bell was +rung by the Sister upon whom devolved the duty of acting as night +watch; then lights were extinguished save in the infirmary. This common +dormitory was reserved for Sisters who had spent at least five years in +the building; and to probationers were given small rooms on the second +story of the west wing. + +The third story of the same wing fronted north, and served as a studio +where all designs were drawn and painted; and upon its walls hung +pictures in oil and water color, engravings, vignettes, and all the +artistic odds and ends given or lent by sympathetic patrons. + +Each story was supplied with bath-rooms, and the entire work of the +various departments was performed by the appointed corps of inmates; +the Sisters of the wash tub, and of the broom brigade, being selected +for the work best adapted to their physical and intellectual +development. + +Visitors lingered longest in the great kitchen with its arched recess +where the range was fitted; where like organ pipes glittering copper +boilers rose, and burnished copper measures and buckets glinted on the +carved shelves running along one side. The adjoining pastry room was +tiled with stone, furnished with counters covered with marble slabs, +and with refrigerators built into the wall; and here the white-capped, +white-aproned priestesses of pots, pans and pestles moved quietly to +and fro, performing the labor upon which depended in great degree the +usefulness of artificers in all other departments. + +The refectory opened on a narrow terrace at the rear of the building, +which was sodded with turf and starred with pansies and ox-eyed +daisies, and on the wide, stone window sills sat boxes and vases filled +with maiden-hair ferns and oxalis, with heliotrope and double white +violets. Three lines of tables ran down this bright pretty room, and in +the centre rose a spiral stair to a cushioned seat, where when "Grace" +had been pronounced, the Reader for the day made selections from such +volumes of prose or poetry as were deemed by the Matron elevating and +purifying in influence; tonic for the soul, stimulant for the brain, +balm for the heart. + +Close to the rear wall overhanging the lake, ran a treillage of grape +vines, and on the small grass sown plat of garden, belated paeonies +tossed up their brilliant balls, as play-things for the wind that swept +over the blue waves, breaking into a fringe of foam beyond the stone +enclosure. + +Except at meals, and during the last half hour in the dormitory, night +and morning, no restriction of silence was imposed, and one hour was +set apart at noon for merely social intercourse, or any individual +scheme of labor. Busy, tranquil, cheerful, often merry, they endeavored +to eschew evil thoughts; and cultivated that rare charity which makes +each tolerant of the failings of the other, which broadens a sympathy +that can excuse individual differences of opinion, and that consecrates +the harmony of true home life. + +The room assigned to Beryl was at the extremity of the second story, +just beneath the studio; and as the north end of the wings was built at +each corner into projections that were crowned with bell towers, this +apartment had a circular oriel window, swung like a basket from the +wall, and guarded by an iron balcony. Cool, quiet, restful as an +oratory seemed the nest; with its floor covered by matting diapered in +blue, its low, wide bedstead of curled maple, with snowy Marseilles +quilt, and crisply fluted pillow cases; its book shelves hanging on the +wall, surmounted by a copy in oil of Angelico's Elizabeth of Hungary, +with rapt face upraised as she lifted her rose-laden skirt. + +The lambrequins of blue canton flannel were bordered with trailing +convolvulus in pink cretonne, and the diaphanous folds of white muslin +curtains held in the centre an embroidered anchor which dragged inward, +as the breeze rushed in through open windows. An arched recess in the +wall, whence a door communicated with the adjoining chamber, was +concealed by a portiere of blue that matched the lambrequins, and the +alcove served as a miniature dressing-room, where the brass faucet +emptied into a marble basin. + +In this apartment the imperial sway of dull maroons, sullen Pompeiian +reds, and sombre murky olives had never cast encroaching shadows upon +the dainty brightness of tender rose and blue, nor toned down the +silvery reflection of the great sea of waters that flashed under the +sunshine like some vast shifting mirror. + +Travel-worn and very weary, Beryl sat down by the window and looked out +over the lake, that far as the eye could reach, lifted its sparkling +bosom to the cloudless dim blue of heaven, effacing the sky line; +dotted with sails like huge white butterflies, etched here and there +with spectral, shadowy ship masts, overflown by gray gulls burnished +into the likeness of Zophiels' pinions, as their wings swiftly dipped. + +Driven by storms of adversity away from the busy world of her earlier +youth, leaving the wrack of hopes behind, she had drifted on the +chartless current of fate into this Umilta Sisterhood, this latter day +Beguinage; where, provided with work that would furnish her daily +bread, she could hide her proud head without a sense of shame. Doctor +Grantlin, in compliance with her request, would keep the secret of her +retreat; and surely here she might escape forever the scrutiny and the +dangerous magnetism of the man who had irretrievably marred her fair, +ambitious youth. + +To-day, twenty-one, full statured in womanhood, prematurely scorched +and scarred in spirit by fierce ordeals, she saw the pale ghost of her +girlhood flitting away amid the ruins of the past; and knew that +instead of making the voyage of life under silken sails gilded with the +light, and fanned by the breath of love and happiness, she had been +swept under black skies before a howling hurricane, into an unexpected +port,--where, lashed to the deck with "torn strips of hope", she had +finally moored a strained, dismasted barque in the "Anchorage", whence +with swelling canvas and flying pennons no ships ever went forth. + +A rush of grateful tears filled her tired eyes, and soothed by the +consciousness of an inviolable security, her trembling lips moved in a +prayer of thankfulness to God, upon whom she had stayed her tortured +soul, grappling it to the blessed promise: "Lo, I am with you always. I +will never leave you nor forsake you." + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + + +"Why deny it, Leo? Let us at least be frankly realistic, and 'call a +spade a spade' when we set ourselves to dig ditches, draining the +stagnant pools of life. Each human being has a special goal toward +which he or she strains, with nineteen chances out of twenty against +reaching it in time; and if it be won, is it worth the race? With some +of us it is love, ambition, mundane prosperity; with others, +intellectual supremacy, moral perfection, exalted spirituality, +sublimated altruism; but after all, in the final analysis, it is only +hedonism! Each struggles with teeth and claws for that which gives the +largest promise of pleasure to body, mind, or soul, as the individual +happens to incline. To Sybarites the race is too short to be fatiguing, +and the goal is only an ambuscade for satiety and ennui; to ascetics, +the race course stretches to the borders of futurity, but even for them +one form of pleasure, spiritual pleasure, lights up eternity. The thing +we want, we want; not because of its orthodoxy, or its excellency or +beauty PER SE; we want it because it gratifies some idiosyncratic +craving of our threefold natures. The good things of this world are +very adroitly and ingeniously labelled, but we rummage in the +bonbonniere for a certain marron glace, and if it be not there, all the +caramels in Venice, all the 'gluko' in Greece, all the rahatlicum in +Turkey will not appease us." + +With her arms thrown back, and clasped around the satin cushion crushed +against her head and shoulders, Miss Cutting lay on a red plush divan +in her father's picture gallery at home; and the swathing folds of a +topaz-hued surah gown embroidered with scarlet poppies half concealed +the feet that beat a tattoo on the polished oak floor. + +"Then you have missed your marron glace?" answered Leo, turning from +the contemplation of a new picture which Mr. Cutting had recently added +to his collection. + +"Of course. Do not all of us sooner or later? Where is yours? Safe +under lock and key, or hanging on some crag, ripening for the +confectioner; or filched by some stealthy white hand, devoured by some +eager lips that smile derisively at you while they nibble?" + +From beneath drooping lids, Alma's oblique glance noted the result of +her Scipio Africanus' tactics. + +"Alma, too intemperate and prolonged diet of sweets has ruined your +digestion; has rendered you an ethical dyspeptic. A surfeit of sugar +betrays itself in fermentation, and you have reached the stage of moral +acidulation." + +"Ah, don't drift into homiletics! I see your marron grows hard by the +vineyard where sour grapes flourish. Leo, I am not so serenely proud as +you, but a trifle more honest, and I have cried for my bonbon, never +flouting its delicious flavor; hence, when I am ordered back to boiled +milk and oatmeal, I make no feint to disguise my wry faces." + +Alma's low, teasing laugh stung like some persistent buzzing insect, +and a slight flush tinged her companion's cheek as she replied: + +"Why plunge to the opposite extreme? You will starve on that porridge +you are desperately preparing for yourself." + +"What else remains? This world is a huge bazaar, a big church fair, and +like other eager-eyed children I promptly set my heart on the great +'bisc' doll with its head turning coquettishly from side to side, +singing snatches from 'La Grande Duchcsse', and clad like Sheba's +queen! I stake all my pennies on a chance in the raffle, which has a +'consolation prize' hidden away from vulgar gaze. By and by the dice +rattle, and over my head, quite out of my reach, is borne the coveted +beauty (owned now by a girl I know), bowing and singing to the new +owner, who exultantly exhibits her as she departs; and into my +outstretched arms falls something hideous enough to play Medusa in a +tableau, a rag baby with grinning Senegambian lips, rayless owlish +eyes, and a concave nose whose nostrils suggest the Catacombs! Bitter +rage and murderous fury possess me, but I am much too wise to show my +tempers at the fair; so I hug my 'consolation prize', and get away as +fast as possible with my treasure, and once safe from observation, box, +deride, trample upon it, and toss it into the garret as suitable prey +for dust, cobwebs and mildew! After a time, the keenness of the +disappointment dulls, like all other human aches that do not kill, and +by degrees I think less vindictively of the despised substitute. +Finally comes a day, when all else failing to amuse me, I creep +sheepishly into the attic and pick up the rejected, and persuade myself +it is at least better than no doll at all, and forthwith adorn it with +rags of finery; but the echoes of 'La Grande Duchesse' will always ring +in my ears, and through the halo of tears I see ever and anon the prize +beauty that was withheld. The two-edged sword in the diablerie of fate +is, that we are ordained to fret after 'bisc,' when stuffed rags have +been meted out as our share of the fair." + +Leo drew a chair near the divan and seated herself; looking steadily +into the velvety black eyes that instead of betraying hid, like a +domino, the soul of their owner. + +"Alma, better cross empty arms forever over empty heart, than mock your +womanhood by acceptance of a 'consolation prize'." + +"We all say that the day after the fair; but wait a few years as I have +done; and like all your sisters in the ranks of the disappointed, you +will ultimately crawl back to the attic and kiss the thick lips, and +try to persuade yourself the nose is not so formidable, though +certainly a trifle less classic than Antinous's! We set out with our +eyes fixed on Vega, blazing above, and flaunt our banner--'tout ou +rien!'--but when the campaign ends, Vega laughs at us from the horizon, +quitting our world; and we console ourselves with a rushlight, and +shelter it carefully from the wind with another flag: 'Quand on n'a pas +ce qu'on aime, il faut aimer ce qu'on a!' Such is the worldly wisdom +that comes with ripening years, like the deep stain on the sunny side +of a peach. Moreover, 'folding empty arms,' is only melodrama metaphor, +and 'empty hearts' are, begging your pardon, only figments of romantic +brains. Our hearts aren't empty, more's the pity! They hold deep, deep, +the image of Vega, and the flare of the tallow eandle on the surface +serves as cross lights to dazzle the world, and help us to hide the +reflection of our star. I saw that metaphor in some novel, and +recognize its truth. Do you, my princess?" + +"I will never so utterly degrade myself. I could neither lower my +standard, nor sacrifice my ideal," said Leo, with a touch of scorn in +her usually gentle voice. + +"You prefer that your ideal should sacrifice you? One enjoys for a +season the wide expanse visible from that lofty emotional pinnacle; but +the atmosphere is too rarefied, and we gladly descend to the warm, +denser air of the plains of common sense selfishness. If it be lowering +your standard to become the wife of a bishop (the youngest ever +ordained in his State), clothed with the double distilled odors of +sanctity and popularity, then heaven help your standard, which only +heaven can fitly house." + +"Since you persist in assuming that so flattering an offer has been +made me, I will set this subject at rest, by a final assurance that +even were your surmise correct, I could never under any imaginable +circumstances marry my cousin, Bishop Douglass. Although I trust and +reverence him beyond all other men, 'I love my cousin cousinly, no +more,' and he is too much absorbed by his holy office and its solemn +responsibilities, to waste thought on the frail, sweet, rosy garland of +any woman's love. Fret yourself no longer in casting matrimonial +horoscopes for me." + +The flushed cheeks, and a certain icy curtness in Leo's tone, warned +her companion that she was rashly invading sacred precincts. + +"Eight years ago I made the solemn asseveration that I would never +marry; and I ran as a raw recruit to swell the army of foolish virgins +who lost all the wedding splendors, the hypothetical 'cakes and ale', +for want of the oil of worldly wisdom. Now I am thirty-three, and my +lamp is filled to the brim, and the bridegroom is in sight. Why not? +Adverse weather, rain, rust and mildew spoiled my beautiful golden +harvest ten years ago, but aftermath is better than bare stubble +fields, and though you miss the song of the reapers, you escape +starvation. Deny it as we may, we are hopelessly given over to +fetichism, and each one of us ties around her stone image some +beguiling orthodox label. Leo, yours is pride, masquerading in the dun +garb of 'religious duty'. Mine is self-love, pure and simple, the +worldly weal of Alma Cutting; but nominally it is dubbed 'grateful +requital of a life of devotion' in my lover! You grieve over my +heartlessness? That is the one compensation time brings, when men and +women have killed the best in our natures. Teeth ache fiercely; then +the nerve dies, and we have surcease from pain, and find comfort in +knowing that the darkening wreck can throb no more. There was a time +when the pangs of Prometheus seemed only pastime to mine, but all +things end; and now I get on as comfortably without a heart, as the +victims of vivisection--the frogs, and guinea pigs, and rabbits--do +without their brains." + +"I do indeed grieve over the fatal step you contemplate; I grieve over +your unwomanliness in marrying a man whom you do not even pretend to +love; and some terrible penalty will avenge the outrage against +feminine nature. Some day your heart will stir in its cold torpor, and +then all Dante's visions of horror, will become your realities, +scuurging you down to despair." + +"Because 'Farleigh Court' may lie dangerously close to 'Denzil Place'? +Be easy, Leo; the cold remains of my ossified affection will lie in as +decorous repose as the harmless ash heaps of some long buried damosel +of the era of Lars Porsenna, dug out of Vulci or Chiusi. To make a safe +and brilliant marriage is the acme of social success. What else does +the world to which I belong, offer me now?" + +"There remains always, Alma, the alternative of listening to the +instinctive monitors God set to watch in every woman's nature; and we +have the precious and inalienable privilege of being true to ourselves. +Better mourn your 'bisc' than stoop to a lower substitute. Be loyal to +yourself, be true to your own heart." + +"I know myself rather too intimately to offer a tribute of admiration +on the altar of ego; and I prefer to make the experiment of trying to +be true and loyal to some one else, with whose imperfections I am not +so well acquainted. When you meet your adorable 'bisc' in society, with +a wife hanging on his arm,--when as pater familias he convoys his flock +of small children who tread on your toes at the chrysanthemum shows, +what then? The world, my world, is generously and munificently lax, and +though the limits of respectable endurance may be as hard to find as +the 'fourth dimension of space', or the authenticity of the 'Book of +Jasher', still for decency's sake we submit there are limits of +decorum; certain proprietorial domains upon which we may not openly +poach; and mcum et tuum though moribund, is not yet numbered with +belief in the 'grail'. Female emancipation is not quite complete even +in America, and noblesse oblige! our code still reads: 'Zeus has +unquestioned right to Io; but woe betide Io when she suns her heart in +the smiles that belong to Hera!' Some women find exhilaration in the +effort to excel, by flying closest to the flame without singeing their +satin wings; by executing a pirouette on the extremest ledge of the +abyss, yet escape toppling in; female Blondins skipping across the +tight rope of Platonic friendship, stretched above the unmentionable. +You are shocked?" + +"Indeed, I am pained. I can scarcely recognize the Alma of old." + +"Wait one moment, I have the floor. In the days when I wept for +my--shall I say 'bisc'? for impersonality is hedged about with safety, +and the consolation prize had not yet been invited to come back from +Coventry, a funny trifle set me to thinking seriously of my sin of +covetousness. One summer at a certain fashionable resort, let us call +it villeggiatura of the Lepidoptera, the amusement programme had +reached the last act, and people yawned for something new, when 'sweet +charity' came to the rescue, and proposed an entertainment to raise +funds for enlarging an ecclesiastical 'Columbary' where aged, unsightly +and repentant doves might moult, and renew their plumage. Musical, +dramatic, poetic recitations, and tableaux vivants constituted the +method of collecting the money, and the selections would have made +Rabelais chuckle. We had the most flagitiously erotic passages +(rendered in costume) from opera and opera bouffe, living reproductions +of the tragic pose of Paolo and Francesca that would hare inspired +Cabanel anew; of 'Ginevra Da Siena,' of 'Vivien,'--a carnival of the +carnal! where nurseries were robbed to supply the mimic ballet, and +where bald-headed clergyman, and white-haired mothers in Israel clapped +and encored. One fair forsaken dame, whose indignant spouse was seeking +a divorce, came to the footlights in an artistic garment so decollete +that a man sitting behind me whispered to his friend: 'What pictures +does she suggest to you? "Phryne before the Judges"--or Long's +"Thisbe?" She languorously waved a floral fan of crimson carnations, +and recited with all of Siddons' grace and Rachel's fire selections +from a book of poems, that were so many dynamite bombs of vice +smothered in roses. Amid tumultuous applause, she gave as encore +something that contained a fragment of Feydeau, and its closing words +woke up my drowsy soul, like a clap of thunder: 'Ce que les poetes +appellent l'amour, et les moralistes l'adultere!' Leo, there is a moral +somnambulism more frightful than that which leads to midnight +promenades on the combs of roofs, and the borders of Goat Island; so I +wiped my tears away, and after that day, began to read the billet doux +and wear the flowers of my 'consolation prize'." + +"You do not love him, and your marriage will degrade you in your own +estimation. Your bridal vows will be perjury, an insult to your God, +and a foul terrible wrong against the man who trusts your truthfulness. +According to our church, wedlock is a 'holy ordinance'; and to me an +unloving wife is unhallowed; is a blot on her sex, only a few degrees +removed from unmarried mothers. You know the difference between +friendship and love, and when you go to the altar, and give the former +in exchange for the latter, the base counterfeit for the true gold, you +are consciously and premeditatedly dishonest." + +"Thanks, for your clearness of diction, your perspicuity which leaves +no cobweb of misty doubt wherewith to drape my shivering moral +deformity! To 'see ourselves as others see us' is as disappointing as +the result of plunging one's hand into the 'grab-bag', but at least it +brings the stimulating tingle of a new sensation. Suppose each knows +perfectly well that as regards the true gold, both are equally +bankrupt? There is a queer moral fungus called 'honesty among thieves', +and we both know that we never sang snatches from Offenbach to each +other, through pink 'bisc' lips. He loved quite desperately a mignonne +of a blonde, with heavenly blue eyes and cherubic yellow hair, who, not +knowing his expectations from a California uncle, jilted him for a rich +Cuban. Look you, Leo, because I cannot wear Kohinoor, must I disport +myself without any diamond necklace? Since he can never own 'La +Peregrina,' must he eschew pearl studs in his shield front? We +distinctly understand that we are not first prizes; but perhaps we may +be something better than total blanks in the lottery, even though we +quite realize the difference between love and friendship. Do you? +Portia should know every jot and tittle of the law, and all the subtle +shades of evidence, before she lifts her voice in court." + +Alma pushed away her cushion, sat upright, and the slumbering fire +flashed up under her jet lashes. + +"If I do, that knowledge which earlier or later comes to all women, is +certainly linked with the comforting consciousness that I can trust +myself to govern and protect myself, without being tied to a watch-dog, +whose baying would serve much the same purpose as that picture in +mosaic in the House of the Tragic Poet. I have a very sincere affection +for you, Alma, but the day on which you sell yourself in a loveless +marriage, will strain hard on the cable of esteem." + +"Is it for this reason that you refuse to officiate as my bridesmaid?" + +"Solely because I will neither witness nor participate in an act which +will give me great pain by lowering my estimate of your character." + +Alma's long, supple, tapering fingers were outstretched, and taking +Leo's white dimpled hands, drew them caressingly to her face, pressing +a palm against each cheek. + +"Your good opinion is so precious, I cannot afford to lose it. We +accept men's flattery and expect their compliments, because it is a +traditional homage that survives the chivalry that inspired it; but we +don't mistake chaff for wheat, and the purest, sweetest, noblest and +holiest friendship in life is that of a true, good woman. The perfume +is as different as the stale odor of a cigar, from the breath of the +honeysuckle that bleached all night under crystal dew, floats in at +your window like a message from heaven, I love you dearly, my pretty +Portia, hence I wince a trifle at your harsh ascription of cave canem +motives in my marriage. In the idyllic Arthurian days, the 'Lily Maid +of Astolot' made a touching picture, weeping and dying for the man who +rode away, marauding on kingly preserves; but this is the era of wise, +common sense 'Maud Mullers', and she and the Judge, mating as best they +can, lead peaceful lives in a wholesome atmosphere, and cause no +scandal by following 'affinities' across the lines of law; as some high +in literature, art, and society have done, trusting that the starred +mantle of genius would hide their moral leprosy. With all my faults, at +least I am honest; and when I bow my stiff neck under the yoke +connubial, I promise you I will keep step demurely and sedately. Do you +remember a sombre book we read while yachting, which contained this +brave confession of a woman, whose marriage made her historic? 'I +thought I had done with life. I knew I had now cause to be proud of +belonging to this man, and I was proud. At the same time I as little +feigned ardent love for him, as he demanded it from me.' Leo, you and I +represent different types. You are an eagle brooding in cold eternal +solitude upon the heights, rather than be wooed by valley hawks; I am +only a very tired wren, who missed a mate on my first Valentine season, +and seeing my plumage grows a rusty brown, I accept the overtures of +one similarly forlorn, and hope for serene domesticity under the +sheltering eaves of some quiet, cosey barn. You are a nobler bird, no +doubt; but trust me dear, I shall be the happier." + +Leo withdrew her hands, and pushed back her chair, widening the space +that divided them. + +"You disappoint me keenly. I thought you too brave to crouch before the +jeers hurled at 'old maidenism'. Moral cowardice is the last flaw I +expected in one of your fibre." + +"Wait till you are thirty-three, and stand as a target at Society's +archery meeting. Yesterday Celeste was pale with horror when she showed +me two white hairs pulled from my 'bangs', and added, 'Helas races! and +powdered hair no more the style!' My dear girl-- + + "'True love, of course, is scarcely in society, + Unless in fancy dress, and masked like one of us--'" + +still I really am very proud of my six feet two inches prospective +conjugal yoke-fellow; proud of his martial bearing, his brilliant +reputation, 'proud of his pride'; and I think I shall grow very fond of +him, because in a mild way I think he cares for me'; and we can make a +little Indian Summer for each other before the frosts of Winter fall +upon us. What else can I do with my life? Think of it. Papa will be +married soon, and while I don't propose to tear my hair and insult his +bride, nobody can be expected to reach such altitudes of +self-abnegation as to want a step-mother. Poor papa, I am sure I hope +he may be very happy, but it is superhuman to elect to live under the +same roof, and smile benignantly on his bliss. Rivers, too, has slipped +under the matrimonial noose, and I am absolutely thrown on my own +resources for companionship. What does society offer me? Haggard, +weazen old witch, bedizened in a painted mask; don't I know the yellow +teeth and bleared eyes behind the paste-board, and the sharp nails in +the claws hidden under undressed kid? Have not I gone around for years +on her gaudy wheel, like that patient, uncomplaining goat we saw +stepping on the broad spokes of the great wheel that churned the +butter, and pressed the cheese in that dairy, near Udine? The dizzying +circle, where one must step, step--keep time or be lost! In Winter, +balls, receptions, luncheons, teas, Germans, theatre parties, opera +suppers; a rush for the first glimpse of the last picture that emerges +from the custom-house; for a bouquet of the newest rose that took the +prize at the London Show. In season, coaching parties, tally ho! Then +fox hunting minus the fox, and later, boating and bathing and lawn +tennis!--and--always--everywhere heart-burnings, vapid formalities; +beaux setting belles at each other like terriers scrambling after a +mouse; mothers lying in wait, as wise cats watching to get their paws +on the first-class catch they know their pretty kittens cannot manage +successfully. Oh! Don't I know it all! I dare say my world is the very +best possible of its kind; and I am not cynical, but oh Lord! I am so +deadly tired of everything, and everybody." + +"No wonder, unless you mercilessly calumniate it; but you have only +yourself to blame. You made social success your aim, fashionable life +your temple of worship, sham your only God. If you habitually drink +poppy juice, can you fail to be drowsy?" + +"Oh bless you! I have been polytheistic as any other well-read pagan of +my day, and changed the heads and the labels of the fetiches on my +altar almost as often as my ball wardrobe. I aspired to 'culture' in +all the 'cults', and I improved diligently my opportunities. One year +the stylish craze was sesthetics, and I fought my way to the front of +the bedlamites raving about Sapphic types, 'Sibylla Palmifera' and +'Astarte Syriaca'; and I wore miraculously limp, draggled skirts, that +tangled about my feet tight as the robes of Burne Jones' 'Vivien.' Next +season the star of ceramics and bric-a-brac was in the ascendant, and I +ran the gamut of Satsuma, Kyoto, de la Robbia, Limoge and Gubbio; of +niello, and millchori glass, of Queen Anne brass and Japanese bronze; +while my snuff boxes and my 'symphony in fans' graced all the loan +exhibitions. Soon after, a celebrated scientist from England who had +bowled over all the pins set up by his predecessors, lectured in our +Bojotia; and fired with zeal for truth, I swept aside all my costly +idealistic rubbish into a 'doomed pyramid of the vanities', and swore +allegiance to the Positive, the 'Knowable', whose priests handled +hammers, spectroscopes, electric batteries--and who set up for me a +whole Pantheon of science fetiches. I bought a microscope and peered +into tissues, pollen cells, diatoms, ditch ooze; and pitied my clever +and very talented grandmother who died ignorant of the family secrets +revealed by 'totemism', ignorant of 'parthenogenesis' which proved so +conclusively the truth of her own firm conviction, that the faults she +deplored in her son's children were all inherited directly from her +daughter-in-law, whom she detested; ignorant of the fact that the sun +which she regarded as a dazzling yellow fire was by bolometric measures +shown to be in reality of a restful, and refreshing blue color. By the +time I was fully convinced that teleology was as dead as the Ptolemaic +theory, and that 'wings were not planned for flight, but that flight +has produced wings', hence that Haeckel's gospel of 'Dysteleology' or +purposelessness in Nature satisfactorily explained creation--a great +wave of oriental theosophy overflowed us; and a revival of Buddhism +invited me to seek Nirvana as the final beatitude, where-- + + "'We shall be + Part of the mighty universal whole, + And through all icons mix and mingle with the + Kosmic Soul!'" + +Or to make matters clearer still: + + "'Om, mani Padma, Om! the dewdrop slips + Into the shining sea!'" + +Even a sponge can hold only so much, and I fell back--or shall I say +forward--in the path of progress to rest in the dimness of agnosticism. +Is it strange, Leo, that I am desperately tired; and willing to plant +my feet on the rock of matrimony, which will neither dissolve nor slip +away, and to which my vows will moor me firmly?" + +"If you had clung to your Bible, and prayed more, you would not have +wasted so signally the years that might have brought you enduring +happiness. Forgive me, Alma, but you have lived solely for self." + +"Yet now, when I propose to live solely for somebody else, you shake me +off, and repudiate me? Selfish you think? I dare say I am, but religion +now-a-day winks at that, nay fosters it. Each church is an octopus, and +the members are laboriously striving to disprove the Saviour's +admonition: 'Ye cannot serve God and mammon.' I am no worse than my +ritualistic sisters whom I meet and gossip with, under cover of the +organ muttering, and sometimes I wonder if after all we are any nearer +the kingdom of heaven that Christ preached, than the pagans whose +customs we retain under evangelical names. 'They sacrificed a white kid +to the propitious divinities, and a black kid to the unpropiticus.' Do +not we likewise? The church or one of its pensioners needs money; so +instead of denying ourselves some secular amusement, cutting short our +chablis, terrapin, pate de foie gras, gateau, Grec, Amontillado; +wearing less sealskin and sables, buying fewer pigeon-blood rubies, +absolutely mortifying the flesh in order to offer a contribution out of +our pockets to God, how ingeniously we devise schemes to extract the +largest possible amount of purely personal pleasure from the +expenditure of the sum, we call our contribution to charity? We build +chapels, and feed orphans, and clothe widows, and endow reformatories, +and establish beds in hospitals, how? By a devout, consecrating +self-denial which manifests itself in eating and drinking, in singing +and dancing, at kirmess, charity balls, amateur theatricals, garden +parties; where the cost of our XV. Siecle costume is quadruple the +price of the ticket that admits to our sacrifice of black and white +kids in the same sanctuary. We serve God with one hand, and we surely +serve with the other the Mammon of selfishness and vanity. We have +Lenten service, Lenten dietetics, Lenten costumes even; Lenten +progressive euchre, Lenten clubs; but where are the Lenten virtues, +where the genuine humility, charity, self-dedication of body and soul +to true holiness?" + +"The church is a school. If pupils will not heed admonition, and defy +the efforts of instructors, is the institution responsible for the +failure in education? The eradication of selfishness is the mission of +the churches; and if we individually practised at home a genuine +self-denial for righteousness' sake, we should collectively show the +world fewer flaws for scoffing reprimand." + +"The Shepherds are too timid to control their flocks. If they only had +the nerve to pick us up, turn our hearts inside out, show us the black +corners, and the ossifications, and call sin, sin, we should begin to +realize what despicable shams we are. Dr. Douglass, the Bishop, is the +only one I know who lays us on the dissecting table, and who does not +speak of 'human fallibility' when he means vice. He told us one day +that the Gospel required a line of demarcation between the godly and +the ungodly, between Christians and unbelievers; but that it has become +imaginary like the meridian and the equator; and that he very much +feared the strongest microscope in the laboratories could not find +where the boundary line ran between the World, the Flesh and the Devil, +and the Kingdom of God in our souls. I am sorry a distant State called +him to her Episcopal chair, for his cold steel is needed among us. Now +tell me, Leo, what you intend to do with your life?" + +"Spend it for God and my fellow creatures; and enjoy all the pure +happiness I can appropriate without wronging others. I have so many +privileges granted me, that I ought to accomplish some good in this +world, as a thank offering." + +"Take care you don't make a fetich of Jerusalem missions, Chinese +tracts, and Sheltering Arms; and lose your dear, sweet personality in a +goody-goody machine bigot. Forgive me, dear old girl, but sometimes I +fear a shadow has fallen in your sunshine." + +"Sooner or later they fall into every life, yet mine will pass away I +feel assured. 'Pain, suffering, failure are as needful as ballast to a +ship, without which it does not draw enough water, becomes a plaything +for the winds and waves, travels no certain road, and easily +overturns.' If the gloomiest pessimist of this century can extract that +comfort, what may I not hope for my future? I am going to rebuild my +house at X----and when it is completed, I shall expect the privilege of +returning the hospitality you have so kindly shown me. I shall be very +busy for at least two years, and I am glad to know that Aunt Patty is +beginning to manifest some interest in my plans." + +"Leo, may I ask something?" + +"If you are quite sure you have the right to ask, and that I can have +no reason to decline answering." + +"I can't bear that you should live and die without being a happy wife. +I don't want you to become a mere benevolent automaton set aside for +church work, and charities; getting solemn and thin, with patient +curves deepening around your mouth, and loneliness looking out of-- + +"'Eyes, meek as gentle Mercy's at the throne of heaven.'" + +"To be a happy wife is the dream of womanhood, and if the day should +ever dawn when God gives me that crown of joy, I shall wear it gladly, +proudly, and feel that this world has yielded me its richest blessing; +but, Alma, to-day I know no man whom I could marry with the hope of +that perfect union which alone sanctions and hallows wedded love. I +must be all the world to my husband; and he--next to God--must be the +universe to me. There is Gen'l Haughton coming up the stairs, so I +considerately efface myself. Good-bye till luncheon." + +As she glided away and disappeared behind the curtain leading into the +library, Alma looked after her, with very misty eyes, full of +tenderness. + +"Brave, proud soul; deep, sorrowful heart. If she can't drown her star, +at least she will admit no lesser light. She will never swerve one iota +from her lofty standard, and some day, please God, she may yet wear her +coveted crown right royally. Governor Glenbeigh is worthy even of her, +but will his devotion win her at last?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + + +If it be true that the universal Law of Labor, physical or mental, +emanated from the Creator as a penal statute, for disobedience which +forfeited Eden, how merciful and how marvellous is the delicacy of an +adjustment, whereby all growth of body, mind and soul being conditioned +by work, humanity converts punishment into benediction; escapes +degeneration, attains development solely in accordance with the +provisions of the primeval curse, man's heritage of labor? Amid the +wreck of sacerdotal systems, the destruction of national gods, the +periodical tidal waves of scepticism, the gospel of work maintains +triumphantly its legions of evangels; its apostolic succession direct +from Adam; its myriad temples always alight with altar fires, always +vocal with the sublime hymn swelling from millions of consecrated +throats. + +The one infallible tonic for weakened souls, the one supreme balm for +bruised hearts is the divinely distilled chrism of labor. + +Absorbed in the round of duties that employed her hands and thoughts, +and necessitated dedication of every waking hour, Beryl found more +solace than she had dared to hope; and the artistic fancies which she +had supposed extinguished, spread their frail gossamer wings and +fluttered shyly into the serene sunshine that had broken rpon her +frozen life. The distinctively ornamental character of many of the +industrial pursuits at the "Anchorage", demanded originality and +variety of designs, and as this department had been assigned to her, +she entered with increasing zest the tempting field of congenial +employment; yet day by day, bending over her tasks, she never lost +sight of the chain that clanked at her wrist, that bound her to a +hideous past, to a murky, lowering and menacing future. + +Weeks slipped away, months rolled on; Autumn overtook her. Winter snows +and sleet blanched the heavenly blue of the dimpling lake, and no +tidings reached her from the wanderer, for whom she prayed. The +advertisement had elicited no reply, and though it had long ceased to +appear, she daily searched the personal column of the "Herald", with a +vague expectation of some response. If her brother still lived, was the +world so wide, that she could never trace his erring passage through +it? Would no instinct of natural affection prompt him to seek news of +the mother who had idolized him? After a while she must renew the +quest, but for the present, safety demanded her seclusion; and since +only Doctor Grantlin knew the place of her retreat, she felt secure +from discovery. + +One Spring day, when warm South winds had kissed open the spicy lips of +lilacs, and yellowed the terrace with crocus flakes, Beryl dismissed +her class of pupils in drawing and painting, and was engaged in dusting +the plaster casts, and arranging the palettes and pencils left in +disorder. The door opened, and a pretty, young German Sister looked in. + +"Sister Ruth have need of you to do some errands; and you must go on +the street; so you will get your bonnet and veil. Is it that you will +be there soon?" + +"I will come at once, Sister Elsbeth." + +For several days Sister Ruth had been confined to her room by +inflammatory rheumatism, and when Beryl entered, the invalid presented +the appearance of a mummy swathed in red flannel. + +"I am sorry to disturb you, and equally sorry that I feel obliged to +exact a reluctant service, because I know you dislike to visit the +business part of the city, and there I must send you. This note from +Mrs. Vanderdonk will explain the nature of the business, which I can +intrust to no one except yourself; and you will see that the commission +admits of no delay. Here is your car fare. Go first to No. 100 Lucre +Avenue, talk fully with Mrs. Vanderdonk, and then ride down to Jardon & +Jackson's and get all the material you think will be required. You will +observe, she lays great stress on the superfine quality of the plush. +Order the bill delivered with the goods; and if anything be required in +your department, you had better leave the list with Kling & Turner." + +Three squares south of the "Anchorage" ran a line of street cars which +carried her away to the heart of the city; and at the expiration of an +hour and a half, Beryl had executed the commission, and was walking +homeward, watching for a car which would expedite her return. Dreading +identification, she went rarely into the great thoroughfare; and now +felt doubly shielded from observation by the Quaker-shaped drab bonnet +and veil that covered her white cap. As she was passing the entrance of +a dancing academy, a throng of boys and girls poured out, filling the +sidewalk, and creating a temporary blockade, through which a gentleman +laden with several packages, elbowed his way. A moment later, Beryl's +foot struck some obstacle, and looking down she saw a large portfolio +lying on the pavement. It was a handsome morocco case, with the +initials "G. McI.", stamped in gilt upon the cover, which was tied with +well-worn strings. She held it up, looked around, even turned back, +thinking that the owner might have returned to search for it; but the +gentleman who had hurried through the crowd was no longer visible, and +in the distance she fancied she saw a similar figure cross the street, +and spring upon a car rolling in the opposite direction. + +The human clot had dissolved, the juvenile assembly had drifted away; +and as no one appeared to claim the lost article, she signalled to the +driver of the car passing just then, entered and took a seat in one +corner. The only passengers were two nurses with bands of little ones, +seeking fresh air in a neighboring park; and slipping the book under +her veil, Beryl began to examine its contents. A glance showed her that +it belonged to some artist, and was filled with sketches neatly +numbered and dated; while between the leaves lay specimens of ferns and +lichens carefully pressed. + +The studies were varied, and in all stages of advancement; here two elk +heads and a buffalo; there a gaunt coyote crouching in the chaparral; a +cluster of giant oaks; far off, a waving line of mountain peaks; a +canon with vultures sailing high above it; cow boys, and a shoreless +sea of prairie, with no shadows except those cast by filmy clouds +drifting against the sun. Slowly turning the leaves, which showed +everywhere a master's skilful hand, Beryl found two sheets of paper +tied together with a strand of silk; and between them lay a fold of +tissue paper, to preserve some delicate lines. She untied the knot, and +carefully lifted the tissue, looking at the sketch. + +A faint, inarticulate cry escaped her, and she sank back an instant in +the corner of the seat; but the chatter of the nurses, and the +whimpering wail of one dissatisfied baby mercifully drowned the sound. +The car, the trees on the Street, the belfry of a church seemed +spinning in some witch's dance, and an icy wind swept over and chilled +her. She threw aside her veil, stooped, and her lips whitened. + +What was there in the figure of a kneeling monk, to drive the blood in +cold waves to her throbbing heart? The sketch represented the head and +shoulders of a man, whose cowl had fallen back, exposing the outlines +and moulding of a face and throat absolutely flawless in beauty, yet +darkened by the reflection of some overpowering and irremediable woe. +The features were youthful as St. Sebastian's; the expression that of +one prematurely aged by severe and unremitting mental conflict; but +neither shaven crown, nor cowl availed to disguise Bertie Brentano, and +as his sister's eyes gazed at the sketch, it wavered, swam, vanished in +a mist of tears. + +In one corner of the sheet a man's hand had written "Brother Luke", +August the 10th. Had relenting fate, or a merciful prayer-answering-God +placed in her hand the long sought clue? When Beryl recovered from the +shock of recognition, and looked around, she found the car empty; and +discovered that she had been carried several squares beyond the street +where she intended to get out and walk. + +Carefully replacing the tissue paper and silk thread, she tied the +leathern straps of the portfolio, and left the car, holding the +sketches close to her heart as she hurried homeward. When she turned a +corner and caught sight of the bronze anchor over the door, she +involuntarily slackened her pace, and at the same moment a policeman +crossed the street, stood in front of her, and touched his cap. The +sight of his uniform thrilled her with a premonition of danger. + +"Pardon me, Sister, but something has been lost on the street." + +"A portfolio? I have found it." + +"It is very valuable to the owner." + +"I intend having it advertised in to-morrow's paper." + +"The person to whom it belongs, wishes to leave the city; to-night, +hence his haste in trying to recover it." + +"I picked it up in front of Heilwiggs' Dancing Academy. How did you +know who had found it?" + +"The owner discovered he had dropped it, soon after he boarded a car, +where Captain Tunstall of our force happened to be, and he at once +telegraphed to all the stations to be on the look out. A boot-black +whose stand is near Heilwiggs', reported that he saw one of the 'Gray +Women' pick up something, and get on an upbound car. Our station was +telephoned to interview the 'Anchorage', so you see we are prompt. I +was just going over to ring the bell, and make inquiries." + +"Who lost the book?" + +"A man named McIlvane, an Englishman I think, who is obliged to hurry +on to-night, in order to catch some New York steamer where his passage +is engaged." + +"You are sure he is a foreigner?" asked Beryl, who was feverishly +revolving the possibility that the sketch belonged to some detective, +and was intended for identification of the picture on the glass door at +X----. + +"You can't be sure of anything that is only lip deep, but that was the +account telephoned to us. There is a reward of twenty dollars if the +book is delivered by eight P.M.; after that time, ten dollars, and +directions left by which to forward it to London. He said it was +worthless to anybody else, but contained a lot of pictures he valued." + +"I do not want the reward, but before I surrender the portfolio, I must +see the owner." + +"Why?" + +"For reasons that concern only myself. He can come here, and claim his +property; or I will take it to him, and restore it, after he has +answered some questions. You are quite welcome to the reward, which I +am sure you merit because of your promptness and circumspection. Will +you notify him that he can obtain his book by calling at the +'Anchorage'?" + +"Our instructions are, to deliver the book at Room 213, Hotel Lucullus. +It is now four o'clock." + +"I will not surrender the book to you; but I will accompany you to the +hotel, and deliver it to the owner in your presence. Let us lose no +time." + +"Very well. Sister, I'll keep a little behind, and jump on the first +red star car that passes down. Look out for me on the platform, and +I'll stop the car for you." + +"Thank you," said Beryl, wondering whether the sanctity of her garb +exacted this mark of deference, or whether the instinctive chivalry of +American manhood prompted him to spare her the appearance of police +surveillance. + +Keeping her in sight, he loitered until they found themselves on the +same car, where the officer, apparently engrossed by his cigarette, +retained his stand on the rear platform. In front of the hotel two +omnibuses were discharging their human freight, and in the confusion, +Beryl and her escort passed unobserved into the building. He motioned +her into one of the reception rooms on the second floor, and made his +way to the office. + +Drawing her quaint bonnet as far over her face as possible, and +straightening her veil, Beryl sat down on a sofa and tried to quiet the +beating of her pulses, the nervous tremor that shook her. She had +ventured shyly out of her covert, and like all other hunted creatures, +trembled at her own daring in making capture feasible. Memory rendered +her vaguely apprehensive; bitter experience quickened her suspicions. + +Was she running straight into some fatal trap, ingeniously baited with +her brother's portrait? Would the Sheriff in X----, would Mr. Dunbar +himself, recognize her in her gray disguise? She walked to a mirror set +in the wall, and stared at her own image, put up one hand and pushed +out of sight every ring of hair that showed beneath the white cap +frill; then reassured, resumed her seat. How long the waiting seemed. + +Somebody's pet Skye terrier, blanketed with scarlet satin embroidered +with a monogram in gilt, had defied the bienseance of fashionable +canine and feline etiquette, by flying at somebody's sedate, snowy +Maltese cat, whose collar of silver bells jangled out of tune, as the +combatants rolled on the velvet carpet, swept like a cyclone through +the reception room, fled up the corridor. Two pretty children, gay as +paroquets, in their cardinal plush cloaks, ran to the piano and began a +furious tattoo, while their nurse gossiped with the bell boy. + +With her hands locked around the portfolio, Beryl sat watching the +door; and at last the policeman appeared at the threshold, where he +paused an instant, then vanished. + +A gentleman apparently forty years of age came in, and approached her. +He was short in stature, florid, slightly bald; wore mutton chop +whiskers, and a traveling suit of gray tweed broadly checked. + +Beryl rose, the stranger bowed. + +"Ah, you have my sketch book! Madam, I am eternally your debtor. +Intrinsically worthless, perhaps; yet there are reasons which make it +inestimably valuable to me." + +"I picked it up from the pavement, and though I opened and examined it, +you will find the contents intact. Will you look through it?" + +"Oh! I dare say it is all right. No one cares for unfinished sketches, +and these are mere studies." + +He untied the thongs, turned over a dozen or more papers, then closed +the lid, and put his hand in his pocket. + +"I offered a reward to--" + +"I wish no fee, sir; but the policeman has taken some trouble in the +matter, and without his aid I should probably not have been able to +restore it. Pay him what you promised, or may deem proper; and then +permit me to ask for some information, which I think you can give me." + +She beckoned to the officer who looked in just then; and when the money +had been counted into his hand, the latter lifted his cap. + +"Sister, shall I see you safe on the car?" + +"Thank you, no. I can find my way home. I teach drawing at the +'Anchorage', and desire to ask a few questions of this gentleman, who I +am sure is an artist." + +When the policeman had left them, Beryl took the portfolio and opened +it, while the owner watched her curiously, striving to penetrate the +silver gray folds of her veil. + +"May I ask whether you expect to leave America immediately?" + +"I expect to sail on the steamer for Liverpool next Saturday." + +"Have you relatives in this country?" + +"None. I am merely a tourist, seeking glimpses of the best of this vast +continent of yours." + +"Did you make these sketches?" + +"I did, from time to time; in fact, mine has been a sketching tour, and +this book is one of several I have filled in America." + +With trembling fingers she untied the silk, lifted the sketch, and said +in a voice which, despite her efforts, quivered: + +"I hope, sir, you will not consider me unwarrantably inquisitive, if I +ask, where did you see this face?" + +"Ah! My monk of the mountains? That is 'Brother Luke'; looks like one +of Il Frate's wonderful heads, does he not? I saw him--let me see? +Egad! Just exactly where it was, that is the rub! It was far west, +beyond Assiniboia; somewhere in Alberta I am sure." + +"Was it on British soil, or in the United States?" + +"Certainly in British territory; and on one of the excursions I made +from Calgary. I think it was while hunting in the mountains between +Alberta and British Columbia. Let me see the sketch. Yes--10th of +August; I was in that region until 1st of September." + +Beryl drew a deep breath of intense relief, as she reflected that +foreign territory might bar pursuit; and leaning forward, she asked +hesitatingly: + +"Have you any objection to telling me the circumstances under which you +saw him; the situation in which you found him?" + +"None whatever; but may I ask if you know him? Is my sketch so good a +portrait?" + +"It is wonderfully like one I knew years ago; and of whom I desire to +receive tidings. My friend is a handsome man about twenty-four years of +age." + +"I was camping out with a hunting party, and one day while they were +away gunning, I went to sketch a bit of fir wood clinging to the side +of a rocky gorge. The day was hot, and I sat down to rest in the shadow +of a stone ledge, that jutted over the cove where a spring bubbled from +the crag, and made a ribbon of water. Here is the place, on this sheet. +Over there, are the fir trees. Very soon I heard a rich voice chanting +a solemn strain from Palestrinas' Miserere; the very music I had +listened to in the Sistine Chapel, a few months before; and peeping +from my sheltered nook, I saw a man clad in monkish garb stoop to drink +from the spring. He sat a while, with his arms clasped around his +knees, and his profile was so perfect I seized my pencil and drew the +outlines; but before I completed it, he suddenly fell upon his knees, +and the intense anguish, remorse, contrition--what not--so changed the +countenance, that while he prayed, I made rapidly a new sketch. Then +the most extraordinary thing happened. He rose, and turning fully +toward me, I saw that one-half of his face was nobly regular, +classically perfect; while the other side was hideously distorted, +deformed. Absolutely he was 'Hyperion and Satyr' combined--with one set +of features between them. I suppose my astonishment caused me to utter +some exclamation, for he glanced up the cliff, saw me, turned and fled. +I shouted and ran, but could not overtake him, and when I reached the +open space, I saw a figure speeding away on a white mustang pony, and +knew from the fluttering of the black skirts that it was the same man. +My sketch shows the right side of his face, the other was drawn down +almost beyond the lineaments of humanity. Beg pardon, madam, but would +you be so good as to tell me whether this freak of nature was +congenital, or the result of some frightful accident?" + +Beryl had shut her eyes, and her lips were compressed to stifle the +moan that struggled in her throat. When she spoke, the stranger +detected a change in her voice. + +"The person whose countenance was recalled by your sketch, was +afflicted by no physical blemish, when last I saw him." + +"His appearance was so singular, that I made sundry inquiries about +him, but only one person seemed ever to have encountered him; and that +was a half-breed Indian driver, belonging to our party. He told me, +'Brother Luke' belonged to a band of monks living somewhere beyond the +mountains; and that he sometimes crossed, searching for stray cattle. +That is the history of my sketch, and since I am indebted to you for +its recovery, I regret for your sake that it is so meagre." + +"It was last August that you made the sketch?" + +"Last August. And now may I ask, to whom my thanks are due?" + +"I am merely an humble member of a sisterhood of working women, and my +name could possess no interest for you. I owe you an apology for +trespassing upon your time, and prying into the mysteries of your +portfolio; but the beauty of your sketch, and its startling resemblance +to one in whom I have long felt an interest, must plead my pardon. I am +grateful, sir, for your courtesy, and will detain you no longer." + +He bowed profoundly; she bent her head, and walked quickly away, +keeping her face lowered, dreading observation. + +For the first time since her trial and conviction, a sensation of +perfect tranquillity shed rest upon her anxious and foreboding heart. +Bertie was safe from capture, on foreign soil; and the testimony of the +traveller that he prayed in the solitude of the wilderness, brought her +the comforting assurance, that the fires of remorse had begun the +purification of his sinful soul from the crime that had blackened so +many lives. Trained in his early youth at a Jesuit College, his +sympathies had ever been with the priesthood to whom his tutors +belonged; and his sister readily understood how swiftly he fled to +their penitential, expiatory system, when the blood of his grandfather +had stained his hands, and the scouts of the law hunted him to desert +wilds. + +Vain of the personal beauty that had always distinguished him, she +comprehended the keenness of the humiliation, which would goad him to +screen in a cloister, the facial mutilation, that punished him more +excruciatingly than hair shirt, or flagellation. Beyond the reach of +extradition (as she fondly hoped), inviolate beneath the cowl of some +Order which, in protecting his body, essayed also to cleanse, +regenerate and sanctify his imperilled soul, could she not now dismiss +the tormenting apprehension that sleeping or waking had persistently +dogged her, since the day when she saw the fuchsias on the +handkerchief, and the mother-of-pearl grapes on the sleeve button, in +the penitentiary cell? + +In a crisis of dire extremity, overborne by adversity, terrified by the +realization of human helplessness, we fly to God, and barter by promise +all our future, for the boon of temporary succor. + +How different, how holy the mood that brings us in tearful gratitude to +dedicate our lives to His service, when having abandoned all hope, His +healing hand lifts us out of long agony into unexpected rest? + +When an ignominious death stared this woman in the face, she had cried +to her God: "Though You slay me, yet will I trust You!" and to-night +she bowed her head in prayer, thankful that the uplifted hand held no +longer a dagger, but had fallen tenderly in benediction. + +Far away in the heart of the city, the clock in its granite tower was +striking two; yet Beryl knelt at her oriel window, with her arms +crossed on the wide sill, and her eyes fixed upon the shimmering sea, +where a soft south wind ruffled it into ridges of silver, beneath a +full May moon. Beyond those silent waters, hidden in some lonely, +snow-girt eyry, where perhaps the muffled thunder of the Pacific +responded to the midnight chants of his oratory, dwelt Bertie; and to +touch his hand once more, to hear from his own lips that he had made +his peace with God, to kiss him good-bye seemed all that was left for +accomplishment. + +Poor and unknown, she lacked apparently every means requisite for this +attainment; but faith, patience, and courage were hers. Daily work for +daily wage was the present duty; and in God's good time she would find +her brother. How, or when, so expensive and difficult a quest could be +successfully prosecuted, disquieted her not; she had learned to labor +and to trust; she remembered: "Their strength is to sit still." + +The symphony of her life was set in minors, yet subtle and perfect was +the harmony that dwelt therein; and because she had sternly shut love +out of her lonely heart, she kept votive lights burning ceaselessly on +the cold altar of duty. The solitary red rose of happiness that might +have brightened and perfumed her thorny path, she had cut off, ere the +bud expanded, and offered it as a loyal tribute to broaden the garland +that crowned Miss Gordon. At the mandate of conscience, she had +unmurmuringly surrendered this precious blossom, but memory was +tantalizingly tenacious; and in sorrowful hours of sore temptation, the +brave, pure soul came swiftly to the rescue of famishing heart: "What? +Is it so hard for us to keep the Ten Commandments? Do we covet our +neighbor's lover?" + +In the garden of earthly existence, some are ordained to bloom as human +plantae tristes, shedding their delicate aroma like the +"Pretty-by-nights", only when the glory of the day is done, and +twilight shadows coax open their pure hearts. + +To-night she seemed cradled in the arms of peace, soothed by an +unfaltering trust that whispered: + + "Would I could wish my wishes all to rest; + And know to wish the wish, that were the best." + +While her lips moved in a prayer for Bertie, she fell asleep; like a +child at ease, after long paroxysms of pain. When she awoke, the lilacs +were swinging their purple thuribles filled with dew, in honor of the +new day; a silvery mist, tinged here and there with the pale pink hue +of an almond blossom, wavered and curled over the quiet lake, and a +robin red-breast, winging his way from the orange and jasmine boughs of +the far sweet South, rested on the ivied wall, and poured out his happy +heart in a salutatory to the rising sun. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + + +"I fear, my sister, that you have made a great mistake in refusing an +offer of marriage, which almost any woman might be proud to accept." + +Sister Ruth closed her writing desk, and looked at Beryl over her +spectacles. + +"Why should you infer that any such proposal has been made to me?" + +"Simply because I know all that has occurred, and my cousin writes me +that you decline to marry him. If you had intended to remain here and +identify yourself with this institution, I could better understand your +motives in rejecting a man who offers you wealth, good looks, a +stainless reputation, an honored name, and the best possible social +position." + +"All of which tempt me in no degree. Mr. Brompton is doubtless +everything you consider him; lives in a brown stone palace, is an +influential and respected citizen, but comparatively, we are strangers. +He bought my pictures, took a fleeting fancy to my face, and to my +great surprise, indulged in a romantic whim. What does he comprehend of +my past? How little he understands the barrier that shuts me out from +the lot of most women." + +"He is fully acquainted with every detail of your life that has been +confided to me, or discovered by the public; and he has studied and +admired you ever since you came to dwell among us. In view of your very +peculiar history, you must admit that his affection is certainly +strong. If you married him, your past would be effectually blotted out." + +"I have no desire to blot it out, and though misfortune overshadowed my +name, it is the untarnished legacy my father left me, and I hold it +very sacred; wrap it as a mantle about me. When suspicion of any form +of disgrace falls upon a woman, it is as though some delicate flower +had been thrust too close to a scorching fire; and no matter how +quickly or how far removed, no matter how heavy the dews that empearl +it, how fresh and cool the wind that sweeps over it, how bright the sun +that feeds its pulses,--the curled petals are never smoothed, the hot +blasts leaves its ineffaceable blight. To me, the thought of marriage +comes no more than to one who knows death sits waiting only for the +setting of the sun, to claim his own. That phase of life is as +inaccessible and uninviting to me, as Antartic circumpolar lands; and +even in thought, I have no temptation to explore it. My future and my +past are so interblended, that I could as easily tear out my heart and +continue to breathe, as attempt to separate them. I have a certain work +to do, and its accomplishment bars all other paths." + +"Does the nature of that work involve vows of celibacy?" + +"Sometimes fate decrees for us, allowing no voluntary vows. How soon +the path to my work will open before me, I cannot tell; but the day +must come, and like a pilgrim girded, I wait and watch." + +"Can you find elsewhere a nobler field of work than surrounds you here?" + +"Certainly not, and some dross of selfishness mingles with the motives +that will ultimately bear me beyond these hallowing precincts; yet a +day may come, when having fulfilled a sacred duty, I shall travel back, +praying you to let me live, and work, and die among you." + +"My sister, your patient submission, your tireless application, have +endeared you to me; and I should grieve to lose you from our little +gray band, where your artistic labors have reflected so much credit on +the 'Home'." + +"Thank you, Sister Ruth; praise from fellow toilers is praise indeed, +and the greatest blessing one human being can bestow upon another, I +owe to you; the blessing of being helped to procure work, which enables +me to help myself. If I leave the 'Anchorage' for a season, it will be +on an errand such as Noah's dove went forth from refuge to perform; and +when I return with my olive branch, the deluge of my life will have +spent its fury, and I shall rest in peace where the ark is anchored." + +"Do you imagine that desertion from our ranks will be so readily +condoned? Drum-head court martial obtains here." + +"Would you call it desertion, if seizing the flag of duty that floats +over us here, I forsook the camp only long enough to scout on a +dangerous outpost, to fight single-handed a desperate battle! If I +fell, the folds of our banner would shroud me; if I conquered, would +you not all greet me, when weary and worn I dragged myself back to the +ranks? Some day, when I tap at the ark window, you will open your arms +and take me in; for then my earthly mission will have ended, and the +smoke of the accepted sacrifice will linger in my garments." + +"Meantime, to-day's duties demand attention. I have a note from Cyril +Brompton requesting that special courtesy be shown by us to his friend, +the new Bishop, who is in the city, and who desires to inspect the +'Anchorage'. Cyril declines escorting the party, because he finds it +painful to meet you now, and he wishes particularly that you should +show your own department. I shall not be able to climb to the third +story, while my ankles are so swollen, so I must deputize you to do the +honors on your floor. Hold yourself in readiness, if I should send for +you, and do not forget to give the Bishop a package of the new +prospectus of the art school. That basket of orchids must be delivered +before five o'clock. Sister Joanna said you detained her to make a +sketch of it." + +"I had almost finished when you summoned me. Send her up for the basket +in half an hour." + +The long studio was deserted, and very quiet on that sultry Saturday +afternoon in midsummer, and the drowsy air was laden with fragrance +from the pots of white carnations, massed on the iron balcony, upon +which the tall, plate glass windows opened to the north. Down the +centre of the apartment ran a table covered with oil cloth, and on the +walls hung pictures in oil, water-color, crayon, while upon brackets +and pedestals were mounted plaster casts, terra cotta heads, a few +bronzes, and some hammered brass plaques. In the corners of the room, +four marvels of taxidermy contributed brilliant colors mixed on the +feathered palettes of a pea-fowl, a scarlet flamingo, a gold and a +silver pheasant, all perched on miniature mounds, built of curious +specimens of rock, of shells, coral and sphagnum. + +The slow, languid swish, swish of the waters stirred by a passing +steamer, broke on the cliff beyond the wall; and along the sky line +where lake and atmosphere melted insensibly into blue distance, great +cumulus copper-colored clouds hooded with salmon-tinted folds, tipped +here and there with molten silver, shadowed with pearly hollows, hung +entranced by their own image, over the inland sea that gleamed like a +mirror. + +At the end of the studio, near the open windows, Beryl had placed the +plateau basket of orchids on the table; and she stood before an easel, +transferring to the surface of a concave brass plaque, the fluted +outlines of the scarlet and orange ribbons, the vivid green, purple and +golden-brown lips, the rose velvet cups, the tender canary-hued calyxes +of the glistening floral mass, whose aroma seemed a panting breath from +equatorial jungles. Having secured the strange forms of these vegetable +simulacra of the insect world, she replaced the sheathing of tissue +paper around the gorgeous mosaic of color; and just then, Sister Joanna +threw open the door, and ushered in a party of visitors, consisting of +two gentlemen and a lady. One was Mr. Kendall, a member of the Chapter +of Trustees. + +"Good evening, Sister. Bishop Douglass, of our State, and Miss Gordon, +from the South. I have been boasting to them of the perfect success of +the 'Anchorage', as an industrial institution. Will you show us some of +the work done in this department?" + +As on a swiftly revolving wheel, Beryl saw the black eyes and +gold-rimmed spectacles of Leighton Douglass; the shield-shaped amethyst +ring on his broad, white hand; the slender figure by his side, draped +in some soft brown tint of surah silk, the blond hair, the wide, +startled hazel eyes of Leo, who made a step forward, then paused +irresolute. + +The gaze of the visitors was fastened upon the superb form wearing the +gray garb of flannel, with snowy fluted frills at the rounded wrists +and throat, and a ruffled white muslin mob cap crowning rich waves of +bronze hair, that framed a beautiful pale face, whose gray eyes kept +always the soft shadow of their long jet lashes. + +Only half a minute sufficed to gird Beryl, and with no hint of +recognition in her tranquil countenance, she moved forward, opened the +drawers, and spread out for inspection various specimens of drawing and +painting, in all stages of advancement. + +A crimson tide overflowed Leo's cheeks, but accepting the cue of +silence, she refrained from any manifestation of previous acquaintance; +and bending over the pictures, listened to the grave, sweet voice that +briefly, though courteously answered all inquiries concerning the +school, hours of classes, tuition fees, remunerative rates paid for +designs for carpets, wall papers and decorative upholstering. Unrolling +from a wooden cylinder a strip of thick paper, two yards long and +twenty inches wide, she displayed an elaborate arabesque pattern done +in sepia for a sgraffito frieze, sixteenth century, which had been +ordered by the architect of the new "Museum of Art". + +"A bit of your favorite Florentine facade," said the Bishop, addressing +his cousin, and peering closely at the scroll work. + +"In this corner of the world, one scarcely expects a glimpse of Andrea +Feltrini," answered Leo, avoiding the necessity of looking at Beryl, by +glancing at Mr. Kendall. + +"What are your sources of information?" inquired Bishop Douglass. + +"We have a carefully selected collection of engravings, and a few good +sketches and cartoons; moreover, some of our Sisterhood have been in +Italy." + +In attempting to roll the strip, it slipped from her fingers. Both +women stooped to catch it, and their hands met. Looking into Leo's +eyes, Beryl whispered: "See me alone." Then she rewound the paper, +restored its oil silk cover, and shut the drawer. + +"Do you find that the demand for purely ornamental work renders this +department self-sustaining?" asked Leighton Douglass. + +"I think the experience of the 'Anchorage' justifies that belief; +especially since the popularization of so-called 'Decorative Art', +which projects the useful into the realm of the beautiful; and by +lending the grace of ornament to the strictly utilitarian, dims the old +line of demarcation." + +"We are particularly interested in acquiring accurate knowledge on this +subject, because Miss Gordon hopes to establish a similar institution +near her home in the South; where so many of our countrywomen, rendered +destitute in consequence of the late war, need training which will +enable them to do faithful remunerative work, without compromising +their feminine refinement. While in Europe she inspected various +industrial organizations; saw Kaiserswerth, and the Training Schools +for Nurses, even the Swedish 'Naas Slojd', and her visit here is solely +to verify the flattering accounts she has received of the success of +the eclectic system of the 'Anchorage'. The South is so rich in fine +materials that appear to offer a premium for carving, that we wish to +investigate this branch of 'decorative' labor, and hope you can help us +by some practical suggestions." + +"Within the past twelve months, we have commenced the experiment of +wood work; make all the utensils we need, and one of our patrons +secured for us some models from the school you mentioned near +Gothenburg. As yet we have received only two orders; one for a base in +walnut for a baptismal font; the other an oak triptych frame for a +choir in a Minnesota church. The carving is a distinct branch, that +does not belong to my department; but if you will knock at the arched +door on the right hand side of the hall, Sister Katrina, who has charge +of that work, will take pleasure in exhibiting the process. Mr. Kendall +knows the 'Anchorage' so well, he needs no guide to the work-rooms. +Permit me to offer you some copies of our new prospectus, and also a +photograph of this building, as a slight souvenir of your visit here." + +She fitted papers and picture into a square envelope stamped with an +anchor in red ink, and handing it to Miss Gordon, walked to the door +and opened it. On the threshold Leo turned, and looked intently into +her face: + +"Are you sufficiently at leisure to allow me a little further +conversation this afternoon; or shall I call again?" + +"I am entirely at your service, and shall gladly furnish any +information you may desire. Our matron has placed my time at your +disposal." + +"Mr. Kendall, if you will kindly accompany the Bishop to the +wood-carving room, I can remain here a little while, to ask Sister some +questions, which would scarcely interest you gentlemen. I will join you +there, very soon. Leighton, please get an estimate of the cost of the +necessary outfit, and talk with Mr. Kendall concerning the feasibility +of sending one of our women here for a year." + +Closing the door, Beryl put out both hands, and took Leo's. She stood a +moment, holding them in a tight clasp. + +"Thank you, for considerately withholding a recognition that would have +embarrassed me. I hoped that the habit of our Order would in some +degree disguise me, yet, at a glance you knew me." + +"Shall I infer that your history is unknown here?" + +"Sister Ruth, our Matron, is thoroughly acquainted with my past life, +but she kindly respects my sorrows, and deems it unnecessary to publish +the details among the Sisterhood. Do you know me so little, that you +imagine I am capable of abusing the confidence of the head of an +establishment which mercifully shelters an outcast?" + +She stepped back, and motioned her visitor to a seat near the balcony. + +"I should be very reluctant to ascribe any unworthy motive to you; +therefore I fail to understand why you desire to preserve your +incognito, especially since the signal vindication of your innocence. +The news of the extraordinary discovery of the picture on the glass, +and of your complete acquittal, even of suspicion, gave me so much +pleasure that I should have written you my hearty congratulations, had +I been able to obtain your address." + +"I felt assured you would rejoice with me; and because I hold your good +opinion so valuable, let me say that my happiness in the unexpected +vindication of my character was enhanced by the proud consciousness +that in your estimation I needed none. When the blackness of an +intolerable shame overshadowed me, you groped your way to the dungeon, +and held out your hands in confidence and sympathy. All the world +suspected; you trusted me. You offered your noble name as bond, and +made a place for me at your own sacred hearthstone. Do you think I can +ever forget the blessedness of the balm that your faith in me poured +into my crushed, despairing heart? Do you doubt that no sun sets, +without seeing me on my knees, praying God's blessing of perfect +happiness for you? What would I not do--what would I not suffer--to +secure your peace, and to prove my gratitude?" + +Her voice vibrated like the silver string of a deep violon-cello, and +Leo, gazing up into the misty splendor of the beautiful sad eyes, +ceased to wonder at the fascination which she had exerted over Mr. +Dunbar. Unintentionally this woman's face had marred her life; had +unwittingly stolen her lover's heart; yet she believed no treachery +sullied the pure perfection of the soft red lips, and Leo's generous +nature rose above the narrow limits of ordinary feminine jealousy. Had +she doubted for an instant the theory that Beryl was heroically +suffering the penalty of a crime, in order to screen her guilty lover, +some suspicion of the truth might have dawned upon her. + +"Suppose I intend to put your gratitude to the test? You have +exaggerated the debt which you acknowledge; are you prepared to cancel +it? If I say to you, because I believed in you, trusted you, will you +repay me now, by granting a favor which I shall ask?" + +"I think Miss Gordon could express no wish that I would not gladly +execute, in order to promote her happiness." + +"Will you come back to X----and help me to establish a home for women, +who are destitute alike of money and of family ties? When you preside +over it I shall be haunted by no fears of failure. Once, I gave you my +sympathy; now, when I need help, will you give me yours?" + +Beryl shivered, and looked wonderingly at her companion. Was she indeed +so unsuspicious of the quicksand on which stood the fair temple of her +hopes in marriage? + +"O, Miss Gordon! That is the one thing, in all the world, that for your +sake as well as mine, I could never do. No, no; impossible." + +"Why, not for my sake, since I desire it so earnestly?" + +A bright flush had risen in Leo's cheeks, and she threw back her small +head challengingly. + +For a moment Beryl wavered. Could she bear to wound that proud spirit? + +"Go back to X----? To X----! It would be a renewal of my martyrdom, and +I should only be a stumbling block in the scheme you contemplate. You +do not understand, perhaps; but believe me, I prove my gratitude by +refusing your kind offer." + +"I think I understand; and if I am willing to run the risk, what then?" + +"Do not ask me the impossible. The very atmosphere of X----would numb +me, destroy all capability of usefulness, by reviving harrowing +memories." + +"Had not every shadow of suspicion vanished, and the entire community +manifested delight in your triumphant innocence, I should never have +suggested a return to the scene of your sufferings. Certainly, I cannot +press the payment of a debt, which you volunteered to cancel; but I am +sorry your refuse to oblige me." + +There was a starry sparkle in the soft hazel eyes, and an involuntary +and unconscious hardening of her lips, as Leo rose. + +"It is hard, Miss Gordon, to be always misunderstood; but sometimes +duty points to lines that subject us to harsh and bitter censure. I +bear ever a heavy burden; do not increase my load by condemning me as +ungrateful, God knows, you hold a warm and a holy place in my heart, +and your happiness is more to me than my own; yet the one thing you +ask, my conscience forbids." + +"How long have you been here?" + +"It will be two years to-morrow since I entered these peaceful walls." + +"Then your probation ends, and you become permanently a Sister of the +'Anchorage'?" + +"Not yet. I have been permitted to earn my daily bread here, upon +conditions somewhat at variance with the regulations that usually +govern the institution. I have not applied for admission to permanent +membership, because my stay is contingent upon circumstances, which may +call me hence to-morrow; which may never arise to beckon me away. +Sister Ruth generously allows me the latitude of choice; not for my own +sake, but for that of a friend, whose influence secured my admission. +After a while, when I have finished my work, I hope to come back; to +spend the residue of my earthly days, and to die here, a faithful +Umilta Sister of the 'Anchorage', which opened its arms when I was a +needy and desolate waif." + +"The peace of your new life is certainly reflected in your face. +Patience has had its perfect work; and that 'peace that passeth all +understanding' is the reward granted you." + +Leo held out her hand, and Beryl took it between both hers. + +"Dear Miss Gordon, grapes yield no wine until they are crushed, +trampled, bereft of bloom, of rounded symmetry, of beautiful color; but +the Lord of the Vineyard is entitled to His own. I was a very proud, +self-reliant girl, impatient of poverty, daringly ambitious; and what I +deemed a cruel fate, threw me into the vat, to be trodden under foot. +It may be, that when the ferment ends, and time mellows all, the purple +wine of my bruised and broken life may be accounted worthy the seal of +a sacramental sacrifice. I have ceased to question, to struggle, to +plan. Like a blind child, fearing to stumble into ruin, I stand, and +stretch out my hands to Him, who has led me safely through deep waters, +along frightful gorges. Each day brings its work, which I strive +worthily to accomplish; but my aim is to lay my heart, mind, soul, my +stubborn will, all in God's hands. You think peace the summum bonum? +Sometimes we obtain it by an ignominious surrender, when we should +possess it by conquest. 'Peace of mind is a beautiful and heavenly +thing; but even peace of mind may become an idol; and there is perhaps +no idol to which women bow down more passionately.' For this reason, I +am waiting for the drum beat of duty, and my march may begin at any +moment. I asked to see you alone, in order to beg that you will +increase my debt of obligations, by promising to reveal to no one the +place of my retreat. Accident has betrayed to you that which I am +anxious to keep secret; and I trust you will tell no one where you met +me." + +"Why should you hide, as though you were a culprit? You have been so +completely exonerated from the imputation of guilt which once hung over +you, that you owe it to yourself to front the gaze of the world +fearlessly. What have you to dread?" + +"The failure of something, which, though its accomplishment costs me +very dear, I shall not relax my efforts to promote. I am trying to be +loyal to my duty, even when the command is to strangle my own weak +heart. You do not, cannot understand. God grant you never will. There +are reasons why it is best for me to live in strict seclusion, for the +present. Those reasons I can explain neither to you, nor to any other +human being; and yet, I ask you to respect them, and to keep my secret. +You trusted me in the terrible exigencies of the past; and you must +trust me now, for--oh! God knows--I do indeed deserve your confidence." + +She raised the hand folded in her own, and bowed her head upon it. + +"You have my promise. Without your permission, I will mention our +meeting to no one. I trust you; and perhaps if you would trust me, I +might render you some aid." + +"The day may come, when I can find it compatible with duty to tell you +the secret of my life. In future years, when you are a happy wife, I +shall by God's help be able to seek you and your husband, and thank you +both for many kindnesses. I pray that you may be as happy as you +deserve." + +There was no tremor in the voice that answered quickly. + +"If you refer to Mr. Dunbar, you have been led astray by the gossip in +X----. Once, there seemed a probability that our lives might be united; +but long ago, we found that ardent friendship could not take the place +of love; and rather more than three years have passed since we have +even seen each other." + +With a startled movement Beryl dropped her companion's fingers, and +laid a hand on her shoulder. + +"Oh! do not tell me that you have broken your engagement!" + +The two looked steadily at each other, and while Leo's proud face gave +no hint of pain or embarrassment, Beryl's blanched, quivered. + +"How did you know that any engagement ever existed?" + +"All X----knew it. Mrs. Singleton and Sister Serena told me." + +"I dissolved that engagement before I went to Europe." + +"Then you rashly wrecked your beautiful future. Why did you cast him +off? He would have made you happy; he is worthy, I think, even of you." + +"Yes, he is worthy, I believe, of any woman whom he may really love; +but my happiness is not in his keeping, and my future holds, I trust, +something much brighter than our marriage would hate proved to me." + +"You have thrown away the substance for the shadow. Before it is too +late, reconsider your decision; give him an opportunity to reinstate +himself in your affection. You have both been so kind to me, that I +have hoped you would find life long happiness in each other." + +"Dismiss that delusion. His path and mine diverge more and more, and we +no longer dwell in the same State. He has inherited a large amount of +property in Louisiana, and now lives in New Orleans; hence you can +readily perceive how far apart the currents of our lives have drifted. +I rejoice in my freedom; and he, I suspect, is not inconsolable for my +loss." + +Through Beryl's whirling brain darted the recollection of a rumor, that +Leighton Douglass was suitor for his cousin's hand; and that Miss Dent +favored the alliance. Was the solution of Miss Gordon's cold, calm +indifference to be found in the presence and devotion of the Bishop? +Could he have supplanted Mr. Dunbar in her affection? Had the world +swung from its moorings? What meant the light that broke upon her, as +if the walls of heaven had fallen, and let all the glory out? + +After a moment she said, solemnly: + +"I pray God to overrule all earthly things, for your welfare, for your +heart's truest happiness; and for the realization of your dearest +hopes. When my mission has been accomplished, and duty lifts her seal +from my lips, I may try to see you once more, and explain the necessity +that forced me to seek seclusion." + +"I believe I understand; and I trust your reward will not be delayed. +You and I can lean with confidence upon the wisdom and the mercy of the +God we worship; but each must serve out His appointed time of bondage +in the Egypt of suffering, in the famine of the desert; and must drink +at Marah, before the blessing of the manna, the grapes of Eshcol, the +roses of Sharon. If ever you should need an earthly friend, remember +me; and if all other refuge fail you, my home can be always yours." + +Hand in hand they walked to the door, and Leo pitied the future of this +woman, whose lover was a wandering outlaw, with a price set upon his +head; and beneath her gray flannel habit, Beryl's heart was torn with +conflicting emotions, as she watched the placid, proud face, that +showed no vestige of the storm of disappointment which had stranded her +sweetest hope in life. + +"Good-bye, Beryl; God keep you in His tender care." + +"Good-bye, dear Miss Gordon. I will pray for your happiness, so long as +I live." + +She stooped, drew Leo's hands to her face, pressed her trembling lips +twice upon them; then turned quickly, and locked herself in the studio. + +Is it true, that "Orestes and Pylades have no sisters?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + + +A Persian proverb tells us: "A stone that is fit for the wall is not +left in the way." Strong artistic aspirations will plough through arid +sands, leap across bottomless chasms, toil over bristling obstacles, +climb bald, freezing crags to reach that shining plateau, where "beauty +pitches her tents", and the Ideal beckons. Favorable environment is the +steaming atmosphere that fosters, forces and develops germs which might +not survive the struggle against adverse influences, in uncongenial +habitat; but nature moulds some types that attain perfection through +perpetual elementary warfare which hardens the fibre, and strengthens +the hold; as in those invincible algx towering in the stormy straits of +Tierra del Fuego, swept from Antartic homes toward the +equator,--defying the fierce flail of surf that pulverizes rock, "Breed +is stronger than pasture; and no matter how savage a stepmother the +circumstances of life may prove, the inherited psychological strain +will sometimes dominate, and triumph." According to the Talmud: "A +myrtle, even in a desert, remains a myrtle". + +From her tenth year, Beryl had begun to build her castle in the Spain +of Art; daubed its walls with wonderful frescoes, filled its echoing +corridors with heroic men and lovely women of the classic ages; and +through its mullioned windows looked into an enchanted land, clothed +with that witching "light that never was on sea or land". When all else +on earth was sombre and dun-hued, sunlight and moonlight still gilded +those magical towers. In darkest nights, through hissing rain and +hurtling hail, she caught the glitter of its starry vanes smiling +through murkiness, and above the wail and sob of the storms that had +swept over the waste places of her youth, she heard the divine melodies +which the immortal harper, Hope, played always in the marvellous palace +of the Muses. + +In early girlhood she had followed her father into the solemn mysteries +of Greek Tragedy; and in that vast white temple dedicated to the +inexorable Fates, where predestined victims moved like marble images to +their immolation, her own plastic nature had been moulded in unison +with the classic cult. Among the throng of Attic types, an immortal +statue of filial devotion and sisterly love had attracted her +irresistibly, and to Antigone she rendered the homage of a boundless +admiration, an unwavering fealty. + +Intellectually, humanity cleaves to idolatry; and each of us worships +in the Pantheon, where our favorite divinities in literature crowd the +niches. To become a skilful artist, and paint the portrait of Antigone, +vas the ambition that had shaped and colored Beryl's young dreams, long +ere she suspected that a mournful parallelism in fate would consign her +to a living tomb more intolerable than that devised by Theban Creon. + +Our grandest pictures, statues, poems, are not the canvas, the marble, +the bronze, and the gilded vellum, that the world handles, criticises, +weighs, buys and sells, accepts with praise, or rejects with anathema. +Invisible and inviolate, imagination, keeps our best, our ideals, +locked in the cerebrum cells of "gray matter", which we are pleased to +call our workshop. + +What art gallery, what library can rival the sublime and beautiful +images that crowd the creased and folded labyrinth of the human brain; +as far beyond the ken and analysis of the biologist's microscope, as +some remote nebulae shining in blue gulfs of interstellar space, that +no telescopic Jense can ever discover, even as a faint blur of silvery +mist upon the black velvet vault that suns and planets spangle? + +In some degree, Beryl's artistic dream had been realized; and the study +of years slowly flowered into a large painting, which represented +Antigone standing beside the heap of dust, strewn reverently to +sepulchre the form dimly outlined at her feet. The sullen red sunset of +a tempestuous day flared from the horizon, across a desolate plain; +showed the city walls in the background, the hungry vultures poised +high above the dead, the marauding dogs crouched in the wind-swept +sand, watching their banquet, decreed by the king. The dust had been +scattered from a black vase that bore on its front, in a circular +medallion, the lurid head of grinning Hecate; and the last rite to +appease the unquiet manes was performed by the uplifted right arm that +poured libations from a burnished brass urn, held aloft over the pall +of earth that denned the figure beneath. The left hand was stretched, +not heavenward, but shieldingly over the mound, and in the beautiful, +stern face bent a little downward in invocation of the infernal gods, +one read sublime self-surrender, grief for Oedipus, regret for Hasmon, +farewell to life,--mingled with exultant consciousness that a +successful sacrifice had been accomplished for Polynices, and that the +spirit of the brother rested in peace. + +The soul of the artist seemed to look triumphantly through the solemn, +purplish blue eyes of the young martyr, and Beryl knew that her own +heart beat under the pamted folds of the diploidion; that she had +epitomized in a symbolic picture, the history of her own joyless youth. + +The canvas had been framed and hung at the art exhibition of the new +"Museum", opened in September; and only the "U" traced in one corner +beneath an anchor, indicated that it was the work of the Umilta +Sisters' "Anchorage". + +The public peered, puzzled, shook its sapient head, shrugged its +authoritative shoulders, and sundry criticisms crept into the journals; +but the prophet was judged in "his own country"; and home work, +according to universal canons, rarely finds favor among home awarding +committees, whose dulness its uncomprehended excellence affronts. + +One censured vehemently the masonry of the city wall; another deplored +pathetically the "defective foreshortening of a dog's shoulders"; the +picture "lacked depth of tone"; the "coloring was too bizarre", the +"tints too neutral". + +Like chemicals tested in a laboratory, or like Pharaoh's lean kine, +each objection devoured the preceding one; and unanimity of blame +assaulted only one salient point on the entire canvas: the red sandals +of the Greek girl--upon which outraged good taste fell with pitiless +fury. + +Undismayed, Beryl withdrew her picture, erased the ciphers in the +corner, and shipped it to New York to Doctor Grantlin, who had recently +returned from Europe; requesting him to place it at a picture dealer's +on Broadway, and to withhold the name of its birth-place. + +Two weeks later, a popular journal published an elaborate description +of "A painting supposed to have been obtained abroad by a New York +collector, who merited congratulation upon possession of a masterpiece, +which recalled the marvellous technique of Gerome, the atmosphere of +Jules Breton, the rich, mellow coloring, and especially the scrupulous +fidelity of archaic detail, which characterized Alma Tadema; and was +conspicuously manifest in the red shoes so distinctively typical of +Theban women". + +Mr. Kendall caused this article to be copied into the leading newspaper +of his own city; and the first mail, thereafter, carried to New York an +offer of eight hundred dollars for the painting, from the President of +the "Museum" Directors, who had been so shocked by the unknown +significance of the "red shoes". After a few days, it was generally +known, but mentioned with bated breath, that the "Antigone" had been +bought by a wealthy Philadelphian, who paid for it two thousand +dollars, and hung it in his gallery, where Fortunys, Madrazos, and +Diazs ornamented the walls. + +Why should journeying abroad to render "Caesar's things" to foreign +Caesars, demand such total bankruptcy that we must needs repudiate the +just debts of home creditors, whose chimneys smoke just beyond the +fence that divides us? De mortuis nil nisi bonum is a traditional and +sacred duty to departed workers; but does it exhaust human charity, or +require contemptuous crusade against equally honest, living toilers? +Are antiquity and foreign birthplace imperatively essential factors in +the award of praise for even faithful and noble work? We lament the +caustic moroseness of embittered Schopenhauer, brooding savagely over +his failure to secure contemporaneous recognition; yet after all, did +he malign his race, or his age, when, in answer to the inquiry where he +desired to be buried, he scornfully exclaimed: "No matter where; +posterity will find me." + +It was on the 26th of October, a week subsequent to the receipt of the +letter which contained the check sent in payment for the picture, that +Beryl sat down on the stone sill of her oriel window, to rest in the +seclusion of her room, after the labors of the day. + +It was the anniversary of her ill-starred visit to X----, and +melancholy memories had greeted her at dawn, clung to her skirts, +chanted their dismal refrain, and renewed the pain which time had in +some degree dulled. Four years ago she had felt her mother's feverish +lips on hers, in a parting kiss, and four years ago to-day the sun of +her girlhood had passed suddenly into total eclipse. Since then, moving +in a semi-twilight, suffering had prematurely aged her, and she had +schooled herself to expect no star, save that of duty, to burn along +her lonely path. To-day, she thought of the pride her picture would +have aroused in her devoted father; of the comforts the money would +have purchased for her invalid mother; of the pleasure, success as an +artist would have brought to her own ambitious soul, if only it had not +come so many years too late. What crown could fame bring to one, +dwelling always in the chill shadow of a terrible shame? The glory of +noble renown could never gild a name that had answered at the convicts' +roll call; a name which, at any moment, Bertie's arrest might drag back +to the disgrace of established felony. + +Of all mocking fiends, the arch torturer is that hand which draws aside +the black curtain of grim actuality, and shows us the wonderful realm +of "might have been", where lost hopes blossom eternally, and the +witchery of hallowed illusions is never dispelled. + +Wearily Beryl closed her eyes, as though the white lids availed to shut +out visions, tantalizing as the dream of bubbling springs, and +palm-fringed isles of dewy verdure, to the delirious traveller dying of +thirst, in the furnace blasts of mid-desert. + +If she had defied her mother's wishes, and refused to go to X--? How +different the world would seem to her; but, what was a world worth, +that had never known Mr. Dunbar? + +Over burning ploughshares she had walked to meet one destined to stir +to its depths the slumbering sea of her tenderest love; and to forego +the pain, would she relinquish the recompense? + +During the months that elapsed after Leo's visit to the "Anchorage", +Beryl had surrendered her heart to the great happiness of dwelling, +unrebuked by conscience, upon the precious assurance that the love of +the man whom she had so persistently defied and shunned, was +irrevocably hers. The sharpest pain that can horrow womanhood, springs +from the contemplation of the superior right of another to the object +of her affection; and though honor coerces submission to the just +claims of a rival, renunciation of the beloved entails pangs that no +anaesthetic has power to quiet. + +After the long struggle to aid Miss Gordon's accepted lover in keeping +his vows of loyalty, the discovery of his freedom, and the belief that +Bishop Douglass had supplanted him in the affection of her generous +benefactress, had brought to Beryl an exquisite release; sweet as the +spicy breath of the tropics wafted suddenly to some stranded, frozen +Arctic voyager. Heroic and patient, keeping her numb face steadfastly +turned to the pole star of duty, where the compass of conscience +pointed--was the floe ice on which she had been wrecked, drifting +slowly, imperceptibly, yet surely down to the purple warmth of the Gulf +Stream, dotted with swelling sails of rescue? Like oceanic streams +meeting, running side by side, freighted with cold for the equatorial +caldrons, with heat for the poles, are not the divinely appointed +currents of mercy and of affliction, God's agents of compensation, to +equalize the destinies of humanity? + +We rail at Fate as triple monsters; but sometimes it happens, that the +veil of inscrutability floats aside, for an instant, and we catch a +glimpse of the radiant smile of an infinite love. + +Hope had set in Beryl's sky, but a tender afterglow held off the coming +night, when she thought of the face that had bent so yearningly above +her, of the passionate voice and the thrilling touch that were now her +most precious memories. The pearl which Miss Gordon had cast away as +worthless, the discarded convict might surely, without sin, claim as +her own for ever. To-day an intense longing to see him once more, to +hear from his lips praise of her "Antigone", disturbed the tranquillity +that was spreading its robes of minever over a stony path; but she put +aside the temptation. + +To the Sisterhood of the "Anchorage" she had given one-half the +proceeds of the picture sale; and the remainder would enable her at +last to renew the search for her unhappy brother. So vague were the +topographical lines furnished by the English tourist, that prosecuting +her quest in the remote wilderness of mountains, which wore their crown +of snow, seemed a reckless waste of hope, time and money; nevertheless, +she must make the attempt. She knew that a gigantic railway system was +crawling like an anaconda under rocky ranges, over foaming rivers, +stretching its sinuous steel trail from Bay of Chaleur to Georgia Gulf; +with termini that saw the sun rise from the Atlantic Ocean, and watched +its setting in the red glory of the far Pacific; and perhaps steam +shovels, and iron tight-ropes might furnish her facilities on her long +journey. + +Winter would soon overtake her, and in the inhospitable region where +her brother had been surprised at his prayers, how could a lonely woman +travel without protection? Doubt, apprehension flitted as ill-boding +birds of night, flapping dusky wings to hide the signal beacon, which +love and duty swung to and fro; yet the yearning to see her brother's +face again, dwarfed all barriers, and she trusted God's guidance. + +On a chair near her, lay, on this afternoon, a map which for many days +she had been studying; and opening it once more, she ran a finger along +the dotted lines, mentally debating whether it would be best to go by +rail to Ottawa, by water to Sault St. Marie, whence the new railway +could be easily reached, or whether the most direct route would be via +St. Paul to Winnepeg. When she left the "Anchorage", her destination +must remain a secret; hence she could ask no counsel. In view of +approaching cold weather, economy of time seemed imperative; and she +resolved to buy a railway ticket to Fargo, where she could elude +suspicion, should the threatened invisible detective "shadow" her; and +whence another Pacific highway offered egress to western wilds. With +this definite conclusion she closed the map, and a moment later, some +one knocked at her door. + +"Come in." + +She went forward, and met Sister Katrina, a robust dame of forty years, +blond as Gerda; with the "light of the glowworm's tails" in her +golden-lashed violet eyes, and the "ruby spots of the cowslip's leaves" +on her full, frank lips. + +"Will you sit a while with me? There is still a half hour, before your +evening work begins in the carving shop. Come in." + +"I am sorry I have not time now, to indulge myself in such luxury as a +chat with you always proves. I came to beg the loan of your India ink +copy of the marble screens at Agra; which I have an idea would be very +effective done in cherry, for the panels under the new bookcases we are +designing for the library." + +"The copy is up stairs in the studio; but I shall be glad to get it for +you." + +"No; with your permission I can help myself, and I am going up there +now, for some red chalk. I know exactly where to find the picture, +because I was examining it two days ago. What think you of my idea?" + +"I am afraid you will find cherry too dark. A lighter wood, I think, +would be better adapted to the exceeding delicacy of the design." + +"Wait till I cut out a sample scroll, and we will talk it over. Sister +Ruth asked me to hand to you this paper, which contains a very +complimentary notice of your lovely picture. I read it as I came up, +and congratulate you on all the fine things said. You scarcely know how +proud we feel of our Sister's work. Thanks for the use of the drawing." + +She smiled, nodded and closed the door; and when her bright cheery +countenance vanished, it seemed as though a film of cloud had drifted +across the sun. + +Beryl went back to a low chair in front of the window, and opened the +paper, which chanced to be the New York "Herald." Unfolding it to hunt +the designated article, her glance fell accidentally upon the personal +column. Her heart leaped, then almost ceased beating, as she read: + +"Important. Bertie will meet Gigina in the Museum at Niagara Falls, +Canada side, any day during the last week in October." + +Two years and a half had almost gone by since she inserted the +advertisement, to which this was evidently a reply. Long ago she had +ceased to expect any tidings through this channel; but the seed sown in +faith, watered by tears, and guarded by continual prayer had stirred to +life; blossomed in the sunshine of God's pitying smile, and after weary +waiting, the ripe fruit fell at her feet. How fair and smooth, rosy and +fragrant it appeared to her famishing heart? How opportune the guiding +hand that pointed her way, when cross roads baffled her. Two days +later, she would have been journeying away from the coveted goal. Now +the tide of battle was turning. Had the stars rolled back on their +courses to rescue Sisera? + +How long the happy woman sat there, exulting in the mellowness of the +perfect fruit of patience, she never knew. + +Day died slowly; the vivid crimson and dazzling gold that fired the +West were reflected in the tranquil bosom of the lake, faded into the +tender pale rose of the sacred lotus, into the exquisite tints that +gild the outer petals of a daffodil, the heart of buttercups; and +then, robed in faintest violet powdered with silvery dust, the vast +pinions of Crepuscule spread over sky and water, fanning into full +flame the glittering sparks of planets and constellations that lighted +the chariot course of the coming moon. + +Across the sleeping lake hurried a north wind, on its long journey to +blow open the snowy camellias folded close in the heart of the South, +and under his winged sandals the waters crimped, rippled, swelled into +wavelets that played their minor adagio in nature's nocturn, as their +foam fingers fell on the pebbles that fringed the beach. From the deck +of a schooner anchored off shore, floated the deep voice of a man +singing Schubert's "Ave Maria"; and far, far away over the weird waste +of waters, where a buoy marked a sunken wreck, its red beacon burned +like the eye of Polyphemus, crouching in darkness, watching to +surprise Galatea. + +The penetrating chill of the night air aroused Beryl from her profound +trance; and lighting the gas over her dressing table, she re-read the +magical words that had transformed her narrow world. This was Monday +the 26th, and next Saturday was the limit of the proposed interview. +One day must suffice for necessary preparation, and starting by early +morning express on Wednesday, she would arrive in time to keep the +tryst that involved so much. She cut out the notice that was merely a +sentence in the page of social hieroglyphics, where no key fitted more +than one paragraph, and forgetting the criticism on her picture, she +went swiftly down stairs. + +The members of the Sisterhood were at supper, and she waited at the +refectory door for an opportunity to meet the matron. + +On the platform raised in the centre of the long room, sat the reader +for the day, Sister Agatha; a plump, florid young woman, with bright +black eyes, and a voice sweet and strong as the flute stop of an organ. +The selection that evening had been from "Agate Windows" and "Ice +Morsels", and the closing words were: + +"Alpine flowers are warmed by snow; the summer beauty of our hills, and +the autumn fertility of our valleys, have been caused by the cold +embrace of the glacier; and so, by the chill of trial and sorrow, are +the outlines of Christian character moulded and beautified. And we, who +recognize the loving kindness as well as the power of God in what may +seem the harsher and more forbidding agencies of nature, ought not to +be weary and faint in our minds, if over our own warm human life, the +same kind pitying Hand should sometimes cause His snow of +disappointment to fall like wool, and cast forth His ice of adversity +like morsels; knowing that even by these unlikely means, shall +ultimately be given to us also, as to nature, the beauty of Sharon, and +the peace of Carmel!" + +Somewhere in the apartment, a bell tapped. All rose, and each head in +the gray ranks bowed, while "thanks" were offered; then amid a subdued +murmur of conversation, the Sisterhood filed out, gathered in groups, +separated for various duties. + +"Sister Ruth, may I see you alone?" asked Beryl, touching her arm in +the hall. + +"This is the night for the examination of accounts, of last week's +expenses, and I shall be busy with Sister Elena, our book-keeper; +moreover, I promised to look over the linen closet of the Infirmary, +with Sister Consuelo, whose demands are like those of the daughter of +the horse-leech. Is your business urgent?" + +"Yes; but I will not detain you more than ten minutes." + +"Very well, come to my cabinet." + +The place designated was a pigeon box in size, and adjoined the +reception room on the first floor. Two desks packed with papers, three +chairs and a picture of Elijah and the ravens, constituted the +furniture. The matron brightened the light, seated herself and looked +at her companion. + +"Well. What can I do for you? Why, Sister? Something has happened; your +face is all aglow, your eyes are great stars." + +"Yes; a heavy burden I have long borne is slipping from my heart, and +after the pressure it rebounds. I have told you that my stay here was +contingent on events which I could not control; that at any moment I +might consider it incumbent upon me to go away into the world; +therefore, I could bind myself by no compact to remain permanently in +the 'Anchorage'. The time has come; the drum taps, I must march away." + +"And you are so glad to leave us?" said the matron, gazing in wonder at +the radiant face, usually so impassive and cold with its locked lips, +and grave, sad, downcast eyes. + +"No, glad only in the occasion that calls me; regretting that duty +separates me temporarily from the Sisterhood, who so mercifully opened +their arms, when I had no spot in all the wide world where I could lay +my head, but the sod on my mother's grave. This blessed haven is for +those whose first duty in life summons them nowhere beyond its walls. +If conscience bade you leave these peaceful and hallowed halls, for +work far more difficult, would you hesitate to obey? It is safer and +less arduous to keep step with the main army; but some must perish on +picket duty, and is the choice ours, when an order details us?" + +"Who signed your order?" + +Sister Ruth took off her spectacles, and bent closer, with a keenness +of scrutiny, that was unflatteringly suspicious. + +"My dear mother." + +"I understood that you had been an orphan for years?" + +"Yes, for four wretched, lonely and terrible years; but no tomb is deep +enough to shut in the voice that uttered our mother's last wishes; and +all time cannot hush the sound of the command, cannot hide the beloved +hand that pointed to the path she asked us to follow. When my mother +kissed me good-bye, she blessed me, because of a promise I gave her; +and Heaven means to me the place where I can look into her sainted +face, and tell her 'Hold me close to your tender heart, for oh! I have +indeed kept my word. Your little girl obeyed your last command.'" Her +voice trembled, and she passed one hand over her eyes for an instant. + +"Sister Ruth, the opportunity has arrived, and I go to execute the last +clause of a sacred order. When I shall have finished my mission, I +shall want to come back home. Oh! you see? I call it home. For where +else can I ever have a home, till I join my father and mother? If I +should come back and ask you to take me for the remainder of my life, +as a sister worker, will you let me die with the 'anchor' on my breast? +I shall be as worthy of your confidence then, as I am now." + +"Where are you going?" + +"I hoped that you would not ask me, because I cannot tell you now. Will +you not trust me?" + +"Your extremely cautious reticence makes it difficult; and I have +always known that some distressing mystery brought you here." + +"Confidence that defies suspicious appearances is precious indeed; but +confidence that crumbles like Jericho's walls at the blast of Joshua's +trumpets, is as worthless a sham as a cable whose strands part at the +first taut strain. Sister Ruth, there are reasons why I go away alone, +to an unknown destination; and I am about to tax your trust yet more +severely, when I tell you that I need the disguise of the 'Umilta' +uniform. I ask your permission to wear it during my absence." + +The matron shook her head. + +"Surely, Sister Ruth, you cannot think it possible that I should bring +discredit upon this dear gray flannel, which I hold as sacred as +priestly vestments?" + +She laid her cheek against her own shoulder, with a caressing motion, +and passed her fingers softly across her sleeve. + +"My young sister, to some extent I am responsible for those who wear +the 'Umilta' gray. If I allowed you to carry our badge under such +peculiar circumstances beyond the limits of my supervision, I should +hazard too much; should deserve the severity of the censure I most +certainly should receive, if any disaster brought reproach upon our +spotless record as an institution. It was not designed as a disguise in +which to masquerade for unknown purposes." + +Beryl put up both hands, pressing her pretty white cap close to her +ears; and her lips trembled, as was their wont, when she was wounded. + +"Do not discrown me. My father's Beryl will never sully your pure +record; and it would be as impossible for me to disgrace your uniform, +as defile my mother's shroud. Grant me the protection of this +consecrated garb." + +"No. The 'Anchorage' must remain as heretofore, like Caesar's wife." + +"Although I have lived here so long, how little you know me." + +"Very true, my Sister; therefore, as custodian of the interests of our +little community, I must not put them in jeopardy. When do you expect +to take your departure?" + +"Wednesday, at 6 A.M., on the express for New York." + +"Have you received letters?" + +"No, Sister. Doctor Grantlin is the only person who writes to me, and +as his letters are always addressed to your care, I receive them from +your hands." + +"How long do you propose to stay in New York?" + +"I am not going to New York, and I know not how long I may be detained; +but I desire to return without needless delay." + +"Then you want your money." + +"Give me to-morrow five hundred dollars, and keep the remainder until I +come, or until you hear from me. Please say that I have gone on a +journey to fulfil a pledge made years ago; and try not to show the +Sisters that you have no confidence in me. That--would rob my +home-coming of half its pleasure. If any unforeseen accident should +keep me away, should cut short a life which has overflowed with great +sorrow, then retain the money and the pictures I leave behind; and +believe that I died, as I have lived, not unworthy of all thy kindness +and true charity this dear sacred 'Anchorage' has shown to me. Sister +Elena is impatient; I hear her walking up and down the floor. While I +am absent, Sister Katrina, and especially Sister Anice, can take my +place in the Art School; and all my orders were finished last week, +except the mirror for Mrs. St. Clair. She wished it framed in scarlet +bignonias, and as the painting is more than half done, Sister Anice can +easily complete it. I will not detain you longer. Good-night, Sister +Ruth." + +No sleep visited Beryl, and as she lay at two o'clock, watching the +shimmer of the moonlight reflected from the tossing waves upon the +panes of her wide window, where the tangled mesh of quivering rays +coiled, uncoiled, glided hither and yon like golden serpents, she heard +the click of the key, and the turning of the knob in a door, which +opened from the alcove into an adjoining room. That apartment was +reserved as a guest chamber; had been unoccupied for months; and +puzzled by the sound, Beryl sat up in her bed and listened. The blue +folds of the drapery hanging over the alcove arch, were drawn aside, +and Sister Ruth, wrapped in a trailing dressing-gown, held up a small +lamp and peered cautiously around. + +"What is the matter, Sister?" + +"Did I frighten you? I came this way rather than knock at the other +door, because Sister Frances is on watch to-night; and though she is a +dear good soul, she is afflicted with an undue share of the feminine +frailty, curiosity, and I prefer that no one should canvass my +unseasonable visit to you. Do not get up." + +She put the brass lamp on a chair, and sat down on the edge of the bed. + +"Our conversation has disquieted me, and I cannot sleep. Long ago, for +my own sake, I made a rule by which to govern my judgment of my fellow +beings; and it amounts to this: where I cannot be sure of evil in +others, I give them the benefit of the doubt, and sincerely endeavor to +think the best. I have watched you very closely. There is much that I +cannot understand; much that it appears strange you should hesitate to +explain; yet in these years I have had no cause to question your +truthfulness, and that is the basis of all human worth. We profess to +live here as one family, as sisters, holding each other in love, +charity and trust; yet in searching myself to-night, I fear I have gone +astray. I have pondered and prayed over this matter, and my heart +yearns toward you. I feel as I fancy a mother might, who had too +hastily slapped the face of her child; and, my sister, I have come to +say, forgive me, if I too harshly refused your request, if I wounded +you." + +She held out her hand, but Beryl did not see it; she had covered her +face, and unable to speak she leaned forward and laid her head on the +matron's lap. Gently the thin fingers stroked the shining hair, until +they were drawn down and pressed to the girl's lips. + +"Again, I asked myself, whether my decision had not been inspired by an +overweening pride in the public estimation of our home; rather than by +an unselfish regard for the welfare and peace of mind of one of its +members? What will the world think of us, must be subordinated to, what +is the best for my young sister, whose cross it is my duty to lighten? +I cannot bear to give you up; and I shall, I will trust you. Wear the +'gray' armor, and remember, if any blot stain it, you will bring +disgrace upon a holy cause; you will be the first to stain the Umilta +uniform; and I shall be blamed, for reposing confidence in one who +betrayed us to public scorn. My Sister Beryl, I give you 'the gray'. +God grant it may shelter you from harm, and bring you home to fill my +place with honor, when I have passed into the eternal Anchorage." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + + +Over the region of the great lakes, her favorite haunt, hung the +enchanted stillness, the misty glamour of the purple-cloaked +witch--Indian Summer; whose sorcery veiled the dazzling face of the +sun, and changed the silver lustre of Selene into the vast, solemn red +blot that stared wonderingly at its own weird image in the glassy +waters. + +Wrapped in that soft, sweet haze, which like the eider down of charity +smooths all roughness, rounds all angles, the world of shore and lake +presented a magical panorama of towns and villages, herds of cattle, +flocks of sheep, spires of churches, masts of vessels,--all flashing +past the open window of the car, where Beryl sat, watching the shadows +lengthen as the long train thundered eastward, and the tree dials +marked the hour record on the golden brown stubble fields. + +When the goal is in sight, do we dwell on the hazard, the strained +muscles, the blistered feet, and the fierce thirst the long race-course +cost us? Who know that they are weary and spent, while the prize +brightens, nears as they stretch panting to grasp it? + +The certainty of meeting her brother, the anticipation of all that she +felt assured he would promise concerning his future, when he learned +the severity of the ordeal which she had endured in his behalf, blotted +out the costliness of the accomplishment. Like that glorious violet +haze of Indian Summer, which was drawing its opalescent drapery along +the vanishing iron railway track blackened with cinders, and softly +shrouding the grim outlines of wreck, that told where a vessel had +foundered on the lake in the early autumn gale, an overruling +Providence seemed shedding peace even upon her troubled past. In the +swift flash of the divine fire that sanctified the accepted sacrifice, +she was too dazzled to remember the moan of the slaughtered victim, the +agony of the death struggle; and now, her thoughts spanned the gulf of +time, and painted the eternal reunion of the broken and dishonored +family group. + +From these comforting reflections she was aroused by a piercing cry +that made her spring forward, and scan the crowd of human faces +collected close to the rails, at a small town where the cars had halted. + +On a side track in front of her window, was a train which had just +dashed in from Buffalo, and amid the surging mass of jeering +spectators, two officers stepped down from the platform, each with a +hand on the arm of a man, who was heavily handcuffed. At the sight, a +white-haired, withered woman leaning from a carriage and staring with +horror-haunted eyes, had screamed, and was falling back insensible. + +"That is his mother. Poor thing, why did they let her come? He is her +only boy," said a man to his comrade, who stood near Beryl's seat. + +"What is the matter?" asked a gentleman, sitting immediately in front +of her. + +"Two of our officers winged a bird, who thought it was safe flying over +yonder, with the lake between him and the county jail. Canada is handy +hunting-ground, when the game happens to be runaway thieves; and we +have bagged one. He was the cashier of our Savings Bank, and not +satisfied with tampering with the books, and forcing balances, he +finally robbed the vault of a lot of gold, and flew across the line. +His wife met him at St. Catherine's, and he met the iron bracelets he +was dodging." + +The train moved on, and once more Beryl heard the howling of the +wolves, that she had hoped were left forever behind; that now seemed in +full cry bearing down upon their prey. Should she return to the +"Anchorage", and advertise Bertie's danger? So vague were her ideas +relative to the limits of extradition, that she had regarded Canada as +a city of refuge; considered its protection of United States' criminal +fugitives as efficacious, as meeting a Vestal Priestess on the way to +his execution, proved in rescuing a Roman malefactor from the penalty +of violated law; but this shred of comfort had parted, when most she +required its aid. + +"Yes, I understand extradition provisions have been arranged, which are +bound to have a wholesome effect; especially in this section, where it +is so easy to slip across the lakes any dark night. I am told nearly +all felonies will be embraced now--from murder to burglary--and that +Her Majesty's Secretaries are more willing to aid our officers, than +was the case a few years ago, when no end of quibbling tied up justice." + +The gentlemen on the seat in front of her, moved away to the smoking +car; and the woman in gray listened to the creak and whirr of the wheel +of torturing dread, upon which some malignant fate once more bound her. +Bertie had been safe in his mountain fastness, until her ill-starred +advertisement coaxed him within reach of the police Briareus. Could she +discern the hand of merciful warning in this fortuitous meeting with a +captured culprit; which so vividly recalled the maddening incidents of +her return to X---, when the sheriff had hurried her from the car? A +sickening terror seized her, and along the expanse of pearly mist that +united earth and sky, in tke snowy fringe of ripples breaking their +teeth on the shelving beach, she seemed to read the doom of her +stratagem written in words of menace: + +"Go where you may, but I give you fair warning you cannot escape me; +and the day on which you meet that guilty vagabond, you betray him to +the scouts of justice." + +Far away, among the orange groves of Louisiana, would he forget his +threat, or fail to execute it? On and on darted the train; people +laughed and talked; a tired baby swayed from side to side on the +nurse's knees, crooned herself to sleep; and a canary in a cage covered +with pink net, broke suddenly into a spasm of trills and roulades. + +It was almost four o'clock when the dull roar of Niagara set the air a +tremble, and the few remaining passengers left the train. The little +town was unusually quiet and deserted, the tide of summer travel having +ebbed; and not until the crystal fingers of the ice fairy had built her +wonderful Giralda out of foam and spray, would that of Winter tourists +begin to flow. + +Leaving her trunk at the "baggage room" of the station, Beryl engaged a +carriage driver to take her to the Suspension Bridge. Drawing her gray +bonnet and veil as far as possible over her face, she paid the toll, +and noticed that the keeper peered curiously at her, and muttered +something in an undertone to a man wearing a uniform, who turned and +stared at her. + +She hurried away along that iron mesh swinging high in air like a vast +spider web, spun from shore to shore across the swirling, snarling +caldron of hissing waters. Was the officer the wary spider watching her +movements, waiting to slip down the metal snare, and devour her hopes? +Her heart beats sounded as the heavy thuds of a drum; the rush of dire +forebodings drowned even the roar of the Falls, and the magnificence of +the spectacle vanished before the awful realization of the danger to +which she had invited Bertie. + +The bridge was deserted; no human being was visible; and now and then +she glanced back over her shoulder, dreading she knew not what form of +pursuit. At last her flying feet touched British soil, but she knew +now, that neither Bezer nor yet Shechcm lay before her; and no +sign-post rose to welcome her, with the "Refuge--Refuge"--the water and +the bread appointed of old, for spent fugitives. Canada was an ambush +that, despite all caution, might betray her. Against the last rail of +the bridge she leaned, tried to steady her nerves; and put up one +passionate prayer: + +"Turn not Thy face from me, O my God! in this last hour! Guide me +aright. Overrule all my mistakes, and save my repentant brother." + +On the wide gallery of the "Clifton House" stood a gardener engaged in +removing the flower baskets that hung between the columns; and as he +paused in his work, to observe the quaint gray figure below, she asked, +in a voice that was strained beyond its customary sweetness: + +"Please direct me to the Museum." + +"Follow the street along the cliff, and you can't miss it. Behind those +trees yonder, on the right hand side. To the best of my belief, it is +shut up this week." + +Turning south, she walked more leisurely, lest undue haste should +excite suspicion; and all the solemn sublimity of the scene confronted +her. The green crescent of the Horseshoe blanched to foam, as it leaped +to the stony gulf below, the wreaths of mist floating up, gilded by the +sunshine; the maddened rush of the tossing, frothing, whirling rapids +seething like melted gold as the western radiance smote the bubbling +surface; the scarlet flakes of foliage clinging to the trees on Goat +Island, and far above, on the wooded height beyond, the picturesque +outlines of the Convent, lifting its belfry against the azure sky. As +doomed swimmers lost in those rapids, swept head downward to +destruction, nearing the last wild plunge catch the glimmer of that +consecrated tower held aloft, so to Beryl's eyes it now seemed a symbol +of comfort; and faith once more girded her. + +A woman wearing a blue plaid handkerchief tied over her head and +knotted under her chin, and carrying a basket of red apples on one arm, +while with the other she led a lowing cow along the dusty road, paused +at a signal, in front of the gray clad stranger. + +"Which is the Museum?" + +"Yonder, where the goats are huddled." + +The building was closed, but in those days a garden lay to the north of +it; and a small gate that gave admittance to seats and flowers +connected with the Museum, now stood open. + +The walks were strewn with pale yellow poplar leaves, and bordered with +belated pink hollyhocks, and crimson chrysanthemums blighted by frost, +shivering in their death chill; and from a neighboring willow stripped +of curtaining foliage, a lonely bird piped its plaintive threnody, for +the loss of one summer's mate. At the extremity of the little garden, +under shelter of an ancient, gnarled tree, that screened a semicircular +seat from the observation of those passing on the street, Beryl sat +down to rest; to collect her thoughts. + +In the solitude, she threw back her veil, leaned her head against the +trunk of the tree where wan lichens made a pearly cushion, and shut her +eyes. The afternoon was wearing away; a keen wind shook the bare +boughs; only the ceaseless, unchanging chant of waters rose from the +vast throat of nature, invoking its God. + +She heard no footsteps; but some strange current attacked her veins, +thrilled along her nerves, strung as taut as the wires of a harp, and +starting up she became aware that a man was standing on the clover +sward close to her. A dark brown overcoat, a broad brimmed, soft wool +hat, drawn as a mask down to the bridge of the nose, and a bare hand +covering the mouth, was all she saw. + +Stretching out her arms, she sprang to meet him: + +"O Bertie! At last! At last!" + +The figure drew back slightly, lifted his hat; and where she had +expected to see her brother's golden curls, the crisp, black locks of +Mr. Dunbar met her gaze. + +"You! Here?" + +She staggered, and sank back on the bench; the realization of Bertie's +peril throttling the joy that leaped up in her heart, at sight of the +beloved features. + +"I am here. I come as promptly to fulfil my promise as you to keep your +tryst. Do you understand me so little, that you doubted my word?" + +Her bonnet had slipped back, and as all the chastened beauty of her +face framed in the dainty cap, became fully exposed, a heavy sigh +escaped him, and he set his teeth, like one nerved to endure torture. + +For months he had nourished the germ of a generous purpose, had tried +to accustom himself to the idea of ultimately surrendering her; but in +her presence, a certain bitter fury swept away the wretched figment, +and he remembered only how fair, how holy, how dear she was to him. +Once more the cry of his famishing heart was: "Death may part us. I +swear no man's arms ever shall." + +"Why waylay and torment me? Have I not suffered enough at your hands? +Between me and mine not even you can come." + +"Take care! For your sake I am here, hoping to spare you some pangs; to +allow you at least an opportunity to see him--" + +"What have you done? Don't tell me I am too late. Where is he? Oh! +where--where is he?" + +She had sprung up, and her hands closed around his arm, shaking it in +the desperation of her dread; while her voice quivered under the strain +of a conjecture that Bertie had already been arrested. + +"Where is your chivalrous, courageous, unselfish, devoted lover? To +ascertain exactly where he skulks, is my mission to Canada; for I +thought I had schooled myself to bear the pain of--" + +"What do you mean? What have you done with my Bertie? Oh--" + +She threw herself suddenly on her knees, held up her hands, and a +wailing cry broke the stillness: + +"Save him, Mr. Dunbar! You will break my heart if you bring ruin upon +his dear head. He is all I have on earth, he is my own brother! My +brother! my brother!" + +The blood ebbed from his face; the haughty mouth twitched in a sudden +spasm, and he put his hand over his eyes. + +Could she adopt this ruse to thwart pursuit of the man whom she +idolized? For half a moment he stood, with whitened lips; then stooped, +took the face of the kneeling woman in his palms, and scanned it. + +"Your brother?" + +"My brother. Do you understand at last, why I must save him? Why you +must help me to screen him from ruin?" + +"Great God! After all, what a blind fool I have been!" + +He raised her, placed her on the bench; sat down and leaned his head on +his hand. To Beryl, the silence that followed was an excruciating +torture, beyond even her power of endurance. + +"Do not keep me in suspense. Where is Bertie? Let me see him, if he is +here." + +"He is not here. It was to assist you in finding him, that I enticed +you here." + +"You enticed me?" + +"I put the advertisement in the 'Herald', knowing that if you chanced +to see it, all the legions of Satan could not keep you away. I have +been here since Sunday, waiting and watching. I was obliged to see you, +for your own sake, as well as to satisfy my longing to look once more +into your face; and I felt assured the magnetic name of 'Bertie' would +draw you here swiftly." + +"Then it was only a snare, that advertisement? Oh! you are cruel!" + +"Not to you. It was to promote your peace of mind, by enabling you to +meet the man who, I supposed was your lover, that I invited you to this +place. Mark you, only to see, never to marry him." + +"Where is he?" + +"Exactly where, I do not yet know; but very soon you shall learn." + +"Is he in peril?" + +"Not from arrest at present, by human officers of retributive justice." + +"He is not coming here?" + +"Certainly not." + +"How did you learn his name?" + +"I suspected that the advertisement you published in the "Herald" after +leaving X---, was a clue that would aid me. I clung to it, for I was +sure it referred to the man whom I have hunted so persistently." + +"You have something to tell me. Be merciful, and end my suspense." + +"First, answer one question. Why did you conceal from me the fact that +you had a brother? Why did you allow me to suffer from a false theory, +that you knew made my life a slow torture?" + +He leaned nearer, and under the blue fire of his eager eyes, the blood +mounted into her pale cheeks. + +"My motive belongs to a past, with which I trust I have done forever; +and you have no right to violate its buried ashes." + +"I must, and I will have all the truth, cost what it may. Between you +and me, no spectre of mystery shall longer stalk. If you had trusted +me, and confessed the facts before the trial, you would have muzzled me +effectually, and prevented the employment of detectives whom I have +hissed on your brother's track. Why did you lead me astray, and confirm +my suspicion that you were shielding a lover?" + +"I was innocent; but my name, my father's honored name, was in jeopardy +of dishonor, and to protect it, I would not undeceive you. Had my +brother been convicted, the established guilt would have tarnished +forever our only legacy, all that father left to Bertie and to me--his +spotless name." + +"You are quibbling. Did you shield the family name by enduring the +purgatory of seeing your own on the list of penitentiary convicts? You +deliberately fastened the odium of the crime upon your father's +daughter; and you knew, you understood perfectly, that by strengthening +my erroneous supposition, you were lashing me to a pursuit of the +person, whom you could have best protected by frankly telling me all. +If he is really your brother, what did you expect to accomplish by +fostering my belief that he was your lover?" + +"Mr. Dunbar, spare me this inquisition. Release me from the rack of +suspense. Tell me why you set this snare, baited with Bertie's name?" + +"I must first end my own suspense. If you wish to find the man, you +tell me is your brother, I will aid you only when you have bared your +heart to me. You had some powerful incentive unrevealed. I will know +exactly, why you made me suffer all these years, the pangs of a +devouring jealousy, keener than a vulture's talons." + +With crimson cheeks, and shy, averted eyes, she sat trembling; +unconsciously locking and unlocking her fingers. Her head drooped, and +the voice was a low flutter: + +"If I had told you that the handkerchief was one I gave to my brother, +because he fancied the gay border, and that the pipe belonged to my +dear father, and if you had known that for more than a year before I +went to X---no tidings from that brother had reached me, would you have +kept my secret, when you saw my life laid in the scales held by the +jury? Suppose they had condemned me to death? I expected that fate; but +knowing the truth, would you have permitted the execution of that +sentence?" + +"Certainly not; and you understand why I should never have allowed it." + +"I knew that in such an emergency I could not trust you." + +Five minutes passed, while he silently sought to unravel the web; and +Beryl dared not meet his gaze. + +"You had some stronger motive, else you would have confessed all, when +I started to Dakota. Anxiety for your brother's safety would have +unsealed your lips. What actuated you then? I mean to know everything +now." + +"Miss Gordon was my friend. She showed me kindness which I could never +forget." + +"Miss Gordon is a very noble woman, kinder to all the world than to +herself; but did gratitude to her involve sacrifice of me?" + +"You were betrothed. I owed it to her, to keep you loyal to your vows, +as far as my power extended. I tried faithfully to guard her happiness, +while endeavoring to shield my brother." + +"Knowing you had all my heart, you dared not let me learn that the +rival existed only in my imagination? loyal soul! Did you deem it a +kindness to aid in binding her to an unloving husband? Her womanly +instincts saved her from that death in life; and years ago, she set us +both free. She wears no willows, let me tell you; and those who should +know best, think that before very long she will sail for Europe as wife +of Governor Glenbeigh, the newly appointed minister to Z---, a +brilliant position, which she will nobly grace. She will be happier as +Glenbeigh's wife than I could possibly have made her; for he loves her +as she deserves to be loved. So, for Miss Gordon's sake, you immolated +me?" + +Only the pathetic piping of the lonely bird made answer. + +Like the premonitory thrill that creeps through forest leaves, before +the coming burst of a tempest, he seemed to tremble slightly; his tone +had a rising ring, and a dark flush stained his swarthy face, deepened +the color in his brilliant eyes. + +"Oh, my white rose! A wonderful fragrance of hope steals into the air; +a light breaks upon my dreary world that makes me giddy! Can it be +possible that you--" + +He paused, and she covered her face with her hands. + +"Beryl, you are the only woman I have ever loved. You came suddenly +into my life, as an irresistible incarnation of some fateful witchery +that stole and fired my heart, subverted all my plans, made havoc of +lifelong hopes, dominated my will, changed my nature; overturned the +cool selfishness on the altar of my worship, and set up your own image +in a temple, swept, garnished, and sanctified forever by your +in-dwelling. You have cost me stinging humiliation, years of regret, of +bitter disappointment; and the ceaselessly gnawing pain of a jealous +dread that despite my vigilance, another man might some day possess +you. I have money, influence, professional success, gratified ambition, +and enviable social eminence; I have all but that which a man wants +most, the one woman in the great wide world whom he loves truly, loves +better than he loves himself; and who holds his heart in the hollow of +her hand. I want my beautiful, proud, pure, stately white rose. I want +my Beryl. I will have my own." + +He had risen, stood before her; took the hands that veiled her +countenance, and drew her to her feet. + +"You have been loyal to parents, to brother, to friends, to duty; be +loyal now to your own heart; answer me truly. What did you mean when +you once said, with a mournful pathos I cannot forget: 'We love not +always whom we should, or would, were choice permitted us?' You defied +me that day, and prayed God to bless your lover; taunted me with words +that have made days dreary, nights hideous: 'To whom I have given my +whole deep heart, you shall never know.' Did you mean--ah--will you +tell me now?" + +She bent her head till it almost touched him, but no answer came. + +"You will not? I swear you shall; else I shall hope, believe, know +beyond all doubt, that during these years, I have not been the only +sufferer; and that loyal as was your soul, your rebel heart is as truly +mine, as all my deathless love is surely yours." + +She tried to withdraw her hands; but his hold tightened, and infinite +exultation rang in his voice. + +"My darling! My darling--you dare not deny it? I shall wear my white +rose to make all the future sweet with a blessed love; but have you no +word of assurance for my hungry ears? Is my darling too proud?" + +He raised her hands, laid her arms around his neck, and folded very +close to his heart, the long coveted prize. + +"My Beryl, it was a stubborn battle, but Lennox Dunbar claims his own; +and will hold her safe forever. Will you be loyal to your tyrant?" + +Was it a white or a crimson rose that hid its lovely petals against his +shoulder, and whispered with lips that his kiss had rouged: + +"Have I ever been allowed a choice? Was I not foredoomed to be always +at the mercy of Tiberius?" + +The little garden was growing dusky, the gilded mist waving its +spectral banners over the thundering cataract, had whitened as the sun +went down behind the wooded crest that barred the western sky line; and +the shimmering gold on the heaving, whirling current of the Rapids +faded to leaden tints, flecked with foam, as like a maddened suitor, +parted by Goat Island from its beloved, it rushed to plunge into the +abyss, where the silvery bridal veil shook her signal, and all the +roaring gorge filled with purple gloom. + +Mr. Dunbar drew his companion's hand under his arm, and led her toward +the Clifton House. + +"You and I have done with shadows. On the heights yonder, the sun still +shines. Up there waits one, who will tell you that which he refuses to +divulge to any one else. Ten days ago my agents notified me that a man +was searching for Mrs. Brentano and her daughter Beryl in New York; and +that he had gone to X---, where he spent several days in consultation +with the Catholic priest. Singleton sent me a telegram, and I reached +X---in time to accompany the stranger back to New York. To me he admits +only, that he lives in Montreal; and is the bearer of a message, the +import of which, sacred promises prevent him from revealing to any one +but Miss Brentano. He is an elderly man, and so wary, no amount of +dexterity can circumvent his caution. Very complex and inexplicable +motives brought me here; chiefly the longing to see you, to learn your +retreat, your mode of existence; and also the intention to exact one +condition, before I made it possible for you to find the object of your +search. When you had given me your promise not to marry him, it was my +purpose to allow you one final meeting; and if you forfeited your +compact, the dungeon and the gallows awaited him. Love makes women +martyrs; they are the apostles of the gospel of altruism. Love revives +in men of my stamp, the primeval and undifferentiated tiger. When I +think of all that you have endured, of how nearly I lost you, my +snowdrop, do you wonder I shall hasten to set you in the garden of my +heart, and shelter your dear head from every chill wind of adversity?" + +They had passed through a gate, crossed a lawn, and reached a long, +steep flight of steps leading straight up the face of a cliff, to the +grounds attached to a villa. With her hand clasped tightly in his, Mr. +Dunbar and Beryl slowly mounted the abrupt stairway, and when they +gained the elevated terrace, a man who was walking up and down the +sward, came quickly forward. + +Pressing her fingers tenderly, Mr. Dunbar released her hand. + +"When your interview is ended, come to me yonder at the side gate, +where I have a carriage to take you over the bridge. Father Beckx, this +is Miss Brentano. I leave her in your care." + +The sun was sending his last level shafts of light from the edge of the +sky, when a man dressed in long black vestments, a raven-haired, +raven-eyed, thin lipped and clean shaven personage, with a placid +countenance as coldly irresponsive as a stone mask, sat down on the top +step of the long stairs, beside the woman in gray, whose eager white +face was turned to meet his, in breathless and mute expectancy. + +The lingering twilight held at bay slowly marching night; the sunset +glory streamed up almost to the zenith in bands of amethyst and faint +opaline green, like the far reaching plumes of an archangel's pinions +beating the still, crystal air. Later, the vivid orange of the +afterglow burned with a transient splendor, as the dying smile of a day +that had gone to its eternal grave; and all the West was one vast +evening primrose of palest gold sprinkled with star dust, when Beryl +went slowly to join the figure pacing restlessly in front of the gate. + +Across the grassy lawn he came to meet her. In mute surrender she +lifted her arms, laid her proud head, with its bared wealth of +burnished bronze hair, down on his shoulder, and wept passionately. + +When he had placed her in the carriage, and held her close to his +heart, with his dark cheek resting on hers, where tears still trickled, +he whispered: + +"How much are you willing to tell me?" + +"Only that I must start at once on a long, lonely journey to a desolate +retreat, in mountain solitudes; far away in the wilderness of the +Northwest. Bertie is there; and I must see him once more." + +"How soon do you wish to start?" + +"Within the next three days." + +"You must wait one week. I cannot go before that time." + +"You--?" + +"Do you suppose I shall allow you to travel there without me? Do you +imagine I shall ever lose sight of you, till the vows are uttered that +make you my wife? You cannot see your brother's face, until you have +first looked into your husband's. In one week I can arrange to go, to +the ends of the earth if you will; but you will meet your brother only +when you are Beryl Dunbar." + +"No--no! You forget, ah!--You forget. I have worn the penitentiary +homespun, and the brand of the convict seared my fair name, scarred all +my life. The wounds will heal, but time can never efface the hard lines +of the cicatrice; and I could not bear to mar the lustre of your +honored name by--" + +"Hush!--hush. It is ungenerous in you to wound me so sorely. When I +remember the fiery furnace through which my wife walked unscorched, +with such sublime and patient heroism, is it possible that I should +forget whose rash hand, whose besotted idiocy consigned her to the +awful ordeal? Out of the black shadow where I thrust you, sprang the +halo that glorifies you. How often, in the silence of my sleepless +nights, have I heard the echo of your wild, despairing cry: 'You have +ruined my life!' Oh, my darling! If you withhold yourself, if you cast +me away, you will indeed ruin mine. If you could realize how I wince at +the recollection of your suffering, you would not cruelly remind me of +my own accursed work." + +"If the soul of my brother be ransomed thereby, I shall thank you, even +for all that X---cost me. The world knows now, that no suspicion clings +to me; but, Mr. Dunbar, the disgrace blots forever the dear name I +tried to shield; and my vindication only blackens Bertie." + +"The world will never know. Your sad secret shall be kept, and my name +shall wrap you in ermine, and my love make your future redeem the past. +Having found my darling, can I afford to run the risk of losing her? +You belong to me, and I will not trust you out of my sight, until the +law gives me a husband's claim. The mother of one of my oldest friends +is boarding here in Niagara. I will commit you to her care until +to-morrow; then some church will furnish an altar where you shall +pledge me your loyalty." + +"Impossible! To-night a train will take me to Buffalo, where I can +catch the express going West. There are reasons why I must make no +delay; must hasten back to explain many things to the Matron of the +Sisterhood, where I have dwelt so safely and so peacefully since I left +X---." + +"Give me the reasons. 'Impossible' ne me dites jamais ce bete de mot!' +Give me your reasons." + +His arm tightened around her. + +"Not now." + +"Then you shall not leave me. I will endure no more mysteries." + +"Mr. Dunbar, I wear the uniform of a celibate Order of Gray Sisters; +and the matron trusted me in an unusual degree, when she consented that +I should undertake this journey on a secret mission. I came to Niagara, +as I supposed, to keep an appointment with my brother, and I met you. +If I lingered one instant here, it might reflect some discredit upon +this dear gray garb, which all hold so irreproachable. Sister Ruth +trusted me. I cannot, I will not, even in the smallest iota, appear to +betray her confidence; and I must go at once, and go as I came--alone. +Bid the driver take me to the railway station, and you must remain in +the carriage. I can have no escort. Your presence would subject me to +criticism, and I will guard the 'gray' that so mercifully guarded me." + +"Beryl, are you trying to elude me?" + +"I am faithfully trying to keep my compact with Sister Ruth. Here is a +card bearing the exact address of the 'Anchorage'. I am going there as +quickly as possible, to make speedy arrangements for my long journey +West, to that place almost within sound of the Pacific Ocean." + +"Put your hand in mine. Promise me before God, that you will not vanish +from me; that you will not leave the 'Anchorage' until I come and see +you there." + +"I promise; but time presses. I must hasten to find Bertie." + +"Do you know exactly where to go?" + +"Yes. I have minute directions written down." + +"Wait until I come. I trust you to keep your promise. Ah! after to-day, +I could not bear to lose my 'Rosa Alba.' God make me more worthy of my +loyal and beautiful darling. After all, not Alcestis, but Antigone!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + + +White and still, lay the world of the far Northwest, wrapped in peace +as profound as that which reigned in primeval ages; when ancestral +Nahuas, dragging their sleds across frozen Behring Straits, or cast +amid other drift of the Japanese current upon the strange new Pacific +shore, climbed the mountains, and fell on their faces before the sun, +whose worshippers have sacrificed in all hemispheres. + +If civilization be the analogue of geologic accretion, how tortuous is +the trend and dip of the ethnological strata, how abrupt the +overlapping of myths. How many aeons divided the totem coyote from the +she-wolf of Romulus and Remus? Which is the primitive and parent flame, +the sacred fire of Pueblo Estufas, of Greek Prytaneum, of Roman Vesta, +of Persian Atish-khudahs? If the Laurentian system be the oldest +upheaval of land, and its "dawn animal" the first evolution of life +that left fossil footprints, where are all the missing links in +ethnology, which would save science that rejects Genesis--the paradox +of peopling the oldest known continent by immigration from those +incalculably younger? + +Winter had lagged, loath to set his snow shoes upon the lingering, +diaphanous train of Indian Summer, but December was inexorable, and the +livery of ice glittered everywhere in the mid-day sun. + +Along a well-worn bridle trail, now slippery as glass, winding around +the base of crags, through narrow gorges that almost overarched, +leaving a mere skylight of intense blue to mark the way, moved a party +of four persons in single file, slowly ascending a steep spiral. In +advance, mounted on a black pony, was a cowled monk, whose long, thin +profile suggested that of Savonarola; and just behind him rode a +Canadian half-breed guide, with the copperish red of aboriginal America +on his high cheek bones, and the warm glow of sunny France in his keen +black eyes. Guiding his horse with the left hand, his right led the +dappled mustang belonging to the third figure; a tall, +broad-shouldered man wearing an overcoat that reached to his knees, who +walked with his hand on the bridle bit of a white mule, whereon sat a +woman, wrapped in silver fox furs from throat to feet. A cap or hood of +the same soft, warm material was worn over her head, where a roll of +dark auburn hair coiled at the back; and around her white temples +clustered rings and tendrils of the glossy bronze locks that +contrasted so singularly with the black arch of the brows, and the +fringe that darkened the luminous gray eyes. + +One month had elapsed since the Umilta Sisters of the "Anchorage", +following Sister Ruth, walked in the star-lit dawn of a November day, +to a neighboring church, and watched Doctor Grantlin lead down the +aisle, a pale, trembling woman whose hand he placed in that of the man, +waiting in front of the altar. The Sisterhood had listened to the +solemn words of the marriage service, the interchange of vows, and the +benediction, while priestly hands were laid tapon two bowed heads. + +When the rising sun greeted the husband and wife, they were speeding +westward, on the first stage of their long journey. + +To-day, the quest would end; and into Beryl's face had crept the +wistful yearning that was a reflection of that strange blending of +patience and longing, which made her so beautiful in her husband's +eyes; so strong in faith, so serene in waiting resignation. Suddenly +the monk drew rein, threw up his drooping head, and listened. Clear and +sweet as the silvery chime of bells ringing in happy dreams, floated +through the crystal air the sound of the Angelus; and fainter and +fainter fell the echoes, dying in immeasurable distance. Low bent the +shaven head, and through brown, fingers stole the consecrated beads, +while with closed eyes the prayers were uttered; and in the pause, the +guide made the sign of the cross, and Mr. Dunbar instinctively took off +his hat. + +"Six hours' steady climbing is a severe tax. Are you very tired?" he +whispered, laying his arm around Beryl's waist, and lifting his +brilliant eyes eloquent with an infinite tenderness. + +With one hand on his shoulder as he stood beside her, she leaned down +until her lips touched the black hair tossed back from his forehead. + +"After waiting so many terrible years, what are a few more hours of +suspense? Since I have you, can I ever again feel tired?" + +Behind them lay a dark undulating line, where oak and cedar had made +their last stand on the upward march; nearer, the spectral ranks of +stunted firs showed the outposts of forest advance; and a few feet from +the narrow path, a perpendicular cliff formed one wall of a deep canon, +where a glittering ribbon of water hurried to leap into the Pacific, +ere pursuing Winter arrested and bound it with icy manacles to its +stony bed. To the north dazzling white peaks cut strange solemn shapes, +like silver cameos on a ground of indigo sky; and overhead, burnished +lines of snow geese printed their glittering triangles on the paler +blue of the zenith, as the winged host dipped southward. + +The monk moved on, and after a while his companions perceived that the +way descended rapidly until they reached the face of a rock that rose +straight and smooth as a wall of human masonry, and apparently barred +further progress. Taking from his bosom the twisted section of a +polished horn, only a finger's length, the cowled figure raised it to +his lips, and blew three whistles, that ended in a rising inflection +which waked all the wolfish pack of mountain echoes into fitful +barking. Two moments later, an answering signal seemed to issue from +the invisible jaws of Hades; a wild, quivering sepulchral cry, as of a +monster half throttled. Twenty feet beyond the spot where the party had +halted, a steep descent led them to a shelving canon, once the bed of a +broad mountain torrent, whose course some seismic upheaval had diverted +to other channels. Following for a few yards the sinuous stony way, +worn here and there into smooth circular cavities like miniature wells, +by the eddying of the ancient current and the grinding of pebbles, the +travellers turned a sharp angle, and found themselves at the mouth of +Tartarus. + +The force of the stream had originally cut a low arch in its egress, +which human needs and ingenuity had broadened, heightened and closed by +heavy iron bars, slipped into stone slots. Behind this gateway +glimmered a faint light that brightened into a red star; and soon, a +figure clad in the long, black monastic gown, and bearing a huge torch +of blazing pitch pine, emerged from the bowels of the earth. There was +the rattle of a chain, the creak of a pulley, and the bars were lowered. + +So vividly did the scene recall that black, stormy night in February, +when Mr. Dunbar had seen the lantern of the gaoler flash through the +penitentiary gates closing on the young convict, that he drew his +breath now through clinched teeth, and quickly laid his hand upon that +of his wife, which grasped the bridle resting upon the neck of her +mule. Silently the procession filed in, and with little delay the torch +bearer replaced the bars, advanced to the head of the column, and with +long, swift strides led the way down a wide tunnel. Between the monks +no salutation was exchanged; and only the ringing tramp of the horses' +feet on the stone pavement, jarred the profound stillness. The lurid +glare of the torch danced on the rocky vault, and the shadows projected +by men and beasts were gigantic and grotesque. Very soon a gray +twilight stole to meet them; an arch of light like a window opening +into heaven brightened, glared, and the party emerged into a courtyard +that seemed an entrance to some vast amphitheatre. + +Opposite the mouth of the tunnel, and distant perhaps two hundred +yards, lay an oval lake, bordered on the right by a valley running +southeast, while its northern shore rose abruptly in a parapet of rock, +that patient cloistered workmen had cut into broad terraces; and upon +which opened rows of cells excavated from the mountain side, and +resembling magnified swallow nests, or a huge petrified honeycomb +sliced vertically. + +A legend so hoary, that "the memory of man runneth not to the +contrary", had assigned the outlines of this stone cutting to that dim +dawn of primeval tribal life, which left its later traces in the Watch +Tower of the Mancos, the Casa del Eco, and the "niche stairway of the +Hovenweep". + +In the slow deposition of the human strata, cliff dwellers disappeared +beneath predatory, nomadic modern savages, who, hunting and fishing in +this lonely fastness, had increased its natural fortifications, and +made it an impregnable depot of supplies, until Hudson Bay trappers +wrenched it from their grasp, and appropriated it as a peltry magazine. +To the dynasty of traders had succeeded the spiritual rule of a Jesuit +Mission; then miners kindled camp fires in the deserted excavations, as +they probed the mountain for ores; and more recently the noiseless feet +of a band of holy celibates belonging to an austere Order, went up and +down the face of the cliff, with cross and bell and incense exorcising +haunting aboriginal spectres; while holy water sprinkled the uncanny, +dismal precincts of a circular room hollowed behind and beneath all +other apartments, the monumental, sacred Estufa. + +At a signal from the monk who had escorted them, Mr. Dunbar lifted +Beryl from her saddle, and hand in hand they followed him across the +courtyard, mounted a flight of steps cut in the rock, and passed into a +low, dim room, where the ceiling was crossed in squares by heavy, red +cedar beams. The floor was paved with diamond-shaped slabs of purple +slate, the whitewashed wall adorned with colored lithographs of the +Passion; and above the cavernous chimney arch, where cedar logs blazed, +ran the inscription: "Otiositas inimica est animae." + +Noiselessly as the wings of a huge bat, a leathern screen was folded +back from the corner of the room, and a venerable man advanced from the +gloom. + +A fringe of white hair surrounded his head like a laurel chaplet in old +statues, and the heavy, straight brows that almost met across the nose, +hung as snowflakes over the intensely black eyes as glowing as lamps +set in the sockets of an ivory image. Scholarly and magnetic as +Abelard, with a certain innate proud poise of the head and shoulders, +that ill accorded with the Carlo-Borromeo expression of seraphic +serenity and meekness, set like a seal on the large square mouth, he +looked a veritable type of the ecclesiastical cenobites who, since the +days of Pachomius at Tabennae, have made their hearts altars of the +Triple Vows, and girdled the globe with a cable of scholastic +mysticism. The pale, shrunken hand he laid on the black serge that +covered his breast, was delicate as a woman's, and checkered with +knotted lines where the blood crept feebly. + +Bowing low, he spoke in a carefully modulated voice, deep and resonant +as a bass viol: + +"Welcome to such hospitality as our poverty permits. A cipher telegram +forwarded from the nearest station, sixty miles hence, prepared us to +expect a newly-married woman searching for a man, known to the secular +world as Robert Luke Brentano. You claim to be his nearest blood +relative?" + +"I am his sister. How is he?" + +"Alive, but sinking fast; sustained beyond all human calculation by the +hope of seeing you. You have not come one moment too soon. The man you +seek is only a lay brother here. The rules of our Order forbid the +admission of women to the cloister, but in articulo mortis! can I deny +him now the confession he wishes to offer you? Our holy ordinances have +done their divine work; the last rites of the Church have soothed and +consecrated the heart of Brother Luke, and an hour ago, extreme unction +was administered. Follow me." + +"He knows that I am coming?" asked Beryl, raising her white, +tear-drenched face from her husband's shoulder. + +"He knows; and holds death back to see you. His self-imposed penance +makes him steadfastly refuse the comparative comfort of our meagre +infirmary, and it is his wish to die, where he has spent so many nights +in penitential prayer. For several days, the paralysis of years has +been gradually loosening its fetters, and this morning, the distressing +and ghastly distortion of one side of his face almost disappeared. +Though his voice is well nigh gone, it returns fitfully, and his +strength seems supernatural. Fearing that you might not arrive in time, +I have written down his last confession, and here commit it to you." + +He placed a roll of paper in her hand, and drawing his cowl over his +head, led them up an easy stairway cut in the stone, to a second +terrace four feet wide, that projected as a roof beyond the lower tier +of cells. + +A hundred feet below lay the lakelet, shining as a mirror; to the +southeast stretched a valley bounded by buttes crowned with cedar, and +in the undulating field, locked from fierce winds, cattle and goats +sunned themselves, where in summer time grain waved, fruit ripened, and +bees hummed. + +From the parapet of a low wall facing west, rose a round tower heavily +buttressed, where swung the bell; and through an open arch in the side, +under the uplifted cross, the eye swept on and on, over a world of +snowy peaks, dark canons, mountain minarets girding the northern +horizon; and far, far away a scintillating thread of white fire marked +where the Pacific smiled behind the fiords that channelled the +rock-ribbed coast. + +In that still, cold and brilliant atmosphere, how dazzling the snow +blink, how sharp the outline of projected shadows, how close the +bending heavens seemed; but to the yearning soul of Beryl, the silent, +solemn sublimity of the mighty panorama made no appeal. + +Through slowly dripping tears she saw only the spectral flitting of her +mother's sad face, as in their last interview she had committed the +soul of the son to the guardianship of the daughter. + +The monk paused, and pointed to the third cell from the spot where he +stood. + +"It is but a step farther. Yonder, where the skull is set over the +entrance." + +"I will wait here," said Mr. Dunbar, relinquishing with a tight +pressure, his wife's cold hand. + +"No, come. Are we not one?" + +She hurried along the terrace, and reached the low open doorway +fronting the South, where the sunshine streamed in like God's smile of +forgiveness. + +On the stone floor was a straw pallet covered with coarse brown +blankets, whereon, half propped by one elbow, with head against the +gray rocky wall, lay the emaciated wreck of a man, whose pallid face +might have been mistaken for that of a corpse, but for the superhuman +splendor of the wide, deep brown eyes. + +Beryl sprang into the cave-like recess, and fell on her knees. She +snatched him to her heart, laid his head on her shoulder. + +"Bertie! My darling! my darling!--" + +He tried to raise one arm to her neck, but it fell back. She lifted it, +held it close, and face to face with her lips on his, she broke into +passionate sobbing, rocking herself to and fro, in the tempest of grief. + +"Give me, give--me--air--" He struggled for breath, which her tight +clasp denied him; and for some minutes he panted, while Mr. Dunbar +fanned him with his hat. Then the heaving chest grew more quiet, and +after a moment, his eyes lighted with a happy smile as they fastened on +Beryl's face, bent over him. + +"Gigina, sweet, faithful sister, it is almost heaven to see you once +more. God is good, even to me." + +"If I could have found you sooner! All these dreadful years I have +lived at God's feet--with one prayer: let me help my Bertie, let me see +my brother's face," moaned Beryl, pressing her lips to the clammy, +fleshless hand she held against her throat. + +"I was too unworthy. I dreaded your pure eyes, and mother's, as I would +an accusing angel's. I did not know, then, that mother was already one +of the Beatified. I know now, that neither life nor death, nor sin nor +shame, nor the brand of disgrace can change mother's love; for I see +her to-day, smiling at the door, beckoning me to follow where the sun +shines forever. My sainted mother." + +"Her last breath was a blessing for you. See, Bertie! this was her +wedding ring. Her final message was, 'Give this to my darling!' Be +comforted, dear Bertie, she loved you even to the end--supremely. You +were her idol in death as in life. Our father's ring was the most +sacred relic she owned, and she left it to you." + +She attempted to place the gold band on one of his fingers, but he +closed that hand, and the dark eyes so like his mother's, were for an +instant dimmed by tears. + +"Keep it; no sin of theft soils your hands. You can wear it without a +blush. You never robbed an old man of his gold. That was my crime, I am +a thief." + +"Our God sees you have repented bitterly; and He has pardoned your sins +for His dear Son's sake. Tell me, Bertie, have you made your eternal +salvation sure? Are you, in your soul, at peace with God?" + +"At perfect peace. I want to die, because now I am no longer afraid to +meet Him, who forgives even thieves. Gigi, wait a little--" + +He seemed to make a desperate effort to rally his strength, and the +thin, fine nostril flared, in the battle for breath. + +"There has been a terrible mistake, and they made you suffer for what +they imagined happened. When I found I had only a few months to live, I +wrote to Father Beckx, whom I had known in Montreal, and asked him to +tell mother where I was. I never knew till he went to X---and wrote us +about the trial, that you were suspected and punished for a crime that +was never committed. I thought you and mother were safe in New York, +all those years, and I knew that you would be sure to take care of her. +I have it all written down--and I can't tell you now--but I want to +look straight into your dear eyes--my brave sister, my loving +sister--and let you learn first from me--the reward you have won--your +Bertie is not a murderer. I did take the money from the vault which was +wide open, when first I saw it. I did steal and destroy the will, which +I thought unjustly robbed us all of our right to the Darrington estate, +but that was my sole offence. I am a thief, before God and man, but +there is no more stain of blood on my hands than on yours. General +Darrington was not murdered. He died by the hand of God alone--" + +A bluish shadow settled around his parted lips, and he panted. + +Mr. Dunbar raised him, fanned him, rested his head more comfortably +against his sister's shoulder; and again he looked intently into her +eyes, as though his soul, plumed for departure, must right itself in +the presence of hers, before the final flight. + +"He struck me with the andiron, and broke my wrist here--then before I +ever touched him--as he raised it to assault me the second time--there +came an awful blinding glare--the world was wrapped in a blue fire--and +God struck us both down. When I became conscious, my senses were all +stunned, but after a while I knew I was lying on the floor, with a cold +hand resting like lead on my face. I got up; the figure didn't move, +and I supposed that like myself he was stunned by the shock. As I +passed a mirror on my way to the window--I saw myself--for the lamp was +burning bright. God had branded me a thief. Do you see +here--drawn--paralyzed, oh, Gina! All these years I have worn the dark +streak, and one eye was blind, one ear stone deaf. I was a walking +shadow of my own sin; horrible to look upon--and I fled to avoid the +gaze of my race. Somewhere, in Illinois I think, I heard two men on a +train speak of a large reward offered for the recovery of Gen'l +Darrington's will, which had been stolen by one of his heirs, whom the +police were hunting. I was branded--and on my breast here was printed +the face of the dead man--for he had torn my shirt open as he seized me +with one hand, and struck me with the other. I hid in mines, crossed +the plains, secreted myself in a bee ranche. Then the Canadian railroad +was partly built, and I joined the grading party and worked--until the +curse of my sin was more than I could bear. I heard of the holy +Brothers here, made my last journey, confessed my theft, and entered on +my penance. Gina, General Darrington was killed instantly by the +lightning." + +As the burden Beryl had long borne slipped suddenly from her heart, the +joy of release from blood-stain was so unexpected, so intense, that her +face blanched to a deadly pallor, and the glad eyes she lifted to her +husband's shone as those of an angel. + +"Bertie--Bertie--" Words failed her. She could only kiss the wasted +cold hands that were innocent of bloodshed. + +After some moments, the dying man said almost in a whisper: + +"I never knew you were punished for my sin, until it was too late to +save you, but God's witness cleared your pure name. The lightning that +scorched me, printed its testimony to set you free. My sister--my +sister--God will surely recompense your faithful--" The voice died in a +quivering gurgle. + +"I have my reward, dear Bertie. Oh, how much more than I deserve! I +have you in my arms, innocent of murder, thank God! thank God! I have +the blessed absurance that your pardoned soul goes to meet mother's in +Eternal Peace; and to secure that, I would have willingly died an +ignominious death. It was through the fiery flames of prison, and trial +and convict shame, that God led me to the most precious crown any woman +ever wore, my husband's confidence and love. Only behind dungeon bars +could I have won my husband's heart, which holds for me the whole wide +world of earthly peace and hope. For your sin, you have suffered. Its +consequences to others from the destruction of the will, have been +averted by the prompt transfer of all the property which Gen'l +Darrington left, to his chosen heir Prince. Pecuniarily no one was +injured by your act. Dear Bertie--Bertie, are you listening?" + +He smiled but made no answer, and his eyes had a strained and exultant +expression. After a long silence, he cried huskily: + +"The curse is taken away--out of my blinded eye I see--Agnus Dei qui +tollis peccata mundi--" + +A slight spasm shook him, and feeling his cheek grow colder, Beryl +threw off the fur cloak, and folded it closely around the wasted body +which leaned heavily against her. The sunny short rings of hair clung +to his sunken, blue veined temples, where cold drops gathered; and a +gray seal was set about the wan lips that writhed in the fight for +breath. + +"Bertie, kiss me--tell me you are not afraid." + +She fancied he nestled his face closer, but the wide eyes were fixed on +the golden light that was fading fast across the narrow doorway. + +Pressing her quivering lips to his, she sobbed: + +"Tell mother, her little girl was faithful--" + +Another spasm shook the form, and after a little while, the eyes +closed; the panting ceased, and the tired breath was drawn in long, +shuddering sighs. + +Mr. Dunbar beckoned to the cowled form who, rosary in hand, paced the +terrace, and the two laid the dying man back on his pallet of straw. + +Fainter grew the slow breath, and the voice of the monk rolled through +the silence, like the tremolo swell of an organ: + +"Delicta juventutis, et ignorantias ejus, quoesumus, ne memineris, +Domine; sed secundum magnam misericordiam tuam memor esto illius in +gloria claritatis tuoe." + +On the stone floor Beryl knelt, with her brother's icy hand clasped +against her cheek, and as she watched, the twitching of the muscles +ceased, the lips so long distorted, took on their old curves of beauty. +A marble pallor blanched the dark stain of the branded cheek, and the +Bertie of innocent youth came slowly out of the long eclipse. + +Death, God's most tender angel, laid her divine lips upon the scars of +sin, that vanished at her touch; drew her white fingers across the +lines and shadows of suffering time, and leaving the halo of eternal +peace upon the frozen features, gave back to Beryl her beautiful Bertie +of old. + +The sun was setting; and far away the ice domes and minarets of +immemorial mountains took on the burnished similitude of the New +Jerusalem, which only the exiled saw from lonely Patmos. + +Lennox Dunbar lifted his wife from the form of the sleeper, whose +ransomed soul had entered early into Rest; and folded her tenderly to +the heart that henceforth was her refuge from all earthly woes. + +At midnight, the brooding silence of the snow-hooded solitude was +broken by the tolling of the monastery bell; and while all the mountain +echoes responded to the slow knell for the departed soul, there rose +from the chapel under the cliffs, the solemn chant of the monks for +their dead: + +"Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis." + +"Give them eternal rest, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon +them." + + + +THE END. + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's At the Mercy of Tiberius, by August Evans Wilson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT THE MERCY OF TIBERIUS *** + +***** This file should be named 4209.txt or 4209.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/2/0/4209/ + +Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. 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You would rather see me suffer +and die, than bend your stubborn pride in the effort to obtain +relief for me. You will not try to save me." + +The thin, hysterically unsteady voice ended in a sob, and the frail +wasted form of the speaker leaned forward, as if the issue of life +or death hung upon an answer. + +The tower clock of a neighboring church began to strike the hour of +noon, and not until the echo of the last stroke had died away, was +there a reply to the appeal. + +"Mother, try to be just to me. My pride is for you, not for myself. +I shrink from seeing my mother crawl to the feet of a man, who has +disowned and spurned her; I cannot consent that she should humbly +beg for rights, so unnaturally withheld. Every instinct of my nature +revolts from the step you require of me, and I feel as if you held a +hot iron in your hand, waiting to brand me." + +"Your proud sensitiveness runs in a strange groove, and it seems you +would prefer to see me a pauper in a Hospital, rather than go to +your grandfather and ask for help. Beryl, time presses, and if I die +for want of aid, you will be responsible; when it is too late, you +will reproach yourself. If I only knew where and how to reach my +dear boy, I should not importune you. Bertie would not refuse +obedience to say wishes." + +The silence which followed was so prolonged that a mouse crept from +its covert in some corner of the comfortless garret room, and +nibbled at the fragments of bread scattered on the table. + +Beryl stood at the dormer window, holding aside the faded blue +cotton curtain, and the mid-day glare falling upon her, showed every +curve of her tall full form; every line in the calm, pale Sibylline +face. The large steel gray eyes were shaded by drooping lids, +heavily fringed with black lashes, but when raised in a steady gaze +the pupils appeared abnormally dilated; and the delicately traced +black brows that overarched them, contrasted conspicuously with the +wealth of deep auburn hair darkened by mahogany tints, which rolled +back in shining waves from her blue veined temples. While moulding +the figure and features upon a scale almost heroic, nature had +jealously guarded the symmetry of her work, and in addition to the +perfect proportion of the statuesque outlines, had bestowed upon the +firm white flesh a gleaming smoothness, suggestive of fine grained +marble highly polished. Majesty of mien implies much, which the +comparatively short period of eighteen years rarely confers, yet +majestic most properly describes this girl, whose archetype Veleda +read runic myths to the Bructeri in the twilight of history. + +Beryl crossed the room, and with her hands folded tightly together, +came to the low bed, on which lay the wreck of a once beautiful +woman, and stood for a moment silent and pre-occupied. With a sudden +gesture of surrender, she stooped her noble head, as if assuming a +yoke, and drew one long deep breath. Did some prophetic intuition +show her at that instant the Phicean Hill and its dread tenant, +which sooner or later we must all confront? + +"Dear mother, I submit. Obedience to your commands certainly ought +not to lead me astray; yet I feel that I stand at the cross-roads, +longing to turn and flee from the way whither your finger points. I +have no hope of accomplishing any good, and nothing but humiliation +can result from the experiment; but I will go. Sometimes I believe; +that fate maliciously hunts up the things we most bitterly abhor, +and one by one sets them down before us--labelled Duty. When do you +wish me to start?" + +"To-night, at nine o'clock. In the letter which you will take to +father, I have told him our destitution; and that the money spent +for your railway ticket has been obtained by the sacrifice of the +diamonds and pearls, that were set around my mother's picture; that +cameo, which he had cut in Rome and framed in Paris. Beryl so much +depends on the impression you make upon him, that you must guard +your manner against haughtiness. Try to be patient, my daughter, and +if he should seem harsh, do not resent his words. He is old now, and +proud and bitter, but he once had a tender love for me. I was his +idol, and when my child pleads, he will relent." + +Mrs. Brentano laid her thin hot fingers on her daughter's hands, +drawing her down to the edge of the bed; and Beryl saw she was +quivering with nervous excitement. + +"Compose yourself, mother, or you will be so ill that I cannot leave +you. Dr. Grantlin impressed upon us, the necessity of keeping your +nervous system quiet. Take your medicine now, and try to sleep until +I come back from Stephen & Endicott's." + +"Do not go to-day." + +"I must. Those porcelain types were promised for a certain day, and +they should be packed in time for the afternoon express going to +Boston." + +"Beryl." + +"Well, mother?" + +"Come nearer to me. Give me your hand. My heart is so oppressed by +dread, that I want you to promise me something, which I fancy will +lighten my burden. Life is very uncertain, and if I should die, what +would become of my Bertie? Oh, my boy! my darling, my first born! He +is so impulsive, so headstrong; and no one but his mother could ever +excuse or forgive his waywardness. Although younger, you are in some +respects, the strongest; and I want your promise that you will +always be patient and tender with him, and that you will shield him +from evil, as I have tried to do. His conscience of course, is not +sensitive like yours--because you know, a boy's moral nature is +totally different from a girl's; and like most of his sex, Bertie +has no religious instincts bending him always in the right +direction. Women generally have to supply conscientious scruples +for men, and you can take care of your brother, if you will. You are +unusually brave and strong, Beryl, and when I am gone, you must +stand between him and trouble. My good little girl, will you?" + +The large luminous eyes that rested upon the flushed face of the +invalid, filled with a mist of yearning compassionate tenderness, +and taking her mother's hands, Beryl laid the palms together, then +stooping nearer, kissed her softly. + +"I think I have never lacked love for Bertie, though I may not +always have given expression to my feelings. If at times I have +deplored his reckless waywardness, and expostulated with him, +genuine affection prompted me; but I promise you now, that I will do +all a sister possibly can for a brother. Trust me, mother; and rest +in the assurance that his welfare shall be more to me than my own; +that should the necessity arise, I will stand between him and +trouble. Banish all depressing forebodings. When you are strong and +well, and when I paint my great picture, we will buy a pretty +cottage among the lilacs and roses, where birds sing all day long, +where cattle pasture in clover nooks; and then Bertie, your darling, +shall never leave you again." + +"I do trust you, for your promise means more than oath and vows from +other people, and if occasion demand, I know you will guard my +Bertie, my high-strung, passionate, beautiful boy! Your pretty +cottage? Ah, child! when shall we dwell in Spain?" + +"Some day, some day; only be hopeful, and let me find you better +when I return. Sleep, and dream of our pretty cottage. I must hurry +away with my pictures, for this is pay day." + +Tying the strings of her hat under one ear, and covering her face +with a blue veil, Beryl took a pasteboard box from a table, on which +lay brushes and paints, and leaving the door a-jar, went down the +narrow stairs. + +At the window of a small hall on the next floor, a woman sat before +her sewing-machine, bending so close to her work that she did not +see the tall form, which paused before her, until a hand was laid on +the steel plate. + +"Mrs. Emmet, will you please be so good as to go up after a while, +and see if mother needs anything?" + +"Certainly, Miss, if I am here, but I have some sewing to carry home +this afternoon." + +"I shall not be absent more than two hours. To-night I am going +South, to attend to some business; and mother tells me you have +promised to wait upon her, and allow your daughter Maggie to sleep +on a pallet by her bed, while I am gone. I cannot tell you how +grateful I shall be for any kindness you may show her, and I wish +you would send the baby often to her room, as he is so sweet and +cunning, and his merry ways amuse her." + +"Yes, I will do all I can. We poor folks who have none of this +world's goods, ought to be rich at least in sympathy and pity for +each other's suffering, for it is about all we have to share. Don't +you worry and fret, for I will see your ma has what she needs. I was +mothered by the best woman God ever made, and since she died, every +sick mother I see has a sort of claim on my heart." + +Pausing an instant to adjust the tucker of her machine, Mrs. Emmet +looked up, and involuntarily the women shook hands, as if sealing a +compact. + +It was a long walk to the building whither Beryl directed her steps, +and as she passed through the rear entrance of a large and +fashionable photograph establishment, she was surprised to find that +it was half-past two o'clock. + +The Superintendent of the department, from whom she received her +work, was a man of middle-age, of rather stern and forbidding +aspect; and as she approached his desk, he pointed to the clock on +the mantel-piece. + +"Barely time to submit those types for inspection, and have them +packed for the express going East. They are birthday gifts, and +birthdays have an awkward habit of arriving rigidly on time." + +He unrolled the tissue paper, and with a magnifying glass, carefully +examined the pictures; then took from an envelope in the box, two +short pieces of hair, which he compared with the painted heads +before him. + +"Beautifully done. The lace on that child's dress would bear even a +stronger lens than my glass. Here Patterson, take this box, and +letter to Mr. Endicott, and if satisfactory, carry them to the +packing counter. Shipping address is in the letter. Hurry up, my +lad. Sit down, Miss Brentano." + +"Thank you, I am not tired. Mr. Mansfield, have you any good news +for me?" + +"You mean those etchings; or the designs for the Christmas cards? +Have not heard a word, pro or con. Guess no news is good news; for I +notice 'rejected' work generally travels fast, to roost at home." + +"I thought the awards were made last week, and that to-day you could +tell me the result." + +"The awards have been made, I presume, but who owns the lucky cards +is the secret that has not yet transpired. You young people have no +respect for red tape, and methodical business routine. You want to +clap spurs on fate, and make her lower her own last record? 'Bide +awee. Bide awee'." + +"Winning this prize means so much to me, that I confess I find it +very hard to be patient. Success would save me from a painful and +expensive journey, upon which I must start to-night; and therefore I +hoped so earnestly that I might receive good tidings to-day. I am +obliged to go South on an errand, which will necessitate an absence +of several days, and if you should have any news for me, keep it +until I call again. If unfavorable it would depress my mother, and +therefore I prefer you should not write, as of course she will open +any letters addressed to me. Please save all the work you can for +me, and I will come here as soon as I get back home." + +"Very well. Any message, Patterson?" + +"Mr. Endicott said, 'All right; first-rate;' and ordered them +shipped." + +"Here is your money, Miss Brentano. Better call as early as you can, +as I guess there will be a lot of photographs ready in a few days. +Good afternoon." + +"Thank you. Good-bye, sir." + +From the handful of small change, she selected some pennies which +she slipped inside of her glove, and dropping the remainder into her +pocket, left the building, and walked on toward Union Square. +Absorbed in grave reflections, and oppressed by some vague +foreboding of impending ill, dim, intangible and unlocalized--she +moved slowly along the crowded sidewalk--unconscious of the curious +glances directed toward her superb form, and stately graceful +carriage, which more than one person turned and looked back to +admire, wondering when she had stepped down from some sacred +Panathenaic Frieze. + +Near Madison Square, she paused before the window of a florist's, +and raising her veil, gazed longingly at the glowing mass of +blossoms, which Nineteenth Century skill and wealth in defiance of +isothermal lines, and climatic limitations force into perfection, +in, and out of season. The violet eyes and crocus fingers of Spring +smiled and quivered, at sight of the crimson rose heart, and flaming +paeony cheeks of royal Summer; and creamy and purple chrysanthemums +that quill their laces over the russet robes of Autumn, here stared +in indignant amazement, at the premature presumption of snowy regal +camellias, audaciously advancing to crown the icy brows of Winter. +All latitudes, all seasons have become bound vassals to the great +God Gold; and his necromancy furnishes with equal facility the dewy +wreaths of orange flowers that perfume the filmy veils of December +brides--and the blue bells of spicy hyacinths which ring "Rest" over +the lily pillows, set as tribute on the graves of babies, who wilt +under August suns. + +From early childhood, an ardent love of beauty had characterized +this girl, whose covetous gaze wandered from a gorgeous scarlet and +gold orchid nodding in dreams of its habitat, in some vanilla +scented Brazilian jungle, to a bed of vivid green moss, where +skilful hands had grouped great drooping sprays of waxen begonias, +coral, faint pink, and ivory, all powdered with gold dust like that +which gilds the heart of water-lilies. + +Such treasures were reserved for the family of Dives; and counting +her pennies, Beryl entered the store, where instantaneously the +blended breath of heliotrope, tube-rose and mignonette wafted her +across the ocean, to a white-walled fishing village on the Cornice, +whose gray rocks were kissed by the blue lips of the Mediterranean. + +"What is the price of that cluster of Niphetos buds?" + +"One dollar." + +"And that Auratum--with a few rose geranium leaves added?" + +"Seventy-five cents. You see it is wonderfully large, and the gold +bands are so very deep." + +She put one hand in her pocket and fingered a silver coin, but +poverty is a grim, tyrannous stepmother to tender aestheticism, and +prudential considerations prevailed. + +"Give me twenty-five cents worth of those pale blue double violets, +with a sprig of lemon verbena, and a fringe of geranium leaves." + +She laid the money on the counter, and while the florist selected +and bound the blossoms into a bunch, she arrested his finishing +touch. + +"Wait a moment. How much more for one Grand Duke jasmine in the +centre?" + +"Ten cents, Miss." + +She added the dime to the pennies she could ill afford to spare from +her small hoard, and said: "Will you be so kind as to sprinkle it? I +wish it kept fresh, for a sick lady." + +Dusky shadows were gathering in the gloomy hall of the old tenement +house, when Beryl opened the door of the comfortless attic room, +where for many months she had struggled bravely to shield her mother +from the wolf, that more than once snarled across the threshold. + +Mrs. Brentano was sitting in a low chair, with her elbows on her +knees, her face hidden in her palms; and in her lap lay paper and +pencil, while a sealed letter had fallen on the ground beside her. +At the sound of the opening door, she lifted her head, and tears +dripped upon the paper. In her faded flannel dressing-gown, with +tresses of black hair straggling across her shoulders, she presented +a picture of helpless mental and physical woe, which painted itself +indelibly on the panels of her daughter's heart. + +"Why did you not wait until I came home? The exertion of getting up +always fatigues you." + +"You staid so long--and I am so uncomfortable in that wretchedly +hard bed. What detained you?" + +"I went to see the Doctor, because I am unwilling to start away, +without having asked his advice; and he has prescribed some new +medicine which you will find in this bottle. The directions are +marked on the label. Now I will put things in order, and try my +hands on that refractory bed." + +"What did the Doctor say about me?" + +"Nothing new; but he is confident that you can be cured in time, if +we will only be patient and obedient. He promised to see you in the +morning." + +She stripped the bed of its covering, shook bolster and pillows; +turned over the mattress, and beat it vigorously; then put on fresh +sheets, and adjusted the whole comfortably. + +"Now mother, turn your head, and let me comb and brush and braid all +this glossy black satin, to keep it from tangling while I am away. +What a pity you did not dower your daughter with part of it, instead +of this tawny mane of mine, which is a constant affront to my +fastidious artistic instincts. Please keep still a moment." + +She unwrapped the tissue paper that covered her flowers, and holding +her hands behind her, stepped in front of the invalid. + +"Dear mother, shut your eyes. There--! of what does that remind you? +The pergola--with great amber grape clusters--and white stars of +jasmine shining through the leaves? All the fragrance of Italy +sleeps in the thurible of this Grand-Duke." + +"How delicious! Ah, my extravagant child! we cannot afford such +luxuries now. The perfume recalls so vividly the time when Bertie--" + +A sob cut short the sentence. Beryl pinned the flowers at her +mother's throat, kissed her cheek, and kneeling before her, crossed +her arms on the invalid's lap, resting there the noble head, with +its burnished crown of reddish bronze braids. + +"Mother dear, humor my childish whim. In defiance of my wishes and +judgment, and solely in obedience to your command, I am leaving you +for the first time, on a bitterly painful and humiliating mission. +To-night, let me be indeed your little girl once more. My heart +brings me to your knees, to say my prayers as of yore, and now while +I pray, lay your dear pretty hands on my head. It will seem like a +parting benediction; a veritable Nunc dimmitas." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +"I do not want a carriage. If the distance is only a mile and a +half, I can easily walk. After leaving town is there a straight +road?" + +"Straight as the crow flies, when you have passed the factory, and +cemetery, and turned to the left. There is a little Branch running +at the foot of the hill, and just across it, you will see the white +palings, and the big gate with stone pillars, and two tremendous +brass dogs on top, showing their teeth and ready to spring. There's +no mistaking the place, because it is the only one left in the +country that looks like the good old times before the war; and the +Yankees would not have spared it, had it not been such comfortable +bombproof headquarters for their officers. It's our show place now, +and General Darrington keeps it up in better style, than any other +estate I know." + +"Thank you. I will find it." + +Beryl walked away in the direction indicated, and the agent of the +railway station, leaning against the door of the baggage room, +looked with curious scrutiny after her. + +"I should like to know who she is. No ordinary person, that is +clear. Such a grand figure and walk, and such a steady look in her +big solemn eyes, as if she saw straight through a person, clothes, +flesh and all. Wonder what her business can be with the old +general?" + +From early childhood Beryl had listened so intently to her mother's +glowing descriptions of the beauty and elegance of her old home "Elm +Bluff," that she soon began to identify the land-marks along the +road, alter passing the cemetery, where so many generations of +Darringtons slept in one corner, enclosed by a lofty iron railing; +exclusive in death as in life; jealously guarded and locked from +contact with the surrounding dwellers in "God's Acre." + +The October day had begun quite cool and crisp, with a hint of frost +in its dewy sparkle, but as though vanquished Summer had suddenly +faced about, and charged furiously to cover her retreat, the south +wind came heavily laden with hot vapor from equatorial oceanic +caldrons; and now the afternoon sun, glowing in a cloudless sky, +shed a yellowish glare that burned and tingled like the breath of a +furnace; while along the horizon, a dim dull haze seemed blotting +out the boundary of earth and sky. + +A portion of the primeval pine forest having been preserved, the +trees had attained gigantic height, thrusting their plumy heads +heavenward, as their lower limbs died; and year after year the +mellow brown carpet of reddish straw deepened, forming a soft safe +nidus for the seeds that sprang up and now gratefully embroidered it +with masses of golden rod, starry white asters, and tall, feathery +spikes of some velvety purple bloom, which looked royal by the side +of a cluster of belated evening primroses. + +Pausing on the small but pretty rustic bridge, Beryl leaned against +the interlacing cedar boughs twisted into a balustrade, and looked +down at the winding stream, where the clear water showed amber hues, +flecked with glinting foam bubbles, as it lapped and gurgled, eddied +and sang, over its bed of yellow gravel. Unacquainted with "piney- +woods' branches," she was charmed by the novel golden brown wavelets +that frothed against the pillars of the bridge, and curled +caressingly about the broad emerald fronds of luxuriant ferns, which +hung Narcissus-like over their own graceful quivering images. +Profound quiet brooded in the warm, hazy air, burdened with balsamic +odors; but once a pine burr full of rich nutty mast crashed down +through dead twigs, bruising the satin petals of a primrose; and +ever and anon the oboe notes of that shy, deep throated hermit of +ravines--the russet, speckled-breasted lark--thrilled through the +woods, like antiphonal echoes in some vast, cool, columned cloister. + +The perfect tranquillity of the scene soothed the travel-weary +woman, as though nestling so close to the great heart of nature, had +stilled the fierce throbbing, and banished the gloomy forebodings of +her own; and she walked on, through the iron gate, where the bronze +mastiffs glared warningly from their granite pedestal--on into the +large undulating park, which stretched away to meet the line of +primitive pines. There was no straight avenue, but a broad smooth +carriage road curved gently up a hillside, and on both margins of +the graveled way, ancient elm trees stood at regular intervals, +throwing their boughs across, to unite in lifting the superb groined +arches, whose fine tracery of sinuous lines were here and there +concealed by clustering mistletoe--and gray lichen masses--and +ornamented with bosses of velvet moss; while the venerable columnar +trunks were now and then wreathed with poison-oak vines, where red +trumpet flowers insolently blared defiance to the waxen pearls of +encroaching mistletoe. + +On the other side, the grounds were studded with native growth, as +though protective forestry statutes had crossed the ocean with the +colonists, and on this billowy sea of varied foliage Autumn had set +her illuminated autograph, in the vivid scarlet of sumach and black +gum, the delicate lemon of wild cherry--the deep ochre all sprinkled +and splashed with intense crimson, of the giant oaks--the orange +glow of ancestral hickory--and the golden glory of maples, on which +the hectic fever of the dying year kindled gleams of fiery red;-- +over all, a gorgeous blazonry of riotous color, toned down by the +silver gray shadows of mossy tree-trunks, and the rich, dark, +restful green of polished magnolias. + +Half a dozen fine Cotswold ewes browsed on the grass, and the small +bell worn by a staid dowager tinkled musically, as she threw up her +head and watched suspiciously the figure moving under the elm +arches. Beneath the far reaching branches of a patriarchal cedar, a +small herd of Jersey calves had grouped themselves, as if posing for +Landseer or Rosa Bonheur; and one pretty fawn-colored weanling ran +across the sward to meet the stranger, bleating a welcome and +looking up, with unmistakable curiosity in its velvety, long-lashed +eyes. + +As the avenue gradually climbed the ascent, the outlines of the +house became visible; a stately, typical southern mansion, like +hundreds, which formerly opened hospitably their broad mahogany +doors, and which, alas! are becoming traditional to this generation- +-obsolete as the brave chivalric, warm-hearted, open-handed, noble- +souled, refined southern gentlemen who built and owned them. No +Mansard roof here, no pseudo "Queen Anne" hybrid, with lowering, +top-heavy projections like scowling eyebrows over squinting eyes; +neither mongrel Renaissance, nor feeble, sickly, imitation +Elizabethan facades, and Tudor towers; none of the queer, composite, +freakish impertinences of architectural style, which now-a-day do +duty as the adventurous vanguard, the aesthetic vedettes "making +straight the way," for the coming cohorts of Culture. + +The house at "Elm Bluff" was built of brick, overcast with stucco +painted in imitation of gray granite, and its foundation was only +four feet high, resting upon a broad terrace of brickwork; the +latter bounded by a graceful wooden balustrade, with pedestals for +vases, on either side of the two stone steps leading down from the +terrace to the carriage drive. The central halls, in both stories, +divided the space equally into four rooms on each side, and along +the wide front, ran a lofty piazza supporting the roof, with white +smooth round pillars; while the upper broad square windows, cedar- +framed, and deeply embrasured, looked down on the floor of the +piazza, where so many generations of Darringtons had trundled hoops +in childhood--and promenaded as lovers in the silvery moonlight, +listening to the ring doves cooing above them, from the columbary of +the stucco capitals. This spacious colonnade extended around the +northern and eastern side of the house, but the western end had +formerly been enclosed as a conservatory--which having been +abolished, was finally succeeded by a comparatively modern iron +veranda, with steps leading down to the terrace. In front of the +building, between the elm avenue and the flower-bordered terrace, +stood a row of very old poplar trees, tall as their forefathers in +Lombardy, and to an iron staple driven into one of these, a handsome +black horse was now fastened. + +Standing with one foot on the terrace step, close to the marble +vases where heliotropes swung their dainty lilac chalices against +her shoulder, and the scarlet geraniums stared unabashed, Beryl's +gaze wandered from the lovely park and ancient trees, to the +unbroken facade of the gray old house; and as, in painful contrast +she recalled the bare bleak garret room, where a beloved invalid +held want and death at bay, a sudden mist clouded her vision, and +almost audibly she murmured: "My poor mother! Now, I can realize the +bitterness of your suffering; now I understand the intensity of your +yearning to come back; the terrible home-sickness, which only Heaven +can cure." + +What is presentiment? The swaying of the veil of futurity, under the +straining hands of our guardian angels? Is it the faint shadow, the +solemn rustle of their hovering wings, as like mother birds they +spread protecting plumes between blind fledglings, and descending +ruin? Will theosophy ever explain and augment prescience? + + "It may be-- + The thoughts that visit us, we know not whence, + Sudden as inspiration, are the whispers + Of disembodied spirits, speaking to us + As friends, who wait outside a prison wall, + Through the barred windows speak to those within." + +With difficulty Beryl resisted an inexplicable impulse to turn and +flee; but the drawn sword of duty pointed ahead. + +Striking her hands together, as if thereby crushing her reluctance +to enter, she waited a moment, with closed eyes, while her lips +moved in silent prayer; then ascending the terrace, she crossed the +stone pavement, walked up the stops and slowly advanced to the +threshold. The dark mahogany door was so glossy, that she dimly saw +her own image on its polished panels, as she lifted and let fall the +heavy silver knocker, in the middle of an oval silver plate, around +the edges of which were raised the square letters of the name +"Darrington." The clanging sound startled a peacock, strutting among +the verbena beds, and his shrill scream was answered by the deep +hoarse bark of some invisible dog; then the heavy door swung open, +and a gray-headed negro man, who wore a white linen apron over his +black clothes, and held a waiter in one hand, stood before her. + +"I wish to see Mr. Darrington." + +"I reckon you mean Gin'l Darrington, don't you? Mr. Darrington, +Marse Prince Darrington, is in Yurope." + +"I mean Mr. Luke Darrington, the owner of this place." + +"Jess so; Gin'l Luke Darrington. Well, you can't see him." + +"Why not? I must see him, and I shall stay here until I do." + +"'Cause he is busy with his lie-yer, fixin' of some papers; and when +he tells me not to let nobody else in I'de ruther set down in a +yaller jacket's nest than to turn the door knob, after he done shut +it. Better leave your name and call ag'in." + +"No, I will wait until he is at leisure. I presume my sitting on the +steps here will not be a violation of your orders." + +"To be shore not. But them steps are harder than the stool of +repentance, and you had better walk in the drawing-room, and rest +yourself. There's pictures, and lots and piles of things there, you +can pass away the time looking at." + +He waved his waiter toward a long, dim apartment, on the left side +of the hall. + +"Thank you, I prefer to sit here." + +She seated herself on the top of the stone steps, and taking off her +straw hat, fanned her heated brow, where the rich waving hair clung +in damp masses. + +"What name, miss, must I give, when the lie-yer finishes his +bizness?" + +"Say that a stranger wishes to see him about an important matter." + +"Its mighty uncertain how long he will tarry; for lie-yers live by +talking; turning of words upside down, and wrong side outards, and +reading words backards, and whitewashing black things, and smutting +of white ones. Marse Lennox Dunbar (he is our lie-yer now, since his +pa took paralsis) he is a powerful wrastler with justice. They do +say down yonder, at the court house, that when he gets done with a +witness, and turns him aloose, the poor creetur is so flustrated in +his mind, that he don't know his own name, on when he was born, or +where he was born, or whether he was ever born at all." + +Curiosity to discover the nature of the stranger's errand had +stimulated the old man's garrulity, but receiving no reply, he +finally retreated, leaving the front door open. By the aid of a +disfiguring scar on his furrowed cheek, Beryl recognized him as the +brave, faithful, family coachman, Abednego, (abbreviated to +"Bedney")--who had once saved his mother's life at the risk of his +own. Mrs. Brentano had often related to her children, an episode in +her childhood, when having gone to play with her dolls in the loft +of the stable, she fell asleep on the hay; and two hours later, +Bedney remembering that he had heard her singing there to her dolls, +rushed into the burning building, groped through the stifling smoke +of the loft, and seizing the sleeping child, threw her out upon a +pile of straw. When he attempted to jump after her, a falling rafter +struck him to the earth, and left an honorable scar in attestation +of his heroism. + +Had she yielded to the promptings of her heart, the stranger would +gladly have shaken hands with him, and thanked him, in the name of +those early years, when her mother's childish feet made music on the +wide mahogany railed stairs, that wound from the lower hall to the +one above; but the fear of being denied an audience, deterred her +from disclosing her name. + +Educated in the belief that the utterance of the abhorred name of +Brentano, within the precincts of "Elm Bluff," would produce an +effect very similar to the ringing of some Tamil Pariah's bell, +before the door of a Brahman temple, Beryl wisely kept silent; and +soon forgot her forebodings, in the contemplation of the supreme +loveliness of the prospect before her. + +The elevation was sufficient to command an extended view of the +surrounding country, and of the river, which crossed by the railroad +bridge north of the town, curved sharply to the east, whence she +could trace its course as it gradually wound southward, and +disappeared behind the house; where at the foot of a steep bluff, a +pretty boat and bath house nestled under ancient willow trees. At +her feet the foliage of the park stretched like some brilliant +carpet, before whose gorgeous tints, ustads of Karman would have +stood in despair; and beyond the sea-green, undulating line of pine +forest she saw the steeple of a church, with its gilt vane burning +in the sunshine, and the red brick dome of the ante bellum court +house. + +Time seemed to have fallen asleep on that hot, still afternoon, and +Beryl was roused from her reverie by the sound of hearty laughter in +the apartment opposite the drawing-room--followed by the tones of a +man's voice. + +"Thank you, General. That is my destination this afternoon, and I +shall certainly expect you to dance at my wedding." + +Quick, firm steps rang on the oil-cloth-covered floor of the hall, +and Beryl rose and turned toward the door. + +With a cigar in one hand, hat and riding-whip in the other, the +attorney stepped out on the colonnade, and pausing involuntarily, at +sight of the stranger, they looked at each other. A man, perhaps, +more, certainly not less than thirty years old, of powerful and +impressive physique; very tall, athletic, sinewy, without an ounce +of superfluous flesh to encumber his movements, in the professional +palaestra; with a large finely modeled head, whose crisp black hair +closely cut, was (contrary to the prevailing fashion) parted neither +in the middle, nor yet on the side, but brushed straight back from +the square forehead, thereby enhancing the massiveness of its +appearance. + +Something in this swart, beardless face, with its brilliant +inquisitorial dark blue eyes, handsome secretive mouth veiled by no +mustache--and boldly assertive chin deeply cleft in the centre-- +affected Beryl very unpleasantly, as a perplexing disagreeable +memory; an uncanny resemblance hovering just beyond the grasp of +identification. A feeling of unaccountable repulsion made her +shiver, and she breathed more freely, when he hewed slightly, and +walked on toward his horse. Upon the attorney her extraordinary +appearance produced a profound impression, and in his brief +scrutiny, no detail of her face, figure, or apparel escaped his keen +probing gaze. + +Glancing back as he untied his bridle rein, his unspoken comment +was: "Superb woman; I wonder what brings her here? Evidently a +stranger--with a purpose." + +He sprang into the saddle, stooped his head to avoid the yellow +poplar branches, and disappeared under the elm arches. + +"Gin'l Darrington's compliments; and if your bizness is pressin' you +will have to see him in his bedcharmber, as he feels poorly to-day, +and the Doctor won't let him out. Follow me. You see, ole Marster +remembers the war by the game leg he got at Sharpshurg, and +sometimes it lays him up." + +The old servant led Beryl through a long room, fitted up as a +library and armory, and pausing before an open door, waved her into +the adjoining apartment. One swift glance showed her the heavy +canopied bedstead in one corner, the arch-shaped glass door leading +out upon the iron veranda; and at an oblong table in the middle of +the floor, the figure of a man, who rose, taller and taller, until +he seemed a giant, drawn to his full height, and resting for support +on the hand that was rested upon the table. Intensity of emotion +arrested her breath, as she gazed at the silvered head, piercing +black eyes, and spare wasted framp of the handsome man, who had +always reigned as a brutal ogre in her imagination. The fire in his +somewhat sunken eyes, seemed to bid defiance to the whiteness of the +abundant hair, and of the heavy mustache which drooped over his +lips; and every feature in his patrician face revealed not only a +long line of blue-blooded ancestors, but the proud haughtiness which +had been considered always as distinctively characteristic of the +Darringtons as their finely cut lips, thin nostrils, small feet and +unusual height. + +Unprepared for the apparition that confronted him, Luke Darrington +bowed low, surveyed her intently, then pointed to a chair opposite +his own. + +"Walk in, Madam; or perhaps it may be Miss? Will you take a seat, +and excuse the feebleness that forces me to receive visits in my +bed-room?" + +As he reseated himself, Beryl advanced and stood beside him, but for +a moment she found it impossible to utter the words, rehearsed so +frequently during her journey; and while she hesitated, he curiously +inspected her face and form. + +Her plain, but perfectly fitting bunting dress, was of the color, +popularly dominated "navy-blue," and the linen collar and cuffs were +scarcely whiter than the round throat and wrists they encircled. The +burnished auburn hair clinging in soft waves to her brow, was +twisted into a heavy coil, which the long walk had shaken down till +it rested almost on her neck; and though her heart beat furiously, +the pale calm face might have been marble, save for the scarlet +lines of her beautiful mouth, and the steady glow of the dilated +pupils in her great gray eyes. + +"Pray be seated; and tell me to whom I am indebted for the pleasure +of this visit?" + +"I am merely the bearer of a letter which will explain itself, and +my presence, in your house." + +Mechanically he took the preferred letter, and with his eyes still +lingering in admiration upon the classic outlines of her face and +form, leaned back comfortably against the velvet lining of his +armchair. + +"Are you some exiled goddess travelling incognito? If we lived in +the 'piping days of Pan' I should flatter myself that 'Ox-eyed Juno' +had honored me with a call, as a reward for my care of her favorite +bird." + +Receiving no reply he glanced at the envelope in his hand, and as he +read the address--"To my dear father, Gen'l Luke Darrington"--the +smile on his face changed to a dark scowl and he tossed the letter +to the floor, as if it were a red-hot coal. + +"Only one living being has the right to call me father--my son, +Prince Darrington. I have repeatedly refused to hold any +communication with the person who wrote that letter." + +Beryl stooped to pick it up, and with a caressing touch, as though +it were sentient, held it against her heart. + +"Your daughter is dying; and this is her last appeal." + +"I have no daughter. Twenty-three years ago my daughter buried +herself in hopeless disgrace, and for her there can be no +resurrection here. If she dreams that I am in my dotage, and may +relent, she strangely forgets the nature of the blood she saw fit to +cross with that of a beggarly foreign scrub. Go back and tell her, +the old man is not yet senile and imbecile; and that the years have +only hardened his heart. Tell her, I have almost learned to forget +even how she looked." + +His eyes showed a dull reddish fire, like those of some drowsy caged +tiger, suddenly stirred into wrath, and a grayish pallor--the white +heat of the Darringtons--settled on his face. + +Twice Beryl walked the length of the room, but each time the +recollection of her mother's tearful, suffering countenance, and the +extremity of her need, drove her back to the chair. + +"If you knew that your daughter's life hung by a thread, would you +deliberately take a pair of shears and cut it?" + +He glared at her in silence, and leaning forward on the table, +pushed roughly aside a salver, on which stood a decanter and two +wine glasses. + +"I am here to tell you a solemn truth; then my responsibility ends. +Your daughter's life rests literally in your hands; for unless you +consent to furnish the money to pay for a surgical operation, which +may restore her health, she will certainly die. I am indulging in no +exaggeration to extort alms. In this letter is the certificate of a +distinguished physician, corroborating my statement. If you, the +author of her being, prefer to hasten her death, then your choice of +an awful revenge must be settled between your hardened conscience +and your God." + +"You are bold indeed, to beard me in my own house, and tell me to my +face what no man would dare to utter." + +His voice was an angry pant, and he struck his clenched hand on the +table with a force that made the glasses jingle, and the sherry +dance in the decanter. + +"Yes, you scarcely realize how much bravery this painful errand +demands; but the tender love in a woman's heart nerves her to bear +fiery ordeals, that vanquish a man's courage." + +"Then you find that age has not drawn the fangs from the old +crippled Darrington lion, nor clipped his claws?" + +The sneer curved his white mustache, until she saw the outline of +the narrow, bloodless underlip. + +"That king of beasts scorns to redden his fangs, or flesh his claws, +in the quivering body of his own offspring. Your metaphor is an +insult to natural instincts." + +She laid the letter once more before him, and looked down on him, +with ill-concealed aversion. + +"Who are you? By what right dare you intrude upon me?" + +"I am merely a sorrowful, anxious, poverty-stricken woman, whose +heart aches over her mother's sufferings and vho would never have +endured the humiliation of this interview, except to deliver a +letter in the hope of prolonging my mother's life." + +"You do not mean that you are--my--" + +"I am nothing to you, sir, but the bearer of a letter from your +dying daughter." + +"You cannot be the child of--of Ellice?" + +After the long limbo of twenty-three years, the name burst from him, +and with what a host of memories its echo peopled the room, where +that erring daughter had formerly reigned queen of his heart. + +"Yes, Ellice is my dear mother's name." + +He stared at the majestic form, and at the faultless face looking so +proudly down upon him, as from an inaccessible height; and she heard +him draw his breath, with a labored hissing sound. + +"But--I thought her child was a boy?" + +"I am the youngest of two children." + +"It is impossible that you are the daughter of that infernal, low- +born, fiddling foreign vagabond who--" + +"Hush! The dead are sacred!" + +She threw up her hand, with an imperious gesture, not of +deprecation, but of interdict; and all the stony calm in her pale +face seemed shivered by a passionate gust, that made her eyes gleam +like steel under an electric flash. + +"I am the daughter of Ignace Brentano, and I love, and honor his +memory, and his name. No drop of your Darrington blood runs in my +veins; I love my dear mother--but I am my father's daughter--and I +want no nobler heritage than his name. Upon you I have no shadow of +claim, but I am here from dire necessity, at your mercy--a helpless, +defenseless pleader in my mother's behalf--and as such, I appeal to +the boasted southern chivalry, upon which you pride yourself, for +immunity from insult while I am under your roof. Since I stood no +taller than your knee, my mother has striven to inculcate a belief +in the nobility, refinement, and chivalric deference to womanhood, +inherent in southern gentlemen; and if it be not all a myth, I +invoke its protection against abuse of my father. A stranger, but a +lady, every inch, I demand the respect due from a gentleman." + +For a moment they eyed each other, as gladiators awaiting the +signal, then General Darrington sprang to his feet, and with a bow, +stately and profound as if made to a duchess, replied: + +"And in the name of southern chivalry, I swear you shall receive +it." + +"Read your daughter's letter; give me your answer, and let us cut +short an interview--which, if disagreeable to you, is almost +unendurable to me." + +Turning away, she began to walk slowly up and down the floor; and +smothering an oath under his heavy mustache, the old man sank back +in his chair, and opened the letter. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +Holding in leash the painful emotions that struggled for utterance, +Beryl was unconscious of the lapse of time, and when her averted +eyes returned reluctantly to her grandfather's face, he was slowly +tearing into shreds the tear-stained letter, freighted with +passionate prayers for pardon, and for succor. Rolling the strips +into a ball, he threw it into the waste-paper basket under the +table; then filled a glass with sherry, drank it, and dropped his +head wearily on his hand. Five leaden minutes crawled away, and a +long, heavy sigh quivered through Gen'l Darrington's gaunt frame. +Seizing the decanter, he poured the contents into two glasses, and +as he raised one to his lips, held the other toward his visitor. + +"You must be weary from your journey; let me insist that you drink +some sherry." + +"Thank you, I neither wish nor require it." + +"I find your name is Beryl. Sit down here, and answer a few +questions." He drew a chair near his own. + +She shook her head: + +"If you will excuse me, I prefer to stand." + +In turning, so as to confront her fully, his elbow struck from the +table, a bronze paper-weight which rolled just beyond his reach. +Instinctively she stooped to pick it up, and in restoring it, her +fingers touched his. Leaning suddenly forward he grasped her wrists +ere she was aware of his intention, and drew her in front of him. + +"Pardon me; but I want a good look at you." + +His keen merciless eyes searched every feature, and he deliberately +lifted and examined the exquisitely shaped strong, white hands, the +dainty nails, and delicately rounded wrists with their violet +tracery of veins. It cost her an effort, to abstain from wrenching +herself free; but her mother's caution: "So much depends on the +impression you make upon father," girded her to submit to his +critical inspection. + +A grim smile crossed his face, as he watched her. + +"Blood often doubles, like a fox; sometimes 'crops back,' but never +lies. You can't play out your role of pauper; and you don't look a +probable outcome of destitution and hard work. Your hands would fit +much better in a metope of the Elgin Marbles, than in a wash-tub, or +a bake-oven." + +Drawing away quickly, she put them behind her, and felt her palms +tingle. + +"It is expected I should believe that for some time past, you have +provided for your own, and your mother's wants. In what way?" + +"By coloring photographs; by furnishing designs for Christmas and +Easter cards, and occasionally (not often), by selling drawings used +for decorating china, and wallpaper. At one time, I had regular pay +for singing in a choir, but diphtheria injured my throat, and when I +partly recovered my voice, the situation had been given to another +person." + +"I am informed also that before long, you intend to astonish the +world with a wonderful picture, which shall distance such laggards +as Troyon, Dore, and Ary Scheffer?" + +She was looking, not at him, but out through the glass door, at the +glowing western sky, where distant pine trees printed their +silhouettes. Now her gaze came back to his face, and he noted a +faint quiver in her full throat. + +"If God will mercifully spare my mother to me, my loftiest and +holiest ambition shall be to distance the wolfish cares and woes +that have hunted her. ever since she became a widow. Any and all +honest labor that can contribute to her comfort, will be welcome and +sweet to me." + +"The laws of heredity must be occult and complex. The offspring of a +rebellious and disobedient child, is certainly entitled to no filial +instincts; and some day the strain will tell, and you will overwhelm +your mother with ingratitude, black as that which she showed me." + +"When I do, may God eternally forsake me!" + +A brief silence ensued, and the old man drummed on the table, with +the fingers of his right hand. + +"Who educated you?" + +"My dear father." + +"It seems there are two of you. Where is your brother?" + +"At present, I do not know exactly where he is, but I think in the +far West; possibly in Montana--probably in Canada." + +"How does he earn his bread? By daubing, or fiddling?" + +"Since he earns it honestly, that is his own affair. We have not +heard from him for some months." + +"I thought so! He inherits the worthless vagabond strain of--" + +"He is his mother's idol, and she glories in his resemblance to you, +sir; and to your father; hence his name--Robert L. Darrington." + +"Then she must have one handsome child! I am not surprised that he +is the favorite." + +"Bertie certainly is her darling, and he is very handsome; not in +the very least degree like me." + +For the first time, their eyes met in a friendly glance, and a +covert smile stirred the General's lips; but as he put out his hand +toward her, she moved a step beyond his reach. + +"Beryl, you consider me a dreadful, cruel old tyrant?" + +She made no reply. + +"Answer me." + +"You are my mother's father; and that word--father, means so much to +me, that it shall shield even you, from the shadow of disrespect." + +"Oh! very dutiful indeed, but dead as the days when daughters +obeyed, and honored their fathers! Beggarly foreign professors wiped +all that out of the minds of wealthy girls at boarding schools--just +as they changed their backwoods pronunciation of French and Italian. +Don't evade my question." + +"I did not come here, sir, to bandy words; and I ended my mission by +delivering the letter intrusted to me." + +"You regard me as a vindictive old bear?" + +"I had heard much of the Darringtons; I imagined a great deal more; +but now, like the Queen of Sheba, I must testify--'Behold, the half +was not told me.'" + +He threw back his lion-like head, and laughed. + +"That will do. Shake hands, child." + +"No, thank you." + +"And you will not sit down?" + +"Frankly, I prefer not. I long to get away." + +"You shall certainly be gratified, but there are a few things which +I intend you shall hear. Of course you know that your mother was my +only child, and an heiress; but you are ignorant probably of the +fact that when she returned to boarding school for the last session, +she was engaged in marriage to the son of my best friend--a man in +every respect desirable, and thoroughly acceptable to me." + +"So my mother told me." + +"Indeed? She should blush to remember it. While she wore his +engagement ring, she forgot her promise to him, her duty to me, her +lineage, her birth, her position--and was inveigled by a low +adventurer who--" + +"Who was my own precious father--poor, but noble, and worthy of any +princess! Unless you can refer to him respectfully, name him not at +all, in his child's presence." + +She suddenly towered over him, like some threatening fate, and her +uplifted arm trembled from the intensity of her indignation. + +"At least--you are loyal to your tribe!" + +"I am, to my heart's core. You could pay me no higher compliment." + +"Ellice wrote that she had bestowed her affections on--on--the +'exiled scion of a noble house,' who paid his board bill by teaching +languages and music in the school; and who very naturally preferred +to marry a rich fool, who would pay them for him. I answered her +letter, which was addressed to her own mother--then quite ill at +home--and I told her precisely what she might expect, if she +persisted in her insane folly. As soon as my wife convalesced +sufficiently to render my departure advisable, I started to bring my +daughter home; but she ran away, a few hours before my arrival, and +while, hoping to rescue Ellice, I was in pursuit of the precious +pair, my wife relapsed and died--the victim of excitement brought on +by her child's disgrace. I came back here to a desolate, silent +house;--bereft of wife and daughter; and in the grave of her mother, +I buried every atom of love and tenderness I ever entertained for +Ellice. When the sun is suddenly blotted out at noon, and the world +turns black--black, we grope to and fro aimlessly; but after awhile, +we accommodate ourselves to the darkness;--and so, I became a +different man--very hard, and I dare say very bitter. The world soon +learned that I would tolerate no illusion to my disgrace, and people +respected my family cancer, and prudently refrained from offering me +nostrums to cure it. My wife had a handsome estate of her own right, +and every cent of her fortune I collected, and sent with her jewelry +to Ellice. Did you know this?" + +"I have heard only of the jewels." + +"As I supposed, the money was squandered before you could +recollect." + +"I know that we were reduced to poverty, by the failure of some +banking house in Paris. I was old enough when it occurred, to +remember ever afterward, the dismay and distress it caused. My +father no doubt placed my mother's money there for safety." + +"I wrote one long, final letter when I sent the checks for the +money, and I told Ellice I wished never to see, never to hear from +her again. I told her also, I had only one wish concerning her, and +that was, that I might be able to forget her so completely, that if +we should meet in the Last Judgment, I could not possibly know her. +I assured her she need expect nothing at my death; as I had taken +good care that my estate should not fall into the clutches of--her-- +'exiled scion of a noble house.' Now do you consider that she has +any claim on me?" + +"You must not ask me to sit in judgment on my parents." + +"You shall decide a question of business facts. I provided liberally +for her once; can you expect me to do so again? Has she any right to +demand it?" + +"Having defied your parental wishes, she may have forfeited a +daughter's claim; but as a heart-broken sufferer, you cannot deny +her the melancholy privilege of praying for your help, on her death- +bed." + +The proud clear voice trembled, and Beryl covered her face with her +hands. + +"Then we will ignore outraged ties of blood, and treat on the ground +of mere humanity? Let me conclude, for it is sickening and loathsome +to a man of my age, to see his long silent household graves yawn, +and give up uncalled--their sheeted dead. For some years the money +sent, was a quietus, and I was left in peace. I was lonely; it was, +hard work to forget, because I could never forgive; and the more +desolate the gray ruin, the more nature yearns to cover it close +with vines and flowers; so after a time, I married a gentle, pure +hearted woman, who made the best of what was left of me. We had no +children, but she had one son of a former marriage, who proved a +noble trustworthy boy; and by degrees he crept into my heart, and +raked together the cinders of my dead affections, and kindled a +feeble flame that warmed my shivering old age. When I felt assured +that I was not thawing another serpent to sting me for my pains, I +adopted Thorton Prince, and with the aid of a Legislative enactment, +changed his name to Prince Darrington. Only a few months elapsed, +before his mother, of whom I was very fond, died of consumption and +my boy and I comforted each other. Then I made my second and last +will, and took every possible precaution to secure my estate of +every description to him. He is my sole heir, and I intend that at +my death he shall receive every cent I possess. Did you know this?" + +"I did, because your last endorsement on a letter of my mother's +returned unopened to her, informed her of the fact." + +"Why? Because in violation of my wishes she had persisted in +writing, and soon began to importune me for money. Then I made her +understand that even at my death, she would receive no aid; and +since that endorsement, I have returned or destroyed her letters +unread. My Will is so strong--has been drawn so carefully--that no +contest can touch it; and it will stand forever between your mother +and my property." + +As he uttered these words, he elevated his voice, which had a ring +of savage triumph in its harsh excited tones. Just then, a muffled +sound attracted his attention, and seizing his gold-headed cane, he +limped with evident pain to the threshold of the adjoining room. + +"Bedney." + +Receiving no reply, he closed the door with a violence that jarred +the whole room; and came slowly back to the table, where he stood +leaning heavily on his stick. + +"At least we will have no eavesdropping at this resurrection of my +dead. That Ellice is now a miserable woman, I have no doubt; for +truly: 'Quien se casa por amores, ha de vivir con dolores.' Of +course you understand Spanish?" + +"No, sir; but no matter; I take it for granted that you intend some +thrust at my mother, and I have heard quite enough." + +"Don't know Spanish? Why I fancied your--your 'exiled scion of a +noble house'--taught all the languages under the sun; including that +used by the serpent in beguiling Eve! Well, the wise old adage +means: 'Who marries for love, lives with sorrow.' Ellice made her +choice, and she shall abide by it; and you--being unluckily her +daughter--will share the punishment. If 'fathers WILL eat sour +grapes, the children's teeth MUST be set on edge.' I repudiate all +claims on my parental treasury, save such as I have given to my son +Prince. To every other draft I am bankrupt; but merely as a +gentleman, I will now for the last time, respond to the petition of +a sick woman, whose child is so loyal as to arouse my compassion. +Ellice has asked for one hundred dollars. You shall have it. But +first, tell me why she did not go to the hospital, and submit to the +operation which she says will cure her?" + +"Because I could not be with her there, and I will never be +separated from her. The aneurism has grown so alarmingly, that I +became desperate, and having no one to aid us, I reluctantly obeyed +my mother's requirement that I should come here. I could not summon +my brother, because I have no idea where a letter would reach him; +and with no friend--but the God of the friendless--I am before you. +There is one thing I ought to tell you; I have terrible forebodings +of the result of the operation, from which the Doctor encourages her +to hope so much. She will not be able to take anesthetics, at least +not chloroform, because she has a weak heart, and--" + +"Yes--a very weak heart! It was never strong enough to hold her to +her duty." + +"If you could see her now, I think even your vindictive hatred would +be sufficiently gratified. So wasted, so broken!--and with such a +ceaseless craving for a kind word from you. One night last week pain +made her restless, and I heard her sob. When I tried to relieve the +suffering, she cried bitterly: 'It is not my poor body alone--it is +the gnawing hunger to see father once more. He loved me so fondly +once and if I could crawl to his feet, and clasp his knees in my +arms, I could at least die in peace. I am starving for just one +sight of him--one touch.' My poor darling mother! My beautiful, +bruised, broken flower." + +Through the glittering mist of unshed tears, her eyes shone, like +silver lamps; and for a moment Gen'l Darrington covered his face +with one hand. + +"If you could realize how bitterly galling to my own pride and self +respect is this appeal to a man who hates and spurns all whom I +love, I think, sir, that even you would pity me so heartily, that +your hardened heart would melt into one last farewell message of +forgiveness to your unfortunate daughter. I would rather carry her +one word of love than all your fortune." + +"No--I come of a flinty race. We never forgive insults; never +condone wrongs; and expecting loyalty in our own blood, we cannot +live long enough to pardon its treachery. Once, I made an idol of my +beautiful, graceful, high-bred girl; but she stabbed my pride, +dragged my name through the gutters, broke her doting mother's +heart; and now, I tell you, she is as dead to me as if she had lain +twenty-three years in her grave. I have only one message. Tell her +she is reaping the tares her own hand sowed. I know her no more as +child of mine, and my son fills her place so completely, I do not +even miss her. That is the best I can say. No doubt I am hard, but +at least I am honest; and I will not feign what I cannot feel." + +He limped across the floor, to a recess on one side of the chimney, +where a square vault with an iron door had been built into the wall. +Leaning on his cane, he took from his pocket a bunch of keys, fitted +one into the lock, and pushing the bolt, the door slid back into a +groove, instead of opening on hinges. He lifted a black tin box from +the depths of the vault, carried it to the table, sat down, and +opened it. Near the top, were numerous papers tied into packages +with red tape, and two large envelopes carefully sealed with dark- +green wax. In removing the bundles, to find something beneath them, +these envelopes were laid on the table; and as one was either +accidentally or intentionally turned, Beryl saw the endorsement +written in bold black letters, and heavily underscored in red ink: +"Last Will and Testament of Robert Luke Darrington." Untying a small +chamois bag, the owner counted out five twenty-dollar gold pieces, +closed the bag, and replaced it in the box. + +"Hold out your hand. Your mother asked fur one hundred dollars. Here +is the exact amount. Henceforth, leave me in peace. I am an old man, +and I advise you to 'let sleeping dogs lie.'" + +If he had laid a red-hot iron on her palm, it would scarcely have +been more scorching than the touch of his gold, and only the vision +of a wan and woeful face in that far off cheerless attic room, +restrained her impulse to throw it at his feet. + +An almost intolerable humiliation dyed her pale cheeks a deep +purplish crimson, and she proudly drew herself to her utmost height. + +"Because I cannot now help myself, I accept the money--not as a +gift, but as a loan for my mother's benefit; and so help me God! I +will not owe it to you one moment longer than by hard labor I can +earn and return it. Goodbye, Gen'l Darrington." + +She turned toward the closed door leading to the library, but +raising his cane, he held it out, to intercept her. + +"Wait a moment. There is one thing more." + +He took from the tin box an oblong package, wrapped in letter paper, +yellowed by age, and carefully sealed with red wax. As he held it +up, she read thereon: "My last folly." He tore off the paper, lifted +an old fashioned morocco case, and attempted to open it, but the +catch was obstinate, or rusty, and several ineffectual efforts were +made, ere he succeeded in moving the spring. The once white velvet +cushion, had darkened and turned very yellow, but time had robbed in +no degree, the lustre of the magnificent sapphires coiled there; and +the blue fires leaped out, as if rejoicing in the privilege of +displaying their splendor. "This set of stones was intended as a +gift to your mother, when she was graduated at boarding-school. The +time fixed for the close of the session was only one month later +than the day on which she eloped with that foreign fraud, who should +never have been allowed in the school. My wife had promised that if +your mother won the honor of valedictorian, she should have the +handsomest present ever worn at a commencement. These costly +sapphires were my poor wife's choice. Poor Helena! how often she +admired them!" His voice faltered, and he bit his under lip to still +its quiver. + +Was there some necromancy in the azure flames, that suddenly +revealed the beloved face of the wife of his youth, and the lovely +vision of their only child? His eagle eyes were dim with tears, and +his hand shook; but, as if ashamed of the weakness, he closed the +jewel case with a snap, and held it out. + +"Here--take them. I had intended to give them as a bridal present to +my son's wife, when he marries to suit me--as he certainly will; but +somehow, such a disposal seems hard on my dear Helena's wishes, and +for her sake, I don't feel quite easy about leaving them to Prince's +bride. Your mother never saw them, never knew of their existence. +They are very valuable, and the amount they will bring must relieve +all present necessities. Tell Ellice the sight of the case disturbs +me, like a thorn in the flesh, so I send them away, to rid myself of +an annoyance. She must not thank me; they come from her--dead +mother." + +"A knowledge of their history would give her infinitely more pain +than the proceeds of their sale could bring comfort. I would not +stab her aching heart for twenty times the value of the jewels." + +"Then sell them, or do as you like. It matters not what becomes of +them, if I am spared in future all reminders of the past. Put them +in your pocket. What? The case is too large? Where is your trunk-- +your baggage?" + +"I have none, except my basket and shawl." + +She picked them up from the carpet near the library door, and +dropped the case into her basket. + +"You are a brave, and a loyal woman, and you appear to deserve far +better parents than fell to your lot. Before you go, let me offer +you a glass of wine, and a biscuit." + +"Thank you--no. I could not possibly accept it." + +"Well, we shall never meet again. Good-bye. Shake hands." + +"I will very gladly do so if you will only give me just one gentle, +forgiving kind word to comfort mother." + +He set his teeth, and shook his head. + +"Good-bye, Gen'l Darrington. When you lie down to die, I hope God +will be more merciful to your poor soul, than you have shown +yourself to your suffering child." + +He bowed profoundly. + +Her hand was on the knob of the door, when he pointed to the western +veranda. + +"You are going back to town? Then, if you please, be so good as to +pass out through that rear entrance, and close the glass door after +you. A side path leads to the lawn; and I prefer that you should not +meet the servants, who pry and tattle." + +When she stood on the veranda, and turned to close the wide arched +glass door, whence the inside red silk curtain had been looped back, +her last view of the gaunt, tall figure within, showed him leaning +on his stick, with the tin box held in his left hand, and the dying +sunlight shining on his silver hair and furrowed face. + +Along the serpentine path which was bordered with masses of +brilliant chrysanthemums, Beryl walked rapidly, feeling almost +stifled by the pressure of contending emotions. Recollecting that +these spice censers of Autumn were her mother's favorite flowers, +she stooped and broke several lovely clusters of orange and garnet +color, hoping that a lingering breath of perfume from the home of +her girlhood, might afford at least a melancholy pleasure to the +distant invalid. + +Advancing into the elm avenue, she heard a voice calling, and +looking back, saw the old negro man, Bedney, waving his white apron +and running toward her; but at that moment his steps were arrested +by the sudden, loud and rapid ringing of a bell. He paused, +listened, wavered; then threw up his hands, and hurried back to the +house, whence issued the impatient summons. + +The sun had gone down in the green sea of far-off pine tops, but the +western sky glowed like some vast altar of topaz, whereon zodiacal +fires had kindled the rays of vivid rose, that sprang into the +zenith and cooled their flush in the pale blue of the upper air. +Under the elms, swift southern twilight was already filling the +arches with purple gloom, and when the heavy iron gate closed with a +sullen clang behind her, Beryl drew a long deep breath of relief. On +the sultry atmosphere broke the gurgling andante music of the +"branch," as it eddied among the nodding ferns, and darted under the +bridge; and the weary, thirsty woman knelt on the mossy margin, +dipped up the amber water in her palms, drank, and bathed her +burning face which still tingled painfully. + +Having learned from the station agent, who had already sold her a +return ticket, that the north bound railway train, by which she +desired to travel home, would not depart until 7.15, she was +beguiled by the brilliance of the sky into the belief that she had +ample time, to comply with her mother's farewell request. Mrs. +Brentano had tied with a scrap of ribbon the bouquet of flowers, +bought by her daughter on the afternoon of her journey south, and +asked her to lay them on her mother's grave. + +Anxious to accomplish this sacred mission Beryl took the faded +blossoms from her basket, added a cluster of chrysanthemums, a frond +of fern from the "branch" border, and hurried on to the cemetery. +When she reached the entrance, the gate was locked, but unwilling to +return without having gratified her mother's wish, she climbed into +a spreading cedar close by the low brick wall, and swung herself +easily down inside the enclosure. + +Some time was lost in finding the Darrington lot, but at last she +stood before a tall iron railing, that bristled with lance-like +points, between the dust, of her ancestors and herself. In one +corner rose a beautiful monument, bearing on its front, in gilt +letters, the inscription "Helena Tracy, wife of R. L. Darrington." + +Thrusting her hand through a space in the railing, Beryl dropped her +mother's withered Arkja tribute on the marble slab. Her dress was +caught by a sharp point of iron, and while endeavoring to disengage +it, she heard the shrill whistle of the R. R. engine. Tearing the +skirt away, she ran to the wall, climbed over, after some delay, and +finding herself once more in the open road, darted on as fast as +possible through the dusk, heedless of appearances, fearful only of +missing the train. How the houses multiplied, and what interminable +lengths the squares seemed, as she neared the brick warehouse and +office of the station! The lamps at the street corners beckoned her +on, and when panting for breath she rushed around the side of the +tall building that fronted the railway, there was no train in sight. + +Two or three coal cars stood on a siding, near a detached engine, +where one man was lighting the lamp before the reflector of the +headlight, and another, who whistled merrily, burnished the brass +and copper platings. In the door of the ticket office the agent +lounged, puffed his cigar, and fanned himself with his hat. + +"What time is it?" cried Beryl. + +"Seven-forty-five." + +"Oh! do not tell me I have missed the train." + +"You certainly have. I told you it left at 7:15 sharp. It was ten +minutes behind time on account of hot boxes, but rolled out just +twenty minutes ago. Did you get lost hunting 'Elm Bluff,' and miss +your train on that account?" + +"No, I had no difficulty in finding the place, but having no watch, +I was forced to guess at the time. Only twenty minutes too late!" + +"Did you see the old war-horse?" + +Beryl did not answer, and after a moment the agent added: + +"That is Gen'l Darrington's nick-name all over this section." + +"When will the next train leave here?" + +"Not until 3:05 A.M." + +Beryl sat down on the edge of a baggage truck, and pondered the +situation. She knew that her mother, who had carefully studied the +railway schedule, was with feverish anxiety expecting her return by +the train, now many miles away; and she feared that any unexplained +detention would have an injurious effect on the sick woman's +shattered nerves. + +Although she could ill afford the expense, she resolved to allay all +apprehension, by the costly sedative of a telegram. + +Only a wall separated the ticket office from that of the +"telegraph," and approaching the operator, Beryl asked for a blank +form, on which she wrote her mother's address, and the following +message: + +"Complete success required delay. All will be satisfactory. Expect +me Saturday. B. B." + +When she had paid the operator, there remained in her purse, +exclusive of the gold coins received that afternoon, only thirty- +eight cents. Where could she spend the next seven hours? +Interpreting the perplexed expression of her face, the agent, who +had curiously noted her movements, said courteously: + +"There is a hotel a few blocks off, where you can rest until train +time." + +"I prefer to remain here." + +"We generally lock up this office about half-past eight, and re-open +at half-past two, which gives passengers ample accommodation for the +3:05 train." + +"Would you violate regulations by leaving the waiting-room open to- +night?" + +"Not exactly; as of course we are obliged to keep open for delayed +trains; but it will be lonesome waiting, for no one stays here, +except the Night Train Despatcher, and the switch watchman. Still if +it will oblige you, miss, I will not lock up, and you can doze away +the time by spreading your shawl on two chairs. I am going to supper +now, and shall turn down the lights. One burner will be sufficient." + +"Thank you very much. Where can I find some water?" + +"In the cooler in the ladies' dressing-room. It is most +unaccountably hot tonight, and I never knew anything like it in +October. There must be a cyclone brewing somewhere not far off." + +He lifted his hat, as he passed her, and disappeared; and the tired +girl seated herself near a window and stirred the dense, impure air +by fanning herself with her straw hat. Gradually the few stragglers +loitering about the station wandered away; the engineer stepped upon +the locomotive; a piercing whistle broke suddenly on the silence +settling down over the whilom busy precincts, and as the rhythmic +measure of the engine bell rang farewell chimes, a pyramid of sparks +leaped high, and the mighty mechanism fled down the track, hunting +its own echoes. The man in charge of the express office came out, +looked up and down the street; yawned, lighted his pipe, and after +locking the office, wended his way homeward. + +From the adjoining room came the slow monotonous clicking of the +telegraph wires, as messages passed to other stations, and only the +switch watchman was visible, sitting on an inverted tub, and playing +snatches from "Mascotte" and "Olivette" upon a harmonicon. + +Heat seemed radiating from the brick pavement outside, from the +inner walls of the waiting-room; and Beryl, finding the atmosphere +almost stifling, went out under the stars. Up and down she paced, +until weary of the dusty thoroughfare, she turned into the street +which, earlier in the day, had conducted her toward the suburbs. She +knew that a full moon had climbed above the horizon, and some malign +Morgana lured her on, with visions of cool pine glades paved with +silver mosaics, and balmy with breath of balsam; where through vast +forest naves echoed the melodious monody chanted by the reddish gold +wavelets of the "branch." In the eastern sky the florid face of a +hunter's moon looked down, from the level line of a leaden cloud, +which striped the star emblazoned shield of night, like a bar +sinister; and the white lustre of her rays was dimmed to a lurid +dulness solemn and presageful. + +As Beryl crossed the common near the station, and entered the +pillared aisles of the pines, the air was less oppressive, but a dun +haze seemed on every side to curtain the horizon, and the stars +looked bleared and tired in the breathless vault above her. A man +driving two cows toward town, stared at her; then a wagon drawn by +four horses rattled along, bearing homeward a gay picnic party of +young people, who made the woods ring with the echoes of "Hold the +Fort." The grandeur of towering pines, the mysterious dimness of +illimitable arcades, and the peculiar resinous odor that stole like +lingering ghosts of myrrh, frankincense and onycha through the +vaulted solitude of a deserted hoary sanctuary, all these phases of +primeval Southern forests combined to weave a spell that the +stranger could not resist. + +After a while, fearful of straying too far, the weary woman threw +her shawl on the brown straw, and sat down quite near the road. She +leaned her bare head against the trunk of a pine, listened to the +katydids gossiping in a distant oak that shaded the "branch," to the +quavering strident song of a locust; and she intended, after resting +for a few moments, to return to the station-house; but unexpected +drowsiness overpowered her. Suddenly aroused from a sound sleep, she +heard the clatter of galloping hoofs, and as she sprang up, the +horse, startled by her movement, shied and reared within a few feet +of the spot where she stood. The moon shone full on the glossy black +animal, and upon his powerful rider, and Beryl recognized the +massive head, swarthy face and keen eyes of the attorney, Lennox +Dunbar. He leaned forward and said, as he patted the erect ears of +his horse: + +"Madam, you seem a stranger. Have you lost your way?" + +"No, sir." + +"Pardon me; but having seen you this afternoon at 'Elm Bluff,' I +thought it possible you had missed the road." + +Standing so straight and tall, with the sheen of the moon on her +faultless features, he thought she looked the incarnation of some +prescient Norn, fit for the well of Urda. + +She made no reply; and he touched his hat, and rode rapidly away in +the direction of the town, carrying an indelible impression of the +mysterious picture under the pines. + +The sky had changed; the face of the moon had cleared, but tatters +and scuds of smoke-colored cloud fled northward, as if scourged by a +stormy current too high to stir the sultry stagnation of the lower +atmospheric stratum. From its vaporous lair somewhere in the cypress +and palm jungles of the Mexican Gulf borders, the tempest had risen, +and before its breath the shreds of cloud flew like avant couriers +of disaster. Already the lurid glare of incessant sheet lightning +fought with the moon for supremacy, and from a leaden wall along the +southeastern sky, came the long reverberating growl of thunder, that +told where the electric batteries had opened fire. A vague +foreboding, which for several days had haunted Beryl's mind, now +pressed so heavily upon her, that she hurried back to the station, +which was near the edge of the town; and more than once she started +nervously at sight of grotesque shadows cast by the trees across the +sandy road. + +The streets were deserted, and lights gleamed only in upper windows +of apartments, where sick sufferers tossed, or tender mothers sang +soft lullabys to restless babies crooning in their cribs. Now and +then a sudden gust of wind shook the yellow berries from the china +trees, that bordered the pavements, and very soon the moonshine +faded, then flashed fitfully, and finally vanished, as the +blackening cloud swept over the face of earth and sky. The watchman +dozed on his post of observation; a porter slept on a baggage truck +under the awning, and as Beryl peeped into the telegraph office, she +heard the snoring of the operator, whose head rested upon the table +close to the silent instrument. She listened to the ticking of a +clock in the ticket office, but could not see its face; wondered how +late it was, and how long she had been absent. Feeling very lonely +and restless she closed the door, and sat down in the deserted +waiting-room, glad of the companionship of a tortoise-shell cat +which was curled up on a chair next her own. + +Gradually the storm approached, and she thought that an hour had +elapsed, when the dust-tainted smell of rain came with the rush of +cold air. There was no steady gale, but the tempest broke in frantic +spasmodic gusts, as though it had lost its reckoning, and +simultaneously assaulted all the points of the compass; while the +lightning glared almost continuously, and the roar of the thunder +was uninterrupted. Now and then a vivid zig-zag flash gored the +intense darkness with its baleful blue death-light, followed by a +crash, appalling as if the battlements of heaven had been shattered. +Once the whole air seemed ablaze, and the simultaneous shock of the +detonation was so violent, that Beryl involuntarily sank on her +knees, and hid her eyes on a chair. The rain fell in torrents, that +added a solemn sullen swell to the diapason of the thunder fugue, +and by degrees a delicious coolness crept into the cisterns of the +night. + +When the cloud had wept away its fury, and electric fires burned low +in the far west, a gentle shower droned on the roof, and lulled by +its cadence Beryl fell asleep, still kneeling on the floor, with her +head resting on the chair where the cat lay coiled. + +In dreams, she wandered with her father and brother upon a Tuscan +hillside draped with purple fruited grape vines, and Bertie was +crushing a luscious cluster against her thirsty lips, when some +noise startled her. Wide awake, she sprang to her feet, and +listened. + +"There ain't no train till daylight, 'cepting it be the through +freight." + +"When is that due?" + +"Pretty soon; it's mighty nigh time now, but it don't stop here; it +goes on to the water tank, whar it blows for the railroad bridge." + +"How far is the bridge?" + +"Only a short piece down the track, after you pass the tank." + +Beryl had rushed to the window, and looked out, but no one was +visible. She could scarcely mistake that peculiar voice, and was so +assured of its identity, that she ran out under the awning and +looked up and down the platform in front of the station buildings. +The rain had ceased, but drops still pattered from the tin roof, and +a few stars peeped over the ragged ravelled edge of slowly drifting +clouds. By the light of a gas lamp, she saw an old negro man limping +away, who held a stick over his shoulder, on which was slung a +bundle wrapped in a red handkerchief; and while she stood watching, +he vanished in some cul de sac. With her basket in her hand, and her +shawl on her arm, she sped down the track, looking to right and +left. + +"Bertie! Bertie!" + +Once she fancied she discerned a form flying ahead of her, leaping +from cross tie to cross tie to avoid the water, but when she called +vehemently, only the sound of her own voice broke the silence. + +Was it merely an illusion born of her vivid dream of her brother; +and while scarcely awake, had she confounded the tones of a +stranger, with those so long familiar? She could not shake off the +conviction that Bertie had really spoken only a few yards from her, +and while she stood irresolute, puzzling over the problem, the +through freight train dashed by the station and left a trail of +sparks and cinders. To avoid it she sprang on a pile of cross ties +beside the track, and when the fiery serpent wound out of sight, she +reluctantly retraced her steps. How long the night seemed! Would day +never dawn again? She heard the telegraph operator whistling at his +work, and as she re-entered the waiting-room, she saw the ticket +agent standing in his office. + +"What time is it?" + +"Half-past two o'clock. I might as well have locked up as usual, for +after all, you did not stay here." + +"Yes I did." + +He eyed her suspiciously. + +"I came back from supper, and brought a pitcher of cold tea, +thinking you might relish it, but you were not here. I waited nearly +an hour; then I went home." + +"It was so hot, I walked about outside. What a frightful storm." + +"Yes, perfectly awful. Were you exposed to the worst of it?" + +"No, I was here." + +He shook his head, smiled, and went into the next room, knowing that +when he returned to unlock his office she was not in the building, +and that he had seen her coming up the railway track. The bustle of +preparation soon began; the baggage wagons thundered up to the +platform, porters called to one another; passengers collected in the +waiting-room, carriages and omnibuses dashed about; then at 2:50 the +long train of north bound cars swept in. With her shawl and basket +in one hand, and the odorous bunches of chrysanthemums clasped in +the other, Beryl stepped upon the platform. She found a seat at an +open window, and made herself comfortable; placing her feet upon the +basket which contained the jewels that constituted her sole earthly +fortune. The bell rang, the train glided on, and as it passed the +office door, she saw the agent watching her, with a strangely +suspicious expression. + +The cars wound around a curve, and she sank back and shut her eyes, +rejoicing in the belief that her mission to "Elm Bluff," and its +keen humiliation, were forever ended. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +"I concede that point. Your lover is amply endowed with brains, and +moreover has a vast amount of shrewdness, all that is requisite to +secure success and eminence in his profession; but to-day, it seems +as much a matter of astonishment to me--as it certainly was six +months ago, when first you told me of your engagement--that you, Leo +Gordon, could ever fancy just such a man as Lennox Dunbar." + +"I am very sorry, Aunt Patty, that he finds no favor in your eyes, +and I think he is aware of the fact that he is not in your good +graces. You both look so vaguely uncomfortable when thrown into each +other's presence; but for my sake you must try to like Lennox." + +Miss Gordon bent her pretty head over a square of ruby velvet, +whereon she was embroidering a wreath of pansies, and the delicate +flush on her fair face, deepened to a vivid carnation. + +"My likes or dislikes are a matter of moonshine, in comparison with +your happiness. Because you are an orphan, I feel a sort of +responsibility; and sometimes I am not exactly easy over the account +of my stewardship I must render to my poor dead Marcia. The more I +see of your lover, the more I dread your marriage. A man who makes +no profession of religious belief, is an unsafe guardian of any +woman's peace of mind. You who have been reared almost in the shadow +of the altar, accustomed to hearing grace at your meals, to family +prayers, to strict observance of our ritual, will feel isolated +indeed, when transplanted to the home of a godless man, who rarely +darkens the door of the sanctuary. 'Be ye not unequally yoked +together with unbelievers.'" + +Miss Patty Dent took off her spectacles, wiped them with the string +of her white muslin cap, and adjusting them firmly on her nose, +plucked nervously at the fluted lace ruffles around her wrists. + +"Auntie, you are scarcely warranted in using such strong language. +Because a man refrains from the public avowal of faith, incident to +church membership, he is not necessarily godless; nor inevitably +devoid of true religious feeling. Mr. Dunbar has a strong, reticent +nature, habituated to repression of all evidences of emotion, but of +the depth and earnestness of his real feeling, I entertain no +doubt." + +"I fear your line and plummet will never sound his depth. You often +speak of his strength; but, Leo, hardness is not always strength; +and he is hard, hard. I never saw a man with a chin like his, who +was not tyrannical, and idolatrous of his own will. My dear, such +men are as uncomfortable to live in the same house with, as a smoky +chimney, or a woman with shattered nerves, or creaking doors, or +draughty windows. They are a sort of everlasting east wind that +never veers, blowing always to the one point, attainment of their +own ends, mildewing all else. Ugh!" + +Miss Patty shivered, and her companion smiled. + +"What a grewsome picture, Auntie dear! Fortunately human taste is as +diverse and catholic as the variety of human countenances. For +example: Clara Morse raves over Mr. Dunbar's 'clear-cut features, so +immensely classical'; and she pronounces his offending 'chin simply +perfect! fit for a Greek God!'" + +"A very thin and gauzy partition divides Clara Morse's brains from +idiocy. In my day, all such feeble watery minds as hers were +regarded as semi-imbecile, pitied as intellectual cripples, and +wisely kept in the background of society; but, bless me! in this +generation they skip and prance to the very edge of the front, pose +in indecent garments without starch, or crinoline, or even the +protection of pleats and gathers; and insult good, sound, wholesome +common sense with the sickening affectations they are pleased to +call 'aesthetics.' Don't waste your time, and dilute your own mind +by quoting the silly twaddle of a poor girl who was turned loose too +early on society, who falls on her knees in ecstasies before a +hideous broken-nose tea-pot from some filthy hovel in Japan; and who +would not dare to admire the loveliest bit of Oiron pottery, or +precious old Chelsea claret-colored china in Kensington Museum, +until she had turned it upside down, and hunted the potter's mark +with a microscope. I say Mr. Dunbar has a domineering and tyrannical +chin, and five years hence, if you do not agree with me, it will be +because 'Ephraim is joined to his idols'--clay feet and all." + +"Then follow the Bible injunction to 'let him alone.' I see Lennox +through neither Clara's rosy lenses, nor your jaundiced glasses; and +these circular discussions are as fruitless as they are unpleasant. +Let us select some more agreeable topic. I gave you Leighton's +letter. What think you of his scheme?" + +"That it is admirable, worthy of the brain that conceived it. What a +wonderful man he is, considering his age? Such a devout and fervent +spirit, and withal such a marvel of executive ability. Ah! happy the +woman who can command his wise guardianship, and renew her +aspirations after holiness, in his spiritual society. I honor, even +more than I love, Leighton Douglass." + +"So do I, Aunt Patty. He is quite my ideal pastor, and when he +marries, I hope his wife will be worthy of him in every respect. +Only a very noble woman would suit my cousin." + +A bright spot burned on Miss Dent's wrinkled cheek, and she knitted +her brows, and shook her head. + +"He is so absorbed in his holy work that he has no leisure for such +trifles as love-making; but if he should ever honor a woman by the +offer of his consecrated hand, it must be one of large fortune, who +will dedicate herself and her money to the accomplishment of his +ecclesiastical schemes." + +The corners of Miss Gordon's mouth twitched mutinously, but she +contrived to throw much innocent surprise and questioning into the +handsome brown eyes, which she lifted from her gold-hearted pansies, +to her Aunt's face. + +"Could you possibly associate mercenary motives with any step which +he might take? Such a supposition would be totally incompatible with +my estimate of his character." + +"When a man dedicates himself to a solemn mission, he is lifted far +above the ordinary plane, can dispense with sentimental +conventionalities, and must learn to regard all human relations as +merely means to an end. Want of money has palsied many an arm lifted +to advance the good of the Church; and zeal without funds, +accomplishes as little as rusty machinery stiff from lack of oil. If +Dr. Douglass could only control even a hundred thousand dollars, +what shining monuments he would leave to immortalize him! Indeed, it +passes my comprehension how persons who could so easily help him, +deliberately turn a deaf ear to the 'cry from Macedonia'." + +"There is far more eclat in trips to Macedonia, but the God of +recompense does not forget the steady, tireless help and sympathy +extended to the needy, who dwell within sight of our own doors. +Organized society work is good, but individual self-sacrifice and +labor are much better; and if every unit did full duty, co-operative +systems would not be so necessary; still, Leighton's scheme commends +itself to every woman's heart, and when I answered his letter, I +expressed cordially my approbation." + +"Did you prove your faith by your works, and send him a large +check?" + +"Auntie, dear, do you expect me to stultify all your training, both +your example and precept--for lo! these many years--by setting my +left hand to gossip about my right? I am very sure." + +"Well, Andrew, what is it?" + +"A boy from Mr. Dunbar's office has just galloped up, and says I am +to tell you he can't ride to the Falls to-day, as he expected, +because of some pressing business; and he wants to know if the Judge +will come into town right away? Mr. Dunbar will explain when he +comes late this evening." + +"Very well. Tell Daniel I shall not want 'Rebel' saddled; and say to +the messenger that my Uncle is not at home. Aunt Patty, do you know +where he has gone?" + +"Doubtless to his office; where else should he be? He said he had a +pile of tiresome papers to examine to-day." + +Miss Gordon folded up her work, laid it away in a dainty basket +lined with blue satin and flounced with lace; and after pausing a +moment to pet her Aunt's white Maltese cat which lay dozing In the +sunshine, walked away toward a Small hot-house, built quite near the +dining-room, and connected with it by an arcade, covered in summer +by vines, in winter by glass. + +Twenty-four years before that day, when a proud, fond young mother +puffed and tucked the marvel of lace and linen cambric, which was +intended as a christening robe for her baby, and laid it away with +spicery of rose leaves and sachet of lavender and deer tongue, to +wait until a "furlough" allowed the child's father to be present at +the baptism, she had supposed that its delicate folds would one day +adorn a dimpled rosy-faced infant, for whom the name Aurelia Gordon +had long been selected. Fate cruelly vetoed all the details of the +programme, carefully arranged by maternal affection; and the lurid +sun that set in clouds of smoke on one of the most desperate battles +of the Confederacy, saw Colonel Gordon's brave, patriotic soul +released on that long "furlough" which glory granted her heroes; saw +his devoted wife a wailing widow. The red burial of battle had +precluded the solemnization of baptismal rites at the sacred marble +font; and when four days after Colonel Gordon's death, his frail +young wife welcomed the summons to an everlasting re-union, she laid +her cold hands on her baby's golden head, and died, as she +whispered: + +"Name her Leo, for her father." + +So it came to pass, that the clergyman who read the burial service +beside the mother's coffin, lifted the cooing infant in the midst of +a weeping funeral throng, and with a faltering voice baptized her, +in the presence of the dead, Leo Gordon, + +To the care of her sister Patty, and of her widowed brother, Judge +Dent, Mrs. Gordon had consigned her child; and transplanted so early +to her uncle's house, the orphan knew no other home. + +When the problem of vast numerical preponderance had solved itself +in accordance with the rules of avoirdupois, and history--fond like +all garrulous old crones of repeating even her inglorious episodes-- +had triumphantly inscribed on her bloody tablets, that once more the +Few were throttled and trampled by the Many, then the fabled +"Ragnarok" of the Sagas described only approximately the doom of the +devastated South. In the financial and social chaos that followed +the invasion by "loyal" hordes, rushing under "sealed orders" on the +mission of "Reconstruction," and eminently successful in +"reconstructing" their individual fortunes, an anomaly presented +itself for the consideration of political economists. The wealthy +classes of ante bellum days were the most destitute paupers that the +newly-risen Union sun shone upon. + +The French Revolution and its subsequent eruptions of Communism +failed to destroy the value of land; and the emancipation of Russian +serfs may have stimulated agricultural activity, but that political +and social Communism which the Pandora of "reconstruction" let loose +throughout the conquered States of the South, accomplished all that +the victors could have desired. + +Abandoned by the laborers God had fitted to endure toil under +climatic conditions peculiar to the soil, vast silent fields of +weeds stared blankly, and the richer a man found himself in +ancestral acres, the more hopelessly was he manacled by taxes. +"Reconstructionists" most thoroughly inoculated with "Loyal" rabies, +held in lofty disdain the claims of widows and orphans, and the +right of minors was as dead as that of secession. In the general +maelstrom, Colonel Gordon's large estate went to pieces; but after a +time, Judge Dent took lessons from his new political masters in the +science of wrecking, and by degrees, as fragments and shreds +stranded, he collected and secreted them. Certain mining interests +were protected, and some valuable plantations in distant sugar +belts, were secured. As guardian of his sister's daughter, he +changed, or renewed investments in stocks which rapidly increased in +value, until an unusually large fortune had accumulated: and +verifying figures justified his boast, that his niece and ward was +the wealthiest heiress in the State. + +Reared in a household which consisted of an elderly uncle and aunt, +and a middle-aged governess, Leo Gordon had never known intimate +association with younger people; and while her nature was gentle and +tranquil, she gradually imbibed the grave and rather prim ideas +which were in vogue when Miss Patty was the reigning belle of her +county. Although petted and indulged, she had not been spoiled, and +remained singularly free from the selfishness usually developed in +the character of an only child, nurtured in the midst of mature +relatives. When eighteen years old, Leo, accompanied by her +governess, Mrs. Eldridge, had been sent to New York and Boston for +educational advantages, which it was supposed that her own section +of the country could not supply; and subsequently the two went +abroad, gleaning knowledge in the great centres of European Art. +During their sojourn in Munich, Mrs. Eldridge died after a very +brief illness; and returning to her southern home, Leo found herself +the object of social homage. + +Thoroughly well-bred, accomplished, graceful and pretty, she +commanded universal admiration; yet her manner was marked by a +quiet, grave dignity, and a peculiar reticence, at variance with the +prevailing type of young ladyhood, now alas! too dominant; whose +premature emancipation from home rule, and old-fashioned canons of +decorum renders "American girlhood" synonymous with flippant +pertness. Moulded by two women who were imbued with the spirit of +Richter's admonition: "Girls like the priestesses of old, should be +educated only in sacred places, and never hear, much less see, what +is rude, immoral or violent"; the pate tendre of Leo's character +showed unmistakably the potter's marks. + +She shrewdly surmised that the knowledge of her unusual wealth +contributed to swell the number of her suitors, and she was twenty- +four years old when Lennox Dunbar, for whom she had long secretly +cherished a partiality, succeeded in placing his ring on her fair, +slender hand. In character they differed widely, and the deep and +tender love that filled her heart, found only a faint echo in his +cold and more selfish nature, which had carefully calculated all the +advantages derivable from this alliance. + +He cordially admired and esteemed his brown-eyed fair-haired +fiancee, considered her the personification of feminine refinement +and delicacy; and congratulated himself warmly on his great good +fortune in winning her affection; but tender emotions found little +scope for exercise in his intensely practical, busy life, which was +devoted to the attainment of eminence in his profession; and the +merely dynamic apparatus which did duty as his heart, had never been +disturbed by any feeling sufficiently deep to quicken his calm, +steady pulse. + +There were times, when Leo wondered whether all accepted lovers were +as undemonstrative as her own, and she would have been happier had +he occasionally forgotten professional aspirations, in the charm of +her presence; but her confidence in the purity and fidelity of his +affection was unshaken, even by the dismal predictions of Miss +Patty, who found it impossible to reconcile herself to the failure +of her darling scheme, that Leo should marry her second cousin, +Leighton Douglass, D.D., and devote her fortune to the advancement +of his church. + +To-day, as she sought pleasant work in arranging the ferns and +carnations of her conservatory, her thoughts reverted to the +previous evening, which Mr. Dunbar had spent with her; and she could +not avoid indulging regret, that he should have allowed business +affairs to interfere with their engagement for horseback riding, but +her reverie was speedily interrupted by the excited tones of her +aunt's voice. + +"Leo! Leo! Where do you hide yourself?" + +"Here, Auntie, in the conservatory." + +"Oh! my child, such dreadful news! Such a frightful tragedy!" + +Pale and panting, Miss Patty ran down the arcade, and stumbled over +a barricade of potted plants on the threshold of the door. + +"What is the matter? Is it my Uncle, or--or Lennox?" + +Leo sprang to her feet, and caught her aunt's arm. + +"Horrible! horrible! General Darrington was robbed, and then most +brutally murdered last night!" + +"Murdered! Can it be possible? Murdered--by whom?" + +"How should I know? The whole town is wild about it. My brother is +at Elm Bluff, with the body, and I shall take the carriage and drive +over there at once. Dear me; I am so nervous I can't stand still, +and my teeth chatter like a pair of castanets." + +"Perhaps there may be some mistake. How did you hear it?" + +"Your Uncle Mitchell sent a boy to tell me why he was detained. +There has been a coroner's inquest, and of course, as an old and +intimate friend of General Darrington's, Mitchell feels he must do +all he can. Poor old gentleman! So proud and aristocratic! To be +murdered in his own house, like any common pauper! Positively it +makes me sick. May the Lord have mercy on his soul." + +"Amen!" murmured Leo. + +"Will you go with me to Elm Bluff?" + +"Oh, no! Not for worlds. Why should I? Women will only be in the +way; and who could desire to contemplate so horrible a spectacle? It +will merely harrow your feelings, Aunt Patty, and you can do no +good." + +"It is my Christian duty as a neighbor; and I was always very fond +of the first Mrs. Darrington, Helena Tracey. What is this wicked +world coming to? Robbery and murder stalking bare-faced through the +land. It will be a dreadful blow to Mitchell, because he and Luke +Darrington have been intimate all their lives. I see the carriage +coming round, so I must get my bonnet and wrap." + +"I presume Mr. Dunbar is engaged in the same melancholy details +which occupy my uncle." + +"Doubtless he is, because his father was General Darrington's +attorney until his health failed; and Lennox is now his lawyer and +business agent. It is a thousand pities that Prince is away in +Europe." + +Two hours after the carriage had disappeared on the road leading to +Elm Bluff, Leo crossed the grassy lawn, and sat down near the gate, +on a rustic bench under a cluster of tall lilacs, which gave their +name to her uncle's home. + +A keen north wind whistling through neighboring walnut tree tops, +drove the dying leaves like frightened flocks before it, and ever +and anon the ripened nuts pattered down, hiding themselves under the +drift of yellow foliage, that had sheltered them in cool greenery +during summer heats. Overhead a red squirrel barked and frisked, and +across the pale-blue sky, feathered nomads, teal or mallard, moved +swiftly en echelon, their quivering pinions flashing like silver, as +they fled southward. On a distant hillside cattle browsed, and sheep +wandered; and the drowsy tinkle of bells, as the herd wended +homeward, seemed a nocturne of rest, for the closing day. + +How serene, harmonious and holy all nature appeared; and yet a few +miles distant, into what a fierce seething whirlpool of conflicting +passions, of hatred and bloodthirsty vengeance, had human crime +plunged an entire community. We plume ourselves upon nineteenth +century civilization, upon ethical advancement, upon Christian +progress; we adorn our cathedrals, build temples for art treasures, +and museums for science, and listen to preludes of the "music of the +future;" and we shudder at the mention of vice, as at the +remembrance of the tortures of Regulus, but will the Cain type ever +become extinct, like the dodo, or the ichthyosaurus? When will the +laws of heredity, and the by-laws of agnation result in an altruism, +where human bloodshed is an unknown horror? + +The apostles of Evolution tell us, that in the genealogical ages +during which man has struggled upward, from the lower stages of +vertebrate and mammal to the genus of catarrhine apes, he has +gradually thrown off bestial instincts, and that the tiger taint +will ultimately be totally eliminated; that "original sin is neither +more nor less than the brute inheritance which every man carries +with him, and that Evolution is an advance toward true salvation." +Meanwhile what becomes of the "Survival of the Fittest", which is +only a euphemism for the strangling of the feeble by the strong? We +can understand how perfection, or permanence of type, individual and +national, demands carnage, and entails all the dire catalogue of +human woes, but wherein is altruism evolved? How many aeons shall we +wait, to behold the leopard and the lamb pasturing together in +peace? + +Pondering this problem, as he rode along the public road outside the +boundary of Judge Dent's lawn, Mr. Dunbar caught a glimpse of his +betrothed, sitting behind the hedge of lilacs, and he lifted his +hat, hoping that she would meet him at the entrance; but although +she bowed in recognition, he was forced to open the gate and admit +himself. Throwing the bridle rein over one of the iron spikes of the +fence, and taking off his gloves, he approached the bench. + +"Dare I flatter myself, that my queen deigns to meet me half way?" + +He took her outstretched hand, and kissed it softly, while his +glance noted every detail of her handsome fawn-colored dress, with +its jabot of creamy lace, and the cluster of crimson carnations in +her belt. The touch of his lips on her fingers, deepened the flush +in her cheeks, and, making room for him beside her, she replied: + +"Sit down, and tell me if this dreadful news about General +Darrington be indeed true? I have hoped there might be some mistake, +some exaggeration." + +"Some horrors exceed the possibility of verbal exaggeration, and +last night's tragedy is one of that class. General Darrington was +most brutally murdered." + +"Poor old gentleman! How incredible it seems that such awful crimes +can be committed in our quiet neighborhood? who could have been so +guilty; and what motive could have prompted such a fiendish act?" + +"The one all-powerful evil passion of mankind--greed of gold; lust +of filthy lucre. He was first robbed, then murdered by the thief, to +avoid detection and punishment. There is unmistakable evidence that +the General was chloroformed while asleep; but he must have awakened +in time to discover the robber, with whom he struggled desperately, +and by whom he was struck down. The coroner's inquest developed some +startling facts." + +"Has any clue been discovered which would indicate the murderer?" + +"A handful of clues." + +"Then you have a theory concerning the person who perpetrated this +awful crime?" + +"My dear Leo, not a theory, but a conviction; I might almost say an +absolute knowledge." + +"Would it be pardonable for me to ask whom you suspect; would it be +a violation of professional etiquette for you to tell me?" + +"Certainly, my dearest, you can ask me anything, only--" he paused a +moment; and she put her hand quickly on his arm. + +"I see. Do not tell me mere suspicions; they might cruelly wrong an +innocent person; and I ought not to have asked the question." + +"My hesitation arose from a totally different source, and I was +merely wondering whether you, my sweet saint, could believe that a +woman committed the bloody deed." + +"Oh, Mr. Dunbar, impossible! A woman guilty of taking that old man's +life? The supposition is as horrible as the crime itself." + +Passing his hand lightly over her crimped fair hair, and looking +down into her eyes, as brown as the back of a thrush, her lover +replied: + +"I find that the nobler and purer a woman's heart is, the less she +credits the existence of vice and the possibility of crime among her +own sex. You doubtless consider the Brinvilliers, Fredegonds, +Fulvias and Faustinas, quite as fabulous as Centaurs, Sirens and +Were-wolves; and I feel as reluctant to shake your fair faith in +womanhood, as to dash the dew from a rose-bud, or rudely brush the +bloom a cluster of tempting grapes; but the grim truth must be told, +that our old friend was robbed and murdered by a woman." + +"One of his servants? They all seemed devotedly attached to him." + +"No, by his granddaughter, a young and very beautiful woman; Beryl +Brentano, the child of General Darrington's daughter Ellice, whom he +had disowned on account of her wretched marriage with a foreigner, +who taught her music and the languages. Of course you have heard +from your aunt and uncle all the details of that family episode. +Yesterday this girl Beryl suddenly presented herself at Elm Bluff, +and demanded money from her grandfather; alleging that her mother's +life was in danger for want of it. I learn there was a stormy +interview, part of the conversation having been overheard by two +persons; and the General, who was as vindictive as a Modoc, or a +Cossack, drove the young lady through a door leading down to the +rosery. This occurred in the afternoon, immediately after I left Elm +Bluff, where I went to obtain his signature to a deed to some lands +recently sold in Texas. I saw the girl sitting on the front steps, +and when she rose and looked at me, her superb physique impressed me +powerfully. She is as beautiful and stately as some goddess stepping +out of the Norse 'Edda', and altogether a remarkable looking person. +It will appear in evidence, that the General harshly refused her +pleadings, and made a point of assuring her that his will, already +prepared, would forever debar her mother and herself from any +inheritance at his death; as he had bequeathed his entire estate to +his adopted son Prince. Unfortunately, she learned where the will +was kept, as during the interview, persons in the next room +distinctly heard the peculiar noise made by the sliding door of the +iron vault, where General Darrington kept all his valuable papers. +She disappeared from Elm Bluff about sunset, going toward town; and +last night at ten o'clock, when I left you and rode home, I saw her +lurking in the pine woods not very far from the bridge over the +branch, near the park gate. She was evidently hiding, as she sat on +the ground half screened by a tree; but my horse shied and plunged +badly, and when she rose, the full moon showed her face and figure +distinctly. There was something so mysterious in her movements, that +I asked her if she had lost her way; to which she curtly replied +that she had not. I learn from Burk, the station agent, that her +actions aroused his suspicion, and that instead of leaving town, as +she said she intended, by the 7:15 train, she hung about the +station, and finally took the 3:05 express this morning. He said she +had begged permission to stay in the waiting-room, but that at 2:30 +A.M., when he went back to open the ticket office, she was nowhere +to be found; and that later, he saw her coming down the railroad +track. She must have gone back to Elm Bluff after I passed her on +the road, and effected an entrance through the window on the front +piazza, as it was found open; and the awful work of robbery and +murder was accomplished during the storm, which you know was so +frightful that it drowned all minor sounds. This morning when the +General did not ring for his hot water at the usual time, it was +supposed that he was sleeping late, but finally old Bedney knocked. +Unable to arouse his master, he opened the door, and found our old +friend lying on the floor, near the fireplace. He had been dead for +hours, and close to his head was a heavy brass andiron, which +evidently had been snatched from the hearth by the murderess, who +must have dealt the fatal blow with it, as there was a dark spot on +his temple, and also on the left side near the heart. The room was +in disorder, and two glass vases on the mantel were shivered, as +though some missile had struck them--probably a heavy ledger which +was found on the floor." + +"How horrible! But no woman could have overpowered a man like +General Darrington." + +"Physically, his granddaughter was more than a match for him, +especially since his last illness; and I assure you she looks like +some daughter of the Vikings. She certainly is a woman of grand +proportions, and wonderfully symmetrical." + +"What is her age?" + +"About eighteen, I should think; though her size and a certain +majestic bearing might convey the impression that she was older." + +"How can you connect so dreadful a crime with a young and beautiful +woman, of whom you know absolutely nothing?" + +"My theory is, that she intended merely to get possession of the +will, the contents of which had been made known to her--and of the +money, that she knew or surmised was kept in the vault. When the +effect of the chloroform wore off, and the General waked to find her +at the vault; a struggle evidently took place, and in desperation at +the thought of being detected, she killed him. You do not understand +all the bearings of even slight circumstances in a case like this, +but we who make a study of such sad matters, know the significance +of the disappearance of the will; the destruction of which could +benefit only her mother and herself. The vault was open; the gold, +silver, some valuable jewelry, and the will are missing from the tin +box. All the other papers were left, even a package of bonds, +amounting to thousands of dollars. She seemed to know that the bonds +might lead to detection, hence she did not take them. On the floor, +and in the bottom of the tin box were found two twenty-dollar gold +pieces. We are collecting all the evidence, and it constitutes a +powerful array of proof." + +"We? Do you mean that you are hunting down a woman?" + +Miss Gordon withdrew her hand from her lover's, and instinctively +moved farther from him. + +"I am most diligently hunting down the author of a foul and awful +crime; and it is my duty to my friend and client to use every +possible exertion, in discovering and bringing to punishment the +person who robbed and murdered him--be it man, woman or child. +Feminine youth and beauty are no aegis against the barbed javelins +of justice and the District Solicitor (Mr. Churchill) and I, have no +doubt of the guilt of the woman, who will soon be put on trial here +for her monstrous and unnatural crime." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +In a deep, narrow "railway cut," through Virginia hills, a south- +bound freight train had been so badly wrecked in consequence of a +"washout," that the southern passenger express going north was +detained fourteen hours; thereby missing connection at Washington +City, where the passengers were again delayed nearly twelve hours. +Tired and very hungry, having eaten nothing but a sandwich and a cup +of coffee for three days, Beryl felt profoundly thankful when the +cars rolled into Jersey City. In the bustle and confusion incident +to arrival in that Babel, she did not observe the scrutiny to which +she was subjected by a man genteelly dressed, who gave her his hand +as she stepped down from the train, and kept by her side while she +hastened in the direction of the ferry. + +Reaching the slip where the boat awaited passengers, she was vexed +to see it backing out into the stream, and leaned against the chain +which barred egress until the next trip. + +"You have only five minutes to wait for the boat. You seem to have +had a long and trying journey, madam?" + +Glancing at him for the first time, Beryl perceived that he held a +slip of yellow paper from which he looked now and then to her face. +His features were coarse and heavy, but his eyes were keen as a +ferret's; and without answering his question, she turned away and +looked across the water which teemed with craft of every +description, laden with freight animate and inanimate, passing to +and from the vast city, whose spires, domes and forest of masts rose +like a gray cloud against the sky, etching there their leaden +outlines. + +"You live at No.--West--Street, between 8th and 9th Avenue?" + +"You are a stranger, and your questions are offensive and +impertinent." + +As she turned and confronted him haughtily, he stepped closer to +her, threw back his blue overcoat, and pointed to the metal badge on +his breast. + +"I am an officer of the law, and have a warrant for your arrest. You +are Beryl Brentano." + +"I am Beryl Brentano, yes; but there is some blunder, some mistake. +How dare you annoy me? Arrest me? Me!" + +"Do not make a scene. My instructions are to deal with you as gently +as possible. Better come quietly into the station near, and I will +read you the warrant, otherwise I shall be obliged to use force. You +see I have two assistants yonder." + +"Arrested for what? By whom?" + +"I am ordered to arrest you for the murder of General Darrington." + +"Murder! General Darrington is alive and well. I have just left him. +Stand back! Do not touch me. I will call on the police to protect +me." + +Laying his fingers firmly on her arm, he beckoned to two men clad in +police uniform, who promptly approached. + +"You see resistance is worse than useless, and since there is no +escape, come quietly." + +"You are insulting me, under some frightful mistake. I am a lady. Do +I look like a criminal?" + +"General Darrington has been robbed and murdered, and I have +telegraphic orders to arrest and hold a woman named Beryl Brentano, +who corresponds in every respect with the description of the person +suspected of having committed the crime." + +Hitherto she had attributed the insult of the interview to some +question of mistaken identity, but as she slowly comprehended the +possibility that she was the person accused, and intended for +arrest, a sickening horror seized and almost paralyzed her, +blanching her face and turning her to stone. As he led her along the +street, she staggered from the numbness that possessed her, and her +eyes stared blankly, like those of a somnambulist. When she had been +ushered into a room where several policemen were lounging and +smoking, the intolerable sense of shame and indignation shook off +her apathy. + +"This is a cruel and outrageous wrong, and only base cowards could +wantonly insult an unprotected and innocent woman. You call +yourselves men? Have you no mothers, no sisters, whose memory can +arouse some reverence, some respect for womanhood in your brutal +souls?" + +Electric lamps set in the sockets of some marble face, might perhaps +resemble the blaze that leaped up in her eyes, as she wrenched her +arm from the officer's profaning touch, and her voice rang like the +clash of steel. + +"Madam, we are allowed no discretion; we are only the blind and deaf +machines that obey orders. Read the warrant, and you will understand +that our duty is imperative." + +Again and again she read the paper, in which the sheriff of the +county where Elm Bluff is situated, demanded her arrest and return +to X---, on the charge of robbery and murder committed during the +night which she had spent at the station. Then several telegrams +were placed before her. The description of herself, her dress, even +of the little basket and shawl, was minutely accurate; and by +degrees the horror of her situation, and her utter helplessness, +became frightfully distinct. The papers fell from her nerveless +fingers, and one desperate cry broke from her white lips: + +"O just God! Will you permit such a shameful, cruel outrage? Save me +from this horrible injustice and disgrace!" + +Seeing neither the men, nor the room, her strained gaze seemed in +her great agony fixed upon the face of Him, who, silvering the +lilies of the field and watching the flight of sparrows, has tender +care for all who trust Him. Even in this terrible trial, the girl's +first thought was of her mother; and of the disastrous effect that +the misfortune would produce upon the invalid. + +"I am sorry to tell you, that we are required to search all persons +arrested under similar charges, and in the next room a female +detective will receive and retain every thing in your possession, +except your clothing. You are suspected of having secreted money, +jewelry and some very valuable papers." + +"Suspected of being a common thief! I am as innocent as any angel +beside the throne of Christ! Save me at least from the degradation +of being searched. Here is my basket, and here is my purse." + +She handed him the worn leather pocket-book, which contained only +the few pennies reserved to pay her passage across the ferry, and +turned the pocket of her dress inside cut. + +At the tap of a hand-bell, a tall, angular woman opened the door of +an adjoining room. + +"Mrs. Foster, you will very carefully examine the prisoner, and +search her clothing for papers, as well as valuables." + +"Spare me at least this indignity!" cried the shuddering girl. + +"Come with me, madam. We have no choice." + +When the door closed behind her, the constable walked up and down +the floor. + +"How deceitful appearances are! That woman looks as pure and +innocent as an angel, and I half believed her protestations; but +here in the basket, sure enough, hidden at the bottom, are the +jewelry and the gold. No sign of the papers, but she may have +destroyed them. + +"Thief or not, she is a grand beauty; and if her heart was not in +that prayer she put up just now, she is a grand actress also. This +is a beastly trade of ours, hunting down and trapping the unwary. +Sometimes I feel no better than a sleuth-hound, and that girl's eyes +went through and through me a while ago like a two-edged dirk." + +As he vented his views of his profession, one of the policemen +lighted his pipe and puffed vigorously. + +Mrs. Foster came back, followed by her victim. + +"I find absolutely nothing secreted on the prisoner." + +"No papers of any description?" + +"None, sir." + +"Madam, your basket contains the missing jewelry and money, at least +a portion of it, and I shall place it in the hands of the sheriff." + +"The money and jewels are not mine. They belong to my mother, to +whom they were given by her father; and she needs the money at this +moment--" + +"Let me advise you to say as little as possible for your own sake; +because your words will be weighed against you." + +"I speak only the truth, and it will, it must, vindicate me. What +papers are you searching for?" + +"General Darrington's will. It was stolen with the money. Here is +yesterday's paper, with an account of the whole affair, telegraphed +from X----. If you need to learn anything, you will understand when +you read it." + +The sight of the capital letters in the Telegraphic Despatches, +coupling her name with a heinous and revolting crime, seemed to stab +her eyes with red-hot thrusts; and shivering from head to foot, she +slowly realized the suspicious significance of the disappearance of +the will, which was the sole obstacle that debarred her from her +grandfather's wealth. Although sustained by an unfaltering trust in +the omnipotence of innocence, she was tormented by a dread spectre +that would not "down" at her bidding; how could she prove that the +money and jewels had been given to her? Would the shock of the +tidings of her arrest kill her mother? Was there any possible way by +which she might be kept in ignorance of this foul disgrace? + +Beryl hid her face in her hands, and tried to think, but the whole +universe appeared spinning into chaos. She had opposed the trip +South so steadily and vehemently: had so sorrowfully and reluctantly +yielded at last to maternal solicitation, and had been oppressed +with such dire forebodings of some resultant evil. So bitter was her +repugnance to the application to her grandfather, that she had set +out on her journey feeling as though it were a challenge to fate; +and this was the answer? The vague distrust, the subtle sombre +presentiment, the haunting shadow of an inexplicable ill, had all +meant this; this bloody horror, dragging her fair name down to the +loathsome mire of the slums of crime. Had some merciful angel leaned +from the parapets of heaven and warned her; or did her father's +spirit, in mysterious communion of deathless love and prescient +guardianship, stir her soul to oppose her mother's scheme? Sceptical +and heedless Tarquins are we all, whom our patient Sibylline +intuitions finally abandon to the woes which they sought to avert. + +In the maddening rush and whirl of Beryl's reflections, her mother's +image was the one centre around which all things circled; and at +length, rallying her energies, she turned to her captor. + +"You intend to take me to prison?" + +"I am obliged to detain and deliver you to the officer who has come +from X---with the warrant, and who will carry you back there for +trial. He knew from the detentions along the route, that he could +easily overhaul you here, so he went straight to Trenton with a +requisition from the Governor of his State upon Governor Mansfield, +for your surrender. It is but a short run to the Capital, and he +expects to get here in time to catch the train going South to-day. +We had a telegram a while ago, saying the papers were all right, and +that he would meet us at the train, as there will be only a few +moments to spare." + +"But I must first see my mother. I must give her the money and +explain--" + +"The money will be claimed by the officer who takes charge of you." + +"Have you no mercy? My mother is ill, destitute; and she will die +unless I can go to her. Oh! I beg of you, for the sake of common +humanity, carry me home, if only for five minutes! Just let me see +mother, let me speak to her!" + +In the intensity of her dread, she fell upon her knees, and lifted +her hands imploringly; and the anguish in her white quivering face +was so piteous that the man turned his head away. + +"I would oblige you if I could, but it is impossible. The law is +cruel, as you say, but it is intended as a terror to evil-doers. +Things look awfully black for you, but all the same I am sorry for +you, if your mother is to suffer for your deeds. If you wish to +write to her, I will see that she receives your note; but you have +very little time left." + +"O God! how hard! What a foul, horrible wrong inflicted upon the +innocent!" + +She cowered on the floor, unconscious that she still knelt; seeing +only the suffering woman in that dreary attic across the river, +where sunken feverish eyes watched for her return. + +Accidentally Beryl's gaze fell on the bunch of faded chrysanthemums +which had dropped unnoticed on the floor, and snatching them she +buried her face in their petals. Their perfume was the potent spell +that now melted her to tears, and the tension of her overtaxed +nerves gave way in a passionate burst of sobs. When she rose a few +moments later, the storm had passed; the face regained its stony +rigidity, and henceforth she fronted fate with an unnatural +calmness. + +"Will you give me some paper and a pen?" + +"You can write here at the desk." + +Mrs. Foster approached her, and said hesitatingly: + +"Would it comfort you at all, for me to go and see your mother and +explain why you could not return to her? I am very sorry for you, +poor thing." + +"Thank you, but--you could not explain, and the sight of a stranger +would startle her. In one way you can help me; do you know Dr. +Grantlin of New York?" + +"Only by reputation; but I can find him." + +"Will you deliver into his hand the note I am writing?" + +"I certainly will." + +"How soon?" + +"Before nine o'clock to-night." + +"Thank you--a thousand times." + +After a while she folded a sheet containing these words: + +"DEAR DR. GRANTLIN: + +"In the extremity of my distress, I appeal to you as a Christian +gentleman, as a true physician, a healer of the suffering, and under +God, the guardian of my mother's life. You know why I went to my +grandfather. He gave me the money, one hundred dollars, and some +valuable jewels. When in sight of home, I have been arrested on the +charge of having murdered my grandfather, and stolen his will. Need +I tell you that I am as innocent as you are? The thought of my +mother is the bitterest drop in my cup of shame and sorrow. You can +judge best, how much it may be expedient to tell her, and you can +devise the kindest method of breaking the truth, if she must know +it. Have her removed to the hospital, and do not postpone the +operation. O Doctor! be pitiful, be tender to her, and do not let +her need any little comforts. Some day I will pay you for all +expenses incurred in her behalf, but at present I have not a dollar, +as the money has been seized. I am sure you will not deny my prayer, +and may God reward and bless you, for your mercy to my precious +mother. + +"In grateful trust, + +"BERYL BRENTANO. + +"P.S.--If you approve, deliver the enclosed note." + +On a separate sheet she wrote: + +"MY DARLING MOTHER: + +"Finding it necessary to return to X---, I have requested Dr. +Grantlin to take particularly good care of you for a few days. Your +father will never forgive, never receive you, but he kindly complied +with your request and gave me one hundred dollars. Try to be patient +until I can come and tell you everything, and believe that God will +not forsake us. With these hurried lines, I send you a few +chrysanthemums--your favorite flowers--which I gathered in the rose +garden of your old home. When you smell them, think of your little +girl who loves you better than her own life, and who will hasten +home at the earliest possible moment, to take you in her arms. +Mother, pray for me, and may God be very merciful to you, my +dearest, and to-- + +"Your devoted child, + +"BERYL." + +She had bound the withered flowers together with a strip of fringe +from her shawl, and now, with dry eyes and firm white lips, she +kissed them twice, pinned the last note around them and laid the +whole in Mrs. Foster's hand. + +"I trust you to deliver them in person to Dr. Grantlin before you +sleep to-night; and if I survive this awful outrage, perpetrated +under the name of law, I will find you some day, and thank you." + +Looking at the lovely face, pure in its frozen calm, as some marble +lily in the fingers of a monumental effigy, Mrs. Foster felt the +tears dimming her own vision and said earnestly: + +"Keep as silent as possible. The less you say, the safer you will +be; and run no risk of contradicting your own statements." + +"I appreciate your motive, but I have nothing to conceal." + +Beryl laid her hand on her shawl, then drew back. + +"Am I allowed the use of my shawl?" + +"Oh, certainly, madam." + +The officer would have opened and put it around her, but with an +indescribable movement of proud repulsion, she shook it out, then +wrapped it closely about her, and sat down, keeping her eyes fixed +on the face of the clock ticking over the fireplace. After a long +and profound silence, the man who had arrested her, said gravely and +gently: + +"Time is up. I must deliver you to Officer Gibson at the train. Come +with me." + +She rose, gave her hand to Mrs. Foster, and stooping suddenly +touched with her lips the withered flowers, then followed silently. + +In subsequent years, when she attempted to recall consecutively the +incidents of the ensuing forty-eight hours, they eluded her, like +the flitting phantasmagoria that throng delirium; yet subtle links +fastened the details upon her brain, and sometimes most +unexpectedly, that psychic necromancer--association of ideas-- +selected some episode from the sombre kaleidoscope of this dismal +journey, and set it in lurid light before her, as startling and +unwelcome as the face of an enemy long dead. Life and personality +partook in some degree of duality; all that she had been before she +saw Elm Bluff, seemed a hopelessly distinct existence, yet +irrevocably chained to the mutilated and blackened Afterward, like +the grim and loathsome unions enforced by the Noyades of Nantes. + +The sun did not forget to shine, nor the moon to keep her +appointment with the throbbing stars that signalled all along her +circuit. Men whistled, children laughed; the train thundered through +tunnels, and flew across golden stubble fields, where grain shocks +and hay stacks crowded like tents of the God of plenty, in the +Autumnal bivouac; and throughout the long days and dreary lagging +nights. Beryl was fully conscious of a ceaseless surveillance, of an +ever-present shadow, which was tall and gaunt, wore a drab overcoat +and slouched hat, and was redolent of tobacco. As silent as two +mummies in the crypts of Karnac they sat side by side; and twice +when the officer touched her arm and asked if she would take some +refreshments, she merely shook her head, and tightened the folds of +her veil; shrinking closer to the window against which she leaned. +Not until they approached X---, and she recognized some features of +the landscape, were her lips unsealed: + +"What persons are responsible for my arrest?" + +"Our District Solicitor, Mr. Churchill, and Mr. Dunbar, the lawyer, +who made the affidavit under which the warrant was issued. I am only +a deputy, acting under orders from the sheriff." + +"You are taking me to prison?" + +"Perhaps not; it depends on the result of the preliminary +examination, and you may be allowed bail." + +A ray of hope silvered the shrouding gloom; there was a possibility +of escaping the stain of incarceration. + +"When will the examination take place?" + +"About noon to-day. You will have time to eat something and freshen +up a little. Here we are. What a crowd to welcome us! Don't stir. We +will just wait a while, and I will get you into a carriage as +quietly as possible." + +He whispered some directions to the conductor of the train, and +standing in the aisle with his arm across the seat, screened her +from the gaze of a motley crew of men and boys who rushed in to +stare at the prisoner, whose arrival had been impatiently expected. +On the railway platform and about the station house surged a sea of +human heads, straining now in the direction of the first passenger +coach; and when in answer to some question, the conductor pointed to +the sleeping car which was at the rear of the train, the mass swayed +down the track. + +"Quick! Now is our time!" + +The deputy sheriff hurried her out, almost lifted her from the +steps, and pushing her forward, turned a corner of the street, and +handed her into a carriage which awaited them. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +To Beryl many hours seemed to have crept away, since she had been +left alone in a small dusty apartment, adjoining the office where +the chief magistrate of X---daily held court. Too restless to sit +still, she paced up and down the floor, trying to collect her +thoughts, and at last knelt by the side of a table, and laid her +weight of dread and peril before the Throne of the God she trusted. +The Father of the fatherless and Friend of the friendless, would +surely protect her in this hour of intolerable degradation. + +"O, Thou that hearest prayer; unto Thee shall all flesh come." + +The door opened, and a venerable, gray-haired man approached the +table, where her head was bent upon her crossed arms. When she +lifted her white face, with the violet circles under her dry eyes, +making them appear preternaturally large and luminous, and the +beautiful mouth contracted by a spasm of intense pain, a deep sigh +of compassion passed the stranger's lips. + +"I am Mitchell Dent, an old friend of General Darrington's, and of +your mother, who has often sat upon my knee. Because of my affection +for your grandfather, I have asked permission to see you for a few +moments. If you are unjustly accused, I desire to befriend you, and +offer you some advice. I am told you assert your innocence of the +great crime of which you are suspected. I hope you can prove it; but +for your own sake I advise you to waive an examination, and await +the action of the Grand Jury, as you have had no opportunity of +consulting counsel, or preparing your defence." + +"You knew my mother? Then you should require no other proof that her +child is not a criminal. I am innocent of every offence against +General Darrington, except that of being my father's daughter; and +my unjustifiable arrest is almost as foul a wrong as his murder." + +She drew herself proudly to her full height, and as his eyes dwelt +in irrepressible admiration upon her, his manhood did homage to her +grace and dignity, and he took off his hat. + +"I earnestly hope so; and the law holds every person innocent until +her guilt be fully proved and established." + +"Of the significance of law terms I know nothing; and of the usages +of courts I am equally ignorant. If, as you suggest, I should waive +an examination, should I escape imprisonment?" + +"No." + +"Then I must be tried at once; because I want to hurry back to my +mother who is ill, and needs me." + +"But you have no counsel as yet, and delay is your best policy." + +"Delay might cost my mother's life. I have no money to pay a lawyer +to stand up and mystify matters, and my best policy is to defend +myself, by telling the simple truth." + +Again Judge Dent sighed. Could guilt be masked by this fair +semblance of childlike guilelessness? + +"Can you summon any witnesses to prove that you were not at Elm +Bluff on the night of the storm?" + +"Yes, the ticket agent knows I was in the waiting-room during that +storm." + +He shook his gray head. + +"He will be one of the strongest witnesses against you." + +"Then I have no witnesses except--God, and my conscience." + +The door opened, and with his watch in his hand the deputy sheriff +entered. + +"Sorry to shorten your interview, Judge, but you know we have a +martinet in yonder, a regular Turk, and he splits seconds into +fractions." + +As Judge Dent withdrew, Beryl realized that her hour of woe had +arrived, and she began to pin her veil tightly over her face. + +"Come along--You can't keep your veil on. Try to be as non-committal +as possible when they ask you crooked questions. Of course I want +justice done, and I hope I am a faithful servant of the law; but if +you are as innocent as a flock of ring-doves, the lawyers will try +to confuse you." + +He attempted to lead her, but she drew back. + +"I will follow you; but please do not hold my arm; do not touch me." + +A moment later, a door opened and closed, a glare of light showed +her a crowded room; a monotonous hum like the swell of the sea fell +on her ear; then stifled ejaculations, to which succeeded a sudden, +deathlike hush. The officer placed a chair for her in front of the +platform where the magistrate sat, and retired to the rear of the +room. With some difficulty Judge Dent made his way through the +throng of spectators, and seated himself beside Mr. Dunbar. + +"Well, sir, how did the prisoner impress you?" asked the latter, as +he folded up a paper. + +"Dunbar, you have made a mistake. I have spent the best of my life +in the study of criminals; and if that woman yonder is not innocent, +I am in my dotage." + +"Pardon me, Judge, if I dispute both propositions. I made no +mistake; and you are merely, in the goodness of your heart, and the +fervor of your chivalry, dazzled momentarily by the glamour of +extraordinary beauty and touching youth." + +When Beryl recovered in some degree from the shock of finding +herself actually on trial, she endeavored to collect her faculties; +but the violent palpitation of her heart was almost suffocating, and +in her ears the surging as of an ocean tide, drowned the accents of +the magistrate. At first the words were as meaningless as some +Sanskrit formula, but gradually her attention grasped and +comprehended. In a strident incisive voice he read from a paper on +the desk before him: + +"At an inquisition held at X---, T---county, on the twenty-seventh +day of October, before me, Jeremiah Bateman, Coroner of said county, +on the body of Robert Luke Darrington, there lying dead, by the +jurors whose names are hereto subscribed; the said jurors upon their +oath do say that Robert Luke Darrington came to his death on the +night of Thursday, October twenty-sixth, by a murderous assault +committed upon him by means of a heavy brass andiron. And from all +the evidence brought before them, the jury believe that the fatal +blow was feloniously given by the hand of his granddaughter, Beryl +Brentano. + +"In testimony whereof, the said jurors have hereunto set their +hands, this twenty-seventh day of October, A.D., 18--. + +"Signed------ + +"Attest, + +"JEREMIAH BATEMAN, Coroner." + +"In consequence of this verdict, and by virtue of a warrant issued +at the request of the District Solicitor, Governor Glenbeigh made a +prompt requisition for the arrest and detention of the said Beryl +Brentano, who has been identified and returned to this city, to +answer the charges brought against her. The prisoner will unveil and +stand up. + +"Beryl Brentano, you are charged with the murder of Robert Luke +Darrington, by striking him with a brass andiron. Are you guilty, or +not guilty?" + +"Not guilty." Her voice was unsteady, but the words were distinct. + +Mr. Dunbar, Mr. Burk, and a middle-aged woman lean as Cassius, came +nearer to the platform, and after a leisurely survey of the girl's +face and figure, pronounced her the person whom they had severally +accused of the crime of causing the death of General Darrington. + +The canons that govern psychical phenomena are as occult as the +abstraction of the "fourth division of space"; and they defy the +realism of common-place probability, mock all analysis, and +annihilate distance. When Beryl had first met the keen scrutiny of +Mr. Dunbar's glittering blue eyes, their baleful influence made her +shiver slightly; and now at the instant in which he approached, and +inspected her closely, she forgot that she was on trial for her +life, became temporarily oblivious of her dismal entourage, and +stood once more before a marble image in the Vatican, where the +light streamed full on the cold face, that for centuries has been +the synonym of blended beauty and cruelty. In her ears rang again +the words her father had rend aloud at her side, while she sketched: +"But he does not inspire confidence, by the smile that would like to +express goodness. The finely cut underlip that rises from the +strongly marked hollow over the chin ought to sharpen with a dash of +contempt the conscious superiority that lies upon his broad, +magnificent forehead. His smile is in strong contrast with the cold +gaze of the large open eyes; a gaze that hesitates not, but without +mercy verifies a judgment fixed in advance, that gives up every one +to condemnation." + +The dusty crowded court-room appeared to swim in the rich aroma +distilled from the creamy hearts of Roman hyacinths; and the velvet +lips of purple Roman violets suddenly babbled out the secret of the +mysterious repulsion which had puzzled her, from the hour in which +she first looked into Mr. Dunbar's face; his strange resemblance to +the Chiaramonti Tiberius, which she had studied and copied so +carefully. In days gone by, the subtle repose, the marvelous beauty +of that marble face, where as yet the demon of destruction had cast +no stain, possessed a singular fascination for her; and now the +haunting likeness which had perplexed her at Elm Bluff, became +associated inseparably with old Bedney's description of Mr. Dunbar's +merciless treatment of witnesses, and Beryl realized with alarming +clearness that in her grandfather's lawyer she had met the +incarnation of her cruel fate. + +Standing quite near her, he gravely related, with emphatic +distinctness and careful detail, his first meeting with the prisoner +on the piazza at Elm Bluff, and the vivid impression she left on his +mind; his return to Elm Bluff about half-past nine the same evening, +in order to get a deed which he had forgotten to put into his pocket +at the first visit. Learning that General Darrington had not yet +retired for the night, he sent in to ask for the deed, and was +summoned "to come and get it himself." On entering the bedroom, he +found his client wrapped in a cashmere dressing-gown, and sitting in +an easy chair by the window, which opened on the north or front +piazza. He appeared much perturbed and harassed, and in reply to +inquiries touching his health, answered that he was "completely +shaken up, and unnerved, by a very stormy and disagreeable interview +held that afternoon with the child of his wayward daughter Ellice. +"When witness asked: "Did not the great beauty of the embassadress +accomplish the pardon and restoration of the erring mother?" General +Darrington had struck his cane violently on the floor, and +exclaimed: "Don't talk such infernal nonsense! Did you ever hear of +my pardoning a wrong against my family name and honor? Does any man +live, idiotic enough to consider me so soft-hearted? No, no. On the +contrary, I was harsh to the girl; so harsh that she turned upon me, +savage as a strong cub defending a crippled helpless dam. They know +now that the last card has been played, and the game ended; for I +gave her distinctly to understand that at my death, Prince would +inherit every iota of my estate, and that my will had cut them off +without a cent. I meant it then, I mean it now. I swear that lowborn +fiddler's brood shall never darken these doors; but somehow, I am +unable to get rid of the strange, disagreeable sensation the girl +left behind her, as a farewell legacy. She stood there at that glass +door, and raised her hand like a prophetess. 'General Darrington, +when you lie down to die, may God have more mercy on your poor soul +than you have shown to your suffering child.'" + +Witness advised him to go to bed, and sleep off the unpleasant +recollections of the day, but he said it was so oppressively hot, +he wanted to sit at the window, which was wide open. Witness having +secured the deed, which was on the table in the room, bade his +client good-night, and left the house. + +He was riding toward town, and thought it was about ten o'clock, +when he saw the prisoner sitting under a pine tree near the road, +and not more than a half a mile from the bridge over the "Branch" +that runs at the foot of Elm Bluff. His horse had shied and plunged +at sight of her, and, the moonlight being bright as day, witness +easily recognized her as the same person he had seen earlier in the +afternoon. Thinking her appearance there at that hour was rather +mysterious, he asked her if she had lost her way; to which she +replied "No, sir." On the following morning, when the mournful news +of the murder of General Darrington had convulsed the entire +community with grief and horror, witness had smothered his +reluctance to proceed against a woman, and a solemn sense of duty +forced him to bring these suspicious circumstances to the knowledge +of the District Solicitor. + +While he gave his testimony, Mr. Dunbar watched her closely for some +trace of emotion, but she met his gaze without the movement of a +muscle, and he detected not even a quiver of the jet lashes that +darkened her proud gray eyes. + +Antony Burk next testified that he had given the accused +instructions about the road to Elm Bluff, when she arrived at X--; +and that after buying her return ticket, she told him it was +necessary she should take the 7:15 train, and that she would be sure +to catch it. The train was a few minutes late, but had pulled out of +the station twenty minutes before the prisoner came back, when she +appeared much annoyed at having missed it. + +Then she had sent a telegram (a copy of which was in the possession +of the Solicitor), and requested him to allow her to remain in the +ladies' waiting-room until the next train at 3:05. He had directed +her to a hotel close by, but she declined going there. Thinking she +was fatigued and might relish it, he had, after supper, carried a +pitcher of iced tea to the waiting-room, but though he remained +there until nine o'clock she was nowhere visible. He went home and +went to sleep, but the violence of the storm aroused him; and when +he took his lantern and went back to unlock the ticket office, he +searched the whole place, and the prisoner was not in the building. +This was at half-past two A.M., and the pitcher of tea remained +untouched where he had placed it. It was not raining when he +returned, and a few minutes after he had hunted for the prisoner, he +was standing in the door of his office and he saw her coming down +the railway track, from the direction of the water tank and the +bridge. She was breathing rapidly as if she had been running, and +witness noticed that her clothes were damp, and that some drops of +water fell from the edge of her hat. A lamp-post stood in front of +the station, and he saw her plainly; asked her why she did not stay +in the room, which he had left open for her? Prisoner said she had +remained there. Witness told her he knew better; that she was not +there at nine nor yet at half-past two o'clock. The accused did not +appear inclined to talk, and gave no explanation, but got aboard the +3:05 train. Witness considered her actions so suspicious, that he +had related all he knew to Mr. Dunbar, who had summoned him before +the magistrate. He (witness) was very loath to think evil of a +woman, especially one so beautiful and noble looking, and if he +wronged her, he hoped God would forgive him; but he never dodged +telling the truth. + +Here the female Cassius rose, and gave her name as Angeline Dobbs. + +"She had for several years attended to the sewing and mending at Elm +Bluff, being summoned there whenever her services were required. On +the afternoon previous to General Darrington's death she was sitting +at her needlework in the hall of the second story of his house. As +the day was very hot, she had opened the door leading out to an iron +balcony, which projected just over the front hall door downstairs; +and since the piazza was open from the roof to the floor, she had +peeped over, and seen the prisoner when she arrived and had watched +her while she sat on the steps, waiting to be admitted. After the +accused had been inside the house some time, she (witness) +recollected that she had seen a hole in one of the lace curtains in +the library downstairs, and thought this would be such a nice time +to darn it. The library was opposite the drawing room, and adjoined +General Darrington's bed-room. The door was open and witness heard +what she supposed was a quarrel, as General Darrington's voice was +loud and violent; and she distinctly heard him say: 'My will is so +strong, no contest can touch it! and it will stand forever between +your mother and my property.' Soon after, General Darrington had +slammed the door, and though she heard loud tones for some time, she +could not make out the words. The impression left on witness's mind +was that the prisoner was very impudent to the old gentleman; and +not long afterward she saw accused standing in the rose garden, +pretending to gather some flowers, but really looking up and down at +the front windows. Witness knew the prisoner saw the vault where the +General kept his papers, because she heard it opened while she was +in the bed-room. The door of the vault or safe did not open on +hinges, but was iron, and slid on a metal rod, which made a very +peculiar squeaking sound. When she heard the noise she thought that +General Darrington was so enraged that he got the will to show +prisoner it was all fixed forever, against her and her mother." + +When Miss Dobbs sat down, a lame man, disfigured by a scar on his +cheek, learned upon a stick and testified: + +"My name is Belshazzar Tatem. Was an orderly sergeant attached to +General Darrington's staff dtiring the war; but since that time have +been a florist and gardener, and am employed to trim hedges and +vines, and transplant flowers at Elm Bluff." On the afternoon of the +prisoner's visit there, he was resetting violet roots on a border +under the western veranda, upon which opened the glass door leading +out from the General's bed-room. He had heard an angry altercation +carried on between General Darrington and some one, and supposed he +was scolding one of the servants. He went to a shed in the barn yard +to get a spade he needed, and when he came back he saw the prisoner +walk down the steps, and thought it singular a stranger should leave +the house that way. Wondered whom she could be, and wondered also +that the General had quarrelled with such a splendid looking lady. +Next morning when he went back to his work, he noticed the glass +door was shut, but the red curtain inside was looped back. He +thought it was half-past eight o'clock, when he heard a loud cry in +the bed-room, and very soon after, somebody screamed. He ran up the +steps, but the glass door was locked on the inside, and when he went +around and got into the room, the first thing he saw was General +Darrington's body lying on the floor, with his feet toward the +hearth, and his head almost on a line with the iron vault built in +the wall. The servants were screaming and wringing their hands, and +he called them to help him lift the General, thinking that he had +dropped in a fit; but he found him stone cold and stiff. There was +no sign of blood anywhere, but a heavy, old-fashioned brass andiron +was lying close to the General's head, and he saw a black spot like +a bruise on his right temple. General Darrington wore his night +clothes, and the bed showed he had been asleep there. Some broken +vases were on the floor and hearth, and the vault was wide open. The +tin box was upside down on the carpet, and some papers in envelopes +were scattered about. + +Witness had picked up a leather bag carefully tied at the top with +red tape, drawn into hard knots; but in one side he found a hole +which had been cut with a knife, and at the bottom of the bag was a +twenty-dollar gold piece. Two more coins of the same value were +discovered on the floor, when General Darrington's body was lifted; +and on the bolster of the bed lay a bottle containing chloroform. +Witness immediately sent off for some of General Darrington's +friends, and also notified the coroner; and he did not leave the +room again until the inquest was held. The window on the front +piazza was open, and witness had searched the piazza and the grounds +for tracks, but discovered no traces of the burglar and murderer, +who had escaped before the rain ceased, otherwise the tracks would +have been found. Witness was positive that the prisoner was the same +person whom he had seen coming out of the bed-room, and with whom +General Darrington had quarrelled. + +The sheriff here handed to the magistrate, the gold pieces found on +the floor at Elm Bluff, by the last witness; then the little wicker +basket which had been taken from the prisoner when she was arrested. +The coins discovered therein were taken out, and careful comparison +showed that they corresponded exactly with those picked up after the +murder. The case of sapphires was also shown, and Mr. Dunbar rose to +say, that "The prosecution would prove by the attorney who drew up +General Darrington's will, that these exceedingly valuable stones +had been bequeathed by a clause in that will to Prince Darrington, +as a bridal present for whomsoever he might marry." + +A brief silence ensued, during which the magistrate pulled at the +corner of his tawny mustache, and earnestly regarded the prisoner. +She stood, with her beautiful white hands clasped before her, the +slender fingers interlaced, the head thrown proudly back. Extreme +pallor had given place to a vivid flush that dyed her cheeks, and +crimsoned her delicate lips; and her eyes looking straight into +space, glowed with an unnatural and indescribable lustre. Tadmor's +queen Bath Zabbai could not have appeared more regal in her haughty +pose, amid the exulting shouts that rent the skies of conquering +Rome. The magistrate cleared his throat, and addressed the accused. + +"You are Beryl Brentano, the granddaughter of General Darrington?" + +"I am Beryl Brentano." + +"You have heard the charges brought against you. What have you to +say in defence?" + +"That I am innocent of every accusation." + +"By what witnesses will you prove it?" + +"By a statement of the whole truth in detail, if I may be allowed to +make it." + +Here the Solicitor, Mr. Churchill, rose and said: + +"While faithfully discharging my official duties, loyalty to justice +does not smother the accents of human sympathy; and before +proceeding any further, I hope your Honor will appoint some counsel +to confer with and advise the prisoner. Her isolation appeals to +every noble instinct of manhood, and it were indeed puerile tribute +to our lamented General Darrington, to bring his granddaughter +before this tribunal, without the aid and defence of legal advisers. +Justice itself would not be welcome to me, if unjustly won. My +friend, Mr. Hazelton, who is present, has expressed his desire to +defend the prisoner; and while I am aware that your Honor is under +the impression she refuses to accept counsel, I trust you will +nevertheless commit her, until she can confer with him." + +Mr. Hazelton rose and bowed, in tacit approval. + +Beryl advanced a few steps, and her clear pure voice thrilled every +heart in the crowded room. + +"I need no help to tell the truth, and I want to conceal nothing. +Time is inexpressibly valuable to me now, for a human life more +precious than my own is at stake; and if I am detained here, my +mother may die. May I speak at once, and explain the circumstances +which you consider so mysterious as to justify the shameful +indignity put upon me?" + +"Since you assume the responsibility of your own defence, you may +proceed with your statement. Relate what occurred from the hour you +reached Elm Bluff, until you left X---next morning." + +"I came here to deliver in person a letter written by my mother to +her father, General Darrington, because other letters sent through +the mail, had been returned unread. It contained a request for one +hundred dollars to pay the expense of a surgical operation, which we +hoped would restore her health. When I reached Elm Bluff, I waited +on the steps, until General Darrington's attorney finished his +business and came out; then I was led by an old colored man to the +bed-room where General Darrington sat. I gave no name, fearing he +might refuse to admit me, and he was very courteous in his manner +until I laid the letter before him. He immediately recognized the +handwriting, and threw it to the floor, declaring that no human +being had the right to address him as father, except his son Prince. +I picked up the letter, and insisted he should at least read the +petition of a suffering, and perhaps dying woman. He was very +violent in his denunciation of my parents, and his voice was loud +and angry. So painful was the whole interview, that it was a bitter +trial to me to remain in his presence, but knowing how absolutely +necessary it was that mother should obtain the money, I forced +myself to beg him to read the letter. Finally he consented, read it, +and seemed somewhat softened; but he tore it into strips and threw +it from him. He drank several glasses of wine from a decanter on the +table, and offered me some, expressing the opinion that I must be +tired from my journey. I declined it. General Darrington then +questioned me about my family, my mode of living; and after a few +moments became very much excited, renewing his harsh invectives +against my parents. It was at this stage of the interview that he +uttered the identical words quoted by the witness: 'My Will is so +strong, no contest can touch it, and it will stand forever between +your mother and my property.' + +"Immediately after, he went to the door leading into the library and +called 'Bedney!' No one answered, and he shut the door, kicking it +as it closed. When he came back to his chair, he said very bitterly: +'At least we will have no eavesdroppers at this resurrection of my +dead.' He told me all the story of my mother's girlhood; of her +marriage, which had infuriated him; that he had sent her a certain +proportion of property, and then disowned and disinherited her. +Afterward he described his lonely life, his second marriage which +was very happy, and his adoption of his wife's son, who, he +repeatedly told me, had usurped my mother's place in his affections. +Finally he said: + +"'Your mother has asked for one hundred dollars. You shall have it; +not because I recognize her as child of mine, but because a sick +woman appeals to a Southern gentleman.' + +"He took a bunch of keys from his pocket, and with one of them +opened a safe or iron closet on the wall near the chimney, and from +that vault he brought a square black tin box to the table, where he +opened it. He took out a leather bag, and counted into my hand five +gold pieces of twenty dollars each. The money was given so +ungraciously that I told him I would not accept it, save as a loan +for mother's benefit; and that as soon as I could earn it I would +return the amount to him. I was so anxious to get away, I started +toward the library door, but he called me back, and gave me the +morocco case which contains the sapphires. He said my mother's +mother had bought them as a gift for her daughter, to be worn when +she was graduated at school; but as she married and left school +without his knowledge, the jewels had never been seen by her. He +told me he had intended to give them to his son Prince, for his +bride, but that now he would send them to mother, who could sell +them for a handsome sum, because they were valuable. He showed so +much sorrow at this time, that I begged him to give me some message +of pardon and affection, which she would prize infinitely more than +money or jewels; but he again became angry and bitter, and so I left +him. I came away by the door leading out on the iron veranda, +because he directed me to do so, saying that he did not wish me to +meet the servants, who would pry and tattle. When I closed the glass +door I saw him standing in the middle of the room, leaning on his +cane, and he had the black tin box in his hand. The sun was setting +then, and now--" + +She ceased speaking for some seconds, then raised her hands toward +heaven, and with uplifted eyes that seemed in their strained gaze to +pierce beyond the veil, she added with solemn emphasis: + +"I call God to witness, that was the last and only time I ever saw +General Darrington. That was the last and only visit I ever made to +Elm Bluff." + +There was a general movement among the spectators, and audible +excitement, which was promptly quelled by the magistrate. + +"Silence there in front, or I shall order the room cleared." + +Turning toward Beryl, he said: + +"If you left Elm Bluff at sunset, why did you not take the 7:15 +train?" + +"I tried to do so, but missed it because I desired to obey my +mother's injunctions as strictly as possible. She gave me a small +bunch of flowers, and asked me to be sure to lay them for her on her +mother's grave. When I reached the cemetery, which you know is in +sight of the road from Elm Bluff, the gate was locked, and it +required some time to enable me to climb over the wall and find the +monument. It was growing dark, and when I arrived at the station, I +learned the train had just gone." + +"Why did you not go to a hotel, as you were advised to do?" + +"Because after sending the telegram to my mother, I had no money to +pay for lodging; and I asked permission to stay in the ladies' +waiting-room." + +"State where and how you spent the night." + +"It was very hot and sultry in that room, and as there was a bright +moon shining, I walked out to get some fresh air. The pine woods had +appeared so pretty and pleasant that afternoon, that I went on and +on toward them, and did not realize how far they were. I met people +passing along the road, and it did not seem lonely. The smell of the +pines was new to me, and to enjoy it, I sat down on the straw. I was +tired, and must have fallen asleep at once, for I remember nothing +till some noise startled me, and there I saw the same man on +horseback in the road, whom I had met at Elm Bluff. He asked me if I +had misled my way, and I answered 'No, sir.' The height of the moon +showed me it was late, and as I was frightened at finding myself +alone in the woods, I almost ran back to the railway station, where +I saw no one, except a telegraph operator, who seemed to be asleep +in his chair. I cannot say what time it was, because I could not see +the clock. Soon after, it began to thunder, and all through that +terrible storm I was alone in the waiting-room. So great was my +relief when the wind and lightning ceased, that I went to sleep, and +dreamed of a happy time when I lived in Italy, and of talking with +one very dear to me. Just then I awoke with a start, and heard a +voice talking outside, which seemed very familiar. There were two +persons; one, a negro, said: + +"'There ain't no train 'till daylight, excepting the through +freight.' + +"The other person asked: 'When is it due?' The negro answered: + +"'Pretty soon, but it don't stop here; it goes to the water tank +where it blows for the railroad bridge; and that is only a short +distance up the track.' + +"I think I must have been only half awake, and with my mind fixed on +my dream, I ran out in front of the station house. An old negro man +limping down the street was the only person visible, and while I +watched him he suddenly vanished. I went along the track for some +distance but saw no one; and when I came back, the ticket agent was +standing in the door of his office. I cannot explain to you the +singular impulse which carried me out, when I heard the dialogue, +because it is inexplicable to myself, save by the supposition that I +was still dreaming; and yet I saw the negro man distinctly. There +was a lamp-post near him, and he had a bundle on his shoulder. When +the 3:05 train came, I went aboard and left X---." + +A smile parted Mr. Dunbar's lips, and his handsome teeth glittered +as he whispered to Judge Dent: + +"Even your chivalrous compassion can scarcely digest this knotty +solution of her movements that night. As a fabrication, it does +little credit to her ingenuity." + +"Her statement impresses me differently. She is either entirely +innocent, or she had an accomplice, whose voice she recognized; and +this clue should be investigated." + +The District Solicitor rose and bowed to the Magistrate. + +"With your Honor's permission, I should like to ask the prisoner +whom she expected to see, when she recognized the voice?" + +"A person who is very dear to me, but who is not in the United +States." + +"What is the name of that person?" + +Her lips moved to pronounce his name, but some swift intuitive +warning restrained the utterance. Suddenly a new horror, a ghastly +possibility, thrust itself for the first time before her, and she +felt as though some hand of ice clutched her heart. + +Those who watched her so closely, saw the blood ebb from cheeks and +lips; noted the ashy pallor that succeeded, and the strange groping +motion of her hands. She staggered toward the platform, and when the +Magistrate caught her arm, she fell against him like some tottering +marble image, entirely unconscious. + + * * * * * + +So prolonged and death-like was the swoon, and so futile the usual +methods of restoration, that the prisoner was carried into the small +ante-room, and laid upon a wooden bench; where a physician, who +chanced to be in the audience, was summoned to attend her. Finding +restoratives ineffectual, he took out his lancet: + +"This is no ordinary fainting fit." + +He attempted to roll up one of her sleeves, but seeing this was +impracticable, would have unfastened her dress, had not Judge Dent +arrested his hand. + +"No, doctor; cut out the sleeve if necessary, but don't touch her +otherwise." + +"Let me assist you; I can easily bare the arm." + +As he spoke, Mr. Dunbar knelt beside the bench, and with a small, +sharp pen-knife ripped the seam from elbow to shoulder, from elbow +to wrist, swiftly and deftly folding back the sleeve, and exposing +the perfect moulding of the snowy arm. + +"Just hold the hand, Dunbar, so as to keep it steady." + +Clasping closely the hand, which the physician laid in his palm the +attorney noted the exquisite symmetry of the slender fingers and +oval nails. He bent forward and watched the frozen face. When the +heavily lashed lids quivered and lifted, and she looked vacantly at +the grave compassionate countenances leaning over her, a certain +tightening of the hold upon her fingers, drew her attention. Her +gaze fastened on the lawyer's blue eyes as if by a subtle malign +fascination. The veil that shrouded consciousness was rent, not +fully raised; and as in some dream the solemn eyes appeared to +search his. A strange shivering thrill shot along his nerves, and +his quiet, well regulated heart so long the docile obedient motor, +fettered vassal of his will, bounded, strained hard on the steel +cable that held it in thrall. + +"You feel better now?" asked the physician, who was stanching the +flow of blood. + +Still her gaze seemed to penetrate the inmost recesses of the +lawyer's nature, calling into sudden revolt dormant elements that +amazed and defied him. + +A shadowy smile curved her pale lips. + +"At the mercy of Tiberius. At the mercy of Tiberius." + +Those present looked inquiringly at each other. + +"Her mind wanders a little. Sheriff, give her some of that brandy. +She is as weak as a baby." + +Judge Dent raised her head, and the officer held the tumbler to her +mouth; while the former said gently: + +"My poor girl, drink a little, it will strengthen you." + +With a gesture of loathing, she rejected it; and as she attempted to +raise herself, all the dire extremity of her peril rushed back upon +her mind, like a black overwhelming tide from the sea of the past. + +"Lie still, until I have bandaged your arm. Here, Dunbar, you +acquitted yourself so dexterously with your knife, just lend a hand. +Hold the arm until I secure the bandage." + +To find herself surrounded by men, helpless in the grasp of +strangers, with no womanly touch or glance to sustain her, served to +intensify her misery; and wrenching herself free, she struggled into +a sitting posture, then staggered to her feet. The heavy coil of +hair loosened when they bore her from the court-room, now released +itself from restraining pins, and fell in burnished waves to her +knees, clothing her with a glory, such as the world's great masters +in art reserve for the beatified. Had all the blood that fed her +heart been drained, she would not have appeared more deadly pale, +and in her wide eyes was the desperate look of a doomed animal, that +feels the hot fangs of the hounds, and the cold steel of the +hunters. + +"Be persuaded for your own sake, to swallow some stimulant, of which +you are sadly in need. You will require all your strength, and, as a +physician, I insist upon your taking my prescription." + +"If I might have some water. Just a little water." + +Some one brought a brown stone pitcher, and she drank long and +thirstily; then looked for a moment at the faces of those who +crowded about her. + +"What will be done now?" + +Every eye fell to the floor, and after a painful silence Judge Dent +said very gently: + +"For the present, the Magistrate will retain you in custody, until +the action of the Grand Jury. Should they fail to indict you, then +you will at once be released." + +"I am to go to prison? I am to be thrust among convicts, vile +criminals! I--? My father's Beryl? O, righteous God! Where is Thy +justice? O, Christ! Is Thy mercy a mockery?" + +She stood, with her chin resting on her clenched hands, and twice a +long violent shudder shook her from head to foot. + +"I hope your imprisonment will be only temporary. The Grand Jury +will be in session next week. Meantime diligent search may discover +the persons whose conversation you overheard at the station; and if +you be innocent, we are all your friends, and the law, which now +seems so stern, will prove your strongest protector and vindicator." + +Judge Dent stood close beside her, as he essayed these words of +comfort, and saw that she caught her breath as though in mortal +agony. Her face writhed, and she shut her eyes, unable to +contemplate some hideous apparition. He suspected that she was +fighting desperately an impulse that suggested succor; and he was +sure she had strangled it, when her hands fell nerveless at her +side, and she raised her bowed head. If the finger of paralysis had +passed over her features, they would not have appeared more +hopelessly fixed. Mechanically she twisted and coiled her hair, and +took the hat and shawl which the officer held out to her. + +"If I can assist you in any way, you have only to send for me." + +She looked at Judge Dent intently, for an instant, then shook her +head. + +"No one can help me now." + +She tied her veil over her face, and silently followed the deputy +sheriff to a carriage, that stood near the pavement. + +When he would have assisted her, she haughtily repelled him. + +"I will follow you, because I must; but do not put your hands on +me." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +In ante bellum days, when States' Rights was a sacred faith, a +revered and precious palladium, State pride blossomed under Southern +skies, and State coffers overflowed with the abundance wherewith God +blessed the land. During that period, when it became necessary to +select a site for a new Penitentiary, the salubrity and central +location of X---had so strongly commended it, that the spacious +structure was erected within its limits, and regarded as an +architectural triumph of which the State might justly boast. Soon +after this had been completed, the old county jail, situated on the +border of the town, was burned one windy March night; then the red +rain of war deluged the land, and when the ghastly sun of +"Reconstruction" smiled upon the grave of States' Rights, Municipal +money disappeared in subterranean channels. Thus it came to pass, +that with the exception of a small "lockup" attached to Police +Headquarters, X--had failed to rebuild its jail, and domiciled its +dangerous transgressors in the great stone prison; paying therefor +to the State an annual amount per capita. + +Built of gray granite which darkened with time and weather stains, +its massive walls, machicolated roof, and tall arched clock-tower +lifted their leaden outlines against the sky, and cast a brooding +shadow over the town, lying below; a grim perpetual menace to all +who subsequently found themselves locked in its reformatory arms. +Separated from the bustling mart and busy traffic, by the winding +river that divided the little city into North and South X--, it +crested an eminence on the north; and the single lower story +flanking the main edifice east and west, resembled the trailing +wings of some vast bird of prey, an exaggerated simulacrum of a +monstrous gray condor perched on a "coigne of vantage," waiting to +swoop upon its victims. Encircled by a tall brick wall, which was +surmounted by iron spikes sharp as bayonets, that defied escalade, +the grounds extended to the verge of the swift stream in front, and +stretched back to the border of a heavily timbered tract of pine +land, a bit of primeval forest left to stare at the encroaching +armies of Philistinism. + +Within the precincts of the yard, the tender conservatism of our +great-hearted mother Nature, gently toned the savage stony features; +and even under the chill frown of iron barred windows, golden +sunshine bravely smiled, soft grasses wove their emerald velvet +tapestries starred and flushed with dainty satin petals, which late +Autumn roses showered in munificent contribution, to the work of +pitying love. + +In a comfortably furnished room situated in the second story of the +main building, sat a woman apparently thirty-five years old, who was +singing to a baby lying face downward on her lap, while with one +hand she rocked the wicker cradle beside her, where a boy of four +years was tossing. Her hazel eyes were full of kindly light, the +whole face eloquent with that patient, limitless tenderness, which +is the magic chrism of maternity, wherewith Lucina and Cuba +abundantly anoint Motherhood. The blessed and infallible nepenthe +for all childhood's ills and aches, mother touch, mother songs, soon +held soothing sway; and when the woman laid the sleeping babe on her +own bed, and covered her with a shawl, she saw her husband leaning +against the partly open door. + +"Come here, Susie. The kids are snug and safe for the present, and I +want you." + +"For shame, Ned! To call our darlings such a beastly name. Kids, +indeed! My sweetest, loveliest lambs!" + +"There! Hear yourself! If I can see any choice of respectability +between kids and lambs, may I turn to a thoroughbred Southdown, and +take the blue ribbon at the next Fair. Beasts of the field, all of +them. The always-wide-awake-contrariness of womankind is a curious +and fearful thing. If I had called our beloved towheads, lambs, you +would have sworn through blue ruin that they were the cutest, +spryest pair of spotted kids, that ever skipped over a five-railed +fence!" + +"So much the worse for you, Ned Singleton, that you are such a +hopeless heathen; you do not even know where the Elect are appointed +to stand, at that great day when the sheep come up on the right hand +of the Lord, and the goats go down to the left. If you read your +Bible more, I should have less to teach you." + +"Oh! but let me tell you, I thought of all that before I made up my +mind to marry the daughter of a Presbyterian preacher. I knew your +dear little blue-nose would keep the orthodox trail; and being one +of the Elect you could not get the points of the celestial compass +mixed. Don't you forget, that it is part of the unspoken marriage +contract, that the wife must not only keep her own soul white, but +bleach her husband's also; and no matter what a reprobate a man may +be, he always expects his better-half, by hook or by crook, to steer +him into heaven." + +He put his hands on his wife's shoulders, shook her, in token of +mastery, and kissed her. + +"What do you want of my 'always-wide-awake-contrariness'? I have +half a mind not to help you out of your scrape; for of course you +have mired somewhere. What is the matter now, Ned?" + +"Yes--stuck hard and fast; so my dear little woman, don't you go +back on your wedding-day promises, but just lend a helping hand. I +don't know what is to be done with that poor young woman in No. 19. +One of the under-wardens, Jarvis, sleeps this week right under her +cell, and he tells me that all night long she tramps up and down, +without cessation, like some caged animal. This is her third day in, +and she has not touched a morsel; though at Judge Dent's request I +ordered some extras given her. Jarvis said she was not sullen, but +he thought it proper to report to me that she seemed to act very +strangely; so I went up to see after her. When I opened the door she +was walking up and down the floor, with her hands locked at the back +of her head, and I declare, Susie, she looks five years older than +when she came here. There are great dark hollows under her eyes, and +two red spots like coals of fire on her cheeks. I said: 'Are you +sick, that you reject your meals?' To which she replied: 'Don't +trouble yourself to send me food; I cannot eat!' Then I told her I +understood that she was restless at night, and I advised her to take +a mixture which would quiet her nerves. She shook her head, and I +could not bear to look at her; the eyes seemed so like a wounded +fawn's, brimful of misery. I asked her if there was anything I could +do, to make her more comfortable; or if she needed medicine. All +this time she kept up her quick walk to and fro, and she answered: +'Thank you. I need nothing--but death; and that will come soon.' Now +what could I say? I felt such a lump in my throat, that if Solomon +had whispered to me some kind speech, I could not have uttered it, +so I got out of the room just as fast as possible, to dry the tears +that somehow would blur my eyes. When they are surly, or snappish, +or violent, or insolent, I know exactly what to do, and have no +trouble; but hang me, if I can cope with this lady--there it is out! +She is a lady every inch, and as much out of place here as I should +be in Queen Victoria's drawing-room. Men are clumsy brutes, even in +kid gloves, and bruise much oftener than they heal. Whenever I am in +that girl's presence, I have a queer feeling that I am walking on +eggs, and tip-toe as I may, shall smash things. If something is not +done, she will be ill on our hands, and a funeral will balk the +bloodhounds." + +"O, hush, Ned! You give me the shivers. My heart yearns toward that +beautiful young creature, and I believe she is as innocent as my +baby. It is a burning shame to send her here, unless there is no +doubt of her guilt. Judge Dent is too shrewd an old fox to be baited +with chaff, and I am satisfied from what he told you, that he +believes her statement. There is nothing I would not do to comfort +her, but I would rather have my ears boxed than witness her +suffering. The day I carried to her a change of clothes, until her +own could be washed, and sewed up her dress sleeve. I did nothing +but cry. I could not help it, when she moaned and wrung her hands, +and said her mother's heart would break. I have heard all my life +that justice is blind; I have learned to believe it, for it +stumbles, and gropes, and lays iron claws on the wrong person. As +for the lawyers? They are fit pilots: and the courts are little +better than blind man's buff. Don't stand chewing your mustache, +Ned. Tell me what you want me to do, while baby is asleep. She has a +vexatious habit of taking cat naps." + +"Little woman, I turn over the case to you. Just let your heart +loose, and follow it." + +"If I do, will you endorse me?" + +"Till the stars fall." + +"Can you stay here awhile?" + +"Yes, if you will tell Jarvis where he can find me." + +"Mind you, Ned, you are not to interfere with me?" + +"No--I swear I won't. Hurry up, or there will be much music in this +bleating fold; and you know I am as utterly useless with a crying +child, as a one-armed man in a concert of fiddlers." + +The cell assigned to the new prisoner was in the centre of a line, +which rose tier above tier, like the compartments in a pigeon house, +or the sombre caves hewn out of rock-ribbed cliffs, in some lonely +Laura. Iron stairways conducted the unfortunates to these stone +cages, where the dim cold light filtered through the iron lattice- +work of the upper part of the door, made a perpetual crepuscular +atmosphere within. The bare floor, walls, and low ceiling were +spotlessly clean and white; and an iron cot with heavy brown +blankets spread smoothly and a wooden bench in one corner, +constituted the furniture. Scrupulous neatness reigned everywhere, +but the air was burdened with the odor of carbolic acid, and even at +mid-day was chill as the breath of a tomb. Where the doors were +thrown open, they resembled the yawning jaws of rifled graves; and +when closed, the woful inmates peering through the black lattice +seemed an incarnation of Dante's hideous Caina tenants. + +When Mrs. Singleton stopped in front of No. 19, and looked through +the grating, Beryl was standing at the extremity of the cell, with +her face turned to the wall, and her hands clasping the back of her +neck. The ceiling was so low she could have touched it, had she +lifted her arms, and she appeared to have retreated as far in the +gloomy den as the barriers allowed. Thinking that perhaps the girl +was praying, the warden's wife waited some minutes, but no sound +greeted her; and so motionless was the figure, that it might have +been only an alto rilievo carved on the wall. Pushing the door open, +Mrs. Singleton entered, and deposited on the iron bed a waiter +covered with a snowy napkin. At the sound, Beryl turned, and her +arms fell to her side, but she shrank back against the wall, as if +solitude were her only solace, and human intrusion an added torture. + +Mrs. Singleton took both hands, and held them firmly: + +"Do you believe it right to commit suicide?" + +"I believe in everything but human justice, and Divine mercy." + +"Your conscience tells you that--" + +"Am I allowed a conscience? What ghastly mockery! Thieves and +murderers are not fit tenements for conscience, and I--I--am accused +of stealing, and of bloodshed. Justice! What a horrible sham! We-- +her victims--who adored the beneficent and incorruptible attribute +of God Himself--we are undeceived, when Justice--the harpy--tears +our hearts out with her hideous, foul, defiling claws." + +She spoke through set teeth, and a spasm of shuddering shook her +from head to feet. + +"Listen to me. Suspicion is one thing, proof something very +different. You are accused, but not convicted, and--" + +"I shall be. Justice must be appeased, and I am the most convenient +and available victim. An awful crime has been committed, and +outraged law, screaming for vengeance, pounces like a hungry hawk on +an innocent and unsuspecting prey. Does she spare the victim because +it quivers, and dies hard?" + +"Hush! You must not despair. I believe in your innocence; I believe +every word you uttered that day was true, and I believe that our +merciful God will protect you. Put yourself in His hands, and His +mercy will save, for 'it endureth forever.'" + +"I don't ask mercy! I claim justice--from God and man. The wicked +grovel, and beg for mercy; but innocence lays hold upon the very +throne of God, and clutches His sword, and demands justice!" + +"I understand how you feel, and I do not wonder; but for your own +sake, in order to keep your mind clear and strong for your +vindication, you certainly ought to take care of your health. +Starvation is the surest leech for depleting soul and body. Do you +want to die here in prison, leaving your name tarnished, and +smirched with suspicion of crime, when you can live to proclaim your +innocence to the world? Remember that even if you care nothing for +your life, you owe something to your mother. You have two chances +yet; the Grand Jury may not find a true bill--" + +"Yes, that tiger-eyed lawyer will see that they do. He knows that +the law is a cunning net for the feet of the innocent and the +unwary. He set his snare dexterously, and will not fail to watch +it." + +"You mean Mr. Dunbar? Yes, you certainly have cause to dread him; +but even if you should be indicted, you have twelve human hearts +full of compassion to appeal to--and I can't think it possible a +jury of sane men could look at you and condemn you. You must fight +for your life; and what is far more to you than life, you must fight +for your good name, for your character. Suspicion is not proof of +crime, and there is no taint on you yet; for sin alone stains, and +if you will only be brave and clear yourself as I know you can, what +a grand triumph it will be. If you starve yourself you seal your +doom. An empty stomach will do you more harm than the Grand Jury and +all the lawyers; for it utterly upsets your nerves, and makes your +brain whirl like a top. For three days and nights you have not +tasted food: now just to please me, since I have taken so much +trouble, sit down here by me, and eat what I have brought. I know +you would rather not; I know you don't want it; but, my dear child, +take it like any other dose, which will strengthen you for your +battle. It is very fine to rant about heroism, but starvation is the +best factory for turning out cowards: and even the courage of old +Caesar would have had the 'dwindles,' if he had been stinted in his +rations." + +She removed the napkin, and displayed a tempting luncheon, served in +pretty, gilt-banded white china. What a contrast it presented, to +the steaming tin platter and dull tin quart cups carried daily to +the adjoining cell? + +Beryl laid her hand on Mrs. Singleton's shoulder, and her mouth +trembled. + +"I thank you, sincerely, for your sympathy--and for your confidence; +and to show my appreciation of your kindness, I wish I could eat +that dainty luncheon; but I think it would strangle me--I have such +a ceaseless aching here, in my throat. I feel as if I should +stifle." + +"See here! I brought you some sweet rich milk in my little boy's +cup. He was my first-born, and I lost him. This was his christening +present from my mother. It is very precious, very sacred to me. If +you will only drink what is in it, I shall be satisfied. Don't +slight my angel baby's cup. That would hurt me." + +She raised the pretty "Bo-Peep" silver cup to the prisoner's lips, +and seeing the kind hazel eyes swimming in tears, Beryl stooped her +head and drank the milk. + +The warden's wife lifted the cup, looked wistfully at it, and kissed +the name engraved on the metal: + +"You know now I must think you pure and worthy. I have given you the +strongest possible proof; for only the good could be allowed to +touch what my dead boy's lips have consecrated. Now come out with +me, and get some pure fresh air." + +Beryl shrank back. + +"These close walls seem a friendly shelter from the horrible faces +that cluster outside. You can form no idea how I dread contact with +the vile creatures, whose crimes have brought them here for +expiation. The thought of breathing the same atmosphere pollutes me. +I think the loathsomeness of perdition must consist in association +with the depraved and wicked. Not the undying flames would affright +me, but the doom of eternal companionship with outcast criminals. +No! No! I would sooner freeze here, than wander in the sunshine with +those hideous wretches I saw the day I was thrust among them." + +"Trust me, and I will expose you to nothing unpleasant. Take your +hat and shawl; I shall not bring you back here. There is time enough +for cells when you have been convicted and sentenced; and please +God, you shall never stay in this one again. Come." + +"Stay, madam. What is your purpose? I have been so hunted down, I am +growing suspicious of the appearance of kindness. What are you going +to do?" + +Mrs. Singleton took her hand and pressed it gently. + +"I am going to trust, and help, and love you, if you will let me; +and for the present, I intend to keep you in a room adjoining mine, +where you will have no fear of wicked neighbors." + +"That will be merciful indeed. May God bless you for the thought." + +Down iron staircases, and through dim corridors bordered with dark +cells, gloomy as the lairs of wild beasts whom the besotted inmates +resembled, the two women walked; and once, when a clank of chains +and a hoarse human cry broke the dismal silence, Beryl clutched her +companion's arm, and her teeth chattered with horror. + +"Yes, it is awful! That poor woman is the saddest case we have. She +waylaid and stabbed her husband to death, and poisoned his mother. +We think she is really insane, and as she is dangerous at times, it +is necessary to keep her chained, until arrangements can be made to +remove her to the insane asylum." + +"I don't wonder she is mad! People cannot dwell here and retain +their reason; and madness is a mercy that blesses them with +forgetfulness." + +Beryl shivered, and her eyes glittered with an unnatural and ominous +brilliance. + +The warden's wife paused before a large door with solid iron panels, +and rang a bell. Some one on the other side asked: + +"What is the order? Who rang?" + +"Mrs. Singleton; I want to get into the chapel. Let me out, Jasper." + +The door swung slowly back, and the guard touched his hat +respectfully. + +Through an open arcade, where the sunlight streamed, Mrs. Singleton +led her companion; then up a short flight of stone steps, and they +found themselves in a long room, with an altar railing and pulpit at +one end, and rows of wooden benches crossing the floor from wall to +wall. Even here, the narrow windows were iron barred, but sunshine +and the sweet, pure breath of the outside world entered freely. +Within the altar railing, and at the right of the reading desk where +a Bible lay, stood a cabinet organ. Leaving the prisoner to walk up +and down the aisle, Mrs. Singleton opened the organ, drew out the +stops, and after waiting a few moments, began to play. + +At first, only a solemn prelude rolled its waves of harmony through +the peaceful sunny room, but soon the strains of the beautiful Motet +"Cast thy burden on the Lord," swelled like the voice of some divine +consoler. Watching the stately figure of the prisoner who wandered +to and fro, the warden's wife noticed that like a magnet the music +drew her nearer and nearer each time she approached the chancel, and +at last she stood with one hand on the railing. The beautiful face, +sharpened and drawn by mental agony, was piteously wan save where +two scarlet spots burned on her cheeks, and the rigid lips were gray +as some granite Statue's, but the eyes glowed with a strange +splendor that almost transfigured her countenance. + +On and on glided the soft, subtle variations of the Motet, and +gradually the strained expression of the shining eyes relaxed, as if +the soul of the listener were drifting back from a far-off realm; +the white lids quivered, the stern lines of the pale lips unbent. At +that moment, the face of her father seemed floating on the sunbeams +that gilded the pulpit, and the tones of her mother's voice rang in +her ears. The terrible tension of many days and nights of torture +gave way suddenly, like a silver thread long taut, which snaps with +one last vibration. She raised her hands: + +"My God! Why hast Thou forsaken me?" + +The cry ended in a wail. Into her burning eyes merciful tears +rushed, and sinking on her knees she rested against the railing, +shaken by a storm of passionate weeping. + +Mrs. Singleton felt her own tears falling fast, but she played for a +while longer; then stole out of the chapel, and sat down on the +steps. + +Across the grass plot before the door, burnished pigeons cooed, and +trod their stately minuet, their iridescent plumage showing every +opaline splendor as the sunlight smote them; and on a buttress of +the clock tower, a lonely hedge-sparrow poured his heart out in that +peculiarly pathetic threnody which no other feathered throat +contributes to the varied volume of bird lays. Poised on the point +of an iron spike in the line that bristled along the wall, a mocking +bird preened, then spread his wings, soared and finally swept +downward, thrilling the air with the bravura of the "tumbling song"; +and over the rampart that shut out the world, drifted the refrain of +a paean to peace: + +"Bob White!" "Peas ripe?" "Not quite!" + +In the vast epic of the Cosmos, evoked when the "Spirit of God moved +upon the face of the waters"--an epic printed in stars on blue +abysses of illimitable space; in illuminated type of rose leaf, +primrose petal, scarlet berry on the great greenery of field and +forest; in the rainbows that glow on tropical humming birds, on +Himalayan pheasants, on dying dolphins in purple seas; and in all +the riotous carnival of color on Nature's palette, from shifting +glory of summer clouds, to the steady fires of red autumn skies--we +find no blot, no break, no blurred abortive passages, until man +stepped into creation's story. In the material, physical Universe, +the divine rhythm flows on, majestic, serene as when the "morning +stars sing together" in the choral of praise to Him, unto whom "all +seemed good"; but in the moral and spiritual realm evolved by +humanity, what hideous pandemonium of discords drowns the heavenly +harmony? What grim havoc marks the swath, when the dripping scythe +of human sin and crime swings madly, where the lilies of eternal +"Peace on earth, good will to man," should lift their silver +chalices to meet the smile of God? + +A vague conception of this vexing problem, which like a huge +carnivorous spectre, flaps its dusky wings along the sky of +sociology, now saddened Mrs. Singleton's meditations, as she watched +the lengthening shadow cast by the tower upon the court-yard; but +she was not addicted to abstract speculation, and the words of her +favorite hymn epitomized her thoughts: "Though every prospect +pleases, and only man is vile." + +The brazen clang of the deep-throated bell rang out on the quiet +air, and a moment later, the piercing treble of a child's cry made +her spring to her feet. She peeped into the chapel all was still. + +On tiptoe she passed swiftly down the aisle to the chancel, and saw +the figure crouched at the altar, with one arm twined through the +railing. For many days and nights the tortured woman had not known +an instant of repose; nervous dread had scourged her to the verge of +frenzy, but when the flow of long-pent tears partly extinguished the +fire in her brain, overtaxed Nature claimed restitution, and the +prisoner yielded to overwhelming prostration. Death might be +hovering near, but her twin sister sleep intervened, and +compassionately laid her poppies on the snowy eyelids. + +Stooping close, Mrs. Singleton saw that tears yet hung on the black +lashes which swept the flushed cheeks, but the parted lips were at +rest, and the deep regularly drawn breath told her that at last the +weary soul reposed in the peaceful domain of dreams. Deftly, and +softly as thistledown falls, she spread her own shawl over the +drooping shoulders, then noiselessly hurried back to the door. +Locking it, she took the key, ran across the grass, into the arcade, +and up to the great iron barrier, which the guard opened as she +approached. With flying feet she neared her own apartments, whence +issued the indignant wail of her implacable baby girl. As she opened +the door, her husband held the disconsolate child toward her. + +"You are in time for your share of the fun; I have had enough and to +spare. How you stand this diabolical din day in, day out, passes my +comprehension. You had not been gone fifteen minutes when Missy +tuned up. I patted and, 'She-e-d' her, but she got her head above +cover, squinted around the room, and not finding you, set up a +squall that would have scared a wildcat. The more I patted, the +worse she screamed, and her feet and hands flew around like a wind- +mill. I took her up, and trotted her on my knee, but bless you! she +squirmed like an eel, and her little bald head bobbed up and down +faster than a di-dapper. Then I walked her, but I would as soon try +to swing to a greased snake. She wriggled and bucked, and tied +herself up into a bow knot, and yelled--. Oh! a Comanche papoose is +a dummy to her. As if I had not hands full, arms full, and ears +full, Dick must needs wake up and pitch head foremost out of the +cradle, and turn a double summerset before he landed upside down on +the floor, whereupon he lifted up his voice, and the concert grew +lively. I took him under one arm, so, and laid Missy over my +shoulder, and it struck me I would join the chorus in self defence, +so I opened with all my might on 'Hold the Fort'; but great +Tecumseh! I only insulted them both, and finding my fifth fiddle was +nowhere in the fray, I feared Jarvis would hear the howling and ring +the alarm bell, so I just sat down. I spread out Dick in a soft +place, where he could not bump his brains out, and laying my lady +across my lap, I held her down by main force, while she screamed +till she was black in the face. If you had not come just when you +did, I should have turned gray and cross-eyed. Hello, Missy! If she +is not cooing and laughing! Little vixen! Oh! but--'lambs'!--I +believe they are! Hereafter tend your own flock; and in preference I +will herd young panthers." + +He wiped his forehead where the perspiration stood in drops, and +watched with amazement the sudden lull in the tempest. + +Clasped in her mother's arms, the baby smiled and gurgled, and Dick, +drying his eyes on the maternal bosom, showed the exact spot where +she must kiss his bruised head. + +"Ned, what have you done? This baby's hair is dripping wet, and so +is the neck of her dress." + +"Serves her right, too. I sprinkled her, that's all." + +"Sprinkled her! Have you lost your senses?" + +"Shouldn't wonder if I had; people in bedlam are apt to be crazy. +Yes, I sprinkled Missy, because she turned so black in the face, I +thought she was strangling; and my step-mother always sprinkled me +when I had a fit of tantrums. But let me tell you, Missy will never +be a zealous Baptist, she doesn't take to water kindly." + +"When I want my children step-mothered I will let you know. Give me +that towel, and baby's woollen cap hanging on the knob of the +bureau. Bless her precious heart! if she does not keep you up all +night, with the croup, you may thank your stars." + +"Susie, just tell me how you tame them, so that next time--" + +"Next time, sir, I shall not trust you. I just love them, and they +know it; that is what tames the whole world." + +Edward Singleton stooped over his wife, and kissed her rosy cheek. + +"Little woman, what luck had you in No. 19?" + +"The best I could wish. I have saved that poor girl from brain- +fever, I hope." + +"How did you manage it?" + +"Just simply because I am a flesh and blood woman, and not a +blundering, cast-iron man." + +"How does she seem now?" + +"She has had a good, hearty spell of wholesome crying; no hysterics, +mind you, but floods of tears; and now she is sound asleep with her +head on the altar railing, in the chapel. I locked her up there, and +here is the key. When she wakes, I want her brought up here, put in +that room yonder, and left entirely to me, until her trial is over. +I never do things half way, Ned, and you need not pucker your +eyebrows, for I will be responsible for her. I have put my hand to +the plough, and you are not to meddle with the lines, till I finish +my furrow." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +In one of the "outhouses" which constituted the servants' quarters, +in that which common parlance denominated the "back-yard" at "Elm +Bluff," an old negro woman sat smoking a pipe. + +The room which she had occupied for more than forty years, presented +a singular melange of incongruous odds and ends, the flotsam of a +long term of service, where the rewards, if intrinsically +incommensurate, were none the less invaluable, to the proud +recipient. The floor was covered by a faded carpet, once the pride +of the great drawing-room, but the velvet pile had disappeared +beneath the arched insteps and high heels of lovely belles and +haughty beaux, and the scarlet feathers and peacock plumes that +originally glowed on the brilliant buff ground, were no longer +distinguishable. + +An old-fashioned piece of furniture, coeval with diamond shoe- +buckles, ruffled shirts and queues, a brass bound mahogany +chiffonier, with brass handles and tall brass feet representing cat +claws, stood in one corner; and across the top was stretched a rusty +purple velvet strip, bordered with tarnished gilt gimp and fringe, a +fragment of the cover which belonged to the harp on which General +Darrington's grandmother had played. + +The square bedstead was a marvel in size and massiveness, and the +heavy mahogany posts nearly black with age, and carved like the +twisted strands of a rope, supported a tester lined with turkey-red +pleatings, held in the centre by the talons of a gilt spread-eagle. +So tall was the bed, that three steps were required to ascend it, +and the space thus left between the mahogany and the floor, was +hidden by a valance of white dimity, garnished with wide cotton +fringe. Over this spacious place of repose, a patchwork quilt of the +"rising sun" pattern displayed its gaudy rays, resembling some +sprawling octopus, rather than the face of Phoebus. + +The contents of a wide mantel board flounced with fringed dimity, +(venerable prototype of macrame and Arrasene lambrequins), would +have filled with covetousness the soul of the bric-a-brac devotee; +and graced the counters of Sypher. + +There were burnished brass candle-sticks, with extinguishers in the +shape of prancing griffins, and snuffers of the same metal, +fashioned after the similitude of some strange and presumably +extinct saurian; and a Dresden china shepherdess, whose shattered +crook had long since disappeared, peeped coquettishly through the +engraved crystal of a tall candle shade at the bloated features of a +mandarin, on a tea-pot with a cracked spout--that some Darrington, +stung by the gad-fly of travel, had brought to the homestead from +Nanking. A rich blue glass vase poised on the back of a bronze swan, +which had lost one wing and part of its bill in the combat with +time, hinted at the rainbow splendors of its native Prague, and +bewailed the captivity that degraded its ultra-marine depths into a +receptacle for cut tobacco. + +The walls, ceiled with curled pine planks, were covered with a +motley array of pasted and tacked pictures; some engraved, many +colored, and ranging in comprehensiveness of designs, from Bible +scenes cut from magazines, to "riots" in illustrated papers; and +even the garish glory of circus and theatre posters. + +In one corner stood an oak spinning-wheel, more than centenarian in +age, fallen into hopeless desuetude, but gay with the strings of +scarlet pepper pods hung up to dry, and twined among its silent +spokes. On a trivet provided with lizard feet that threatened to +crawl away, rested a copper kettle bereft of its top, once the idol +of three generations of Darringtons, to whom it had liberally +dispensed "hot water tea," in the blessed dead and embalmed era of +nursery rule and parental power; now eschewed with its despised use, +and packed to the brim with medicinal "yarbs," bone-set, horse mint, +life everlasting, and snake-root. + +In front of the fire which roared and crackled in the cavernous +chimney, "Mam' Dyce" rocked slowly, enjoying her clay pipe, and +meditatively gazing up at an engraved portrait of "Our First +President," suspended on the wall. It was appropriately framed in +black, and where the cord that held it was twined around a hook, a +bow and streamers of very brown and rusty crape fluttered, when a +draught entered the apartment. + +Obese in form, and glossy black in complexion, "Mam' Dyce" retained +in old age the scrupulous neatness which had characterized her +youth, when promoted to the post of seamstress and ladies' maid, she +had ruled the servants' realm at "Elm Bluff" with a sway as +autocratic as that of Catherine over the Muscovites. Her black +calico dress, donned as mourning for her master, was relieved by a +white apron tied about the ample waist; a snowy handkerchief was +crossed over the vast bosom, and a checked white and black turban +skilfully wound in intricate folds around her gray head, terminated +in a peculiar knot, which was the pride of her toilet. A beautiful +spotted pointer dog with ears like brown satin, was lying asleep +near the fire, but suddenly he lifted his head, rose, stretched +himself and went to the door. A moment later it opened, and the +whilom major-domo, Abednego, came in; put his stick in one corner, +hung his hat on a wooden peg, and approached the fireplace. + +"Well, ole man; you know I tole you so." + +"You wimmen would ruther say that, than eat pound cake. Supposin' +you did tell me, what's the upshot?" + +"That gimlet-eyed weasel is snuffing round you and me; but we won't +turn out to be spring chickens, ready picked." + +"Which is to signify that Miss Angerline smells a mouse? Don't talk +parables, Dyce. What's she done now?" + +"She is hankering after that hankchiff. 'Pears to me, if she only +went on four legs 'sted of two, she would sell high for a +bloodhound." + +"Great Nebuckadanzer! How did she find out?" + +"Don't ax me; ax the witches what she has in cahoot. I always tole +you, she had the eyes of a cunjor, and she has sarched it out. Says +she saw you when you found it; which ain't true. Eavesdrapping is +her trade; she was fotch up on it, and her ears fit a key-hole, like +a bung plugs a barrel. She has eavesdrapped that hankchiff chat of +our'n somehow. Wuss than that, Bedney, she sot thar this evening and +faced me down, that I was hiding something else; that I picked up +something on the floor and hid it in my bosom, after the crowner's +inquess. Sez I: 'Well, Miss Angerline, you had better sarch me and +be done with it, if you are the judge, and the jury, and the +crowner, and the law, and have got the job to run this case.' Sez +she, a-squinting them venomous eyes of her'n, till they looked like +knitting needles red hot: 'I leave the sarching to be done by the +cunstable--when you are 'rested and handcuffed for 'betting of +murder.' Then my dander riz. Sez I, 'Crack your whip and go ahead! +You know how, seeing you is the offspring of a Yankee overseer, what +my marster, Gin'l Darrington, had 'rested for beating one of our +wimen, on our 'Bend' plantation. You and your pa is as much alike, +as two shrivelled cow peas out'en one pod. Fetch your cunstable, and +help yourselves.'" + +Dyce rose, knocked the ashes out of her pipe, and stood like a dusky +image of an Ethiopian Bellona. + +"Drat your servigerous tongue! Now the fat's in the fire, to be sho! +Ever since I tuck you for better for wuss, I have been trying to +larn you 'screshun! and I might as well 'a wasted my time picking a +banjo for a dead jackass tu dance by; for you have got no more +'screshun than old Eve had, in confabulating with the old adversary! +Why couldn't you temperlize? Sassing that white 'oman, is a +aggervating mistake." + +Under ordinary circumstances, Bedney and Dyce prided themselves on +the purity of their diction, and they usually abstained from +plantation dialect; but when embarrassed, frightened or excited, +they invariably relapsed into the lingo of the "Quarters." + +"Hush! What's that? A screech owull! Bedney, turn your pocket." + +With marvellous swiftness she plunged her hand into her dress +pocket, and turned it wrong side out, scattering the contents-- +thimble, thread, two "scalybarks," and some "ground peas" over the +floor. Then stooping, she slipped off one shoe, turned it upside +down, and hung it thus on a horseshoe fastened to the mantel board. + +"Just lem'me know when you have appinted to hold your sarching, and +I will make it convenient to have bizness consarning that bunch of +horgs and cattle, I am raising on shares in the 'Bend' plantation: +and you can have your sarching frolic," said Bedney, too angry to +heed the superstitious rites. + +Dyce made a warning gesture, and listened intently. + +"I am a-thinking you will be chief cook and bottle-washer at that +sarching, for the appintment is at hand. Don't you hear Pilot baying +the cunstable?" + +She sank into her rocking-chair, picked up a gray yarn sock, and +began to knit unconcernedly; but in a significant tone, she added, +nodding her head: + +"Hold your own hand, Bedney; don't be pestered about mine. I'll hoe +my row; you 'tend to yourn." + +Then she leaned back, plying her knitting needles, and began to +chant: "Who will be the leader when the Bridegroom comes?" + +Hearing the knock on the door, her voice swelled louder, and Bedney, +the picture of perplexity, stood filling his pipe, when the bolt was +turned, and a gentleman holding a whip and wearing a long overcoat +entered the room. + +"Good evening, Bedney. Are you and Dyce holding a camp meeting all +by yourselves? I hallooed at the gate till your dog threatened to +devour me, and I had to scare him off with my buggy whip." + +"Why, how'dy, Mars Alfred? I am mighty glad to see you! Seems like +old times, to shake hands with you in my cabin. Lem'me take off your +overcoat, sir, and gim'me your hat, and make yourself comfortable, +here by the jam of the chimbly." + +"No, Bedney, I can't spare the time, and I only want a little +business matter settled before I get back to town to my office. +Thank you, Dyce, this is an old-time rocker sure enough. It is a +regular 'Sleepy Hollow.'" + +Mr. Churchill pushed back his hat, and held his gloved hand toward +the fire. + +"Bedney, I want to see that handkerchief you found in your master's +room, the day after he was murdered." + +"What hankchuf, Marse Alfred? I done tole everything I know, to the +Crowner's inquess." + +"I dare say you did; but something was found afterward. I want to +see it." + +"Who has been villifying of me? You have knowed me ever since you +was knee-high to a duck, and I--." + +"Nobody has vilified you, but Miss Dobbs saw you examining +something, which she says you pushed up your coat sleeve. She thinks +it was a handkerchief, but it may have been valuables. Now it is my +duty, as District Solicitor, to discover and prosecute the person +who killed your master, and you ought to render me every possible +assistance. Any unwillingness to give your testimony, or surrender +the articles found, will cast suspicion on you, and I should be +sorry to have you arrested." + +"Fore Gord, Marse Alfred, I--" + +"Own up, husband. You did find a hankchef. You see, Marse Alfred, we +helped to raise that poor young gal's mother; and Bedney and me was +'votedly attached to our young Mistiss, Miss Ellie, and we thought +ole Marster was too hard on her, when she run off with the furrin +fiddler; so when this awful 'fliction fell upon us and everybody was +cusing Miss Ellie's child of killing her own grandpa, we couldn't +believe no such onlikely yarn, and Bedney and me has done swore our +vow, we will stand by that poor young creetur, for her ma's sake; +for our young mistiss was good to us, and our heart strings was +'rapped round her. We does not intend, if we can help it, to lend a +hand in jailing Miss Ellie's child, and so, after the Crowner had +'liceted all the facts as he said, and the verdict was made up, +Bedney and me didn't feel no crampings in our conscience, about +holding our tongues. Another reason why we wanted to lay low in this +hiere bizness, was that we didn't hanker after sitting on the +anxious seats of witnesses in the court-house; and being called +ongodly thieves, and perjured liars, and turned wrong side out by +the lie-yers, and told our livers was white, and our hearts blacker +than our skins. Marse Alfred, Bedney and me are scared of that +court; what you call the law, cuts curous contarabims sometimes, and +when the broad axe of jestice hits, there is no telling whar the +chips will fly; it's wuss than hull-gull, or pitching heads and +tails. You are a lie-yer, Marse Alfred, and you know how it is +yourself; and I beg your pardon, sir, for slighting the perfession; +but when I was a little gal, I got my scare of lie-yers, and it has +stuck to me like a kuckleburrow. One Christmas eve jest before ole +Marster got married, he had a egg-nog party; and a lot of gentlemen +was standing 'round the table in the dining-room. One of 'em was ole +Mr. Dunbar, Marse Lennox' father, and he axed ole Marster if he had +saved that game rooster for him, as he promised, Marster told him he +was very sorry, but some rogue had done gone and burnt some sulphur +the week before in his henhouse, and bagged that 'dentical rooster. +Presently Mr. Dunbar axed if Marster would let him have one of the +blue hen's roosters, if he would catch the rogue for him before +midnight. Of course Marster said he would. Mr. Dunbar (Marse Lennox' +pa), he was practicing law then, had a pot full of smut on the +bottom, turned upside down on the dining-room flo', and he and +Marster went out to the hen-'ouse and got a dominicker rooster and +shoved him under the pot. Then they rung the bell, and called every +darkey on the place into the dining-room, and made us stand in a +line. I was a little gal then, only so high, but I followed my daddy +in the house, and I never shall disremember that night, 'cause it +broke up our home preachment. Mr. Dunbar made a speech, and the +upshot of it was, that every darkey was to walk past the pot and rub +his finger in the smut; and he swore a solemn oath, that when the +pusson that stole that fine game rooster, touched the pot, the +dominicker rooster would crow. As Marster called our names, we every +one marched out and rubbed the pot, and when all of us had tried, +the rooster hadn't crowed. Mr. Dunbar said there was some mistake +somewhere, and he made us step up and show hands, and make prints on +his hankcher; and lo, and behold! one darkey had not touched the +pot; his forefinger was clean; so Mr. Dunbar says, 'Luke, here is +your thief?' and shore 'nuff, it was our preacher, and he owned up. +I never forgot that trick, and from that day 'till now, I have been +more scared of a lie-yer, than I am of a mad dog. They is the only +perfession that the Bible is agin, for you know they jawed our Lord +hisself, and he said, 'Woe! woe! to you lie-yers.' Now, Marse +Alfred, if you have made up your mind you are gwine to have that +hankcher, it will be bound to come; for if it was tied to a +millstone and drapped in the sea, you lie-yers would float it into +court; so Bedney, jest perduce what you found." + +"That is right, Dyce; I am glad your opinion of my profession has +forced you to such a sensible conclusion. Come, Bedney, no balking +now." + +Perplexed by Dyce's tactics, Bedney stood irresolute, with his half- +filled pipe slipping from his fingers; and he stared at his wife for +a few seconds, hoping that some cue would be furnished. + +"Bedney, there's no use in being cantankerous. If you won't perduce +it, I will." + +Plunging her hand into the blue glass bowl, she pushed aside the +tobacco, and extracted a key; then crossed the room, lifted the +valance of the patriarchal bed, and dragged out a small, old- +fashioned hair trunk, ornamented with stars and diamonds of brass +tack heads. Drawing it across the floor, she sat down near Mr. +Churchill, and bending over, unlocked and opened it. After removing +many articles of clothing, and sundry heirlooms, she lifted from the +bottom a bundle, which she laid on her lap, and edging her chair +closer to the Solicitor, proceeded to unfold the contents. The +outside covering was a richly embroidered Canton crape shawl, +originally white, now yellow as old ivory; but when this was +unwrapped, there appeared only an ordinary sized brown gourd, with a +long and singularly curved handle, as crooked as a ram's horn. +Bending one of her knitting needles into a hook, Dyce deftly +inserted it in the neck, where it joined the bowl, and after +manoeuvring a few seconds, laid down the needle, and with the aid of +her thumb and forefinger slowly drew out a long roll, tightly +wrapped with thread. Unwinding it, she shook the roll, and a small, +gray object, about two inches long, dropped into her lap. Mr. +Churchill sat leaning a little forward, as if intent on Dyce's +movements, but his elbow rested on the arm of the rocking chair, and +holding his hand up to screen his face from the blaze of the fire, +he was closely watching Bedney. When Dyce shook out and held up a +faded, dingy blue silk handkerchief, the lawyer noted a sudden +twinkle in the old man's eyes, but no other feature moved, and he +stooped to take a coal of fire from the hearth. + +"There is the hankchuf that Bedney found. But mebbe you don't know +what this is, that I wrapped up in it, to bring us good luck?" + +She spread the handkerchief over his knee, and held up the small +gray furry object, which had fallen from its folds. + +"Rabbit's foot? Let me see; yes, that is the genuine left hind foot. +I know all about it, because when my regiment was ordered to the +front, my old colored Mammy--Ma'm Judy--who nursed me, sewed one +just like that, inside the lining of my coat skirt. But, Dyce, that +rabbit's foot was not worth a button; for the very first battle I +was in, a cannon ball killed my horse under me, and carried away my +coat tail--rabbit's foot and all. Don't pin your faith to left hind +feet, they are fatal frauds. You are positive, this is the +handkerchief Bedney found? It smells of asafoetida and camphor, and +looks like it had recently been tied around somebody's sore throat." + +"Marse Alfred, I will swear on a stack of Bibles high as the +'Piscopal church steeple, that Bedney Darrington gim'me that same +blue hankcher, and he said he found it. I wasn't with him when he +found it, but I hardly think he would 'a stole a' old rag like that. +I have perduced it! now if you want to sarch behind it, you must +tackle Bedney." + +She resumed her knitting and her lips closed like the spring of a +steel trap. + +"Dyce, I haven't heard the rooster crow yet. Somebody has fought shy +of the pot. See here, I am in earnest now, and I will give you both +a friendly word of warning. Your actions are so suspicious, that +unless you produce the real article you found, I shall be obliged to +send you to jail, and try you for the murder. How do I know that you +and Bedney are not the guilty parties, instead of General +Darrington's granddaughter? This soiled rag will impose neither upon +me, nor upon the court, and I give you five minutes to put into my +possession the real genuine handkerchief. I shall know it when I see +it, because it is white, with red spots on the border." + +"Paddle your own 'dug out,' Bedney, and show your s'creshun. If +Marse Alfred wants to set the red-eyed hounds of the Law on an +innocent 'oman, let him blow his horn." + +She knitted assiduously, and looked composedly at her husband, whose +lower jaw had suddenly fallen, while his eyelids blinked nervously, +as though attacked by St. Vitus' dance. + +"Only five minutes, Bedney." + +Mr. Churchill took out his watch, and held it open. + +"You see, Marse Alfred, I--" + +"I don't see anything but an infernal fraud you two have planned. +Only three minutes more. There is a constable waiting at the gate, +and if he can not persuade you to--" + +"Bedney, step and fetch him in, and let Marse Alfred see the +sarching job done up all right." + +"No, I don't hunt foxes that way. Instead of searching this cabin, +we will just march you both instanter out of these comfortable +quarters, and let you try how soft the beds are, at the 'State +boarding-house.' You will sleep cold on iron bunks, and miss your +feathers and your crazy quilts. Time's up." + +He closed his watch, with a snap, and rose as he returned it to his +pocket. + +"Hold on, Marse Alfred! My head ain't hard enough to run it plum +into a wolf's jaws. I ain't 'sponsible for nobody's acts but my own, +and if Dyce have committed a pius fraud, in this here hank'cher +bizness, to screen Miss Ellie's child, why, you see yourself, I had +no hand in it. I did find that blue 'rag,' as you seen fit to call +it, but it was nigh on to twenty years ago. when I pulled it out of +the breast pocket of a dead Yankee officer, we found lying across a +cannon, what my old Marster's regiment captured at the battle of +Manassas. I gin it to my wife as a screw-veneer o' the war and she +have treasured it accordin'. You are a married man yourself, Marse +Alfred, and you are obleedged to know that wedlock is such a tight +partnership, that it is an awfully resky thing for a man to so much +as bat his eyes, or squint 'em, toward the west, when the wife of +his bosom has set her'n to the east. I have always 'lowed Dyce her +head, 'pecially in jokes like that one she was playing on you just +now, 'cause St. John the Baptist said a man must forsake father and +mother and cleave unto his wife; but conjugular harness is one +thing, and the law is another, and I don't hanker after forsaking my +pine-knot fire, and feather bed, to cleave unto jail bars, and +handcuffs. I see you are tired of Dyce's jokes, and you mean +bizzness; and I don't intend to consume no more of your valuable +solicitous time. Dyce, fetch me that plank bottom cher to stand on." + +"Fetch it yourself. Paddling your own canoe, means headin' for the +mill dam." + +Bedney hastened to procure the designated chair, which he mounted in +front of the mantel piece, and thence reaching up to the portrait of +President Lincoln, took it carefully down from the hook. With the +blade of his pocket-knife, he loosened some tacks which secured the +thin pine slats at the back of the picture, and removed them. He +took everything from the frame, and blank dismay seized him, when +the desired object was nowhere visible. + +"Marse Alfred, I swear I tacked that hank'cher in the back of this +here portrait, between the pasteboard and the brown paper, only +yestiddy; and 'fore Gord! I haint seen it since." + +Grasping his wife's shoulder, be shook her, until her tall turban +quivered and bent over like the Tower of Pisa, and Mr. Churchill saw +that in his unfeigned terror, drops of perspiration broke out on his +wrinkled forehead. + +"Have you turned idjut, that you want us both to be devoured by the +roarin' lion of the Law? My mammy named me Bedney, not Dani-yell, +and she had oughter, for Gord knows, you have kept me in a fiery +furnace ever since I tuck you for better for wurser, mostly wurser. +I want that hank'cher, and you'd better believe--I want it quick. I +found it, and I'm gwine to give it up; and you have got no right to +jeppardy my life, if you are fool enough to resk your own stiff +neck. Gim'me that hank'cher! Fantods is played out. I would ruther +play leap frog over a buzz-saw than--than--pester and rile Marse +Alfred, and have the cunstable clawing my collar." + +"You poor, pitiful, rascally, cowardly creetur! Whar's that oath you +done swore, to help 'fend Miss Ellie's child? And you a deacon, high +in the church! If I had found that hank'cher, I would hide it, till +Gabriel's horn blows; and I would go to jail or to Jericho; and +before I would give testimony agin my dear young Mistiss's poor +friendless gal, I would chaw my tongue into sassage meat. That's the +diffunce between a palavering man full of 'screshun, and a 'oman who +means what she says; and will stand by her word, if it rains fire +and brimstone. Betrayin' and denying the innercent, has been men's +work, ever since the time of Judas and Peter. Now, Marse Alfred, +Bedney did tack the hank'cher inside the portrait of President +Linkum, 'cause we thought that was the saftest place, but I knowed +the house would be sarched, so I jest hid it in a better place. +Since he ain't showed no more backbone than a saucer of blue-mange, +I shall have to give it up; but if I had found it, you would never +set your two eyes on it, while my head is warm." + +She stooped, lifted the wide hem of her black calico skirt, and +proceeded to pick out the stitches which held it securely. When she +had ripped the thread about a quarter of a yard, she raised the edge +of the unusually deep hem, and drew out a white handkerchief with a +colored border. + +Bedney snatched it from her, and handed it to the Solicitor, who +leaned close to the fire, and carefully examined it. As he held it +up by the corners, his face became very grave and stern, and he +sighed. + +"This is evidently a lady's handkerchief, and is so important in the +case, that I shall keep it until the trial is over. Bedney, come to +my office by nine o'clock to-morrow, as the Grand Jury may ask you +some questions. Good bye, Dyce, shake hands; for I honor your +loyalty to your poor young mistress, and her unfortunate child. You +remind me of my own old mammy. Dear good soul, she was as true as +steel." + +As Mr. Churchill left the house, Bedney accompanied him to the gate. +When he returned, the door was locked. In vain he demanded +admittance; in vain tried the windows; every entrance was securely +barred, and though he heard Dyce moving about within, she deigned no +answer to his earnest pleadings, his vehement expostulations, or his +fierce threats of summary vengeance. The remainder of that night was +spent by Pilot and his irate master in the great hay bin of the "Elm +Bluff" stables. When the sun rose next morning, Bedney rushed +wrathful as Achilles, to resent his wrongs. The door of his house +stood open; a fire glowed on the well swept hearth, where a pot of +boiling coffee and a plate of biscuit welcomed him; but Dyce was +nowhere visible, and a vigorous search soon convinced him she had +left home on some pressing errand. + +Two hours later, Mrs. Singleton opened the door of the small room +adjoining her own bedchamber, to which she had insisted upon +removing the prisoner. + +Beryl stood leaning against the barred window, and did not even turn +her head. + +"Here is a negro woman, begging to see you for a few moments. She +says she is an old family servant of General Darrington's." + +Standing with her back toward the door, the prisoner put out one +hand with a repellent gesture: + +"I have surely suffered enough from General Darrington and his +friends; and I will see nobody connected with that fatal place, +which has been a curse to me." + +"Just as you please; but old Auntie here, says she nursed your +mother, and on that account wants to see you." + +Without waiting for permission, Dyce darted past the warden's wife, +into the room, and almost before Beryl was aware of her presence, +stood beside her. + +"Are you Miss Ellie's daughter?" + +Listlessly the girl turned and looked at her, and Dyce threw her +arms around her slender waist, and falling on her knees hid her face +in Beryl's dress, sobbing passionately. In the violence of her +emotion, she rocked back and forth, swaying like a reed in some +fierce blast the tall form, to whom she clung. + +"Oh, my lovely! my lovely! To think you should be shut up here! To +see Miss Ellie's baby jailed, among the off-scourings of the earth! +Oh, you beautiful white deer! tracked and tore to pieces by wolves, +and hounds, and jackalls! Oh, honey! Just look straight at me, like +you was facing your accusers before the bar of God, and tell me you +didn't kill your grandpa. Tell me you never dipped your pretty hands +in ole Marster's blood." + +Tears were streaming down Dyce's cheeks. + +"If you knew my mother, how can you think it possible her child +could commit an awful crime?" + +"Oh, God knows--I don't know what to think! 'Peers to me the world +is turned upside down. You see, honey, you are half and half; and +while I am perfectly shore of Miss Ellie's half of you, 'cause I can +always swear to our side, the Darrington in you, I can't testify +about your pa's side; he was a--a--" + +"He was as much a gentleman, as my mother was a lady; and I would +rather be his daughter, than call a king my father." + +"I believe you! There ain't no drop of scrub blood in you, as I can +see, and if you ain't thoroughbred, 'pearances are deceitful. I +loved your ma; I loved the very ground her little feet trod on. I +fed her out of my own plate many a time, 'cause she thought her +Mammy's vittils was sweeter than what Mistiss 'lowed her to have; +and she have slept in my bosom, and these arms have carried her, and +hugged her, and--and--oh, Lord God A'mighty! it most kills me to see +you, her own little baby here! In this awful, cussed den of thieves +and villi-yans! Oh, honey! for God's sake, just gin me some 'surance +you are as pure as you look; just tell me your soul is a lily, like +your face." + +Beryl stooped, put her hand on the turbaned head, and bending it +back, so as to look down into the swimming eyes, answered: + +"If I had died when I was a month old, my baby soul would not have +faced God any more innocent of crime then, than I am to-day. I had +no more to do with taking General Darrington's money and his life, +than the archangels in Heaven." + +"Bless God! Now I am satisfied. Now I see my way clare. But it sets +my blood afire to see you here; it's a burning shame to put my dear +young Mistiss' child in this beasts' cage. I can't help thinking of +that poor beautiful white deer, what Marster found crippled, down at +our 'Bend' Plantation, that some vagabond had shot. Marster fotch it +up home, and of all the pitifulist sights!" + +Dyce had risen, and covering her face with her white apron, she wept +for some minutes. + +"Are you not the wife of Bedney, who saved my mother's life, when +the barn burned?" + +"Yes, honey, I am Mam' Dyce, and if I am spared, I will try to save +your'n. That is what has brung me here. You are 'cused of the +robb'ry and the murder, and you have denied it in the court; but +chile, the lie-yers are aworking day and night fur to hang you, and +little is made of much, on your side, and much is spun out of +little, on theirn. They are more cunning than foxes, and +bloodthirstier than panters, and they no more git tired than the +spiders, that spin and piece a web as fast as you break it. Three +nights ago, I got down on my knees, and I kissed a little pink +morocco slipper what your Ma wore the day when she took her first +step from my arm to her own mother's knees, and I swore a solemn +oath, if I could help free Miss Ellie's child, I would do it. Now I +want to ask you one thing. Did you lose anything that day you come +to our house, and had the talk with old Marster?" + +"Nothing, but my peace and happiness." + +"Are you shore you didn't drap your hank'cher?" + +"Yes, I am sure I did not, because I wrapped it around some +chrysanthemums I gathered as I went away." + +"Well, a lady's hank'cher was found in Marster's room, and it did +smell of chloryform. Bedney picked it up, and we said nothing and +laid low, and hid the thing; but that Godforsaken and predestinated +sinner, Miss Angeline, kept sarching and eavesdrapping, and set the +lie-yers on the scent, and they have 'strained Bedney on peril of +jailing him, to perduce it. When it got into their claws, and I +thought it might belonk to you, my teeth chattered, and I felt like +the back of my frock was a ice-warehouse. Now, honey, can you +testify before God and man, that hank'cher ain't yourn?" + +"I certainly can. I had only three handkerchiefs with me when I left +home, and I have them still. Here is one, the other two lie yonder. +But that handkerchief is worth everything; because it must belong to +the vile wretch who committed the crime, and it will help to prove +my innocence. Where is it?" + +"The Grand Jury is setting on it." + +Here Dyce looked cautiously around, and tip-toed to the door; +finding it ajar, closed it, then stole back. Putting her lips close +to Beryl's ear, she whispered: + +"Did you lose a sleeve button?" + +"No. I did not wear any." + +"Thank God! I feel like all the bricks in the court-house was lifted +off my heart, and flung away. I was in fear and trimbling about that +button, 'cause I picked it up, just under the aidge of the rug, +where ole Marster fell, when he got his death blow; and as sure as +the coming of the Judgment Day, it was drapped by the pusson who +killed him. I was so afeared it might belonk to you, that I have +been on the anxious seat ever since I found it; and I concluded the +safest way was to bring it here to you. I am scared to keep it at +home, 'cause them yelping wolves as wears the sheepskins of Justice, +are on my tracks. I would never give it up, if I was chopped to +mince meat; but Bedney ain't got no more than enuff backbone for +half of a man, and the lie-yers discomfrizzle him so, I could not +trust him, when it comes to the scratch. Now that button is worth a +heap, and I am precious careful of it. Look here." + +She took from her pocket two large pods of red pepper, which looked +exactly alike, but the end of one had been cut out around the stem, +then neatly fitted back, and held in place by some colorless cement. +Beckoning Beryl to follow, Dyce went closer to the window, and with +the aid of her teeth drew out the stem. Into her palm rolled a +circular button of some opaque reddish-brown substance, resembling +tortoise shell, and enamelled with gilt bunches of grapes, and +inlaid leaves of mother-of-pearl. Across the top, embossed in gilt +letters ran the word "Ricordo." + +The old woman lifted her open palm, and as Beryl saw the button, a +gasping, gurgling sound broke from her. She snatched it, stared at +it. Then the Gorgon head slipped through her fingers, she threw +herself against the window, shook the iron bar frantically; and one +desperate cry seemed to tear its way through her clinched teeth, +over her ashy lips: + +"Oh, Mother! Mother--Mother! You are nailing me to a cross." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +Nowhere in the vast vista of literature is there an episode more +exquisitely pathetic than that serene picture of the Grove at +Colonus, sacred to the "Semnai Theai;" where the dewy freshness, the +floral loveliness, the spicery, and all the warbling witchery of +nature pay tribute to the Avenging Goddesses. + +Twenty-two centuries have sifted their dust over the immortal +figures seated on the marble bench within the precincts consecrated +to the Eumenides, but in deathless tenacity, the rich aroma of +Sophocles' narcissus, and the soft crocus light linger there still; +while from thickets of olive, nightingales break their hearts in +song, as thrilling as the melody that smote the ears of doomed and +dying Oedipus. + +So in all ages, we, born thralls of grief, lift streaming eyes, and +chant elegies to stony-hearted Mother-Earth, but her starry orbs +shine on, undimmed by sympathetic tears; her smiling lips show only +sunshine in their changeless dimples, and her myriad fingers +sweeping the keys of the Universal Organ, drown our De Profundis in +the rhythmic thunders of her Jubilate. Wailing children of Time, we +crouch and tug at the moss-velvet, daisy-sprinkled skirts of the +mighty Mater, praying some lullaby from her to soothe our pain; but +human woe frets not her sublime serenity, as deaf as desert sphinx, +she fronts the future. + +Some echo of this maddening mystery sounded in the ears of the +lonely woman, who clutched the bars of her dungeon, and stared +through its iron lattice, at the peaceful, happy, outside world. At +her feet lay X---, divided by the silvery river, which, here rushed +with arrowy swiftness under the gray stone arches of the bridge, and +there widened into glassy lakelets, as if weary from the mad plunge +over a distant rocky ledge in mid-stream, whence the dull steady +roar of the "falls" thrilled the atmosphere, like the "tremolo" in a +dim cathedral, where fading daylight dies on painted apse and gilded +pipes. As a chessboard the squares of buildings were spread out, +defined by wide streets, where humanity and its traffic sped, busy +as ants. In a green plot, the sombre facade of the court-house +surmounted by an eyeless stone statue of Justice, frowned on the +frivolous throng below; and along the verge of the common, marble +fingers pointed up to the heaven of blue that bent above "God's +Acre"; while now and then, bulbous towers, and glittering steeple +vanes, caught the sunshine on their polished crests. Beyond the +whole, and bounding the valley filled with a billowy sea of bluish- +green pine tops, rose a wooded eminence, wearing still its Persian +robe of autumn foliage, and on its brow the colonnade and chimneys +of "Elm Bluff" blotted the southern sky, like a threatening phantom. + +To-day forest, stream, earth and sky, appeared branded with one +fatal word, as if the world's wide page held only "Ricordo! +Ricordo!" + +Beryl shut her eyes and groaned; but the scene merely shifted to a +dell under the shadow of Carrara hills, where olives set "Ricordo" +among their silver leaves; and lemons painted "Ricordo" in their +pale gold; and scarlet pomegranates and nodding violets, burning +anemones and tender green of trailing maiden-hair ferns all blazoned +"Ricordo." + +The fierce tide of wrath, that indignation and her keen sense of +outraged innocence had poured like molten lead through her throbbing +arteries, was oozing sluggishly, congealing under the awful spell of +that one word "Ricordo." Hitherto, the shame of the suspicion, the +degradation of the imprisonment had caught and empaled her thoughts; +but by degrees, these became dwarfed by the growing shadow of a +possibly ignominious death, which spread its sable pinions along the +rosy dawn of her womanhood, and devoured the glorious sun of her +high hopes. The freezing gloom was creeping nearer, and to-day she +could expect no succor, save by one avenue. + +Islam believes that only the cimeter edge of Al Sirat divides +Paradise from perdition. Beryl realized that in her peril, she trod +an equally narrow snare, over yawning ruin, holding by a single +thread of hope that handkerchief. Weak natures shiver and +procrastinate, shunning confirmation of their dread; but to this +woman had come a frantic longing to see, to grasp, to embrace the +worst. She was in a death grapple with appalling fate, and that +handkerchief would decide the issue. + +Physical exhaustion was following close upon the mental agony that +had stretched her on the rack, for so many days and nights. To sit +still was impossible, yet in her wandering up and down the narrow +room, she reeled, and sometimes staggered against the wall, dizzy +from weakness, to which she would not succumb. + +Human help was no more possible for her, than for Moses, when he +climbed Nebo to die; and alone with her God, the brave soul +wrestled. Wearily she leaned against the window bars, twining her +hot fingers around them, pressing her forehead to the cold barrier; +and everywhere "Ricordo" stabbed her eyes like glowing steel. + +The door opened, some words were uttered in an undertone, then the +bolt clicked in its socket, and Mr. Dunbar approached the window. +Mechanically Beryl glanced over her shoulder, and a shiver crept +across her. + +"I believe you know me. Dunbar is my name." + +He stood at her side, and they looked into each other's eyes, and +measured lances. Could this worn, pallid woman, be the same person +who in the fresh vigor of her youthful beauty, had suggested to him +on the steps of "Elm Bluff," an image of Hygeia? Here insouciante +girlhood was dead as Manetho's dynasties, and years seemed to have +passed over this auburn head since he saw it last. Human faces are +Nature's highest type of etchings, and mental anguish bites deeper +than Dutch mordant; heart-ache is the keen needle that traces finest +lines. + +"Yes, I know you only too well. You are Tiberius." + +Her luminous deep eyes held his at bay, and despite his habitual, +haughty equipoise, her crisp tone of measureless aversion stung him. + +"Sarcasm is an ill-selected arbiter between you and me; and your +fate for all time, your future weal or woe is rather a costly +shuttlecock to be tossed to and fro in a game of words. I do not +come to bandy phrases, and in view of your imminent peril, I cannot +quite understand your irony." + +"Understand me? You never will. Did the bloodthirsty soul of +Tiberius comprehend the stainless innocence of the victims he +crushed for pastime on the rocks below Villa Jovis? There is but one +arbiter for your hatred, the hang-man, to whom you would so gladly +hurry me. Hunting a woman to the gallows is fit sport for men of +your type." + +Unable to withdraw his gaze from the magnetism of hers, he frowned +and bit his lip. Was she feigning madness, or under the terrible +nervous strain, did her mind wander? + +"Your language is so enigmatical, that I am forced to conclude you +resort to this method of defence. The exigencies of professional +duty compel me to assume toward you an attitude, as painfully +embarrassing to me as it is threatening to you. Because the stern +and bitter law of justice sometimes entails keen sorrow upon those +who are forced to execute her decrees, is it any less obligatory +upon the appointed officers to obey the solemn behests?" + +"Justice! Into what a frightful mockery have such as you degraded +her worship! No wonder justice fled to the stars. You are the +appointed officer of a harpy screaming for the blood of the +innocent. How dare you commit your crimes, raise your red hands, in +the sacred name of justice? Call yourself the priest of a frantic +vengeance, for whom some victim must be provided; and libel no more +the attribute of Jehovah." + +Scorn curled her lips, and beneath her glowing eyes, his grew +restless, as panoplied in conscious innocence she seemed to defy +attack. + +"You evidently credit me with motives of personal animosity, which +would alike disgrace my profession and my manhood. For your sake, +rather than my own, I should like to remove this erroneous +impression from your mind. If you could only understand--" + +She threw up her hand, with an imperious gesture of disdain. + +"Save your sophistries; they are wasted here. Why multiply cobwebs? +I understand you. If doves have a sixth sense that warns them before +they hear the hawk's cry, or discern the shadow of his circling +wings, and if mice, dumb in a cat's claws, surmise the exact value +of the preliminary caresses, the graceful antics, the fatal fondling +of the velvet paw, so we, the prey of legal 'Justice' know +instinctively what the swinging of censers, and the chanting of her +high priest mean, when he draws near us. I understand you. You +intend to hang me if you can." + +He drew his breath with a hissing sound, and a dark flush Stained +his broad smooth brow. + +"On my honor as a gentleman, I came here to-day solely to--" + +"Solely to assure yourself of some doubtful link you must weld into +your chain; solely to plunge the scalpel of some double-edged +question. If there must be an ante mortem examination, we will wait, +if you please, for the legal dissection when I am stretched before +the jury-box. Until then, you have no right to intrude upon the +misery you have brought on an innocent woman." + +They stood so near each other, that he could count the fierce +throbbing of the artery in her round snowy throat, and see the +shadow of her long lashes; and again some electric current flashed +from her feverishly bright eyes, burning its way to the secret +chambers of his selfish heart, melting the dross that ambition and +greed had slowly cemented, and dropping one deathless spark into a +deep adytum, of the existence of which he had never even dreamed. +Unconsciously he leaned toward her, but she pressed back against the +iron bars, and drew her dress aside as if shunning a leper. There +was no petulance in the motion, but its significance pricked him, +like a dagger point. + +"It was the hope of finding you an innocent woman, that must plead +my pardon for what you consider an unwarrantable 'intrusion.' Will +you believe me, if I swear to you, that I have come as a friend?" + +"As a friend to me? No. As a friend to General Darrington and his +adopted son Prince? Yes. Oh, Tiberius! Your rosy apples are flavored +like those your forefather offered Agrippina." + +"Do you regard me as an unscrupulous, calculating villain, who +pretending kindness, plots treachery? Do you deliberately offer me +this wanton insult?" + +His swart face reddened, and the fine lines of his handsome mouth +hardened. + +She shrank a few inches closer to the window, and compressed her +lips. + +"If you were a man, I should swiftly resent the affront you have +thrust upon me, and suitable redress would be peculiarly sweet and +welcome; but you are a defenceless and unfortunate woman, and my +hands are tied. I desire to help you; you repulse me and insult my +manhood. I will do my painful duty, because it is sternly and +inexorably my duty; but, I wish to God, I had never set my eyes on +you." + +The sudden passionate ring in his voice surprised her, and she +looked searchingly at him, wondering into what pitfall it was +intended to lure her. + +"If you had never set your eyes on me? Ah, would to God I had died +ten thousand times before I encountered their evil spell! If you had +never set your eyes on me? I should be now, a happy, hopeful girl, +with life beckoning me like the rosy Syrian plains that smiled on +the desert-weary. The world looked so bright to me that day, when +first I smelled the sweet resinous pines, and dreamed of my work, +and all the glory of the victory, I knew that I should win over +poverty and want. I was so poor in worldly goods, but oh!--Croesus +could not have bought my proud hopes! So rich, so overflowing with +high hope! As I think of my feelings that day, among the primroses +and pine cones, it seems a hundred years ago, and I recall the image +of a girl long dead; such a proud girl; so happy in the beautiful +world of the art she loved! Then some strange awful curse that had +lain in wait, ambushed among the flowers I gathered that last day of +my dead existence, fell upon me--I saw you! No wonder I shivered, +when you met me. I saw you. Then my sun sickened and went out, and +my hopes crumbled, and my youth shrivelled and perished forever; and +the wide world is a rayless dungeon, and the girl Beryl is buried so +deep, that the Angels of the Resurrection will never find her!--and +I?--I am only a withered, disgraced woman, hurled into a den; +trampled, branded; with a soul devoured by despairing bitterness, +with a broken heart, a brain on fire! If you had drawn a knife +across my throat, or sent a bullet through my temples, my spirit +might have rested in the Beyond, and I could have forgiven that +which hastened me to heaven; but you strangled my hopes, and +mutilated my youth, and dishonored my father's name!--You robbed me +of my stainless character, and cast me among outlaws and fiends!-- +Worse yet, oh! blackest of all your crimes!--you have almost +throttled my faith in Christ. You have torn away my hold upon the +eternal God! You are the curse of my life. You wish you had never +set your eyes on me? Take courage, finish your work; the best of me +is utterly dead already, and when you have taken my blood, and laid +my polluted body in a convict's shallow grave, your enmity will be +satiated. Then I, at least, I shall be free from my hideous curse. +If there be any comfort left me, it lurks in the knowledge that when +you succeed in convicting me, the same world will no longer hold us +both." + +Was it the fever of disease, or incipient madness that blazed in her +eyes, flamed on her cheeks, and lent such thrilling cadence to her +pure clear voice? Was she a consummate actress, or had he made a +frightful mistake, and goaded an innocent girl to the verge of +frenzy? Some occult influence seemed clouding his hitherto +infallible perceptions, melting his heart, paralyzing his will. He +walked up and down the floor, with his hands clasped behind him, +then came close to the prisoner. + +"If I have unjustly suspected and persecuted you, may God forgive +me! If I have wronged you by suspicion and accusation of a crime +which you did not commit, then my atonement shall be your triumphant +vindication. I would give a good deal to know that your hands are as +pure as they look, and innocent of theft and murder. Tell me--tell +me the truth. I will save you, I will give you back all that you +have lost, and tenfold more. For God's sake, for your own sake, and +for mine, I entreat you to tell me the truth. Did you go back to +'Elm Bluff' that night, after I met you in the pine woods?" + +His dark face was close to hers, and his keen blue eyes seemed to +probe the recesses of her soul. If she answered, would the steel +springs of some trap close upon her? + +"I did not go back to 'Elm Bluff.' My hands, my heart, my soul are +as free from crime as they were when God sent them into the world. I +am innocent--innocent--innocent as any baby only a week old, lying +dead in its little coffin. Innocent--but defiled, disgraced; +innocent as the Lord Jesus was of the sins for which He died; but +you can not save what you have destroyed. You have ruined my life." + +He was a strong man, cold, collected, priding himself upon his +superb physique, his nerves of steel; but as he watched and +listened, he trembled, and the girl's eyes dilated, sparkled through +the sudden moisture that so strangely and unexpectedly gathered in +his own. + +"Then you must prove the truth of your solemn words; and it was this +faint hope that induced me to come here to-day. Only one +circumstance stands between the Grand Jury and your indictment for +murder; and time presses. Now tell me, do you know this?" + +He took from his coat pocket a small parcel wrapped in paper, and +tore off the covering. Beryl stood faint and dizzy, resting against +the window, but erect, on guard and defiant. He shook out and held +up a square of fine linen, daintily hem-stitched. Along the border +ran graceful arabesques, swelling into scallops and dotted with +stars, embroidered in some rich red thread; and in one corner, +enclosed in a wreath of exquisitely designed fuchsias, the large, +elaborately ornate capitals "B. B." were worked in fadeless scarlet +scrolls to match the wreath. Above the drooping flowers, poised the +red wings of a descending butterfly. Artistic instincts had +outlined, and deft delicate touches filled in, with the glowing +embroidery. + +Did she know it? Could she ever forget that serene May day when the +air was liquid gold, and the Mediterranean molten sapphire, wreathed +with pearls, as the wavelets crested; when the rosy oleanders and +silvery flakes of orange blossoms floated down upon the ferny cliff, +where sitting by her father's side, she had drawn this design, +spreading the linen on the back of her father's worn copy of +Theocritus? If she lived a thousand years, would it be possible to +forget the thin, almost transparent white hand, with its blue veins +swollen like cords, which had gently taken the pencil from her +fingers, and retouched and rounded the sweep of the curves; the dear +wasted hand that she had stooped and kissed, as it corrected her +work? + +As on the golden background of a cherished Byzantine picture, memory +held untarnished every tint and outline of that blessed day, when +she and her father had looked for the last time on the sunny sea +they loved so well. + +Did fell fate hover, even then, in that sparkling perfumed air, and +in sinister prescience trace this tangling web of threads, with grim +intent to snare her unwary feet? + +Savants tell us, that ages ago, in the dim dawn, primeval rain drops +made their pattering print, and left it to harden on the stone +pages, awaiting decipherment by human eyes and human brains, not yet + +"Born of the brainless Nature, Who knew not that which she bore." + +Is there an analogous iron chain linking the merest trifles, the +frivolous accidents, the apparently worthless coincidences that +swell the sum of what we are pleased to call the nobly independent +life of the "free-agent" Man? In the matrix of time, do human tears +and human blood-drops leave their record, to be conned when Nemesis +holds her last assize? + +As the handkerchief swayed in the lawyer's grasp, Beryl saw the red +"B. B." like a bloody brand. At that instant she felt that the death +clutch fastened upon her throat; that fate had cast her adrift, on +the black waves of despair. In her reeling brain kaleidoscopic +images danced; her father's face, the lateen sail of fishing boats +rocking on blue billows, white oxen browsing amid purple iris +clusters; she heard her mother's voice, her brother's gay laugh; she +smelled the prussic acid fragrance of the vivid oleanders, then over +all, like tongues of devouring flames, flickered "Ricordo." "B. B." + +In the frenzy of her desperation she sprang forward, seized the arms +that held up the fatal handkerchief, and shook the man, as if he had +been an infant. Her eyes full of horror, were fixed on the scrap of +linen, and a frantic cry rang from her lips. + +"Father! Father! There is no hereafter for you and me! Prayer is but +the mockery of fools! There is no heaven for the pure, because there +is no God! No God!--to hear, to save the innocent who trusted in +Him. Oh--no God!" + +Mr. Dunbar dropped the handkerchief, and as the irresistible +conviction of her guilt rolled back, crushing the hope he had +cherished a moment before, a spasm of pain seized his heart, and +with a groan that would not be repressed, he covered his eyes to +shut out the vision of the despairing woman, whose doom seemed +sealed. Her right hand which unconsciously clutched his left +shoulder, shivered like an aspen, and he knew that for the moment +she was entirely oblivious of his presence; blind to everything but +the assurance of her ruin. + +After all, he had made no mistake; his keen insight was well nigh +infallible; but his triumph was costly. The luscious fruit of +professional success left an acrid flavor; the pungent dead sea +ashes sifted freely. He set his heel on the embroidered butterfly, +and in his heart cursed the hour he had first seen it. His coveted +bread was petrifying between his teeth. + +The grasp on his shoulder relaxed, the hand fell heavily. When he +looked in the face of his victim, he caught his breath at the +strange, inexplicable change a few minutes had wrought. Protest and +resistance had come to an end. Surrender was printed on every +feature. The wild fury of the passionate struggle that convulsed +her, had spent itself; and as after a violent wintry tempest the +gale subsides, and the snow compassionately shrouds the scene, +burning the dead sparrows, the bruised flowers, so submission laid +her cold touch on this quivering face, and veiled and froze it. + +From afar the sound of rushing waters seemed to smite Beryl's ears, +to surge nearer, to overflow her brain. She sank suddenly to the +floor, clinging with one hand to the window bar, and her auburn head +fell forward on the up-lifted arm. Thinking that she had fainted, +Mr. Dunbar stooped and raised her face, holding it in his palms. The +eyes met his, unflinching but mournful as those of a tormented deer +whom the hunters drag from worrying hounds. She writhed, freed +herself from his touch; and resting against the window sill, drew a +long deep breath. + +"You have succeeded in your mission today. You have the only clue +you needed. You have no occasion to linger. Now--will you leave me?" + +He picked up the handkerchief. + +"This is your handkerchief?" + +She made no answer. A leaden hand was pressing upon her heart, her +brain, her aching eyes. + +"You have basely deceived me. You did go back that night, and you +left this, to betray you. Saturated with chloroform you laid it over +your grandfather's face. Load your soul with no more falsehoods. +Confess the deeds of that awful night." + +"I did not go back. I never saw 'Elm Bluff' after I met you. I know +no more of the chloroform than you do. I have told the truth first +and last, and always. I have no confession to make. I am as innocent +as you are. Innocent! Innocent! You are going to hang me for a crime +I did not commit. When you do, you will murder an innocent woman." + +She spoke slowly, solemnly, and at intervals, as if she found it +difficult to express her meaning. The passionless tone was that of +one, standing where the river of death flowed close to her feet, and +her beautiful face shone with the transfiguring light of conscious +purity. + +"Hold up your hand, and tell me this is not your handkerchief; and I +will yet save you." + +"It was my handkerchief, but I am innocent. Finish your work." + +"How can you expect me to believe your contradictory statements?" + +Wearily she turned her head, and looked at him. A strange drowsiness +dimmed her vision, thickened her speech. + +"I expect nothing from you--but--death." + +"Will you explain how your handkerchief chanced to be found on your +grandfather's pillow? Trust me, I am trying to believe you. Tell +me." + +In his eagerness he seized her hand, clasped it tightly, bent over +her. She made no reply, and the silky black lashes sank lower, lower +till they touched the violet circle suffering had worn under her +eyes. Like a lily too heavy for its stem, the glossy head fell upon +her breast. Her hot fingers throbbed in his palm, and when he felt +her pulse, the rapid bounding tide defied his counting. Kneeling +beside her, he laid the head against his shoulder. + +"Are you ill? What is the matter? Speak to me." + +Her parched lips unclosed, and she muttered with a sigh, like a +child falling asleep after long sobbing: + +"My handkerchief--Tiberius--my--han--" + +She had fought against fearful odds, with sleepless nights and +fasting days sapping her strength; and when the battle ended, though +the will was unfaltering, physical exhaustion triumphed, and +delirium mercifully took the tortured spirit into her cradling arms. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +When Leo Gordon celebrated her twenty-second birthday, Judge Dent, +appreciating the importance of familiarizing her with the business +details and technicalities of commercial usage, incident to the +management of her large estate, had insisted upon terminating his +guardianship, and transferring to her all responsibility for the +future conduct of her financial affairs. New books were placed in +her hands, in which he required her to keep systematically and +legibly all her accounts; she drew and signed her own checks, and +semi-annually furnished for his inspection a neat balance-sheet. + +As adviser, and agent for the collection of dividends and rents, the +change or renewal of investments, he maintained only a general +supervision, and left her untrammelled the use of her income. As a +dangerous innovation upon time-honored customs, which under the +ante bellum regime, had kept Southern women as ignorant of practical +business routine, as of the origin of the Weddas of Ceylon, Miss +Patty bitterly opposed and lamented her brother's decision; dismally +predicting that the result must inevitably be the transformation of +their refined, delicate, clinging "Southern lady", into that +abhorred monster--"a strong-minded independent business woman". + +Intensely loyal to the social standard, usages and traditions of an +aristocracy, that throughout the South had guarded its patrician +ranks with almost Brahmin jealousy, she sternly decried every +infringement of caste custom and etiquette. Nature and education had +combined to deprive her of any adaptability to the new order of +things; and she rejected the idea that "a lady should transact +business", with the same contemptuous indignation that would have +greeted a proposition to wear "machine-sewed garments", that last +resort of impecunious plebeianism. However unwelcome Leo had found +this assumption of the grave duties of mature womanhood, she met the +responsibility unflinchingly, and gathered very firmly the reins +transferred to her fair hands for guidance. Judge Dent and Miss +Patty were the last of their family, except the orphan niece who had +been left to their care, and as their earthly possessions would +ultimately descend to her, she had been reared in the conviction +that their house was her only home. + +Study and travel, potent factors in the march of progress, had so +enlarged the periphery of Leo's intellectual vision, that she +frequently startled her prim aunt, by the enunciation of views much +too extended and cosmopolitan to fit that haughty dame's Procrustean +limits of "Southern ladyhood". Blessed with a discriminating +governess and chaperon, who while fostering a genuine love of the +beautiful, had endeavored to guard her pupil from straying into any +of those fashionable "art crazes", which in their ephemeral +exaggeration approach caricatures of aestheticism, Leo became deeply +imbued with the spirit of classic literature and art; and grew +especially fond of the study of Greek and Roman architecture. + +Believing that the similarity of climate in her native State, +justified the revival of an archaic style of building, she ardently +desired and finally obtained her uncle's consent to the erection (as +an addition to the Dent mansion), of a suite of rooms, designed in +accordance with her taste, and for her own occupancy. Hampered by no +prudential economic considerations, and fearless of criticism as +regarded archaeological anachronisms, Leo allowed herself a wide- +eyed eclecticism, that resulted in a thoroughly composite structure, +eminently satisfactory at least to its fastidious owner. A single +story in height, it contained only four rooms, and on a reduced +scale resembled the typical house of Pansa, except that the flat +roof rose in the center to a dome. Constituting a western wing of +the old brick mansion which it adjoined, the entrance fronting +north, opened from a portico with clustered columns, into a square +vestibule; which led directly to a large, octagonal atrium, +surrounded by lofty fluted pillars with foliated capitals that +supported the arched and frescoed ceiling. In the centre, a circular +impluvium was sunk in the marble paved floor, where in summer a jet +of spray sprang from the water on whose surface lily pads floated; +and in winter, shelves were inserted, which held blooming pot +plants, that were arranged in the form of a pyramid. The dome +overarching this, was divided into three sections; the lower +frescoed, the one above it filled with Etruscan designs in stained +glass; the upper, formed of white ground glass sprinkled with gilt +stars representing constellations, was so constructed, that it could +be opened outward in panels, and thus admit the fresh air. + +On the east side of this atrium, Leo's bed-room connected with that +occupied by Miss Patty in the old house; and opposite, on the west, +was a large square Pompeian library, with dark red dado, daintily +frescoed panels, and richly tinted glowing frieze. At the end of +this apartment, and concealed by purple velvet curtains lined with +rose silk, an arch opened into a small semi-circular chapel or +oratory, lighted by stained glass windows, whose brilliant hues fell +on a marble altar upheld by two kneeling figures; and here lay the +family Bible of Leo's great-grandfather, Duncan Gordon, with tall +bronze candelabra on each side, holding wax candles. At the right of +two marble steps that led to the altar, was spread a rug, and upon +this stood an ebony reading-desk where a prayer-book rested. Filling +a niche in the wall on the left side, the gilded pipes of an organ +rose to meet a marble console that supported a Greek cross. + +In order to secure an unobstructed vista from the front door, that +portion of the building which corresponded to the ancient tablinum, +was used merely as an aviary, where handsome brass cages of various +shapes showed through their burnished wires snowy cockatoos, gaudy +paroquets, green and gold canaries, flaming red and vivid blue +birds, and one huge white owl, whose favorite perch when allowed his +freedom, was a bronze Pallas on a projecting bracket. + +Conspicuous among these, was a peculiar cage made of tortoise shell, +ivory and silver wire, which Leo had assigned to a scarlet-crested, +crimson-throated Australian cockatoo. Beyond this undraped rear +vestibule stretched the peristyle, a parallelogram, surrounded by a +lofty colonnade. The centre of this space was adorned by a rockery +whence a fountain rose; flower beds of brilliant annuals and coleus +encircled it like a mosaic, and the ground was studded with orange +and lemon trees, banana and pineapple plants; while at the farther +side delicate exotic grape vines were trained from column to column. + +In summer this beautiful court was entirely open to the sky, but at +the approach of winter a movable framework of iron pillars was +erected, which supported a glass roof, that sloped southward, and +garnered heat and sunshine. Neither chimneys nor fireplaces were +visible, but a hidden furnace thoroughly warmed the entire house, +and in each apartment the registers represented braziers of classic +design. + +Except for the external entrances, doors had been abolished; +portieres of plush, satin, and Oriental silk closed all openings in +winter; and during long sultry Southern summers were replaced by +draperies of lace, and wicker-work screens where growing ivy and +smilax trained their cool green leaves, and graceful tendrils. +Wooden floors had accompanied the doors to Coventry; and everywhere +squares of marble, and lemon and blue tiles showed shimmering +surfaces between the costly rugs, and fur robes scattered lavishly +about the rooms. Surrounded by a gilded wreath of olive leaves, and +incised on an architrave fronting the vestibule, the golden "Salve" +greeted visitors; just beneath it, on an antique shaped table of +topaz-veined onyx, stood a Vulci black bowl or vase, decorated in +vermilion with Bacchanal figures; and this Leo filled in summer with +creamy roses, in winter, with camellias. Where the shrines and Lares +stood in ancient houses, a square, burnished copper pedestal +fashioned like an altar had been placed, and upon it rose from a bed +of carved lilies, a copy in white marble of Palmer's "Faith". + +From the front portico, one could look through the vestibule, the +atrium, the aviary, and on into the peristyle, where among vine +branches and lemon boughs, the vista was closed by a flight of stone +steps with carved cedar balustrade, leading up to the flat roof, +where it sometimes pleased the mistress to take her tea, or watch +the sunset. In selecting and ordering designs for the furniture, a +strict adherence to archaic types had been observed; hence the +couches, divans, chairs, and tables, the pottery and bric-a-brac, +the mirrors and draperies, were severely classic. + +An expensive whim certainly, far exceeding the original estimate of +its cost; and Miss Patty bewailed the "wicked extravagance of +squandering money that would have built a handsome church, and +supported for life two missionaries in mid-China"; but Judge Dent +encouraged and approved, reviving his classical studies to +facilitate the successful accomplishment of the scheme. When the +structure was completed and Leo declared herself perfectly satisfied +with the result, it was her uncle who had proposed to celebrate her +twenty-fourth birthday by a mask-ball in which every costume should +be classic, distinctively Roman or Greek; and where the mulsum +dispensed to the guests should be mixed in a genuine Cratera. + +To this brilliant fete, one cloudless June night, friends from +distant States were invited; and fragrant with the breath of its +glowing roses, the occasion became memorable, embalmed forever in +Leo's happy heart, because then and there, beside the fountain in +the peristyle, she had pledged her hand and faith to Mr. Dunbar. + +Sitting to-day in front of the library window, whence she had looped +back the crimson curtains, to admit the November sunshine, Leo was +absorbed in reading the description of the private Ambar-valia +celebrated by Marius at "White Nights". Under the spell of the +Apostle of Culture, whose golden precept: "BE PERFECT IN REGARD TO +WHAT IS HERE AND NOW," had appealed powerfully to her earnest +exalted nature, she failed to observe the signals of her pet ring- +doves cooing on the ledge outside. Finally their importunate tapping +on the glass arrested her attention, and she raised the sash and +scattered a handful of rice and millet seed; whereupon a cloud of +dainty wings swept down, and into the library, hovering around her +sunny head, and pecking the food from her open palms. One dove +seemed particularly attracted by the glitter of the diamond in her +engagement ring, and perched on her wrist, made repeated attempts to +dislodge the jewel from its crown setting. Playfully she shook it +off several times, and amused by its pertinacity, finally closed her +hands over it, and rubbed her soft cheek against the delicate +silvery plumage. + +"No, no, you saucy scamp! I can't afford to feed you on diamonds +from my sacred ring! Did you get your greedy nature from some sable +Dodonean ancestress? If we had lived three thousand years ago, I +might be superstitious, and construe your freak into an oracular +protest against my engagement. Feathered augurs survive their +shrines. Clear out! you heretic!" + +As she tossed it into the garden and closed the window, the portiere +of the library was drawn aside, and her maid approached, followed by +a female figure draped in a shawl and wearing a lofty turban. + +"Miss Leo, Aunt Dyce wants to see you on some particular business." + +"Howdy do, Aunt Dyce? It is a long time since you paid us a visit. +Justine, push up a chair for her, and then open the cages and let +the birds out for an hour. What is the matter, Aunt Dyce, you look +troubled? Sit down, and tell me your tribulations." + +"Yes, Miss Leo, I am in deep waters; up to my chin in trouble, and +my heart is dragging me down; for it's heavier 'an a bushel of lead. +You don't remember your own ma, do you?" + +"I wish I did; but I was only five months old when I lost her." + +"Well, if she was living to-day, she would stretch her two hands and +pull me out of muddy waves; and that's why I have come to you. You +see, Miss Marcia and my young Mistiss, Miss Ellice, was bosom +friends, playmates, and like sisters. They named their dolls after +one another, and many a time your ma brought her wax doll to our +house, for me to dress it just like Miss Ellice's, 'cause I was the +seamstus in our family, and I always humored the childun about their +doll clothes. They had their candy pullins, and their birthday +frolics, and their shetlan' ponies no bigger 'an dogs, and, oh Lord! +what blessed happy times them was! Now, your ma's in glory, and you +is the richest belle in the State; and my poor young mistiss is in +the worst puggatory, the one that comes before death; and her child, +her daughter that oughter be living in style at 'Elm Bluff', like +you are here, where is she? Where is she? Flung down among vilyans +and mallyfactors, and the very off-scourings of creation, in the +penitenchery! Tears to me like, if old mistiss is as high-headed and +proud as she was in this world, her speerit would tear down the +walls and set her grandchild free. When I saw that beautiful young +thing beating her white hands agin the iron bars, it went to my +heart like a carving knife, and--" + +Dyce burst into tears, and covered her face with her apron, Leo +patted her shoulder softly, and essayed to comfort her. + +"Don't cry so bitterly; try to be hopeful. It is very, very sad, but +if she is innocent, her stay in prison will be short." + +"There ain't no 'ifs'--when it comes to 'cusing my mistiss' child of +stealing and murdering. Suppose the sheriff was to light down here +this minute, and grab you up and tell folks 'spectable witnesses +swore you broke open your Uncle Mitchell's safe, and brained him +with a handi'on? Would you think it friendly for people to say, if +she didn't they will soon turn her aloose? Would that be any warm +poultice to your hurt feelin's? It's the stinging shame and the +awful, disgrace of being 'spicioned, that you never would forgive." + +"Yes, it is very dreadful, and I pity the poor girl; but it seems +that appearances are all against her, and I fear she will find it +difficult to explain some circumstances." + +"If your ma was here to-day, she wouldn't say that. When she was a +friend, she was stone deaf and mole blind to every evil report agin +them she loved. Miss Marcia would go straight to that jail, and put +her arms 'round Miss Ellice's child, and stand by her till her last +breath; and the more she was pussecuted, the closer she would stick. +Miss Leo, you must take your ma's place, you must heir her +friendship just like you do her other property. I have come to you, +'cause I am going away to New York, and can't feel easy 'till you +promise me you will do what you can. Miss Ellice is laying at the +pint of death, and her poor child is so deestracted about her +needing comforts, that I tole her I'de go on an' nuss her ma for +her, 'till she was sot free and could hurry back. I dreampt last +night that ole mistiss called me and Bedney, and said 'Take good +care of Ellice'; and I got right out of bed and packed my trunk. I'm +just from the penitenchery, and that poor tormented child don't know +me, don't know nothing. Trouble have run her plum crazy, and what +with brain fever and them lie-yers, God only knows what's to become +of her. Handi'ons ain't the only godforsaken things folks are +murdered with. Miss Leo, promise me you will go to see her while I +am gone, and 'tend to it that she has good nussing." + +"I will do what is possible for her comfort; and as it will be an +expensive journey to you, I will also help you to pay your passage +to New York. How much money--" + +"I don't want your money, Miss Leo. Bedney and me never is beholdin' +to nobody for money. We was too sharp to drap our savings in the +'Freedman's Bank', 'cause we 'spicioned the bottom was not soddered +tight, and Marster's britches' pocket was a good enough bank for us. +We don't need to beg, borrow, nor steal. As I tole you, I was the +seamstress, and just before Miss Ellice run away from the school, +ole mistiss had a fine lot of bran-new clothes made ready for her +when she come home to be a young lady. She never did come home, and +when ole mistiss died I jist tuck them new clothes I had made, and +packed 'em in a wooden chist, and kept 'em hid away; 'cause I was +determed nobody but Miss Ellice should wear 'em. I've hid 'em +twenty-three years, and now I've had 'em done up, and one-half I +tuck to that jail, for that poor young thing, and the rest of 'em +I'm gwine to carry to Miss Ellice. They shan't need money nor +clothes; for Bedney and me has got too much famly pride to let +outsiders do for our own folks; but Miss Leo, you can do what nobody +else in this wide world can. I ain't a gwine to walk the devil +'round the stump, and you mustn't take no 'fence when I jumps plum +to the pint. Mars Lennox is huntin' down Miss Ellice's child like a +hungry hound runs a rabbit, and I want you to call him off. If he +thinks half as much of you as he oughter, you can stop him. Oh, Miss +Leo, for God's sake--call him off--muzzle him!" + +Leo rose haughtily, and a quick flush fired her cheek; but as she +looked at the old woman's quivering mouth and streaming eyes, +compassion arrested her displeasure. + +"Aunt Dyce, there are some things with which ladies should not +meddle; and I cannot interfere with any gentleman's business +affairs." + +"Oh, honey! if Miss Marcia was living, she wouldn't say that! She +would just put her arm round Miss Beryl and tell Mars Lennox: 'If +you help to hang my friend's child, you shan't marry my daughter!' +Your ma had pluck enuff to stop him. Mark what I say; that poor +child is innercent, and the Lord will clear up everything some day, +and then He will require the blood of them that condemned the +innercent. Suppos'n appearances are agin her? Wasn't appearances all +agin Joseph's bruthren when the money and the silver cup was found +in their bags, and them afleein home? And if the 'Gyptian lie-yers +could have got their claws on that case, don't you know they would +have proved them innercent boys guilty, and a hung em? Oh, I am +afeerd of Mars Lennox, for he favors his pa mightily; he has got the +keenest scent of all the pack; and he went up yonder, and 'cused, +and 'bused, and browbeat and aggervated and tormented that poor, +helpless young creetur,'till she fell down in a dead faint on the +jail floor; and sence then, the Doctor says her mind is done clean +gone. Don't get mad with me, Miss Leo; I am bound to clare my +conscience, and now I have done all I could, I am gwine to leave my +poor young mistiss' child in God's hands, and in yourn, Miss Leo; +and when I come back, you must gim'me an account of your stewudship. +You are enuff like Miss Marcia, not to shirk your duty; and as you +do, by that pussecuted child, I pray the Lord to do by you." + +She seized Leo's hand, kissed it, and left the room. + +For some moments Leo sat, with one finger between the creamy leaves +of her favorite book, but the charm was broken; her thoughts +wandered far from the stories of Apuleius, and the oration of +Aurelius, and after mature deliberation, she put aside the volume +and rang the library bell. + +"Justine, is Mrs. Graham here?" + +"She is coming now; I see the carriage at the gate." + +"Do not invite her into Aunt Patty's room, until I have seen her. +Tell Andrew to harness Gypsy, and bring my phaeton to the door; and +Justine, carry my felt hat, driving gloves and fur jacket to Aunt +Patty's room." + +Confined to her bed by a severe attack of her chronic foe, +inflammatory rheumatism, Miss Dent had sent for her dearest friend +and faithful colleague in church work, Mrs. Graham, who came to +spend a day and night, and discuss the affairs of the parish. + +"Aunt Patty, Mrs. Graham is in the parlor, and as I am well aware +you can both cheerfully dispense with my society for the present, I +am going into town. Dyce Darrington has been here, and I have +promised to go and see that unfortunate girl who is in prison." + +"Leo Gordon, you don't mean to tell me that you are going into the +penitentiary!" + +"Why not?" + +"It is highly improper for a young lady to visit such places, and I +am astonished that you should feel any inclination to see the +countenances of the depraved wretches herded there. I totally +disapprove of such an incomprehensible freak." + +"Then I will hold the scheme in abeyance, until I ask Uncle +Mitchell's advice. I shall call at his office, and request him to go +with me." + +"Don't you know that the Grand Jury brought in a true bill against +that young woman? She is indicted for murder, robbery and the +destruction of her grandfather's will. Mitchell tells me the +evidence is overwhelming against her, and you know he was disposed +to defend her at first." + +"Yes, Aunty. I am aware that everything looks black for the +unfortunate girl; but I learn she is very ill, and as it cannot +possibly injure me to endeavor to contribute to her physical +comfort. I shall go and sec her, unless Uncle Mitchell refuses his +consent to my visit to the prison." + +"But, Leo. what do you suppose Mr. Dunbar will think and say, when +he hears of this extraordinary procedure?" + +"Mr. Dunbar is neither the custodian of my conscience, nor the +guardian and dictator of my actions. Good-bye, Aunty dear. Justine, +show Mrs. Graham in." "Mr. Dunbar will never forgive such a step; +because, like all other men, no matter how much license he allows +himself, he is very exacting and fastidious about the demeanor of +his lady-love." + +"I shall not ask absolution of Mr. Dunbar, and I hope my womanly +intuitions are a safer and more refined guide, than any man's +fastidiousness. Remember, Aunt Patty, religion's holiest work +consists in ministering to souls steeped in sin. Are we too pure to +follow where Christ led the way?" + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +"Madam, I ordered the prisoner's head shaved. Did you understand my +instructions?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Why were my orders not obeyed?" + +"Because I don't intend you shall make a convict of her, before she +has been tried and sentenced. She has the most glorious suit of hair +I ever looked at, and I shall save it till the last moment. Doctor +Moffat, you need not swear and fume, for I don't allow even my +husband to talk ugly to me. You directed a blister put on the back +of the neck, as close as possible to the skull; it is there, and it +is drawing fast enough to satisfy any reasonable person. I divided +the hair into four braids and plaited them, and you can see I have +hung up the ends here just loose enough to save any pulling, and yet +the hair is out of the way, so that I keep her head cool with this +India-rubber ice-bag. I will be responsible for the blister." + +Mrs. Singleton spread her arms over the sick girl, as a hen shelters +her brood from a swooping hawk. + +"But, Susie, the Doctor knows better what is--" + +"Hush, Ned. Perhaps he does; but I 'detailed' myself to nurse this +case; and I don't propose to surrender all my common sense, and all +my womanly judgment, and maternal experience, in order to keep the +Doctor in a good humor. I will have my own head shaved before hers +shall be touched." + +Mr. Singleton discreetly withdrew from the conference, softly +closing the door behind him; and Doctor Moffat bent over the +thermometer with which he was testing the temperature. When he +raised his head, a kindly smile lurked in his deep set eyes: + +"I can't afford to quarrel with you, madam; you are too faithful and +watchful a nurse. After all, the chances are, that it will +ultimately make very little difference; she grows worse so rapidly. +I will come in again before bed-time, and meanwhile make no change +in the medicine." + +The warden's wife replenished the ice in a bowl, whence a tube +supplied the cap or bag on the head of the sufferer, and taking a +child's apron from her work-basket on the floor, resumed her sewing. +After a while, the door opened noiselessly, and glancing up, she saw +Mr. Dunbar. + +"May I come in?" + +"Yes. You need repentance; and this is a good place to begin." + +"Is there any change?" + +"Only for the worse. No need now to tip-toe; she is beyond being +disturbed by noise. I think the first sound she will notice, will be +the harps of the angels." + +"I trust the case is not so hopeless?" + +"Queer heart you must have! You are afraid she will slip through +your fingers, and get to heaven without the help of the gallows and +the black cap? Death cheats even the lawyers, sometimes, and seems +to be snatching at your prey. You don't believe in prayer, and you +have no time to waste that way. I do; and I get down here constantly +on my knees, and pray to my God to take this poor young thing out of +the world now, before you all convict her, and punish her for crimes +she never committed." + +"Madam, her conviction would grieve me as much as it possibly could +you; and unless she can vindicate herself, I earnestly hope she may +never recover her consciousness." + +The unmistakable sincerity of his tone surprised the little woman, +and scanning him keenly as he stood, hat in hand, at the foot of the +cot, her heart relented toward him. + +"You still consider her guilty?" + +"Since my last interview with her, I have arrived at no conclusion. +Whether she be innocent or guilty, is known only by her, and her +God. All human judgments in such cases are but guesses at the truth. +Is she entirely unconscious, or has she lucid intervals?" + +"Mr. Dunbar, on your honor as a gentleman, answer me. Are you here +hunting evidence on a death-bed? Would you be so diabolical as to +use against her any utterances of delirium?" The flash of his eyes +reminded her of the peculiar blue flame that leaps from a glowing +bed of anthracite coal; and she had her reply before his lips moved. + +"Am I a butcher, madam? Your insinuations are so insulting to my +manhood, that it is difficult for me to remember my interrogator is +a lady; doubly difficult for me to show you the courtesy your sex +demands. Sooner than betray the secrets of a sick room, or violate +the sanctity of the confidence which that poor girl's condition +enjoins, I would cut off my right arm." + +"I intend no discourtesy, sir; but my feelings are so deeply +enlisted, that I cannot stop to choose and pick phrases, in talking +to the person who caused that child to be shut up here. She thinks +you are the most vindictive and dangerous enemy she has; and I had +no reason to contradict her. Don't be offended, Mr. Dunbar." + +He deigned no answer, but the dilation of his thin nostrils, and the +stern contraction of his handsome lips, attested his wrath. Mrs. +Singleton rose and laid her fingers on his coat sleeve. + +"If I felt sure I could trust you--" + +"I decline your confidence. Madam, if I could only tell you, that +your vile suspicions are too contemptible to merit the indignation +they arouse, I should to some extent feel relieved." + +"Then having said it, I will let you off without an apology; and +wipe the slate, and start fresh. You are sensitive about your honor, +and I am determined to find out just how much it is worth. Trusting +you as an honorable gentleman, I am going to ask you to do something +for me, which may be of service to my patient; and I ask it, because +I have unlimited faith in your skill. Find out who 'Ricordo' is." + +"Why? I must thoroughly understand the import of whatever I +undertake, and if your reasons are too sacred to be communicated to +me, you must select some other agent. I do not solicit your +confidence, mark you; but I must know all, or nothing." + +"The day she was taken so ill, I was undressing her, and she looked +at me very strangely, and said she believed she was losing her mind. +Then she raised her hands and prayed: + +"'Lord, be merciful! Lord, seal my lips! Seal my lips!' + +"Since then she has not known me, but several times she cried out +'Ricordo'! Last night she sat up suddenly, and stared at something +she seemed to see right before her in the air. She shook her head at +first, and said--'Oh, no! it cannot be possible'. Then she clutched +at some invisible object, and a look of horror came into her eyes. +She struck her palms together, and I never heard such an agonizing +cry, 'There is no help! I must believe it--oh Ricordo!--Ricordo-- +Ricordo'. She fell back and shivered as if she had an ague. I tried +to soothe her, and told her she had a bad dream. She kept saying: +'Oh, horrible--it was, it was Ricordo!' Once, early this morning, +she pulled me down to her and whispered: 'Don't tell mother--it +would break her heart to know it was Ricordo!' She has not spoken +distinctly since, though she mutters to herself. Now, Mr. Dunbar, if +I did not feel as sure of her innocence as I am of my own, I should +never tell you this; but I want your aid to hunt and catch this +'Ricordo', because I am satisfied it will help to clear her." + +"Was it not 'Ricardo'?" + +"No, sir--it sounded as if spelled with an o not an a--and it was +'Ricordo'." + +"Ricardo is a proper name, but I am under the impression that +'Ricordo' is an Italian word that means simply a remembrance, a +souvenir, sometimes a warning. I am glad, however, to have the clue, +and I will do all I can to discover what connection exists between +that word, and the crime. Can you tell me nothing more?" + +"Sometimes she seems to be drawing and painting, and talks to her +father about pictures; and once she said: 'Hush! hush--mother is +ill. She must not know I died, because I promised her I would bear +everything. She made me promise'." + +At this moment the keen wail of a young child, summoned the warden's +wife to her own apartment, and Mr. Dunbar sat down in the rocking- +chair beside the iron cot. + +In that strange terra incognita, the realm of psychology, are there +hidden laws that defy alike the ravages of cerebral disease, and the +intuitions of the moral nature; inexorable as the atomic affinities, +the molecular attractions that govern crystallization? Is the day +dawning, when the phenomena of hypnotism will be analyzed and +formulated as accurately as the symbols of chemistry, or the +constituents of protoplasm, or the weird chromatics of spectroscopy? +Beryl's head, that hitherto had turned restlessly on its pillow, +became motionless; the closed eyes opened suddenly, fastened upon +the lawyer's; and some inexplicable influence impelled her to +stretch out her hand to him. + +"Tiberius, you have come for me." + +"I have come to ask if you are better to-day." + +Her burning fingers closed tightly over his, and the fever flame +lent an indescribable splendor to eyes that seemed to penetrate his +heart. Bending over her, he gently lifted a shining fold of hair +from her white temple, and still clasping her hand, said in a low +voice: + +"Beryl, do you know me? Are you better?" + +"Wait till I finish the sketch from San Michele. After I am hung, +you will sell it. The light is so lovely." + +Up and down, her right hand moved through the air, making imaginary +strokes as on canvas, but her luminous gaze, held by some powerful +fascination, never left his. The gray depths had darkened, swallowed +by the widening pupils that made them almost black; and as Mr. +Dunbar recognized the complete surrender of physical and mental +faculties, her helplessness stirred some unknown sea of tenderness +in the man's hard, practical, realistic nature. + +Phlegmatic rather than emotional, and wholly secretive, he had +accustomed himself to regard romantic ideality, and susceptibility +to sentimentality as a species of intellectual anaemia; holding +himself always thoroughly in hand, when subjected to the softening +influences that now and then invaded professional existence, and +melted the conventional selfish crust over the hearts of his +colleagues, as the warm lips and balmy breath of equatorial currents +kiss away the jagged ledges of drifting icebergs. In his laborious +life, that which is ordinarily denominated "love" had been so +insignificant a factor, that he had never computed its potentiality; +much less realized its tremendous importance in solving the problem +of his social, financial, and professional success. Beauty had not +allured, nor grace enthralled his fancy; and his betrothal was a +mere incident in the quiet tenor of business routine, a necessary +means for the accomplishment of a cherished plan. + +To-day, while those hot slender fingers clung to his, and he leaned +over the pillow, watching his victim, a rising tide surged, rolled +up from some unexplored ocean of strange sensations, and its +devouring waves threatened to demolish and engulf the stately +structure pride and ambition had combined to rear. A brilliant +alliance that insured great wealth, that promised a secure stepping- +stone to political preferment, was apparently a substantial bulwark +against the swelling billows of an unaccountable whim; yet he was +impotent to resist the yearning tenderness which impelled him to +forget all else, in one determined effort to rescue and shelter the +life he had been the chief agent in imperilling. Clear eyed, keen +witted, he did not for an instant deceive himself; and he knew that +neither compassion for misfortune, nor yet a chivalrous remorse for +having consigned a helpless woman to a dungeon, explained this new +emotion that threatened to dominate all others. + +Cool reason assured him that under existing entanglements, the +girl's speedy death would prove the most felicitous solution of this +devouring riddle, which so unexpectedly crossed his smooth path; +then what meant the vehement protest of his throbbing heart, the +passionate longing to snatch her from disease, and disgrace, and +keep her safe forever in the close cordon of his arms? + +The door was cautiously opened and closed, and noiselessly as a +phantom, Leo Gordon stood within the room. One swift survey enabled +her to grasp all the details. The small, comfortless, dismal +apartment, the barred narrow window, the bare floor, the low iron +cot in one corner, with its beautiful burden; the watching attitude +of the man, who for years had possessed her heart. Resting one elbow +on his knee, his chin leaned on his left hand, but the light fell +full on his handsome face, and she started, marvelled at the +expression of the brilliant eyes fixed upon the sufferer; eyes +suffused and eloquent with tenderness, never before seen in their +cold sparkling depths. + +Mighty indeed must be the compassion, evocative of that intense +yearning look in his usually guarded, irresponsive countenance. A +painfully humiliating sense of her own personal incompetence to +arouse the feeling, so legibly printed on her lover's features, +jarred upon Leo's heart like a twanging dissonance breaking the +harmonious flow of minor chords; but a noble pity strangled this +jealous thrill, and she softly approached the cot. + +The rustle of her dress attracted his attention, and glancing up, he +saw his betrothed at his side. One might have counted ten, while +they silently regarded each other; and as if conscious of having +unmasked some disloyalty, scarcely yet acknowledged to himself, +haughty defiance hardened and darkened his face. Involuntarily his +hold on Beryl's fingers tightened. + +"Prison wards are not proper fields for the cultivation and display +of Miss Gordon's amateur kid glove charity. I hope, at least, it was +a species of exaggerated high-flown sentimentality, rather than mere +feminine curiosity that tempted you to precincts revolting to the +delicacy and refinement with which my imagination invested you." + +"My motives I shall not submit to the crucible of your criticism; +and a little reflection will probably suggest to you, that perhaps +you are unduly enlarging the limits, and prematurely exercising the +rights of anticipated censorship. There are blunders that trench +closely upon the borders of crime, and if professional zeal has +betrayed you into the commission of a great wrong upon an innocent +woman, it is a sacred duty to your victim, as well as my privilege +as your betrothed, to alleviate her suffering as much as possible, +and to repair the injury for which you are responsible. When human +life and reputation are at stake, hypercritical fastidiousness is +less pardonable than the deplorable mistake that endangers both." + +"And if I have not blundered; and she be guilty?" + +"Then your presence here, can only be explained by motives so +malignant and contemptible, that I blush to ascribe them to you." + +"If I am morbidly sensitive about your line of conduct you should +understand and pardon my jealous espionage." + +"If I, realizing that you are act infallible, entertain a nervous +dread that unintentionally you may have inflicted an irreparable +wrong, you at least should not feel offended, because I am sensitive +as regards reflections upon your honor as a gentleman, and your +astuteness as a lawyer." + +Her fair face had flushed; his grew pale. + +"Leo, is this to be our first quarrel?" + +"If so, you are entitled to the role of protagonist." + +He put out his left hand, and took hers, while his right was closely +clasping one that lay upon the chintz coverlid. + +What strange obliquity of vision, what inscrutable perversity +possessed him, he asked himself, as he looked up at the slight +elegant figure, clad in costly camel's-hair garments, with Russian +sables wrapped about her delicate throat, with a long drifting plume +casting flickering shadows over her sweet flowerlike face; the +attractive embodiment of patrician birth and environment of riches, +and all that the world values most--then down at the human epitome +of wretchedness, represented by a bronze-crowned head, with +singularly magnetic eyes, crimsoned cheeks, and a perfect mouth, +whose glowing, fever-rouged lips were curved in a shadowy smile, as +she muttered incoherently of incidents, connected with the life of a +poverty-stricken adventuress? Was friendly fate flying danger +signals by arranging and accentuating this vivid contrast, in order +to recall his vagrant wits, to cement his wavering allegiance? + +He was a brave man, but he shivered slightly, as he confronted his +own insurgent and defiant heart; and involuntarily, his fingers +dropped Leo's, and his right hand tightened on the hot palm +throbbing against it. + +On that dark tossing main, where delirium drove Beryl's +consciousness to and fro like a rudderless wreck, did some +mysterious communion of spirits survive? Did some subtle mesmeric +current telegraph her soul, that her foul wrongs were at last +avenged? Whatever the cause, certainly a strangely clear, musical +laugh broke suddenly from her lovely lips, mingled with a triumphant +"Che sara, sara!" The heavy lids slowly drooped, the head turned +wearily away. + +Smothering a long drawn sigh, which his pride throttled, Mr. Dunbar +rose and stood beside his fiancee. + +"You have been feeling her pulse, how is the fever?" asked Leo. + +"About as high as it can mount. The pulse is frightfully rapid. I +did not even attempt to count it." + +"Mrs. Singleton tells me she is entirely unconscious--recognizes no +one." + +"At times, I think she has partly lucid glimpses; for instance, a +little while ago she called me 'Tiberius', the same appellation she +unaccountably bestowed on me the day of her preliminary examination. +Evidently she associates me with every cruel, brutal monster, and +even in delirium maintains her aversion." + +Miss Gordon's hand stole into his, pressing it gently in mute +attestation of sympathy. After a moment, she said in a low tone: + +"She is very beautiful. What a noble, pure face? How exquisitely +turned her white throat, and wrists, and hands." + +He merely inclined his head in assent. + +"It seems a profanation to connect the idea of crime with so lovely +and refined a woman. Lennox?" + +He turned, and looked into her brown eyes, which were misty with +tears. + +"Well, my dear Leo, what is burdening your generous heart?" + +"Do you, can you, believe her guilty? Her whole appearance is a +powerful protest." + +"Appearances are sometimes fatally false. I think you told me, that +the purest and loveliest face, guileless as an angel's, that you saw +in Europe, was a portrait of Vittoria Accoramboni; yet she was +veritably the 'White Devil', 'beautiful as the leprosy, dazzling as +the lightning'. Do I believe her guilty? From any other lips than +yours, I should evade the question; but I proudly acknowledge your +right to an expression of my opinion, when--" + +"I withdraw the question, because I arrogate no 'rights'. I merely +desire the privilege of sympathizing, if possible, with your views; +of sharing your anxiety in a matter involving such vital +consequences. Privilege is the gift of affection; right, the stern +allotment of law. Tell me nothing now; I shall value much more the +privilege of receiving your confidence unsolicited." + +He took both her hands, drew her close to him, and looked steadily +down into her frank tender eyes. + +"Thank you, my dear Leo. Only your own noble self could so +delicately seek to relieve me from a painful embarrassment; but our +relations invest you with both rights and privileges, which for my +sake at least, I prefer you should exercise. You must allow me to +conclude my sentence; you are entitled to my opinion--when matured. +As far as I am capable of judging, the evidence against her is-- +overwhelmingly condemnatory. I thought so before her arrest; +believed it when her preliminary examination ended, and subsequent +incidents strengthen and confirm that opinion; yet a theory has +dawned upon me, that may possibly lighten her culpability. I need +not tell you, that I feel acutely the responsibility of having +brought her here for trial, and especially of her present pitiable +condition, which causes me sleepless nights. If she should live, I +shall make some investigation in a distant quarter, which may to +some extent exculpate her, by proving her an accessory instead of +principal. My--generous Leo, you shall be the first to whom I +confide my solution--when attained. I am sorely puzzled, and +harassed by conflicting conjectures; and you must be patient with +me, if I appear negligent or indifferent to the privileges of that +lovely shrine where my homage is due." + +"If you felt less keenly the distressing circumstances surrounding +you, I should deeply regret my misplaced confidence in your +character; and certainly you must acquit me of the selfishness that +could desire to engross your attention at this juncture." + +Desirous of relieving him of all apprehension relative to a possible +misconstruction of his motives and conduct, she left one hand in +his, and laid the other with a caressing touch on his arm; an +unprecedented demonstration, which at any other time would have +surprised and charmed him. + +"Ah, what a melancholy sight! So much delicate refined beauty, in +this horrible lair of human beasts! Lennox, let us hope that the +mercy of God will call her speedily to His own bar of justice, +before she suffers the torture and degradation of trial, by earthly +tribunals." + +She felt the slight shudder that crept over him, the sudden start +with which he dropped her hand, and bent once more over the cot. + +"God forbid she should die now, leaving the burden of her murder on +my soul!" + +His countenance was averted, but the ferver of his adjuration filled +her with a vague sense of painful foreboding. + +"Is it friendly to desire the preservation of a life, whose probable +goal seems the gallows, or perpetual imprisonment? Poor girl! In the +choice of awful alternatives, death would come here as an angel of +mercy." + +Leo took Beryl's hand in hers, and tears filled her eyes as she +noted the symmetry of the snowy fingers, the delicate arch of the +black brows, the exceeding beauty of the waving outline where the +rich mahogany-hued hair touched the forehead and temples, that +gleamed like polished marble. + +"Is it friendly to wish an innocent girl to go down into her grave, +leaving a name stained for all time by suspicion, if not absolute +conviction of a horrible crime?" + +Mr. Dunbar spoke through set teeth, and Leo's astonishment at the +expression of his countenance, delayed an answer, which was +prevented by the entrance of Mrs. Singleton. + +"Miss Gordon, your uncle wishes to know whether you are ready to go +home; as he has an engagement that calls him away?" + +Did Leo imagine the look of relief that seemed to brighten Mr. +Dunbar's face, as he said promptly: + +"With your permission, I will see you safely down stairs, and commit +you to Judge Dent's care." + +Standing beside the cot, she watched Mrs. Singleton measure the +medicine from a vial into a small glass. When the warden's wife +knelt down, and putting one arm under the pillow elevated it +slightly, while she held the glass to the girl's lips, Beryl +attempted to push it aside. + +"Take it for me, dear child; it will make you sleep, and ease your +pain." + +The beautiful eyes regarded her wistfully, then wandered to the face +of the lawyer and rested, spellbound. + +"Here, swallow this. It is not bad to take." + +Mrs. Singleton patted her cheek and again essayed to administer the +draught, but without success. + +"Let me try." + +Mr. Dunbar took the glass, but as he bent down, the girl began to +shiver as though smitten with a mortal chill. She writhed away, put +out her shuddering hands to ward it off; and starting up, her eyes +filled with a look of indescribable horror and loathing, as she +cried out: + +"Ricordo! Oh, mother--it is Ricordo! I see, it! Father--it was my +Pegli handkerchief!--with the fuchsias you drew! Father--ask Christ +to pity me!" + +She sank back quivering with dread, pitiable to contemplate; but +after a few moments her hands sought each other, and her trembling +lips moved evidently in prayer, though the petition was inaudible. +Mrs. Singleton sponged her forehead with iced water, and by degrees +the convulsive shivering became less violent. The wise nurse began +in a subdued tone to sing slowly, "Nearer my God to Thee," and after +a little while, the sufferer grew still, the heavy lids lifted once +or twice, then closed, and the laboring brain seized on some new +vision in the world of fevered dreams. + +Mrs. Singleton took the medicine from the attorney, and put it +aside. + +"Sleep is her best physic. When these nervous shivers come on, I +find a hymn chanted, soothes her as it does one of my babies. Poor +child! she makes my heart ache so sometimes, that I want to scream +the pain away. How people with any human nature left in them, can +look at her and listen to her pitiful cries to her dead father, and +her dying mother, and her far-off God, and then believe that her +poor beautiful hands could shed blood, passes my comprehension; and +all such ought to go on four feet, and browse like other brutes. I +am poor, but I vow before the Lord, that I would not stand in your +shoes, Mr. Dunbar, for all the gold in the Government vaults, and +all the diamonds in Brazil." + +Tears were dripping on the costly furs about Leo's neck, as she +moved closer to the attorney, and linked her arm in his: + +"Mr. Dunbar, we will detain my uncle no longer. Mrs. Singleton has +told me, that one of her children is ill, had a spasm last night; +and since maternal duties are most imperative, it is impossible for +her to give undivided attention to this poor sufferer. If you will +kindly take me down stairs, I will call at the 'Sheltering Arms', +and secure the services of one of the 'Sisters' who is an +experienced nurse. This will relieve Mrs. Singleton, and we shall +all feel assured that our poor girl has careful and tender watching, +and every comfort that anxious sympathy can provide." + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +It was midnight in November, keenly cold, but windless; and in the +purplish sky, the wintry crown of stars burned with silvery lustre, +unlike the golden glow of constellations throbbing in sultry summer, +and their white fires sparkled, flared as if blown by interstellar +storms. The large family of Lazarus huddled over dying embers on +darkening hearths, and shivered under scanty shreds of covering; but +the house of Dives was alight with the soft radiance of wax candles, +fragrant with the warm aroma of multitudinous exotics, and brimming +with waves of riotous music, on which merry-hearted favorites of +fashion swam in measured mazes. The "reception" given by Judge +Parkman to the Governor and his staff, on the occasion of a review +of State troops at X--, was at its height; and several counties had +been skimmed for the creme de la creme of most desirable +representatives of wit, wealth and beauty. + +Miss Gordon had arrived unusually late, and as she entered the room, +leaning on her uncle's arm, she noticed that Mr. Dunbar was the +centre of a distinguished group standing under the chandelier. He +was gently fanning his hostess, who stood beside the Governor, and +evidently he was narrating some spicy incident, or uttering some +pungent witticism, whereat all laughed heartily. The light fell full +on his fine figure, which rose above all surrounding personages, and +was faultlessly apparelled in evening dress; and Leo's heart filled +with tender pride, at the consciousness that he was all her own. The +exigencies of etiquette prevented for more than an hour any nearer +approach, but when Mr. Dunbar had rendered "Caesar's things" to +social Caesar, and paid tribute of bows, smiles, compliments and +persiflage into the coffer of custom, he made his way through the +throng, to the spot where his betrothed stood resting after her +third dance. + +"Will Miss Gordon grant me a promenade in lieu of the dance, which +misfortunes conspired to prevent me from securing earlier in the +evening?" + +He drew her hand under his arm, and his eyes ran with proprietorial +freedom over the details of her costume, pale blue satin, creamy +foam of white lace, soft sheen of large pearls, and bouquet of +exquisite half blown La France roses. + +Since their betrothal, he had claimed the privilege of sending the +flowers she wore, on special occasions, and she had invariably +expressed her appreciation through the dainty lips of a boutonniere +arranged by her own fingers. Now while he recognized the roses +resting on her corsage, her eyes dwelt on her favorite double lilac +violets, nestling in the buttonhole of his coat. + +"You were very late to-night. I loitered in ambush about the +precincts of the dressing-room, hoping for the pleasure of +conducting you down-stairs; but 'the best laid schemes o' mice and +men gang aft aglee', and I became the luckless prey of similar +tactics. That marauding Tomyris, Mrs. Halsey, sallied out at the +head of her column of daughters, espied me lurking behind the +portiere, and proclaiming her embarras de richesse, 'paid me the +compliment' of consigning one fair campaigner, Miss Eloise Hermione, +to my care. Fancy the strain on courtesy, as I accepted my 'quite +unexpected good fortune'!" + +He spoke with a nervous rapidity, at variance with his usual +imperturbable deliberateness of manner, and she thought she had +never seen his eyes so restless and brilliant. + +"I was unusually late, owing to the fact that the Governor and staff +dined with Uncle Mitchell, and they lingered so long over their +cigars and wine, that I was delayed in the drawing-room, waiting for +them; consequently was very late in changing my dress. We were sorry +you were prevented from joining us. Uncle pronounced the dinner a +perfect success; and certainly Governor Glenbeigh was in his +happiest mood, and particularly agreeable." + +"Given his hostess, and entourage, could he possibly have been less? +Rumor's hundred tongues wag with the announcement, that his +Excellency is no longer inconsolable for his wife's death; and +desires to testify to the happiness of conjugal relations, by a +renewal of the sweet bondage; a curiously subtile compliment to the +deceased. If I may be pardoned the enormity of the heresy, I think +Shakspeare blundered supremely, when he gave Iago's soul to a man. +Diabolical cunning, shrewd malevolence pure and simple, armed with +myriads of stings for hypodermic incisions that poison a man's +blood, should be appropriately costumed in a moss-green velvet robe, +should wear frizzled bangs as yellow as yonder bouquet of Marechal +Neils, so suggestive of the warning flag flying over pest-houses!" + +"It is very evident you are not equally generous in surrendering the +amiability of Timon, along with the depravity of Iago, to the +arsenal of feminine weapons. What corroding mildew of discontent has +fallen from Mrs. Parkman's velvet dress, and rusted the bright blade +of your chivalry?" + +"The very breath of Iago, filling my ears and firing my heart with +the architectural details of her coveted 'castle in Spain.' +Glenbeigh is her cousin. The ladder of his preferment is set up +before my eyes, and his Excellency springs up the rounds, from +Governor to Senatorship, thence to a place in the Cabinet, certainly +to an important foreign embassy; where, in the eternal fitness of +things, somebody, somebody with tender brown eyes like a thrush's, +and the voice of a siren, and the red lips of Hebe--will be invited +to reign as l'ambassadrice! If I am not as mad with jealous despair +as Othello, attribute my escape either to a sublime faith in your +adorable constancy and incorruptibility, or to my own colossal +vanity, fatuous beyond absolution." + +He pressed her arm closer to his side, and covered with one hand the +gloved fingers resting on his sleeve; then added: + +"You must permit me to congratulate you upon your beautiful toilette +to-night. The harmony of the dress, and the grace of the wearer +leave nothing to be desired. Although debarred the pleasure of +dining with you, I had hoped to enter, at least, with the coffee, +but the freight train upon which I returned, was delayed; and I had +no choice but to await your arrival here." + +He indulged so rarely in verbal compliments, that she flushed with +profound gratification at flip fervor of his tone. + +"I am glad you like my dress, to which your roses lend the loveliest +garniture. I was not aware that X--could furnish at this season such +superb La France buds. Where did you find them?" + +"They travelled several hundred miles, for the privilege of nestling +against my Leo's heart." + +Spartan thieves are not the only heroic sufferers who smile and make +no moan, clasping close the hidden fangs ravening on their vitals. + +"As you mentioned in your note that very important business had +called you unexpectedly away, I hope your mission proved both +pleasant and successful." + +A shadow drifted over his countenance, like that cast by some summer +cloud long becalmed, which sets sail before a sudden gust. + +"Only a modicum of success to counterbalance the disagreeable +features of a journey in a freight train caboose." + +"Why do you hazard that dangerous schedule, instead of waiting for +the passenger express?" + +"Business exigencies narrow the limits of choice; moreover, had I +waited for the express, I should have missed the coveted pleasure of +this meeting with you. The rosy glamour of happy anticipation +conquers even the discomfort of a freight caboose." + +Did she suspect that some sullen undercurrent of intense feeling +drove these eddying foam bells of flattery into the stream of +conversation; or was her reply merely a chance ricochet shot, more +accurately effective than direct fire? + +"This afternoon I had a note from Sister Serena, asking for a few +articles conducive to the comfort of a sick room; and I really +cannot determine whether we should feel regret, or relief at the +tidings that that unfortunate girl--can scarcely--" + +"Spare me the Egyptian mummy at my feast! The memento mori when I +would fain forget. Let me inhale the perfume of your roses, without +hearing that possibly a worm battens on their petals. Will you ride +with me tomorrow afternoon?" + +"I am sorry that an engagement to dine will prevent, as the +afternoons are so short." + +"Are you going to the Percy's?" + +"Yes. Will you not be there?" + +"Too bad! I have just declined attending that dinner, because I had +planned the horseback ride. Formerly fate seemed to smile upon me; +now she shows herself a scowling capricious beldam. I have lost this +evening, waiting to see you, and now, I must steal away unnoticed; +because of an important matter which admits of no delay. Have you +promised to dance with Mayfield? Here he comes. Good-night, my dear +Leo, expect to see me at 'The Lilacs' at the earliest possible +moment." + +Unobserved he made his escape, and hurried away. At a livery stable +he stopped to order his horse saddled, and brought to his door, and +a few moments later, stood before the grate in his law office, where +the red glow of the coals had paled under ashy veils. From the +letter-rack over the mantel, he took a note containing only a line: + +"She has reached the crisis. We have no hope." +"SINGLETON." + +In the hot embers, it smoked, shrivelled, disappeared; and the +attorney crossed his arms over his chest to crush back the heavy +sigh struggling for escape. The long overcoat buttoned from throat +to knee, enhanced his height, and upon his stern, handsome features +had settled an expression of sorrowful perplexity; while his keen +eyes showed the feverish restlessness that, despite his efforts, +betrayed heartache. Above the heads of the gay throng he had just +left, he had seen all that evening a slender white hand beckoning to +him from the bars of a dungeon; and dominating the music of the ball +room, the laughter of its dancers, had risen the desperate, accusing +cry: + +"You have ruined my life!" + +Was it true, that his hand had dashed a foul blot of shame upon the +fall pure page of a girl's existence, and written there the fatal +finis? If she died, could he escape the moral responsibility of +having been her murderer? Amid the ebb and flow of conflicting +emotions, one grim fact stared at him with sardonic significance. If +he had ruined her life, retribution promptly exacted a costly +forfeit; and his happiness was destined to share her grave. + +He neither analyzed nor understood the nature of the strange +fascination which he had ineffectually striven to resist; and he +ground his teeth, and clinched his hands with impotent rage, under +the stinging and humiliating consciousness that his unfortunate +victim had grappled his heart to hers, and would hold it forever in +bondage. No other woman had ever stirred the latent and unsuspected +depths of his tenderness; but at the touch of her hand, the flood +burst forth, sweeping aside every barrier of selfish interest, +defying the ramparts of worldly pride. Guilty or innocent, he loved +her; and the wretchedness he had inflicted, was recoiling swiftly +upon himself. + +Unbuttoning his overcoat, he took from an inside pocket, the torn +half of a large envelope, and unlocking the drawer of his desk, +hunted for a similar fragment. Spreading them out before him, he +fitted the zigzag edges with great nicety, and there lay the well- +known superscription: "Last Will and Testament of Robert Luke +Darrington." One corner of the last found bit was brown and mud- +stained, but the handwriting was in perfect preservation. As he +stooped to put it all back in a secret drawer, something fell on the +floor. He picked up the dainty boutonniere of pale sweet violets, +and looked at it, while a frown darkened his countenance, as though +he recognized some plenipotentiary pleading for fealty to a sacred +compact. + +"Poor Leo! how little she suspects disloyalty. How infinite is her +trust, and what a besotted ingrate I am!" + +He tossed the accusing flowers into the grate, took his riding-whip +and went down to the door, where his horse was champing the bit, and +pawing with impatience. Along the deserted streets, out of the +sleeping town, he rode toward the long stone bridge that spanned the +winding river. When he had reached the centre, his horse darted +aside, because of the sudden leap of a black cat from the coping of +the nearest pier, whence she sped on, keeping just ahead of him. The +spectral sickle of a waning moon hung on the edge of the sky, and up +and down the banks of the stream floated phantoms of silvery mist, +here covering the water with impalpable wreaths, and there drifting +away to enable Andromeda to print her starry image on the glassy +surface. + +Behind stretched the city, marked by lines of gas lamps; in front +rose the hill clothed with forests; and frowning down upon the +rider, the huge shadow of the dismal dungeon crouched like a +stealthy beast ready to spring upon him. Dark as the deeds of its +inmates, the mass of stone blotted the sky, save in one corner, +where a solitary light shone through iron lattice work. Was it a +beacon of hope, or did the rays fall on features cold under the kiss +of death? + +Spurring his horse up the rocky hill, Mr. Dunbar was greeted by the +baying of two bloodhounds within the enclosure; and soon after, Mr. +Singleton conducted him up the steps leading to the room where Beryl +had been placed. + +"She is alive; that is all. The doctor said she could not last till +midnight, but it is now half-past one; and my wife has never lost +hope. She has sent the nurse off to get some sleep, and you will +find Susie in charge." + +The hazel eyes of the gaoler's wife were humid with tears, as she +glanced up at the attorney, and motioned him to the low chair she +vacated. + +"I knew you would come, and when I heard you gallop across the +bridge, I sent Sister Serena off to bed. There is nothing to be done +now, but watch and pray. If she ever wakes in this world she will be +rational, and she will get well. The nurse thinks she will pass away +in this stupor; but I have faith that she will not die, until she +clears her name." + +Nature makes some women experts in the fine art of interpreting +countenance and character, and by a mysterious and unerring +divination, Mrs. Singleton knew that her visitor desired no +companion in his vigils; hence, after flitting about the room for a +few moments, she added: + +"If you will sit here a while, I can look after my babies. Should +any change occur, tap at my door; I shall not be long away." + +What a melancholy change in the sleeper, during the few days of his +absence; how much thinner the hollow cheek, how sunken the closed +eyes; how indescribably sharpened the outlines of each feature. The +face which had formerly suggested some marble statue, had now the +finer tracery as of an exquisite cameo; and oblivion of all earthly +ills had set there the seal of a perfect peace. She lay so +motionless, with her hands on her breast, that Mr. Dunbar bent his +head close to hers, to listen to her respiration; but no sound was +audible, and when his ear touched her lips, their coldness sent a +shiver of horror through his stalwart frame. Pure as the satin folds +of an annunciation lily pearled with dew, was the smooth girlish +brow, where exhaustion hung heavy drops; and about her temples the +damp hair clung in glossy rings, framing the pallid, deathlike face. + +At her wrist, the fluttering thread eluded his grasp, and kneeling +beside the cot, he laid his head down on her breast, dreading to +find no pulsation; but slow and faint, he felt the tired heart beat +feebly against his cheek; and tears of joy, that reason could +neither explain nor justify, welled up and filled his eyes. Leaning +his head on her pillow, he took one hand between both his, and +watched the profound sleep that seemed indeed twin sister of death. + +Softened by distance came the deep mellow sound of the city clock +striking two. Down among the willows fringing the river bank, some +lonely water-fowl uttered its plaintive cry, whereat the bloodhounds +bayed hoarsely; then velvet-sandalled silence laid her soothing +touch upon the world, and softly took all nature into her restful +arms. + +In the searching communion which he held with his own heart, during +that solemn watch, Mr. Dunbar thrust aside all quibbles and +disguises, and accepted as unalterable, two conclusions. + +She was innocent of crime, and he loved her; but she knew who had +committed the murder, and would suffer rather than betray the +criminal. The conjecture that she was shielding a lover, was +accompanied by so keen a pang of jealous pain, that it allowed him +no room to doubt the nature or intensity of the feeling which she +had inspired. + +In her wan loveliness, she seemed as stainless as a frozen snowdrop, +and while his covetous gaze dwelt upon her he felt that he could lay +her in her coffin now, with less suffering, than see her live to +give her brave heart to any other man. To lift her spotless and +untrampled from the mire of foul suspicion, where his hand had +hurled her, was the supreme task to which he proposed to devote his +energies; but selfishness was the sharpest spur; she must be his, +only his, otherwise he would prefer to see her in the arms of death. + +So the night waned; and twice, when the warden's wife stole to the +door, he lilted his head and waved her back. When the clock in the +tower struck four, he felt a slight quiver in the fingers lying +within his palm, and Beryl's face turned on the pillow, bringing her +head against his shoulder. Was it the magnet of his touch drawing +her unconsciously toward him, or merely the renewal of strength, +attested already by the quickened throb of the pulse that beat under +his clasp? By degrees her breathing became audible to his strained +ear, and once a sigh, such as escapes a tired child, told that +nature was rallying her physical forces, and that the tide was +turning. Treacherous to his plighted troth, and to the trusting +woman whom he had assiduously wooed and won, he yielded to the +hungry yearning that possessed him, and suddenly pressed his lips to +Beryl's beautiful mouth. Under that fervent touch, consciousness +came back, and the lids lifted, the dull eyes looked into his with +drowsy wonder. Stepping swiftly to the door which stood ajar, he met +Mrs. Singleton, and put his hand on her shoulder. + +"She is awake, and will soon be fully conscious, but perfect quiet +is the only safeguard against relapse. When she remembers, leave her +as much alone as possible, and answer no questions." + +Holding her baby on her breast, Mrs. Singleton whispered: + +"Put out the lamp, so that she can see nothing to remind her." + +As he took his hat, and put his hand on the lamp, he looked back at +the cot, and saw the solemn eyes fixed upon him. He extinguished the +light, and passed into the room where Susie Singleton stood waiting. + +"She will not know Sister Serena, and for a day or two I will keep +out of sight when she is awake. Mr. Dunbar, God has done His part, +now see that you do yours. Have you found out who 'Ricordo' is?" + +"Certainly, it is a thing; not a person. As yet the word has given +no aid." + +"Then you have discovered nothing new during your absence?" + +"Yes, I have found the missing half of the envelope which contained +General Darrington's will; but ask me no questions at present. For +her sake, I must work quietly. Send me a note at twelve o'clock, +that I may know her exact condition, and the opinion of the doctor. +Has nothing been heard from Dyce?" + +"As far as I know, not a syllable." + +They shook hands, and once more Mr. Dunbar sprang into his saddle. +Overhead the constellations glowed like crown jewels on black +velvet, but along the eastern horizon, where the morning-star +burned, the sky had blanched; and the air was keen with the +additional iciness that always precedes the dawn. Earth was powdered +with rime, waiting to kindle into diamonds when the sun smote its +flower crystals, and the soft banners of white fog trailed around +the gray arches and mossy piers of the old bridge. At a quick gallop +Mr. Dunbar crossed the river, passed through the heart of the city, +and slackened his pace only when he found himself opposite the +cemetery, on the road leading to "Elm Bluff." As the iron gate +closed behind him, he walked his horse, up the long avenue, and when +he fastened him to the metal ring in the ancient poplar, which stood +sentinel before the deserted House, the deep orange glow that paves +the way for coming suns, had dyed all the sky, blotting out the +stars; and the new day smiled upon a sleeping world. The peacock +perched upon the balustrade of the terrace greeted him vociferously, +and after some moments his repeated knock was answered by the +cautious opening of the front door, and Bedney's gray head peered +out. + +"Lord--Mars Lennox! Is it you? What next? 'Pears to me, there's +nothing left to happen; but howsomever, if ther's more to come, tell +us what's to pay now?" + +"Bedney, I want you to help me in a little matter, where your +services may be very valuable; and as it concerns your old master's +family, I am sure you will gladly enter into my plan--" + +"Bless your soul, Mars Lennox, you are too good a lieyer to be shore +of anything, but the undertaker and the tax collector. I am so old +and broke down in sperrits, that you will s'cuse me from undertaking +of any jobs, where I should be obleeged to pull one foot out'en the +grave before I could start. I ain't ekal to hard work now, and like +the rest of wore-out stock, I am only worth my grabs in old fields." + +Sniffing danger, Bedney warily resolved to decline all overtures, by +taking refuge in his decrepitude; but the attorney's steady +prolonged gaze disconcerted him. + +"You have no interest, then, in discovering the wretch who murdered +your master? That is rather suspicious." + +"What ain't 'spicious to you, Mars Lennox? It comes as natchal to +you to 'spicion folks, as to eat or sleep, and it's your trade. You +believe I know something that I haven't tole; but I swear I done +give up everything to Mars Alfred; and if my heart was turned inside +out, and scraped with a fine-tooth comb, it wouldn't be no cleaner +than what it is. I know if I was lying you would ketch me, and I +should own up quick; 'cause your match doesn't go about in human +flesh; but all the lancets and all the doctors can't git no blood +out'en a turnup." + +"You are quite willing, then, to see General Darrington's +granddaughter suffer for the crime?" + +"'Fore Gord! Mars Lennox, you don't tote fair! 'Pears to me you are +riding two horses. Which side is you on?" + +"Always on the side of justice and truth, and it is to help your +poor young mistress that I came to see you; but it seems you are too +superannuated to stretch out your hand and save her." + +"Ain't you aiming to prove she killed old marster? That's what you +sot out to do; and tarrapin's claws are slippery, compared to your +grip, when you take holt." + +The old negro stood with his white head thrown back, and unfeigned +perplexity printed on his wrinkled features, while he scanned the +swart face, where a heavy frown gathered. + +"I set out this morning to find a faithful, old family servant, +whose devotion has never before been questioned; but evidently I +have wasted my confidence as well as my time. Where is Dyce? She is +worth a hundred superannuated cowards." + +"Don't call no names, Mars Lennox. If there's one mean thing I +nachally despises as a stunnin' insult, it's being named white- +livered; and my Confederate record is jest as good as if I wore +three gilt stars on my coat collar. You might say I was a liar and a +thief, and maybe I would take it as a joke; but don't call Bedney +Darrington no coward! It bruises my feelins mor'n I'le stand. Lem'me +tell you the Gord's truth; argufying with lie-yers is wuss than +shootin' at di-dappers, and that is sport I don't hanker after. I +ain't spry enuff to keep up with the devil, when you are whipping +him around the stump; and I ain't such a forsaken idjut as to jump +in the dark. Tell me straight out what you want me to do. Tote fair, +Mars Lennox." + +"I am about to offer a reward of two hundred and fifty dollars, and +I thought I would allow you privately the opportunity of securing +the money, before I made it public. Where is Dyce?" + +"You might as well ax the man in the moon. The only satisfaction she +gin me when she left home, was--she was gwine to New York to hunt +for Miss Ellie. I tole her she was heading for a wild goose chase, +and her answer signified she was leaving all of them fowls behind. +If she was here, she'd be only a 'clean chip in your homny pot'; for +she wouldn't never touch your job with a forty-foot pole, and what's +more, she'd tie my hands. I ain't afeard of my ole 'oman, but I +respects her too high to cross her; and if ever you git married, you +will find it's a mighty good rule to 'let sleeping dogs lay'. Who do +you expect me to ketch for two hundred and fifty dollars?" + +"A lame negro man, about medium size, who was seen carrying a bundle +on the end of a stick, and who was hanging about the railroad +station on the night of General Darrington's death. He probably +lives on some plantation south of town, as he was travelling in that +direction, after the severe storm that night. I want him, not +because he had any connection with your master's murder, but to +obtain from him a description of a strange white man, whom he +directed to the railroad water-tank. If you can discover that lame +negro, and bring him to my office, I will pay you two hundred and +fifty dollars, and give him a new suit of clothes. The only hope for +General Darrington's granddaughter is in putting that man on the +witness stand, to corroborate her statement of a conversation which +she heard. This is Wednesday. I will give you until Saturday noon to +report. If you do not succeed I shall then advertise. If you wish to +save Miss Brentano, help me to find that man." + +He swung himself into the saddle, and rode away, leaving Bedney +staring after him, in pitiable dubiety as to his own line of duty. + +"Wimmen are as hard to live peaceable with as a hatful of hornets, +but the'r brains works spryer even than the'r tongues; and they do +think as much faster 'an a man, as a express train beats er eight +ox-team. Dyce is the safest sign-post! If she was only here now, I +couldn't botch things, for she sees clare through a mill-stone, and +she'd shove me the right way. If I go a huntin', I may flounder into +a steel trap; if I stand still, wuss may happen. Mars Lennox is too +much for me. I wouldn't trust him no further 'n I would a fat +possum. I am afeard of his oily tongue. He sot out to hang that poor +young gal, and now he is willing to pay two hundred and fifty +dollars to show the court he was a idjut and a slanderer! I ain't +gwine to set down on no such spring gun as that! Dyce ought to be +here. When Mars Lennox turns summersets in the court, before the +judge, I don't want to belong to his circus--but, oh Lord! If I +could only find out which side he raily is on?" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +During the early stages of her convalescence, Beryl, though +perfectly rational, asked no questions, made no reference to her +gloomy surroundings and maintained a calm, but mournful taciturnity, +very puzzling to Mrs. Singleton, who ascribed it at first to mental +prostration, which rendered her comparatively obtuse; but ere long, +a different solution presented itself, and she marvelled at the +silence with which a desperate battle was fought. With returning +consciousness, the prisoner had grasped the grievous burden of her +fate, unflinchingly lifted and bound it upon her shoulders; and +though she reeled and bent under it, made no moan, indulged no +regret, uttered no invective. + +One cold dismal day, when not a rift was visible in the leaden sky, +and a slanting gray veil of sleety rain darkened the air and pelted +the dumb, shivering earth, Beryl sat on the side of her cot, with +her feet resting on the round of a chair, and her hands clasped at +the back of her head. Her eyes remarkably large from the bluish +circles illness had worn beneath them, were fixed in a strained, +unwinking, far-away gaze upon the window, where black railing showed +the outside world as through some grim St. Lawrence's gridiron. + +From time to time the warden's wife glanced from her sewing toward +the motionless figure, reluctant to obtrude upon her revery, yet +equally loath to leave her a prey to melancholy musing. After a +while, she saw the black lashes quiver, and fall upon the waxen +cheeks, then, as she watched, great tears glittered, rolled slowly, +dripped softly, but there was no sigh, no sound of sobs. Leaning +closer, she laid her arm across the girl's knee. + +"What is it, dearie? Tell me." + +There was no immediate reply; when Beryl spoke, her voice was calm, +low and measured, as in one where all the springs of youth, hope, +and energy are irreparably broken. + +"Every Gethsemane has its strengthening Angels. The agony of the +Garden brought them to Christ. I thank God, mine did not fail me. If +they had not come, I think I could never have borne this last misery +that earth can inflict upon me. My mother is dead." + +"Why distress yourself with sad forebodings? Weakness makes you +despondent, but you must try to hope for the best; and I dare say in +a few days, you will have good news from your mother." + +"I shook hands with Hope, and in her place sits the only companion +who will abide with me during the darkness that is coming on-- +Patience, pale-browed, meek-eyed, sad-lipped Patience. If I can only +keep my hold upon her skirts, till the end. To me, no good news can +ever come. As long as mother lived, I had an incentive to struggle; +now I am alone, and they who thirst for my blood are welcome to take +it speedily. I know my mother is dead; I have seen her." + +"Wake up, child. Your brain is weak yet and full of queer delirious +visions, and when you doze, realities and dreams are all jumbled +together. You have a deal too much sense to harbor any crazy +spiritual crankiness. Take your wine, and lie down. You have sat up +too long, and tired yourself." + +"No. I have wanted to tell you for several days, because you have +been so good, and I have heard you praying here at night that God +would be merciful to me; but I waited until I had strength to be +calm. I have lain here day after day, and night after night, face to +face with desolation and despair, and now I have grown accustomed to +the horror. I know that in this world there is no escape, no help, +no hope; so--the worst is over. When you consent to fate, and +stretch out your arms to meet death, there is no more terror, only +waiting, weary waiting. I am not superstitious, and unfortunately I +am not one of the victims of dementia, whose spectral woes are born +of disordered brains. I am sadly sane; and what I am about to tell +you is no figment of feverish fancy. I do not know how long I have +been sick, but one night great peace and ease came suddenly upon me. +I swung in some soft tender arms, close to the gates of Release, and +the iron bars melted away, and my soul was borne toward the +wonderful light; but suddenly a shock, a strange thrill ran through +me, and the bars rose again, and the light faded. Then all at once +my father and my mother stood beside me, bent over me. Father said: +'Courage, my daughter, courage! Bear your cross a little longer,' My +mother wept, and said, 'My good little girl. So faithful, so true. I +died in peace, trusting your promise. For my sake can you endure +till the end?' They faded away; and sorrow sat down once more, +clutching my heart; and death, the Angel who keeps the key of the +Gate of Release, turned his back upon me. I had almost escaped; I +was close to the other world, and I was conscious. I saw my mother's +spirit; it was no delirious fancy. I know that she is dead. Even in +the world of the released, she grieves over the awful consequences +of my obedience to her wishes. Mortal agony of body and soul brings +us so near to the borderland, that we have glimpses; and those we +love, lean across the boundary line and compassionate us. So my +Gethsemane called down the one strengthening Angel of all the +heavenly hosts, who had most power to comfort my heart, and gird me +for my fate, my father, my noble father. God, in pity, sent him to +exhort me to bear my cross bravely." + +The low solemn voice ceased, and in the silence that followed, only +the dull patter of the rain, and the persistent purring of a kitten +curled up on the cot were audible. Mrs. Singleton finished the +buttonhole in Dick's apron, and threaded her needle. + +"If it comforts you at all to believe that, I have no right to say +anything." + +"You think, however, that I am the victim of some hallucination?" + +"Not even that. I think you had a very vivid dream, and being +exhausted, you mistook a feverish vision for a real apparition. I +can't believe your mother is dead, because if such were the case, +Dyce would have returned at once, and told us." + +"Dyce has a kind heart, and shrinks from bringing me the sad news; +for she knows my cup was already full. I know that my mother is +dead. Time will show you that I make no mistake. The veil was +lifted, and I saw beyond." + +"Maybe so; may be not. I am stubborn in my opinions, and I never +could think it possible for flesh to commune with spirits. Don't let +us talk about anything that disturbs you, until you regain your +strength. Why will you not try a little of this port wine? Miss +Gordon brought it yesterday, and insisted I should give it to you, +three times a day. It is very old and mellow. Look at things +practically. God kept you alive for some wise purpose, and since you +are obliged to face trouble, is it not better to arm yourself with +all the physical vigor possible? Drink this, and lie down." + +As Beryl mechanically drained the glass and handed it back, Mrs. +Singleton added: + +"I believe I told you, Miss Gordon is Mr. Dunbar's sweetheart. Their +engagement is no secret, and he is a lucky man; for she is as good +as she is pretty, and as sweet as she is rich. She has shown such a +tender interest in you, and manifests so much sympathy, that I am +sure she will influence him in your favor, and I feel so encouraged +about your future." + +A shadowy smile crossed the girl's wan face, + +"Invest no hope in my future; for escape is as impossible for me, as +for that innocent victim foreordained to entangle his horns in the +thicket on Mount Moriah. He could have fled from the sacrificial +fire, and from Abraham's uplifted knife, back to dewy green pastures +poppy-starred, back to some cool dell where Syrian oleanders flushed +the shade, as easily as I can defy these walls, loosen the chain of +fate, elude my awful doom." + +"It is because you are not yet yourself, that you take such a +despairing view of matters. After a while, things will look very +different, and you are too plucky to surrender your life without a +brave fight. A great change has come over Mr. Dunbar, and there is +no telling what he cannot do, when he sets to work. If ever a +lawyer's heart has been gnawed by remorse, it is his. He and Miss +Gordon together can pull you out of the bog, and I believe they +will." + +"Mr. Dunbar's professional reputation is more precious in his sight +than a poor girl's life; moreover, even if he desired to undo his +work, he could not. I am beyond human succor. Fate nails me to a +cross, but God consents; so I make no struggle, for behind fate +stands God--and my father." + +Wearily she leaned back on her pillows, and turned her face to the +wall. Mrs. Singleton drew the blankets over her, folded her own +shawl about the shoulders, and smoothing away the hair, kissed her +on the temple; then stole into the adjoining room, where her +children slept. + +Before the fire that leaped and crackled in the wide chimney, and +leaning forward to rest her turbaned head against the mantelpiece, +while she spread her hands toward the blaze, stood a much muffled +figure. + +"Dyce!" + +Mrs. Singleton had left the door ajar, and the old woman turned and +pointed to it, laying one finger on her lips; but the warning came +too late. + +"Hush! I don't want her to know I am here. Your husband told me she +was sitting up, and in her right mind, but too weak to stand any +more trouble. I wish I could run away, and never see her again, for +when I go in there, I feel like I was carrying a knife to cut the +heart out of a fawn, what the hounds had barely left life in. I +can't bear the thought of having to tell her--" + +Dyce covered her face with her shawl, to stifle her sobs, and her +large frame shook. Mrs. Singleton whispered: + +"Tell me quick. What is it." + +"Miss Ellie is dead. I got there three days after she was buried." + +The warden's wife sank into a chair, and drew the weeping negro into +one beside her. + +"Do you know exactly what time she died?" + +"Yes--I had it all put down in black and white. She died on Tuesday +night, just as the clock struck two; and the hospital nurse says-- +Lord, amercy, Miss Susan! are you going to faint? You have turned +ashy!" + +As Mrs. Singleton's thoughts recurred to the fact that it was at +that hour that Beryl lay in the stupor of the crisis, from which she +awoke perfectly conscious, and recalled the dream that the sick girl +held as a vision, she felt a vague but bewildering dread seize her +faculties, in defiance of cool reason, and scoffing scepticism. + +"Go on, Dyce. I felt a little sick. Tell me--" + +She paused and listened to an unusual and inexplicable noise issuing +from the next room; the harsh sound of something scraping the bare +floor. + +"You must pick your time to break this misery to that poor young +thing. I can't do it. I would run a mile sooner than face her with +the news, that her ma is dead; and I have grieved and cried, till I +feel like my brains had been put in a pot and biled. The Lord knows +His bizness, of course; yes, of course He knows the best to do; but +'pears to me, His mercy hid its face behind His wrath, when He saw +fit to let that poor innercent young creetur in there get well, +after her ma was laid in the grave. It will be a harder heart than +mine what can stand by, and tell her she is motherless." + +"There is no need to tell her. She knows it." + +"How? Did she get the letter the Doctor said he wrote?" + +"No. She thinks her mother--" + +The noise explained itself. Too feeble to walk alone, Beryl had +pushed a chair before her, until she reached the door, and now stood +grasping it, swaying to and fro, as she endeavored to steady +herself. One hand held at her throat the black shawl, whose loosened +folds fell like a mourning mantle to her feet, the other clutched +the door, against the edge of which she leaned for support. + +"Dyce, I have known for some days that I have no mother in this +world. I have seen her. Your kind heart dreads giving me pain, but +nothing can hurt me now. I cannot suffer any more, because I am +bruised and beaten to numbness. I want to see you alone; I want to +know everything." + +At sight of her, the old woman darted forward and caught the tall, +wasted, tottering form in her strong arms. Lifting her as though she +had been a child, she bore her back to her small bleak room, laid +her softly on her cot, then knelt down, and burst into a fit of +passionate crying. + +As if to shut out some torturing vision, Beryl clasped her hands +over her eyes, and when she spoke, her voice was very unsteady: + +"Did you see mother alive?" + +"Oh, honey, I was too late! I was three days too late to see her at +all. When I got to New York, and found the Doctor's house, he was +not at home; had just gone to Boston a half hour before I rung the +bell. His folks couldn't tell me nothin', so I had to wait two days. +When I give him your note, he looked dreadful cut up, and tole me +Miss Ellie had all the care and 'tention in the world, but nothin' +couldn't save her. He said she didn't suffer much, but was 'lirious +all the time, until the day before she died, when all of a sudden +her mind cleared. Then she axed for you, honey--God bless you, my +poor lamb! I hate to harrify your heart. The Doctor comforted her +all he could, and tole her bizness of importance had done kept you +South. Miss Ellie axed how long she could live; he said only a few +hours. She begged him to prop her up, so she could write a few +words. He says he held the paper for her, and she wrote a little, +and rested; and then she wrote a little mere and fell back +speechless. He pat the piece of paper in a invellop and sealed it, +and axed her if she wished it given to her daughter Beryl. She +couldn't talk then, but she looked at him and nodded her head. That +was about four o'clock in the evening of Tuesday. She had a sort of +spasm, and went to sleep. At two o'clock, she woke up in Heaven. He +said he felt so sorry for you--dear lamb! He wouldn't let them burry +her where most was hurried that died in the hospital. He had her +laid away in his own lot in some graveyard, where his childun was +burried, 'till he could hear from you. He tole me, she was tenderly +handled, and everything was done as you would have wanted it; and he +cut off some of the beautiful hair--and--" + +Dyce smothered her sobs in the bedclothes, but Beryl lay like a +stone image. + +"Oh, honey! It jest splits my heart in two, to tell you all this--" + +"Go on, Dyce." + +"The doctor gin me a note to the nuss at the hospital, what 'tended +the ward Miss Ellie was in, and I got all her clothes, and packed +'em in a box and brought 'em home. She told me pretty much what the +doctor had said, only she was shore your ma spoke jest before she +died, and called twice--'Ignace! Ignace!' She said she was beautiful +as a angel and her hair was a wonder to all who saw her, it was so +long and so lovely. She tole me the doctor hissef put a big bunch of +white carnations and tuberoses in her hand, after they put her in +the coffin, and she looked like a queen. The doctor wrote you a +letter 'splainin' everything, and sent it to the postmaster here. He +seemed dreadfull grieved and 'stonished when I tole him how I had +left you, and said if he could help you, he would be very glad to do +it. I tole him we would pay his bill, as soon as this here trial +bizness was over; and he answered: 'Tut--tut; bill indeed! That poor +unfortunate girl need never worry over any bill of mine. I did all I +could for her mother, but the best of us fail sometimes. Tell that +poor child to come and see me, as soon as she gets out of the +clutches of those fire-eating devils down South.' Honey, I couldn't +be satisfied without seeing for myself, where they had laid my dear +young mistiss. I got 'rections from the doctor, and I spent good +part of a day huntin' the cemetery, and at last a man in a uniform +showed me Doctor Grantlin's lot. Oh, my lamb! That was the first and +only comfort I had, when I stood in front of that grand lovely +marble potico--with great angels kneeling on the four corners, and +knew my dear young mistiss was resting in such a beautiful place. I +felt so proud that ole mistiss' chile was among the best people, +sleeping with flowers in her hands, in that white marble house! I +wanted to be shore there warn't no mistake, and the keeper of the +graveyard tole me a lady had been put 'temporary' in the vault, four +days before. I had bought a bunch of violets from a flower shop, but +I could not get nearer than the door, where some brass rods was +stretched like a kind of a net; so I laid my little bunch down on +the marble steps, close as I could push it agin the rod; and though +I couldn't see my dear young mistiss, maybe--up in heaven--she will +know her poor ole mammy did not forgit her, and--" + +The old woman cried bitterly, and one thin hand, white as a +snowflake, fell upon her bowed head, and softly stroked her black +wrinkled face. After some minutes, when the paroxysm of weeping had +spent itself, Dyce took the hand, kissed it reverently, and pressed +into it a package. + +"The doctor tole me to put that into your hands. He said he knew it +would be very precious to you, but he felt shore he could trust me +to bring it safe. Now, honey, I know you want to be by yourself, +when you read your ma's last words. I will go and set in yonder by +the fire, till you call me. My heart aches and swells fit to bust, +and I can't stan' no more misery jest now, sech as this." + +For some moments, Beryl lay motionless, then the intolerable agony +clutched her throat with an aching sense of suffocation, and she sat +up, with nerveless hands lying on the package in her lap. She was +prepared for, expectant of the worst, but the details added keener +stings to suffering that had benumbed her. At last, with a +shuddering sigh, she broke the seal, and took from folds of tissue +paper, a long thick tress of the beautiful black hair. Shaking it +out of its satin coil, she held it up, then wrapped it smoothly over +her hand, and laid it caressingly against her cheek. + +Prison walls melted away; she stood again in the New York attic, and +combed, and brushed, and braided those raven locks, and saw the wan +face of the beloved invalid, and the jasmine and violets she had +pinned at her throat. + +What had become of the proud, high-spirited ambitious girl, who +laughed at adverse fortune, and forgot poverty in lofty aspirations? +How long ago it seemed, since she kissed the dear faded cheek, and +knelt for her mother's farewell benediction. Was it the same world? +Was she the same Beryl; was the eternal and unchanging God over all, +as of yore? She had shattered and ruined the sparkling crystal +goblet of her young life, scattering in the dust the golden wine of +happy hope, in the effort to serve and comfort that loved sufferer, +who, languishing on a hospital cot, had died among strangers; had +been shrouded by hirelings. That any other hand than hers had +touched her sacred dead, seemed a profanation; and at the thought of +the last rites rendered, the loyal child shivered as though some +polluting grasp had been laid upon herself. Out of the envelope +rolled a broad hoop of reddish gold, her mother's wedding ring; and +in zigzag lines across a sheet of paper was written the last +message: + +"My dear, good little girl, so faithful, so true, my legacy of love +is your mother's blessing. You must be comforted to know I am dying +in peace, because I trust in your last promise--" + +Then a blot, some unintelligible marks, and a space. Lower still, +scarcely legible characters were scrawled: + +"Tell my darling--to wear my ring as a holy--" + +In death as in life, the last word, and the deepest feeling were not +for her; the sacred souvenir was left for the hand that had so often +stabbed the idolatrous heart, now stilled forever. + +In all ages the ninety and nine that go not astray, never feel the +caressing touch which the yearning Shepherd lays on the obstinate +wanderer, who would not pasture in peace; and from the immemorial +dawn of inchoate civilization, prodigals have possessed the open +sesame to parental hearts that seemed barred against the more +dutiful. By what perverted organon of ethics has it come to pass in +sociology, that the badge of favoritism is rarely the guerdon of +merit? + +To the orphaned, forsaken, disgraced captive, sitting amid the +sombre ruins of her life, drinking the bitter lees of the fatal cup +a mother's hand had forced to her reluctant lips, there seemed +nothing strange in the injustice meted out; for had not the second +place in maternal love always been hers? As the great gray eyes +darkening behind their tears, like deep lakes under coming rain, +read and re-read the blurred lines, the frozen mouth trembled, and +Beryl kissed the hair, folded it away in the letter, and pinned both +close to her heart. Staggering to her feet, she held up the ring, +and said in a broken, half audible voice: + +"When I am dead, your darling shall have it; until then lend it to +your little girl, as a strengthening amulet. The sight of it will +hold me firm, will girdle my soul with fortitude, as it girdles my +finger; will set a yet holier seal to the compact whereby I pledged +my life, that you might die in peace. If, in the last hour, you had +known all my peril, all that my promise entails, would you have +released me? Would you have died content knowing that your idol was +guarded and safe, behind the cold shield of your little girl's +polluted body? The blood in my veins flowed from yours; I slept on +your heart, I was the last baby whose lips fed at your bosom. +Mother! Mother, if you had known all, could you have seen the load +of guilt and shame and woe laid on your innocent child, and bought +the life of your first-born, by the sacrifice of a scapegoat? Dear +mother, my mother, would you shelter him, and leave your baby to +die?" + +Slipping the ring on her finger, she kissed it twice. The hot flood +of tears overflowed, and she fell on her knees beside the cot, +clasping her hands above her bowed head. + +"Alone in my desolation! Oh, father! keep close to my soul, and pray +that I may have strength to bear my burden, even to the end. My God! +My God! sustain me now. Help me to be patient, and when the +sacrifice is finished, accept it for Christ's sake, and grant that +the soul of my brother may be ransomed, because I die for his sins." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +"Well, dear child, what is the trouble? Into what quagmire have your +little feet slipped? When you invite me so solemnly to a private +conference in this distractingly pretty room, the inference is +inevitable that some disaster threatens. Have you overdrawn your +bank account?" + +Judge Dent leaned back, making himself thoroughly comfortable in a +deep easy chair in Leo's luxurious library; and taking his niece's +hand, looked up into her grave, sweet face. + +"I want you to honor my draft for a large amount. I am about to draw +upon your sympathy; can I ever overdraw my account with that royal +bank?" + +"Upon my sympathy, never; but mark you, this does not commit me to +compliance with all your Utopian schemes. If you were raving mad, I +should sympathize, but nevertheless I should see that the strait- +jacket was brought into requisition. When your generosity train +dashes recklessly beyond regulation schedules of safety, I must +discharge engineer sympathy, and whistle down the brakes. What new +hobby do you intend that I shall ride?" + +"I have no intention of sharing that privilege even with you; I +merely desire you to inspect the accoutrements, to examine reins, +and girth, and stirrup. I lend my hobby to no one, and it is far too +mettlesome to 'carry double'. Uncle Mitchell, I feel so unhappy +about that poor girl, that I must do something to comfort her, and +only one avenue presents itself. I want you to have her brought into +court on a writ of Habeas Corpus, and to use your influence with +Judge Parkman to grant her bail. I desire to give the amount of bond +he may require, because I think it would gratify her, to have this +public assurance that she possessed the confidence of her own sex; +for nothing so strengthens and soothes a true woman as the sympathy +and trust of women." + +"Looking at the case dispassionately from a professional point of +view, I am sorry to tell you that the judge would scarcely be +warranted in granting bail. Were I still upon the bench, I could not +conscientiously release her, in the face of constantly accumulating +evidence against her, although she has my deepest compassion. +Conceding, however, for the moment, that Parkman consents to the +petition and the girl is set at liberty, are you prepared to pay the +large forfeit, if she, realizing the fearful odds against her +acquittal, should take permanent bail by absconding before the +trial? Abstract sympathy and generous sentiments are one phase of +this matter; positively paying a fifteen or a twenty-thousand- +dollar-bond is quite another. Weigh it carefully. We pity this +unfortunate prisoner, but we know absolutely nothing in her favor, +to counterbalance the terrible array of accusing circumstances fate +has piled against her. If she be guilty, can she resist the +temptation to escape by flight; and if indeed she be innocent, how +much more difficult to await all that is involved in this trial, and +abide the issue? Because she is beautiful, has a refined and noble +air, and seems unsullied as some grand snow image, do not blind +yourself to the fact, that for aught we can prove to the contrary, +she may have a heart as black as Tullias', hands as bloody as +Brunehaut's." + +"You believe that as little as I do. I have pondered the matter in +all its aspects, and I take the risk." + +"You can afford to pay for her flight?" + +"I will pay for her flight, no matter what it may cost." + +Judge Dent took her hand between both his. + +"Let us be frank." + + "'The things we do-- + We do; we'll wear no mask, as if we blushed!'" + +"Are you so assured of the woman's fidelity; or do you deliberately +leave the door ajar, foreseeing the result, deeming this the most +expedient method of cutting the Gordian knot?" + +For a moment she hesitated, then her soft brown eyes looked down +bravely into his. + +"I believe she is innocent, and that she will be loyal if released +on bail; but if I mistake her character, and she should flee for her +life from the lifted sword of justice, then I shall gladly pay the +expense of playing Alexander's role; and shall feel rejoiced that +she lives to repent her crime; and that the man to whom I have +promised my hand, has been relieved of the awful responsibility of +hunting her to death." + +"Have you made him acquainted with this scheme?" + +"Certainly not. I owed it to you to secure your approbation and co- +operation, before mentioning the matter to him." + +"Have you considered the opposition which, without inconsistency, he +cannot fail to offer? As prosecuting attorney for the Darringtons he +would be recreant to his client, if he consented to release on +bail." + +"His sympathy is deeply enlisted in her behalf, and I do not +anticipate opposition; nevertheless, it would not deter me from the +attempt to free her, at least temporarily from prison. As you have +no connection with the trial, I can see no impropriety in your +telling Judge Parkman, that the girl's health demands a change of +air and scene, and that it is my desire to furnish any bond he may +deem suitable, and then bring the prisoner under my own roof, until +the day fixed for her trial. If you are unwilling to speak to him, +will you permit me to mention the subject to him?" + +"I fear enthusiasm is hurrying you into a proposal, the possibly +grave consequences of which you do not realize. You would run a +great risk in bringing here that unfortunate woman, over whose head +has gathered so black a cloud of suspicion. In becoming her gaoler, +you assume a fearful responsibility." + +"I fully comprehend all the hazard, and with your permission, I +shall not shrink. I have a conviction, for which I can offer no +adequate grounds, that this girl is as innocent as I am; and if all +the world hissed and jeered, I should stretch out my hand to her. Do +you recollect Ortes' booty when Antwerp fell into Alva's hands? The +keys of the dungeons. I would rather swing wide the barred doors of +yonder human cage across the river, and lead that woman out under +God's free sky, than wear all of Alva's jewels, own his gold. Uncle, +will you speak, or shall I?" + +"I must first talk with Churchill and Dunbar. Your effort might +result only in injury to the prisoner; because if she were brought +into Court on writ of Habeas Corpus, and refused bail, as I fear +would be the case, the failure would operate very unfavorably for +her cause, on public opinion, of which after all, in nineteen cases +out of twenty, the jury verdict is a reflection. Some new evidence +has been presented since the preliminary examination, and its +character will determine the question of bail. If I can see any +chance of your success I will speak to Parkman; for, indeed, my dear +child, I honor your motive, and share your hope; but unless I find +more encouragement than I expect, I will not complicate matters by a +futile attempt, which would certainly recoil disastrously." + +"Thank you, Uncle Mitchell. Please act promptly. I have set my heart +of hearts on having that poor young woman here to spend Christmas. +Her freedom to walk about in the sunshine, is the one Christmas gift +I covet; and I know you will gratify me if possible. You have only +four days in which to secure my present." + +"When do you expect to see Dunbar?" + +"I promised to ride with him this afternoon; but I prefer not to +discuss this subject, as he has earnestly requested me 'to abstain +from any reference to that gloomy business during his hours of +recreation;' and I have no intention of setting black care en croupe +to share our canter to-day. Having told me that when he leaves his +office to visit us, he locks his professional affairs in his desk, +you can readily understand that good taste enforces respect for his +wishes, at least in the matter of avoiding tabooed topics." + +"Does it occur to you that he will object very strenuously to seeing +the personification of 'that gloomy business' sitting at your +hearth-stone? That he may refuse to lock up in his law office the +significant and disagreeable reflection, that the woman whom he +arrested find prosecutes for a vile crime, is championed and housed +by one whom he claims as his promised wife? Dunbar has a keen eye +for the 'eternal fitness of things,' and, where you are concerned, +is a jealous stickler for social convenance. I warn you he will be +bitterly offended, if you bring General Darrington's granddaughter +under this roof." + +Her delicate flower-like face flushed; and the slight figure became +proudly erect. + +"It is my house, and I acquit him of the presumption of desiring to +dictate to whom its doors shall be opened. If he has no confidence +in my discretion, no respect for my motives, no tolerance for +difference of opinion in a matter of vital importance, then the +sooner our engagement is annulled the better for both of us. When I +have taken my vows, I hope I shall steadfastly keep them, but +meantime I am still a Gordon. The irrevocable ubi tu Caius, ego +Caia, has not yet been uttered, and while it would grieve me very +much to wound his feelings, I claim the exercise of my own judgment. +I am not indifferent to his wishes; on the contrary, I ardently +desire, as far as is consistent with my self-respect, to defer to +them; but when I pledged him my faith, I did not surrender my will, +nor obliterate my individuality." + +Judge Dent rose, put his arm around her shoulders, and drew the +sunny head to his breast. + +"Leo, listen to me. There is no heaven on earth, but the nearest +approach to it, the outlying suburbs whence we get bewildering +glimpses of beatitude beyond, is the season of courtship and +betrothal. In the magical days of sweetheartdom, a silvery +glorifying glamour wraps the world, brims jagged black chasms with +glittering mist, paves rugged paths with its shimmering folds, and +tenderly covers very deep in rose leaves, the clay feet of our +idols. That wonderful light shines only once full upon us, but the +memory of it streams all along the succeeding journey; follows us up +the arid heights, throws its mellow afterglow on the darkening road, +as we go swiftly down the slippery hill of life. It comes to all, as +hope's happy prophecy, this sparkling prologue, and we never dream +that it is the sweetest and best of the drama that follows; but let +me tell you, enjoy it while you may. Beautiful, hallowing sweetheart +days, keep them unclouded, guard them from strife; hold them for the +precious enchantment they bring, and take an old man's advice, do +not quarrel with your sweetheart." + +He kissed her cheek, and when the door closed behind him, she sat +down and covered her face with her hands. + +Was that witching light already fading in her sky? Was the storm +even now muttering, that would rudely toss aside the rose leaves +that garlanded the feet of her beloved? In the midst of her eloquent +prologue would darkness smite suddenly, and end the drama? Life had +poured its richest wine into the cup she held to her lips; should +she risk spilling the priceless draught? She could turn a deaf ear +to teazing whispers of suspicion, she could shut her eyes to the +spectre that threw up warning hands, and so drift on; but the dream +would be broken perhaps too late, and all time could not repair the +possible shipwreck. Into the chill shadow of this problem plunged +Miss Patty, bringing through the room the penetrating spicery of an +apron full of pinks, which she was sorting and tying in star-shaped +clusters. + +"An extraordinary and most unexpected thing has happened, and I know +you will be surprised." + +"What is it, Aunt Patty? Something very pleasant, I hope." + +"I have actually changed my opinion; and you know how tenacious I +usually am of my well-matured views, because they are always founded +on such sound reasons. Quite surprised, aren't you, dear?" + +"That is far too mild and inadequate a term to express my +sensations. Your views and opinions bear the same royal, inviolable +seal as those of the Medes and Persians, and from their +unchangeableness must have floated down the stream of Aryan +migration, from some infallible fountain in Bactria. I should not be +much more astonished to hear that Cynosure had grown giddy, had +swung down and waltzed in the arms of Sirius." + +"Leo, that sounds very pedantic, and there is nothing I dislike +more. A woman bedecked with rags and tags of farfetched learning, is +about as attractive an object as if she had turned out a full beard +and mustache. I am very sure you have heard me assert more than +once, that I verily believe Venus herself would scare all the men +into monasteries, if she wore blue stockings. Too much learning in a +lady's conversation is as utterly unpardonable as a waste of lemon +and nutmeg in a chicken-pie; or a superfluity of cheese in Turbot a +la creme; just a hint of the flavor, the merest soupcon is all that +is admissible in either. I came in to tell you, that I have +experienced quite a change of feeling with reference to that poor +young lady, whom Mr. Dunbar with such officious haste arrested and +threw into gaol. I am now convinced that a great wrong has been +committed." + +For a moment Leo stooped to stroke the head of her Siberian hound, +crouching on the velvet rug at her feet; then she frankly met the +twinkling black eyes that peered over their gold-rimmed spectacles. + +"I am glad to hear it; but to what circumstance is so deckled a +revulsion of sentiment attributable?" + +"You know I have great confidence in Sister Serena's sagacity, and +during the past fortnight she has talked frequently with me on the +subject of the prisoner. When she undertook to nurse the poor child, +she too considered her guilty of the unnatural crime; but by degrees +she began to doubt it. About ten days ago, she says she went to the +penitentiary, and found the prisoner reading a Bible which she had +borrowed from the gaoler's wife. She asked her if she would like her +to offer up a prayer, in her behalf, and they knelt down side by +side. Sister Serena prayed that God would melt her heart if she was +guilty, and help her to repent. While they were still on their +knees, Sister Serena put one arm around her and said: + +"'God knows whether you are the criminal; and if so, let me beg of +you to make a full confession; it will unload your conscience, and +may be the means of arousing more sympathy in the public heart.' She +says that the poor girl looked at her a moment so reproachfully, and +answered: 'When we meet in heaven, you will understand how cruelly +your words hurt me. I know that appearances are hopelessly against +me, and I expect to die; but I am so innocent, I keep my soul close +to God, for He who knows the truth, will help me to bear man's +injustice.' Then she prayed aloud for herself, that she might endure +patiently and meekly an awful punishment which she did not deserve; +and while she prayed, her countenance was so pure, so angelic, and +there was such unmistakable fervor and sincerity in her petition, +that Sister Serena says she could not help bursting into tears, and +she actually begged the girl's pardon for having doubted her +innocence. She has fallen completely in love with the poor young +creature, and tells me she finds her wonderfully talented and +cultivated. This morning she showed me some of the most beautiful +designs for decorating our altar on Christmas, which the prisoner +sketched for her. She cut all the models for her, and gave her such +lovely suggestions, and when Sister Serena thanked her, she says the +most touching smile she ever saw came into that child's face, as she +answered: 'I ought to thank you for the privilege of decorating my +Savior's altar, at the last Christmas I shall spend on earth. Next +year, I shall spend Jesus' birthday with Him.' I felt so +uncomfortable when I heard all that passed between her and Sister +Serena, that I could not be easy until I had seen for myself; and as +Sister Serena was going over to carry some letters to be painted and +gilded, I went with her. I have seen her, and talked with her, and I +pity the hard, bitter, unregenerate and vindictive heart of the man +who is prosecuting her for murder. I do not believe that in all the +world, Mr. Dunbar can find twelve men idiotic and vicious enough to +convict that beautiful orphan girl; and his failure will do as +little credit to his intellect, as success would to his moral +nature." + +"While I prefer to exclude Mr. Dunbar's name from our discussions, I +think it merely bare justice to the absent, to assure you that he +desires her conviction even less than you or I; and will do all in +his power to avert it. I feel more interest in this matter than you +can possibly realize, and, believing her innocent, I will befriend +her to the last extremity. Did Sister Serena succeed in fitting the +black dress I sent?" + +"The poor child had on a mourning dress, but I was not aware you +sent it. Losing her mother seems almost to have broken her heart. +Poor Ellice Darrington! Petted and fostered like a hot-house flower, +and then to die a pauper in a hospital! What an awful retribution +for her disobedience to her parents? There is the bell." + +"Yes, Auntie, and I must ask you to excuse me. Some of my Sunday- +school class are coming to practise their carols, and conclude a +little holiday preparation, and I hear them now on the steps." + +"Did Mitchell show you Leighton's telegram?" + +"He told me the good news, that at the last moment Leighton had +filled his pulpit for the holidays, and would preach for us on +Christmas. How delightfully it will revive the dear old days to have +him back? Fancy our hanging up our stockings once more at the foot +of Uncle Mitchell's bed! Your letter must have been eloquent, +indeed, to entice him from the splendors of the metropolis, to the +yule log at our quiet 'Lilacs'; and his coming is a tribute of +gratitude to you, for all your loving care of him. I know you are so +happy at the thought of taking the Holy Communion from the hand of +your dear boy, that it will consecrate this Christmas above all +others; and I congratulate you heartily, dear Aunt Patty." + +It was late in the afternoon of Saturday, Christmas Eve, when Leo +knocked at the door of Mrs. Singleton's room. A dispirited +expression characterized the countenance usually serene and happy, +and between her brows a perpendicular line marked the advent of +anxious foreboding. Her hopeful scheme had dissolved, vanished like +a puff of steam on icy air, leaving only a teazing memory of mocking +failure. Judge Dent's conference with the District Solicitor, had +convinced him of the futility of any attempt to secure bail; +moreover, a message from the prisoner earnestly exhorted them to +abandon all intercessory designs in her behalf, as she would not +accept release on bail, and preferred to await her trial. + +"Good evening, Miss Gordon. If you want to see her, Ned will show +you the way to the chapel, where I left her a while ago. Since her +mother's death, the only comfort she gets, is from the organ; so we +let her go there very often. I would go with you, but I want to +finish a black shawl I am crocheting for her." + +The warden escorted his visitor through the chill dim corridors that +had formerly so appalled Beryl's soul, and upon the steps of the +chapel, both paused to listen. On the small cabinet organ, a skilful +hand was playing a grand and solemn aria, which Leo had heard once +before in the cool depths of Freiburg Cathedral. It had impressed +her then most powerfully, as the despairing invocation of some +doomed Titan; to-day it thrilled her with keen and intolerable pain. +Waving the warden back, she softly entered the chapel, closed the +door, and sat down. + +Through the narrow windows, the afternoon sunlight, fettered by +shadowy bars, fell on the bare floor, and the radiance smote the +organ and the wan face of the musician, gilding the dark reddish- +brown hair coiled loosely on her nobly poised head. Her black dress +enhanced the extreme pallor of delicate features, which, outlined +against that golden background, bore a strong resemblance to the +lovely portrait of Titian's wife in the Louvre. Unmindful of the +keys, across which her fingers strayed, she was gazing off into +space, as if seeking some friendly face; and to the same sombre, +passionate, plaintive melody she sang: + + "The way is dark, my Father! Cloud upon cloud + Is gathering thickly o'er my head, and loud + The thunders roar above me. O, see--I stand + Like one bewildered! Father, take my hand-- + And through the gloom lead safely home Thy Child! + The day declines, my Father! and the night + Is drawing darkly down. My faithless sight + Sees ghostly visions. Fears like a spectral band + Encompass me. O, Father, take my hand, + And from the night lead up to light Thy Child! + The cross is heavy, Father! I have borne + It long, and still do bear it. I cannot stand + Or go alone. O, Father, take my hand, + And reaching down, lead to the crown Thy Child!" + +The voice was wonderfully sweet and rich, vibrating with the intense +pathos of minor chords in a mellow old violoncello, and either from +physical weakness, or the weight of woe, it quivered at last into a +thrilling cry. Tears were dripping over Leo's cheeks, as she went up +to the chancel railing, and leaning across, put out her hand. Beryl +rose and came forward, and so, with only the pine balustrade +between, the two stood palm in palm. No moisture dimmed the +prisoner's eyes, but around her beautiful mouth sorrowful curves +betokened the fierceness of the ordeal she was enduring; and her +lips trembled a little, like rose leaves under a sudden rude gust. + +"I have wanted very much to see you, Miss Gordon, to thank you for +the great kindness that prompted your effort to help me; and yet, I +have no hope of expressing adequately the comfort I derived from +this manifestation of your confidence. The knowledge that you +offered security for me, above all, that you were willing to take +me--an outcast, almost a convicted criminal--into the holy shelter +of your own home, oh! you can never realize, unless you stood in my +place, how it soothes my heart, how it will always make a bright +spot in the blackness of my situation. The full sympathy of a noble +woman is the best tonic for a feeble sufferer, who knows the world +has turned its back upon her. If I were unworthy, your goodness +would be the keenest lash that could scourge me; but forlorn though +I seem, your friendship brings me measureless balm, and while I +could never have accepted your generous offer, I thank you +sincerely." + +"Why were you so unwilling that I should try to release you?" + +"I have not a dollar to pay my expenses anywhere, and I appreciated +too fully all that was involved in your hospitable offer, to take me +under your roof, to be willing to avail myself of it. Here I am +provided for, by those who believe me guilty; and here I have the +kind sympathy of Mr. and Mrs. Singleton, who were my first friends +when the storm broke over my doomed head. To go out of prison into +the world now, would be torturing, because I am proud and sensitive; +and these dark walls screen me from the curious observation from +which I shrink, as from being flayed. To the desolate and homeless, +change of place brings no relief; and since there is no escape for +me, I prefer to wait here for the end, which, after all, cannot be +very distant." + +"Do you refer to the trial next month?" + +"No, to that which yawns behind the trial; a shallow gash out there +under the pines, where the sound of the penitentiary bell tolls +requiems for the souls of its mangled victims." + +"Hush! hush! You wrong yourself by imagining the possibility of such +horrible results. Gloomy surroundings, coupled with your great +bereavement, render you morbidly despondent; and it was the hope of +cheering you, that made me so anxious to get you away. If I could +only take you home, even for one week!" + +"The wish has cheered me inexpressibly. How good, how noble, how +tender you are! Miss Gordon, because I am so grateful, let me now +say one thing. You cannot help me in future, and it would grieve me +to think that I fell, as an unlifting shadow, between your heart and +the sunshine that warms it. In the night of my wretchedness, you +have groped your way to me, and in defiance of the circumstances +that are so cruelly leagued to strangle me, you throw your +confidence like a warm mantle around my shivering soul; you have +courageously laid your pure, womanly hands in mine--oh, God bless +you! God reward you! Do you think I could bear to know that I had +caused even a hand's breadth of cloud to drift over the heavenly +blue of your happy sky? The bow of promise that spans your life is +no secret. Let no thought of me jar the harmony that reigned before +I came here. Leave me to my doom, which human hands cannot avert +now; and be happy without questioning. Inexorable fate stands behind +men; makes them, sometimes, irresponsible puppets." + +A deep flush had risen to Leo's temples, and withdrawing her hand, +she shaded her face for a moment. The great bell below the tower +clock rang sullenly. + +"Good-bye, Miss Gordon. I had permission to stay here only till the +bell sounded. Pray for me, but do not come again. Visits to me could +bring you nothing but sorrow in return for your compassion, and that +would add to my misery. I wish you a pleasant Christmas, a happy New +Year, and as cloudless a life as your great goodness deserves." + +Once more their hands met, in a long close clasp, then Leo laid on +the chancel railing a large square envelope. + +"It is only a Christmas card, but so lovely, I know your artistic +taste cannot fail to admire it; and it may brighten your cheerless +room. It is the three-hundred-dollar-prize-card, and particularly +beautiful." + +"Thank you, dear Miss Gordon. It may help to deaden the merciless +stings of memory, which all day long has tortured me by unrolling +the past, where my Christmas days stand out like illuminated +capitals on black-letter pages." + +Deaden the stings of memory? What spell suddenly evoked the image of +her invalid mother, all the details of the attic room, the litter of +pencils on the table; the windows of a florist's shop where, +standing on the pavement, she had studied hungrily the shapes of the +blossoms poverty denied her as models; the interior of the Creche, +which she had penetrated in order to sketch the heads of sleeping +babies, as a study for cherubs? + +Leo had almost reached the door, when a passionate, indescribably +mournful cry arrested her steps. + +"Too late!--too late! O, God! What a cruel mockery!" + +Beryl stood leaning against the railing of the altar, with the light +of the setting sun falling aslant on the gilded card she held up in +one hand; on her white convulsed face, where tears fell in a +scalding flood. Retracing her steps, Leo said falteringly: + +"In my efforts to comfort you, have I only wounded more sorely? How +have I hurt you? What can I do?" + +"No--no! you are an angel of pity, hovering over an abyss of ruin, +whose darkest horrors you only imagine faintly. What can you do? +Nothing, but pray to God to paralyze my tongue, and grant me death, +before I lose my last clutch on faith, and curse my Creator, and +drift down to eternal perdition! It was hard enough before, but this +mockery maddens." + +With a sudden abandonment, she hurled the card away, threw her arms +around Leo's neck and sobbed unrestrainedly. Tenderly the latter +held her shivering form, as the proud head fell on her shoulder; and +after a time, Beryl lifted a face white as an annunciation lily, +drenched by tropical rain. + +"I thought misfortune had emptied all her vials, and that I was +nerved, because there was nothing more to dread. But the worst is +always behind, and this is the irony of fate. You think that merely +a rhetorical metaphor, a tragic trope? How should you know? That +Christmas card is the solitary dove I sent out to hunt a resting- +place for mother and for me, when the flood engulfed us. It was my +design sent to Boston, to compete for the prizes offered. How I +dreamed, how I toiled! Haunting the flower shops for a glimpse of +heartsease, and passion flowers, and stars of Bethlehem; begging a +butcher at the abattoir to spare a lamb, until I could sketch it; +kneeling by cradles in the public Creche to get the full red curve +of a baby's sucking lips, as they forsook the bottle, the dimple in +the tiny hands, the tendrils of hair on the satin brow! Over that +card I sang, and I wept; I worked, hoped, prayed, believed! So much +depended upon it! Could the Christ to whom I dedicated it, fail to +answer my prayer for success? Three hundred dollars! What a mint! It +would pay the doctor, and make mother comfortable, and get her a +warm new suit for coming winter. Oh! it is so easy to believe in +God, until He denies us; and to trust Christ, till He hurls our +prayers back, and the stones crush us. Only three hundred dollars +between life and death; between a happy, proud girl with a noble +future, and a disgraced, broken-hearted wreck trampled into a +convict's grave! It would have saved all; all the awful consequences +of the journey here, which only dire extremity of need forced upon +me. On the fatal day I started South, I went at the last moment, +hoping that some tidings from my card would come on angel wings. The +decision had been made, but the awards were not yet published, and +so my doom was sealed. To-morrow, happy women, no more innocent than +I am, will smile at my Christmas card, and give it with warm kisses +and loving words to their dear ones; and to-day, my white dove of +hope, flies back in my face, with the talons of a harpy, to devour +me with maddening reminders of 'what might have been'. My coveted +three hundred dollars! Three hundred taunting fiends! to jeer and +torment me. The Christmas sun will shine on a pauper's empty cot in +a charity hospital; on a disgraced, insulted, forsaken convict. Take +away this last mockery, it is more than I can bear. There on the +back in gilt letters--Prize Card--Three Hundred Dollars! Yet a +stranger paid for my mother's coffin, and--. Three hundred furies to +lash my heart out! Too late! Take it away! too late! oh, too late! +This is worse than the pangs of death." + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +The Christmas Sabbath dawned cold and dim, and along the eastern sky +gray marbled masses of cloud with dun, stratified bases, built +themselves into the likeness of vast teocallis to Tonatiuh, over +whose apex the struggling rays fell red and presageful. Dulled by +the stained glass windows, the light that filled the semi-circular +chapel at "The Lilacs", was chill and sombre, until the fair +sacristan held a taper over the tall wax candles on each side of the +altar, whence a mellow radiance soon streamed over all; flashing +along the golden letters under the cross, and upon the gilded pipes +of the little organ. On the marble steps in front of the altar were +two baskets filled with white camellias, and great spikes of pink +and blue hyacinths, that seemed to break their hearts in waves of +aromatic incense. The family Bible of the Gordons lay open, on the +reading desk, and upon its yellow pages rested a Maltese cross of +snowy Roman hyacinths. Looping back the purple velvet portiere over +the arch leading into the library, Leo sat down on the organ bench +to await the coming of the family, leisurely arranged the stops, and +marked in her prayer-book the Collect for Christmas. In her morning +robe of crimson cashmere, with its cascade of soft rich lace foaming +from throat to feet, and wearing a dainty cluster of double white +violets fastened just below one ear, where the wax light kissed her +sunny hair, she appeared a St. Cecilia, very fair and sweet, to the +eyes of the man who stood a moment unperceived beneath the arch. A +figure of medium height, clad in priestly garments, with a white +surplice sweeping to the marble floor; a finely modelled head +thickly fleeced with light brown hair, a serene pleasant face, with +regular features, deep-set black eyes magnified by spectacles, and +an expression of habitual placidity, that bespoke a soul consecrated +by noble aims, and at perfect peace with his God. + +Hearing his step as he crossed the floor, Leo looked over her +shoulder, smiled, and began to play softly, while he ascended the +steps and knelt before the altar. After some moments Miss Patty +rustled in, sank on her knees and finally settled herself +comfortably on one of the crescent-shaped, cushioned sofas; then +Judge Dent entered, followed by Justine and the aged negro butler, +Joel, the two servants finding seats just behind their master. +Doctor Leighton Douglass selected his hymns, and the leaves of five +prayer-books fluttered, as Collects were found, but Leo continued to +play. + +Twice she turned and looked around the chapel, seeking some one, +delaying the commencement of the service. Finally accepting defeat, +her pretty fingers fell from the keys, and with them dropped two +tears, forced from her by the keen disappointment that robbed this +occasion of all its anticipated pleasure. Singularly free from +fashionable elocutionary affectations, and certain declamatory stage +tricks, by which the recitation of the Creed and the Lord's Prayer +becomes a competitive test of lungs in the race for breath, Leighton +Douglass read the morning service, in a well-modulated voice, and +with a profound solemnity that left its impress on each heart. The +responses were fervent, and the Christmas hymns were sung with +joyful earnestness; then priestly arms rose like the wings of a +great snowy dove, and from holy, priestly lips fell the mellow music +of the benediction: + +"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the +fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all evermore. Amen." + +Even while he pronounced the words, a whirring rustle filled the +beautiful oratory, and two of Leo's pet ring-doves, fluttering round +and round the frescoed ceiling, descended swiftly. One perched upon +her head, cooing softly, and its mate nestled down with outspread +pinions, pecking at the white muslin folds on Doctor Douglass' +shoulder. + +"Paracletes, dun plumed! Leo, let us accept them as happy auguries, +prophetic of divine blessing on our future work in the Master's +vineyard. My cousin, I wish you a very happy Christmas." + +He had approached the organ where she sat, and held out his hand. + +"Happy Christmas, Leighton, and many thanks to you for this +consecrating service in my place of prayer. After today, it will +always seem a more hallowed shrine, and before you leave us, we will +gather here as a family, and join in the celebration of the Holy +Communion." + +They stood a moment hand in hand, looking into each other's eyes; +and watching them, Miss Patty's heart swelled with pardonable pride +in the two, whom her loving arms had so tenderly cradled. Pinching +her brother's hand, as she walked with him under the velvet +draperies, she whispered: + +"What a noble match for both! And he's only her second cousin." + +Leo's eyes were wet with tears, which Doctor Douglass ascribed to +devotional fervor; and withdrawing her hand, she opened one of the +windows, and called the doves to the stone ledge, putting them very +gently out upon the ivy wreaths that clambered up the wall, and +peeped into the chapel. + +"I believe you are sacristan here?" he said, pointing to the candles +that flared, as the wind rushed in, + +"Yes, here I sweep, dust, decorate daily, allowing no other touch; +and here I bring my daintiest, rarest flowers, as tribute to Him who +tapestried the earth with blossoms, and sprinkled it with perfumes-- +when? Not until just before the advent of humanity, whose material +kingdom was perfected, and furnished in anticipation of his +arrival." + +Extinguishing the candles, she closed the old Bible, covered it with +a square of velvet, and hung the cross of hyacinths upon the folded +hands of one of the marble angels that upheld the altar, + +"Pure-handed women are natural priestesses, meet for temple +ministration; and I have no doubt your exoteric labors here, merely +typify the secret daily sweeping out of evil thoughts, the dusting +away of motes of selfishness, the decorating with noble beautiful +aims, and holy deeds, whereby you sanctify that inner shrine, your +own soul." + +"Praise from you means so much, that you need not stoop to flatter +me. The very vestments of you Levites should exhale infectious +humility; and I especially need exhortations against pride, my +besetting sin. I built this chapel, not because I am good, but in +order to grow better. Every dwelling has its room in which the +inmates gather to eat, to study, to work, to sleep; why not to pray, +the most important privilege of many that divide humanity from +brutes? After all, the pagans were wiser than we, and the heads of +families were household priests, setting examples of piety at every +rising of the sun." + +"Let us see. Greek and Roman fathers laid a cake dripping with wine, +a wreath of violets, a heart of honey-comb, a brace of doves on the +home altar, and immediately thereafter, set the example of violating +every clause in the Decalogue. Mark you, paganism drew fine lines in +morals, long anterior to the era of monotheism and of Moses, and +furnished immortal types of all the virtues; yet the excess of its +religious ceremonial, robbed it of vital fructifying energies. The +frequency and publicity of sacerdotal service, usurped the place of +daily individual piety. The tendency of all outward symbolical +observances, unduly multiplied, is to substitute mere formalism for +fervor." + +"Leighton, humanity craves the concrete. All the universe is God's +temple, yet the chill breath of the abstract freezes our hearts; and +we pray best in some pillared niche consecrated and set apart, I +recall a day in Umbria, when the wonderful light of sunset fell on +ilex and olive, on mountain snows, on valleys billowing between +vine-mantled hills, on creamy marble walls, on columned campaniles; +and standing there, I seemed verily to absorb, to become saturated +as it were, with the reigning essence of beauty. I walked on, a few +steps, lifted a worn, frayed leather curtain, and looked into a +small gray, dingy church, where a mist of incense blurred the lights +on the ancient altar, and the muffled roll of an organ broke into +sonorous waves, like reverberations of far-away thunder; and why was +it, tell me, that the universal glory thrilled me only as a sensuous +chord of color, but in the dark corner consecrated to the worship of +our God, my soul expanded, as if a holy finger touched it, and I +fell on my knees, and prayed? Each of us comes into this world +dowered with the behest to make desperate war against that +indissoluble 'Triple Alliance, the World, the Flesh and the Devil,' +and needing all the auxiliaries possible, I resort to conscription +wherever I can recruit. Since I am two thousand years too young to +set up a statue of Hestia yonder in my imitation prostas, I have +built instead this small sacred nook for prayer, which helps me +spiritually, much as the Ulah aids Islam." + +"Your oratory is lovely, and I wish its counterpart adorned every +homestead in our land; but are you quite sure that in your +individual experience you are not mistaking effect for cause? Your +holy heart demands fit shrine for--" + +"I am quite sure I will not allow you to stand a moment longer on +this cold floor; and I do not intend that you shall pay me +undeserved compliments. It is derogatory to your dignity, and +dangerous to my modicum of humility. As soon as you are ready for +breakfast, come to the dining-room, where Santa Klaus left his +remembrances last night. O, Leighton! I had half a mind to hang up +two stockings at uncle's bed, for the sake of dear old lang syne. If +we could only shut our eyes, and drift back to the magical time of +aprons, short clothes, and roundabouts, when a sugar rooster with +green wings and pink head, and a doll that could open and shut her +eyes, were considered more precious than Tiffany's jewels, or +Collamore's Crown Derby! Can Delmonico offer you a repast half as +appetizing as the hominy, the tea cakes, the honey and the sweet +milk which you and I used to enjoy at our supper just at sunset, at +our own little table set under the red mulberry trees in the back +yard?" + +"Why should my cousin, whose present is so rose-colored, whose +future so blissful, turn to rake amid the ashes of the past?" + +"Because, like Lot's wife, we are all prone to stare backward. Who +lives in the present? Do you? When we are young we pant for the +future, that pitches painted tents before us. When we are older, we +live in the past, that wraps itself in a sacred gilding glamour, and +is vocal with the happy echoes which alone survive. Far-off fields +before and behind us are so dewy, so vividly green; and the present +is gray and stony, and barren of charm, and we turn fretfully. It is +part of the grim tyranny of Time that it is tideless; that the +stream bears remorselessly on, and on, never back to the dear old +spots; always on, to lose itself in the eternal and unknown. So, to- +day's Christmas lacks the zest of its predecessors." + +Leo loosened the gilded chain that looped the curtains, and as the +purple folds fell behind her, hiding the arch, Doctor Douglass said +gently: + +"There is a solemn truth and wise admonition in one of Rabbi Tyra's +dicta: 'Thy yesterday is thy past; thy to-day is thy future; thy to- +morrow is a secret.'" + +"Leo, here is a package and a note which arrived during service, and +as Mr. Dunbar's servant said there was no answer expected, he did +not wait." + +As Miss Patty delivered the parcel to her niece, the minister walked +away to lay aside his vestments, but he noted the sudden hardening +of his cousin's face, the flush of displeasure, the haughty curl of +her lips; and on his ears fell his aunt's voice: + +"You expected and waited for him at morning prayer?" + +"I invited him to join us, if he felt disposed to do so." + +"What possible excuse can he offer for such negligence, when he knew +that Leighton would read the service?" + +An uwonted sparkle leaped into Leo's mild hazel eyes, and without +examination she handed the package and note to Justine. + +"Lay them in the drawer of my writing-desk, and then call all the +servants into the dining-room. Auntie, tardy excuses must wait +longer for an audience than we waited for the writer. Come to +breakfast; uncle will be impatient, and I want to enjoy his surprise +when he sees his Santa Klaus." + +She was sorely disappointed, deeply affronted by Mr. Dunbar's +failure to present himself on an occasion at which she had +especially desired his presence; and as she recalled the +affectionate phraseology of her note of invitation, her fair cheek +burned with an intolerable sense of humiliation. Was it partition, +or total loss, of her precious kingdom? In after years, she +designated this Christmas as the era when the "sceptre departed from +Judah;" but putting away the chagrin, and sealing the well of +bitterness in her heart, she exchanged holiday greetings, and +proudly wore her royal robes throughout the day, holding sternly off +the spectre, which grimly bided its time--the hour of her +abdication. + +Through the benevolent and compassionate efforts of Mr. and Mrs. +Singleton, some faint reflection of the outside world festivities +penetrated the dismal monotony of prison routine; and the hearts of +the inmates were softened and gladdened by kind tokens of +remembrance, that carried the thoughts of bearded convicts back to +Christmas carols in innocent youth, and to the mother's knees where +prayers were lisped. + +Illness had secured to Beryl immunity from contact with her comrades +in misery, and except to visit the little chapel, she never left the +sheltering walls of her small comfortless room, grateful for the +unexpected boon of silent seclusion. Her Christmas greeting had been +little Dick's sweet lips kissing her cheek, as he deposited upon her +narrow bed the black and white shawl his mother had knitted, and a +box left by Miss Gordon on the previous day, which contained half a +dozen pretty handkerchiefs with mourning borders, some delicate +perfume and soaps, toilet brushes and a sachet. + +An hour later, when Mrs. Singleton and her babies had gone to spend +the day with relatives in the city, Beryl went to the window, pushed +the sash up, and listened to the ringing of the Sabbath-school +bells, as every church beyond the river called its nursery to the +altar, to celebrate the day. The metallic clangor was mellowed by +distance, rising and falling like rhythmic waves, and the faint +echo, filtered through dense pine forests behind the penitentiary, +had the ghostly iteration of the Folge Fond. + +A gaunt yellow kitten, with a faded red ribbon knotted about its +neck, and vicious, amber-colored eyes that were a perpetual +challenge, had fled from the tender mercies of Dick to the city of +refuge under Beryl's cot; and community of suffering had kindled an +attachment that now prompted the lesser waif to spring into the +girl's folded arms, and rub its head against her shoulder. +Mechanically Beryl's hand stroked the creature's ear, while it +purred softly under the caress; but suddenly its back curved into an +arch, the tail broadened, the purr became a growl. Had association +lifted the brute's instincts to the plane of human antipathies? + +The warden had opened the door and quickly closed it, after ushering +in a tall figure, who wore an overcoat which was buttoned from +throat to knees. At sight of Mr. Dunbar, the cat plunged to the +floor, and sped away to the darkest corner under the iron bedstead. + +"Good morning. I dare not utter here the greetings of the day, +because you would construe it into a heartless mockery." + +He came forward hesitatingly, and she turned swiftly away, pressing +her face against the bars of the window, waving him back. + +"Why will you persist in regarding as an enemy, the one person in +all the world who is most anxious to befriend you?" + +Still no answer; only the repellent gesture warning him away. + +"Will you allow me, this Christmas morning, to comfort myself in +some degree, by leaving here a few flowers to brighten your desolate +surroundings?" + +He held out a bouquet of rare and brilliant hothouse blossoms, whose +delicious fragrance had already pervaded the room. They stood side +by side, yet she shrank farther, and kept her face averted, +shivering perceptibly. Lifting one arm he drew down the sash to shut +out the freezing air. + +"You are resolved neither to look at nor speak to me? So be it. At +least you must listen to me. You may not care to hear that I have +been absent, but perhaps it will interest you to know that I went in +search of the man for whose crime you are paying the penalty." + +If he expected her to wince under the probe, her nerves were taut, +and she defied the steel; but the face she now turned fully to him +was so blanched by illness, so hopeless in its rigid calm, that he +felt a keen pain at his own heart. + +"Prisoners, victims of justice, have, it seems, no privileges; else +my one request, my earnest prayer to be shielded from your presence, +might have protected me from this intrusion. Are you akin to +Parrhasius that you come to gloat over the agonies of a moral and +mental vivisection? The sight of suffering to which you have brought +a helpless woman, is scarcely the recompense I was taught to suppose +agreeable to a chivalrous Southern gentleman. If, wearing the red +livery of Justice, undue zeal for vengeance betrayed you into the +fatal mistake of trampling me into this horrible place, there might +be palliation; but for the brutal persistency with which you thrust +your tormenting presence upon me, not even heavenly charity could +possibly find pardon. Literally you are heaping insult upon awful +injury. Is it a refinement of cruelty that brings you here to watch +and analyze my suffering, as a biologist looks through lenses at an +insect he empales, or Pasteur scrutinizes the mortal throes of the +victims into whose veins he has injected poison?" + +If she had drawn a lash across his face, it would not have stung +more keenly than her words, so expressive of detestation. + +"Will you consider for a moment the possibility that other motives +actuate me; that ceaseless regret, remorse, if you choose, for a +terrible mistake, impels me to come here in the hope of making +reparation?" + +"Such a supposition is as inconceivable as the idea of reparation. +When a reaper goes forth to his ripe harvest, his lawful labor, and +wantonly turns aside into a by-path, to try the edge of his sickle +on an humble, unoffending stalk that fights for life among the grass +and weeds, and struggles to get its head sufficiently in the +sunshine to bloom--when he cuts it off unopened, crushes it into the +sod, can he make reparation? Although it is neither bearded yellow +wheat, nor yet a black tare, it proved the temper of his blade; and +all the skill, all the science of universal humanity, cannot re- +erect the stem, cannot remove the stains, cannot unfold the bruised +petals. There are wrongs that all time will never repair. Your sword +of justice needs no whetting; one stroke has laid me low." + +"I purpose to file it two-edged, in order to make no more mistakes. +Before long I shall cut down the real criminal, the principal, who +shall not escape, and for whom you shall not suffer." + +"Then 'a life for a life' no longer satisfies? How many are +required? The law has need of a sacrificial stone wide as that of +the Aztecs. Is justice a'daughter of the horse-leech'?" + +"So help me God--" + +"Hush! Take not His name upon your lips. Men like you cannot afford +to credit the existence of a holy God. This is Christmas--at least +according to the almanac--now as a 'chivalrous Southern gentleman,' +will you grant me a very great favor if I humbly crave it? Ah, +noblesse oblige! you cannot deny me. I beg of you, then, leave me +instantly; come here no more. Never let me see your face again, or +hear your voice, except in the court-room, when I am tried for the +crime which you have told the world I committed. This boon is the +sole possible reparation left you." + +She had clasped her hands so tightly, that the nails were bloodless, +and the fluttering in her white throat betrayed the throbbing of her +heart. + +"You are afraid of me, because you dread my discovering your secret, +which is--" + +"You have done your worst. You have locked me away from a dying +mother; disgraced an innocent life; broken a girl's pure, happy +heart; what else is there to dread? Although a bird knows full well +when it has received its death wound, instinct drives it to flutter, +drag itself as far as possible from the gaze of the sportsman, and +gasp out its agony in some lonely place." + +"When I hunt birds, and a partridge droops its wings, and hovers +almost at my feet, inviting capture, I know beyond all peradventure +that it is only love's ruse; that something she holds dearer than +her own life, is thereby screened, saved. You are guilty of a great +crime against yourself, you are submitting tacitly, consenting to an +awful doom, in order to spare and protect the real murderer." + +He bent closer, watching breathlessly for some change in her white +stony face; but her sad eyes met his with no wavering of the lids, +and only her delicate nostrils dilated slightly. She raised her +locked hands, rested her lips a moment on her mother's ring, as if +drinking some needed tonic, and answered in the same low, quiet +tone: + +"Then, prime minister of justice, set me free, and punish the +guilty. Who murdered General Darrington?" + +"You have known from the beginning; and I intend to set you free, +when that cowardly miscreant has been secured. You would die to save +your lover; you, proud, brave, noble natured, would sacrifice your +precious life for that wretched, vile poltroon, who flees and leaves +you to suffer in his stead! Truly, there is no mystery so profound, +so complex, so subtle as a woman's heart. To die for his crimes, +were a happier fate than to sully your fair soul by alliance with +one so degraded; and, by the help of God, I intend to snatch you +from both!" + +He had put his hands for an instant upon her shoulders, and his +handsome face flushed, eloquent with the feeling that he no longer +cared to disguise, was so close to hers, that she felt his breath on +her cheek. + +Swiftly, unerringly she comprehended everything; and the suddenness +of the discovery dazzled, awed her, as one might feel under the blue +flash of a dagger when thrust into one's clasp for novice fingers to +feel the edge. Was the weapon valued merely because of the +possibility of fleshing it in the heart of him who had darkened her +life? Did he understand as fully the marvellous change in the +beautiful face, that had lured him from his chapel tryst with his +betrothed? He was on the alert for signals of distress, of +embarrassment, of terror; but what meant the glad light that leaped +up in her eyes, the quick flush staining her wan cheek, the +triumphant smile curving lips that a moment before might have +belonged to Guercino's Mater Dolorosa, the relaxation of figure and +features, the unmistakable expression of intense relief that stole +into the countenance? + +"Will you be so good as to tell me my lover's name, and where the +fox terriers of the law unearthed him?" + +"I will tell you something which you do not already know; that I +have found a clue, that I shall hunt him out, hide, crouch where he +may; that here, where he sinned, he shall expiate his crime, and +that when your lover is hung, your name, your honor, shall be +vindicated. So much, Lennox Dunbar promises you, on his honor as a +gentleman." + +"Words, vapid words! Empty, worthless as last year's nests. My +lover," she laughed scornfully, "is quite safe even from your +malevolence. If indeed 'one touch of nature makes the whole world +kin,' one might expect some pity from the guild of love swains; and +it augurs sadly for Miss Gordon's future, that the spell is so +utterly broken." + +His dark face reddened, lowered. + +"If you please, we will keep Miss Gordon's name out of the +conversation, and hereafter when--" + +"Enough! I shall keep her image in my grateful heart, the few +tedious months I have to live; and there seems indeed a sort of +poetic justice in the fact that the bride you covet, has become the +truest, tenderest friend of the hapless girl whom you are +prosecuting for murder." + +"Beryl--" + +"I forbid such insolent presumption! You shall not utter the name my +father gave me. It is holy as my baptism; it must be kept unsullied +for my lover's lips to fondle. This is your last visit here, for if +you dare to intrude again, I will demand protection from the warden. +I will bear no more." + +As he looked at her, the witchery of her youthful loveliness, +heightened by the angry sparkle in her deep eyes, by the vivid +carnation of her curling lips, mastered him; and when he thought of +the brown-haired woman to whom he was pledged, he set his teeth +tight, to smother an execration. He moved toward the door, paused, +and came back. + +"Will it comfort you to know that I suffer even more than you do; +that I am plunged into a fiercer purgatory than that to which I have +condemned you? I am devoured by regret; but I will atone. I came +here as your friend; I can never be less, and in defiance of your +hatred, I shall prove my sincerity. Because I bemoan my rash haste, +will you say good-bye kindly? Some day, perhaps, you will +understand." + +He held out his hand, and his blue eyes lost their steely glitter, +filled with a prayer for pardon. + +She picked up the bouquet which had fallen from the window sill to +the floor, and without hesitation put it into his fingers: + +"I think I understand all that words could ever explain. My short +stream of life is very near the great ocean of rest. I have ceased +to struggle, ceased to hope; and since the end is so close, I wish +no active warfare even with those who wronged me most foully. If you +will spare me the sight of you, I will try to forget the added +misery of the visits you have forced upon me, and perhaps some of +the bitterness may die out. Take the flowers to Miss Gordon; leave +no trace to remind me of your persecution. We bear chastisement +because we must, but the sight of the rod renews the sting; so, +henceforth, I hope to see you no more. When we meet before our God, +I may have a new heart, swept clean of earthly hate, but until then- +-until then--" + +He caught her fingers, crushed his lips against them, and walked +from the room, leaving the bouquet a shattered mass of perfume in +the middle of the floor. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +Standing before Leon Gerome's tragic picture, and listening to the +sepulchral echo that floats down the arcade of centuries. "Ave, +Imperator, morituri te salutant," nineteenth century womanhood +frowns, and deplores the brutal depravity which alone explains the +presence of that white-veiled vestal band, whose snowy arms are +thrust in signal over the parapet of the bloody arena; yet fair +daughters of the latest civilization show unblushing flower faces +among the heaving mass of the "great unwashed" who crowd our court- +rooms--and listen to revolting details more repugnant to genuine +modesty, than the mangled remains in the Colosseum. The rosy thumbs +of Roman vestals were potent ballots in the Eternal City, and +possibly were thrown only in the scale of mercy; but having no voice +in verdicts, to what conservative motive may be ascribed the +presence of women at criminal trials? Are the children of Culture, +the heiresses of "all the ages", really more refined than the proud +old dames of the era of Spartacus? + +Is the spectacle of mere physical torture, in gladiatorial combats, +or in the bloody precincts of plaza de toros, as grossly +demoralizing as the loathsome minutiae of heinous crimes upon which +legal orators dilate; and which Argus reporters, with magnifying +lenses at every eye, reproduce for countless newspapers, that serve +as wings for transporting moral dynamite to hearthstones and +nurseries all over our land? Is there a distinction, without a +difference, between police gazettes and the journalistic press? + +If extremes meet, and the march of human progress be along no +asymtotic line, is the day very distant when we shall welcome the +Renaissance of that wisdom which two thousand years ago held its +august tribunal in the solemn hours of night, when darkness hid from +the Judges everything save well-authenticated facts? The supreme aim +of civil and criminal law being the conservation of national and +individual purity, to what shall we attribute the paradox presented +in its administration, whereby its temples become lairs of libel, +their moral atmosphere defiled by the monstrous vivisection of +parental character by children, the slaughter of family reputation, +the exhaustive analysis of every species of sin forbidden by the +Decalogue, and floods of vulgar vituperation dreadful as the +Apocalyptic vials? Can this generation + + "--in the foremost files of time--" + +afford to believe that a grim significance lurks in the desuetude of +typical judicial ermine? + +Traditions of ante bellum custom proclaimed that "good society" in +the town of X--, formerly considered the precincts of courts as +unfit for ladies as the fetid air of morgues, or the surgical +instruments on dissecting tables; but the vanguard of cosmopolitan +freedom and progress had pitched tents in the old-fashioned place, +and recruited rapidly from the ranks of the invaded; hence it came +to pass, that on the second day of the murder trial, when the +preliminaries of jury empanelling had been completed, and all were +ready to launch the case, X--announced its social emancipation from +ancient canons of decorum, by the unwonted spectacle of benches +crowded with "ladies", whose silken garments were crushed against +the coarser fabrics of proletariat. Despite the piercing cold of a +morning late in February, the mass of human furnaces had raised the +temperature to a degree that encouraged the fluttering of fans, and +necessitated the order that no additional spectators should be +admitted. + +Viewed through the leaden haze of fearful anticipation, the horror +of the impending trial had seemed unendurable to the proud and +sensitive girl, whom the Sheriff placed on a seat fronting the sea +of curious faces, the battery of scrutinizing eyes turned on her +from the jury-box. Four months of dread had unnerved her, yet now +when the cruel actuality seized her in its iron grasp, that superb +strength which the inevitable lends to conscious innocence, so +steeled and fortified her, that she felt lifted to some lonely +height, where numbness eased her aching wounds. + +Pallid and motionless, she sat like a statue, save for the slow +strokes of her right hand upon the red gold of her mother's ring; +and the sound of a man's voice reading a formula, seemed to echo +from an immeasurable distance. She had consented to, had +deliberately accepted the worst possible fate, and realized the +isolation of her lot; but for one thing she was not prepared, and +its unexpectedness threatened to shiver her calmness. Two women made +their way toward her: Dyce and Sister Serena. The former sat down in +the rear of the prisoner, the latter stood for a few seconds, and +her thin delicate hand fell upon the girl's shoulder. At sight of +the sweet, placid countenance below the floating white muslin veil, +Beryl's lips quivered into a sad smile; and as they shook hands she +whispered: + +"I believe even the gallows will not frighten you two from my side." + +Sister Serena seated herself as close as possible, drew from her +pocket a gray woollen stocking, and began to knit. For an instant +Beryl's eyes closed, to shut in the sudden gush of grateful tears; +when she opened them, Mr. Churchill had risen: + +"May it please the Court, Gentlemen of the Jury: If fidelity to duty +involved no sacrifice of personal feeling, should we make it the +touchstone of human character, value it as the most precious jewel +in the crown of human virtues? I were less than a man, immeasurably +less than a gentleman, were I capable of addressing you to-day, in +obedience to the behests of justice, and in fulfilment of the stern +requirements of my official position, without emotions of profound +regret, that implacable Duty, to whom I have sworn allegiance, +forces me to hush the pleading whispers of my pitying heart, to +smother the tender instincts of human sympathy, and to listen only +to the solemn mandate of those laws, which alone can secure to our +race the enjoyment of life, liberty and property. An extended +professional career has hitherto furnished me no parallel for the +peculiarly painful exigencies of this occasion; and an awful +responsibility scourges me with scorpion lash to a most unwelcome +task. When man crosses swords with man on any arena, innate pride +nerves his arm and kindles enthusiasm, but alas, for the man! be he +worthy the name, who draws his blade and sees before him a young, +helpless, beautiful woman, disarmed. Were it not a bailable offence +in the court of honor, if his arm fell palsied? Each of you who has +a mother, a wife, a lily browed daughter, put yourself in my place, +lend me your sympathy; and at least applaud the loyalty that +strangles all individuality, and renders me bound thrall of official +duty. Counsel for the defence has been repeatedly offered, nay, +pressed upon the prisoner, but as often persistently rejected; hence +the almost paralyzing repugnance with which I approach my theme. + +"The Grand Jury of the county, at its last sitting, returned to this +court a bill of indictment, charging the prisoner at the bar with +the wilful, deliberate and premeditated murder of Robert Luke +Darrington, by striking him with a brass andiron. To this indictment +she has pleaded 'Not Guilty,' and stands before her God and this +community for trial. Gentlemen of the jury, you represent this +commonwealth, jealous of the inviolability of its laws, and by +virtue of your oaths, you are solemnly pledged to decide upon her +guilt or innocence, in strict accordance with the evidence that may +be laid before you. In fulfilling this sacred duty, you will, I feel +assured, be governed exclusively by a stern regard to the demands of +public justice. While it taxes our reluctant credulity to believe +that a crime so hideous could have been committed by a woman's hand, +could have been perpetrated without provocation, within the borders +of our peaceful community, nevertheless, the evidence we shall +adduce must inevitably force you to the melancholy conclusion that +the prisoner at the bar is guilty of the offence, with which she +stands charged. The indictment which you are about to try, charges +Beryl Brentano with the murder. + +"In outlining the evidence which will be presented in support of +this indictment, I earnestly desire that you will give me your +dispassionate and undivided attention; and I call God to witness, +that disclaiming personal animosity and undue zeal for vengeance, I +am sorrowfully indicating as an officer of the law, a path of +inquiry, that must lead you to that goal where, before the altar of +Truth, Justice swings her divine scales, and bids Nemesis unsheathe +her sword. + +"On the afternoon of October the twenty-sixth, about three o'clock, +a stranger arrived in X--and inquired of the station agent what road +would carry her to 'Elm Bluff', the home of General Darrington; +assuring him she would return in time to take the north-bound train +at 7.15, as urgent business necessitated her return. Demanding an +interview with Gen'l Darrington, she was admitted, incognito, and +proclaimed herself his granddaughter, sent hither by a sick mother, +to procure a certain sum of money required for specified purposes. +That the interview was stormy, was characterized by fierce invective +on her part, and by bitter denunciation and recrimination on his, is +too well established to admit of question; and they parted +implacable foes, as is attested by the fact that he drove her from +his room through a rear and unfrequented door, opening into a flower +garden, whence she wandered over the grounds until she found the +gate. The vital import of this interview lies in the great stress +Gen'l Darrington placed upon the statement he iterated and +reiterated; that he had disinherited his daughter, and drawn up a +will bequeathing his entire estate to his step-son Prince. + +"Miss Brentano did not leave X--at 7.15, though she had ample time +to do so, after quitting 'Elm Bluff'. She loitered about the station +house until nearly half-past eight, then disappeared. At 10 P.M. she +was seen and identified by a person who had met her at 'Elm Bluff', +crouching behind a tree near the road that led to that ill-fated +house, and when questioned regarding her presence there, gave +unsatisfactory answers. At half-past two o'clock she was next seen +hastening toward the station office, along the line of the railroad, +from the direction of the water tank, which is situated nearly a +mile north of town. Meanwhile an unusually severe storm had been +followed by a drenching rain, and the stranger's garments were wet, +when, after a confused and contradictory account of her movements, +she boarded the 3.05 train bound north. + +"During that night, certainly after ten o'clock, Gen'l Darrington +was murdered. His vault was forced open, money was stolen, and most +significant of all, the WILL was abstracted. Criminal jurisprudence +holds that the absence of motive renders nugatory much weighty +testimony. In this melancholy cause, could a more powerful motive be +imagined than that which goaded the prisoner to dip her fair hands +in her grandfather's blood, in order to possess and destroy that +will, which stood as an everlasting barrier between her and the +estate she coveted? + +"Crimes are referrible to two potent passions of the human soul; +malice, engendering thirst for revenge, and the insatiable lust of +money. If that old man had died a natural death, leaving the will he +had signed, his property would have belonged to the adopted son, to +whom he bequeathed it, and Mrs. Brentano and her daughter would have +remained paupers. Cut off by assassination, and with no record of +his last wishes in existence, the beloved son is bereft of his +legacy, and Beryl Brentano and her mother inherit the blood-bought +riches they covet. When arrested, gold coins and jewels identified +as those formerly deposited in Gen'l Darrington's vault, were found +in possession of the prisoner; and as if every emissary of fate were +armed with warrants for her detection, a handkerchief bearing her +initials, and saturated with the chloroform which she had +administered to her victim, was taken from the pillow, where his +honored gray head rested, when he slept his last sleep on earth. +Further analysis would insult your intelligence, and having very +briefly laid before you the intended line of testimony, I believe I +have assigned a motive for this monstrous crime, which must +precipitate the vengeance of the law, in a degree commensurate with +its enormity. Time, opportunity, motive, when in full accord, +constitute a fatal triad, and the suspicious and unexplainable +conduct of the prisoner in various respects, furnishes, in +connection with other circumstances of this case, the strongest +presumptive evidence of her guilt. These circumstances, far beyond +the realm of human volition, smelted and shaped in the rolling mills +of destiny, form the tramway along which already the car of doom +thunders; and when they shall have been fully proved to you, by +unassailable testimony, no alternative remains but the verdict of +guilty. Mournful as is the duty, and awfully solemn the necessity +that leaves the issue of life and death in your hands, remember, +gentlemen, Curran's immortal words: 'A juror's oath is the +adamantine chain that binds the integrity of man to the throne of +eternal justice'." + +No trace of emotion was visible on the prisoner's face, except at +the harsh mention of her mother's name; when a shudder was +perceptible, as in one where dentist's steel pierces a sensitive +nerve. In order to avoid the hundreds of eyes that stabbed her like +merciless probes, her own had been raised and fixed upon a portion +of the cornice in the room where a family of spiders held busy camp; +but a fascination song resisted, finally drew their gaze down to a +seat near the bar, and she encountered the steady, sorrowful regard +of Mr. Dunbar. + +Two months had elapsed since the Christmas morning on which she had +rejected his floral offering, and during that weary season of +waiting, she had refused to see any visitors except Dyce and Sister +Serena; resolutely denying admittance to Miss Gordon. She knew that +he had been absent, had searched for some testimony in New York, and +now meeting his eyes, she saw a sudden change in their expression--a +sparkle, a smile of encouragement, a declaration of success. He +fancied he understood the shadow of dread that drifted over her +face; and she realized at that instant, that of all foes, she had +most to apprehend from the man who she knew loved her with an +unreasoning and ineradicable fervor. How much had he discovered? She +could defy the district solicitor, the judge, the jury; but only one +method of silencing the battery that was ambushed in those gleaming +blue eyes presented itself. To extinguish his jealousy, by removing +the figment of a rival, might rob him of the motive that explained +his persistent pursuit of the clue she had concealed; but it would +simultaneously demolish, also, the barrier that stretched between +Miss Gordon's happy heart and the bitter waves of a cruel +disappointment. If assured that her own affection was unpledged, +would the bare form and ceremonial of honor bind his allegiance to +his betrothed? Absorbed in these reflections, the prisoner became +temporarily oblivious of the proceedings; and it was not until +Sister Serena touched her arm, that she saw the vast throng was +watching her, waiting for some reply. The Judge repeated his +question: + +"Is it the desire of the prisoner to answer the presentation of the +prosecution? Having refused professional defence, you now have the +option of addressing the Court." + +"Let the prosecution proceed." + +There was no quiver in her voice, as cold, sweet and distinct it +found its way to the extremity of the wide apartment; yet therein +lurked no defiance. She resumed her seat, and her eyes sank, until +the long black fringes veiled their depths. Unperceived, Judge Dent +had found a seat behind her, and leaning forward he whispered: + +"Will you permit me to speak for you?" + +"Thank you--no." + +"But it cuts me to the heart to see you so forsaken, so helpless." + +"God is my helper; He will not forsake me." + +The first witness called and sworn was Doctor Ledyard, the physician +who for many years had attended General Darrington; and who +testified that when summoned to examine the body of deceased, on the +morning of the inquest, he had found it so rigid that at least eight +hours must have elapsed since life became extinct. Had discovered no +blood stains, and only two contusions, one on the right temple, +where a circular black spot was conspicuous, and a bluish bruise +over the region of the heart. He had visited deceased on the morning +of previous day, and he then appeared much better, and almost +relieved of rheumatism and pains attributable to an old wound in the +right knee. The skull had not been fractured by the blow on the +temple, but witness believed it had caused death; and the andiron, +which he identified as the one found on the floor close to the +deceased, was so unusually massive, he was positive that if hurled +with any force, it would produce a fatal result. + +Mr, Churchill: "Did you at that examination detect any traces of +chloroform?" + +"There was an odor of chloroform very perceptible when we lifted the +hair to examine the skull; and on searching the room, we found a +vial which had contained chloroform, and was beside the pillow, +where a portion had evidently leaked out." + +"Could death have occurred in consequence of inhaling that +chloroform?" + +"If so, the deceased could never have risen, and would have been +found in his bed; moreover, the limbs were drawn up, and bent into a +position totally inconsistent with any theory of death produced by +anaesthetics; and the body was rigid as iron." + +The foregoing testimony was confirmed by that of Doctor Cranmar, a +resident physician, who had been summoned by the Coroner to assist +Doctor Ledyard in the examination, reported formally at the inquest. + +"Here, gentlemen of the jury, is the fatal weapon with which a +woman's hand, supernaturally nerved in the struggle for gain, struck +down, destroyed a venerable old man, an honored citizen, whose gray +hairs should have shielded him from the murderous assault of a +mercenary adventuress. Can she behold without a shudder, this tell- +tale instrument of her monstrous crime?" + +High above his head, Mr. Churchill raised the old-fashioned andiron, +and involuntarily Beryl glanced at the quaint brass figure, cast in +the form of a unicorn, with a heavy ball surmounting the horn. + +"Abednego Darrington!" + +Sullen, crestfallen and woe-begone was the demeanor of the old +negro, who had been brought vi et armis by a constable, from the +seclusion of a corner of the "Bend Plantation", where he had +secreted himself, to avoid the shame of bearing testimony against +his mistress' child. When placed on the witness stand, he crossed +his arms over his chest, planted his right foot firmly in advance, +and fixed his eyes on the leather strings that tied his shoes. + +After some unimportant preliminaries, the District Solicitor asked: + +"When did you first see the prisoner, who now sits before you?" + +"When she come to our house, the evening before ole Marster died." + +"You admitted her to your Master's presence?" + +"I never tuck no sech libberties. He tole me to let her in." + +"You carried her to his room?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"About what time of the day was it?" + +"Don't know." + +"Gen'l Darrington always dined at three o'clock. Was it before or +after dinner?" + +"After." + +"How long was the prisoner in the General's room?" + +"Don't know." + +"Did she leave the house by the front door, or the side door?" + +"Can't say. Didn't see her when she come out." + +"About how long was she in the house?" + +"I totes no watch, and I never had no luck guessing. I'm shore to +land wrong." + +"Was it one hour or two?" + +"Mebbe more, mebbe less." + +"Where were you during that visit?" + +"Feedin' my game pullets in the backyard." + +"Did you hear any part of the conversation between the prisoner and +Gen'l Darrington?" + +"No, sir! I'm above the meanness of eavesdrapping." + +"How did you learn that she was the granddaughter of Gen'l +Darrington?" + +"Miss Angerline, the white 'oman what mends and sews, come to the +back piazer, and beckoned me to run there. She said ther must be a +'high ole fracas', them was her words, agoin' on in Marster's room, +for he was cussin' and swearin', and his granddaughter was jawing +back very vicious. Sez I, 'Who'? Sez she, 'His granddaughter; that +is Ellice's chile'. Sez I, 'How do you know so much'? Sez she, 'I +was darning them liberry curtains, and I couldn't help hearing the +wrangle'. Sez I, 'You picked a oncommon handy time to tackle them +curtains; they must be mighty good to cure the ear-itch'. She axed +me if I didn't see the family favor in the 'oman's face; and I tole +her no, but I would see for myself. Sez she, to me, 'No yow won't, +for the Gen'l is in a tearing rage, and he's done drove her out, and +kicked and slammed the doors. She's gone.'" + +"Then you did not see her?" + +"I went to the front piazer, and I seen her far down the lawn, but +Marster rung his bell so savage, I had to run back to him." + +"Did he tell you the prisoner was his granddaughter?" + +"No, sir." + +"Did you mention the fact to him?" + +"I wouldn't 'a dared to meddle with his fambly bizness!" + +"He appeared very angry and excited?" + +"He 'peard to want some ole Conyyac what was in the sideboard, and I +brung the bottle to him." + +"Do you remember whether his vault in the wall was open, when you +answered the bell?" + +"I didn't notice it." + +"Where did you sleep that night?" + +"On a pallet in the middle passage, nigh the star steps." + +"Was that your usual custom?" + +"No, sir. But the boy what had been sleepin' in the house while ole +Marster was sick, had gone to set up with his daddy's corpse, and I +tuck his place." + +"Did you hear any unusual noise during the night?" + +"Only the squalling of the pea-fowul what was oncommon oneasy, and +the thunder that was ear-splitting. One clap was so tremenjous it +raised me plum off'en the pallet, and jarred me to my backbone, as +if a cannon had gone off close by." + +"Now, Bedney, state carefully all the circumstances under which you +found your master the next morning; and remember you are on your +oath, to speak the truth, and all the truth." + +"He was a early riser, and always wanted his shavin' water promp'. +When his bell didn't ring, I thought the storm had kep' him awake, +and he was having a mornin' nap, to make up for lost time. The clock +had struck eight, and the cook said as how the steak and chops was +as dry as a bone from waitin', and so I got the water and went to +Marster's door. It was shet tight, and I knocked easy. He never +answered; so I knocked louder; and thinkin' somethin' was shorely +wrong, I opened the door--" + +"Go on. What did you find?" + +"Mars Alfred, sir, it's very harryfyin to my feelins." + +"Go on. You are required to state all you saw, all you know." + +Bedney drew back his right foot, advanced his left. Took out his +handkerchief, wiped his face and refolded his arms. + +"My Marster was layin' on the rug before the fireplace, and his +knees was all drawed up. His right arm, was stretched out, so--and +his left hand was all doubled up. I know'd he was dead, before I +tetched him, for his face was set; and pinched and blue. I reckon I +hollered, but I can't say, for the next thing I knowed, the horsler +and the cook, and Miss Angerline, and Dyce, my ole 'oman, and Gord +knows who all, was streamin' in and out and screamin'." + +"What was the condition of the room?" + +"The front window was up, and the blinds was flung wide open, and a +cheer was upside clown close to it. The red vases what stood on the +fire-place mantle was smashed on the carpet, and the handi'on was +close to Marster's right hand. The vault was open, and papers was +strowed plentiful round on the floor under it. Then the neighburs +and the Doctor, and the Crowner come runnin' in, and I sot down by +the bed and cried like a chile. Pretty soon they turned us all out +and hilt the inquess." + +"You do not recollect any other circumstance?" + +"The lamp on the table was burnin'--and ther' wan't much oil left in +it. I seen Miss Angerline blow it out, after the Doctor come." + +"Who found the chloroform vial?" + +"Don't know." + +"Did you hear any name mentioned as that of the murderer?" + +"Miss Angerline tole the Crowner, that ef the will was missin', +Gen'l Darrington's granddaughter had stole it. They two, with some +other gentleman, sarched the vault, and Miss Angerline said +everything was higgledy piggledy and no will there." + +"You testified before the Coroner?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Why did you not give him the handkerchief you found?" + +"I didn't have it then." + +"When and where did you get it? Be very careful now." + +For the first time Bedney raised his eyes toward the place where +Dyce sat near the prisoner, and he hesitated. He took some tobacco +from his vest pocket, stowed it away in the hollow of his cheek, and +re-crossed his arms. + +"When Marster was dressed, and they carried him out to the drawing- +room, Dyce was standin' cryin' by the fireplace, and I went to the +bed, and put my hand under the bolster, where Marster always kep' +his watch and his pistol. The watch was ther' but no pistol; and +just sorter stuffed under the pillow case--was, a hank'cher. I tuk +the watch straight to the gentlemen in the drawin'-room, and they +come back and sarched for the pistol, and we foun' it layin' in its +case in the table draw'. Of all the nights in his life, ole Marster +had forgot to lay his pistol handy." + +"Never mind about the pistol. What became of the handkerchief?" + +"When I picked it up, an injun-rubber stopper rolled out, and as +ther' wan't no value in a hank'cher, I saw no harm in keepin' it-- +for a'mento of ole Marster's death." + +"You knew it was a lady's handkerchief." + +"No, sir! I didn't know it then; and what's more, I don't know it +now." + +"Is not this the identical handkerchief you found?" + +"Cant say. 'Dentical is a ticklish trap for a pusson on oath. It do +look like it, to be shore; but two seed in a okrey pod is ezactly +alike, and one is one, and t'other is t'other." + +"Look at it. To the best of your knowledge and belief it is the +identical handkerchief you found on Gen'l Darrington's pillow?" + +"What I found had red specks sewed in the border, and this seems +jest like it; but I don't sware to no dentical--'cause I means to be +kereful; and I will stand to the aidge of my oath; but--Mars Alfred- +-don't shove me over it." + +"Can't you read?" + +"No, sir; I never hankered after book-larnin' tomfoolery, and other +freedom frauds." + +"You know your A B C's?" + +"No more 'n a blind mule." + +As the solicitor took from the table in front of the jury box, the +embroidered square of cambric, and held it up by two corners, every +eye in the court-room fastened upon it; and a deadly faintness +seized the prisoner, whitening lips that hitherto had kept their +scarlet outlines. + +"Gentlemen of the jury, if the murdered man could stand before you, +for one instant only, his frozen finger would point to the fatal +letters which destiny seems to have left as a bloody brand. Here in +indelible colors are wrought 'B. B.'!--Beryl Brentano. Do you +wonder, gentlemen, that when this overwhelming evidence of her guilt +came into my possession, compassion for a beautiful woman was +strangled by supreme horror, in the contemplation of the depravity +of a female monster? If these crimson letters were gaping wounds, +could their bloody lips more solemnly accuse yonder blanched, +shuddering, conscience-stricken woman of the sickening crime of +murdering her aged, infirm grandfather, from whose veins she drew +the red tide that now curdles at her heart?" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +As the third day of the trial wore away, the dense crowd in the +court-room became acquainted with the sensation of having been +unjustly defrauded of the customary public peruisite; because the +monotonous proceedings were entirely devoid of the spirited verbal +duels, the microscopic hair splitting, the biting sarcasms of +opposing counsel, the brow-beating of witnesses, the tenacious +wrangling over invisible legal points, which usually vary and spice +the routine and stimulate the interest of curious spectators. When a +spiritless fox disdains to double, and stands waiting for the +hounds, who have only to rend it, hunters feel cheated, and deem it +no chase. + +To the impatient spectators, it appeared a very tame, one-sided, and +anomalous trial, where like a slow stream the evidences of guilt +oozed, and settled about the prisoner, who challenged the +credibility of no witness, and waived all the privileges of cross- +examination. Now and then, the audience criticised in whispers the +"undue latitude" allowed by the Judge, to the District Solicitor; +but their "exceptions" were informal, and the prosecution received +no serious or important rebuff. + +Was the accused utterly callous, or paralyzed by consciousness of +her crime; or biding her time for a dramatic outburst of vindicating +testimony? To her sensitive nature, the ordeal of sitting day after +day to be stared at by a curious and prejudiced public, was more +torturing than the pangs of Marsyas; and she wondered whether a +courageous Roman captive who was shorn of his eyelids, and set under +the blistering sun of Africa, suffered any more keenly; but +motionless, apparently impassive as a stone mask, on whose features +pitiless storms beat in vain, she bore without wincing the agony of +her humiliation. Very white and still, she sat hour by hour with +downcast eyes, and folded hands; and those who watched most closely +could detect only one change of position; now and then she raised +her clasped hands, and rested her lips a moment on the locked +fingers, then dropped them wearily on her lap. + +Even when a juryman asked two searching questions of a witness, she +showed no sign of perturbation, and avoided meeting the eyes in the +jury-box, as though they belonged to basilisks. Was it only three +days since the beginning of this excruciating martyrdom of soul; and +how much longer could she endure silently, and keep her reason? + +At times, Sister Serena's hand forsook the knitting, to lay a soft, +caressing touch of encouragement and sympathy on the girl's +shoulder; and Dyce's burning indignation vented itself in frequent +audible grating of her strong white teeth. So passed Monday, +Tuesday, Wednesday, in the examination of witnesses who +recapitulated all that had been elicited at the preliminary +investigation; and each nook and cranny of recollection in the mind +of Anthony Burk, the station agent; of Belshazzer Tatem, the lame +gardener; of lean and acrid Miss Angeline, the seamstress, was +illuminated by the lurid light of Mr. Churchill's adroit +interrogation. Thus far, the prosecution had been conducted by the +District Solicitor, with the occasional assistance of Mr. Wolverton, +who, in conjunction with Mr. Dunbar, had appeared as representative +of the Darrington estate, and its legal heir, Prince; and when court +adjourned on Wednesday, the belief was generally entertained that no +defence was possible; and that at the last moment, the prisoner +would confess her crime, and appeal to the mercy of the jury. As the +deputy sheriff led his prisoner toward the rear entrance, where +stood the dismal funereal black wagon in which she was brought from +prison to court, Judge Dent came quickly to meet her. + +"My niece, Miss Gordon, could not, of course, come into the court- +room, but she is here in the library, with her aunt, and desires to +see you for a moment?" + +"Tell her I am grateful for her kind motives, but I wish to see no +one now." + +"For your own sake, consider the--ah! here is my niece." + +"I hope you need no verbal assurance of my deep sympathy, and my +constant prayers," said Leo, taking one passive hand between hers, +and pressing it warmly. + +"Miss Gordon, I am comforted by your compassion, and by your +unwavering confidence in a stranger whom your townsmen hold up as a +'female monster'. Because I so profoundly realize how good you are, +I am unwilling that you should identify yourself with my hopeless +cause. My sufferings will soon be over, and then I want no shadowy +reflex cast upon the smiling blue sky of your future. I have nothing +more to lose, save the burden of a life--that I shall be glad to lay +down; but you--! Be careful, do not jeopardize your beautiful dream +of happiness." + +"Why do you persist in rejecting the overtures of those who could +assist, who might successfully defend you? I beg of you, consent to +receive and confer with counsel, even to-night." + +"You will never understand why I must not, till the earth gives up +her dead. You tremble, because only one more link can be added to +the chain that is coiling about my neck, and that link is the +testimony of the man whose name you expect to bear. Miss Gordon"-- +she stooped closer, and whispered slowly: "Do not upbraid your +lover; be tender, cling to him; and afford me the consolation of +knowing that the unfortunate woman you befriended, and trusted, cast +not even a fleeting shadow between your heart and his. Pray for me, +that I may be patient and strong. God bless you." + +Turning swiftly, she hurried on to the officer, who had courteously +withdrawn a few yards distant. As he opened the door of the wagon, +he handed her a loosely folded sheet of paper. + +"I promised to deliver your answer as soon as possible." + +By aid of the red glow, burning low in the western sky, she read: + +"Mr. Dunbar requests that for her own sake, Miss Brentano will grant +him an interview this evening." + +"My answer must necessarily be verbal. Say that I will see no one." + +To the solitude and darkness of prison she fled for relief, as into +some merciful sheltering arms; and not even the loving solicitude of +Mrs. Singleton was permitted to penetrate her seclusion, or share +her dreary vigil. Another sleepless night dragged its leaden hours +to meet the dawn, bringing no rest to the desolate soul, who +silently grappled with fate, while every womanly instinct shuddered +at the loathsome degradation forced upon her. Face downward on her +hard, narrow cot, she recalled the terrible accusations, the +opprobrious epithets, and tearless, convulsive sobs of passionate +protest shook her from head to foot. + +Tortured with indignation and shame, at the insults heaped upon her, +yet sternly resolved to endure silently, these nights were veritable +stations along her Via Dolorosa; and fortified her for the daily +flagellation in front of the jury-box. + +On Thursday a slow, sleeting rain enveloped the world in a gray +cowl, bristling with ice needles; yet when Judge Parkman took his +seat at nine o'clock, there was a perceptible increase in the living +mass, packed in every available inch of space. + +For the first time, Mr. Dunbar's seat between his colleagues was +vacant; and Mr. Churchill and Mr. Wolverton were conversing in an +animated whisper. + +Clad in mourning garments, and with a long crape veil put back from +her face, the prisoner was escorted to her accustomed place; and +braced by a supreme effort for the critical hour, which she felt +assured was at hand, her pale set features gleamed like those of a +marble statue shrouded in black. + +Called to the stand, Simon Frisby testified that "he was telegraph +operator, and night train despatcher for railway in X--. On October +the twenty-sixth, had just gone on duty at 8 P.M. at the station, +when prisoner came in, and sent a telegram to New York. A copy of +that message had been surrendered to the District Solicitor. Witness +had remained all night in his office, which adjoined the ladies' +waiting-room, and his attention having been attracted by the unusual +fact that it was left open and lighted, he had twice gone to the +door and looked in, but saw no one. Thought the last inspection was +about two o'clock, immediately after he had sent a message to the +conductor on train No. 4. Saw prisoner when she came in, a half hour +later, and heard the conversation between her and Burk, the station +agent. Was very positive prisoner could not have been in the ladies' +waiting-room during the severe storm." + +Mr. Churchill read aloud the telegram addressed to Mrs. Ignace +Brentano: "Complete success required delay. All will be +satisfactory. Expect me Saturday. B. B." + +He commented on its ambiguous phraseology, sent the message to the +jury for inspection, and resumed his chair. + +"Lennox Dunbar." + +Sister Serena's knitting fell from her fingers; Dyce groaned +audibly, and Judge Dent, sitting quite near, uttered a heavy sigh. +The statue throbbed into life, drew herself proudly up; and with a +haughty poise of the head, her grand eloquent gray eyes looked up at +the witness, and for the first time during the trial bore a +challenge. For fully a moment, eye met eye, soul looked into soul, +with only a few feet of space dividing prisoner from witness; and as +the girl scanned the dark, resolute, sternly chiselled face, cold, +yet handsome as some faultless bronze god, a singular smile unbent +her frozen lips, and Judge Dent and Sister Serena wondered what the +scarcely audible ejaculation meant: + +"At the mercy of Tiberius!" + +No faintest reflection of the fierce pain at his heart could have +been discerned on that non-committal countenance; and as he turned +to the jury, his swart magnetic face appeared cruelly hard, +sinister. + +"I first saw the prisoner at 'Elm Bluff', on the afternoon previous +to Gen'l Darrington's death. When I came out of the house, she was +sitting bareheaded on the front steps, fanning herself with her hat, +and while I was untying my horse, she followed Bedney into the +library. The blinds were open and I saw her pass the window, walking +in the direction of the bedroom." + +Mr. Churchill: "At that time did you suspect her relationship to +your client, Gen'l Darrington?" + +"I did not." + +"What was the impression left upon your mind?" + +"That she was a distinguished stranger, upon some important errand." + +"She excited your suspicions at once?" + +"Nothing had occurred to justify suspicion. My curiosity was +aroused. Several hours later I was again at 'Elm Bluff' on legal +business, and found Gen'l Darrington much disturbed in consequence +of an interview with the prisoner, who, he informed me, was the +child of his daughter, whom he had many years previous disowned and +disinherited. In referring to this interview, his words were: 'I was +harsh to the girl, so harsh that she turned upon me, savage as a +strong cub defending a crippled, helpless dam. Mother and daughter +know now that the last card has been played; for I gave the girl +distinctly to understand, that at my death Prince would inherit +every iota of my estate, and that my will had been carefully written +in order to cut them off without a cent.'" + +"You were led to infer that Gen'l Darrington had refused her +application for money?" + +"There was no mention of an application for money, hence I inferred +nothing." + +"During that conversation, the last which Gen'l Darrington held on +earth, did he not tell you he was oppressed by an awful presentiment +connected with his granddaughter?" + +"His words were: 'Somehow I am unable to get rid of the strange, +disagreeable presentiment that girl let behind her as a farewell +legacy. She stood there at the glass door, and raised her hand: +'Gen'l Darrington, when you lie down to die, may God have more mercy +on your poor soul, than you have shown to your suffering child.' + +"I advised him to sleep off the disagreeable train of thought, and +as I bade him good night, his last words were: + +"'I shall write to Prince to come home.'" + +"What do you know concerning the contents of your client's will?" + +"The original will was drawn up by my father in 187-, but last May, +Gen'l Darrington required me to re-write it, as he wished to +increase the amount of a bequest to a certain charitable +institution. The provisions of the will were, that with the +exception of various specified legacies, his entire estate, real and +personal, should be given to his stepson Prince; and it was +carefully worded, with the avowed intention of barring all claims +that might be presented by Ellice Brentano or her heirs." + +"Do you recollect any allusion to jewelry?" + +"One clause of the will set aside a case of sapphire stones, with +the direction that whenever Prince Darrington married, they should +be worn by the lady as a bridal present from him." + +"Would you not deem it highly incompatible with all you know of the +Gen'l's relentless character, that said sapphires and money should +have been given to the prisoner?" + +"My surmises would be irrelevant and valueless to the Court; and +facts, indisputable facts, are all that should be required of +witnesses." + +"When and where did you next see the prisoner?" + +Cold, crisp, carefully accentuated, his words fell like lead upon +the ears of all present, whose sympathies were enlisted for the +desolate woman; and as he stood, tall, graceful, with one hand +thrust within his vest, the other resting easily on the back of the +bench near him, his clear cut face so suggestive of metallic +medallions, gave no more hint of the smouldering flame at his heart +than the glittering ice crown of Eiriksjokull betrays the fierce +lava tides beating beneath its frozen crust. + +"At 10 o'clock on the same night, I saw the prisoner on the road +leading from town to 'Elm Bluff', and not farther than half a mile +from the cedar bridge spanning the 'branch', at the foot of the hill +where the iron gate stands." + +"She was then going in the direction of 'Elm Bluff?'" + +"She was sitting on the ground, with her head leaning against a pine +tree, but she rose as I approached." + +"As it was at night, is there a possibility of your having mistaken +some one else for the prisoner?" + +"None whatever. She wore no hat, and the moon shone full on her +face." + +"Did you not question her about her presence there, at such an +hour?" + +"I asked: 'Madam, you seem a stranger; have you lost your way?' She +answered, 'No, sir.' I added: 'Pardon me, but having seen you at +"Elm Bluff" this afternoon, I thought it possible you had missed the +road.' She made no reply, and I rode on to town." + +"She betrayed so much trepidation and embarrassment, that your +suspicion was at once aroused?" + +"She evinced neither trepidation nor embarrassment. Her manner was +haughty and repellent, as though designed to rebuke impertinence. +Next morning, when informed of the peculiar circumstances attending +Gen'l Darrington's death, I felt it incumbent upon me to communicate +to the magistrate the facts which I have just narrated." + +"An overwhelming conviction of the prisoner's guilt impelled you to +demand her arrest?" + +"Overwhelming conviction rarely results from merely circumstantial +evidence, but a combination of accusing circumstances certainly +pointed to the prisoner; and following their guidance, I am +responsible for her arrest and detention for trial. To the scrutiny +of the Court I have submitted every fact that influenced my action, +and the estimate of their value decided by the jurymen, must either +confirm the cogency of my reasoning, or condemn my rash fallibility. +Having under oath conscientiously given all the evidence in my +possession, that the prosecution would accept or desire, I now +respectfully request, that unless the prisoner chooses to exercise +her right of cross-examination, my colleagues of the prosecution, +and his Honor, will grant me a final discharge as witness." + +Turning toward Beryl, Judge Parkman said: + +"It is my duty again to remind you, that the cross-examination of +witnesses is one of the most important methods of defence; as +thereby inaccuracies of statement regarding time, place, etc., are +often detected in criminal prosecutions, which otherwise might +remain undiscovered. To this invaluable privilege of every +defendant, I call your attention once more. Will you cross-question +the witness on the stand?" + +Involuntarily her eyes sought those of the witness, and despite his +locked and guarded face, she read there an intimation that vaguely +disquieted her. She knew that the battle with him must yet be +fought. + +"I waive the right." + +"Then, with the consent of the prosecuting counsel, witness is +discharged, subject to recall should the necessities of rebuttal +demand it." + +"By agreement with my colleagues, I ask for final discharge, subject +to your Honor's approval." + +"If in accordance with their wishes, the request is granted." + +The clock on the turret struck one, the hour of adjournment, and ere +recess was declared, Mr. Churchill rose. + +"Having now proved by trustworthy and unquestioned witnesses, a dark +array of facts, which no amount of additional testimony could either +strengthen, or controvert, the prosecution here rest their case +before the jury for inspection; and feeling assured that only one +conclusion can result, will call no other witness, unless required +in rebuttal." + +Desiring to be alone, Beryl had shut out even Sister Serena, and as +the officer locked her into a dark antechamber, adjoining the court- +room, she began to pace the floor. One tall, narrow window, dim with +inside dust, showed her through filmy cobwebs the gray veil of rain +falling ceaselessly outside, darkening the day that seemed a fit +type of her sombre-hued life, drawing swiftly to its close, with no +hope of rift in the clouds, no possibility of sunset glow even to +stain its grave. Oh! to be hidden safely in mother earth--away from +the gaping crowd that thirsted for her blood!--at rest in darkness +and in silence; with the maddening stings of outraged innocence and +womanly delicacy stilled forever. Oh! the coveted peace of lying +under the sod, with only nodding daisies, whispering grasses, +crystal chimes of vernal rain, solemn fugue of wintry winds between +her tired, aching eyes and the fair, eternal heavens! Harrowing days +and sleepless, horror-haunted nights, invincible sappers and miners, +had robbed her of strength; and the uncontrollable shivering that +now and then seized her, warned her that her nerves were in revolt +against the unnatural strain. The end was not far distant, she must +endure a little longer; but that last battle with Mr. Dunbar? On +what ground, with what weapons would he force her to fight? Kneeling +in front of a wooden bench that lined one side of the room, she laid +her head on the seat, covered her face with her hands, and prayed +for guidance, for divine help in her hour of supreme desolation. + +"God of the helpless, succor me in my need. Forbid that through +weakness the sacrifice should be incomplete. Lead, sustain, fortify +me with patience, that I may ransom the soul I have promised to +save." + +After a time, when she resumed her walk, a strange expedient +presented itself. If she sent for Mr. Dunbar, exacted an oath of +secrecy, and confided the truth to his keeping, would it avail to +protect her secret; would it silence him? Could she stoop so low as +to throw herself upon his mercy? Therein lay the nauseous lees of +her cup of humiliation; yet if she drained this last black drop, +would any pledge have power to seal his lips, when he saw that she +must die? + +The deputy sheriff unlocked the door, and she mechanically followed +him. + +"I wish you would drink this glass of wine. You look so exhausted, +and the air in yonder is so close, it is enough to stifle a mole. +This will help to brace you up." + +"Thank you very much, but I could not take it. I can bear my wrongs +even to the end, and that must be very near." + +As he ushered her into the court-room, Judge Dent met her, took her +hand, and led her to the seat where Dyce and Sister Serena awaited +her return. + +"My poor child, be courageous now; and remember that you have some +friends here, who are praying God to help and deliver you." + +"Did He deliver His own Son from the pangs of death? Pray, that I +may be patient to endure." + +One swift glance, showed her that Mr. Dunbar, forsaking his former +place beside the district attorney, was sitting very near, just in +front of her. The jurymen filed slowly into their accustomed seats, +and the judge, who had been resting his head on his hand, +straightened himself, and put aside a book. There was an ominous +hush pervading the dense crowd, and in that moment of silent +expectancy, Beryl shut her eyes and communed with her God. Some +mystical exaltation of soul removed her from the realm of nervous +dread; and a peace, that this world neither gives nor takes away, +settled upon her. Sister Serena untied and took off the crape veil +and bonnet, and as she resumed her seat, Judge Parkman turned to the +prisoner. + +"In assuming the responsibility of your own defence you have adopted +a line of policy which, however satisfactory to yourself, must, in +the opinion of the public, have a tendency to invest your cause with +peculiar peril; therefore I impress upon you the fact, that while +the law holds you innocent, until twelve men agree that the evidence +proves you guilty, the time has arrived when your cause depends upon +your power to refute the charges, and disprove the alleged facts +arrayed against you. The discovery and elucidation of Truth, is the +supreme aim of a court of justice, and to its faithful ministers the +defence of innocence is even more imperative than the conviction of +guilt. The law is a Gibraltar, fortified and armed by the consummate +wisdom of successive civilizations, as an impregnable refuge for +innocence; and here, within its protecting bulwarks, as in the house +of a friend, you are called on to plead your defence. You have heard +the charges of the prosecution; listened to the testimony of the +witnesses; and having taken your cause into your own hands, you must +now stand up and defend it." + +She rose and walked a few steps closer to the jury, and for the +first time during the trial, looked at them steadily. White as a +statue of Purity, she stood for a moment, with her wealth of shining +auburn hair coiled low on her shapely head, and waving in soft +outlines around her broad full brow. Unnaturally calm, and +wonderfully beautiful in that sublime surrender, which like a halo +illumines the myth of Antigone, it was not strange that every heart +thrilled, when upon the strained ears of the multitude fell the +clear, sweet, indescribably mournful voice. + +"When a magnolia blossom or a white camellia just fully open, is +snatched by violent hands, bruised, crushed, blackened, scarred by +rents, is it worth keeping? No power can undo the ruin, and since +all that made it lovely--its stainless purity--is irrevocably +destroyed, why preserve it? Such a pitiable wreck you have made of +the young life I am bidden to stand up and defend. Have you left me +anything to live for? Dragged by constables before prejudiced +strangers, accused of awful crimes, denounced as a female monster, +herded with convicts, can you imagine any reason why I should +struggle to prolong a disgraced, hopelessly ruined existence? My +shrivelled, mutilated life is in your hands, and if you decide to +crush it quickly, you will save me much suffering; as when having, +perhaps unintentionally, mangled some harmless insect, you +mercifully turn back, grind it under your heel, and end its torture. +My life is too wretched now to induce me to defend it, but there is +something I hold far dearer, my reputation as an honorable Christian +woman; something I deem most sacred of all--the unsullied purity of +the name my father and mother bore. Because I am innocent of every +charge made against me, I owe it to my dead, to lift their honored +name out of the mire. I have pondered the testimony; and the awful +mass of circumstances that have combined to accuse me, seems indeed +so overwhelming, that as each witness came forward, I have asked +myself, am I the victim of some baleful destiny, placed in the +grooves of destroying fate-foreordained from the foundations of the +world to bear the burden of another's guilt? You have been told that +I killed Gen'l Darrington, and stole his money and jewels, and +destroyed his will, in order to possess his estate. Trustworthy +witnesses have sworn to facts, which I cannot deny, and you believe +these facts; and yet, while the snare tightens around my feet, and I +believe you intend to condemn me, I stand here, and look you in the +face--as one day we thirteen will surely stand at the final +judgment--and in the name of the God I love, and fear, and trust, I +call you each to witness, that I am innocent of every charge in the +indictment. My hands are as unstained, my soul is as unsullied by +theft or bloodshed, as your sinless babes cooing in their cradles. + +"If you can clear your minds of the foul tenants thrust into them, +try for a little while to forget all the monstrous crimes you have +heard ascribed to me, and as you love your mothers, wives, +daughters, go back with me, leaving prejudice behind, and listen +dispassionately to my most melancholy story. The river of death +rolls so close to my weary feet, that I speak as one on the brink of +eternity; and as I hope to meet my God in peace, I shall tell you +the truth. Sometimes it almost shakes our faith in God's justice, +when we suffer terrible consequences, solely because we did our +duty; and it seems to me bitterly hard, inscrutable, that all my +misfortunes should have come upon me thick and fast, simply because +I obeyed my mother. You, fathers, say to your children, 'Do this for +my sake,' and lovingly they spring to accomplish your wishes; and +when they are devoured by agony, and smothered by disgrace, can you +sufficiently pity them, blind artificers of their own ruin? + +"Four months ago I was a very poor girl, but proud and happy, +because by my own work I could support my mother and myself. Her +health failed rapidly, and life hung upon an operation and certain +careful subsequent treatment, which it required one hundred dollars +to secure. I was competing for a prize that would lift us above +want, but time pressed; the doctor urged prompt action, and my +mother desired me to come South, see her father, deliver a letter +and beg assistance. As long as possible, I resisted her entreaties, +because I shrank from the degradation of coming as a beggar to the +man who, I knew, had disinherited and disowned his daughter. + +"Finally, strangling my rebellious reluctance, I accepted the bitter +task. My mother kissed me good-bye, laid her hands on my head and +blessed me for acceding to her wishes; and so--following the finger +of Duty--I came here to be trampled, mangled, destroyed. When I +arrived, I found I could catch a train going north at 7.15, and I +bought a return ticket, and told the agent I intended to take that +train. I walked to 'Elm Bluff,' and after waiting a few moments was +admitted to Gen'l Darrington's presence. The letter which I +delivered was an appeal for one hundred dollars, and it was received +with an outburst of wrath, a flood of fierce and bitter denunciation +of my parents. The interview was indescribably painful, but toward +its close, Gen'l Darrington relented. He opened his safe or vault, +and took out a square tin box. Placing it on the table, he removed +some papers, and counted down into my hand, five gold coins--twenty +dollars each. When I turned to leave him, he called me back, gave me +the morocco case, and stated that the sapphires were very costly, +and could be sold for a large amount. He added, with great +bitterness, that he gave them, simply because they were painful +souvenirs of a past, which he was trying to forget; and that he had +intended them as a bridal gift to his son Prince's wife; but as they +had been bought by my mother's mother as a present for her only +child, he would send them to their original destination, for the +sake of his first wife, Helena. + +"I left the room by the veranda door, because he bade me do so, to +avoid what he termed 'the prying of servants.' I broke some clusters +of chrysanthemums blooming in the rose garden, to carry to my +mother, and then I hurried away. If the wages of disobedience be +death, then fate reversed the mandate, and obedience exacts my life +as a forfeit. Think of it: I had ample time to reach the station +before seven o'clock, and if I had gone straight on, all would have +been well. I should have taken the 7.15 train, and left forever this +horrible place. If I had not loitered, I should have seen once more +my mother's face, have escaped shame, despair, ruin--oh! the +blessedness of what 'might have been!' + +"Listen, my twelve judges, and pity the child who obeyed at all +hazards. Poor though I was, I bought a small bouquet for my sick +mother the day that I left her, and the last thing she did was to +arrange the flowers, tie them with a wisp of faded blue ribbon, and +putting them in my hand, she desired me to be sure to stop at the +cemetery, find her mother's grave in the Darrington lot, and lay the +bunch of blossoms for her upon her mother's monument. Mother's last +words were: 'Don't forget to kneel down and pray for me, at mother's +grave.'" + +The voice so clear, so steady hitherto, quivered, ceased; and the +heavy lashes drooped to hide the tears that gathered; but it was +only for a few seconds, and she resumed in the same cold, distinct +tone: + +"So I went on, and fate tied the last millstone around my neck. +After some search I found the place, and left the bunch of flowers +with a few of the chrysanthemums; then I hastened toward town, and +reached the station too late; the 7.15 train had gone. Too late!-- +only a half hour lost, but it carried down everything that this +world held for me. I used to wonder and puzzle over that passage in +the Bible, 'The stars in their courses fought against Sisera!' I +have solved that mystery, for the stars in their courses' have +fought against me; heaven, earth, man, time, circumstances, +coincidences, all spun the web that snared my innocent feet. When I +paid for the telegram to relieve my mother's suspense, I had not +sufficient money (without using the gold) to enable me to incur +hotel bills; and I asked permission to remain in the waiting-room +until the next train, which was due at 3.05. The room was so close +and warm I walked out, and the fresh air tempted me to remain. The +moon was up, full and bright, and knowing no other street, I +unconsciously followed the one I had taken in the afternoon. Very +soon I reached the point near the old church where the road crosses, +and I turned into it, thinking that I would enjoy one more breath of +the pine forest, which was so new to me. It was so oppressively hot +I sat down on the pine straw, and fanned myself with my hat. How +long I remained there, I know not, for I fell asleep; and when I +awoke, Mr. Dunbar rode up and asked if I had lost my way. I answered +that I had not, and as soon as he galloped on, I walked back as +rapidly as possible, somewhat frightened at the loneliness of my +position. Already clouds were gathering, and I had been in the +waiting-room, I think about an hour, when the storm broke in its +fury. I had seen the telegraph operator sitting in his office, but +he seemed asleep, with his head resting on the table; and during the +storm I sat on the floor, in one corner of the waiting-room, and +laid my head on a chair. At last, when the tempest ended, I went to +sleep. During that sleep, I dreamed of my old home in Italy, of some +of my dead, of my father--of gathering grapes with one I dearly +loved--and suddenly some noise made me spring to my feet. I heard +voices talking, and in my feverish dreamy state, there seemed a +resemblance to one I knew. Only half awake, I ran out on the +pavement. Whether I dreamed the whole, I cannot tell; but the +conversation seemed strangely distinct; and I can never forget the +words, be they real, or imaginary: "'There ain't no train till +daylight, 'cepting it be the through freight.' + +"Then a different voice asked: 'When it that due?'" + +"'Pretty soon I reckon, it's mighty nigh time now, but it don't stop +here; it goes on to the water tank, where it blows for the bridge.'" + +'"How far is the bridge?'" + +"'Only a short piece down the track, after you pass the tank.'" + +"When I reached the street, I saw no one but the figure of an old +man, I think a negro, who was walking away. He limped and carried a +bundle on the end of a stick thrown over his shoulder. I was so +startled and impressed by the fancied sound of a voice once familiar +to me, that I walked on down the track, but could see no one. Soon +the 'freight' came along; I stood aside until it passed, then +returned to the station, and found the agent standing in the door. +When he questioned me about my movements; I deemed him impertinent; +but having nothing to conceal, stated the facts I have just +recapitulated. You have been told that I intentionally missed the +train; that when seen at 10 P.M. in the pine woods, I was stealing +back to my mother's old home; that I entered at midnight the bedroom +where her father slept, stupefied him with chloroform, broke open +his vault, robbed it of money, jewels and will; and that when Gen'l +Darrington awoke and attempted to rescue his property, I +deliberately killed him. You are asked to believe that I am 'the +incarnate fiend' who planned and committed that horrible crime, and, +alas for me! every circumstance seems like a bloodhound to bay me. +My handkerchief was found, tainted with chloroform. It was my +handkerchief; but how it came there, on Gen'l Darrington's bed, only +God witnessed. I saw among the papers taken from the tin box and +laid on the table, a large envelope marked in red ink, 'Last Will +and Testament of Robert Luke Darrington'; but I never saw it +afterward. I was never in that room but once; and the last and only +time I ever saw General Darrington was when I passed out of the +glass door, and left him standing in the middle of the room, with +the tin box in his hand. + +"I can call no witnesses; for it is one of the terrible fatalities +of my situation that I stand alone, with none to corroborate my +assertions. Strange, inexplicable coincidences drag me down; not the +malice of men, but the throttling grasp of circumstances. I am the +victim of some diabolical fate, which only innocent blood will +appease; but though I am slaughtered for crimes I did not commit, I +know, oh! I know, that BEHIND FATE, STANDS GOD!--the just and +eternal God, whom I trust, even in this my hour of extremest peril. +Alone in the world, orphaned, reviled, wrecked for all time, without +a ray of hope, I, Beryl Brentano, deny every accusation brought +against me in this cruel arraignment; and I call my only witness, +the righteous God above us, to hear my solemn asseveration: I am +innocent of this crime; and when you judicially murder me in the +name of Justice, your hands will be dyed in blood that an avenging +God will one day require of you. Appearances, circumstances, +coincidences of time and place, each, all, conspire to hunt me into +a convict's grave; but remember, my twelve judges, remember that a +hopeless, forsaken, broken-hearted woman, expecting to die at your +hands, stood before you, and pleaded first and last--Not Guilty! Not +Guilty!--" + +A moment she paused, then raised her arms toward heaven and added, +with a sudden exultant ring in her thrilling voice, and a strange +rapt splendor in her uplifted eyes: + +"Innocent! Innocent! Thou God knowest! Innocent of this sin, as the +angels that see Thy face." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +As a glassy summer sea suddenly quivers, heaves, billows under the +strong steady pressure of a rising gale, so that human mass surged +and broke in waves of audible emotion, when Beryl's voice ceased; +for the grace and beauty of a sorrowing woman hold a spell more +potent than volumes of forensic eloquence, of juridic casuistry, of +rhetorical pyrotechnics, and at its touch, the latent floods of pity +gushed; people sprang to their feet, and somewhere in the wide +auditory a woman sobbed. Habitues of a celebrated Salon des +Etrangers recall the tradition of a Hungarian nobleman who, +apparently calm, nonchalant, debonair, gambled desperately; "while +his right hand, resting easily inside the breast of his coat, +clutched and lacerated his flesh till his nails dripped with blood." +With emotions somewhat analogous, Mr. Dunbar sat as participant in +this judicial rouge et noir, where the stakes were a human life, and +the skeleton hand of death was already outstretched. Listening to +the calm, mournful voice which alone had power to stir and thrill +his pulses, he could not endure the pain of watching the exquisite +face that haunted him day and night; and when he computed the +chances of her conviction, a maddening perception of her danger made +his brain reel. + +To all of us comes a supreme hour, when realizing the adamantine +limitations of human power, the "thus far, no farther" of relentless +physiological, psychological and ethical statutes under which +humanity lives, moves, has its being--our desperate souls break +through the meshes of that pantheistic idolatry which kneels only to +"Natural Laws"; and spring as suppliants to Him, who made Law +possible. We take our portion of happiness and prosperity, and while +it lasts we wander far, far away in the seductive land of +philosophical speculation, and revel in the freedom and +irresponsibility of Agnosticism; and lo! when adversity smites, and +bankruptcy is upon us, we toss the husks of the "Unknowable and +Unthinkable" behind us, and flee as the Prodigal who knew his +father, to that God whom (in trouble) we surely know. + +Certainly Lennox Dunbar was as far removed from religious tendencies +as conformity to the canons of conventional morality and the habits +of an honorable gentleman in good society would permit; yet to-day, +in the intensity of his dread, lest the "consummate flower" of his +heart's dearest hope should be laid low in the dust, he +involuntarily invoked the aid of a long-forgotten God; and through +his set teeth a prayer struggled up to the throne of that divine +mercy, which in sunshine we do not see, but which as the soul's +eternal lighthouse gleams, glows, beckons in the blackest night of +human anguish. In boyhood, desiring to please his invalid and slowly +dying mother, he had purchased and hung up opposite her bed, an +illuminated copy of her favorite text; and now, by some subtle +transmutation in the conservation of spiritual energy, each golden +letter of that Bible text seemed emblazoned on the dusty wall of the +court-room: "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in +trouble." + +When a stern reprimand from the Judge had quelled all audible +expression of the compassionate sympathy that flowed at the +prisoner's story--as the flood at Horeb responded to Moses' touch-- +there was a brief silence. + +Mr. Dunbar rose, crossed the intervening space and stood with his +hand on the back of Beryl's chair; then moved on closer to the jury +box. + +"May it please your Honor, and Gentlemen of the Jury: Sometimes +mistakes are crimes, and he who through unpardonable rashness +commits them, should not escape 'unwhipped of justice'. When a man +in the discharge of that which he deemed a duty, becomes aware that +unintentionally he has perpetrated a great wrong, can he parley with +pride, or dally, because the haunting ghost of consistency waves him +back from the path of a humiliating reparation? Error is easy, +confession galling; and stepping down from the censor's seat to +share the mortification of the pillory, is at all times a peculiarly +painful reverse; hence, powerful indeed must be the conviction which +impels a man who prided himself on his legal astuteness, to come +boldly into this sacred confessional of truth and justice and plead +for absolution from a stupendous mistake. Two years ago, I became +Gen'l Darrington's attorney, and when his tragic death occurred in +October last, my professional relations, as well as life-long +friendship, incited me to the prompt apprehension of the person who +had murdered him. After a careful and apparently exhaustive +examination of the authenticated facts, I was convinced that they +pointed only in one direction; and in that belief, I demanded and +procured the arrest of the prisoner. For her imprisonment, her +presence here to-day, her awful peril, I hold myself responsible; +and now, gentlemen of the jury, I ask you as men having hearts of +flesh, and all the honorable instincts of manhood, which alone could +constitute you worthy umpires in this issue of life or death, do +you, can you wonder that regret sits at my ear, chanting mournful +dirges, and remorse like a harpy fastens her talons in my soul, when +I tell you, that I have committed a blunder so frightful, that it +borders on a crime as heinous as that for which my victim stands +arraigned? Wise was the spirit of a traditional statute, which +decreed that the author of a false accusation should pay the penalty +designed for the accused; and just indeed would be the retribution, +that imposed on me the suffering I have entailed on her. + +"Acknowledging the error into which undue haste betrayed me, yet +confident that divine justice, to whom I have sworn allegiance, has +recalled me from a false path to one that I can now tread with +absolute certainty of success, I come to-day into this, her sacred +temple, lay my hand on her inviolate altar, and claiming the +approval of her officiating high-priest, his Honor, appeal to you, +gentlemen of the jury, to give me your hearty co-operation in my +effort to repair a foul wrong, by vindicating innocence. + +"Professors of ophthalmology in a diagnosis of optical diseases, +tell us of a symptom of infirmity which they call pseudoblepsis, or +'false sight.' Legal vision exhibits, now and then, a corresponding +phase of unconscious perversion of sight, whereby objects are +perceived that do not exist, and objects present become transformed, +distorted; and such an instance of exaggerated metamorphosia is +presented to-day, in the perverted vision of the prosecution. In the +incipiency of this case, prior to, and during the preliminary +examination held in October last, I appeared in conjunction with Mr. +Wolverton, as assistant counsel in the prosecution, represented by +the Honorable Mr. Churchill, District Solicitor; the object of said +prosecution being the conviction of the prisoner, who was held as +guilty of Gen'l Darrington's death. Subsequent reflection and search +necessitated an abandonment of views that could alone justify such a +position; and after consultation with my colleagues I withdrew; not +from the prosecution of the real criminal, to the discovery and +conviction of whom I shall dedicate every energy of my nature, but +from the pursuit of one most unjustly accused. Anomalous as is my +attitude, the dictates of conscience, reason, heart, force me into +it; and because I am the implacable prosecutor of Gen'l Darrington's +murderer, _I_ COME TO PLEAD IN DEFENSE OF THE PRISONER, whom I hold +guiltless of the crime, innocent of the charge in the indictment. In +the supreme hour of her isolation, she has invoked only one witness; +and may that witness, the God above us, the God of justice, the God +of innocence, grant me the inspiration, and nerve my arm to snatch +her from peril, and triumphantly vindicate the purity of her noble +heart and life." + +Remembering the important evidence which he had furnished to the +prosecution, only a few hours previous, when on the witness stand, +people looked at one another questioningly; doubting the testimony +of their own senses; and VOX POPULI was not inaptly expressed by the +whispered ejaculation of Bedney to Dyce. + +"Judgment day must be breaking! Mars Lennox is done turned a double +summersett, and lit plum over on t'other side! It's about ekal to a +spavinned, ring-boned, hamstrung, hobbled horse clearin' a ten-rail +fence! He jumps so beautiful, I am afeered he won't stay whar he +lit!" + +Comprehending all that this public recantation had cost a proud man, +jealous of his reputation for professional tact and skill, as well +as for individual acumen, Beryl began to realize the depth and +fervor of the love that prompted it; and the merciless ordeal to +which he would subject her. Inflicting upon himself the smarting +sting of the keenest possible humiliation, could she hope that in +the attainment of his aim he would spare her? If she threw herself +even now upon his mercy, would he grant to her that which he had +denied himself? + +Dreading the consequences of even a moment's delay, she rose, and a +hot flush crimsoned her cheeks, as she looked up at the Judge. + +"Is it my privilege to decide who shall defend me? Have I now the +right to accept or reject proffered aid?" + +"The law grants you that privilege; secures you that right." + +"Then I decline the services of the counsel who offers to plead in +my defence. I wish no human voice raised in my behalf, and having +made my statement in my own defence, I commit my cause to the hands +of my God." + +For a moment her eyes dwelt upon the lawyer's, and as she resumed +her seat, she saw the spark in their blue depths leap into a flame. +Advancing a few steps, his handsome face aglow, his voice rang like +a bugle call: + +"May it please your Honor: Anomalous conditions sanction, +necessitate most anomalous procedure, where the goal sought is +simple truth and justice; and since the prisoner prefers to rest her +cause, I come to this bar as Amicus Curiae, and appeal for +permission to plead in behalf of my clients, truth and justice, who +hold me in perpetual retainment. In prosecution of the real +criminal, in order to unravel the curiously knitted web, and bring +the culprit to summary punishment, I ask you, gentlemen of the jury, +to ponder dispassionately the theory I have now the honor to submit +to your scrutiny. + +"The prisoner, whom I regard as the victim of my culpable haste and +deplorably distorted vision, is as innocent of Gen'l Darrington's +murder as you or I; but I charge, that while having no complicity in +that awful deed, she is nevertheless perfectly aware of the name of +the person who committed it. Not particeps crimmis, neither +consenting to, aiding, abetting nor even acquainted with the fact of +the crime, until accused of its perpetration; yet at this moment in +possession of the only clue which will enable justice to seize the +murderer. Conscious of her innocence, she braves peril that would +chill the blood of men, and extort almost any secret; and shall I +tell you the reason? Shall I give you the key to an enigma which she +knows means death? + +"Gentlemen of the jury, is there any sacrifice so tremendous, any +anguish so keen, any shame so dreadful, any fate so overwhelmingly +terrible as to transcend the endurance, or crush the power of a +woman's love? Under this invincible inspiration, when danger +threatens her idol, she knows no self; disgrace, death affright her +not; she extends her arms to arrest every approach, offers her own +breast as a shield against darts, bullets, sword thrusts, and counts +it a privilege to lay down life in defence of that idol. O! loyalty +supreme, sublime, immortal! thy name is woman's love. + +"All along the march of humanity, where centuries have trailed their +dust, traditions gleam like monuments to attest the victory of this +immemorial potency, female fidelity; and when we of the nineteenth +century seek the noblest, grandest type of merely human self- +abnegation, that laid down a pure and happy life, to prolong that of +a beloved object, we look back to the lovely image of that fair +Greek woman, who, when the parents of the man she loved refused to +give their lives to save their son, summoned death to accept her as +a willing victim; and deeming it a privilege, went down triumphantly +into the grave. Sustained, exalted by this most powerful passion +that can animate and possess a human soul, the prisoner stands a +pure, voluntary, self-devoted victim; defying the terrors of the +law, consenting to condemnation--surrendering to an ignominious +death, in order to save the life of the man she loves. + +"Grand and beautiful as is the spectacle of her calm mournful +heroism, I ask you, as men capable of appreciating her noble self- +immolation, can you permit the consummation of this sacrifice? Will +you, dare you, selected, appointed, dedicated by solemn oaths to +administer justice, prove so recreant to your holy trust as to aid, +abet, become accessories to, and responsible for the murder of the +prisoner by accepting a stainless victim, to appease that violated +law which only the blood of the guilty can ever satisfy? + +"In order to avert so foul a blot on the escutcheon of our State +judiciary, in order to protect innocence from being slaughtered, and +supremely in order to track and bring to summary punishment the +criminal who robbed and murdered Gen'l Darrington, I now desire, and +request, that your Honor will permit me to cross-examine the +prisoner on the statement she has offered in defence." + +"In making that request, counsel must be aware that it is one of the +statutory provisions of safety to the accused, whom the law holds +innocent until proved guilty, that no coercion can be employed to +extort answers. It is, however, the desire of the court, and +certainly must accrue to the benefit of the prisoner, that she +should take the witness stand in her own defence." + +For a moment there was neither sound nor motion. + +"Will the prisoner answer such questions as in the opinion of the +court are designed solely to establish her innocence? If so, she +will take the stand." + +With a sudden passionate movement at variance with her demeanor +throughout the trial, she threw up her clasped hands, gazed at them, +then pressed them ring downward as a seal upon her lips; and after +an instant, answered slowly: + +"Now and henceforth, I decline to answer any and all questions. I am +innocent, entirely innocent. The burden of proof rests upon my +accusers." + +As Mr. Dunbar watched her, noted the scarlet spots burning on her +cheeks, the strange expression of her eyes that glowed with +unnatural lustre, a scowl darkened his face; a cruel smile curved +his lips, and made his teeth gleam. Was it worth while to save her +against her will; to preserve the heart he coveted, for the vile +miscreant to whom she had irrevocably given it? With an upward +movement of his noble head, like the impatient toss of a horse +intolerant of curb, he stepped back close to the girl, and stood +with his hand on the back of her chair. + +"In view of this palpable evasion of justice through obstinate non +responsion, will it please the Court to overrule the prisoner's +objection?" + +Several moments elapsed before Judge Parkman replied, and he gnawed +the end of his grizzled mustache, debating the consequences of +dishonoring precedent--that fetich of the Bench. + +"The Court cannot so rule. The prisoner has decided upon the line of +defence, as is her inalienable right; and since she persistently +assumes that responsibility, the Court must sustain her decision." + +The expression of infinite and intense relief that stole over the +girl's countenance, was, noted by both judge and jury, as she sank +back wearily in her chair, like one lifted from some rack of +torture. Resting thus, her shoulder pressed against the hand that +lay on the top of the chair, but he did not move a finger; and some +magnetic influence drew her gaze to meet his. He felt the tremor +that crept over her, understood the mute appeal, the prayer for +forbearance that made her mournful gray eyes so eloquent, and a +sinister smile distorted his handsome mouth. + +"The spirit and intent of the law, the usages of criminal practice, +above all, hoary precedent, before which we bow, each and all +sanction your Honor's ruling; and yet despite everything, the end I +sought is already attained. Is not the refusal of the prisoner proof +positive, 'confirmation strong as proofs of Holy Writ' of the truth +of my theory? With jealous dread she seeks to lock the clue in her +faithful heart, courting even the coffin, that would keep it safe +through all the storms of time. Impregnable in her citadel of +silence, with the cohorts of Codes to protect her from escalade and +assault, will the guardians of justice have obeyed her solemn +commands when they permit the prisoner to light the funeral pyre +where she elects to throw herself--a vicarious sacrifice for +another's sins? For a nature so exalted, the Providence who endowed +it has decreed a nobler fate; and by His help, and that of your +twelve consciences, I purpose to save her from a species of suicide, +and to consign to the hangman the real criminal. The evidence now +submitted, will be furnished by the testimony of witnesses who, at +my request, have been kept without the hearing of the Court." + +He left Beryl's chair, and once more approached the jury, + +"Isam Hornbuckle." + +A negro man, apparently sixty years old, limped into the witness +stand, and having been sworn, stood leaning on his stick, staring +uneasily about him. + +"What is your name?" + +"Isam Clay Hornbuckle." + +"Where do you live?" + +"Nigh the forks of the road, close to 'Possum Ridge." + +"How far from town?" + +"By short cuts I make it about ten miles; but the gang what works +the road, calls it twelve." + +"Have you a farm there?" + +"Yes'ir. A pretty tolerable farm; a cornfield and potato patch and +gyarden, and parsture for my horgs and oxin, and a slipe of woods +for my pine knots." + +"What is your business?" + +"Tryin' to make a livin', and it keeps me bizzy, for lans is poor, +and seasons is most ginerally agin crops." + +"How long have you been farming?" + +"Only sence I got mashed up more 'an a year ago on the railroad." + +"In what capacity did you serve when working on the road?" + +"I was fireman under ingeneer Walker on the lokymotive 'Gin'l +Borygyard,' what most ginerally hauled Freight No. 2. The ingines +goes now by numbers, but we ole hands called our'n always +'Borygyard'." + +"You were crippled in a collision between two freight trains?" + +"Yes'ir; but t'other train was the cause of the--" + +"Never mind the cause of the accident. You moved out to 'Possum +Ridge; can you remember exactly when you were last in town?" + +"To be shore! I know exactly, 'cause it was the day my ole 'oman's +step-father's granny's funeral sarmont was preached; and that was on +a Thursday, twenty-sixth of October, an' I come up to 'tend it." + +"Is it not customary to preach the funeral sermons on Sunday?" + +"Most generally, Boss, it are; but you see Bre'r Green, what was to +preach the ole 'oman's sarmont, had a big baptizin' for two Sundays +han' runnin', and he was gwine to Boston for a spell, on the next +comin' Saddy, so bein' as our time belonks to us now, we was free to +'pint a week day." + +"You are positive it was the twenty-sixth?" + +"Oh, yes'ir; plum postiv. The day was norated from all the baptiss +churches, so as the kinfolks could gether from fur and nigh." + +"At what hour on Thursday was the funeral sermon preached?" + +"Four o'clock sharp." + +"Where did you stay while in town?" + +"With my son Ducaleyon who keeps a barber-shop on Main Street." + +"When did you return home?" + +"I started before day, Friday mornin', as soon as the rain hilt up." + +"At what hour, do you think?" + +"The town clock was a strikin' two, jes as I passed the express +office, at the station." + +"Now, Isam, tell the Court whom you saw, and what happened; and be +very careful in all you say, remembering you are on your oath." + +"I was atoting a bundle so--slung on to a stick, and it gaided my +shoulder, 'cause amongst a whole passel of plunder I had bought, +ther was a bag of shot inside, what had slewed 'round oft the +balance, and I sot down, close to a lamp-post nigh the station, to +shift the heft of the shot bag. Whilst I were a squatting, tying up +my bundle, I heered all of a suddent--somebody runnin', brip--brap--! +and up kern a man from round the corner of the stationhouse, a +runnin' full tilt; and he would a run over me, but I grabbed my +bundle and riz up. Sez I: 'Hello! what's to pay?' He was most out of +breath, but sez he: 'Is the train in yet?' Sez I: 'There ain't no +train till daylight, 'cepting it be the through freight.' Then he +axed me: 'When is that due?' and I tole him: 'Pretty soon, I reckon, +but it don't stop here; it only slows up at the water tank, whar it +blows for the Bridge.' Sez he: 'How fur is that bridge?' Sez I: +'Only a short piece down the track, after you pass the tank.' He +tuck a long breath, and kinder whistled, and with that he turned and +heeled it down the middle of the track. I thought it mighty curus, +and my mind misgive me thar was somethin' crooked; but I always +pintedly dodges; 'lie-lows to ketch meddlers,' and I went on my way. +When I got nigh the next corner whar I had to turn to cross the +river, I looked back and I seen a 'oman standin' on the track, in +front of the station-house; but I parsed on, and soon kem to the +bridge (not the railroad bridge), Boss. I had got on the top of the +hill to the left of the Pentenchry, when I hearn ole 'Bory' blow. +You see I knowed the runnin' of the kyars, 'cause that through +freight was my ole stormpin-ground, and I love the sound of that +ingine's whistle more 'an I do my gran'childun's hymn chunes. She +blowed long and vicious like, and I seen her sparks fly, as she lit +out through town; and then I footed it home." + +"You think the train was on time?" + +"Bound to be; she never was cotched behind time, not while I stuffed +her with coal and lightwood knots. She was plum punctchul." + +"Was the lamp lighted where you tied your bundle?" + +"Yes'ir, burnin' bright." + +"Tell the Court the appearance of the man whom you talked with." + +Mr. Dunbar was watching the beautiful face so dear to him, and saw +the prisoner lean forward, her lips parted, all her soul in the +wide, glowing eyes fastened on the countenance of the witness. + +"He was very tall and wiry, and 'peared like a young man what had +parstured 'mongst wild oats. He seemed cut out for a gintleman, but +run to seed too quick and turned out nigh kin to a dead beat. One- +half of him was hanssum, 'minded me mightly of that stone head with +kurly hair what sets over the sody fountin in the drug store, on +Main Street. Oh, yes'ir, one side was too pretty for a man; but +t'other! Fo' Gawd! t'other made your teeth ache, and sot you cross- +eyed to look at it. He toted a awful brand to be shore." + +"What do you mean by one side? Explain yourself carefully now." + +"I dun'no as I can 'splain, 'cause I ain't never seed nothing like +it afore. One 'zact half of him, from his hair to his shirt collar +was white and pretty, like I tell you, but t'other side of his face +was black as tar, and his kurly hair was gone, and the whiskers on +that side--and his eye was drapped down kinder so, and that side of +his mouth sorter hung, like it was unpinned, this way. Mebbee he was +born so, mebbee not; but he looked like he had jes broke loose from +the conjur, and caryd his mark." + +For one fleeting moment, the gates of heaven seemed thrown wide, and +the glory of the Kingdom of Peace streamed down upon the aching +heart of the desolate woman. She could recognize no dreaded +resemblance in the photograph drawn by the witness; and judge, jury +and counsel who scrutinized her during the recital of the testimony, +were puzzled by the smile of joy that suddenly flashed over her +features, like ilie radiance of a lamp lifted close to some marble +face, dim with shadows. + +"Do you think his face indicated that he had been engaged in a +difficulty, in a fight? Was there any sign of blood, or anything +that looked as if he had been bruised and wounded by some heavy +blow?" + +"Naw, sir. Didn't seem like sech bruises as comes of fightin'. +'Peared to me he was somehow branded like, and the mark he toted was +onnatral." + +"If he had wished to disguise himself by blackening one side of his +face, would he not have presented a similar appearance?" + +"Naw, sir, not by no manner of means. No minstrel tricks fotch him +to the pass he was at. The hand of the Lord must have laid too heavy +on him; no mortal wounds leave sech terrifyin' prints." + +"How was he dressed?" + +"Dunno. My eyes never drapped below that curus face of his'n." + +"Was he bareheaded?" + +"Bar headed as when he come into the world." + +"He talked like a man in desperate haste, who was running to escape +pursuit?" + +"He shorely did." + +"Did you mention to any person what you have told here to-day?" + +"I tole my ole 'oman, and she said she reckoned it was a buth mark +what the man carryd; but when I seen him I thunk he was cunjured" + +"When you heard that Gen'l Darrington had been murdered, did you +think of this man and his singular behavior that night?" + +"I never hearn of the murder till Christmas, 'cause I went down to +Elbert County arter a yoke of steers what a man owed me, and thar I +tuck sick and kep my bed for weeks. When I got home, and hearn the +talk about the murder, I didn't know it was the same night what I +seen the branded man." + +"Tell the Court how your testimony was secured." + +"It was norated in all our churches that a 'ward was offered for a +lame cullud pusson of my 'scription, and Deacon Nathan he cum down +and axed me what mischief I'de been a doin', that I was wanted to +answer fur. He read me the 'vertisement, and pussuaded me to go with +him to your office, and you tuck me to Mr. Churchill." + +Mr. Dunbar bowed to the District Solicitor, who rose and cross- +examined. + +"Can you read?" + +"Naw, sir." + +"Where is your son Deucalion?" + +"Two days after I left town he want with a 'Love and Charity' +scurschion up north, and he liked it so well in Baltymore, he staid +thar." + +"When Deacon Nathan brought you up to town, did you know for what +purpose Mr. Dunbar wanted you?" + +"Naw, sir." + +"Was it not rather strange that none of your friends recognized the +description of you, published in the paper?" + +"Seems some of 'em did, but felt kind of jub'rus 'bout pinting me +out, for human natur is prone to crooked ways, and they never hearn +I perfessed sanctification." + +"Who told you the prisoner had heard your conversation with the man +you met that night?" + +"Did she hear it? Then you are the first pusson to tell me." + +"How long was it, after you saw the man, before you heard the +whistle of the freight train?" + +"As nigh as I kin rickolect about a half a hour, but not quite." + +"Was it raining at all when you saw the woman standing on the +track?" + +"Naw, sir. The trees was dripping steady, but the moon was shining." + +"Do you know anything about the statement made by the prisoner?" + +"Naw, sir." + +"Fritz Helmetag." + +As Isam withdrew, a middle-aged man took the stand, and in answer to +Mr. Dunbar's questions deposed: "That he was 'bridge tender' on the +railroad, and lived in a cottage not far from the water tank. On the +night of the twenty-sixth of October, he was sitting up with a sick +wife, and remembered that being feverish, she asked for some fresh +water. He went out to draw some from the well, and saw a man +standing not far from the bridge. The moon was behind a row of +trees, but he noticed the man was bareheaded, and when he called to +know what he wanted, he walked back toward the tank. Five minutes +later the freight train blew, and after it had crossed the bridge, +he went back to his cottage. The man was standing close to the +safety signal, a white light fastened to an iron stanchion at south +end of the bridge, and seemed to be reading something. Next day, +when he (witness) went as usual to examine the piers and under +portions of the bridge, he had found the pipe, now in Mr. Dunbar's +possession. Tramps so often rested on the bridge, and on the +shelving bank of the river beneath it, that he attached no +importance to the circumstance; but felt confident the pipe was left +by the man whom he had seen, as it was not there the previous +afternoon; and he put it in a pigeon-hole of his desk, thinking the +owner might return to claim it. On the same day, he had left X--to +carry his wife to her mother, who lived in Pennsylvania, and was +absent for several weeks. Had never associated the pipe with the +murder, but after talking with Mr. Dunbar, who had found the half of +an envelope near the south end of the bridge, he had surrendered it +to him. Did not see the man's face distinctly. He looked tall and +thin." + +Here Mr. Dunbar held up a fragment of a long white em elope such as +usually contain legal documents, on which in large letters was +written "LAST WILL"--and underscored with red ink. Then he lifted a +pipe, for the inspection of the witness, who identified it as the +one he had found. + +As he turned it slowly, the Court and the multitude saw only a +meerschaum with a large bowl representing a death's head, to which +was attached a short mouth-piece of twisted amber. + +The golden gates of hope clashed suddenly, and over them flashed a +drawn sword, as Beryl looked at the familiar pipe, which her baby +fingers had so often strained to grasp. How well she knew the +ghastly ivory features, the sunken eyeless sockets--of that +veritable death's head? How vividly came back the day, when asleep +in her father's arms, a spark from that grinning skull had fallen on +her cheek, and she awoke to find that fond father bending in +remorseful tenderness over her? Years ago, she had reverently packed +the pipe away, with other articles belonging to the dead, and +ignorant that her mother had given it to Bertie, she deemed it safe +in that sacred repository. Now, like the face of Medusa it glared at +her, and that which her father's lips had sanctified, became the +polluted medium of a retributive curse upon his devoted child. So +the Diabolus ex machina, the evil genius of each human life decrees +that the most cruel cureless pangs are inflicted by the instruments +we love best. + +Watching for some sign of recognition, Mr. Dunbar's heart was fired +with jealous rage, as he marked the swift change of the prisoner's +countenance; the vanishing of the gleam of hope, the gloomy +desperation that succeeded. The beautiful black brows met in a spasm +of pain over eyes that stared at an abyss of ruin; her lips +whitened, she wrung her hands unconsciously; and then, as if numb +with horror, she leaned back in her chair, and her chin sank until +it touched the black ribbon at her throat. When after a while she +rallied, and forced herself to listen, a pleasant-faced young man +was on the witness stand. + +"My name is Edgar Jennings, and I live at T----, in Pennsylvania. I +am ticket agent at that point, of----railway. One day, about the +last of October (I think it was on Monday), I was sitting in my +office when a man came in, and asked if I could sell him a ticket to +St. Paul. I told him I only had tickets as far as Chicago, via +Cincinnati. He bought one to Cincinnati and asked how soon he could +go on. I told him the train from the east was due in a few minutes. +When he paid for his ticket he gave me a twenty-dollar gold piece, +and his hand shook so, he dropped another piece of the same value on +the floor. His appearance was so remarkable I noticed him +particularly. He was a man about my age, very tall and finely made, +but one half of his face was black, or rather very dark blue, and he +wore a handkerchief bandage-fashion across it. His left eye was +drawn down, this way, and his mouth was one-sided. His right eye was +black, and his hair was very light brown. He wore a close-fitting +wool hat, that flapped down and his clothes were seal-brown in +color, but much worn, and evidently old. I asked him where he lived, +and he said he was a stranger going West, on a pioneering tour. Then +I asked what ailed his face, and he pulled the handkerchief over his +left eye, and said he was partly paralyzed from an accident. Just +then, the eastern train blew for T----. He said he wanted some +cigars or a pipe, as he had lost his own on the way, and wondered if +he would have time to go out and buy some. I told him no; but that +he could have a couple of cigars from my box. He thanked me, and +took two, laying down a silver dime on top of the box. He put his +hand in the inside pocket of his coat, and pulled out an empty +envelope, twisted it, lit it by the coal fire in the grate, and +lighted his cigar. The train rolled into the station; he passed out, +and I saw him jump aboard the front passenger coach. He had thrown +the paper, as he thought, into the fire, but it slipped off the +grate, fell just inside the fender, and the flame went out. There +was something so very peculiar in his looks and manner, that I +thought there was some mystery about his movements. I picked up the +paper, saw the writing on it, and locked it up in my cash drawer. He +had evidently been a very handsome man, before his 'accident', but +he had a jaded, worried, wretched look. When a detective from +Baltimore interviewed me, I told him all I knew, and gave him the +paper." + +Again Mr. Dunbar drew closer to the jury, held up the former +fragment of envelope, and then took from his pocket a second piece. +Jagged edges fitted into each other, and he lifted for the +inspection of hundreds of eyes, the long envelope marked and +underscored:-"LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF ROBERT LUKE DARRINGTON." +The lower edge of the paper was at one corner brown, scorched, +somewhat burned. + +"Lucullus Grantlin." + +An elderly man of noble presence advanced, and Mr. Dunbar met and +shook hands with him, accompanying him almost to the stand. At sight +of his white head, and flowing silvery beard, Beryl's heart almost +ceased its pulsation. If, during her last illness her mother had +acquainted him with their family history, then indeed all was lost. +It was as impossible to reach him and implore his silence, as though +the ocean rocked between them; and how would he interpret the +pleading gaze she fixed upon his face? The imminence of the danger, +vanquished every scruple, strangled her pride. She caught Mr. +Dunbar's eye, beckoned him to approach. + +When he stood before her, she put out her hand, seized one of his, +and drew him down until his black head almost touched hers. She +placed her lips close to his ear, and whispered: + +"For God's sake spare the secrets of a death-bed. Be merciful to me +now; oh! I entreat you--do not drag my mother from her grave! Do not +question Doctor Grantlin." + +She locked her icy hands around his, pressing it convulsively. +Turning, he laid his lips close to the silky fold of hair that had +fallen across her ear: + +"If I dismiss this witness, will you tell me the truth? Will you +give me the name of the man whom I am hunting? Will you confess all +to me?" + +"I have no sins to confess. I have made my last statement. If you +laid my coffin at my feet, I should only say I am innocent; I would +tell you nothing more." + +"Then his life is so precious, you are resolved to die, rather than +trust me?" + +She dropped his hand, and leaned back in her chair, closing her +eyes. When she opened them, Doctor Grantlin was speaking: + +"I am on my way to Havana, with an invalid daughter, and stopped +here last night, at the request of Mr. Dunbar." + +"Please state all that you know of the prisoner, and of the +circumstances which induced her to visit X----." + +"I first saw the prisoner in August last, when she summoned me to +see her mother, who was suffering from an attack of fever. I +discovered that she was in a dangerous condition in consequence of +an aneurism located in the carotid artery, and when she had been +relieved of malarial fever, I told both mother and daughter that an +operation was necessary, to remove the aneurism. Soon after, I left +the city for a month, and on my return the daughter again called me +in. I advised that without delay the patient should be removed to +the hospital, where a surgeon--a specialist--could perform the +operation. To this the young lady objected, on the ground that she +could not assist in nursing, if her mother entered the hospital; and +she would not consent to the separation. She asked what amount would +be required to secure at home the services of the surgeon, a trained +nurse, and the subsequent treatment; and I told her I thought a +hundred dollars would cover all incidentals, and secure one of the +most skilful surgeons in the city. I continued from time to time to +see the mother, and administered such medicines as I deemed +necessary to invigorate and tone up the patient's system for the +operation. One day in October, the young lady came to pay me for +some prescriptions, and asked if a few weeks' delay would enhance +the danger of the operation. I assured her it was important to lose +no time, and urged her to arrange matters so as to remove the +patient to the hospital as soon as possible, offering to procure her +admission. She showed great distress, and informed me that she hoped +to receive very soon a considerable sum of money, from some artistic +designs that she felt sure would secure the prize. A week later she +came again, and I gave her a prescription to allay her mother's +nervousness. Then, with much agitation, she told me that she was +going South by the night express, to seek assistance from her +mother's father, who was a man of wealth, but had disowned Mrs. +Brentano on account of her marriage. She asked for a written +statement of the patient's condition, and the absolute necessity of +the operation. I wrote it, and as she stood looking at the paper, +she said: + +"'Doctor do you believe in an Ahnung?' I said, 'A what?' She +answered slowly and solemnly: 'An Ahnung--a presentiment? I have a +crushing presentiment that trouble will come to me, if I leave +mother; and yet she entreats, commands me to go South. It is my duty +to obey her, but the errand is so humiliating I shrink, I dread it. +I shall not be long away, and meanwhile do please be so kind as to +see her, and cheer her up. If her father refuses to give me the one +hundred dollars, I will take her to the hospital when I return.' I +walked to the door with her, and her last words were: 'Doctor, I +trust my mother to you; don't let her suffer.' I have never seen her +again, until I entered this room. I visited Mrs. Brentano several +times, but she grew worse very rapidly. One night the ensuing week, +my bell was rung at twelve o'clock, and a woman gave me this note, +which was written by the prisoner immediately after her arrest, and +which enclosed a second, addressed to her mother." + +As he read aloud the concluding lines invoking the mother's prayers, +the doctor's voice trembled. He took off his spectacles, wiped them, +and resumed: + +"I was shocked and distressed beyond expression, for I could no more +connect the idea of crime with that beautiful, noble souled girl, +than with my own sinless daughter; and I reproached myself then, and +doubly condemn myself now, that I did not lend her the money. All +that was possible to alleviate the suffering of that mother, I did +most faithfully. Under my personal superintendence she was made +comfortable in the hospital; and I stood by her side when Doctor-- +operated on the aneurism; but her impaired constitution could not +bear the strain, and she sank rapidly. She was delirious, and never +knew why her daughter was detained; because I withheld the note. +Just before the end came, her mind cleared, and she wrote a few +lines which I sent to the prisoner. From all that I know of Miss +Brentano, I feel constrained to say, she impressed me as one of the +purest, noblest and most admirable characters I have ever met. She +supported her mother and herself by her pencil, and a more refined, +sensitive woman, a more tenderly devoted daughter I have yet to +meet." + +"Does your acquaintance with the family suggest any third party, who +would be interested in Gen'l Darrington's will, or become a +beneficiary by its destruction?" + +"No. They seemed very isolated people; those two women lived without +any acquaintances, as far as I know, and apared proudly indifferent +to the outside world. I do not think they had any relatives, and the +only name I heard Mrs. Brentano utter in her last illness was, +'Ignace,--Ignace.' She often spoke of her'darling,' and her 'good +little girl'." + +"Did you see a gentleman who visited the prisoner? Did you ever hear +she had a lover?" + +"I neither saw any gentleman, nor heard she had a lover. In January, +I received a letter from the prisoner enclosing an order on S--& E--, +photographers of New York, for the amount due her, on a certain +design for a Christmas card, which had received the Boston first +prize of three hundred dollars. With the permission of the Court, I +should like to read it. There is no objection?" + +"PENITENTIARY CELL, JANUARY 8TH + +"In the name of my dead, whom I shall soon join--I desire to thank +you, dear Doctor Grantlin, for your kind care of my darling; and +especially for your delicate and tender regard for all that remains +on earth of my precious mother. The knowledge that she was treated +with the reverence due to a lady, that she was buried--not as a +pauper, but sleeps her last sleep under the same marble roof that +shelters your dear departed ones, is the one ray of comfort that can +ever pierce the awful gloom that has settled like a pall over me. I +am to be tried soon for the black and horrible crime I never +committed; and the evidence is so strong against me, the +circumstances I cannot explain, are so accusing, the belief of my +guilt is so general in this community, that I have no hope of +acquittal; therefore I make my preparations for death. Please +collect the money for which I enclose an order, and out of it, take +the amount you spent when mother died. It will comfort me to know, +that we do not owe a stranger for the casket that shuts her away +from all grief, into the blessed Land of Peace. Keep the remainder, +and when you hear that I am dead, unjustly offered up an innocent +victim to appease justice, that must have somebody's blood in +expiation, then take my body and mother's and have us laid side by +side in the Potter's field. The law will crush my body, but it is +pure and free from every crime, and it will be worthy still to touch +my mother's in a common grave. Oh, Doctor! Does it not seem that +some terrible curse has pursued me; and that the three hundred +dollars I toiled and prayed for, was kept back ten days too late to +save me? My Christmas card will at least bury us decently--away from +the world that trampled me down. Do not doubt my innocence, and it +will comfort me to feel that he who closed my mother's eyes, +believes that her unfortunate child is guiltless and unstained. In +life, and in death, ever + +"Most gratefully your debtor, + +"BERYL BRENTANO." + +A few moments of profound silence ensued: then Doctor Grantlin +handed some article to Mr. Dunbar, and stepping down from the stand, +walked toward the prisoner. + +She had covered her face with her hands, while he gave his +testimony: striving to hide the anguish that his presence revived. +He placed his hand on her shoulder, and whispered brokenly: + +"My child, I know you are innocent. Would to God I could help you to +prove it to these people!" + +The terrible strain gave way suddenly, her proud head was laid +against his arm, and suppressed emotion shook her, as a December +storm smites and bows some shivering weed. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +Friday, the fifth and last day of the trial, was ushered in by a +tempest of wind and rain, that drove the blinding sheets of sleet +against the court-house windows with the insistence of an icy flail; +while now and then with spasmodic bursts of fury the gale +heightened, rattled the sash, moaned hysterically, like invisible +fiends tearing at the obstacles that barred entrance. So dense was +the gloom pervading the court-room, that every gas jet was burning +at ten o'clock, when Mr. Dunbar rose and took a position close to +the jury-box. The gray pallor of his sternly set face increased his +resemblance to a statue of the Julian type, and he looked rigid as +granite, as he turned his brilliant eyes full of blue fire upon the +grave, upturned countenances of the twelve umpires: + +"Gentlemen of the Jury: The sanctity of human life is the foundation +on which society rests, and its preservation is the supreme aim of +all human legislation. Rights of property, of liberty, are merely +conditional, subordinated to the superlative divine right of life. +Labor creates property, law secures liberty, but God alone gives +life; and woe to that tribunal, to those consecrated priests of +divine justice, who, sworn to lay aside passion and prejudice, and +to array themselves in the immaculate robes of a juror's +impartiality, yet profane the loftiest prerogative with which +civilized society can invest mankind, and sacrilegiously extinguish, +in the name of justice, that sacred spark which only Jehovah's fiat +kindles. To the same astute and unchanging race, whose relentless +code of jurisprudence demanded 'an eye for an eye, a tooth for a +tooth, a life for a life,' we owe the instructive picture of +cautious inquiry, of tender solicitude for the inviolability of +human life, that glows in immortal lustre on the pages of the +'Mechilti' of the Talmud. In the trial of a Hebrew criminal, there +were 'Lactees,' consisting of two men, one of whom stood at the door +of the court, with a red flag in his hand, and the other sat on a +white horse at some distance on the road that led to execution. Each +of these men cried aloud continually, the name of the suspected +criminal, of the witnesses, and his crime; and vehemently called +upon any person who knew anything in his favor to come forward and +testify. Have we, supercilious braggarts of this age of progress, +attained the prudential wisdom of Sanhedrim? + +"The State pays an officer to sift, probe, collect and array the +evidences of crime, with which the criminal is stoned to death; does +it likewise commission and compensate an equally painstaking, lynx- +eyed official whose sole duty is to hunt and proclaim proofs of the +innocence of the accused? The great body of the commonwealth is +committed in revengeful zeal to prosecution; upon whom devolves the +doubly sacred and imperative duty of defence? Are you not here to +give judgment in a cause based on an indictment by a secret +tribunal, where ex parte testimony was alone received, and the voice +of defence could not be heard? The law infers that the keen instinct +of self-preservation will force the accused to secure the strongest +possible legal defenders; and failing in this, the law perfunctorily +assigns counsel to present testimony in defence. Do the scales +balance? + +"Imagine a race for heavy stakes; the judges tap the bell; three or +four superb thoroughbreds carefully trained on that track, +laboriously groomed, waiting for the signal, spring forward; and +when the first quarter is reached, a belated fifth, handicapped with +the knowledge that he has made a desperately bad start, bounds after +them. If by dint of some superhuman grace vouchsafed, some latent +strain, some most unexpected speed, he nears, overtakes, runs neck +and neck, slowly gains, passes all four and dashes breathless and +quivering under the string, a whole length ahead, the world of +spectators shouts the judges smile, and number five wins the stakes. +But was the race fair? + +"Is not justice, the beloved goddess of our idolatry, sometimes so +blinded by clouds of argument, and confused by clamor that she fails +indeed to see the dip of the beam? If the accused be guilty and +escape conviction, he still lives; and while it is provided that no +one can be twice put in jeopardy of his life for the same offence, +vicious tendencies impel to renewal of crime, and Nemesis, the +retriever of justice, may yet hunt him down. If the accused be +innocent as the archangels, but suffer conviction and execution, +what expiation can justice offer for judicially slaughtering him? +Are the chances even? + +"All along the dim vista of the annals of criminal jurisprudence, +stand grim memorials that mark the substitution of innocent victims +for guilty criminals; and they are solemn sign-posts of warning, +melancholy as the whitening bones of perished caravans in desert +sands. History relates, and tradition embalms, a sad incident of the +era of the Council of Ten, when an innocent boy was seized, tried +and executed for the murder of a nobleman, whose real assassin +confessed the crime many years subsequent. In commemoration of the +public horror manifested, when the truth was published, Venice +decreed that henceforth a crier should proclaim in the Tribunal just +before a death sentence was pronounced, 'Ricordatevi del povero +Marcolini! remember the poor Marcolini;' beware of merely +circumstantial evidence. + +"To another instance I invite your attention. A devoted Scotch +father finding that his own child had contracted an unfortunate +attachment to a man of notoriously bad character, interdicted all +communication, and locked his daughter into a tenement room; the +adjoining apartment (with only a thin partition wall between) being +occupied by a neighbor, who overheard the angry altercation that +ensued. He recognized the voices of father and daughter, and the +words 'barbarity,' 'cruelty, 'death,' were repeatedly heard. The +father at last left the room, locking his child in as a prisoner. +After a time, strange noises were heard by the tenant of the +adjoining chamber; suspicion was aroused, a bailiff was summoned, +the door forced open, and there lay the dying girl weltering in +blood, with the fatal knife lying near. She was asked if her father +had caused her sad condition, and she made an affirmative gesture +and expired. At that moment the father returned, and stood stupefied +with horror, which was interpreted as a consciousness of guilt; and +this was corroborated by the fact that his shirt sleeve was +sprinkled with blood. In vain he asserted his innocence, and showed +that the blood stains were the result of a bandage having become +untied where he had bled himself a few days before. The words and +groans overheard, the blood, the affirmation of the dying woman, +every damning circumstance constrained the jury to convict him of +the murder. He was hung in chains, and his body left swinging from +the gibbet. The new tenant, who subsequently rented the room, was +ransacking the chamber in which the girl died, when, in a cavity of +the chimney where it had fallen unnoticed, was found a paper written +by this girl, declaring her intention to commit suicide, and closing +with the words: 'My inhuman father is the cause of my death'; thus +explaining her dying gestures. On examination of this document by +the friends and relatives of the girl, it was recognized and +identified as her handwriting; and it established the fact that the +father had died innocent of every crime, except that of trying to +save his child from a degrading marriage. + +"Now, mark the prompt and satisfactory reparation decreed by +justice, and carried out by the officers of the law. The shrivelled, +dishonored body was lowered from the gibbet, given to his relatives +for decent burial, and the magistrates who sentenced him, ordered a +flag waved over his grave, as compensation for all his wrongs. + +"Gentlemen of the jury, to save you from the commission of a wrong +even more cruel, I come to-day to set before you clearly the facts, +elicited from witnesses which the honorable and able counsel for the +prosecution declined to cross-examine. An able expounder of the law +of evidence has warned us that: 'The force of circumstantial +evidence being exclusive in its nature, and the mere coincidence of +the hypothesis with the circumstances, being, in the abstract, +insufficient, unless they exclude every other supposition, it is +essential to inquire, with the most scrupulous attention, what other +hypothesis there may be, agreeing wholly or partially with the facts +in evidence.' + +"A man of very marked appearance was seen running toward the +railroad, on the night of the twenty-sixth, evidently goaded by some +unusual necessity to leave the neighborhood of X--before the arrival +of the passenger express. It is proved that he passed the station +exactly at the time the prisoner deposed she heard the voice, and +the half of the envelope that enclosed the missing will, was found +at the spot where the same person was seen, only a few moments +later. Four days afterward, this man entered a small station in +Pennsylvania, paid for a railroad ticket, with a coin identical in +value and appearance with those stolen from the tin box, and as if +foreordained to publish the steps he was striving to efface, +accidentally left behind him the trumpet-tongued fragment of +envelope, that exactly fitted into the torn strip dropped at the +bridge. The most exhaustive and diligent search shows that stranger +was seen by no one else in X--; that he came as a thief in the +night, provided with chloroform to drug his intended victim, and +having been detected in the act of burglariously abstracting the +contents of the tin box, fought with, and killed the venerable old +man, whom he had robbed. + +"Under cover of storm and darkness he escaped with his plunder, to +some point north of X--where doubtless he boarded (unperceived) the +freight train, and at some convenient point slipped into a wooded +country, and made his way to Pennsylvania. Why were valuable bonds +untouched? Because they might aid in betraying him. What conceivable +interest had he in the destruction of Gen'l Darrington's will? It is +in evidence, that the lamp was burning, and the contents of that +envelope could have possessed no value for a man ignorant of the +provisions of the will; and the superscription it was impossible to +misread. Suppose that this mysterious person was fully cognizant of +the family secrets of the Darringtons? Suppose that he knew that +Mrs. Brentano and her daughter would inherit a large fortune, if +Gen'l Darrington died intestate? If he had wooed and won the heart +of the daughter, and believed that her rights had been sacrificed to +promote the aggrandizement of an alien, the adopted step-son Prince, +had not such a man, the accepted lover of the daughter, a personal +interest in the provisions of a will which disinherited Mrs. +Brentano, and her child? Have you not now, motive, means, and +opportunity, and links of evidence that point to this man as the +real agent, the guilty author of the awful crime we are all leagued +in solemn, legal covenant to punish? Suppose that fully aware of the +prisoner's mission to X--, he had secretly followed her, and +supplemented her afternoon visit, by the fatal interview of the +night? Doubtless he had intended escorting her home, but when the +frightful tragedy was completed, the curse of Cain drove him, in +terror, to instant flight; and he sought safety in western wilds, +leaving his innocent and hapless betrothed to bear the penalty of +his crime. The handkerchief used to administer chloroform, bore her +initials; was doubtless a souvenir given in days gone by to that +unworthy miscreant, as a token of affection, by the trusting woman +he deserted in the hour of peril. In this solution of an awful +enigma, is there an undue strain upon credylity; is there any +antagonism of facts which the torn envelope, the pipe, the twenty- +dollar gold pieces in Pennsylvania, do not reconcile? + +"A justly celebrated writer on the law of evidence has wisely said: +'In criminal cases, the statement made by the accused is of +essential importance in some points of view. Such is the complexity +of human affairs, and so infinite the combinations of circumstances, +that the true hypothesis which is capable of explaining and +reuniting all the apparently conflicting circumstances of the case, +may escape the acutest penetration: but the prisoner, so far as he +alone is concerned, can always afford a clue to them; and though he +may be unable to support his statement by evidence, his account of +the transaction is, for this purpose, always most material and +important. The effect may be to suggest a view, which consists with +the innocence of the accused, and might otherwise have escaped +observation.' + +"During the preliminary examination of this prisoner in October, she +inadvertently furnished this clue, when, in explaining her absence +from the station house, she stated that suddenly awakened from +sleep, 'she heard the voice of one she knew and loved, and ran out +to seek the speaker'. Twice she has repeated the conversation she +heard, and every word is corroborated by the witness who saw and +talked with the owner of that 'beloved voice'. When asked to give +the name of that man, whom she expected to find in the street, she +falters, refuses; love seals her lips, and the fact that she will +die sooner than yield that which must bring him to summary justice, +is alone sufficient to fix the guilt upon the real culprit. + +"There is a rule in criminal jurisprudence, that 'presumptive +evidence ought never to be relied on, when direct testimony is +wilfully withheld'. She shudders at sight of the handkerchief; did +she not give it to him, in some happy hour as a tender Ricordo? When +the pipe which he lost in his precipitate flight is held up to the +jury, she recognizes it instantly as her lover's property, and +shivers with horror at the danger of his detection and apprehension. +Does not this array of accusing circumstances demand as careful +consideration, as the chain held up to your scrutiny by the +prosecution? In the latter, there is an important link missing, +which the theory of the defence supplies. When the prisoner was +arrested and searched, there was found in her possession only the +exact amount of money, which it is in evidence, that she came South +to obtain; and which she has solemnly affirmed was given to her by +Gen'l Darrington. We know from memoranda found in the rifled box, +that it contained only a few days previous, five hundred dollars in +gold. Three twenty-dollar gold coins were discovered on the carpet, +and one in the vault; what became of the remain ing three hundred +and twenty dollars? With the exception of one hundred dollars found +in the basket of the prisoner, she had only five copper pennies in +her purse, when so unexpectedly arrested, that it was impossible she +could have secreted anything. Three hundred and twenty dollars +disappeared in company with the will, and like the torn envelope, +two of those gold coins lifted their accusing faces in Pennsylvania, +where the fugitive from righteous retribution paid for the wings +that would transport him beyond risk of detection. + +"Both theories presented for your careful analysis, are based +entirely upon circumstantial evidence; and is not the solution I +offer less repugnant to the canons of credibility, and infinitely +less revolting to every instinct of honor able manhood, than the +horrible hypothesis that a refined, cultivated, noble Christian +woman, a devoted daughter, irreproachable in antecedent life, +bearing the fiery ordeal of the past four months with a noble +heroism that commands the involuntary admiration of all who have +watched her--that such a perfect type of beautiful womanhood as the +prisoner presents, could deliberately plan and execute the vile +scheme of theft and murder? Gentlemen, she is guilty of but one sin +against the peace and order of this community: the sin of +withholding the name of one for whose bloody crime she is not +responsible. Does not her invincible loyalty, her unwavering +devotion to the craven for whom she suffers, in vest her with the +halo of a martyrdom, that appeals most powerfully to the noblest +impulses of your nature, that enlists the warmest, holiest +sympathies lying deep in your manly hearts? Analyze her statement; +every utterance bears the stamp of innocence; and where she cannot +explain truthfully, she declines to make any explanation. Hers is +the sin of silence, the grievous evasion of justice by non- +responsion, whereby the danger she will not avert by confession +recoils upon her innocent head. Bravely she took on her reluctant +shoulders the galling burden of parental command, and stifling her +proud repugnance, obediently came--a fair young stranger to 'Elm +Bluff.' Receiving as a loan the money she came to beg for, she +hurries away to fulfil another solemnly imposed injunction. + +"Gentlemen, is there any spot out yonder in God's Acre, where +violets, blue as the eyes that once smiled upon you, now shed their +fragrance above the sacred dust of your dead darlings; and the +thought of which melts your hearts and dims your vision? Look at +this mournful, touching witness, which comes from that holy cemetery +to whisper to your souls, that the hands of the prisoner are as pure +as those of your idols, folded under the sod. Only a little bunch of +withered brown flowers, tied with a faded blue ribbon, that a poor +girl bought with her hard earned pennies, and carried to a sick +mother, to brighten a dreary attic; only a dead nosegay, which that +mother requested should be laid as a penitential tribute on the tomb +of the mother whom she had disobeyed; and this faithful young heart +made the pilgrimage, and left the offering--and in consequence +thereof, missed the train that would have carried her safely back +to her mother--and to peace. On the morning after the preliminary +examination I went to the cemetery, and found the fatal flowers just +where she had placed them, on the great marble cross that covers the +tomb of 'Helena Tracey--wife of Luke Darringtun.' + +"You husbands and fathers who trust your names, your honor, the +peace of your hearts-almost the salvation of your souls--to the +women you love: staking the dearest interest of humanity, the +sanctity of that heaven on earth--your stainless homes--upon the +fidelity of womanhood, can you doubt for one instant, that the +prisoner will accept death rather than betray the man she loves? No +human plummet has sounded the depths of a woman's devotion; no +surveyor's chain will ever mark the limits of a woman's faithful, +patient endurance; and only the wings of an archangel can transcend +that pinnacle to which the sublime principle of self-sacrifice +exalts a woman's soul. + +"In a quaint old city on the banks of the Pegnitz, history records +an instance of feminine self-abnegation, more enduring than +monuments of brass. The law had decreed a certain provision for the +maintenance of orphans; and two women in dire distress, seeing no +possible avenue of help, accused themselves falsely of a capital +crime, and were executed; thereby securing a support for the +children they orphaned. + +"As a tireless and vigilant prosecutor of the real criminal, the +Cain-branded man now wandering in some western wild, I charge the +prisoner with only one sin, suicidal silence; and I commend her to +your must tender compassion, believing that in every detail and +minutiae she has spoken the truth; and that she is as innocent of +the charge in the indictment as you or I. Remember that you have +only presumptive proof to guide you in this solemn deliberation, and +in the absence of direct proof, do not be deluded by a glittering +sophistry, which will soon attempt to persuade you, that: 'A +presumption which necessarily arises from circumstances,--is very +often more convincing and more satisfactory than any other kind of +evidence; it is not within the reach and compass of human abilities +to invent a train of circumstances, which shall be so connected +together as to amount to a proof of guilt, without affording +opportunities of contradicting a great part, if not all, of these +circumstances.' + +"Believe it not; circumstantial evidence has caused as much innocent +blood to flow, as the cimeter of Jenghiz Khan. The counsel for the +prosecution will tell you that every fact in this melancholy case +stabs the prisoner, and that facts cannot lie. Abstractly and +logically considered, facts certainly do not lie; but let us see +whether the inferences deduced from what we believe to be facts, do +not sometimes eclipse Ananias and Sapphira! Not long ago, the public +heart thrilled with horror at the tidings of the Ashtabula railway +catastrophe, in which a train of cars plunged through a bridge, took +fire, and a number of passengers were consumed, charred beyond +recognition. Soon afterward, a poor woman, mother of two children, +commenced suit against the railway company, alleging that her +husband had perished in that disaster. The evidence adduced was only +of a circumstantial nature, as the body which had been destroyed by +flames, could not be found. Searching in the debris at the fatal +spot, she had found a bunch of keys, that she positively recognized +as belonging to her husband, and in his possession when he died. One +key fitted the clock in her house, and a mechanic was ready to swear +that he had made such a key for the deceased. Another key fitted a +chest she owned, and still another fitted the door of her house; +while strongest of all proof, she found a piece of cloth which she +identified as part of her husband's coat. A physician who knew her +husband, testified that he rode as far as Buffalo on the same train +with the deceased, on the fatal day of the disaster; and another +witness deposed that he saw the deceased take the train at Buffalo, +that went down to ruin at Ashtabula. Certainly the chain of +circumstantial evidence, from veracious facts, seemed complete; but +lo! during the investigation it was ascertained beyond doubt, to the +great joy of the wife, that the husband had never been near +Ashtabula, and was safe and well at a Pension Home in a Western +State. + +"The fate of a very noble and innocent woman is now committed to +your hands, and only presumptive proof is laid before you. 'The +circumstance is always a fact; the presumption is the inference +drawn from that fact. It is hence called presumptive proof, because +it proceeds merely in opinion.' Suffer no brilliant sophistry to +dazzle your judgment, no remnant of prejudice to swerve you from the +path of fidelity to your oath. To your calm reasoning, your generous +manly hearts, your Christian consciences, I resign the desolate +prisoner; and as you deal with her, so may the God above us, the +just and holy God who has numbered the hairs of her innocent head, +deal here and hereafter with you and yours." + +That magnetic influence, whereby the emotions of an audience are +swayed, as the tides that follow the moon, was in large measure the +heritage of the handsome man who held the eyes of the jurymen in an +almost unwinking gaze; and when his uplifted arm slowly fell to his +side, Judge Dent grasped it in mute congratulation, and Mr. +Churchill took his hand, and shook it warmly. + +Mr. Wolverton came forward to sum up the evidence for the +prosecution, and laboriously recapitulated and dwelt upon the mass +of facts which he claimed was susceptible of but one interpretation, +and must compel the jury to convict, in accordance with the +indictment. + +Upon the ears of the prisoner, his words fell as a harsh, +meaningless murmur; and above the insistent mutter, rose and fell +the waves of a rich, resonant voice, that surrounded, penetrated, +electrified her brain; thrilled her whole being with a strange and +inexplicable sensation of happiness. For months she had fought +against the singular fascination that dwelt in those brilliant blue +eyes, and lurked in every line of the swart, stern face; holding at +bay the magnetic attraction which he exerted from the hour of the +preliminary examination. Of all men. she had feared him most, had +shrunk from every opportunity of contact, had execrated him as the +malign personification, the veritable incarnation of the evil +destiny that had hounded her from the day she first saw X----. + +Listening to his appeal for her deliverance, each word throbbing +with the fervent beat of a heart that she knew was all her own, an +exquisite sense of rest gradually stole over her; as a long- +suffering child spent with pain, sinks, soothed at last in the +enfolding arms of protective love. That dark, eloquent face drew, +held her gaze with the spell of a loadstone, and even in the +imminence of her jeopardy, she recalled the strange resemblance he +bore to the militant angel she had once seen in a painting, where he +wrestled with Satan for possession of the body of Moses. Disgrace, +peril, the gaunt spectre of death suddenly dissolved, vanished in +the glorious burst of rosy light that streamed into all the chill +chambers of her heart; and she bowed her head in her hands, to hide +the crimson that painted her cheeks. + +How long Mr. Wolverton talked, she never knew; but the lull that +succeeded was broken by the tones of Judge Parkman. + +"Beryl Brentano, it is my duty to remind you that this is the last +opportunity the law allows you, to speak in your own vindication. +The testimony has all been presented to those appointed to decide +upon its value. If there be any final statement that you may desire +to offer in self-defence, you must make it now." + +Could the hundreds who watched and waited ever forget the sight of +that superb, erect figure, that exquisite face, proud as Hypatia's, +patient as Perpetua's; or the sound of that pathetic, unwavering +voice? Mournfully, yet steadily, she raised her great grey eyes, +darkened by the violet shadows suffering had cast, and looked at her +judges. + +"I am guiltless of any and all crime. I have neither robbed, nor +murdered; and I am neither principal, nor accomplice in the horrible +sin imputed to me. I know nothing of the chloroform; I never touched +the andiron; I never saw Gen'l Darrington but once. He gave me the +gold and the sapphires, and I am as innocent of his death, and of +the destruction of his will as the sinless little children who +prattle at your firesides and nestle to sleep in your arms. My life +has been disgraced and ruined by no act of mine, for I have kept my +hands, my heart, my soul, as pure and free from crime as they were +when God gave them to me. I am the helpless prey of suspicion, and +the guiltless victim of the law. O, my judges! I do not crave your +mercy--that is the despairing prayer of conscious guilt; I demand at +your hands, justice." + +The rushing sound as of a coming flood filled her ears, and her +words echoed vaguely from some immeasurably distant height. The +gaslights seemed whirling in a Walpurgis maze, as she sat down and +once more veiled her face in her hands. + +When she recovered sufficiently to listen, Mr. Churchill had risen +for the closing speech of the prosecution. + +"Gentlemen of the Jury: I were a blot upon a noble profession, a +disgrace to honorable manhood, and a monster in my own estimation, +if I could approach the fatal Finis of this melancholy trial, +without painful emotions of profound regret, that the solemn +responsibility of my official position makes me the reluctant bearer +of the last stern message uttered by retributive justice. How +infinitely more enviable the duty of the Amicus Curiae, my gallant +friend and quondam colleague, who in voluntary defence has so +ingeniously, eloquently and nobly led a forlorn hope, that he knew +was already irretrievably lost? Desperate, indeed, must he deem that +cause for which he battles so valiantly, when dire extremity goads +him to lift a rebellious and unfilial voice against the provisions +of his foster-mother, Criminal Jurisprudence, in whose service he +won the brilliant distinction and crown of laurel that excite the +admiration and envy of a large family of his less fortunate foster- +brothers. I honor his heroism, applaud his chivalrous zeal, and wish +that I stood in his place; but not mine the privilege of mounting +the white horse, and waving the red flag of the 'Lactees.' Dedicated +to the mournful rites of justice, I have laid an iron hand on the +quivering lips of pity, that cried to me like the voice of one of my +own little ones; and very sorrowfully, at the command of conscience, +reason and my official duty, I obey the mandate to ring down the +black curtain on a terrible tragedy, feeling like Dante, when he +confronted the doomed-- + +"'And to a part I come, where no light shines.'" + +So clearly and ably has my distinguished associate, Mr. Wolverton, +presented all the legal points bearing upon the nature and value of +the proof, submitted for your examination, that any attempt to +buttress his powerful argument, were an unpardonable reflection upon +your intelligence, and his skill; and I shall confine my last effort +in behalf of justice, to a brief analysis and comparison of the +hypothesis of the defence, with the verified result of the +prosecution. + +"Beautiful and sparkling as the frail glass of Murano, and equally +as thin, as treacherously brittle, is the theory so skilfully +manufactured in behalf of the accused; and so adroitly exhibited +that the ingenious facets catch every possible gleam, and for a +moment almost dazzle the eyes of the beholder. In attempting to cast +a lance against the shield of circumstantial evidence, his weapon +rebounded, recoiled upon his fine spun crystal and shivered it. What +were the materials wherewith he worked? Circumstances, strained, +well nigh dislocated by the effort to force them to fit into his +Procrustean measure. A man was seen on the night of the twenty- +sixth, who appeared unduly anxious to quit X--before daylight; and +again the mysterious stranger was seen in a distant town in +Pennsylvania, where he showed some gold coins of a certain +denomination, and dropped on the floor one-half of an envelope, that +once contained a will. In view of these circumstances (the +prosecution calls them facts), the counsel for the defence PRESUMES +that said stranger committed the murder, stole the will; and offers +this opinion as presumptive proof that the prisoner is innocent. The +argument runs thus: this man was an accepted lover of the accused, +and therefore he must have destroyed the will that beggared his +betrothed; but it is nowhere in evidence, that any lover existed, +outside of the counsel's imagination; yet Asmodeus like he must +appear when called for, and so we are expected to infer, assume, +presume that because he stole the will he must be her lover. Does it +not make your head swim to spin round in this circle of reasoning? +In assailing the validity of circumstantial evidence, has he not cut +his bridges, burned his ships behind him? + +"Gentlemen, fain would I seize this theory were it credible, and +setting thereon, as in an ark, this most unfortunate prisoner, float +her safely through the deluge of ruin, anchor her in peaceful +security upon some far-off Ararat; but it has gone to pieces in the +hands of its architect. Instead of rescuing the drowning, the wreck +serves only to beat her down. If we accept the hypothesis of a lover +at all, it will furnish the one missing link in the terrible chain +that clanks around the luckless prisoner. The disappearance of the +three hundred and twenty dollars has sorely perplexed the +prosecution, and unexpectedly the defence offers us the one +circumstance we lacked; the lover was lurking in the neighborhood, +to learn the result of the visit, to escort her home; and to him the +prisoner gave the missing gold, to him intrusted the destruction of +the will. If that man came to 'Elm Bluff' prepared to rob and +murder, by whom was he incited and instigated; and who was the +accessory, and therefore particeps criminis? The prisoner's +handkerchief was the medium of chloroforming that venerable old man, +and can there be a reasonable doubt that she aided in administering +it? + +"The prosecution could not explain why she came from the direction +of the railroad bridge, which was far out of her way from 'Elm +Bluff'; but the defence gives the most satisfactory solution: she +was there, dividing her blood-stained spoils with the equally guilty +accomplice--her lover. The prosecution brings to the bar of +retribution only one criminal; the defence not only fastens the +guilt upon this unhappy woman, by supplying the missing links, but +proves premeditation, by the person of an accomplice. Four months +have been spent in hunting some fact that would tend to exculpate +the accused, but each circumstance dragged to light serves only to +swell the dismal chorus, 'Woe to the guilty'. To-day she sits in the +ashes of desolation, condemned by the unanimous evidence of every +known fact connecred with this awful tragedy. To oppose this black +and frightful host of proofs, what does she offer us? Simply her +bare, solemnly reiterated denial of guilt. We hold our breath, +hoping against hope that she will give some explanation, some +solution, that our pitying hearts are waiting so eagerly to hear; +but dumb as the Sphinx, she awaits her doom. You will weigh that +bare denial in the scale with the evidence, and in this momentous +duty recollect the cautious admonition that has been furnished to +guide you: 'Cosceding that asseverations of innocence are always +deserving of consideration by the executive, what is there to invest +them with a conclusive efficacy, in opposition to a chain of +presumptive evidence, the force and weight of which falls short only +of mathematical demonstration?' The astute and eloquent counsel for +defence, has cited some well-known cases, to shake your faith in the +value of merely presumptive proof. + +"I offer for your consideration, an instance of the fallibility of +merely bare, unsupported denial of guilt on the part of the accused. +A priest at Lauterbach was suspected, arrested and tried for the +murder of a woman, under very aggravated circumstances. He was +subjected to eighty examinations; and each time solemnly denied the +crime. Even when confronted at midnight with the skull of the victim +murdered eight years before, he vehemently protested his innocence; +called on the skull to declare him not the assassin, and appealed to +the Holy Trinity to proclaim his innocence. Finally he confessed his +crime; testified that while cutting the throat of his victim, he had +exhorted her to repentance, had given her absolution, and that +having concealed the corpse, he had said masses for her soul. + +"The forlorn and hopeless condition of the prisoner at this bar, +appeals pathetically to that compassion which we are taught to +believe coexists with justice, even in the omnipotent God we +worship; yet in the face of incontrovertible facts elicited from +reliable witnesses, of coincidences which no theory of accident can +explain, can we stifle convictions, solely because she pleads 'not +guilty'? Pertinent, indeed, was the ringing cry of that ancient +prosecutor: 'Most illustrious Caesar! if denial of guilt be +sufficient defence, who would ever be convicted?' You have been +assured that inferences drawn from probable facts eclipse the +stupendous falsehood of Ananias and Sapphira! Then the same family +strain inevitably crops out, in the loosely-woven web of defensive +presumptive evidence--whose pedigree we trace to the same parentage. +God forbid that I should commit the sacrilege of arrogating His +divine attribute--infallibility--for any human authority, however +exalted; or claim it for any amount of proof, presumptive or +positive. 'It is because humanity even when most cautious and +discriminating is so mournfully fallible and prone to error, that in +judging its own frailty, we require the aid and reverently invoke +the guidance of Jehovah.' In your solemn deliberations bear in mind +this epitome of an opinion, entitled to more than a passing +consideration: 'Perhaps strong circumstantial evidence in cases of +crime, committed for the most part in secret, is the most +satisfactory of any from whence to draw the conclusion of guilt; for +men may be seduced to perjury, by many base motives; but it can +scarcely happen that many circumstances, especially if they be such +over which the accuser could have no control, forming altogether the +links of a transaction, should all unfortunately concur to fix the +presumption of guilt on an individual, and yet such a conclusion be +erroneous.' + +"Gentlemen of the jury: the prosecution believes that the +overwhelming mass of evidence laid before you proves, beyond a +reasonable doubt, that the prisoner did premeditatedly murder and +rob Robert Luke Darrington; and in the name of justice, we demand +that you vindicate the majesty of outraged law, by rendering a +verdict of 'guilty'. All the evidence in this case points the finger +of doom at the prisoner, as to the time, the place, the opportunity, +the means, the conduct and the motive. Suffer not sympathy for +youthful womanhood and wonderful beauty, to make you recreant to the +obligations of your oath, to decide this issue of life or death, +strictly in accordance with the proofs presented; and bitterly +painful as is your impending duty, do not allow the wail of pity to +drown the demands of justice, or the voice of that blood that cries +to heaven for vengeance upon the murderess. May the righteous God +who rules the destinies of the universe guide you, and enable you to +perform faithfully your awful duty." + +Painfully solemn was the profound silence that pervaded the court- +room, and the eyes of the multitude turned anxiously to the grave +countenance of the Judge. Mr. Dunbar had seated himself at a small +table, not far from Beryl, and resting his elbow upon it, leaned his +right temple in the palm of his hand, watching from beneath his +contracted black brows the earnest, expectant faces of the jurymen; +and his keen, glowing eyes indexed little of the fierce, wolfish +pangs that gnawed ceaselessly at his heart, as the intolerable +suspense drew near its end. + +Judge Parkman leaned forward. + +"Gentlemen of the jury: before entering that box, as the appointed +ministers of justice, to arbitrate upon the most momentous issue +that can engage human attention--the life or death of a fellow +creature--you called your Maker to witness that you would divest +your minds of every shadow of prejudice, would calmly, carefully, +dispassionately consider, analyze and weigh the evidence submitted +for your investigation; and irrespective of consequences, render a +verdict in strict accordance with the proofs presented. You have +listened to the testimony of the witnesses, to the theory of the +prosecution, to the theory of the counsel for the defence; you have +heard the statement of the accused, her repeated denial of the crime +with which she stands charged; and finally you have heard the +arguments of counsel, the summing up of all the evidence. The +peculiar character of some of the facts presented as proof, requires +on your part the keenest and most exhaustive analysis of the +inferences to be drawn from them, and you 'have need of patience, +wisdom and courage'. While it is impossible that you can contemplate +the distressing condition of the accused without emotions of +profound compassion, your duty 'is prescribed by the law, which +allows you no liberty to indulge any sentiment, inconsistent with +its strict performance'. You should begin with the legal presumption +that the prisoner is innocent, and that presumption must continue, +until her guilt is satisfactorily proved. This is the legal right of +the prisoner; contingent on no peculiar circumstances of any +particular case, but is the common right of every person accused of +a crime. The law surrounds the prisoner with a coat of mail, that +only irrefragable proofs of guilt can pierce, and the law declares +her innocent, unless the proof you have heard on her trial satisfies +you, beyond a reasonable doubt, that she is guilty. What constitutes +reasonable doubt, it becomes your duty to earnestly and carefully +consider. It is charged that the defendant, on the night of the +twenty-sixth of October, did wilfully, deliberately, and +premeditatedly murder Robert Luke Darrington, by striking him with a +brass andiron. The legal definition of murder is the unlawful +killing of another, with malice aforethought; and is divided into +two degrees. Any murder committed knowingly, intentionally and +wantonly, and without just cause or excuse, is murder in the first +degree; and this is the offence charged against the prisoner at the +bar. If you believe from the evidence, that the defendant, Beryl +Brentano, did at the time and place named, wilfully and +premeditatedly kill Robert Luke Darrington, then it will become your +duty to find the defendant guilty of murder; if you do not so +believe, then it will be your duty to acquit her. A copy of the +legal definition of homicide, embracing murder in the first and +second degrees, and of manslaughter in the first and second degrees, +will be furnished for your instruction; and it is your right and +privilege after a careful examination of all the evidence, to +convict of a lesser crime than that charged in the indictment, +provided all the evidence in this case, should so convince your +minds, to the exclusion of a reasonable doubt. + +"In your deliberations you will constantly bear in memory, the +following long established rules provided for the guidance of +jurors: + +"'I.--The burden of proof rests upon the prosecution, and does not +shift or change to the defendant in any phase or stage of the case. + +"'II.--Before the jury can convict the accused, they must be +satisfied from the evidence that she is guilty of the offence +charged in the indictment, beyond a reasonable doubt. It is not +sufficient that they should believe her guilt only probable. No +degree of probability merely, will authorize a conviction; but the +evidence must be of such character and tendency as to produce a +moral certainty of the prisoner's guilt, to the exclusion of +reasonable doubt. + +"'III.--Each fact which is necessary in the chain of circumstances +to establish the guilt of the accused, must be distinctly proved by +competent legal evidence, and if the jury have reasonable doubt as +to any material fact, necessary to be proved in order to support the +hypothesis of the prisoner's guilt, to the exclusion of every other +reasonable hypothesis, they must find her not guilty. + +"'IV.--If the jury are satisfied from the evidence, that the accused +is guilty of the offence charged, beyond reasonable doubt, and no +rational hypothesis or explanation can be framed or given (upon the +whole evidence in the cause) consistent with the innocence of the +accused, and at the same time consistent with the facts proved, they +ought to find her guilty. The jury are the exclusive judges of the +evidence, of its weight, and of the credibility of the witnesses. It +is their duty to accept and be governed by the law, as given by the +Court in its instructions.' + +"The evidence in this case is not direct and positive, but +presumptive; and your attention has been called to some well known +cases of persons convicted of, and executed for capital crimes, +whose entire innocence was subsequently made apparent. These +arguments and cases only prove that, 'all human evidence, whether it +be positive or presumptive in its character, like everything else +that partakes of mortality, is fallible. The reason may be as +completely convinced by circumstantial--as by positive evidence, and +yet may possibly not arrive at the truth by either.' + +"The true question, therefore, for your consideration, is not the +kind of evidence in this case, but it is, what is the result of it +in your minds? If it has failed to satisfy you of the guilt of the +accused, and your minds are not convinced, vacillate in doubt, then +you must acquit her, be the evidence what it may, positive or +presumptive; but if the result of the whole evidence satisfies you, +it you are convinced that she is guilty, then it is imperatively +your duty to convict her, even if the character of the evidence be +wholly circumstantial." Such is the law. + +"In resigning this case to you, I deem it my duty to direct your +attention to one point, which I suggest that you consider. If the +accused administered chloroform, did it indicate that her original +intention was solely to rob the vault? Is the act of administering +the chloroform consistent with the theory of deliberate and +premeditated murder? In examining the facts submitted by counsel, +take the suggestion just presented, with you, and if the facts and +circumstances proved against her, can be accounted for on the theory +of intended, deliberate robbery, without necessarily involving +premeditated murder, it is your privilege to put that merciful +construction upon them. + +"Gentlemen of the jury, I commit this mournful and terrible case to +your decision; and solemnly adjure you to be governed in your +deliberations, by the evidence as you understand it, by the law as +furnished in these instructions, and to render such verdict, as your +reason compels, as your matured judgment demands, and your +conscience unhesitatingly approves and sanctions. May God direct and +control your decision." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + +Drifting along the stream of testimony that rolled in front of the +jury-box, an eager and excited public had with scarcely a dissenting +voice arrived at the conclusion, that the verdict was narrowed to +the limits of only two possibilities. It was confidently expected +that the jury would either acquit unconditionally, or fail to agree; +thus prolonging suspense, by a mistrial. It was six o'clock when, +the jurors, bearing the andiron, handkerchief, pipe, and a diagram +of the bedroom at "Elm Bluff", were led away to their final +deliberation; yet so well assured was the mass of spectators, that +they would promptly return to render a favorable verdict, that +despite the inclemency of the weather, there was no perceptible +diminution of the anxious crowd of men and women. + +The night had settled prematurely down, black and stormy; and though +the fury of the gale seemed at one time to have spent itself, the +wind veered to the implacable east, and instead of fitful gusts, a +steady roaring blast freighted with rain smote the darkness. The +officer conducted his prisoner across the dim corridor, and opened +the door of the small anteroom, which frequent occupancy had +rendered gloomily familiar. + +"I wish I could make you more comfortable, and it is a shame to shut +you up in such an ice-box. I will throw my overcoat on the floor, +and you can wrap your feet up in it. Yes, you must take it. I shall +keep warm at the stove in the Sheriff's room. The Judge will not +wait later than ten o'clock, then I'll take you back to Mrs. +Singleton. It seems you prefer to remain here alone." + +"Yes, entirely alone." + +"You are positive, you won't try a little hot punch, or a glass of +wine?" + +"Thank you, but I wish only to be alone." + +"Don't be too down-hearted. You will never be convicted under that +indictment, at least not by this jury, for I have a suspicion that +there is one man among them, who will stand out until the stars +fall, and I will tell you why. I happened to be looking at him, when +your Christmas card was shown by Mr. Dunbar. The moment he saw it, +he started, stretched out his hand, and as he looked at it, I saw +him choke up, and pass his hand over his eyes. Soon after Christmas, +that man lost his only child, a girl five years old, who had scarlet +fever. To divert her mind, they gave her a Christmas card to play +with, that some friend had sent to her mother. She had it in her +hand when she died, in convulsions, and it was put in her coffin and +buried with her. My wife helped to nurse and shroud her, and she +told me it was the card shown in court; it was your card. The law +can't cut out the heartstrings of the jury, and I don't believe that +man would lift his hand against your life, any sooner than he would +strike the face of his dead child." + +He locked the door, and Beryl found herself at last alone, in the +dreary little den where a single gas burner served only to show the +surrounding cheerlessness. The furniture comprised a wooden bench +along the wall, two chairs, and a table in the middle of the floor; +and on the dusty panes of the grated window, a ray of ruddy light +from a lamp post in the street beneath, broke through the leaden +lances of the rain, and struggled for admission. + +The neurotic pharmacopoeia contains nothing so potent as despair to +steady quivering nerves, and steel to superhuman endurance. For +Beryl, the pendulum of suspense had ceased to swing, because the +spring of hope had snapped; and the complete surrender, the mute +acceptance of the worst possible to come, had left her numb, +impervious to dread. As one by one the discovered facts spelled +unmistakably the name of her brother, allowing no margin to doubt +his guilt, the necessity of atonement absorbed every other +consideration; and the desire to avert his punishment extinguished +the last remnant of selfish anxiety. If by suffering in his stead, +she could secure to him life--the opportunities of repentance, of +expiation, of making his peace with God, of saving his immortal +soul--how insignificant seemed all else. The innate love of life, +the natural yearning for happiness, the once fervent aspirations for +fame--the indescribable longing for the fruition of youth's high +hopes, which like a Siren sang somewhere in the golden mists of +futurity--all these were now crushed beyond recognition in the +whirlwind that had wrecked her. + +Her father slept under silvery olives in a Tuscan dell, her mother +within hearing of the waves that broke on the Atlantic shore; and if +the wanderer could be purified by penitential tears, what mattered +the shattering of the family circle on earth, when in the eternal +Beyond, it would be indissolubly reformed? Over the black gulf that +yawned in her young, pure life, the wings of her Christian faith +bore her steadily, unwaveringly to the heavenly rest, that she knew +remained for the people of God; and so, she seemed to have shaken +hands with the things of time and earth, and to stand on the border +land, girded for departure. To meet her beloved dead, with the +blessed announcement that Bertie must join them after a while, +because she had ransomed his precious soul; and that the family +would be complete under the heavenly roof, was recompense so rich, +that the fangs of disgrace, of physical and mental torture were +effectually extracted. By day and by night the ladder of prayer +lifted her soul into that serene realm, where the fountains of balm +are never drained; and into her face stole the reflection of that +peace which only communion with the Christian's God can bring to +those whom grief has claimed for its own. + +To-night, as she listened to the Coronach chanted by the gale, and +the dismal accompaniment of the pelting rain, she realized how +utterly isolated was her position, and kneeling on the bare floor, +crossed her arms on the table, bowed her bead upon them, and prayed +for patience and strength. The ordeal had been fiery, but the end +was at hand, and release must be near. + +She heard quick steps in the corridor, and the key was turned in the +lock. Had the jury so promptly decided to destroy her? For an +instant only, she shut her eyes; and when she opened them, Mr. +Dunbar was leaning over her, folding closely about her shoulders +some heavy wrap, whose soft fur collar his fingers buttoned around +her throat. She had not known that she was cold, until the delicious +sensation of warmth crept like a caressing touch over her chilled +limbs. She did not stir, and neither spoke; but after a moment he +turned toward the door; then she rose. + +"There is something I wish to say, and this is my last opportunity, +as after to-night we shall not meet again. During the past four +months I have said harsh, bitter things to you, and have unjustly +judged you. In grateful recognition of all that you have so +faithfully essayed to accomplish in my behalf, I ask you now to +forget everything but my gratitude for your effort to save me; and I +offer my hand to you, as the one friend who sacrificed even his +manly pride, and endured humiliation in order to redress my wrongs. +I thank you very sincerely, Mr. Dunbar." + +He took her outstretched hand, pressed it against his cheek, his +eyes, held it to his lips; then a half smothered groan escaped him, +and afraid to trust himself, he went quickly out. + +Believing that she stood on the confines of another world, she had +possessed her soul in patience, waiting for the consummation of the +sacrifice; yet at the crisis of her fate, that singular, +incomprehensible influence, long resisted, drew her thoughts to him, +whom she regarded as the chosen puppet of destiny to hurry her into +an untimely grave. She had fought the battle with him, under fearful +odds; conscious of sedition in the heart that defied him, warily +clutching with one hand the throat of rebellion in her citadel, +while with the other, she parried assault. + +Keeping lonely vigil, amid the strewn wreck of life and hope, she +had waved away one persistent thought, that lit up the blackness +with a sudden glory, that came with the face of an angel of light, +and babbled with the silvery tongue of sorcery. As far as her future +was concerned, this world had practically come to a premature end; +but above the roar of ruin, and out of the yawning graves of +slaughtered possibilities, rose and rang the challenge: If she had +never come South, if she could have been allowed the chance of +happiness that seemed every woman's birthright, if she had met and +known Mr. Dunbar, before he was pledged to another; what then? If +she were once more the Beryl of old, and he were free? If? What +necromancy so wonderful, as the potentiality of if? Weighed in that +popular balance--appearances--how stood the poor friendless +prisoner, loaded with suspicion, tarnished with obloquy, on the +verge of an ignominious death; in comparison with the fair, proud +heiress, dowered with blue blood, powerful in patrician influence, +rich in all that made her the envy of her social world? + +In the dazzling zenith of temporal prosperity, Leo Gordon considered +the heart of her betrothed her most precious possession; the one +jewel which she would gladly have given all else to preserve; and +yet, fate tore it from her grasp, and laid it at the feet, nay +thrust it into the white hand of the woman who must die for a +fiendish crime. A latter-day seer tells us, that in all realms, +"Between laws there is no analogy, there is Continuity"; then in the +universe of ethical sociology, who shall trace the illimitable +ramifications of the Law of Compensation? + +Up and down, back and forth, slowly, wearily walked the prisoner; +and when the town clock struck eight, she mechanically counted each +stroke. As in drowning men, the landmarks of a lifetime rise, +huddle, almost press upon the glazing eyes, so the phantasmagoria of +Beryl's past, seemed projected in strange luminousness upon the pall +of the present, like profiles in silvery flame cast on a black +curtain. + +Holding her father's hand, she walked in the Odenwald; sitting +beside her mother on a carpet of purple vetches, she stemmed +strawberries in a garden near Pistoja; clinging to Bertie's jacket, +she followed him across dimpling sands to dip her feet in the blue +Mediterranean waves, that broke in laughter, showing teeth of foam, +where dying sunsets reddened all the beach. Through sunny arcades, +flushed with pomegranate, glowing with orange, silvered with lemon +blossoms, came the tinkling music of contadini bells, the bleating +of kids, the twittering of happy birds, the distant chime of an +Angelus; all the subtle harmony, the fragmentary melody that +flickers through an Impromptu of Chopin or Schubert. She saw the +simulacrum of her former self, the proud, happy Beryl of old, +singing from the score of the "Messiah", in the organ loft of a +marble church; she heard the rich tenor voice of her handsome +brother, as he trilled a barcarole one night, crossing the Atlantic; +she smelled the tuberoses at Mentone, the faint breath of lilies her +father had loved so well, and then, blotting all else, there rose +clear as some line of Morghen's, that attic room; the invalid's bed, +the low chair beside it, the wasted figure, the suffering, fever- +flushed face of the beloved mother, as she saw her last, with the +Grand Duke jasmine fastened at her throat. + +The door was thrown open, and the officer beckoned her to follow +him. Back into the crowded court-room, where people pressed even +into the window sills for standing room, where Judge and counsel sat +gravely expectant; where the stillness of death had suddenly fallen. +The officer conducted her to the bar, then drew back, and Mr. Dunbar +came and stood at her side; resting his hand on the back of her +chair. + +In that solemn hush, the measured tramp of the jury advancing, and +filing into their box, had the mournful, measured beat as of pall +bearers, keeping step to a dismal dirge; and when the foreman laid +upon the table the fatal brass unicorn, the muffled sound seemed +ominous as the grating of a coffin lowered upon the cross bars of a +gaping grave. As the roll was called, each man rose, and answered in +a low but distinct tone. Then the clerk of the court asked: + +"Gentlemen of the jury, have you agreed upon your verdict?" + +"We have," replied the foreman. + +"What say you! Guilty, or not guilty?" + +Beryl had risen, and the gaslight shining full upon her pale, +Phidian face, showed no trace of trepidation. Only the pathetic +patience of a sublime surrender was visible on her frozen features. +The eyes preternaturally large and luminous were raised far above +the sea of heads, and their strained gaze might almost have been +fixed upon the unveiled face of the God she trusted. Her hands were +folded over her mother's ring, her noble head thrown proudly back. + +"We the jury, in the case of the State against Beryl Brentano, find +defendant not guilty as charged in the indictment; but guilty of +manslaughter in the first degree; and we do earnestly commend her to +the mercy of the Court." + +The girl staggered slightly, as if recoiling from a blow, and Mr. +Dunbar caught her arm, steadied her. The long pent tide of popular +feeling broke its barriers, and the gates of Pandemonium seemed to +swing open. Women sobbed; men groaned. In vain the Judge thundered +"Silence", "Order!" and not until an officer advanced to obey the +command, to clear the court-room, was there any perceptible lull, in +the storm of indignation. + +Turning to the Judge, Mr. Dunbar said: + +"In behalf of the prisoner, I most respectfully beg that the Court +will end her suspense; and render her return to this bar unnecessary +by promptly pronouncing sentence." + +"Is it the wish of the prisoner, that sentence should not be +delayed?" + +"She wishes to know her fate." + +She had uttered no sound, but the lashes trembled, fell over the +tired, aching, strained eyes; and lifting her locked hands she bowed +her chin upon them. + +Some moments elapsed, before Judge Parkman spoke; then his voice was +low and solemn. + +"Beryl Brentano, you have been indicted for the deliberate and +premeditated murder of your grandfather, Robert Luke Darrington. +Twelve men, selected for their intelligence and impartiality, have +patiently and attentively listened to the evidence in this case, and +have under oath endeavored to discover the truth of this charge. You +have had the benefit of a fair trial, by unbiased judges, and +finally, the jury in the conscientious discharge of their duty, have +convicted you of manslaughter in the first degree, and commended you +to the mercy of the Court. In consideration of your youth, of the +peculiar circumstances surrounding you, and especially, in deference +to the wishes and recommendation of the jury--whose verdict, the +Court approves, I therefore pronounce upon you the lightest penalty +which the law affixes to the crime of manslaughter, of which you +stand convicted; which sentence is--that you be taken hence to the +State Penitentiary, and there be kept securely, for the term of five +years." + +With a swift movement, Mr. Dunbar drew the crape veil over her face, +put her arm through his, and led her into the corridor. Hurriedly he +exchanged some words in an undertone with the two officers, who +accompanied him to the rear entrance of the court-house; and then, +in answer to a shrill whistle, a close carriage drawn by two horses +drew up to the door, followed by the dismal equipage set apart for +the transportation of prisoners. The deputy sheriff stepped forward, +trying to shield the girl from the driving rain, and assisted her +into the carriage. Mr. Dunbar sprang in and seated himself opposite. +The officer closed the door, ordered the coachman to drive on, and +then entering the gloomy black box, followed closely, keeping always +in sight of the vehicle in advance. + +The clock striking ten, sounded through the muffling storm a knell +as mournful as some tolling bell, while into that wild, moaning +Friday night, went the desolate woman, wearing henceforth the brand +of Cain--remanded to the convict's home. + +She had thrown back her veil to ease the stifling sensation in her +throat, and Mr. Dunbar could see now and then, as they dashed past a +street lamp, that she sat upright, still as stone. + +At last she said, in a tone peculiarly calm, like that of one +talking in sleep: + +"What did it mean--that verdict?" + +"That you went back to 'Elm Bluff' with no intention of attacking +Gen'l Darrington." + +"That I went there deliberately to steal, and then to avoid +detection, killed him? That was the verdict of the jury?" + +She waited a moment. + +"Answer me. That was the meaning? That was the most merciful verdict +they could give to the world?" + +Only the hissing sound of the rain upon the glass pane of the +carriage, made reply. + +They had reached the bridge, when a hysterical laugh startled the +man, who leaned back on the front seat, with his arms crossed +tightly over a heart throbbing with almost unendurable pain. + +"To steal, to rob, to plunder. Branded for all time a thief, a +rogue, a murderess. I!--I--" + +A passionate wail told the strain was broken: "I, my father's +darling, my father's Beryl! Hurled into a living tomb, herded with +convicts, with the vilest outcasts that disgrace the earth--this is +worse than a thousand deaths! It would have been so merciful to +crush out the life they mangled; but to doom me to the slow torture +of this loathsome grave, where death brings no release! To die is so +easy, so blessed; but to live--a convicted felon! O, my God! my God! +Hast Thou indeed forsaken me?" + +In the appalling realization of her fate, she rocked to and fro for +a moment only, fiercely shaken by the horror of a future never +before contemplated. Then the proud soul stifled its shuddering +sigh, lifted its burden of shame, silently struggled up its awful +Via Crucis. Mute and still, she leaned back in the corner of the +carriage. + +"I could have saved you, but you would not accept deliverance. You +thwarted every effort, tied the hands that might have set you free; +and by your own premeditated course throughout the trial, +deliberately dragged this doom down upon your head. You counted the +cost, and you elected, chose of your own free will to offer yourself +as a sacrifice, to the law, for the crime of another. You are your +own merciless fate, decreeing self-immolation. You were willing to +die, in order to save that man's life; and you can certainly summon +fortitude to endure five years' deprivation of his society; +sustained by the hope that having thereby purchased his security, +you may yet reap the reward your heart demands, reunion with its +worthless, degraded idol. I have watched, weighed, studied you; +searched every stray record of your fair young life, found the clear +pages all pure; and I have doubted, marvelled that you, lily- +hearted, lily-souled, lily-handed, could cast the pearl of your love +down in the mire, to be trampled by swinish feet." + +The darkness of the City of Dis that seemed to brood under the wings +of the stormy night, veiled Beryl's face; and her silence goaded him +beyond the limits of prudence, which he had warily surveyed for +himself. + +"Day and night, I hear the maddening echo of your accusing cry, 'You +have ruined my life!' God knows, you have as effectually ruined +mine. You have your revenge--if it comfort you to know it; but I am +incapable of your sublime renunciation. I am no patient martyr; I +am, instead, an intensely selfish man. You choose to hug the ashes +of desolation; I purpose to sweep away the wreck, to rebuild on the +foundation of one hope, which all the legions in hell cannot shake. +Between you and me the battle has only begun, and nothing but your +death or my victory will end it. You have your revenge; I intend to +enjoy mine. Though he burrow as a mole, or skulk in some fastness of +Alaska, I will track and seize that cowardly miscreant, and when the +law receives its guilty victim, you shall be freed from suspicion, +freed from prison, and most precious of all boons, you shall be +freed forever from the vile contamination of his polluting touch. +For the pangs you have inflicted on me, I will have my revenge: you +shall never be profaned by the name of wife." + +Up the rocky hill toiled the horses, arching their necks as they +stooped their faces to avoid the blinding rain: and soon the huge +blot of prison walls, like a crouching monster ambushed in +surrounding gloom, barred the way. + +In two windows of the second story, burned lights that borrowed +lurid rays in their passage through the mist, and seemed to glow +angrily, like the red eyes of a sullen beast of prey. The carriage +stopped. A moment after, the deputy-sheriff sprang from his wagon +and rang the bell close to the great gate. Two dogs bayed hoarsely, +and somewhere in the building an answering bell sounded. + +Beryl leaned forward. + +"Mr. Dunbar, there is one last favor I ask at your hands. I want my- +-my--I want that pipe, that was shown in court. Will you ask that it +may be given to me? Will you send it to me?" + +A half strangled, scarcely audible oath was his only reply. + +She put out her hand, laid it on his. + +"You dare caused me so much suffering, surely you will not deny me +this only recompense I shall ever ask." + +His hand closed over hers. + +"If I bring it to you, will you confess who smoked it last?" + +"After to-night, sir, I think it best I should never see your face +again." + +The officer opened the carriage door, the warden approached, +carrying a lantern in one hand and an umbrella in the other. Mr. +Dunbar stepped from the carriage and turning, stretched out his +arms, suddenly snatched the girl for an instant close to his heart, +and lifted her to the ground. + +The warden opened the gate, swinging his lantern high to light the +way, and by its flickering rays Lennox Dunbar saw the beautiful +white face, the wonderful, sad eyes, the wan lips contracted by a +spasm of pain. + +She turned and followed the warden; the lights wavered; the great +iron gate swung back in its groove, the bolt fell with a sullen +clang; the massive key rattled, a chain clanked, and all was +darkness as she was locked irrevocably into her living tomb. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + +The annual resurrection had begun; the pulse of Nature quickened, +rose, throbbed under the vernal summons; pale, tender grass-blades +peeped above the mould, houstonias lifted their blue disks to the +March sun, and while the world of birds commenced their preludes +where silky young leaves shyly fluttered, earth and sky were wrapped +in that silvery haze with which coy Springtime half veils her +radiant face. The vivid verdure of wheat and oat fields, the cooler +aqua marina of long stretches of rye, served as mere groundwork for +displaying in bold relief the snowy tufts of plum, the creamy +clusters of pear, and the glowing pink of peach orchards that +clothed the hillsides, and brimmed the valleys with fragrant +prophecies of fruitful plenty. + +Dimmed by distance to fine lines of steel, wavered the flocks of +wild geese flying from steaming bayous to icy lakes in the far +North, and now and then as the ranks dipped, a white flash lit the +vignettes traced against the misty, pearl-gray sky. + +Spring sunshine had kissed the lips of death, and universal life +sprang palpitating to begin anew the appointed yearly cycle; yet +amid the flush and stir of mother earth, there lay hopelessly still +and cold some human hopes, which no divine "Come forth" would ever +revivify. + +Into the face of Leo Gordon had crept that strange and indescribable +change, which is analogous to the peculiar aspect of the clear +heavens when dark clouds just faintly rim the horizon, below which +they heap their sombre, sullen masses, projecting upward weird +shadows. + +Apparently the sun of prosperity burned in the zenith and gilded her +path with happiness, but analyzed by the prism of her consciousness +the brightness faded, the colors paled, and grim menace crossed +all, like the dark lines of Fraunhofer. To be chosen, loved, wooed +and won exclusively for herself, irrespective of all extraneous +appurtenances and advantages, is the supreme hope innate in every +woman, and the dread that her wealth might invest her with charms +not intrinsic, had made Leo unusually distrustful of the motives of +her numerous suitors. That Leighton Douglass loved the woman, not +the heiress, she knew beyond the possibility of cavil or doubt, and +when, after mature deliberation, she promised her hand to Mr. +Dunbar, she had felt equally sure that no mercenary consideration +biased his choice or inspired his professions of attachment. + +For a nature so proudly poised, so averse to all impulsive +manifestations of emotion, her affections were surprisingly warm +and clinging, and she loved him with all the depth and fervor of +her tender, generous heart; hence the slow torture of her +humiliation in the hour of disenchantment. To women who love is +given a sixth sense, a subtile instinct whereby, as in an occult +alembic, they discern the poison that steals into their wine of +joy; so Leo was not long in ignorance that her coveted kingdom +belonged by right of conquest to another, and that she reigned only +nominally and by courtesy. + +The evil we most abhor generally espies us afar off, chases +tirelessly, crouches at our feet, grimacing triumphantly at our +impotence to escape its loathsome clutches; and Leo's pride bled +sorely in the realization that she had sold her hand and heart for +base counterfeit equivalents. In a crisis of keen disappointment, +only very noble natures can remain strictly just, yet in arraigning +her lover for disloyalty, this sorrowing woman abstained from +casting all the blame upon him. He had not intentionally deceived +her, had not deliberately betrayed her trust; he was the unwilling +victim of an inexplicable fascination against which she felt assured +he had struggled sullenly and persistently; and which, in destroying +the beautiful edifice of their mutual hopes, offered him nothing but +humiliation in exchange. + +Standing to-day beside the pyramid of scarlet geraniums, and +velvety, gold-powdered begonias in the centre of the octagonal room, +where the warm Spring sun shone down through the dome, falling +aslant on the great snowy owl and the rose-colored cockatoo +smoothing their plumes on the top of the glittering brass cages--Leo +contrasted the luxurious and elegant details of her lovely home with +the grim and bleak cell where, in shame and ignominy, dwelt the +young stranger who had stolen her throne. A beggar by the road-side +had filched from the queen in her palace, her crown and sceptre, and +the pomp and splendor of royal surroundings only mocked and +emphasized an empty sham. Merely a trifle paler than usual, and +somewhat heavy-eyed from acquaintance with midnight vigils, she +proudly bore her new burden of grief with her wonted easy grace; but +the pretty mouth was compressed into harder, narrower lines, and the +delicate nose dilated in a haughtier curve. Sooner or later we all +learn the wisdom of the unwelcome admonition: "Fortune sells what we +believe she gives." + +For two months Leo's relations with Mr. Dunbar had been distinctly +strained, and while both carefully avoided any verbal attempt at +explanation, her manner had grown more distant, his more +scrupulously courteous, but pre-occupied, guarded and cold. Knowing +that abdication was inevitable, she slowly revolved the best method +of release, which promised the least sacrifice of womanly dignity, +and the greatest economy of unpleasantness on the part of her +betrothed. + +During the week of the trial, she had seen him but twice, and +immediately after he had been summoned to attend some suit in New +Orleans, and had hurriedly bidden her adieu in the presence of +others. With punctilious regularity he wrote studiedly polished, +graceful yet merely friendly letters, and like ice morsels they +slowly widened the glacier creeping between the two. + +To her council she admitted only her bruised pride, her bleeding +heart, her relentless incorruptible conscience; and over the +conclusion, she shed no tears, made no moan, allowed no margin for +pity. Early on that Spring morning, she had received a glowing sheaf +of La France and Duchess de Brabant roses, accompanied by a brief +note announcing Mr. Dunbar's return, and requesting an interview at +noon. The tone of her reply was markedly cordial, and after offering +congratulations upon his birthday, she begged his acceptance of a +souvenir made for the occasion by her own hands, a dainty "bit of +embroidery which she flattered herself, he would value for the sake +of the donor." + +Who doubts that Vashti made a most elaborate toilette, on that day +of humiliation, when discarded and discrowned she trailed her royal +robes for the last time across the marble courts of Shushan, going +forth to make room for Queen Esther? Amid the loops of lace at her +throat, and into the jewelled clasp of her belt, Leo had fastened +the exquisite roses, noting the perfect harmony of her costume, as +she smoothed the folds of the sapphire velvet robe which she knew +that Mr. Dunbar particularly admired. The lofty, beautiful room was +aglow with rich color from oriental rugs strewn about the marble +floor, from masses of hyacinths and crimson camellias in stands, +baskets, vases; from brilliant tropical birds flitting to and fro; +and through the gilt wire vista of the aviary, the fountain in the +peristyle beyond threw up its silvery hands to arrest attention, +and softly beat time to the music of the gold and green canaries. +The large white owl with wide, prescient, berylline eyes, rose +suddenly, and on slow wings circled round and round, flying +gradually to the ceiling of the dome, then swooped back to its +perch; and the Siberian hound, a huge, dun-hued creature, lifted his +head from the velvet rug and rubbed it against his mistress' dress. + +As the sound of a step she knew so well, rang in the vestibule, the +blood leaped to Leo's cheeks, but she walked quickly forward, and +met her visitor just beneath the "Salve" in the scroll of olives, +putting out her hands across the onyx table with its red and black +bowl of violets. Thus at arm's length, she held him a moment. + +"I am very glad to see you; and I wish you a happy birthday, hoping +your new year may be as bright as the sun that ushers it in; and as +full of fragrance as these lovely roses, which I wear in honor of +the day." + +Hand in hand, she smiled up into his handsome face, and certainly he +had never looked more kingly, more worthy of her homage. + +"Thank you, dear Leo. The light and sweetness of my future can be +blotted out, only by losing you. You must be the fulfilment of your +own kind wishes." + +He raised her left hand, kissed it lightly, and as she withdrew her +fingers and resumed her seat, in front of an ottoman ablaze with a +tangled mass of brilliant Berlin wool, he sat down at her side. + +Ere she was aware of his intention, he pushed the ottoman beyond her +reach, and dexterously catching her hand, took the gold thimble +from her finger and dropped it into his vest pocket. + +"Perish the fetich of needle-work, crochet and knitting! To-day at +least it shall not come between us;--and I claim your eyes, your +undivided attention. Now tell me how many of my rivals, how many +audacious suitors you have held at bay, by these gay Penelope webs +woven in my absence?" + +"Has Ulysses the right to be curious? Should not memories of Calypso +incline him to unlock the fetters of Penelope?" + +"Did she ever for one instant deem the silken cords she hugged to +her loyal, tender heart--fetters? Sweet, patient incarnation of +unquestioning fidelity, she stands the eternal antithesis of Mrs. +Caudle. From Kittie's letter, I inferred you were not well; but +certainly, my dear Leo, I never saw you look more lovely than to- +day." + +"Just now Kittie's perceptions are awry, dazzled by the rose light +that wrap? her world. Has Prince arrived?" + +"Yes, he came yesterday, and my little sister is entirely and +overwhelmingly happy, for he is literally her Prince. Physically he +is much improved; has developed surprisingly, but has the shy, +taciturn manner of a student, and is, I fear, a hopeless bookworm." + +"Why should his literary taste disquiet you? He went to Germany to +foster his scholarly inclination." + +"Why? Why should a man apprentice himself to a carpenter, and become +an expert joiner, when he can never obtain the tools requisite to +enable him to work successfully? His aspirations run along the +grooves of science; and after dear little Kittie, his favorite +Goddess is Biology. Trained in the laboratory of a German scientist, +where every imaginable facility for researches in vivisection, and +for the investigation of certain biological problems was afforded +him, he lands in America empty-handed, and behold my carpenter minus +tools." + +"Having fitted himself for the profession, you surely will not +attempt now to discourage or dissuade him." + +"The logic of impecuniosity will doubtless accomplish more than the +dissuasion of friends. Microscopic inspection of red and white +corpuscles, of virus, tissues, protoplasm and chlorophyl is probably +very interesting to lovers of microbes, and students of +segmentation, but such abstract pursuits appertain to purple and +fine linen. A profession means much; but ability to practise, +infinitely more. Just now the paramount problem is, how Prince can +best make his bread. Six months ago, he was prospectively so rich +that he could indulge the whim of blowing scientific soap-bubbles +labelled with abstruse symbols; at present, necessity directs his +attention to paying his board bills." + +"I thought a liberal allowance had been settled upon him, and ample +provision made for his future?" + +"So there certainly was, on paper; but the destruction of the record +invalidated the gift." "All the world knows that he has the rights +of an adopted son." + +"All the world knows equally well, that failing to produce the will, +Prince has lost his legacy, and must enlist in the army of 'bread- +winners'." + +"Then what becomes of 'Elm Bluff' and its fine estate?" + +"They descend in the line decreed alike by law and nature, to the +nearest blood relation." + +Leo felt the blood reddening her throat and cheeks, but under the +quick glance of her hazel eyes, his handsome face always en garde +showed no embarrassing consciousness. Fearful of silence, she said +in a perplexed, inconsequent tone: + +"How manifestly unjust. Poor Kittie!" + +"Why poor Kittie? Her beaming face is eloquent repudiation of your +pity, and she verily believes her blond-headed, scholarly Prince a +bountiful equivalent for all Croesus' belongings. Rich little +Kittie! After all, where genuine love reigns, worldly environment +matters comparatively little; love makes happiness, and happiness is +the reconciler." + +A throb of pain shook the woman's heart as she realized the bitter +truth that he spoke from an experience born out of season: that he +was athirst for that which her fortune, her love, her own fair, +graceful self could never give him. + +She looked at him, with an arch smile lighting her face, but he saw +the trembling of her lips, noted the metallic ring in her voice. + +"'Et in Arcadia Ego?' Recent associations have rendered you idyllic. +I can recall a period when 'love in a cottage' was the target that +challenged the keenest arrows of your satire. Rich little Kittie has +my warmest congratulations. Will Prince remain in X--?" + +"How can he? The demand here for amateur scientists is not +sufficiently encouraging; and I rather think he gravitates toward a +college professorship, which might at least supply him abundantly +with rabbits, turtles, frogs and guinea-pigs for biological +manipulation and experiment. One of the gay balloons floating +through his mind, is a series of lectures to be delivered in the +large cities. Heredity is his pet hobby, and he proposes to canter +it under the saddle of Weismann's theory (whatever that may be), +expounding it to scientific Americans. As yet no plans have +crystallized. His allowance was paid semi-annually, but of course it +failed him last January, and no alternative presents itself but some +attempt to utilize his technical lore. There is a vacancy in the +faculty of C---University, and I shall write at once to the board of +trustees." + +Like a moth, Leo flitted closer to the flame. + +"Will he make no attempt to secure his rights?" + +"He is too wise to waste his time in so fruitless an endeavor." + +"Have you advised him to submit tamely to the deprivation of his +fortune?" + +"He has not consulted me, but Wolverton, who is his cousin, +convinced him of the futility of any legal proceedings." + +"Does General Darrington's granddaughter understand that Prince's +career will be ruined for want of the money to which he is +entitled?" + +"I am not acquainted with the views Gen'l Darrington's granddaughter +entertains concerning Prince, as I have not seen her since the trial +ended. Have you?" + +Each looked steadily at the other, and under the gleam of his eyes, +hers fell, and her color flickered. + +"I went once, but was denied admission. Even Sister Serena sees her +no longer. You doubtless know that she is recovering slowly from a +severe attack of illness." + +"I have heard nothing since the night she was convicted and +sentenced. To-day I found a message at my office from Singleton, +asking me to call at my earliest convenience at the penitentiary, on +a matter of legal business. To what it refers, I know not, as I +came immediately here." + +There was a brief silence, in which his gaze mercilessly searched +her fair, proud face; then with a supreme effort she laid her hand +suddenly on his, and looked up smiling: + +"I believe I was growing very impatient over your prolonged absence +in New Orleans. Time dragged dismally, and I was never more +rejoiced than when I received your last letter, and knew that I +should see you to-day. Lennox, I have set my heart on something, +which only your consent and acquiescence will secure to me. I am +about to ask for a mammoth sugar-plum that has dangled temptingly +before my eyes for nearly a year, and I shall enjoy it the more if +you bestow it graciously. Can you be generous and indulge my selfish +whim?" + +He felt a quiver in the cold fingers over which his warm hand +closed, saw the throbbing of the artery in her white throat, the +ebbing of the scarlet in lips that bravely held their coaxing, +smiling curves, and he knew that the crisis he had long foreseen was +drawing near. + +Leaning closer, he looked down into her brown eyes. The end must +come; but he would not precipitate it. Like Francis at Pavia, he +acknowledged to himself that all was lost, save honor. + +"Whenever my Leo convinces me she can be selfish, I promise all that +she can possibly ask; but the selfishness must first be +incontrovertibly established." + +He had never been dearer to her than at that moment, when his +brilliant eyes seemed to search her soul and magnetize her; yet she +did not falter and the aching of her heart was a goad to her will. + +"You merely shower lesser sugar-plums, intending they shall surfeit. +Lennox, you know how often I have longed to make the journey to +Greece, Asia Minor and Egypt; you remember I have repeatedly +expressed the wish? You--" + +"Pardon me, sweetheart, but this is the first time I ever heard it." +"You forget. At last the consummation unfolds itself as smoothly as +the fourth act of a melodrama. My friend and schoolmate, Alma +Cutting, of New York, invites a small party of ladies and gentlemen +to accompany her in a cruise through the Levant, on her father's new +and elegant steam yacht 'Cleopatra'. I have pressing letters from +Alma and Mr. Cutting, kindly urging me to join them in New York by +the first of May, at which time they expect to start on a +preliminary cruise through the North and Baltic seas; drifting +southward so as to reach Sicily and Malta as soon as cool weather +permits. Do you wonder that so charming and picturesque a tour +tempts me sorely?" + +Unconsciously she had hurried her enunciation, but imperturbable as +the bronze he resembled, Mr. Dunbar listened; merely passing his +left arm around her, drawing her resisting form closer to him, +holding her firmly. + +"I am waiting for the selfish aspect of this scheme, else I should +answer at once, the coveted sugar-plum is yours, and we will make +the tour whenever you like, with the minor difference of mere +details; we will go in our own yacht." + +She caught her breath, and for an instant the world swam in a burst +of dazzling light. Beyond the reach of the usurper's witchery, was +it not possible that she might regain the alienated heart? Love +chanted, it is worth the trial; take him away, win him back. Pride +sternly set foot upon this spark of hope, with cruel insistence +answering: his love has never been yours; defrauded of the diamond, +will you accept and patiently wear paste? The quick revulsion was +tantalizing as would have been the vanishing of the ram from +Abraham's gladdened sight; the swift withdrawal of Diana's stag +into the miraculous cloud at Aulis. + +"That would be too severe a tax upon your good nature and +indulgence, and involves a sacrifice of your professional plans, +which I certainly am not so intensely and monstrously selfish as to +permit you to make. I am so well aware of the reasons that +necessitate your remaining in America, in order to secure the +appointment you are laboring to obtain, that I refuse the sugar plum +if bought with your disappointment." + +"Selfishness not established; you must plead on some better ground. +Suppose that the happiness of the woman who has done me the honor to +promise me her hand, is just now my supreme aim, paramount to every +other ambitious scheme; and that to insure it, I hazard all else? +Remember the privilege of choice is mine." + +It was the instinct not of affection, but of honor straining hard to +hold him to his allegiance, and her proud spirit thrilled under the +consciousness of his motive in striving to spare her. A crimson spot +burned on each cheek, a spark kindled in the soft, tender eyes. She +struggled to free herself, but his clasp tightened. + +"Conceding the generosity that would impel you to immolate your +feelings, in order to gratify my willies, I decline the sacrifice. +You must indulge my desire to receive my sugar plum in the +bonbonniere of the 'Cleopatra'." + +He pressed her sunny head against his shoulder, and rested his cheek +on hers. + +"Is it my Leo's wish to leave me, to go alone?" + +"Yes, to accompany Alma." + +"For an absence of indefinite duration?" + +"Certainly for a year; possibly longer; but you must be gracious in +yielding. If you really desire to promote my happiness, let me go +feeling that you consent freely." + +He comprehended fully all that he was surrendering, the noble, pure, +devoted heart; the refining, elevating companionship, the control of +a liberal fortune, the proud distinction of calling her his wife; +and yet above the refrain of many mingled regrets, he felt an +infinite relief that he had been spared the responsibility of the +estrangement. + +"Whatever your happiness demands, I cannot refuse to concede, but +you can scarcely require me to receive 'graciously' the only +construction I can possibly place upon your request; that I am no +longer an essential element in your happiness." + +Knowing that he owed her every possible reparation, he was resolved +to shield her womanly pride from any additional wounds. He withdrew +his encircling arm, released her hand, walked to the end of the +aviary, and stood watching the shimmer of the fountain, where two of +the ring-doves held their wings aslant to catch the spray. After +some moments she joined him, and laid her slender fingers on his +arm. + +"Dear Lennox, I propose at least a temporary change in our +relations, and even at the risk of incurring your displeasure, I +prefer to be perfectly frank. When you asked me to become your wife, +neither of us contemplated the long separation involved in this +cruise abroad, which I ardently desire for many reasons to make; and +I am unwilling to fetter either you or myself by an engagement +during my absence. I want to be entirely free, bound by no promise; +and could I ask release, unless you accepted yours?" + +He put his palm under her chin, and lifted the sweet, pure face, +forcing her to return his gaze. + +"Have I forfeited your confidence?" + +"No. Lennox. I have an indestructible faith in your honor." + +Her clear, truthful eyes assured him she acquitted him of all +intention to violate in any jot or tittle the forms of his +allegiance. + +"You deem me incapable of intentionally betraying your noble trust?" + +"I do--indeed I do." + +"My peerless Leo, have you ceased to love me?" + +She shut her eyes an instant, and the delicate, flower face +blanched; the treacherous lips quivered: + +"No." + +"Who has supplanted me in your heart, for once I know it was all my +own?" + +"Lennox, you are still more to me than all the world beside; but I +ask time, I must be free at present. Let me go away untrammelled; +consider yourself as unfettered, as before our engagement, and when +the year expires, if you deem me absolutely necessary to your +happiness, you can readily ask a renewal of your bonds, and I can be +sure by that time whether my happiness depends upon becoming your +wife. After to-day I shall not wear your ring; and if, while away, I +send it back to you, interpret it as a final decision that in the +future we can only be very faithful and attached friends. I have +sadly mistaken your character if you refuse me release from a +compact which I now certainly desire to cancel." + +A shadow fell over his face, and he sighed heavily; but whether the +utterance of regret or relief she never knew. + +"Your heart shall no longer be burdened by bonds which I can loosen. +Because your peace and happiness are more to me than my own, I grant +you complete release. When my ring affronts you with disagreeable +memories of a past, which will always be hallowed and precious to +me, as the one beautiful dream that brightened my youth, that +crowned me for a season at least with the trust and love of the +noblest woman I have ever known, do not return it; let it slip from +the hand it made my own, and find in the blue sea a grave as deep as +the chasm--that you will--shall divide our lives. I honor you too +profoundly to question your course; yet there is an explanation +which I owe to myself as well as to you. Leo, no man can ever be +worthy to call you wife, but perhaps I am less unworthy than you +probably deem me? While in New Orleans, I wrote a long letter, which +I afterward decided not to send by mail. I brought it to-day, +intending to put it into your hand." + +He took from the inside pocket of his coat, an envelope addressed to +her, broke the seal and pointed at the head of the sheet to the +date, some three weeks earlier. She surmised by that wonderful +instinct which God grants women as armor against the slow, ponderous +aggressiveness of man's tyranny, the nature of its contents. Had she +merely anticipated by an hour his petition for release? Even the +bitterness of this conjecture was neutralized by the testimony it +bore to his integrity of purpose, his unwillingness to conceal his +disloyalty. When temples are shattered and altars crumble, we save +our idol and flee into the wilderness, exulting in the assurance +that no clay feet defile it. + +Leo shook her head and gently put aside the proffered letter. + +"You wrote it for the eyes of one who had pledged herself to bear +your name; the revocation of that promise annuls my right to read +it." + +Mr. Dunbar understood the apprehension that made her shiver +slightly. She was marching away proudly with flying colors, having +dictated the terms of his capitulation. Should he suffer the +imputation of treachery and intentional deception, rather than turn +the tide of battle, trail her banner in the dust, and add to her +pain by mortally stabbing that intense womanly pride which now +swallowed up every emotion of her soul? + +The more thoroughly chivalrous a man's nature, the keener his +craving for the honors of war. + +"Because henceforth our paths diverge, I prefer to offer you my +exculpation, desiring amid the general wreck, to retain at least +your undiminished esteem. Will you read my confession?" + +"No; that would entail the necessity of absolution, and I might not +be able to command the requisite amiability, should occasion demand +it. We have shaken hands with the past, and you owe me nothing now +but pardon for any pain I may have given you, and occasional kind +thoughts when the ocean divides us. I promise you my unwavering +esteem; in exchange grant me your cordial friendship." + +She was growing strangely white, and her breath fluttered, but eyes +and lips came to the rescue with a steadfast smile. + +"You allow me no alternative but submission to your will; yet +remember, dear Leo, that in surrendering your pledged faith, I hold +myself as free from any intentional forfeiture, as on the day you +gave me your promise." + +"In token that I believe it, I salute and wear your roses." + +She bent her head, touched with her lips the flowers at her throat, +and smiling bravely, held out both hands. He took them, joined the +palms, and kissed her softly, reverently on the forehead. + +"God bless you, dear Leo. To have known so intimately a nature as +noble and exalted as yours, has left an indelible impression for +good upon my life, which must henceforth be very kinely. Good-bye." + +With beat of drum, and blare of bugles, pride claimed the victory; +but as Leo watched the tall, fine form pass out from the beautiful +home she had fondly hoped to share with him, she clasped her hands +across her lips to stifle the cry that told how dearly she had +bought the semblance of triumph. + +When the quick echo of his horse's hoofs died away, she went swiftly +to her writing desk. + +"Dear Uncle: Please send the enclosed telegram to Mr. Cutting. I had +a sad but decisive interview with Mr. Dunbar, and after obtaining +his consent to my tour, we thought it best to annul our engagement. +Tell Aunt Patty, and spare me all questions. I have not been hasty, +and I asked to be released, because I have deemed it best to leave +him entirely free." + +Sealing the note she rang for Justine. + +"Take this to my uncle's study, and tell Andrew to bring my phaeton +to the door at four o'clock. Until then, see that no one disturbs +me." + +With averted face she held out the envelope, then the curtain fell; +and in solitude the aching heart went over the fatal field, +silently burying its slain hopes, realizing the bitterness of its +Cadmean victory. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + +Certainly, Prince, I understand your motives and applaud your +decision, which is creditable alike to your heart and head. At +father's death he confided Kittie to my guardianship, and I cannot +consent to her scheme of going abroad with you, until your studies +have been completed. She has a few thousands, it is true, but her +slim fortune would not suffice to accomplish your scientific object, +and even if it were larger, you are quite right to decline with +thanks'. Kittie must be patient, and you must be firm, for you are +both quite young enough to afford to wait a few years. Loving little +heart! She longed to aid you, and this was the only method that +presented itself. If we can secure the commission I mentioned last +week, your marriage need only be deferred until Kittie is twenty- +one. After all, Prince, when you bartered your name and became a +Darrington, for sake of this fair heritage, you only accomplished +early in life that into which sooner or later all men are betrayed, +the sale of a birthright for a mess of pottage; the clutching at the +shadowy present, thereby losing the substantial future." + +"On that score I indulge no regrets. General Darrington was the only +father I ever knew, and since it was his wish, I shall gladly wear +the name with which he endowed me, in grateful recognition of the +affection, confidence and generous kindness he lavished upon me. +That the rich legacy he designed for me has been diverted into the +channel of all others most repugnant to him, is my misfortune, not +his fault; for ho took every possible precaution to secure my +inheritance. Had I been indeed his own son, he could not have done +more, and I have a son's right to mourn sincerely over his cruel and +untimely end." + +The two men sat on the front steps at "Elm Bluff", and as Prince's +eyes wandered over the exceeding beauty of the "great greenery" of +velvet lawn, the stately, venerable growth of forest trees, wearing +the adolescent mask of tender young foliage, the outlying fields +flanking the park, the sunny acres now awave with crinkling mantles +of grain, he sighed very heavily at the realization of all that +adverse fortune had snatched away. + +Blond as Baldur of the Voluspa, with a wealth of golden brown beard +veiling his lips and chin, he appeared far more than six years the +junior of the clear cut, smoothly shaven face that belonged to his +prospective brother-in-law; and their countenances contrasted as +vividly as the portraiture of bland phlegmatic Norse Aesir, with +some bronze image of Mercury, as keenly alert as his sacred symbolic +cocks. + +Strolling leisurely through the flowery decoying fields, that beckon +all around the outskirts of the vast, lonely wilderness of positive +Science, the dewy freshness of the youthful amateur still clung to +Prince's garments; even as souvenirs gathered by flitting Summer +tourists prattle of glimpses of wild, towering fastnesses, where +strewn bones of martyr pioneers whiten as monuments of failure. In +the guise of a green-kirtled enchantress, with wild poppies and +primroses wreathed above her starry eyes, Science was luring him +through the borderland of her kingdom, toward that dark, chill, +central realm where, transformed as a gnome, she clutches her +votaries, plunges into the primeval abyss-the matrix of time--and +sets them the Egyptian task of weighing, analyzing the Titanic +"potential" energy, the infinitesimal atomic engines, the "kinetic" +force, the chemical motors, the subtle intangible magnetic currents, +whereby in the thundering, hissing, whirling laboratory of Nature, +nebulae grow into astral and solar systems; the prophetic floral +forms of crystals become, after disintegration, instinct with +organic vegetable germs,--and the Sphinx Life--blur-eyed--deaf, +blind, sets forth on her slow evolutionary journey through the +wastes of aeons; mounting finally into that throne of rest fore- +ordained through groping ages, crowned with the soul of Shakspeare, +sceptred with the brain of Newton. + +Like a child with some Chinese puzzle far beyond the grasp of his +smooth, uncreased baby brain, Prince played in unfeigned delight +with his problem: "Given the Universe, to explain the origin and +permanence of Law," without any assistance from the exploded +hypothesis of a law maker. Equipped with hammer, chisel, microscope, +spectroscope and crucibles, he essayed the solution, undismayed by +memories of his classics, of Sisyphus and Tantalus; seeing only the +nodding poppies, the gilded primroses of his dancing goddess. + +Will he discover ere long, that a lesser riddle would have been to +stand in the manufactory of the Faubourg St. Marcel, and abolishing +the pattern of the designers, the directing touch of Lebrun, the +restraint of the heddle, demand that the blind, insensate automatic +warp and woof should originate, design and trace as well as +mechanically execute the weaving of the marvellous tapestries? + +"Prince. I learn from Kittie that you visited the penitentiary last +week." + +"Yes. I could not resist the curiosity to see the author of my +recent misfortunes; but I regret the sight. I am haunted by the +painful recurrence of that blanched, hopeless, beautiful face, which +reminds me of a pathetic picture I saw abroad--Charlotte Corday +peering through the bars of her dungeon window." + +"With a difference surely! Marat's murderess gloried in her crime; +an innocent prisoner languishes yonder, in that stone cage beyond +the river." + +Mr. Dunbar pointed over the billowing sea of green tree tops, toward +an irregular dark shadow that blurred the northern sky line; and +his eagle eyes darkened as they discerned the prison outlines. + +"Did you ever see a sketch of Rossetti's 'Pandora'?" asked Prince. + +"No." + +"The face is somewhat like that young prisoner's; the same mystical, +prescient melancholy in the wide eyes, as if she realized she was +predestine to work woe. I am heartily glad I was spared the pain of +the prosecution, for had I been here, compassion would almost have +paralyzed the effort to secure justice; and now, while my loss is +irreparable, the law insures punishment for father's wrongs. As I +walk about this dear old place, which he intended I should possess, +and recall all that we had planned, it seems hard indeed that I find +myself so unable to execute his wishes. After a few days, when I +shall leave it, I suppose that for the next five years the house +will become an owl roost and den of bats and spiders. On Thursday I +go temporarily to Charleston to visit my uncle, Doctor Thornton, who +offers me a place in his office, and a home at his hearthstone." + +"Why specifically for five years?" + +"That is the term of her imprisonment. At the expiration of her +sentence, I presume Gen. Darringtor's grand-daughter will hasten to +take possession of her dearly-bought domain." + +A derisive smile unbent the tight lines of the lawyer's mouth. + +"Come here to live? She would sooner spring into the jaws of hell!" + +Prince Darrington's large light eyes opened wide, in a questioning +stare. + +"If she is innocent, as you believe, why should she shrink from +occupying the family homestead? If she be guilty, which I (having +seen her) cannot credit, there is no probability that remorseful +scruples would influence her. No conceivable contingency can ever +again make it my home, and on Thursday I go away forever." + +"That which a man claims and expects, generally deserts and betrays +him; it is the unforeseen, the unexpected that comes in the form of +benediction. Time is the master magician, and 'Tout went a qui sait +attendre'. Kittie may yet trail her velvet robe as chatelaine +through these noble old halls and galleries. Come to my office at +ten o'clock tomorrow; I may have an answer to my letter to Doctor +Balfour." + +Six months before, Mr. Dunbar had walked down these steps, mounted +his horse and hurried away to keep tryst with the fair, noble woman, +whose promised hand was the guerdon of ambitious schemes, and years +of patient, persistent wooing. To-day he rode slowly to a parting +interview, which would sever the last link that Bad so long held +their lives in tender association. Whatever of regret mingled with +the contemplation of his ruined matrimonial castle, lay hidden so +deep in the debris, that no faintest reflection was visible in his +inscrutable face. + +When he reached the railway station where a special car containing a +small party, awaited the arrival of the north bound train that would +attach it to its sinuous length, a number of friends had assembled +to say good-bye to the departing favorite. The announcement of Miss +Gordon's extended yachting trip, had excited much comment in social +circles, and while people wondered at the prolongation of the +engagement, none but her immediate family suspected that the +betrothal had been cancelled. + +Leo's wonted gracious composure betrayed no hint of the truth, and +she greeted Mr. Dunbar with outstretched hand and a friendly smile. + +"I am indebted to your kind courtesy, Lennox, for the most +auspicious omen at the outset of my long journey; and I shall not +attempt to tell you how cordially I appreciate your tasteful +souvenir. Your roses are exquisite, and fragrant as the message they +bring me." + +She glanced up at a large horseshoe made of her favorite pink roses, +which had been hung by a silver wire directly over the seat she +occupied. + +"Will you give me your interpretation of their message?" + +He swept aside a shawl and reticule, and sat down beside her. + +"It is written legibly all over their lovely petals. You wish me a +rose-strewn itinerary, all conceivable forms of 'good luck'; as +though you stood on tip-toe and shouted after me: 'Gluck auf.' As a +happy augury, I accept it. Like the old Romans, you have offered up +for me a dainty sacrifice to propitiate Domiduca--the goddess who +grants travellers a safe return home." + +"Meanwhile I hope you see quite as clearly, that the thorns have all +been stripped off and set thickly along my path?" + +Her smiling eyes met his steadily, and the brave heart showed no +quailing. + +"If I imagine that complimentary inference is written between the +lines, is it not pardonable to welcome the assurance that you will +sometimes be sharply pricked into remembrance of your absent +friend?" + +At this moment, with clanging bells and thundering wheels the train +swept in, and Leo rose to exchange last greetings with numerous +friends Judge Dent and Miss Patty accompanied her as far as New +York, and when the car had been coupled at the end of the long line, +and all was in readiness, Mr. Dunbar took his companion's hand. + +"When we parted last, I was angry and hasty. Now I desire to make +one farewell request. You ask a release from our engagement. I grant +it. I hold you perfectly free; but I will consider myself bound, +pledged to you until the expiration of one year. Nothing you can say +shall alter my determination; but twelve months hence, if you can +trust your happiness to my hands, send me this message: 'I wear your +ring.' Once more I offer you my letter of confession. Will you +receive it now; will you look into the heart which I have bared for +your scrutiny?" + +"No. I voluntarily forfeited that right, when I asked my freedom. If +your letter contains aught that would change my high regard, my +confidence, my affectionate interest in your happiness, I am doubly +anxious to avoid acquaintance with its contents. You have long held +the first place in my esteem, why seek to impair my valuation of +your character? Let us be friends, now and forever." + +"Remember you broke your fetters; I hug mine--a year longer. Forget +me if you will; but Leo, when your heart refuses to be strangled, +suffer its cry to reach me. Whatever the future may decree, you +shall always be my noble ideal of exalted womanhood, my own proud, +sensitive, unselfish Leo; and from the depth of my heart I wish you +a pleasant tour, and a safe and speedy return." + +A premonitory thrill shook the ear, and dropping the fingers that +lay cold as marble in his, Mr. Dunbar swung himself to the station +platform. The train moved off, but he knew that it would return in +switching, and so he stood hat in hand. + +As it slowly glided back, he stepped close to the open window, and +Leo's last look at the man she had loved so long and well, showed +him with the sun shining on his superb form, and coldly locked face. +He saw her hazel eyes dim in their mist of unshed tears, and the +sweet, blanched lips trembling from the spasm that held her heart. +She leaned down, laid her hand on his shoulder. + +"Dear Lennox, open your hand carefully; there--hold it close. Good- +bye." + +Into his palm she dropped something; their faces almost touched, +eyes met, heart looked into heart; then Leo smiled and drew back, +lowering her veil, and as the cars shivered, lurched, moved on, Mr. +Dunbar put on his hat and unclosed his fingers. + +The white fire leaping in the diamonds destroyed the last vestige of +a betrothal, that he had once regarded as the summum bonum of his +successful career; consumed in its incipiency the farewell compact, +which his regard for Leo's womanly pride, and an honorable desire to +cling as closely as possible to at least the loyal forms of +allegiance, had prompted him to impose upon himself. + +Apparently unwounded, she would sail away victrix, with gay pennons +flying through distant summer seas, while he remained, stranded on +the reefs of adverse fate, a target for cynical society batteries, a +victim of the condolence of sympathizing friends. + +In reality he felt the benignant touch of fortune still upon his +head, and thanked her heartily that Leo had taken the initiative; +that no overt act of disloyalty blurred his escutcheon, and above +all, that he had been spared the humiliation of acknowledging his +inability to resist the strange fascination that dragged him from +his allegiance, as Auroras swing the needle from the pole. He did +not attempt to underrate the vastness of his loss, nor to condone +the folly which he designated as "infernal idiocy"; yet conscience +acquitted him of intentionally betraying the trust a noble woman had +reposed; and his vanity was appeased by the conviction that though +Leo had cast him out of her life, she went abroad because she loved +him supremely. Putting the ring in his pocket, he turned away as +from a grave that had closed forever over that which once held ail +the promise of life. + +Three hours later, that carefully written letter acknowledging to +his fiancee that his heart had rebelliously swung from its moorings, +under the magnetic strain of another woman, and asking her tender +forbearance to aid him in conquering a weakness for which he +blushed, had been reduced to a drab shadow on his office hearth; and +the lawyer was engrossed by the preparation of a testamentary +document, which embraced several pages of legal cap. Again and again +he read it over, pausing now and then as if striving to recall some +invisible scroll, and at last as if satisfied with the result, +placed it in an envelope, thrust it into his pocket, and once more +mounted his horse. The ceaseless and intense yearning to see again +the young stranger, who seemed destined to play the role of Ate in +so many lives, would no longer be denied; and at a swift gallop he +took the road leading to the penitentiary. + +Four or five carriages were drawn up in front of the iron gate, and +when, in answer to the bell, Jarvis, the underwarden, came forward +to admit Mr. Dunbar, he informed him that the State Inspectors were +making a tour of investigation through the building. + +"I want to see Singleton." + +"Just now he is engaged showing the inspectors around, and they +generally turn everything upside down, and inside out. If you will +step into the office and wait awhile, he will be at leisure." + +"Where is Mrs. Singleton?" + +"She has just gone into the women's workroom. One of the sewing gang +is epileptic, and fell in a fit a few minutes ago, so I sent for +her. Come this way and I will find her." + +The visitor hesitated, drew back. + +"Is Miss Brentano there also?" + +"No. She is still on the infirmary list." + +Jarvis opened the door of a long, well-lighted but narrow room, in +the centre of which was a table extending to the lower end; and on +each side of it sat women busily engaged in stitching and binding +shoes, and finishing off various articles of clothing; while two +were ticketing a pile of red flannel and blue hickory shirts. Four +sewing-machines stood near the wall where grated windows admitted +sunshine, and their hymn to Labor was the only sound that broke the +brooding silence. The room was scrupulously clean and tidy, and the +inmates, wearing the regulation uniform of blue-striped homespun, +appeared comparatively neat; but sordid, sullen, repulsively coarse +and brutish were many of the countenances bent over the daily task, +and now and then swift, furtive glances from downcast eyes betrayed +close kinship with lower animals. + +At one of the machines sat a woman whose age could not have exceeded +twenty-eight years, with a figure of the Juno type, and a beautiful +dark face where tawny chatoyant eyes showed the baleful fire of a +leopardess. Winding a bobbin, she leaned back in her chair, with the +indolent, haughty grace of a sultana, and when she held the bobbin +up against the light for an instant, her slender olive hand and +rounded wrist might have belonged to Cleopatra. + +"Who is that woman winding thread?" + +"Her name is Iva Le Bougeois, but we call her the 'Bloody Duchess'. +She was sent up here two years ago, from one of the lower counties, +for wholesale butchery. Seems her husband got a divorce, and was on +the eve of marrying again. She posted herself about the second +wedding, and managed to make her way into the parlor, where she hid +behind the window curtains. Just as the couple stood up to be +married, she cut her little boy's throat with a razor, dragged the +body in front of the bride, and before any one could move, drew a +revolver, blew the top of her husband's head off, and then shot +herself. The ball passed through her shoulder and broke her arm, but +as you see, she was spared, as many another wildcat has been. Her +friends and counsel tried to prove insanity, but the plea was too +thin; so she landed here for a term of twenty years, and it will +take every day of it to cut her claws. She is as hard as flint, and +her heart is as black as a wolf's mouth." + +"Medea's wrongs generally end in Medea's crimes," answered the +visitor; watching the defiant poise of the small shapely head, +covered with crisp, raven locks. Having less acquaintance with the +classics than with the details of prison discipline, the under- +warden stared. + +After a moment he pointed to a diminutive figure standing at the end +of the long table, and engaged in folding some white garments. + +"See that pretty little thing, with the yellow head? Shouldn't you +say she looks like an angel, and ought to be put on the altar to +hear the prayers of sinners? Would you believe she is a mother? +Arson is her hobby. She is a regular 'fire-bug'. She was adopted by +a German couple, and one night, when the old farmer had come home +with the money paid him for his sheep and hogs, she stole the last +cent he had, pocketed all the oold frau's silver spoons, poured +kerosene around the floor, set fire to the house in several places, +locked the door and ran for her life. A peddler happened to seek +quarters for the night, and finding the place on fire, managed to +break through the windows and save the old folks from being roasted +alive. When the case came to trial it was proved that she had set +fire to two other buildings, but on account of her youth had escaped +prosecution. They could not hang her, though she deserved the +gallows, and her child was born three months after she came here. +Looks innocent as a wax doll doesn't she? Eve Werneth she calls +herself; and she is well named after the original mother of all sin. +She is Satan's own imp, and we chain her every night, for she boasts +that when things grow tiresome to her she always burns her way out. +I think she is the worst case we have, except the young mulatto--I +don't see her here just now--who was sent up for life, for poisoning +a baby she was hired to nurse. There is Mrs. Singleton." + +The warden's wife came forward with a vial in one hand, and at sight +of the visitor, paused and held out the other. + +"How'dy do, Mr. Dunbar. You are waiting to see Ned?" + +"I much prefer seeing you, if you have leisure for an interview. +Singleton can join us when the inspectors take their leave." + +"Very well; come up stairs. Jarvis, send Ned up as soon as you can." + +She led the way to the room where her two children were at play, and +breaking a ginger cake between them, dragged their toys into one +corner, and bade them build block houses, without a riot. + +"I have never received even a verbal reply to the note which I +requested your husband to place in Miss Brentano's hands." + +"Probably you never will. She took cold by being dragged back and +forth to court during that freezing weather, and two days after her +conviction she was taken ill with pneumonia. First one lung, then +the other, and the case took a typhoid form. For six weeks she could +not lift her head, and now though she goes about my rooms, and into +the yard a little, she is awfully shattered, and has a bad cough, +Once when we had scarcely any hope, she asked the doctor to give her +no more medicine; said that it would be a mercy to let her die. Poor +thing! her proud spirit is as broken as her body, and the thought of +being seen seems to torture her. Dyce is the only person whom she +allows to come near her." + +"Where is she?" + +"We were obliged to move her, after she was sentenced, but the +doctor said one of those cells down stairs would be certain and +quick death for her, with her lungs in such a condition; so we put +her in the smallest room on this floor; the last one at the end of +the corridor. It is only a closet it is true, but it is right in the +angle, and has two narrow slits of windows, one opening south, the +other west, and the sunshine gets in. The day after her trial ended, +she sent for the sheriff, who happened to be here, and asked him if +solitary confinement was not considered a more severe penalty than +any other form here? When he told her it was, she said: Then it +could not be construed into clemency or favoritism if you ordered me +into solitary confinement? Certainly not, he told her. Whereupon she +begged him to allow her to be shut up away from the others, as she +would sooner sit in the dark and see no human being, than be forced +to associate with the horrible, guilty outcasts down stairs. While +he and Ned were consulting about her case, she was taken very ill. +Of course you know Ned has a good deal of latitude and discretion +allowed him, and the doctor is on our side, but even at best, the +rules are stern. She takes her meals alone, and the only place where +she meets the other convicts--isn't it a shame to call her one!--is +the chapel; and even there she is separated, because Ned has given +her charge of the organ. Everybody under sentence is obliged to +work, but she does not go down into the general sewing room. The +superintendent of that department apportions a certain amount of +sewing, and her share is sent up daily to her. She really is not +able to work, but begged that we should give her some employment." + +"She consented to see Mr. Prince Darrington?" + +"Oh, no! It was the merest accident that he succeeded in speaking to +her. He happened to come the day that I took her out for the first +time in the garden, for a little fresh air in the sunshine; and we +met him and Ned on the walk. O, Mr. Dunbar! It was pitiful to see +her face, when the young man took off his hat, and said: + +"'I am General Darrington's adopted son.' + +"She was so weak she had been leaning on me, but she threw up her +head, and her figure stiffened into steel. 'You imagine that I am +the person who robbed you of Gen'l Darrington's fortune? I suffer +for crimes I did not commit; and am the innocent victim selected to +atone for your injuries. My wrongs are more cruel than yours. You +merely lost lands and money. Can you, by the wildest flight of fancy +conjecture that aught but disgrace and utter ruin remain for me?' +Ned and I walked away; and when we came back she had stepped into +the hall, and drawn the inside door between them. He was standing +bareheaded, gazing up at her, and she was looking down at him +through the open iron lattice, as if he were the real culprit. That +night she had a nervous chill that lasted several hours, and we +promised that no one should be allowed to see her. Of course the +inspectors go everywhere, and when Ned opened her door, I was with +her, giving her the tonic the Doctor ordered three times a day. I +had prepared her for their visit, but when the gentlemen crowded in, +she put her hands over her face and hid it on the table. There was +not a syllable uttered, and they walked out quickly." + +"Will you do me the kindness to persuade her to see me?" + +"I am sure, sir, she will refuse; because she desires most +especially to be shielded from your visits." + +"Nevertheless, I intend to see her. Please say that I am here, and +have brought the papers Mr. Singleton desired me to prepare for +her." + +Ten minutes elapsed before the warden's wife returned, shaking her +head: + +"She prefers not seeing you, but thanks you for the paper which she +wishes left with Mr. Singleton. When she has read it, Mr. Singleton +will probably bring you some message. She hopes you will believe +that she is very grateful for your attention to her request." + +"Go back and tell her that unless she admits me, she shall never see +the paper, for I distinctly decline to put it in any hand but hers; +and, moreover, tell her she asked me to obtain for her a certain +article which, for reasons best known to herself, she holds very +dear. This is her only opportunity to receive it, which must be +directly from me. Say that this is the last time I will insist upon +intruding, and after to-day she shall not he allowed the privilege +of refusing me an audience. I am here solely in her behalf, and I am +determined to see her now." + +When Mrs. Singleton came back the second time, she appeared +unwontedly subdued, perplexed; and her usually merry eyes were +gravely fixed with curious intentness upon the face of her visitor. + +"The room straight ahead of you, with the door partly open, at the +end of this corridor. She sees you 'only on condition that this is +to be the final annoyance'. Mr. Dunbar, you were born to tyrannize. +It seems to me you have merely to will a thing, in order to +accomplish it." + +"If that were true, do you suppose I would allow her to remain one +hour in this accursed cage of blood-smeared criminals?" + +Down the dim corridor he walked slowly, as if in no haste to finish +his errand, stepped into the designated cell, and closed the door +behind him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + +The apartment eight by twelve feet possessed the redeeming feature +of a high ceiling, and on either side of the southwest corner wall, +a window only two feet wide allowed the afternoon sunshine to print +upon the bare floor the shadow of longitudinal iron bars fastened +into the stone sills. A narrow bedstead, merely a low black cot of +interlacing iron straps, stood against the eastern side, and +opposite, a broad shelf, also of iron, ran along the walls and held +a tin ewer and basin, a few books, and a pile of clothing neatly +folded. + +Across the angle niche between the windows a wooden bench had been +drawn; in front of it stood a chair and oval table, on which lay +some sheets of paper, pen and ink, and a great bunch of yellow +jasmine, and wild pink azaleas that lavishly sprinkled the air with +their delicate spicery. Pencils, crayons, charcoal and several large +squares of cardboard and drawing-paper were heaped at one end of the +bench, and beside these sat the occupant of the cell, leaning with +folded arms on the table in front of her; and holding in her lap the +vicious, ocelot-eyed yellow cat. + +Against the shimmering glory of Spring sunshine streaming down upon +her, head and throat were outlined like those of haloed martyrs that +Mantegna and Sodoma left as imperishable types of patient suffering. + +When the visitor came forward to the table that barred nearer +approach, she made no attempt to rise, and for a moment both were +mute. He saw the noble head shorn of its splendid coronal of braids, +and covered thickly with short, waving, bronzed tendrils of silky +hair, that held in its glistening mesh the reddish lustre of old +gold, and the deep shadows of time-mellowed mahogany. That most +skilful of all sculptors, hopeless sorrow, had narrowed to a perfect +oval the wan face, waxen in its cold purity; and traced about the +exquisite mouth those sad, patient curves that attest suffering +which sublimates, that belong alone to the beauty of holiness. Eyes +unusually large and shadowy now, beneath their black fringes, were +indescribably eloquent with the pathos of a complete, uncomplaining +surrender to woes that earth could never cure; and the slender +wasted fingers, in their bloodless semi-transparency, might have +belonged to some chiselled image of death. Every jot and tittle of +the degrading external badges of felony had been meted out, and +instead of the mourning garment she had worn in court, her dress to- +day was of the coarse dark-blue home-spun checked with brown, which +constituted the prison uniform of female convicts. + +As Mr. Dunbar noted the solemn repose, the pathetic grace with which +she endured the symbols that emblazoned her ignominous doom, a dark +red glow suffused his face, a flush of shame for the indignity which +he had been impotent to avert. + +"Who dared to cut your hair--and thrust that garb upon you? They +promised me you should be exempt from brands of felony." + +"When one is beaten with many stripes, a blow more or less matters +little; is not computed. They kindly tell me that illness and the +doctor's commands cost me the loss of my hair; and after all, why +should I object to the convict coiffure? Nothing matters any more." + +"Why not admit at once that, Bernice-like, you freely offered up +your beautiful hair as love's sacrifice?" + +He spoke hotly, and an ungovernable rage possessed him as he +realized that though so near, and apparently so helpless, she was +yet so immeasurably removed, so utterly inaccessible. Her drooping +white lids lifted; she looked steadily up at him, and the mournful +eyes held no hint of denial. He stretched his hand across the table, +and all the gnawing hunger at his heart leaped into his voice, that +trembled with entreaty. + +"For God's sake give me your hand just once, as proof that you +forgive my share in this cruel, dastardly outrage." + +"Do not touch me. When we shake hands it must be as seal upon a very +sacred compact, which you are not yet ready to make." + +She straightened herself, and her hands were removed from the table; +fell to stroking the cat lying on her knee. + +"What conditions would you impose upon me?" + +"Sit down, Mr. Dunbar, and let us transact the necessary business +which alone made this interview possible." + +With an imperious gesture, befitting some sovereign who reluctantly +accords audience, she motioned him to the chair, and as he seated +himself his eyes gleamed ominously. + +"It pleases you to ignore our past relations?" + +"Even so. To-day we meet merely as attorney and client to arrange +the final QUID PRO QUO. You have brought the paper?" + +"I inferred from your message that you desired as exact a copy as +memory permitted. Here it is." + +He took from his pocket a long legal envelope. + +"I believe you stated that your father originally drew up this +paper, and that recently you altered and re-wrote it?" + +"Those are the facts relative to it." + +"Can you recall the date of the revision?" + +"Nearly a year ago. Last May it was signed in the presence of Doctor +Ledyard and Colonel Powell, who also signed as witnesses, though +ignorant of its contents." + +"You offer me this as a correct expression of Gen'l Darrington's +wishes regarding the distribution of his estate, real and personal?" + +"At your request I furnish from memory a copy of Gen'l Darrington's +will, which I have faithfully endeavored to recall, and I +conscientiously believe this to be strictly accurate. Shall I read +it?" + +A severe and prolonged fit of coughing delayed her reply; and when +she held out her hand for the paper, her breathing was painfully +rapid and labored. + +"I will not tax you. Let me glance over it." + +Spreading the long sheets open before her, she leaned over the table +and read. + +In the palm of her right hand rested her temple, and the left +smoothed and turned the leaves. Crossing his arms on the top of the +table, the attorney bent forward and surrendered himself to the +coveted delight of studying the face, that had made summary +shipwreck of his matrimonial fortune. No slightest detail escaped +him; the burnished locks curled loosely around the forehead smooth +as a sleeping baby's, the broad arch of the delicately-pencilled +black brows, the Madonna droop of the lids whose heavy sable fringes +deepened the bluish shadows beneath the eyes, the straight, flawless +nose, the perfect chin with its deeply-incised dimple, the +remarkably beautiful mouth, which despairing grief had kissed and +made its own. + +Pale as marble, the proud, patrician face was pure as some bending +lily frozen on its graceful, rounded stem: and the tapering fingers +with daintily curved, polished nails would have suited better the +lace and velvet of royal robes than the rough home-spun sleeves +folded back from the white wrists. + +Mr. Dunbar had met many lovely, gracious, high-bred women, yet +escaped heart whole; and even the nobility and sweetness of his +pretty fiancee, enhanced by the surrounding glamour of heiresship, +failed to touch the flood gates of tender love that a pauper's hand +had suddenly unloosed, to sweep as a destroying torrent through the +fair garden of his most cherished hopes. What was the spell exerted +by the young convict when she grappled his heart, and in the havoc +of her own life carried down all the possibilities of his future +peace? Personal ambition, calculating mercenary selfishness had +melted away in the volcanic madness that seized him, and to his own +soul he acknowledged that his dominant and supreme wish was to +gather in his arms and hold forever the condemned woman, who wore +with such sublime serenity the livery of felony. + +After all, have we misread our classics? Had not Homer a prevision +of the faith that Aphrodites' altar belonged in the Temple of the +Fates? + +Beryl refolded the paper and looked up. In the face so close to +hers, she saw all the yearning tenderness, the over-mastering love +that had convulsed his nature, and before the pleading magnetic eyes +that essayed to probe her soul, hers fell. + +As out of a cloud, some burst of sunlight striking through the ruby +vestments of apostles in a cathedral window falls aslant and +suddenly crimsons the marble features of a sculptured angel guarding +the high altar, so unexpectedly a vivid blush dyed the girl's +cheeks. Her lips trembled; she swept her hand across her eyes as +though blotting out some fascination upon which it was not her +privilege to dwell; then the glow faded, she moved back on the +bench, and leaned her head against the wall. + +"Where are the bonds and other securities described in this paper?" + +"In a compartment of the safety deposit vault of the--Bank, of which +Gen'l Darrington was a large stockholder and director. His box was +opened last week in presence of his adopted son, and we hoped to +find perhaps a duplicate of the lost will; but there was not even a +memorandum to indicate his last wishes." + +"Can you tell me whether Mr. Prince Darrington will take any legal +steps to recover the legacy which the loss of the will appears to +have cancelled?" + +"He certainly has no such intention." + +"Are you quite sure of his views?" + +"Absolutely sure, having talked with him this morning. I speak +authoritatively." + +"He was entirely dependent on Gen'l Darrington?" + +"Wholly so with regard to pecuniary resources." + +"At present he is as much a beggar as I was that day when I first +saw X--? Is it true that want of money obliged him to quit Germany +before he obtained the university degree, for which his studies were +intended to fit him?" + +"Strictly true. He sorely laments his inability to complete the +course of study, and hopes at some future day to return and reap the +distinction which he feels sure awaits him in scientific fields." + +A brief silence followed, and the girl's thoughts seemed to drift +far from her gloomy surroundings to some lofty plane of peace beyond +the ills of time. Once more a spasm of coughing seized her; then she +looked at the attorney. + +"I learned in court that the destruction of Gen'l Darrington's will +would secure to my mother the possession of all his estate. She has +entered into Rest; into possession of her heritage in Christ's +kingdom. Am I, her child, the lawful heir of Gen'l Darrington's +fortune? Are there any legal quibbles that could affect my rights?" + +"I am aware of none. The estate is certainly yours, and the law will +sustain your claims." + +"Claim? I only claim the right to repair as far as possible a wrong +for which I suffer, yet am not responsible. I sent for a copy of the +will because--" + +"May I tell you why? Because in order to execute its provisions, it +was essential that you should know them accurately." + +The assurance that he interpreted so correctly her motive, brought a +quick throb to her tired Heart, and a faint flush of pleasure to her +thin cheeks. + +"Had you read as accurately my intentions, six months ago, when you +woke me from my sleep under the pine trees, how different the +current of many lives! Mr. Dunbar, my ignorance of legal forms +constrains me to accept your assistance in a matter which I am +unwilling to delay--" She hesitated, and he smiled bitterly. + +"You need be at no trouble to emphasize your reluctance. I quite +understand your ineradicable repugnance. Nevertheless good luck +ordains that only I can serve you at present, so be pleased to +command me." + +"Thank you. I wish you to help me make my will." + +"Why?" + +"How long do you suppose I can endure this 'death in life?' I am +patient because I hope and believe my release is not far distant. +Galloping consumption is a short avenue to freedom." + +He caught his breath, and the blood ebbed from his lips, but he +hurled aside the suggestion as though it were a coiled viper. + +"Life has for you one charm which will successfully hold death at +bay. Love has sustained you thus far; it will lend wings to the +years that must ultimately bring the recompense for which you long, +the sight of him whose crime you expiate." + +He could not understand the peculiar smile that parted her lips, nor +the far-away, preoccupied expression that crept into her sad eyes. + +"Nevertheless I have decided to make my will. I desire that in every +detail it shall duplicate the provisions of the instrument I am +punished for having stolen and destroyed; and I charge you to write +it so carefully, that when all the legacies shall have been paid, +the residue of the estate cannot fail to reach the hands of the son +for whom it was intended. To Mr. Prince Darrington I give and +bequeath, mark you now, ALL MY RIGHT AND TITLE to the fortune left +by Gen'l Darrington." + +"Before I pledge myself to execute this commission, I wish you to +know that of such testamentary disposition of your estate, I should +become remotely a beneficiary. Mr. Darrington has asked my only +sister to be his wife, and their marriage is contingent merely on +his financial ability to maintain her comfortably. Mine is scarcely +the proper hand to pour the rich stream of your possessions into his +empty coffers." + +"I am well aware of the tie that binds your sister and Mr. +Darrington." + +"Since when have you known it?" + +"No prison walls are sufficiently thick to turn the stream of +gossip; it trickles, oozes through all barriers. Exactly when or how +I became acquainted with your family secret is not germane to the +subject under consideration." + +"Cognizant of the fact that Gen'l Darrington's adopted son was my +prospective brother-in-law, you have paid me the compliment of +believing that selfish, pecuniary motives incited my zeal in +securing your prosecution, for the loss of the fortune I coveted? +Your heart garners that insult to me?" + +The only storm signal that defied his habitual control, was the +intense glow in his eyes where an electric spark rayed out through +the blue depths. + +"I might tell you, that my heart is a sepulchre too crowded with +dead hopes to hold resentment against their slayer; but you have a +right to something more. I pay you the just tribute of grateful +admiration for the unselfish heroism that prompted you to plead so +eloquently in defence of a forsaken woman who, living or dead, +defrauded your sister of a brilliant fortune. You fought +courageously to save me, and I am quite willing you should know that +it is partly due to my recognition of your bravery in leading that +forlorn hope, that I am anxious by immediate reparation to restore +matters to their original status. Life is so uncertain I can leave +nothing to chance; and when my will is signed and sealed, and in +your possession, I shall know that even if I should be suddenly set +free, Mr. Darrington and your sister will enjoy their heritage. When +you will have drawn up the paper send it to Mr. Singleton. I will +sign it in his presence and that of the doctor, which will suffice +for witnesses." + +"In view of the peculiar provisions of the will, I prefer you should +employ some other instrument for its preparation. Judge Dent, +Churchill or Wolverton, will gladly serve you, and I will send to +you whomsoever you select. I decline to become the medium of +transferring the accursed money that cost you so dearly, to the man +whom my sister expects to marry." + +"As you will; only let there be no delay. Ask Judge Dent to prove +his friendship for Gen'l Darrington by enabling me to execute his +wishes." + +"Judge Dent went this morning to New York; but by the latter part of +the week you may expect the paper for signature." + +"That relieves one anxiety, for while I was so ill I was tortured by +the thought that I could not make just restitution to innocent +sufferers. Mr. Dunbar, a yet graver apprehension now oppresses me. +If I should live, how can I put the rightful owners in immediate +possession? What process does the law prescribe for conveying the +property directly to Mr. Darrington?" + +"Ordinarily the execution of a deed of gift from you to him, would +accomplish that object." + +"Will you please write out the proper form on the paper in front of +you?" + +"I certainly will not." + +"May I know why?" + +"For two reasons. Personally, the deed of gift would embarrass me +even more than the will. Professionally, it occurs to me you are not +of age; hence the transfer would be invalid at present. Pardon me, +how old are you?" + +"I was eighteen on the fourth of July last. Grim sarcasm is it not, +that the child of Independence Day should be locked up in a +dungeon?" + +"The law of the State requires the age of twenty-one years to insure +the validity of such a transaction as that which you contemplate." + +"Do you mean that my hands are tied; that if I should live, I can do +nothing for more than two years?" + +"Such is the law." + +"Then the justice that fled from criminal law, steers equally clear +of the civil code? What curious paradoxes, what subtleties of +finesse lurk in those fine meshes of jurisprudence, ingeniously +spread to succor wary guilt, to tangle and trip the careless feet of +innocence! All the world knows that the dearest wish that warmed +General Darrington's heart was to disinherit and repudiate his +daughter, and to secure his worldly goods to his adopted son; and +yet because a sheet of paper expressing that desire could not be +produced in court, the will of the dead is defied, and the fortune +is thrust into the hated hands which its owner swore should never +touch it; hands that the law says murdered in order to steal. When +the child of the disowned and repudiated, holding sacred the +unfortunate man's wishes, refuses to accept the blood-bought +heritage, and attempts to replace the fatal legacy in the possession +of those for whom it was notoriously intended--this Tartufe of +justice strides forward and forbids righteous restitution; postpones +the rendering of 'Caesar's things to Caesar' for two years, in order +to save the condemned the additional pang of regretting the +generosity of her minority! Human wills, intentions and aims, no +matter how laudable and well known, are blandly strangled by +judicial red tape, and laid away with pompous ceremonial in the +dusty catacombs of legal form. Grimly grotesque, this masquerade of +equity! Something must be done for Mr. Darrington, to enable him to +finish his studies and embark on the career his father designed." + +"He is a man, and can learn to carve his way unaided." + +She sighed wearily, and a troubled look crossed her face; while the +visitor followed with longing eyes the slow motion of her delicate +hand, beautiful as Herses', that softly stroked the cat purring +against her shoulder. + +"Surely there is an outlet to this snare. You could help me if you +would." + +"I? Do you imagine that after all the injuries I have inflicted on +you, I can consent to help you beggar yourself?" + +"You know that I would sooner handle red-hot ploughshares, than +touch a dollar, a cent, of that fortune. It would greatly relieve my +mind and comfort me, if you would indicate some method by which I +can convey to Mr. Darrington that which really belongs to him. +Unless he can enjoy it, it might as well be in the grave now with +its former owner. Do help me." + +The pathetic pleading of face and voice almost unnerved him, but he +sat silent. + +"Cannot I dispose at least of the income or interest? If a definite +amount should be allowed me each year, during my minority, could I +do as I please with that sum?" + +"Certainly you have that right. I may as well tell you, there is one +method of accomplishing your aim, by applying to the Legislature to +legalize your acts by declaring you of age. At present the estate is +in the hands of Mr. Wolverton, whom the Probate Court has appointed +administrator; and at the expiration of eighteen months from the +date of Gen'l Darrington's death, the control of the whole will +devolve to some extent upon you. Meanwhile the administrator will +allow you annually a reasonable amount." + +"Do you know what sum Mr. Darrington required while abroad?" + +"I am told his allowance was four thousand dollars per annum. +Histology, morphology, and aetiology are whims too costly for +impecunious students. Prince must reduce his stable of hobbies." + +"No, he is entitled to canter as many as he likes, and the money +could not be better spent than in promoting the noble work of the +advancement of Science. The problem is solved, and my earthly cares +are at an end. Leave the copy you brought, and ask Mr. Wolverton to +see me to-morrow. He shall write both the will and the deed of gift, +which you think can be made valid, and meanwhile the annual +allowance must be paid as formerly to the son. Whether I live or +die, the wishes of the dead will be respected, and Prince Darrington +shall have his own. It is an intense relief to know that two +innocent and happy lives will never feel the fatal chill of my +shadow; and when your sister enters 'Elm Bluff' as its mistress, the +balance-sheet will be complete." + +As if some dreaded task had been finally accomplished, she drew a +deep sigh of weariness that was cut short by a spell of coughing. + +"There is a Scriptural injunction concerning kindness to enemies, +which amounts to heaping coals of fire on their heads; and to my +unregenerate nature, it savors more of subtile inquisitorial +cruelty, than of Christian charity." + +"Your sister is not my enemy, I hope, and need I so rank your +sister's brother? There is one thing more, which even your sarcasm +shall not prevent." + +She drew from beneath the cardboard a paper box, placed it on the +table and removed the lid. + +"I presume the Sheriff meant kindly when he sent me this as my +property, which having testified to suit the prosecution, was +returned to the burglar in whose possession it was found. The sight +of it was as humiliating as a blow on the cheek. Some gifts are +fatal; nevertheless, you must ascribe no sinister motive to me, when +I fulfil that injunction of Gen'l Darrington's last Will and +Testament, which set apart these sapphires for his son's bride. They +are just as I received them from his hands. My mother, for whom they +were intended, never saw them; I thank God that she wears the +eternal jewels that He provides for the faithful and the pure in +heart. I wish you to deliver this case, and the gold pieces, one +hundred dollars, to Mr. Darrington; and it will be a mercy to rid me +of torturing reminders." + +She looked at the azure flame leaping from the superb stones, and +pushed the box away with a gesture of loathing. + +"Beautifully blue as those weird nebulae in the far, far South; that +brood over the ocean wastes where cyclones are born; but to me and +to mine, the baleful medium of an inherited curse. Having +accomplished my doom, may they bring only benison to your sister." + +"I would see adders fastened in her ears and twined around her neck +sooner than those--" + +"At least take them out of my sight; give them to Mr. Darrington. +They are maddening reminders of a perished past. Now, to the last +iota, I have made all possible restitution, and the account is +squared; for in exchange for that life, which I am condemned as +having taken, my own is the forfeit. The expiation is complete." + +She seemed to have forgotten his presence, as her gaze rested on the +ring she wore, and a happy smile momentarily glorified the pale +face. + +"Beryl!--" + +She started, winced, shivered; and threw up her hand with the +haughty denial he so well remembered. + +"Hush! Only my precious dead ever called me so. You must not dare!" + +Something she read in the face that leaned toward her, filled her +with vague dread, and despite her efforts, she trembled visibly. + +"Mr. Dunbar, I am very weary; tired--oh! how tired, body and soul." + +"You dismiss me? Recollect I was warned that this would be the last +interview accorded me, and I beg your indulgence. If you knew all, +if you could imagine one-half the sorrow you have caused me, you +would consider our accounts as satisfactorily balanced as your +settlement with the Darringtons. Whether you have ruined my life, or +are destined to purify and exalt it, remains to be determined. To +see you as you are, is almost beyond my powers of endurance, and for +my own sake--mark you--to ease my own heart, I shall redouble my +efforts to have you liberated. There is one speedy process, the +discovery of the man whom, thus far, you have shielded so +effectually; and next week I begin the hunt in earnest by going +West." + +He saw her fingers clutch each other, and the artery in her throat +throb quickly. + +"How many victims are required to appease the manes of Gen'l +Darrington? Be satisfied with having sacrificed me, and waste no +more time in search that can bring neither recompense to you, nor +consolation to me. If I can bear my fate, you, sir, have no right to +interfere." + +"Then, like the selfish man I am, I usurp the right. What damnable +infatuation can bind you to that miserable poltroon, who skulks in +safety, knowing that the penalty of his evil deeds falls on you? One +explanation has suggested itself: it haunts me like a fiend, and +only you can exorcise it. Are you married to that brute, and is it +loyalty that nerves you? For God's sake do not trifle, tell me the +truth." + +He leaned across the table, caught her hands. She shook off his +touch, and her eyes were ablaze. + +"Are you insane? How dare you cherish such a suspicion? The bare +conjecture is an insult, and you must know it is false. Married? I?" + +"Forgive me if I wound you, but indeed I could conceive of no other +solution of the mystery of your self-sacrifice; for it is utterly +incredible that unless some indissoluble tie bound you, that +cowardly knave could command your allegiance. It maddens me to think +that you, so far beyond all other women, can tolerate the thought of +that--" + +"Hush! hush! You conjure phantoms with which to taunt and torture. +You pity me so keenly, that your judgment becomes distorted, and you +chase chimeras. Banish imaginary husbands, Western journeys, even +the thought of my wretched doom, and try henceforth to forget that I +ever saw X--." + +"What does this mean? It was not on your hand when I held it so long +that day--in my own. Tell me, and quiet my pain." + +He pointed to the heavy ring, which was much too large for the +wasted finger where it glistened. + +"What does it mean? A tale of woe. It means that when my broken- +hearted mother was dying among strangers, in a hospital, she kissed +her wedding ring, and sent it with her love and blessing to the +child--she idolized. It means--" She held up her waxen hand, and +into her voice stole immeasurable tenderness: "Shall I tell you all +it means? This little gold hoop inscribed inside 'I. B. to E. D.,' +girdles all that this world has left for me; memories of father, +mother, sunny childhood in a peaceful home, lofty ambitions, happy, +happy beautiful hopes that once belonged to the girl Beryl, whom +pitiless calamity has broken on her cruel wheel. Walled up, dying +slowly in a convict's tomb, the only light that shines into my +desolate heart, flickers through this little circle; and clasping it +close through the long, long nights, when horrible images brood like +vampires, it soothes me, like the touch of the dear hand which it +graced so long, and brings me dreams of the fair, sweet past." + +Was it the mist in his eyes that showed her almost glorified by the +level rays of the setting sun, as like a tired child she leaned her +head against the wall, a pale image of resignation? + +To lose her was a conjecture so fraught with pain, that his swart +face blanched, and his voice quivered under its weight of tender +entreaty. + +"What is it that sustains you in your frightful martyrdom? Why do +you endure these horrors which might be abolished? You hurl me back +upon the loathsome thought that love, love for a depraved, brutal +wretch is the secret that baffles me. I might be able to see you +die, to lay you, stainless snowdrop that you are, in the coffin that +would keep you sacred forever; but please God! I will never endure +the pain of seeing you leave these sheltering walls to walk into +that man's arms. I swear to you by all I hold most precious, that if +he be yet alive, I will hand him over to retribution." + +He had pushed aside the table, and stood before her, with the one +wholly absorbing love of his life glowing in his face. She dared not +meet the gaze that thrilled her with an exquisite happiness, and +involuntarily rose. Had she not strangled the impulse, her +fluttering heart would have prompted her to lean forward, rest her +head against his arm, and tell him all; but close as they stood, and +realizing that she reigned supreme in his affection, one seemed to +rise reproachfully between them; that generous, gentle woman to whom +his faith was pledged. No matter at what cost, she must guard Leo's +peace of mind; and to dispel his jealous illusion now, would +speedily overwhelm the tottering fabric of his allegiance. Folding +her arms tightly across her breast, she answered proudly: + +"So be it then. Do your worst." + +"You admit it!" + +"I admit nothing." + +"You defy me?" + +"Defy? It seems I am always at the mercy of Tiberius." + +"Can you look at me, and deny that you are screening your lover?" + +She quickly lifted her head, with a peculiar haughty movement that +reminded him of a desperate stag at bay, and he never forgot the +expression of her eyes. + +"I deny that Miss Gordon's accepted lover has any right to catechise +me concerning a subject which, were his suspicions correct, should +invest it with a sanctity inviolable by wanton curiosity." + +He recoiled slightly as from a lash. + +"Miss Gordon is on the eve of sailing through the sunny isles of +Greece; and while she is absent I purpose finding my nepenthe in my +hunt for murderers among Montana wilds. You have defied me, and I +will do my worst, nay, my very best to catch and hang that cowardly +rogue who adroitly used your handkerchief as the instrument to aid +his crime." + +She walked a few steps, putting once more between them the table, +against which she leaned. + +"If you are successful, and the mystery of that awful murder should +be unravelled, you will then comprehend something of the desperation +that makes me endure even this crucifixion of soul; and in that day, +when you discover the fugitive lover, you will blush for the taunts +aimed at a defenceless and sorely-stricken woman." + +"Nevertheless, I bend my energies henceforth to his capture and +punishment." + +"Because he is my lover? Or because he may be a criminal? Ask that +question of your honor. Answer it to your own conscience, and to the +noble heart of the trusting woman you asked to become your wife. Mr. +Dunbar, you must leave me now; my strength is almost spent." + +Baffled, exasperated, he approached the table and took something +from his vest-pocket. + +"I hold my honor flawless, and with the sanction of my conscience I +prefer to answer to you--you alone--because he is your lover, I will +have his life." + +She smiled, and her eyes drooped; but there was strange emphasis in +her words as she clasped her hands: + +"God keep my lover now and forever. Mr. Dunbar, when you discover +him, I have no fear that you will harm one hair in his dear head." + +"If you knew all you have cost me, you might understand why I will +never forego my compensation. I bide my time; but I shall win. You +asked me, as a special favor, to preserve and secure for you +something which you held very valuable. Because no wish of yours can +ever be forgotten, I have complied with your request and brought you +this 'precious souvenir' of a tender past." + +He tore away the paper wrapping, and held toward her the meerschaum +pipe, then dropped it on the table as though it burned his fingers. + +At sight of it, a sudden faintness made the girl reel, and she put +her hand to her throat, as if to loosen a throttling touch. Her eyes +filled, and in a whirling mist she seemed to see the beloved face of +the father long dead, of the gay, beautiful young brother who had +wrought her ruin. Weakness overpowered her, and sinking to her +knees, she drew the pipe closer, laid it against her cheek, folded +her arms over it on the table and bowed her head. + +What a host of mocking phantoms leaped through the portals of the +Bygone--babbling of the glorious golden dawn that was whitening into +a radiant morning, when the day-star fell back below the horizon, +and night devoured the new-born day. Memory comes, sometimes, in the +guise of an angel, wearing fragrant chaplets, singing us the perfect +harmonies of a hallowed past; but oftener still, as a fury scourging +with serpents; and always over her shoulder peers the wan face and +pitying eyes of a divine Regret. + +The sun had gone down behind the dense pine forest stretching beyond +the prison, but the sky was a vast shifting flame of waning rose and +deepening scarlet, and the glow from the West still defied the +shadows gathering in the cell. Beryl was so still, that Mr. Dunbar +feared she had fainted from exhaustion. + +He stepped to her side, and laid his hand on the bronzed head, +smoothing caressingly yet reverently the short, silky hair. Ah, the +unfathomable tenderness with which he bent over the only woman he +ever loved; the intolerable pain of the thought that after all he +might lose her. He heard the shuddering sob that broke from her +overtaxed and aching heart, and despite his jealous rage he felt +unmanned. When she raised her face, tears hung on her lashes. + +"I will thank you, Mr. Dunbar, as long as I live, for this last and +greatest kindness. If I could tell you what this precious relic +represents to me, oh, if you knew! you would pity me indeed." + +"Tell me. Trust me. God knows I would never betray your confidence, +no matter what it cost me." + +It was a powerful temptation to divulge the truth, and her heart +whispered that Bertie's safety would be secured by removing all +jealous incentive to his pursuit; but she remembered the fair, +sweet, heroic woman who had dared her fiance's wrath in order to +unbar those prison doors; who had faithfully and delicately thrown +over the convict the mantle of her friendship; and the loyal soul of +the prisoner strangled its weakness. + +Perishing in the desert where scorching sands stifled her, she had +surrendered to death, when love sprang to her side, lifted her into +the heavenly peace of dewy palms, and held to parched lips the +sparkling draught a glimpse of which electrified her. Would +starvation entitle her to drink? Over the head of pleading love +stretched the arm of stony-eyed duty, striking into the dust the +crystal drops, withering the palms; and following her stern beckon, +the thirsty pilgrim re-trod the sands of surrender, more intolerable +than before, because the oasis was still in sight. Duty! Rugged +incorruptible Spartan dame, whose inflexible mandate is ever: "With +your shield, or on it." + +Beryl put up her hand, drew his from her head to her lips, kissed it +softly. + +"Good-bye, Mr. Dunbar. I promise you one thing. If I find I cannot +live, I will send for you. Upon the border of the grave I will open +my heart. You shall see all; and then you will understand, and +deliver a message which I must leave in your hands. Give my grateful +remembrance to Miss Gordon. Make her happy; and ask her to pray for +me, that I may be patient. Now leave me, for I can bear no more." + +She put aside his hand, and hid her face once more. He stooped, laid +his lips on the shining hair, and walked away. At the door he +paused. The long corridor was very dim and gloomy, and the deep- +toned bell in the tower was ringing slowly. Looking back into the +cell, he saw that Beryl had risen, and against the sullen red glow +on the western window, her face and figure outlined a silhouette of +hopeless desolation. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + +Each human soul is dowered with an inherent adaptability to its +environment, with an innate energy which properly directed, grapples +successfully with all assailing ills; and Time, the tireless +reconciler, flies always low at our side, hardening the fibre of +endurance, stealthily administering that supreme and infallible +anaesthetic whereby the torturing throes of human woe are surely +stilled. Existence involves strife; mental and moral growth depend +upon the vigor with which it is waged, and scorning cowardice, +Nature provides the weapons essential to victory. The evils that +afflict humanity are meted out with a marvellously accurate +reference to the idiosyncrasies of character; and no weight is +imposed which cannot by heroic effort be sustained. The Socratic +belief that if all misfortunes were laid in a heap, whence every man +and woman must draw an equal portion, each would select the burden +temporarily laid down and walk away comforted, was merely an +adumbration of the sublimer truth, "As thy day, so shall thy +strength be." + +Very slowly physical health and spiritual patience came back to +Beryl; but by degrees she bravely lifted the stained and mutilated +wreck of life, and staggered on her lonely way, finding that repose +which means the death of hope. + +At one time death had smilingly pushed ajar the door that opened +into eternal peace, and beckoned her bruised soul to follow; then +mockingly barred escape, and left her to renew the battle. From that +double window in the second story of the prison, she watched the +silver of full moons shining on the spectral white columns that +crowned "Elm Bluff", the fire of setting suns that blazed ruby-red +as Gubbio wine, along the line of casements that pierced the front +facade, a bristling perpetual reminder of the tragedy that cried to +heaven for vengeance. She learned exactly where to expect the first +glimpse of the slender opal crescent in the primrose west; followed +its waxing brilliance as it sailed out of the green bights of the +pine forest, its waning pallor, amid the sparkling splendor of +planets that lit the far east. + +As the constellations trod the mazes of their stately minuet across +the distant field of blue, their outlines grew familiar as human +countenances; and from the darkness of her cell she turned to the +great golden stars throbbing in midnight skies, peering in through +the iron bars like pitying eyes of heavenly guardians. Locked away +from human companionship, and grateful for the isolation of her +narrow cell, the lonely woman found tender compensation in the +kindly embrace of Nature's arms, drawn closely about her. + +The procession of the seasons became to her the advent of so many +angels, who leaned in at her window and taught her the secret of +floral runes; the mysterious gamut of bird melodies, the shrill and +weird dithyrambics of the insect world; the recitative and andante +and scherzo of wind and rain, of hail and sleet, in storm +symphonies. + +The Angel of Spring, with the snow of dogwood, and the faint pink of +apple blossoms on her dimpling cheeks; with violet censers swinging +incense before her crocus-sandalled feet, and the bleating of young +lambs that nestled in her warm arms. + +The Angel of Summer, full blown as the red roses flaunting amid the +golden grain and amber silk tassels that garlanded her sunny brow; +poised languorously on the glittering apex of salmon clouds at whose +base lightning flickered and thunder growled,--watching through +drowsy half shut lids the speckled broods of partridges scurrying +with frantic haste through the wild poppies of ripe wheat fields, +the brown covey of shy doves ambushed among purple morning glories +swinging in the dense shade of rustling corn; listening as in a +dream to the laughter of reapers, whetting scythes in the blistering +glare of meadow slopes, yet hearing all the while, the low, sweet +babble of the slender stream that trickled through pine roots, down +the hillside, and added its silvery tinkle to the lullaby crooned by +the river to its fringe of willows, its sleeping lily pads. + +The Angel of Autumn, radiant through her crystal veil of falling +rain, as with caressing touches she deepened the crimson on orchard +treasures, mellowed the heart of vineyard clusters, painted the +leaves with hectic glory that reconciled to their approaching fall, +smiled on the chestnuts that burst their burrs to greet her, +whispered to the squirrels that the banquet was ready; kissed into +starry bloom blue asters crowding about her knees, and left the +scarlet of her lips on the kingdom of berries ordained to flush the +forest aisles, where wolfish winds howled, when leaves had rustled +down to die, and verdure was no more. + +The Angel of Winter, a sad, mute image, wan as her robes of snow, +stretching white wings to shelter perishing birds huddled on the +cold pall that covered a numb world,--crowned with icicles that +clasped her silver locks, shedding tears that froze upon her marble +cheeks; standing on the universal grave where Nature lay bound in +cerements, hearkening to the dismal hooting of the owl at her feet, +the sharp insistent cry of gray killdees hovering above icy marshes, +the wailing tempest dirge over the dead earth; and while with one +benignant hand she tenderly folded her mantle about the sleepers, +the other kindled a conflagration along the western sky, that +reddened and warmed even the wastes of snow, and when she beckoned, +the attendant stars seemed to circle closer and closer, burning with +an added lustre that made night glorious. Answering her call, the +Auroral arch sprang out of the North, spanning the sky with waving +banners of orange and violet flame, that illumined the Niobe of the +Seasons, as she hovered with out-stretched glittering pinions, and +mournful ice-dimmed eyes above her shrouded dead children. + +With returning health, had come to Beryl activity of those artistic +instincts, which for a time, had slumbered in the torpor of despair; +and when her daily task of work had been accomplished, the prisoner +leaned with folded arms on the stone ledge of the window, and +studied every changing aspect of earth and atmosphere. By degrees +the old ambition stirred, and she began to sketch the slow panorama +of July clouds, built of mist and foam into the likeness of domes of +burnished copper, and campaniles of silver; the opaque mountain +masses, stratified along the horizon, leaden in hue, with sullen +bluish gorges where ravening January winds made their lair; the +intricate, graceful tracery of gnaried bare boughs and interlacing +twigs, that would serve as a framework when May hung up her green +portieres to screen the down-lined boudoirs where happy birds +nestled; the gray stone arches of the bridge in the valley below, +the groups of cattle couched on the rocky hillside, up which the +pine forest marched like ranks of giants. + +On sultry afternoons she watched lengthening tree-shadows creep +across the reddish-brown carpeting of straw, and in the long nights +when sleeplessness betrayed her into the clutches of torturing +retrospection, she waited and longed for the pearly lustre that +paved the east for the rosy feet of dawn; listened to the beating of +Nature's heart in the solemn roar of the Falls two miles away, in +the strophe and anti-strophe of winds quivering through pine tops, +the startled cry of birds dozing in cedar thickets, the shrill +droning of crickets, the monotonous recrimination of katydids, the +peculiar, querulous call of a family of flying squirrels housed in +the cleft of an old magnolia, the Gregorian chant of frogs cradled +in the sedge and ferns, where the river lapped and gurgled. + +Humanity had turned its back upon her; but the sinless world of +creation, with all its glorious chords of beautiful color, and the +soothing witchery of the solemn voices of the night, ministered +abundantly to eye and ear. She had hoped and prayed to die; God +denied her petition; and sent, instead of His Angel of Death, two to +comfort her, the Angel of Health and the Angel of Resignation; +whereby she understood, that she had not yet earned surcease from +suffering, but was needed for future work in the Master's vineyard. + +If live she must, through the five years of piacular sacrifice, why +vitiate its efficacy by rebellious repining, that seemed an affront +to the divine arbiter of human destinies? She could not escape the +cross; and bitterness of heart might jeopardize the crown. Beggared +by time, could she afford to risk the eternal heritage? The deepest +conviction of her soul was, "Behind fate, stands God"; hidden for a +season, deaf and blind and mute, it seemed, but always surely there; +waiting His own appointed season of rescue, and of recompense. So +strong was her faith in His overruling wisdom and mercy, that her +soul found rest, through perpetual prayer for patience; and as weeks +slipped into months, and season followed season, she realized that +though no roses of happiness could ever bloom along her arid path, +the lilies of peace kissed her tired feet. + +Somewhere in the wicked world, Bertie was astray; and perhaps God +has kept her alive, intending she should fulfil her mission years +hence, by bringing him out of the snares of temptation, back into +the fold of Christ's redeemed. Five years of penal servitude to +ransom his soul; was the price exorbitant? + +One dull, wintry afternoon as she pressed close to the window, to +catch the fading light on the page of her Bible, it chanced to be +the chapter in St. Luke, which contained the parable of the Pharisee +and the Publican; and while she read, a great compunction smote her; +a remorseful sense of having scorned as utterly unclean and debased, +her suffering fellow prisoners. + +Was there no work to be done for the dear Master, in that moral +lazaretto--the long rows of cells down stairs, where some had been +consigned for 'ninety-nine years'? Hitherto, she had shrunk from +contact, as from leprous contagion; meeting the Penitentiary inmates +only in the chapel where, since her restoration to health, she went +regularly to sing and play on the organ, when the chaplain held +service. The world had cruelly misjudged her; was she any more +lenient to those who might be equally innocent? + +Next day she went humbly, yet shyly, down to the common work-room, +and took her place among the publicans, hoping that the soul of some +outcast might be won to repentance. Now and then messages of +sympathy reached her from the outside world, in the form of flowers, +books, magazines; and two of the jurors who convicted her, sent from +time to time generous contributions of dainty articles that +materially promoted her comfort; while a third, whose dead child had +clung to her Christmas card, eased his regretful pangs by the gift +of a box containing paper, canvas, crayons, brushes, paints, and all +requisite appliances for artistic work. + +Sister Serena had gone on a labor of love, to a distant State; and +faithful Dyce, hopelessly crippled by a fall from the mule which she +was forcing across the bridge leading to the State dungeon, had been +permanently consigned to the wide rocking chair, beside her cabin +hearth at "Elm Bluff". + +It was a bleak night in January, and intensely cold, when Mrs. +Singleton wrapped a shawl about her head, and ran along the dark +corridor to the cell, where Beryl was walking up and down to keep +herself warm. Only the moonlight illumined it, as the rays fell on +the bare floor, making a broad band of silver beneath the window. + +"I forgot to tell you, that something very dreadful happened at the +'Lilacs' last week. Judge Dent had a stroke of paralysis and died +the same night. As if that were not trouble enough to last for a +while at least, the house took fire in that high wind yesterday, and +burned to the ground; leaving poor Miss Patty Dent without a roof to +cover her. She had gone to the cemetery to carry flowers to her +brother's grave, and when she returned, it was too late to save +anything. Miss Gordon's new wing cost thousands of dollars and was +furnished like a palace, so I am told; but the flames destroyed +every vestige of the beautiful house, and the pictures and statues. +It seems that it was heavily insured, but money can't buy the old +portraits and family silver, the mahogany and glass, and the yellow +damask--that have been kept in the Dent family since George +Washington was a teething baby; and Miss Patty wails loudest over +the loss of an old, old timey communion service, that the Dents +boasted Queen Anne gave to one of them, who was an Episcopal +minister. The poor old soul is almost crazy, I hear, and Mr. Dunbar +carries her to New York to-morrow, where she has a nephew living; +and next month she will go to Europe to join Miss Gordon. It is +reported in town, that when Judge Dent died so suddenly, Miss Patty +sent a cable telegram to her niece to come home; but early +yesterday, just before the fire, an answer came by cable, asking +Miss Patty to come to Europe. Some people think Mr. Dunbar intends +escorting her, and that when he meets Miss Gordon, the marriage will +take place over there; but I never will believe that, till it +happens." + +She peered curiously into the face of her listener, but the light +was too dim to enable her to read its expression. + +"Why not? Under the circumstances, such a course seems eminently +natural and proper." + +"Do you really think he intends marrying?" + +"I am the confidant of neither the gentleman nor the lady; but you +told me long ago, that a marriage engagement existed between them; +and since both have shown me much kindness and sympathy, I sincerely +hope their united lives may be very happy. If Mr. Dunbar searched +the universe, he could scarcely find Miss Gordon's equal, certainly +not her superior; and he cannot fail to appreciate his good fortune +in winning her." + +Mrs. Singleton lifted her shoulder significantly. "Perhaps! but you +can never be sure of men. They are about as uncertain calculations +as the hatching of guinea eggs, or the sprouting of parsley seed. +What is theirs can't be worth much; but what belongs to somebody +else, is invaluable; moreover, they are liable to sudden tantrums of +sheer obstinacy, that hang on like whooping-cough, or a sprain in +one's joints. Did you never see a mule take the sulks on his way to +the corn crib and the fodder rack, and refuse to budge, even for his +own benefit? Some men are just that perverse. Mr. Dunbar is trailing +game, worth more to him at present, than a sweetheart across the +Atlantic Ocean; which reminds me of what brought me here. He asked +Ned to-day, if you saw Mr. Darrington yesterday when he came here; +and learning that you did not, he gave him this paper, which he said +would explain what the Legislature did last month, about declaring +you of age. Ned told him you signed some document Mr. Wolverton +brought here last week, which secured all the property to Mr. +Darrington, and he said he had been informed of the transaction, and +that Mr. Darrington would soon go back to Germany. Then he added: +'Singleton, present my respects to Miss Brentano and tell her, I am +happy to say that my trip West last summer was not entirely +unsuccessful. It has furnished me with a very valuable clue. She +will understand.' Oh, dear! how bitterly cold it is! Come to my +room, and get thoroughly thawed; Ned is down stairs, and the +children are asleep." + +"No, thank you; I should only feel the cold more, when I came back." + +"Then take my shawl and cover your ears and throat. There, you must. +Good night." + +She closed the door, and fled down the long black passage, to the +bright cozy room, where her babes slumbered. + +Slowly Beryl resumed her walk from window to door, from bar to bar, +but of the stinging cold she grew oblivious; and the blood burned in +her cheeks and throbbed with almost suffocating violence at her +heart. + +She comprehended fully the significance of the message, and dared +not comfort herself with the supposition that it was prompted by a +spirit of bravado. + +To what quarter of the globe was he tracking the desperate culprit, +who had fled sorely wounded from his murderous assault? Ignorant of +his mother's death, and of his sister's expiatory incarceration, +might not Bertie venture back to the great city, where she had last +seen him; and be trapped by those wily "Quaestores Paricidii" of the +nineteenth century--special detectives? + +Fettered, muzzled by the stone walls of her dungeon, she could send +him no warning, could only pray and endure, while she and her +reckless, wayward brother drifted helplessly down the dark, swift +river of doom. At every revival of fears for his safety, up started +the mighty temptation that never slumbered, to confess all to Mr. +Dunbar; but as persistently she took it by the throat, and crushed +it back, resolved at all hazards to secure, if possible, the +happiness of the woman who had trusted her. + +In the midst of the wreck of her life, out of the depths of the dust +of humiliation, had sprung the beautiful blossom of love, shedding +its intoxicating fragrance over ruin; yet, because the asp of +treachery lurked in the exquisite, folded petals, she shut her eyes +to the bewildering loveliness, and loyalty strove to tear it up by +the roots, to trample it out; learning thereby, that the fibrous +thread had struck deep into her own heart, defying ejectment. + +She had forbidden his visits, interdicted letters; but she could not +expel the vision of a dear face that haunted her memory; nor +exorcise the spell of a voice that had first thrilled her pulses +when pleading with the jury in her behalf. + +Sometimes she wondered whether she had been created as a mere +sentient plummet to sound every gulf of human woe; then humbly +recanted the impious repining, and thanked God that, at least, she +had been spared that deepest of all abysses, the Hades of remorse. +That which comes to most women as the supreme earthly joy--the +consciousness of possessing the heart of the man they love, fell +upon Beryl like the lash of flagellation; rendering doubly fierce +the battle of renunciation, which she fought, knowing that sedition +and treason were raising the standard of revolt within the fortress. + +During the eight months that had elapsed since Leo sailed for +Europe, Beryl had exchanged no word with Mr. Dunbar; but twice a +sudden, tumultuous leaping of her heart surprised her at sight of +him, standing in the door of the chapel; watching her as she sat +within the altar rail, playing the little organ, while the convict +congregation stood up to sing. Although no name was ever appended, +she knew what hand had directed the various American and foreign art +magazines, which brought their argosy of beauty to divert and +gladden her sombre meditations. + +On Christmas morning, the second of her sojourn within penitentiary +walls, the express messenger had brought to the door of her cell, +two packages, one a glowing heart of crimson and purple passion +flowers, the other an exquisite engraving of Sir Frederick +Leighton's "Hercules Wrestling with Death"; and below the printed +title, she recognized the bold characters traced in red ink: "The +Alcestis you emulate." + +To-night, a ray of moonlight crept across the wall, and shivered its +silver over the rigid face of the dead wife in the picture; and the +prisoner, gazing mournfully at it, comprehended that her own fate +was sadder than that of the immortal Greek devotee. To die for +Admetus after he had sworn on the altar of his gods, that he would +spend alone the remainder of his days, solaced by no fair successor, +dedicating his fidelity to appease her manes, was comparatively +easy; but to turn away, voluntarily resign the man she loved, and +assist in forging the links which she must live to see chaining him +to a happy rival, were an ordeal more appalling to Alcestis than +premature descent into the dusky realm of Persephone. + +To secure to her brother immunity from pursuit, and to Miss Gordon +the allegiance of the husband of her choice, was the problem that +banished sleep and kept Beryl pacing the floor, until welcome day +hung her orange mantle over the quivering splendor of the morning +star. One final effort was all that seemed possible now; and +kneeling before the table she wrote and sealed a note, to be +delivered before the express train bore the lawyer away on his +journey: + +"Your message was received, and it has so disquieted and alarmed me +that I am forced to treat for peace. If you will cancel your police +contracts, cease your search, go to Europe with Miss Dent, and +pledge me your honor to marry Miss Gordon before you return, I will +solemnly promise, bind myself in the sight of the God I serve, to +live and to die Beryl Brentano; and never, without your consent and +permission, will I look again on the face of the man whom you are +hunting to death. The assurance of his safety will atone for all you +have made me suffer; will nerve me to bear whatever the future may +hold. You will imagine you understand, but it is impossible that you +can ever realize the nature of the pain this proposal involves for +me; nevertheless, if you accept and keep the compact, I believe you +know that, at all costs, I shall never forfeit the pledged word of + +"BERYL BRENTANO." + +When marriage vows had irrevocably committed Leo's happiness to his +honor, it might then be safe to tell him the truth, and solicit +release from the self-imposed terms. Five hours later, she received +an answer: + +"A trifle too late, you unfurled the flag of truce. With my game in +sight, I decline to forego the chase. For your solicitude regarding +my marriage, I tender my thanks; and the assurance, that no magnet +can draw, not all the charms of Circe lure me across the Atlantic, +until I have accomplished my purpose. The tardiness of your proposal +is unerring appraiser of its costliness; and I were a monster of +cruelty to debar you the sight of your idol, though I bring him with +the grim garniture of chains and handcuffs. When I consign Miss Dent +to her relatives in New York, I go to a miners' camp in Dakota, to +identify a man bearing the marks of one who fled from X---, and lost +his pipe, on the night he murdered Gen'l Darrington. + +"DUNBAR." + +To temporize longer would be fatal to Bertie; and no alternative +remained but to tell the simple truth. + +Without an instant's delay she took up her pen, but ere half a line +had been traced on the paper, a hoarse whistle, somewhat muffled by +distance, told her the attempt was futile; and through the valley +beyond the river a trailing serpent of black smoke showed the +express train darting northward. The attorney had left X---, but +might linger in New York sufficiently long for a letter to reach +him; and doubtless his address could be learned at his office: + +"If Mr. Dunbar will give me an opportunity of acquainting him with +some facts, he is anxious to discover, he shall find it unnecessary +to travel to Dakota; and will thank me for saving him from the long +journey he contemplates. + +"B. B." + +The sun was setting when Mr. Singleton returned from the attorney's +office, and held out the note which he had been instructed to +address and deposit in the mail. + +"If it is a matter of any importance, I am sorry to tell you that +this cannot reach Mr. Dunbar immediately. He goes only as far as +Philadelphia, where Miss Dent's nephew meets her; then Dunbar +travels right on West without stopping, till he reaches Bismarck. He +left instructions at his office to retain all mail matter here, for +a couple of weeks, then forward to Washington City; as business +would detain him there some days after his return from the west. +Good gracious! how white your lips are. Sit down. What ails you?" + +She put her hand over her eyes, and tried to collect her thoughts. +To suffer so long, so keenly, and yet lose the victory; could it be +possible that her sacrifice would prove utterly futile? + +"Mr. Singleton, you have shown me many times your friendly sympathy, +and I am again forced to tax your kindness. It is important that I +should see or communicate with Mr. Dunbar within the next forty- +eight hours. Could you induce the telegraph operator here to have a +message delivered to him on the train, before it reaches Washington +City?" + +"I will certainly do my best; and to insure it I will go to the +railroad operator, who understands the stations, and can catch +Dunbar more easily than a message from the general office. Write our +your telegram, while I order my buggy." + +"MR. DUNBAR. On board Train No. 2. + +"Please let me see you before you go West. I promise information +that will render you unwilling to make the journey to Bismarck." + +"B." + +Anxiously she computed the time within which an answer might +reasonably be expected; and her heart dwelt as a suppliant before +God, that the message would avail to arrest pursuit; but hours wore +wearily away, tedious days trod upon the slow skirts of dreary +nights; and no response lifted the burden of dread. Hope whispered +feebly that his failure to send a telegraphic reply, implied his +intention of returning to X---from Philadelphia; and she clung to +this rope of sand until a week had passed. Then the conviction was +inevitable that he regarded her appeal as merely a ruse to divert +his course, to delay the seizure of his prey; and that while he +misinterpreted the motive that prompted her message, she had merely +furnished an additional goad to his jealous hatred. + +As helpless wrack borne on the sullen tide of destiny, she struck +her trembling hands together, and cried out in the dark solitude of +her cell: "Verily! The stars in their courses fought against +Sisera." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + +The winter was marked by an unusual severity of cold, which +prolonged the rigor of mid-season until late in February, and +despite the efforts of penitentiary officials who made unprecedented +requisitions upon the board of inspectors, for additional clothing, +the pent human herd suffered keenly. + +Alarmed by the rapidly increasing rate of sickness within the +"walls," Mr. Singleton demanded a sanitary commission, which, after +apparently thorough investigation, reported no visible local cause +for the mortality among the convicts; but the germs of disease grew +swiftly as other evil weeds, and the first week in March saw a +hideous harvest of diphtheria of the most malignant type. + +At the earliest intimation of the character of the pestilence, the +warden's wife fled with her little children to her mother's home in +a neighboring county; maternal solicitude having extinguished her +womanly reluctance to desert her husband, at a juncture when her +presence and assistance would so materially have cheered, and +lightened his labors. An attempt was made to isolate the first case +in the hospital, but the cots in that spacious apartment filled +beyond the limits of accommodation; and soon, a large proportion of +the cells on the ground floor held each its victim of the fatal +disease, that as the scythe of death cut a wide swath through +convict ranks. Consulting physicians walked through the infected +ward, altered prescriptions, advised disinfectants which were +liberally used, until the building seemed to exhale pungent, +wholesome, but unsavory odors; yet there was no abatement in the +virulence of the type. When the twenty-third case was entered on the +hospital list, the trustees and inspectors determined to remove all +who showed no symptom of the contagion, to an old, long-abandoned +cotton factory several miles distant; where the vacant houses of +former operatives would afford temporary shelter; and to diminish +the chances of carrying infection, each prisoner was carefully +examined by the attending physician, and then furnished with an +entirely new suit of clothing. + +When the nature of the epidemic could no longer be concealed from +the inmates, instinctive horror drove them from the neighborhood of +the victims, and like frightened sheep they huddled in remote +corners, removed as far as possible from the infected precincts, and +loath to minister to the needs of the sufferers. + +Two men, and as many women, selected and detailed as nurses in their +respective wards, openly rebelled; and while Doctor Moffat and Mr. +Singleton were discussing the feasibility of procuring outside +assistance, the door of the dispensary adjoining the hospital, +opened, and Beryl walked up to the table, where medicines were +weighed and mixed. + +"Put me to work among the sick. I want to help you." + +"You! What could you do? I should as soon take a magnolia blossom to +scrub the pots and pans of a filthy kitchen," answered the doctor, +looking up over his spectacles from the powder he was grinding in a +glass mortar. + +"I can follow your directions; I can obey orders; and physicians +deem that the sine qua non in nurses. Closed lips, open ears, +willing hands are supposed to outweigh any amount of unlicensed +brains. Try me." + +"No. I am not willing. Go back up-stairs, and stay there," said the +warden. + +"Why may I not assist in nursing?" + +"In the first place you are not fit to mix with those poor +creatures, in yonder; their oaths would curdle your blood; and in +the second, you are not strong, and would be sure to take the +disease at once." + +"I am perfectly well; my lungs are now as healthy as yours, and I am +not afraid of diphtheria. You detailed nurses, who refused to serve; +I volunteer; have you any right to reject me?" + +"Yes, the right to protect and save your life, which is worth twenty +of those already in danger," replied Mr. Singleton, pausing in his +task of filling capsules with quinine. + +"Who made you a judge of the value of souls? My life belongs first +to God, who gave it, next to myself; and if I choose to jeopardize +it, in work among my suffering comrades in disgrace, you must not +usurp the authority to prevent me." + +"Has it become so intolerable that you desire to commit suicide, +under the specious plea of philanthropic martyrdom?" said Doctor +Moffat, whose keen black eyes scanned her closely, from beneath +shaggy gray brows. + +"I think I may safely say, no such selfish motive underlies my +resolution. My heart is full of pity, and of dread for some women +here, who admit their guilt, yet have sought no pardon from the +Maker their sins insult. Sick souls cry out to me louder than dying +bodies; and who dare deny me the privilege of ministering to both? +The parable of the sparrows is no fable to me; and if, while trying +to comfort my unhappy associates here, God calls me out of this dark +stony vineyard, His will alone overrules all; and I can meet His +face in peace. We say: 'Lord what wilt Thou have us to do?' and when +the answer comes, pointing us to perilous and loathsome labors, will +He forget if we shut our eyes, and turn away, coveting the sunny +fields into which He sent others to toil? Let me go to my work." + +During almost eighteen months, both men had studied her character as +manifested in the trying phases of prison existence, finding no +flaw; to-day they looked up reverently at the graceful form in its +homespun uniform, at the calm, colorless face, wearing its crown of +meekness, with an inalienable, proud air of cold repose. + +"To keep you here is about as sacrilegious as it would have been to +thrust St. Catherine among the chain-gang in the galleys," muttered +the doctor. + +"No doubt duty called her to much worse places; therefore, when she +died, the angels buried her on Sinai," answered the prisoner; before +whose wistful eyes drifted the memory of Luini's picture. + +"You have set your heart on this; nothing less will content you?" + +"While the necessity continues, nothing less will content me." + +"Remember, you voluntarily take your life in your own hands." + +"I assume the entire responsibility for any risk incurred." + +"Then, I wish you God speed; for the harvest is white, the laborers +few." + +"Why, doctor! I relied on you to help me keep her out of reach. If +anything happens, how shall I pacify Susie? She made me promise +every possible care of her favorite. Look here, only an hour ago I +received a letter and this package marked, 'One for Ned; the other +for Miss Beryl.' Two little red flannel safety bags, cure-alls, to +be tied around our necks, close to our noses, as if we could not +smell them a half mile off? Assafoetida, garlic, camphor, 'jimson +weed,' valerian powder--phew! What not? Mixed as a voudoo chowder, +and a scent twice as loud!" + +"Be thankful your wife is not here to enforce the wearing of the +sanitary sachet," said the doctor, allowing himself a grimace of +contemptuous disgust. + +"So I am! but being a bachelor, answerable only to yourself, you +cannot understand how absence does not exonerate me from the promise +made when she started away. I would sooner face an 'army with +banners,' than that little brown-eyed woman of mine when she takes +the lapel of my coat in one hand, raises the forefinger of the +other, turns her head sideways like a thrush watching a wriggling +worm, and says, in a voice that rises as fast as the sound a mouse +makes racing up the treble of the piano keys: 'Ump! whew! Didn't I +tell you so? The minute my back was turned, of course you made ducks +and drakes of all your promises. Show me a "Flying Jenney," that the +tip end of any idiot's little finger can spin around, and I'll +christen it Edward McTwaddle Singleton!' Seems funny to you, doctor? +Just wait till you are married, and your Susan shuts the door and +interviews you, picking a whole flock of crows, till you wonder if +it isn't raining black feathers. When I am taken to taw about this +nursing business, I shall lose no time in laying the blame on you." + +"I will assure Mrs. Singleton that you endeavored to dissuade me; +and that you faithfully kept your promise to shield me from danger." + +"Which she will not believe, because she knows that I have the power +to lock you up indefinitely. Besides, if you live to explain +matters, there will be no necessity; but suppose you do not? You are +running into the jaws of an awful danger, and if--" + +His frank, pleasant countenance clouded, he gnawed his mustache, and +the question ended in a long sigh. After a moment, a low, sweet +voice completed the sentence: + +"If I should die, your tender-hearted wife is so truly and +faithfully my friend, that she could not regret to hear I have +entered into my rest." + +There was a brief silence, during which the physician crossed the +floor, opened a glass door and surveyed the stock of drugs. When he +came back, and took up the pestle, he spoke with solemn emphasis: + +"This is the most malignant type of an always dangerous disease that +I have ever encountered; and constant exposure to it, without the +careful, persistent use of tonic and disinfectant precautions, would +be tantamount to walking unvaccinated into a pest-house, where +people were dying of confluent small-pox. I have no desire to +frighten, but it is proper that I should warn you; and insist upon +the duty of watching your own health as closely as the symptoms of +the victims you are desirous of nursing. Will you follow the regimen +I shall prescribe for yourself?" + +"Implicitly." + +The warden finished filling the capsules, rose and looked at his +watch. + +"As far as the chances go, it is 'heads I win, tails you lose'; and +sorry enough I am to see you come down and dare the pestilence; but +since you are, I might as well say what I was asked to tell you last +night. For your sake I kept silent; now since you persist, I wash my +hands of all responsibility for the consequences. You have heard the +history of the woman Iva Le Bougeois, better known in the 'walls' as +the 'Bloody Duchess'. Two days ago the scourge struck her down; she +is very ill, the worst symptoms have appeared, and she is almost +frantic with terror. Last night, at 12 o'clock, I was going the +rounds of the sick wards, and found her wringing her hands, and +running up and down the cell like a maniac. I tried to quiet and +encourage her, but she paid no more attention than if stone deaf; +and when I started to leave her, she seized my arm, and begged me to +ask you to come and stay with her. She thinks if you would sing for +her, she could listen, and forget the horrible things that haunt +her. It is positively sickening to see her terror at the thought of +death. Poor, desperate creature." + +"Yet you withheld her message when I might have comforted her?" + +"It was a crazy whim. In hardened cases like hers, death-bed remorse +counts for very little. Her conscience is lashing her; could you +quiet that? Could you bleach out the blood that spots her soul?" + +"Yes, by leading her to One who can." + +"Remember, you asked me as a special favor to keep you as far apart +as possible from all of her class." + +"At that time, overwhelmed by the misery of my own fate, I was +pitiless to the sufferings of others. The rod that smote me was very +cruel then; but by degrees it seems to bud like Aaron's with +precious promise, that may expand into the immortal flowers of souls +redeemed. I dwelt too long in the seat of the Pharisees; I shall +live closer to God, walking humbly among the Publicans. Will you +show me the way to the woman who wishes to see me?" + +"Not yet. There are some instructions that must be carefully weighed +before I can install you as nurse, in that dismal mire of moral and +physical corruption. Singleton, send the hospital steward to me." + +There are spectacles which brand themselves so ineffaceably upon +memory, that time has no power to impair their vividness; and of +such were some of the scenes witnessed by the new nurse. + +Sitting on the side of her cot, from which the gray blanket had been +dragged and folded half across her shoulders, where one hand held +it, while the other clutched savagely at her throat; with her bare +delicate feet beating a tattoo on the white sanded floor, and her +thin nostrils dilated in the battle for breath, Iva Le Bougeois +moaned in abject terror. The coarse, unbleached "domestic" night- +gown that fell to her ankles was streaked across the bosom with some +dark brown fluid; and similar marks stained the pillow where her +restless head had tossed. The hot eyes and parched red lips seemed +to have drained all the tainted blood from her olive cheeks, save +where, just beneath the lower lids, ominous terra-cotta rings had +been painted and glazed by the disease. + +As Beryl pushed open the iron door, and held up the lantern, that +its brightness might stream into the cell, where even at five +o'clock in the afternoon of a rainy day darkness reigned, the rays +flashed back from the glowing eyes chatoyant as a cougar's. + +"Your message was not delivered until to-day, and I lost no time in +coming." + +The small head, where short, straight, blue-black locks, rumpled and +disordered, were piled elfishly around the low brow, was thrown up +with the swift movement of some startled furry animal, alert even in +the throes of death. + +"Is all hope over? Did they tell you there is no chance for me?" + +The voice was hoarse and thick, the articulation indistinct and +smothered. + +"No. They think you very ill, but still hope the remedies will save +you. The doctor says your fine constitution ought to conquer the +disease." + +"I am beyond the remedy--because I can't swallow any longer. Since +the doctor left me, I have tried and tried. See--" + +From a bench within reach, she lifted a small yellow bowl, which +contained a dark mixture, put it to her lips, and chafing her +swollen glands, attempted several times to swallow the liquid. A +gurgling sound betrayed the futility of the effort, the medicine +gushed from her nose, the eyes seemed starting from their sockets, +and even the husky cry of the sufferer was strangled, as she cowered +down. + +"Compose yourself; nervousness increases the difficulty. Once I had +diphtheria, and could not swallow for two days, yet I recovered. Be +quiet, and let me try to help you." + +Kneeling in front of her, Beryl turned up the wick of the lantern, +and with a small brush attached to a silver wire, finally succeeded +in cauterizing and removing a portion of the poisonous growth that +was rapidly narrowing the avenue of breath. The spasm of coughing +that ensued was Nature's auxiliary effort, and temporarily relieved +the tightening clutch. + +After a few moments, a dose of the medicine was successfully +administered; and then the slender, shapely brown hand of the woman +grasped the nurse's blue homespun dress. + +"Don't leave me! Save me. Oh, don't let me strangle here alone--in +the dark; don't let me die! I'm not fit. I know where I shall go. +It's not the devil I dread; I have known many devils in this world,- +-but God. I am afraid of God!" + +"Lie down, and cover your shoulders. If it comforts you to have me, +I will stay gladly. The doctor, the warden, all of us will do what +we can to cure you; but the help you need most, can come only from +one whose pity is greater and tenderer than ours, your merciful God. +Lift up your heart in prayer to him; ask him to forgive your sins, +and spare you to lead a better life." + +"He would not hear, because He knows how black my heart has been all +these years; since I gave myself up to hate and cursing. You can't +understand--you are not one of us. You are as much out of place +here, as one of the angels would be, held over the flames of torment +till the wings singed. From the first time we saw you in the chapel, +and more and more ever since, we found out you did not belong here. +I have been so wicked--so wicked--!" + +She paused, panting, then hurried on. + +"When the chaplain tried to talk to me, and gave me a book to read, +I dashed it back in his face, and insulted him. One Saturday they +sent me to sweep out and dust the chapel, and when I finished, I +laid down on one of the benches to rest. You went in to practise, +not knowing I was there; and began to sing. As I listened, something +seemed to stir and wake up in my heart, and somehow the music shook +me out of myself. There was one hymn, so solemn, so thrilling, and +the end of every verse was, 'Oh, Lamb of God! I come!'--and you sang +it with a great cry, as if you were running to meet some one. I had +not wept--for oh! I don't know how long--not since--. Then you +played on the organ some variations on a tune--'The Sweet By-and- +by'--and the tears started, and I seemed but a leaf in a wild storm. +That was the song my little boy used to sing! There was a Sunday- +school in the basement of a church next to our house, and he would +stand at the window, and listen till he caught the tune, and learned +the words. Oh, that hymn! Every note stung me like a whip lash when +I heard it again. My child's face as I saw him the last time I put +him to bed; when he opened his drowsy eyes, and raised up to kiss me +good-night, came back to me, and seemed to sing, 'In the sweet by- +and-by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore.' No--never--never! +Oh, my boy! My beautiful angel Max--there is no room for me, on that +heavenly shore! Oh! my darling--there is NO 'Sweet by-and-by' FOR +MOTHER NOW." + +She had started up, with arms clasped around her knees, and her +convulsed face lifted toward the low ceiling of the cell, writhed, +as she drew her breath in hissing gasps. + +"You loved your little boy?" + +"You are not a mother, or you wouldn't ask me that If ever you had +felt your baby's sweet warm lips on yours, you would know that it is +mother-love that makes tigers of women. Because I idolized my little +one, I could not bear the cruel wrong of having him torn from me, +taught to despise me; and so I loved him best when I slew him, and I +was so mad, with the delirium of pain and rage and despair, that I +forgot I was putting the gulf of perdition between us. Rather than +submit to separation in this world, than have him raised by them, to +turn away from his mother as a thing too vile to wear his father's +name, I lost him for ever and ever! My son, my star-eyed darling." + +"Listen to me. You loved him so tenderly, that no matter how wilful +or disobedient he might have been, you forgave him every offence; +and when he sobbed on your bosom, you felt he was doubly dear, and +hugged him closer to your heart? Even stronger and deeper is God's +love for us. Dare you call yourself more pitiful, more tender than +your Father in heaven, who gave you the capacity to love your child, +because He so compassionately loves His children? We sin, we go far +astray, we think mercy is exhausted, and the door shut against us; +but when we truly repent and go back, and kneel, and pray to be +forgiven, Christ Himself unbars the door and leads us in; and our +Father, loving those whom He created, pardons all; and only requires +that we sin no more. God does not follow us; we must humbly go back +all the distance we have put between us by our wickedness; but the +heavens will fall before He fails to keep His promise to forgive, +when we do genuinely repent of our wrongdoing." + +"It is easy for the good to believe that. You are innocent of any +crime, and you are punished for other people's sins, not for your +own; so you can't understand how I dread the thought of God, because +I know the blackness of my heart, when, to get my revenge, I sold my +soul to Satan. Oh! the horror of feeling that I can't undo the +bargain; that pay-day has come! I had the vengeance, I snatched out +of God's hands, and for a while I gloated over it; but now the awful +price! My little one in heaven with the angels; knowing that his +mother is a devil--eternally." + +Her head had fallen upon her knees, and in the frenzy of despair she +rocked to and fro. + +"Don't you remember that the most sinful woman Christ met on earth, +was the one of all others that He first revealed Himself to, when He +came out of the grave? Because she was so nearly lost, and He had +forgiven so much, in order to save her, her purified heart was +doubly dear, and he honored her more than the disciples, who had +escaped the depth of her wickedness. Try to find comfort in the +belief, that if sincere remorse and contrition redeemed the soul of +Mary Magdalen, the same Savior who pitied and pardoned her will not +deny your prayer." + +"God believed her, because she proved her repentance by leading a +new, purer life. But I have no chance left to prove mine. If she had +been cut off in the midst of her sins, as I am, she would have been +obliged to pay in her ruined soul to the Satan she had served so +long. When I am called to the settlement, it seems an insult and a +mockery to ask God, whom I have defied, to save me. If I could only +have a little time to show my penitence." + +"Perhaps you may be spared; but if not, God sees your contrition +just as fully now as if you lived fifty years to show it in good +works. He sees you are sincerely remorseful, and would be a true +Christian, if He allowed you an opportunity. That is the blessedness +of our religion, that when Christ gives us a new heart, purified by +repentance and faith in Him, He says it makes clean hands, in His +sight, no matter how black they might have been. One of the thieves +was already on the cross, in the agonies of death, with his sins +fresh on his soul, and no possible chance of atoning for his past, +by future dedication of his life to good; but Christ saw his heart +was genuinely repentant, and though the man did not escape +crucifixion by humanity, his pardoned soul met Jesus that same day +in Paradise. It is not acceptance of our good deeds, though they are +required, it is forgiveness of our sins, that makes Christ so +precious. Pray from the very bottom of your heart, to God, and try +to take hold of the promise to the truly penitent; and trust--trust +Him." + +For a moment the crouching figure was still, as if the sufferer +mentally grasped at some shred of hope; then she fell back on her +pillow, and groaned. + +"Do you know all I have done? Do you think there is any mercy for--" + +"Hush, every word taxes your failing strength. Compose yourself." + +"I can't! As long as I have breath let me tell you. If I shut my +eyes, horrible things seem to be pouncing upon me; dreadful shapes +laugh, and beckon to me, and I see--oh! pity me! I see my murdered +child, with the blood spouting, foaming, the velvety brown eyes I +loved to kiss, staring and glazed as I dragged his little body to--" + +With a gurgling scream she paused, shivered, panted. + +"It is a feverish dream. Your child is safe in heaven; ask your +Father to let you see his face among the angels." + +"It's not fever; it's the past, my own crimes that come to follow me +to judgment and accuse me. The hand of my first-born pointing over +the last bar at the mother who killed him! Do you wonder I am afraid +to die? I don't deny my bloody deeds--but after all it was a foul +wrong that drove me to desperation; and God knows, man's injustice +brought me to my sin. I was a spoiled, motherless child, married at +sixteen to a man whose family despised me, because my pretty face +had ruined their scheme of a match with an heiress, whose money was +needed to retrieve their fortunes. They never forgave the marriage, +and after a few years, mischief began to brew. + +"I loved my husband, but his nature was too austere to deal +patiently with my freakish, petulant, volcanic temper; and when he +lectured me for my frivolity, obstinacy plunged me into excesses of +gayety, that at heart I did not enjoy. His mother and sister shunned +me more and more, poisoned his mind with wicked and unfounded +suspicions, and so we grew mutually distrustful. He tired of me, and +he showed it. I loved him. Oh! I loved him better, and better, as I +saw him drifting away. He neglected me, spent his leisure where he +met the woman he had once intended to marry. I was so maddened with +jealous heart-ache, some evil spirit prompted me to try and punish +him with the same pangs. That was my first sin of deception; I +pretended an attachment I never felt, hoping to rekindle my +husband's affection. Like many another heart-sick wife, I was caught +in my own snare; and while I was as innocent of any wrong as my own +baby boy, his father was glad of a pretext to excuse his alienation. +People slandered me; and because I loved Allen so deeply, I was too +proud to defend myself, until too late. + +"God is my witness, my husband was the only man I ever loved; ah! +how dear he was to me! His very garments were precious; and I have +kissed and cried over his gloves, his slippers. The touch of his +hand was worth all the world to me, but he withheld it. When you +know your husband loves you, he may ill treat, may trample you under +his feet, but you can forgive him all; you caress the heel that +bruises you. Allen ceased to show me ordinary consideration, stung +me with sneers, threatened separation; even shrunk from the boy, +because he was mine. + +"There came a day, when some fiend forged a letter, and the same +vile hand laid it in my husband's desk. Only God knows whose is the +guilt of that black deed, but I believe it was his sister's work. +Allen cursed me as unworthy to be the mother of his child, and swore +he would be free. On my knees I begged him to hear, and acquit me. I +confessed all my yearning love for him, I assured him I was the +victim of a foul plot; and that if he would only take me back to the +heaven of his heart, he would find that no man ever had a more +devoted wife. He wanted an excuse to put me out of his way; he +repulsed me with scorn, and before the sun set, he forsook me, and +took up his abode with his mother and sister. Oh! the cruel wrong of +that dreadful, parting scene!" + +She sprang from the cot, breathless from the passionate recital, +beating the air with one small slender hand, while the other tore at +the swollen cords of her tortured throat. + +Beryl caught the round, prettily turned wrist, and felt the feeble +thread of pulse that was only a wild flutter, under the olive satin +of the hot skin. + +"This excitement only hastens the end you dread. Lie down, and I +will pray for you." + +"I shall soon lie down for ever. Let me walk a little, before my +feet slide into the grave." + +She staggered twice across the length of the cell, then tottered and +fell back on the cot. At every respiration the thin nostrils flared, +and the glazed ring below the eyes lost its sullen red tinge, took +on blue shadows. + +"I did not know then I was to lose my child also; but before long, +all the scheme was made clear. Allen sued for a divorce. He wanted +to shake me off; and he persuaded himself all the foul things my +enemies had concocted must be true. I had lost his love; I was too +proud to show my torn heart to the world; and men make the laws to +suit themselves, and they help each other to break chains that gall, +so Allen was set free. I shut myself up in two rooms, with my boy, +and saw no one. Even then, though my heart was breaking, and I wept +away the lonely days--longing for the sight of my husband's face, +starving for the sound of his voice--I bore up; because I knew I was +innocent, and unjustly censured, and I had my child to comfort me. +He slept in my arms and kept me human; and we were all the world to +each other. + +"Then the last blow fell. There came a note, whose every word bit my +heart like an adder. Allen demanded the boy, whom the law gave to +his guardianship; and I was warned I must make no attempt to see him +after he was taken away, because he would be taught to forget me. I +refused. I dared the officer to lay hands on my little one, and I +was so frantic with grief, the man had compassion, and left me. Two +nights afterward, I rocked him to sleep and put him in bed. His arms +fell from my neck; half aroused, he nestled his face to mine--kissed +me. I went into the next room, to finish a shirt I was making for +him, and I shut the door, fearing the noise of the machine would +wake him. I sewed half an hour, and--when I went back, the bed was +empty, my child was gone. + +"I think I went utterly mad then. I can remember putting my lips to +the dent on the little ruffled pillow, where his head had lain, and +swearing that I would have my revenge. + +"That night turned me to stone; every tender feeling seemed to +petrify. When I learned that Allen was soon to marry the woman for +whom he had cast me off, and that my boy was to have a new mother to +teach him to hate me, it did not grieve me; I had lost all power of +suffering; but it woke up a legion of fiends where my heart used to +beat, and I bided my time. Happy women in happy homes think me a +monster. With their husbands' arms around them, and their babies +prattling at their knees, they bear my wrongs so meekly, and shudder +at my depravity. When I thought of Allen, who was my first and last +and only love, giving my place to some other woman, who was no more +worthy than I knew myself to be; and of the baby, who had slept on +my heart, and was so dear because he had his father's eyes and his +father's brown curls, growing up to deny and condemn his innocent +but disgraced mother, it was more than I could bear. I was not +insane; oh, no! But I was possessed by more than seven devils; and +revenge was all this world could give me. My husband's family had +ruined me; so I would spoil their match a second time. + +"The wedding was to be very private, but I bribed a servant and got +into the house, and stood behind the damask curtains. Allen's mother +and sister came in, leading my boy; and they were so close to me I +could see the long silky lashes resting against my baby's brow, as +his great brown eyes looked wonderingly at a horseshoe of roses +dangling from the chandelier. Then my husband, my handsome husband-- +my darling's father, walked in, with the bride on his arm, and the +minister met them, saying: 'Dearly beloved--.' I ceased to be a +woman then, I was a fury, a wild beast--and two minutes later my +darlings were mine once more, safe from that other woman--dead at my +feet. Then the ball I aimed at my own breast missed its destination. +I fell on my slaughtered idols; seeing in a bloody mist the wide +eyes of my baby boy, and the mangled face of the husband whose kiss +was the only heaven I shall ever know. I meant to die with them, but +I failed; so they sent me here. That was years ago; but I was a +stone until that day in the chapel, when you sang my Max's song, +'By-and-By'." + +There was a brief silence, and Beryl's voice wavered as she said +very gently: + +"Your trials were fiery; and though the crime was frightfully black, +God judges us according to the natures we are born with, and the +temptations that betray us; and He forgives all, if we are true +penitents and throw ourselves trustingly on His mercy. Now take this +powder; it will make you sleep." + +"Will you stay with me? I shall not trouble anybody much longer. Say +a prayer for my sinful soul, that is going down into the eternal +night." + +"Let us pray together, that your pardoned soul may find blessed and +eternal peace." + +Coming softly to the door, the doctor looked in through the iron +lattice, saw the figure of the nurse kneeling on the sanded floor, +with her bronzed head close to the pillow where the moaning victim's +lay; and involuntarily he took off his cloth cap, and bowed his gray +head to listen to the brief but solemn petition that went up from +the dungeon to the supreme and unerring Judge. + +When he returned to the same spot an hour later, Beryl sat on the +side of the cot, with one hand clasping the brown wrist thrown +across her lap, the other pressed gently over the sufferer's hot, +aching eyes; and wonderfully sweet was the rich voice that chanted +low: + + "Just as I am, without one plea, + But that Thy blood was shed for me. + And that Thou bidd'st me come to Thee, + O Lamb of God! I come, I come! + Just as I am, and waiting not + To rid my soul of one dark blot, + To Thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot, + O Lamb of God! I come, I come!" + +The noon sun was shining over a wet world, kindling into diamonds +the crystal fringe of rain drops hanging from the green lances of +willows, where a tufted red bird arched his scarlet throat in +madrigal--when four men lifted a cot, and bore it with its +apparently dying burden to a spot upon which the warm light fell in +a golden flood. + +Between the Destroying Angel and his gasping prey, stepped two, +anointed with the chrism of the Priesthood of Cure; and undismayed +by the strident, sibilant, fitful breath that distorted the blue +lips of the victim, they parried the sweep of the scythe of death, +with the tiny, glittering steel blade surgery cunningly fashions; +and through its silver canula, tracheotomy recalled the vanishing +spirit, triumphantly renewed the lease of life. + +At sunset on the same day, Beryl followed the warden to the door of +the large hospital. + +"Of all pitiful sights here, this has harrowed me the most. The +doctors did all they could, and the chaplain worked hard to save her +soul, but she was like flint, till just before the end, when she +raised up, and heard her child crying down in the work-room, where +it had been put to sleep. We could scarcely hold her; she fought +like a panther to get out of bed, till the blood gushed from her +nose, and though she could not speak plainly, she pointed, and we +made out: 'Baby--Dovie'. The doctor would not consent that we should +expose the child to the risk, but I could not hold out against that +poor creature's pleading wild eyes, so I just brought the little +one. What a strangling cry she gave, when I put it in her arms, and +how the tears poured! She was almost gone, and we saw that she +wanted to tell us something about the child, but we could not +understand. The doctor put a pencil in her hand, and held a sheet of +paper before her, and she tried to scrawl her wishes, but all we can +read is: 'Her father won't ever own her. Baptize--her Dovie--Eve +Werneth's baby. Don't ever tell her she was born in jail. Raise her +a good--good--.' She had a sort of spasm then, and squeezed the +child so tight, it screamed. In five minutes, she was dead. Only +nineteen years old, and the little one just two years; and not yet +weaned! I don't know what to do; so I brought you. If I touch the +child, it seems frightened almost to death, but maybe you can coax +it away. Poor little thing! What a mercy if it could die!" + +"Will you let me have the care of it? Take it, and keep it up in my +cell?" + +"I shall be only too thankful, if you will lift the load from my +shoulders." + +"Tell the steward to bring me a cup of warm, sweetened milk and a +cracker. The poor little lamb must be almost famished." + +Through an open window streamed the radiance of a daffodil sky, +flecked with curling plumes of drifting fire, and the glory fell +like a benediction on the iron cot, where lay the body of the early +dead; a small, slight, blond girl wearing prematurely the crown of +maternity, whose thorns had torn and stained the smooth brow of mere +childhood. The half-opened eyes, fixed in their filmy blue glaze, +seemed a prayer for the pretty infant, whose head, a glistening +tangle of yellow curls, was nestled down against the bare white +throat of the rigid mother; while the dimpled hands pulled fretfully +at the blood-spattered gown, that was buttoned across the breast. + +As clusters of wild snowy violets springing up in the midst of mud +and mire, in a noxious swamp, look doubly pure and sweet because of +fetid surroundings,--so this blossom of the slums, this human bud, +with petals of innocence folded close in the calyx of babyhood, +seemed supremely and pathetically fair, as she stood leaning against +the cot, the little rosy feet on tip-toe, pressing toward her +mother; tears on the pink velvet of the round cheeks, on the golden +lashes beneath the big blue eyes that grew purplish behind the mist. + +The Macedonia of suffering humanity lies always within a stone's +throw; and the "cry for help" had found speedy response in more than +one benevolent heart. + +A gray-haired widow from the "Sheltering Arms," to which Sister +Serena belonged, and a Sister of Charity from the hospital in X---, +were already ministering tenderly in the crowded ward; and both had +essayed to coax away the little figure clutching her mother's gown; +but the flaring white cap of one, and the flapping black drapery of +the other, frightened the trembling child. + +Into the group stole Beryl; followed closely by the yellow cat, +which had become her shadow. Kneeling beside the baby, she kissed it +softly, took one of the hands, patted her own cheek with it, and +lifted the cat to the mattress, where it began to purr. The silky +shock of yellow curls was lifted, the wide eyes stared wonderingly +first at Beryl's face bending near, then at the cat; and by degrees, +the lovely waif suffered an arm to draw her farther and farther, +while her rose-red mouth parted in a smile, that showed six little +teeth, and with one hand fastened in the cat's fur, she was finally +lifted and borne away; Beryl's soft cheek nestled against hers, the +bronzed head bent down to the yellow ringlets; one arm holding the +baby and the cat, while the other white hand closed warmly over the +child's bare, cold, dimpled feet. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + +Fair and flowery as in the idyllic dawn when Theocritus sang its +pafatoral charms, was that sunny Sicilian land where, one May +morning, Leo Gordon wandered with a gay party in quest of historic +sites, which the slow silting of the stream of time had not +obliterated. Viewed from the heights of Achradina, whence all the +vestiges of magnificence and luxury have vanished, and only the +hideous monument of "man's inhumanity to man" remains, what a vast +panorama stretched far as the horizon on every side. + +To the north, girding the fire-furrowed plain of Catania where +olive, lemon, oleander and orange springing out of black lava, +mingled hues like paints on an ebony palette--rose vast, lonely, +purple at base, snowy at summit, brooding Etna; dozing in the soft, +sweet springtime, with red, wrathful eyes veiled by a silvery haze. +An unlimited expanse of crinkling blue sea, shot like Persian silk +with gleams of gold, and laced here and there with foam scallops, +bounded the east; smiling treacherously above the ghastly wreck +sepultured in its coral crypts, that might have told of the crash of +triremes, the flames of sinking galleys, which twenty-two centuries +ago lit the bloody waves that closed over slaughtered hosts. + +Westward lay green, wimpling vales, studded with laurel, arched with +vine-draped pergolas, dotted widi flocks, dimpled with reedy marshes +where red oxen browsed; and beyond the pale pink flush of almond +groves-- + +"A smoke of blue olives, a vision of towers." + +Bucolic paradise of Battus and Bombyce, of Corydon and Daphnis, may +it please the hierophants of Sanskrit lore, of derivative Aryan +philology, of iconoclastic euhemerism, to spare us yet awhile the +lovely myths that dance across the asphodel meads of sunny Sicily. + +On the verge of the parapet of the Latomia, where the breath of the +sirocco, the gnawing tooth of time, and the slow ravelling of rain +had serrated the ledge, stood Leo, gazing into the dizzying depths +of the charnel house that swarmed with the ghosts of nine thousand +men, who once were huddled within its stony embrace. + +As if pitying nature had striven to appease the manes of the +unburied dead, a pall of luxuriant ivy and glossy acanthus covered +the bottom and sides of the quarry, one hundred feet below; but out +of the dust of centuries stared the rayless eyes of corpses, and the +gaunt despairing faces seemed still uplifted, now in invocation, +anon in imprecation to the overarching sky, where blistering suns +mocked them by day, and glittering moons and silver stars paused in +their westward march through dewy night, to tell them tantalizing +tales of how musically Aegean wavelets broke against the marbles at +Piraeus; how loud the nightingales sang in the plane and poplar +groves at home; how the white glory of the Parthenon smiled down on +violet-crowned Athens, where their wives and children thronged the +temples, in sacrificial rites to insure their safety. + +In crevices of the perpendicular walls lush creepers tapestried the +gray stone, and far down, out of the mould of the subterranean +dungeon, sprang slim lemon trees snowed over with fragrant bloom, +clumps of oleander waving banners of vivid rose, and golden-green +pomegranate bushes, where scarlet flakes glowed like the wings of +tropical birds. + +"Well, is the game worth the candle? After voyaging thousands of +miles, do you feel repaid; or down there, in the heart of the +desolation, do you see only the grinning mask of jeering +disappointment, which generally follows American realists into the +dusty haunts of Old World idealism?" + +As she spoke, Alma Cutting stepped back under the cool canopy of a +spreading fig-tree, and fanned herself with a tuft of papyrus +leaves. She was a tall, handsome woman, pronouncedly brunette in +type, with large black eyes whose customary indolent indifference of +expression did not entirely veil the fires "banked" under the velvet +iris; and a square, firm mouth, around whose full crimson lips +lurked a certain haughtiness, that despite the curb of good +breeding, bordered at times closely upon insolence. Thirty years had +tripped over this dark head, where the hair, innocent of crimp or +curl, hung in a straight jet fringe low on her wide forehead; and +though no lines marred the smooth, health-tinted skin, she was +perceptibly "sun burnt by the glare of life," and the dew of youth +had vanished before the vampire lips of ennui. + +"Disappointed? Certainly not; and I were exacting and unreasonable +indeed, if I did not feel abundantly repaid. Alma, since the days +when I pored over Thucydides, Plutarch, Rollin and Grote, this spot +has beckoned to my imagination with all the uplifted hands of the +nine thousand captives; and the longing of years is to-day +completely gratified." + +"Am I unusually stupid, or are you rapt, beyond the realm of reason +and mid-day common sense? Pray what is the fascination? It is +neither so vast, nor so picturesque as the Colosseum. There, one +expects to hear the roar of the beasts springing on their human +prey; the ring of steel on steel, when the gladiators have bowed +like dancing-masters to the bloated old bald-headed Neros and +Vespasians; and you fancy that you smell the fountains of perfume +that toss their spray from tier to tier; and see the rainbow of the +silk awning flapping overhead. Better than all, you imagine you can +watch the ravishing toilettes of the Faustinas, and Fulvias and +Messalinas who flirt with the handsome, straight-nosed beaux so +immensely classical in their togas; and when their thunder-browed +husbands unexpectedly step in behind, it is so easy to conjecture +the sudden change of theme, as they spread their fans to cover the +message just written on their ivory tablets, and straightway fall to +clawing the characters of all the Cornelias, and Calpurnias, and +Octavias and Julia Domnas, and other respectable wives! All that I +quite enjoyed because I understood. Eight years' campaigning in New +York, and London and Paris would teach even an idiot that nineteenth +century 'best society' can lift you so close to the naughtiness of +the golden Roman era, that one only has to strain a very little on +tip-toe, to feel at one's ease with the jeunesse doree of dead ages. +Here--what do you find in a huge stone well sunk into the bowels of +the earth? About as enticing as a plunge into a dry cistern, +suddenly unroofed? If spectres we must hunt, do let them be festive, +like those Faust danced with on the Brocken!" + +"You should be ashamed, Alma! Miss Gordon is the very soul of +courteous toleration, or she would resent the teasing goad of your +Philistinism," cried the brother, Rivers Cutting, who in his new +style yachting suit of blue cloth appeared veritably the jaunty +genius of fashionable modernity, confronting the ghost of antiquity. + +"You forget, Rivers, some of the sage dicta you brought back from +the 'Summer School of Philosophy', when you followed your last +Boston flame to Concord, where she went poaching on the sacred +preserves of the 'Illuminati,' hunting a new sensation. 'We must be +as courteous to human beings as we are to a picture, which we are +willing to give the advantage of a good light.' Now being Leo's very +sincere friend, and knowing that the supreme moment of her facial +triumph is when, like a startled fawn, she opens her eyes wide in +horrified amazement at some inconceivable heresy, do you suppose I +am so recreant to loyalty as to fail in providing her occasionally +with the necessary Gorgon, ethical or archaeolegical, as +surroundings warrant? + +"History was never the fetich of my girlhood, and that quartette of +dry-as-dust worthies whom Leo carries around in leash, as other +women carry pugs and poodles, came near giving me meningitis in my +tender years. My first governess, a Puritan spinster, full of zeal, +and conscientiously bent on earning her wages, by exercising my +brains to their utmost capacity, undertook to introduce me to all +the highly immoral personages and practices that made the Punic Wars +famous. By way of making Imilco a lifelong acquaintance, she +illustrated the siege of Agrigentum by a huge, hideous image of +Phalaris' 'Brazen Bull,' drawn with chalk on the school-room +blackboard. + +"A wonderful beast it certainly was; that taurus with head lowered, +tail lashing the air, one hoof pawing savagely, worthy +representative of all the horrors it typified, and which she +explained with maddening perspicuity. That night, when papa tore +himself away from the club room at one o'clock, and met mamma on the +doorstep--just coming home from a supper at Delmonico's after an +opera party--they were ascending the stairs, when frantic cries +drove from her ears the echoes of 'Traviata's' witching strain. +Thinking only a conflagration would justify the din, papa threw up +the hall sash and shouted 'fire!' and the police sounded the alarm, +and all pandemonium broke loose. Investigation discovered me, +wriggled half way down to the foot of my bed, buried under the +blankets, and shrieking 'Perillus' Bull! I am roasting in the Brass +Bull!' Being not very ardent disciples of Clio, my solicitous +parents failed to understand the nightmare; hence cracked ice was +folded over my head (mid-winter), and the family physician ordered a +mustard plaster half a yard long, down my spine. I vividly remember +Imilco, and the bovine fury pawing the blackboard; but of the three +Punic Wars, then and there tabooed, I recall only the brass monster +at Agrigentum. Leo, when we reach Girgenti, the remaining Mecca of +your historic hopes, some time to-morrow, you will understand why, +instead of climbing to the temples of the cliff, I shall lock the +door of our cabin, and drown the bellowing of the beast in Daudet's +new book." + +"I wish, indeed I do, that you had staid there to-day, instead of +coming ashore to dampen all our ardor and enthusiasm by your +constant thin drizzle of scorn. One should suppose that in this +idyllic region, some ray of poetic warmth must melt your frigid, +scoffing soul. Daudet suits my sister far better than Theocritus," +answered her brother, fastening a sprig of orange blossom in his +button hole. + +Pushing back her sailor hat, Alma looked obliquely at him from +beneath her drooping lids. + +"Try me. Perhaps infection haunts the air. Spare us the Greek, come +down from your Yale and Harvard heights to the level of my +ignorance, and warble for me in English some of your Sicilian lark's +melodies. At least I have heard of Amaryllis and Simaetha." + +Mr. Cutting shook his head. + +"What--? Ashamed of your bucolic hobby! No wonder--since after all +it's only a goat. I dare you, brother mine, to produce me a +Theocritan fragment." + +"Take the consequences of your rash levity; though I have a dawning +suspicion some 'Imp of the Perverse' has coached you for the +occasion." + +He stroked his mustache, pondered a moment, then struck an attitude, +and declaimed: + +"I go a serenading to Amaryllis; what time my flocks browse on the +mountains, and Tityrus drives them. Tityrus beloved of me in the +highest degree, feed my flocks and lead them to the fountain, etc." + +Mimicking his tone exactly, Alma finished the line: + +"And mind, Tityrus, that tawny Libyan he-goat lest he butt thee!' +Come, Rivers; free translation is allowable, considering +surroundings, but not garbling; and every time you know you +substituted flocks for goats. Proceed, and do not insult your pet +author with emendations." + +With his hat on the back of his head, and his thumbs in the armholes +of his vest, Mr. Cutting resumed: + + "Sweet Amaryllis! though by death defiled, + Thee shall I ne'er forget; dear to my heart + As are my frisking goats, thou did'st depart. + To what a lot--was I, unhappy, born!" + +Again the mocking voice responded: + + "But see! yon calves devour + The olive branches. Pelt them off I pray. + +"Confound the calves! 'St--! you white-skin thief--away!' Thanks, no +more at present. Doubtless it sounds very fine in Greek, because +then, I could not possibly understand that it is the melody and the +rhythmic dance of bleating calves, and capering goats. Here come the +stragglers laden with plunder. Oh, papa! Do give me those exquisite +acacia clusters." + +"My dear, I have ordered luncheon spread down there, in that strange +garden. It is the queerest place imaginable; and looking up, the +effect is quite indescribable." + +"Have you had the skulls polished for drinking cups, and printed the +menus on cross-bones? What shocking taste to add insult to injury by +spreading all our wealth of canned dainties on the very stones where +sit the ghosts of those who perished from hunger and thirst! +Eminently Dantesque, but the sacrilege appalls Leo. She would sooner +attend an oyster supper, or a clam-bake in the Catacombs, or--" +bowing to a young Englishman standing near, "lead a German in the +Poets' corner of Westminster Abbey. My dear girl, under which flag +do you fight? Athenian, Roman, Carthagenian, Syracusan? + +"The child of a man who fell in defence of his own fireside, could +scarcely fail to sympathize with the holy cause of the invaded; yet +here, in view of the horrors inflicted upon the captives, one almost +leans to Athens. It seems to me the most enduring monument of +Syracusan glory survives in the eloquent protest of Nicolaus against +her cruelty; especially when we recollect that it came from one who, +of all others, had most to forgive. Old, decrepit, unable to walk, +the venerable sorrow-laden man whose only children, two sons, had +died fighting to save Syracuse--was carried on a litter into the +midst of the shouting thousands, who were drunk with the wine of +victory. 'Behold an unhappy father, who has most cause to detest the +Athenians, the authors of this war, the murderers of my children! +But I am less sensible of my private afflictions than of the honor +of my country, when I see it ready to expose itself to eternal +infamy by violating the law of nations, and dishonoring our victory +by barbarous cruelty. What! Will you tarnish your glory, and have +all the world say that a nation who first dedicated a temple in +their city, to Clemency, found none in yours? Triumphs and victories +do not give immortal glory to a city; but the use of moderation in +the greatest prosperity, the exercise of mercy toward a vanquished +enemy, the fear of offending the gods by a haughty and insolent +pride.' What a theme for Dore or Munkacsy?" + +"Thank you ever so much, Miss Gordon, for brushing away the library +dust from that historic cameo. I had so utterly forgotten it lay in +the musty tomes, that it has all the charm of a curio." Mr. Cutting +took off his hat, and bowed. + +"Acknowledgments are due rather to my cousin, Dr. Douglass, who +called my attention to the passage. The best of all things good +abide with him; and out of his overflowing store, he shares with the +needy. Only last night he reminded me of an illustration of the +vanitas vanitatum of human fame and national gratitude, to be found +over yonder in the necropolis. Less than a hundred and forty years +after his death, Archimedes was so completely forgotten by the city +he had immortalized, that Syracuse denied he was buried on her soil; +and a foreigner had the honor of clearing away rubbish and brambles, +in order to show the grave to his own countrymen." + +Leighton Douglass handed to his cousin a bunch of the delicate lilac +blossoms of acanthus, tied with a wisp of some ribbon-like grass, +and taking off his spectacles, replied: + +"Leo unduly exalts my memory at the expense of her own; and we have +all levied heavily on her fund of topographical accuracy." + +"If I travel much longer with two such learned and philosophical +scholars, I shall inevitably degenerate into an intellectual +Dodder," yawned Alma. + +"Into a what?" asked her father. + +"A Dodder, sir. Pray, papa, be more considerate than to force Doctor +Douglass to believe that instead of listening to the sermon he +preached us last year, you either slept ignominiously throughout its +delivery, or else allowed your unregenerate thoughts to dwell on +those devices of Lucifer, 'puts,' 'calls, 'spreads,' 'corners, +'spots' and 'futures'. Of course you remember that he believes in +evolution? There was a time, even in my extremely recent day, when +that word was more frightful to the orthodox than a ton of nitro- +glycerine; was to the elect, a fouler abomination even than opera +bouffe and the can can. But 'the thoughts of men are widened with +the process of the suns', and now it appears that the immortal soul +of us must be evolved, somewhat in the same fashion as protoplasm, +and unless we fight for 'survival' elsewhere, we shall not be +numbered among the spirited 'fittest', but degenerate into +parasites, dodders, backsliders. So, drawing nutriment from the +Doctor's historic brains, and from Leo's, I fall back into worse +than a dodder, a torpid violator of the Law of Work, a hopeless +Sacculina! Doctor Douglass, it was the bravest hour of your life +when you stood up in--church pulpit, and told us the scientists whom +we were wont to regard as more dreadful than the cannibals and +Calmucks, are only a devoted sect of truth seekers, preaching from +older texts, and drawing nearer and nearer to the kingdom of Heaven. +To throw that ethical bomb, required more courage than Balaklava." + +"Mine was merely a feeble attempt to follow out the analogical +reasoning of one of the most original and scientific thinkers of +our day in Great Britain; but the fact that you recall so correctly +the line of argument in a sermon delivered more than a year ago, is +certainly complimentary assurance of at least approximate success in +my effort." + +"After all, I am sorry I humored Leo's whim, and persuaded papa to +bring us here." + +"Why, my dear? We are enjoying it immensely," said her father. + +"Because Syracuse has proved my 'crumpled rose leaf', by destroying +the prestige of the 'Cleopatra'. Hitherto, I deemed our yacht quite +the most complete and gorgeous floating palace since the days of its +highly improper namesake's marauding sails on the Cydnus." + +"And so she is; there is nothing afloat comparable to her in speed, +appointments, comfort and beauty," interrupted Mr. Cutting, + +"Poor papa! How he bristles at the bare suggestion of rivalry. Be +comforted, sir, in the knowledge that at least we shall not be run +down by a phantom cruiser. It is very humiliating to American pride- +-after winning the international prizes, and boasting so +inordinately, to find out that we are only about--how many +centuries, Leo?--twenty-five centuries behind Syracuse in building +pleasure crafts. Think of a superb cabin with staterooms containing +beds (not bunks) for one hundred and twenty guests, and the floors +all covered with agates and other precious stones, that formed a +mosaic copy of the Iliad! If you wished to emphasize a discussion on +connubial devotion, behold! there on your right, Andromache and +Hector; if one's husband objected to a harmless flirtation, lo! on +the left, Agamemnon and Briseis; and to point the moral of 'pretty +is, as pretty does'--how very convenient to indicate with the tip of +your satin slipper, the demure figure of Helen standing on the +walls, to watch the duel between Menelaus and Paris! Fancy the +consolation a person of my indolent Sacculina temperament might have +derived from the untimely fate of Cassandra, oppressed with +knowledge in advance of her day and generation! There was the +gymnasium for the beaux; and for the belles bona fide gardens, with +walks and arbors covered with ivy and flowering vines whose roots +rested in great stone vessels filled with earth. Imagine the boudoir +and bathrooms paved with precious stones, encrusted with carved +ivory and statues--" + +"Pooh! Alma. That rigmarole is not in the guide books. Come, Dixon +is waving his handkerchief down there, as a signal that luncheon is +ready." + +"I prefer to wait here. Alma, bring me some anemones, and a sprig of +ivy from the circular garden, when you come back," said Leo. + +Doctor Douglass drew closer, and asked: + +"Will you let me stay also, and enjoy with you the wonderful charm +of this opalescent air, this beautiful cincturing sea?" + +"I would rather be alone. Solitude is a luxury rarely allowed on a +yacht cruise; and I want a few quiet moments. By day, poor Aunt +Patty has so much to tell me; at night, Alma is a chattering owl." + +There are hours when the ghost of a happy past, from which we have +persistently fled, constrains us to give audience; and Leo +surrendered herself to memories that brought a very mournful shadow +into her brave brown eyes. Thirteen months had passed since her +departure from X---and despite changing scenes and novel incidents, +she could not escape the haunting face that met her on mountains, +was mirrored in every sea; the brilliant mesmeric face set in its +frame of crisp black locks, with dark blue eyes whose intense lustre +had the cold, hard gleam of jewels. Sleeping or waking, always that +dear, powerful face daring her to forget. + +When Doctor Douglass and Miss Patty joined the yacht party at +Palermo, the former had brought a letter and a package, which sorely +tested Leo's strength of will. Leaning to-day against the twisted +body of an old olive tree, she opened and read once more, the final +message. + +"When Leighton places this sheet in your hands, the year of release +which I could not refuse you, will have expired. Once your noble +heart was wholly mine; and the proudest moment of my life was, and +will be, that in which you promised to be my wife. All that you ever +were, you shall always remain to me; and if you can confide your +happiness to my keeping, I will never betray the sacred trust. Life +has grown sombre to me, during the past eighteen months; and the +only companionship that I can hope to cheer it, you alone can bring +me. I have not willingly or intentionally forfeited your confidence; +but that I have suffered, I shall not deny. If you love me, as in +days gone by, our future rests once more in your hands; and you must +renew the pledges that at your request I surrendered. In behalf of +our past, I beg that you will retain the ring, hallowed forever by +the touch of your hand; and its acceptance will typify, if not a +renewal of our engagement, at least the perpetuity of a sacred +friendship. Awaiting your final decision, I am, my dear Leo, + +"Yours as of yore, LENNOX." + +All that she had ever been; no more. The graceful, well-bred heiress +whom he admired, who commanded his profoundest respect, whom he had +known from his boyhood, and who of all others he had desired should +preside over his home and wear his name; but not the woman who +reigned in his heart; whose touch had lighted the glowing tenderness +that so transfigured his countenance, as she saw it that day, +bending over a sick convict in a penitentiary. + +He offered her formal allegiance, and that pale phantom of affection +grounded in reverence, which is to the ardent love that a true woman +demands in exchange for her own, as-- + +"Moonlight unto sunlight; and as water unto wine." + +She knew that he was no willing victim of a fascination, which had +audaciously deranged his carefully mapped campaign of life; that he +would have set his heel on his own insurgent heart, had it been +possible; and she honored him for the stern integrity that forbade +his affectation of a warmth of feeling which she was now conscious +she had never evoked. + +Accepting the theory that the young convict was sustained and +animated by her devotion to a guilty lover, Leo fully understood +that Lennox, even were he mad enough to sacrifice his pride, could +indulge no expectation of ever winning the love of the prisoner; and +despite her efforts to regard their rupture as final, she had +faintly hoped that he would cross the ocean, and in person urge a +renewal of the betrothal. The test of absence had proved as +effectual as she intended it should be, and his letter proclaimed +the humiliating fact, that while honor inspired him to hold out his +wrists for conjugal manacles, honor equally constrained him to spare +her the wrong and insult of insincere professions of tenderness. + +Had she found it possible to condemn him as unworthy, it would have +diminished the pain of surrendering the brightest hope of her life; +for contempt is the balm a lofty soul offers a bruised heart, but +she was just, even in her anguish; and that when barbed the arrow, +was the mortifying consciousness that compassion for her was the +strongest motive which dictated the carefully phrased letter. She +was far too proud to parley with the temptation to accept the shadow +in lieu of the substance; and twenty-four hours after the arrival of +the final appeal, her answer was speeding with wings of steam across +the ocean. + +"DEAR LENNOX: + +"My heart overflows with gratitude for all the affectionate +interest, the kind solicitude, the innumerable thoughtful attentions +you have so indefatigably shown to Aunt Patty, in the sad +complication of misfortunes that so suddenly overwhelmed her; and I +feel the inadequacy of any attempt to express my thanks. Your letter +can only rivet more indissolubly the links of an affectionate +friendship that must always bind you and me; but the future can hold +no renewal of pledges which I feel assured would conduce neither to +your happiness, nor to mine. Let us embalm the past and bury it +tenderly; raising no mound to trip our friendly feet in years to +come. The serenity of our future might be marred by retrospective +gleams of the beautiful ring that once enclosed two lives; hence, I +have ordered the diamonds reset in the form of a four-leaved clover, +which will be sent to dear Kittie as an auspicious omen. + +"With undiminished esteem, and unshaken confidence, and with a +prayer for your happiness, which will always be dear to me, I +remain, + +"Your sincerely attached friend, + +"LEO." + +The majority of men, and a large class of women, bury their dead, +and straightway begin assiduously the cultivation of all that +promises oblivion; but Leo's nature was deeper, more intense; and +while she made no audible moan, and shed no tears, she accepted the +fact that earthly existence had lost its coveted crown, and that her +aching heart was the dark grave of a beautiful hope that could know +no resurrection. To-day she asked herself: "What shall I do with my +life?" + +Upon the warm air, sweet with the breath of lemon flowers, floated +the peculiar, jeering, yet subdued and musical laughter, which told +that Alma had flown straight at some luckless quarry. She held in +one hand a cluster of crimson anemones, and purple stars of +periwinkle, and walking between two English gentlemen, whose yacht, +the "Albatross", lay anchored close to the "Cleopatra" in the harbor +below, slowly approached Leo, saying: + +"Don't stone your prophets. Especially one hedged about with the +triple sanctity of Brasenose! 'Consider that thy marbles are but the +earth's callosities, thy gold and silver its faeces; thy silken robe +but a worm's bedding; and thy purple an unclean fish.' That is one +sugar-coated pill that I administer to my humility now and then to +keep it healthy. Hear him again;--'sitting on the marble bench of +one of the exhedrea on the edge of the Appian Way, close to the +fragrant borders of a rose farm': 'So it is, with the philosophers; +all alike are in search of happiness, what kind of thing it is. It +is pleasure, it is virtue; what not? All philosophers, so to speak, +are but fighting about the ass' shadow. I saw one who poured water +into a mortar, and ground it with all his might with a pestle of +iron, fancying he did a thing useful; but it remained water only, +none the less.' Stoicism, hedonism, the gospel of 'Sweetness and +Light'; what is it, may I ask, that your aesthetic priests furnish, +to feed immortal British souls? Knee breeches, sun flowers, niello, +cretonne, Nanking bowls, lily dados? To us it savors sorrowfully of +that which one of your prophets foreshadowed, 'Despair, baying as +the poet heard her, in the ruins of old Rome'." + +"Beg pardon, Miss Cutting; but you quite surprise me. The tone of +many American papers and magazines led us to suppose, really, that +the rosy dawn of Culture was beginning to flush the night of +Philistinism brooding over your Western world." + +"Believe it not. Primeval gloom, raw realism so weigh upon our +apathetic souls, that we rub our eyes and stare at sight of your +aesthetic catechism: 'Harmony, but no system; instinct, but no +logic; eternal growth and no maturity; everlasting movement, and +nothing attained; infinite possibilities of everything; the becoming +all things, the being nothing.' We have too much Philistine honesty +to pretend that we understand that, but like other ambitious parrots +we can commit to memory. One of your seers tells us that: +'Renaissance art will make our lives like what seems one of the +loveliest things in nature, the iridescent film on the face of +stagnant water!' Now it will require at least a decade, to train us +to appreciate the subtile symphonies of ditch slime. An English +friend compassionating my American stupidity, essayed to initiate me +in the cult of 'culture', and gave me a leaf to study, from the +latter-day gospel. I learned it after a time, as I did the +multiplication table. 'Culture steps in, and points out the +grossness of untempered belief. It tells us the beauty of +picturesque untruth; the grotesqueness of unmannerly conviction; +truth and error have kissed each other in a sweet, serener sphere; +this becomes that, and that is something else. The harmonious, the +suave, the well bred waft the bright particular being into a +peculiar and reserved parterre of paradise, where bloom at once the +graces of Panthism, the simplicity of Deism, and the pathos of +Catholicism; where he can sip elegances and spiritualities from +flowerets of every faith!' Fancy my crass ignorance, when I assure +you that I actually laughed over that verbal syllabub, thinking it +intended as a famous bit of satire." + +"Then it is pathetically true that reverence for the Renaissance has +not crossed the Atlantic?" asked one of the "Albatross" party, who +with his sketch book half open, was surreptitiously making an +"impressionist" view of Leo's profile, as she stood listening to +Alma's persiflage, and mechanically arranging her lilac acanthus +blossoms. + +"Devoted British colporteurs have philanthropically scattered a few +art primers and tracts, and there is a possibility that in the near +future, our people may search the maps for Orvieto, and the +dictionaries for Campo Santo, to compass the mysteries of the +'Triumph of Death', and of 'Symmetria Prisca'. Some of us have even +heard of 'Aucassin et Nicolette', and of 'Nencia da Barberino', +picking salad in her garden; and I am almost sure a Vassar girl once +spoke to me of Delia Quercia's Ilaria; but with all my national +pride, candor compels me to admit that it is a 'far cry' to the day +when we can devoutly fall on our knees before the bronze Devil of +Giovanni da Bologna. Aesthetic paupers, we sit on the lowest bench +at the foot of the class, in your Dame's Art School, to learn the +alphabet of the wonderful Renaissance; and in our chastened and +reverent mood, it almost takes our breath away when your high- +priestess unrolls the last pronunciamento, and tells us her +startling story of 'Euphorion!' Why? Ah!--don't you know? The +Puritan leaven of prudery, and the stern, stolid, phlegmatic decorum +of Knickerbockerdom mingle in that consummate flower of the +nineteenth century occident, the 'American Girl', who pales and +flushes at sight of the carnival of the undraped--in English art and +literature. Here, Leo, take your anemones; red, are they not, as the +blood once chilled down yonder, in that huge stone kennel? Dr. +Douglass has the ivy root; and he and I have concluded, that after +all, Syracuse was not more cruel here in the Latomia, than some +States in America, where convicts are leased to mining companies, +and kept quarrying coal, without even the sweet consolation of +staring up at this magical blue sky. We leave hideous moral and +physical leprosy at home, and come here to shed dilettante tears +over classic tatters twenty-five centuries old! O immortal and +ubiquitous Tartufe!" + +As Leo walked with her cousin toward the spot, where the "Cleopatra" +rose and fell on the crest of waves racing before Libeccio, she +suddenly laid her hand on his arm. + +"Leighton, I have decided to leave the yacht at Venice and take Aunt +Patty to Udine for rest and quiet. When summer is over, I shall be +ready to make arrangements for the journey to Syria and Egypt, and +you must complete your church mission to England in time to +accompany us to Jerusalem." + +"Is this your itinerary, or Aunt Patty's?" + +"She has set her heart upon it; and it will be agreeable to me." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + +Is it true that in abstract valuation, "the bird in hand, is worth +two in the bush?" + +We stand beneath a loaded apricot tree, and would give all the +bushel within reach, for one crimson satin globe pendent on the +extreme tip of the most inaccessible bough; and the largest, +luscious, richest colored orange always glows defiantly, high up, +close to the body of the tree, hedged away from our eager grasp by +its impenetrable chevaux de frise of bristling thorns. The wonderful +water lily we covet is smiling on its green cushion of leaves just +beyond the danger line, where death lurks; the rhododendron flame +that burned brightest amid surrounding floral fires, and lured us, +springs from the crevice of some beetling precipice, waving a +challenge over fatal chasms that bar possession; and with fretful +dissatisfaction we repine, because the colors of the feathered +captives in our gilt cages are so dull, so faded in comparison with +their brothers, flashing wings of scarlet, and breasts of vivid blue +high in the sunlight of God's free air. + +The gold and silver dust that powder velvet butterflies, tarnish at +a touch, stain the fingers that clutch them; and the dewy bloom on +purple and amber grape clusters, never survives the handling of the +vintager. + +Leaning back in the revolving chair in front of his office desk, Mr. +Dunbar slowly tore into strips a number of notes and letters, and +suffered the fragments to fall into a waste basket somewhat faded, +yet much too elegant to harmonize with its surroundings. + +When Leo quilted the lining of ruby silk and knotted the ribbons +that tied it to the wicker lace work, love pelted her cheek with +roses, and happy hope sang so loud in her ear, that she could not +have divined the cruel fact that she was preparing the dainty +coffin, destined to receive the mutilated remains of a betrothal, +that typified supreme earthly happiness to her. One by one dropped +the shreds of Leo's last message from Palermo, like torn crumpled +petals of a once beloved and sacred flower; and the faint, delicate +perfume that clung to the fragments, was one which Mr. Dunbar +recognized as characteristic of the library at the "Lilacs". The +contents of the farewell note had in no degree surprised him; for +though fully persuaded that her heart was irrevocably pledged to the +past, he was equally sure that only the ardor he scorned to feign, +would avail to melt the wall of ice her outraged pride had built +between them. There were times when he deplored bitterly the loss of +her companionship; at others he exulted in the consciousness of +perfect freedom to indulge an overmastering love, amenable to no +chastisement by violated loyalty. He had scrupulously endeavored, by +careful employment of forms of deference, to spare his betrothed as +far as possible, the stinging humiliation and anguish which every +woman suffers, when the man whom she loves shows her that she fills +only a subordinate and insignificant place in his affection; and +yet, while her nobler nature commanded his homage, and the +brilliancy of the alliance seems to jeer at his blind fatuity, his +heart throbbed and yearned with an intolerable longing for one upon +whom the world had set the seal of an ineradicable disgrace. + +Nature and education had made him a coldly calculating man, jealous +of his honor, but immersed in schemes for his own aggrandizement, +and superbly invulnerable to the blandishments of sentimentality; +hence his amazement, when the deep and engrossing love of his life +burned away that selfishness which was citadel of his affections. +Because his infatuation had cost him so much, that was alluring +alike to vanity, pride, and ambition, a fierce hunger for revenge +possessed him; and herein differs the nature of the love of men and +women; the one can sacrifice itself for the happiness of the +beloved; the other will crucify its darling to appease jealous pangs +in view of happiness it can neither inspire nor share. + +"Good morning, Churchill. Come in. Glad to see you. Sit down." + +"When did you get back, Lennox?" + +"Last night." + +"Well, what luck?" + +"A rather leaky promise. Kneading slag or cold pig iron into +Bessemer steel would be about as easy as pounding the law of +evidence into the Governor's brains. I emphasized the moral weight +of the petition, by calling his attention to the signatures of the +judge, jury, prosecuting counsel and especially of Prince, who +presumably has most to forgive. The memorial of the inspectors, +warden and physician was appended, and constituted a eulogy upon the +behavior and character of the prisoner; especially the heroic +service rendered by her during the recent fatal epidemic. Human +nature is an infernally vexing bundle of paradoxes, and when a man +throws his conscience in your teeth, what then? The argument from +which I hoped most, proved a Greek horse, and well-nigh wrought +ruin. When I dwelt upon the fact that the prisoner had voluntarily +conveyed to Prince all right and title to the fortune, which was +supposed to have tempted her to commit the crime, he bristled like a +Skye terrier, and grandiloquently assured me he valued his +'prerogative as something too sacred to be prostituted to nepotism!' +Prince being his cousin, a readiness to exercise Executive clemency +by pardoning the prisoner, might be construed into a species of +bargain and sale; and his Excellency could not condone a crime +merely because the culprit had relinquished a fortune to his +relative. Braying an ordinary fool in a mortar is an unpromising +job; but an extraordinary official leatherhead, PLUS thin-skinned +conscience, and religious scruples, requires the upper and nether +mill stone. You know, Churchill, it is tough work to straighten a +crooked ramrod." + +"I see; a case of moral curvature of the spine. When he was +inaugurated last December, I chanced to be at the Capital, and heard +two old codgers from the piney woods felicitating the State upon +having a Governor, 'Fit to tie to; honest as the day is long, and +walks so straight, he is powerful swaybacked.' Dunbar, did he refuse +outright?" + +"He holds the matter in abeyance for maturer deliberation; but +promises that, unless he sees cogent reasons to the contrary, he may +grant a pardon when eighteen months of the sentence have expired. +That will be the last week in August, and almost two years since she +was thrown into prison. I should have made application to his +predecessor, Glenbeigh, had I not been so confident of overtaking +the man who killed Gen'l Darrington; but the clue that promised so +much merely led me astray. I went with the detective down into the +mines, and found the man, who certainly had a hideous facial +deformity, but he was gray as a badger, and moreover proved an +ALIBI, having been sick with small-pox in the county pest-house on +the night of the murder. It is a tedious hunt, but I will not be +balked of my game. I will collar that wretch some day, and meantime +I will get the pardon." + +"I hope so; for I shall never feel easy until that poor girl is set +free. The more I hear of her deportment and character, especially of +the religious influence she seems to be exerting through some Bible +readings she holds among the female convicts, the more painfully am +I oppressed with the conviction that we all committed a sad blunder, +and narrowly escaped hanging an innocent woman." + +"Speak for yourself. I disclaim complicity in the disgraceful wrong +of the conviction." + +"Well, I confess I would rather stand in your place than mine; +especially since my wife's brother Garland was called in as +consulting physician, last month at the penitentiary. He has so +stirred her sympathies for the woman whom he pronounces a paragon of +all the virtues and graces, that I begin to fidget now at the sound +of the prisoner's name, and can hardly look my wife straight in the +face. When I go up to court next week, I will call on the Governor, +and add a personal appeal to the one I have already signed. +According to the evidence, she is guilty; but when justice is +vindicated, one can afford to listen to the dictates of pity. Now, +Dunbar, let me congratulate you on your recent good luck. We hear +wonderful accounts of your new fortune." + +"Rumor always magnifies such matters; still it is true that I have +inherited a handsome estate." "Does your sister share equally?" + +"A very liberal legacy was left to her, but you are aware that I was +named for my mother's brother, Randall Lennox, and he has for many +years regarded me as his heir; hence, gave me the bulk of the +property." + +"It is rather strange that he never married. I recall him as a very +distinguished looking man." + +"He had a love affair very early in life, while at college, with the +daughter of his Greek professor. Surreptitiously he took her to +drive one afternoon, and the horse became frightened, ran away and +killed the girl. He was a peculiar man, and seems never to have +swerved from his allegiance to her memory." + +"I hope it is not true that the conditions of the will require you +to remove from X---and settle in New Orleans? We can't afford to +lose you from our bar." + +"There are no restrictions in my Uncle Lennox's will; the legacy was +unconditional; but the obligation of complying with his urgent +desire to have me live in New Orleans will probably induce me to +make that my future home. For several years he has associated me +with him in the conduct of some important suits; and I understand +now, that his motive was to introduce me gradually to a new field of +professional labor. Not the least valuable of my new possessions is +his superb law library, probably the finest in the South. Of course +my business will keep me here, for the present, and I have matured +no plans." + +"Did you reach New Orleans before his death?" + +"No, I was in Dakota, and missed a letter designed to acquaint me +with his illness. While in Washington on my return, arguing a case +before the Supreme Court, a telegram was forwarded from the office +here, and I hurried off by the first train, but arrived about ten +hours too late. Another grudge I have to settle with that bloody +thief, when I unearth him." + +"After all, Dunbar, you are a deucedly lucky fellow,--and--Hello! +historic Hebrew! Bedney, have you seen a ghost?" + +"Yes--Mars Alfred--two of 'em." + +Spent with fatigue, panting, with an ashen pallor on his leathery, +wrinkled face, the old negro ran in to the office, and leaned +heavily against the oak table. + +"What is the matter? Positively, you are turning a grayish white. +What is the secret of the bleaching? Police after you? Or does the +Sheriff want you?" + +"Mars Alfred, this ain't no fitten time to crack your on'-Gawdly +jokes, for I am scared all but into fits. I started in a brisk walk, +but every step I got more and more afeered to look behind, and I +struk a fox trot, and now my wind is clean gone." + +"What is the trouble? What are you running from?" + +"'Fore Gawd, Mars Alfred, sperrits! Sperrits, sir." + +"Do you mean that you want a dram to steady your nerves?" + +"I'm that frustrated I couldn't say what I want; but I didn't +signify bottle and jimmyjohn liquor, I mean sperrits, sir, ghosts +what walk, and make the hair rise like wire all over your head. The +ole house is hanted shore 'nuff; and I can't stay there. Lem'me tell +you, Lord! Mars Alfred, don't laugh! It's the Gawd's truth, ole +Marster's sperrit is fighting up yonder in his room with the man +what killed him. I seen him, in the broad daylight, and I have cum +for you and Mars Lennox to git there, jest as quick as you kin, so +you kin see it fur yourselves. I know you won't believe it till you +see it; nuther should I, but it's there. The sperrits have cum back, +to show my young mistiss' child never killed her grandpa." + +Mr. Dunbar rose quickly, handed a glass of water to the old man, and +then placed a chair for him. + +"Tell me at once what you saw." + +"Ole Marster standin' in the flo' close to the vault, with his arm +up so--and the handi'on in his own hand--" + +"How dare you come here, with this cock-and-bull story? You are +either drunk or in your dotage. Your master has been in his grave +for eighteen months, and--" + +"Oh! to be shore I know'd what you'd say. Cuss me for an idjut; but +I swar, Mars Lennox, I am that scared I dasn't to tell you no lie. +The proof of the pudden is jest chawin' the bag, an' I want you both +to git a carridge quick, and take me up home; and if you don't see +what I tell you is thar, you may kick me from the front door clean +down to the big gate. The grave is busted wide open, and the dead +walks, for I seen him; and I'll sho' him to you. Come on, I want you +to see for yourself." + +"You imbecile old nincompoop! Go home, and tell Dyce to give you +some catnip tea, and tie you to a chair," laughed Mr. Churchill. + +"You'll laugh t'other side of your mouth, Mars Alfred, when you see +that awful sight up yonder. Ole Marster has come back, to clare the +name of his grandchile, for he and his murderer is a wrastling, and +it ain't no 'oman, it's a man! A tall, pretty man, with beard on his +face." + +Mr. Dunbar struck a bell at his side, and a clerk came promptly from +the rear room. + +"Nesbitt, step over to the livery stable, and order a carriage sent +up at once." Turning to Bedney he continued: + +"I suppose the gist of all your yarn-spinning is, that you have +found a stranger prowling about the place. How did you discover +him?" + +"Lem'me tell you, as fur as I can, how I cum to see ole Marster. Mr. +Prince gin orders that the house should be opened and arred reglar, +and he pintedly enjined us to have that room well cleaned and put in +order. We had all pintedly gin it a wide berth, and kep' ourselves +on t'other side of the house, 'cause all such places is harryfying; +but this morning, I thought I would open the outside blind door on +the west gallery, and look in through the glass door. I know'd Mr. +Prince had stirred round considerable in there, the day before he +left, but I didn't know he had drapped the curting what was looped +back the last time I was inside. So I went up the steps and clared +away a rose vine what was hanging low down from the i'on pillar of +the piazzar, and almost screening the door, and I walked up, I did, +and looked in. Lord Gawd Amighty! The red curting was down on the +inside, and I seen through it, I swar to Gawd I did, sir! I seen +clar spang through into that room, and thar stood Marster in his +night clothes, jest so--and thar stood that murdering vil'yan close +to him, holding the tin box so--and Marster with the handi'on jest +daring him to cum on--and--and oh! I am glad to know my Marster was +game to the last, died game! Never show'd no white feather while +thar was breath in his body. Mars Lennox, I jest drapped on my +knees, and I trimbled, and my teeth chattered, and I felt the hair +as it riz straight up. I was afeer'd to stay, and I was afeer'd to +move; but I shet my eyes and crawled back'ards easy to the aidge of +the steps, and then run as fast as I could. I wanted Dyce to see, +too, but the poor cretur is so crippled she can't walk, and as she +weighs two hundred and twenty pounds, I couldn't tote her; so I tole +her what I seen, and she sent me straight to find Mars Alfred fust, +and you next. I run to Mars Alfred's office, and he was out, so I +kep' on here. I know'd you lie'yers was barking up the wrong tree, +and wrongfully pussecutin' that poor young gal; and now the very +sperrits have riz up to testify fur her. If you two can face ole +Marster's ghost, and tell him you know better than he did who killed +him, you've got better pluck and backbone than I give you credit +fur." + +"What did you eat last night, Bedney? Baked possum, and fried +chitterlings? Evidently you have had a heavy nightmare." + +Mr. Churchill drew a match across the heel of his boot, and lighted +a cigar; looking quizzically at the old man, who was wiping the +perspiration from his face. + +"There's the carridg, I hear the wheels. Mars Lennox and Mars +Alfred, there is one thing I insists on havin'. The law is all lop- +sided from fust to last in this here case, and I want it squoze into +shape, till t'other side swells out a little. I want the Crowner to +go up yonder now, and hold another inquess. He's done sot all wrong +on the body, and now let him set on the sperrit if he kin. I'm in +plum earnest. The Crowner swore that poor young gal knocked Marster +in the head with the handi'on; and yonder stands Marster, ready to +brain that man--with that handi'on hilt tight in his own right hand. +Now what I wants to know is, WHAR is the 'delectible corpus' what +you lieyers argufied over?" + +"You doting old humbug! If you decoy us on a wild goose chase I +shall feel like cutting one of your ears off!" + +"Slit 'em both and welcome, Mars Alfred, if you don't find I'm +telling you the Gawd's truth. I feel all tore up, root and branch, +and if folks could be scared to death, I should be stretched out +this minute on the west piazzar. I had my doubts about ghosts and +sperrits, and I lost my religion when I cotch our preacher brandin' +one of my dappled crumple-horned hefers with his i'on; but Bedney +Darrington is a changed pusson. Come en, let's see which of you will +dar to laugh up yonder." + +"Are you really bent on humoring this insane or idiotic vagary?" +asked Mr. Churchill, as he saw his companion take his hat and +prepare to follow the negro, who had left the room. + +"His terror is genuine, and his superstitious tale is probably the +outer shell of some kernel of fact that may possibly be valuable. In +cases of circumstantial evidence, you and I know the importance of +looking carefully into the merest trifles. Come with me; you can +spare an hour." + +Leaving the carriage at the front entrance of the deserted and +stately old house, the attorneys crossed the terrace and walked +around to the western veranda, preceded by Bedney, who paused at the +steps, and waved them to ascend. + +"Go up and see for yourselves. I am nigh as I want to git." + +The stone floor was strewn with branches of rose vine, and the +pruning shears lay open upon them, just as they had fallen from the +old man's hand. The sun had passed several degrees below the +meridian, and the shadows of the twisted iron columns were aslant +eastward, but the glare of light shone on the plate-glass door, +which was rounded into an arch at top, and extended within four +inches of the surface of the floor, where it fitted into the wooden +frame. It was one wide sheet, unbroken into panes, and on the +outside dust had collected, and a family of spiders had colonized in +the lower corner, spinning their gray lace quite across the base. It +was evident that the Venetian blinds had long been closed, and +recently opened, as a line of dust and dried drift leaves attested; +and behind the glass hung the dull red, plush curtain, almost to the +floor. + +Both gentlemen pressed forward, and looked in; but saw nothing. + +"Hang your head kinder sideways, down so, and look up, Mars Lennox." + +Mr. Dunbar changed his position, and after an instant, started back. + +"Do you see it, Churchill? No hallucination; it is as plain as +print, just like the negative of a photograph." + +"Bless my soul! It beats the Chinese jugglers! What a curious +thing!" + +"Stand back a little; you obstruct the light. Now, how clearly it +comes out." + +Printed apparently on the plush background, like the images in a +camera, were the distinctly outlined and almost life-size figures of +two men. Clad in a long gown, with loose sleeves, Gen'l Darrington +stood near the hearth, brandishing the brass unicorn in one hand, +the other thrown out and clinched; the face rather more than +profile, scarcely three-quarters, was wonderfully distinct, and the +hair much dishevelled. In front was the second portrait, that of a +tall, slender young man who appeared to have suddenly wheeled around +from the open vault, turning his countenance fully to view; while he +threw up a dark, square object to ward off the impending blow. A +soft wool hat pushed back, showed the curling hair about his +temples, and the remarkable regularity of his handsome features; +while even the plaid pattern of his short coat was clearly +discernible. + +As the attorneys came closer, or stepped back from the door, the +images seemed to vary in distinctness, and viewed from two angles +they became invisible. + +Mr. Churchill stared blankly; Mr. Dunbar's gaze was riveted on the +face of the burglar, and he took his underlip between his teeth, as +was his habit in suppressing emotion. + +"Of course there is some infernal trick about this; but how do you +account for it? It is beyond Bedney's sleight of hand," said the +District Solicitor. + +"I think I understand how it came here. Bedney, go around and open +the library door leading into this room, and loop back the curtain +for a moment." + +"No, sir, Mars Lennox. Forty railroad ingines couldn't pull me in +there alive. I wouldn't dar tamper with ole Marster's ghost; not for +all the money in the bank. Go yourself; I doesn't budge on no sech +bizness as prying and spying amongst the sperrits. It would fling me +into a fit." + +"You miserable coward. Is the house open? Where is the key of this +room?" + +"Hanging on the horseshoe under my chimbly board. I'll fetch it and +unlock the front door, so you kin git in, and hold your inquess +inside." + +"Will you go, Churchill, or shall I?" + +"What is your idea?" + +"To ascertain whether the images are on the glass, as I believe, and +if they can be seen without the background. Stand just here--and +watch. When I pull back the curtain, tell me the effect." + +Some moments later, the red folds shook, swayed aside, the curtain +was pushed out of sight on its brass rod. The interior of the +apartment came into view, the articles of furniture, the face and +figure of Mr. Dunbar. + +"Is it still there; do you see it?" shouted the latter. + +"No. It vanished with the curtain. Drop it back. There! I see it. +Now loop it. Gone again. Must be on the curtain," shouted the +Solicitor, peering through the glass at his colleague. + +Mr. Dunbar turned a key on the inside, pushed back a bolt, and threw +open the door, which swung outward on the veranda. Then he carefully +let fall the plush curtain once more. + +"Do you see it?" + +"No. A blank show. I can't see into the trick. Dunbar, change places +with me and satisfy yourself." + +The solicitor went inside, and Mr. Dunbar watched from the veranda a +repetition of the experiment. + +"That will do, Churchill. It is all plain enough now, but you cease +to wonder at Bedney's superstitious solution. You understand it +perfectly, don't you?" + +"No, I'll be hanged if I do! It is the queerest thing I ever saw." + +"Do you recollect that there was a violent thunder-storm the night +of the murder?" + +"Since you mention it, I certainly recall it. Go on." + +"All the witnesses testified that next morning this door was closed +as usual, but the outside blinds were open, and the red curtain was +looped back." + +"Yes, I remember all that." + +"The images are printed on the glass, and were photographed by a +flash of lightning." + +"I never heard of such a freak. Don't believe it." + +"Nevertheless it is the only possible solution; and I know that +several similar instances have been recorded. It is like the +negative of a common photograph, brought out by a dark background; +and do you notice the figures are invisible at certain angles? It is +very evident the storm came up during the altercation that night, +and electricity printed the whole scene on this door; stamping the +countenance of the murderer, to help the instruments of justice. +While the blinds were closed, and the curtain was looped aside, of +course this wonderful witness could not testify; but Prince let down +the folds just before his departure, and the moment Bedney opened +the blinds, there lay the truthful record of the awful crime. +Verily, the 'irony of fate!' An overwhelming witness for the +defence, only eighteen months too late, to save a pure, beautiful +life from degradation and ruin. Well may Bedney ask, 'where is your +corpus delicti?' Alfred Churchill, I wish you joy of the verdict, +you worked so hard to win." + +Turning on his heel Mr. Dunbar walked the length of the veranda, and +stood gazing gloomily across the tangled mass of the neglected rose +garden, taking no cognizance of the garlands of bloom, seeing +everywhere only that lithe elegant figure and Hyperion face of the +man who reigned master of Beryl's heart. + +The Solicitor leaned one shoulder against the door facing, and with +his hands in his pockets, and his brows drawn into a pucker, +pondered the new fact, and eyed the strange witness. + +After a time, he approached his companion. + +"If your hypothesis be correct, and it seems plausible, if science +asserts that electricity can photograph,--then certainly I am sorry, +sorry enough for all I did in the trial; yet I cannot reproach +myself, because I worked conscientiously; and the evidence was +conclusive against the girl. The circumstantial coincidences were +strong enough to have hung her. We all make mistakes, and no doubt I +am responsible for my share; but thank God! reparation can be made! +I will take the night train and see the Governor before noon to- +morrow. The pardon must come now." + +"Pardon! He cannot pardon a crime of which she now stands acquitted. +The only pardon possible, she may extend to those who sacrificed +her. His Excellency need exercise no prerogative of mercy; his aid +is superfluous. Churchill, go in as soon as you can, and send out +the Sheriff, with as many of the jurors as you can get together; and +ask Judge Parkman to drive out this afternoon, and bring Stafford, +the photographer, with him. Tell Doctor Graham I want to see him +here, as he is an accomplished electrician. I will stay here and +guard this door till all X---has seen it." + +Winged rumor flew through the length and breadth of the town, and +before sunset a human stream poured along the road leading to "Elm +Bluff", overflowed the green lawn under the ancient poplars, surged +across the terrace, and beat against the railing of the piazza. Men, +women, children, lawyers, doctors, newspaper reporters, all pressing +forward for a glimpse of the mysterious and weird witness, that, in +the fulness of time, had arisen to reprove the world for a grievous +and cruel wrong. + +The hinges had been removed; the door was set up at a certain angle, +carefully balanced against the hanging curtain; and there the +curious crowd beheld, in a veritable vision of the dead, torn as it +were from the darkness and silence of the grave, the secret of that +stormy night, when unseen powers had solemnly covenanted in defence +of trusting innocence. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + +On Saturday the regulations of prison discipline reduced the working +hours much below the daily quota, and at two o'clock the ringing of +the tower bell announced that the busy convicts of the various +industrial rooms were allowed leisure during the remainder of the +afternoon, to give place to the squad of sweepers and scrubbers, who +flooded the floors and scoured the benches. + +June heat had followed fast upon the balmy breath of May, and though +the air at dawn was still iced with crystal dew, the sun that shone +through the open windows of the little chapel, burned fiercely on +the unpainted pine seats, the undraped reading-desk of the pulpit, +the tarnished gilt pipes of the cabinet organ within the chancel +railing. + +On one of the front benches sat Iva Le Bougeois, with a pair of +crutches resting beside her on the arm of the seat, and her hands +folded in her lap. Recovering slowly from the paralysis resulting +from diphtheria, she had followed Beryl into the chapel, and +listened to the hymns the latter had played and sung. The glossy +black head was bent in abject despondency upon her breast, and tears +dripped over the smooth olive cheeks, but no sound escaped the +trembling mouth, once so red and riotous, now drawn into curves of +passionate sorrow; and the topaz gleams that formerly flickered in +her sullen hazel eyes were drowned in the gloom of dejection. For +her, memory was an angel of wrath, driving her into the hideous +Golgotha of the past, where bloody spectres gibbered; the present +was a loathsome death in life, the future a nameless torturing +horror. Helpless victim of her own outraged conscience, she seemed +at times sinking into mental apathy more pitiable than that which +had seized her physically; and the only solace possible, she found +in the encouraging words uttered by the voice that had prayed for +her during that long night of mortal agony, in the gentle pressure +of the soft hand that often guided her tottering footsteps. + +The organ stops had been pushed back, the musical echoes vibrated no +longer; and the bare room, filled with garish sunshine, was so still +that the drowsy droning of a bee high up on the dusty sash of the +barred window, became monotonously audible. + +Within the chancel and to the right of the pulpit, a large +reversible blackboard had recently been placed, and on a chair in +front of it stood Beryl, engrossed in putting the finishing touches +to a sketch which filled the entire board; and oblivious for the +moment of Eve Werneth's baby, who, having emptied her bottle of +milk, had pulled herself up by the chair, and with the thumb of her +right hand in her mouth, was staring up at the picture. + +The lesson selected for the Sunday afternoon Bible class, which +Beryl had so successfully organized among a few of the female +convicts, was the fifteenth chapter of Luke; and at the top of the +blackboard was written in large letters: "Rejoice with Me, for I +have found My sheep which was lost." She had drawn in the +foreground the flock couched in security, rounded up by the collie +guard in a grassy meadow; in the distance, overhanging a gorge, was +a bald, precipitous crag, behind which a wolf crouched, watching the +Shepherd who tenderly bore in his arms the lost wanderer. On the +opposite side of the blackboard had been carefully copied the Gospel +Hymn beginning:-- + +"There were ninety and nine that safely lay, In the shelter of the +fold, But one was out on the hills away, Far off from the gates of +gold--Away on the mountains wild and bare, Away from the tender +Shepherd's care." + +Mental processes are strangely dualistic, and it not unfrequently +happens that while one is consciously intent upon a certain train +of thought, some secret cunning current of association sets in +vibration the coil of ideas locked in the chambers of memory, and +long forgotten images leap forth, startling in their pristine +vividness. + +Absorbed by the text she was illustrating, the artist insensibly +followed lines she deemed imaginary, yet when the sketch was +completed, the ensemble suddenly confronted her as a miniature +reproduction of a very distant scene, that had gladdened her +childish heart in the blessed by-gone. Far away from the beaten +track of travel, in a sunny cleft of the Pistoian Apennines, she saw +the white fleeces grouped under vast chestnuts, the flash of copper +buckets plunged by two peasant women into a gurgling fountain, the +curly head of Bertie bowed over the rude stone basin, as he gayly +coaxed the bearers to let him drink from the beautiful burnished +copper; the rocky terraces cut in the beetling cliffs above, where +dark ruby-red oleanders flouted the sky with fragrant banners; and +the pathetic face of a vagrant ewe tangled among vines, high on a +jagged ledge, bleating for the lamb asleep under the chestnuts down +in the dell. + +Across the chasm of years floated the echo of the tinkling bell, +that told where cows climbed in search of herbage; the singular +rhythmic cadence of the trescone, danced in a neighboring vineyard; +the deep, mellow, lingering tones of a monastery bell, rung by +hermit hands in a gray tower on a mountain eyry, that looked +westward upon the sparkling blue mirror of the Mediterranean. + +Then she was twelve years old, dreaming glorious midsummer day- +dreams, as she wandered with parents and brother on one of her +father's sketching tours through unfrequented nooks; now--? + +A petulant cry, emphasized by the baby hand tugging at the hem of +her dress skirt, recalled Beryl's attention; and as she looked down +at the waif, whom the chaplain had christened "Dovie" on the day of +her mother's burial, the little one held up her arms. + +"So tired, Dulce? You can't be hungry; you must want your nap. There +don't fret, baby girl. I will take you directly." + +She stepped down, turned the side of the blackboard that contained +the sketch to the wall; lowered the sash which she had raised to +admit fresh air, and lifted the child from the floor. Approaching +the figure who sat motionless as a statue of woe, she laid a hand on +the drooping shoulder. + +"Shall I help you down the steps?" + +"No, I'll stay here a while. This is the only place where I can get +courage enough to pray. Couldn't you leave her--the child--with me? +It has been years since I could bear the sight of one. I hated +children, because my heart was so black--so bitter; but now, I yearn +toward this little thing. I am so starved for the kiss of--of--," +she swept her hand across her throat, where a sob stifled her. + +"Certainly, if she will stay contentedly. See whether she will come +to you." + +At sight of the extended arms, the baby shrank closer to Beryl, +nestled her head under the girl's chin, and put up her lower lip in +ominous protest. With an indescribably mournful gesture of +surrender, the childless mother sank back in the corner of the +bench. + +"I don't wonder she is afraid; she knows--everybody, everything +knows I killed my baby--my own boy, who slept for nearly four years +on my heart--oh!--" + +"Hush--she was frightened by your crying. She is sleepy now, but +when she has had her nap, and wakes good-humored, I will fill her +bottle, and bring her down to you. Try not to torment yourself by +dwelling upon a distressing past, which you cannot undo; but by +prayer anchor your soul in God's pardoning mercy. When all the world +hoots and stones us, God is our 'sure refuge'." + +"That promise is to pure hearts and innocent hands; not to such as I +am, steeped to the lips in crime--black, black--" + +"No. One said: 'The whole need not a physician; but they that are +sick.' Your soul is sick unto death; claim the pledged cure. Yonder +I have copied the hymn for to-morrow's lesson. While you sit here, +commit it to memory; and the Shepherd will hear your cry." + +Glancing back from the chapel door, she saw that the miserable woman +had bowed her face in her hands, and with elbows supported on her +knees, was swaying back and forth in a storm of passionate sobs. + +"O! my beautiful baby, my angel Max, pray for mother now. Max--Max-- +there is no 'Sweet By and By'--for mother--" + +Hurrying from the wail of anguish that no human agency could +lighten, Beryl carried the orphan across the yard, and up the stairs +leading to the corridor, whence she was allowed egress at will. She +noticed casually, signs of suppressed excitement among some of the +convicts, who were lounging in groups, enjoying the half holiday, +and three or four men stood around the under-warden who was +gesticulating vivaciously; but at her approach he lowered his voice, +and she lived so far aloof from the jars and gossip of the lower +human strata, that the suspicious indications failed to arouse any +curiosity. + +The southwest angle of the building was exposed fully to the force +of the afternoon sun, and the narrow cell was so hot that Beryl +opened the door leading into the corridor, in order to create a +draught through the opposite window. + +The tired child was fretfully drowsy, but with the innate perversity +of toddling babyhood, resented and resisted every effort to soothe +her to sleep. Refusing to lie across the nurse's lap, the small +tyrant clambered up, wrapped her arms about her neck, and finally +Beryl rose and walked up and down, humming softly Chopin's dreamy +"Berceuse"; while the baby added a crooning accompaniment that grew +fainter and intermittent until the blue eyes closed, one arm fell, +and the thumb was plunged between the soft full lips. + +Warily the nurse laid her down in a cradle, which consisted of an +oval basket mounted on roughly fashioned wooden rockers, and drawing +it close to the table, Beryl straightened the white cross-barred +muslin slip that was too short to cover the rosy dimpled feet; and +smoothed the flossy tendrils of yellow hair crumpled around the +lovely face. + +The Sister of Charity, who, in the darkest hours of the pestilence +had shrouded the poor young mother, did not forget the human waif +astray in the world; but having secured a home for it in an +"asylum," to which she promised it should be removed so soon as all +danger of carrying contagion was over, had appointed the ensuing +Monday on which to bear it away from the gloomy precincts, where +sinless life had dawned in disgrace and degradation. This pretty +toy, dowered with an immortal soul, stained by an inherited criminal +strain, had appealed to the feminine tenderness in Beryl's nature, +and she stood a moment, lost in admiration of the rounded curves and +dainty coloring. + +"Poor little blossom. Nobody's baby! A lily bud adrift on a dead sea +of sin. Dovie--Eve Werneth's child--but you will always be to me +Dulce, my pretty clinging Dulce, my velvet-eyed cherub model." + +Turning away, she bathed her face and hands, and leaned for a while +against the southern window; listening to the exultant song of a red +bird hovering near his brooding brown mate, to the soothing murmur +of the distant falls, borne in on the wings of the thievish June +breeze that had rifled some far-off garden of the aroma of +honeysuckle. The current of air had swung the door back, leaving +only a hand's breadth of open space, and while she sang to the baby, +her own voice had drowned the sound of footsteps in the corridor. + +On the whitewashed wall of the cell, a sheet of drawing paper had +been tacked, and taking her crayons, Beryl returned to the cradle, +changed the position of the child's left hand, and approaching the +almost completed sketch on the wall, retouched the outline of the +sleeping figure. Now and then she paused in her work, to look down +at the golden lashes sweeping the slumber-flushed cheeks, and +pondering the mystery of the waif's future, she chanted in a rich +contralto voice, the solemn "Reproaches" of Gounod's "Redemption." + +"Oh, my vineyard, come tell me why thy grapes are bitter? What have +I done, my People? Wherein hast thou been wronged?" + +For weeks the elaboration of this sketch had employed every moment +which was not demanded for the execution of her allotted daily task +in the convict workroom; and knowing that on Monday she would be +bereft of her pretty model, she had redoubled her exertions to +complete it. + +Beside a bier knelt a winged figure, in act of stealing the rigid +form, and to the awful yet strangely beautiful face of the messenger +of gloom, she had given the streaming hair, the sunken, cavernous +but wonderfully radiant eyes of Moritz Retzsch's weird image of +Death. A white butterfly fluttered upward, and in mid-air--neither +descending nor drifting, but waiting--poised on outspread pinions, +hovered the Angel of the Resurrection holding out his hands. Behind +and beneath the Destroyer, rolled dense shadows, and all the light +in this picture rayed out from the plumes above, and fell like a +glory on the baby's face. + +Cut off from all congenial companionship, thrown upon her own mental +resources, the prisoner had learned to live in an ideal world; and +her artistic tastes proved an indestructible heritage of comfort, +while memory ministered lavishly with images from the crowded realm +of aesthetics. Victorious over the stony limitations of dungeon +walls and dungeon discipline, fetterless imagination soared into the +kingdom of beauty, and fed her lonely soul, as Syrian ravens fed +God's prophet. + +Fourteen months had passed since Mr. Dunbar walked away from this +cell, after the interview relative to Gen'l Darrington's will; and +though his longing to see the prisoner had driven him twice to the +entrance of the chapel, whence he heard the marvellously sweet +voice, and gazed at the figure before the organ, no word was +exchanged. + +To-day, with his hand on the bolt of the door, and his heart in his +eyes, he leaned against the facing, and through the opening studied +the occupant of the cell that held the one treasure which fate had +denied him. + +The ravages of disease, the blemish of acute physical suffering had +vanished; the clear pallor of her complexion, the full white throat, +the rounded contour of the graceful form, bespoke complete +restoration of all the vital forces; and never had she appeared so +incomparably beautiful. + +Oppressed by the heat, she had pushed back the hair from her +temples, and though hopeless sadness reigned over the profound +repose of her features, the expression of her eyes told that the +dream of the artist had borne her beyond surrounding ills. + +Where the button of her blue homespun dress fastened the collar, she +wore a sprig of heliotrope and a cluster of mignonette, from the +shallow box in the window-ledge where they grew together. + +How long he stood there, surrendering himself to the happiness of +watching the woman whom, against his will, he loved with such +unreasoning and passionate fervor, Mr. Dunbar never knew; but a +sudden recollection of the face printed on the glass, the face, +beautiful as fabled Hylas--of the man for whose sake she was willing +to die--stung him like an adder's bite; and setting his teeth hard, +he rapped upon the door held ajar; then threw it open. + +At sight of him, her arm, lifted to the sketch, fell; the crayon +slipped from her nerveless fingers, and a glow rich as the heart of +some red June rose stained her cheeks. + +As he stepped toward her, she leaned against the wall, and swiftly +drew the baby's cradle between them. He understood, and for a moment +recoiled. + +"You barricade yourself as though I were some loathsome monster! Are +you afraid of me?" + +"What is there left to fear? Have you spared any exertion to +accomplish that which you believe would overwhelm me with sorrow?" + +"You cannot forgive my rejection of the overtures for a compromise +wrung from you by extremity of dread, when I started to Dakota?" + +"That rejection freed me from a self-imposed, galling promise; and +hence I forgive all, because of the failure of your journey." + +"Suppose I have not failed?" + +She caught her breath, and the color in her cheeks flickered. + +"Had you succeeded, I should not have been allowed so long the +comparative mercy of suspense." + +"Am I so wantonly cruel, think you, that I gloat over your +sufferings as a Modoc at sight of the string of scalps dangling at +his pony's neck?" + +"When the spirit of revenge is unleashed, Tiberius becomes a law +unto himself." + +He leaned forward, and his voice was freighted with tenderness that +he made no attempt to disguise. + +"Once after that long swoon in the court-room, when I held your +hand, you looked at me without shrinking, and called me Tiberius. +Again, when for hours I sat beside your cot, watching the crisis of +your first terrible illness, you opened your eyes and held out your +hand, saying: 'Have you come for me, Tiberius?' Why have you told me +you were at the mercy of Tiberius?" + +Hitherto she had avoided looking at him, and kept her gaze upon the +sleeping child, but warned by the tone that made her heart throb, +she bravely lifted her eyes. + +"When next you write to your betrothed, ask her to go to the Museo +Chiaramonti while in Rome, and standing before the crowned Tiberius, +she will fancy her future husband welcomes her. Your wife will need +no better portrait of you than a copy of that head." + +Into his eyes leaped the peculiar glow that can be likened unto +nothing but the clear violet flame dancing over a bed of burning +anthracite coal, and into his voice an exultant ring: + +"Meantime, like my inexorable prototype, 'I hold a wolf by the +ears'. Shall I tell you my mission here?" + +"As it appears I am indeed always at the mercy of Tiberius, your +courtesy savors of sarcasm." + +"Oh, my stately white rose! My Rosa Alba, I will see to it, that no +polluting hand lays a grasp on you. My errand should entitle me to a +more cordial reception, for I bring you good news. Will you lay your +hand in mine just once, while I tell you?" + +He extended his open palm, but she shook her head and smiled sadly. + +"In this world no good news can ever come to me." + +"Do you know that recently earnest efforts have been made to induce +the Governor to pardon you? That I have just returned from a visit +to him?" + +"I was not aware of it; but I am grateful for your effort in my +behalf." + +"I was disappointed. The pardon was not granted. Since then, fate, +who frowned so long upon you, has come to your rescue. The truth has +been discovered, proclaimed; and I came here this afternoon with an +order for your release. For you the prison doors and gates stand +open. You are as free as you were that cursed day when first you saw +me and robbed my life of peace." + +For a moment she looked at him bewildered; then a great dread drove +the blood from her lips, and her voice shook. + +"What truth has been discovered?" + +"The truth that you are innocent has been established to the entire +satisfaction of judge and jury, prosecution and Governor, sheriff, +warden, and you are free. Not pardoned for that which all the world +knows now you never committed; but acquitted without man's help, by +the discovery of a fact which removes every shadow of suspicion from +your name. You are at liberty, owing no thanks to human mercy; +vindicated by a witness subpoenaed by the God of justice, in whom +you trusted--even to the end." + +"Witness? What witness? You do not mean that you have hunted down--" + +She paused, and her white face was piteous with terror, as pushing +away the cradle she came close to him. + +"I have seen the face of the man who killed Gen'l Darrington." + +She threw up her arms, crossing them over her head. + +"O, my God! Have I suffered in vain? Shall I be denied the +recompense? After all my martyrdom, must I lose the one hope that +sustained me?" + +Despite the rage which the sight of her suffering woke within his +heart, he could not endure to witness it. + +"Can you find no comfort in release? No joy in the consciousness of +your triumphant vindication?" + +"None! If you have robbed me of that which is all I care for on +earth, what solace can I find in release? Vindication? What is the +opinion of the world to me? Oh! how have I ever wronged you, that +you persecute me so vindictively, that you stab the only comfort +life can ever hold for me?" + +"And you love him so insanely, that to secure his safety, existence +here in this moral sty is sweet in comparison with freedom unshared +with him? Listen! That belief stirs the worst elements in my nature; +it swings the whip of the furies. For your own sake, do not thrust +your degrading madness upon my notice. I have labored to liberate +you; have subordinated all other aims to this, and now, that I have +come to set you free, you repulse and spurn me!" + +She was so engrossed by one foreboding, that it was evident she had +not even heard him, as moving to the bench in front of the window +she sat down, shivering. Her black brows contracted till they met, +and the strained expression of her eyes told that she was revolving +some possibility of succor. + +"Where did you see my--my--?" + +"Not in Dakota mines, where I expected to find him." + +"Mr. Dunbar." She pointed to the chair at her side. + +He shook his head, but approached and stood before her. + +"I am waiting to hear you." + +"I sent you a telegram, promising information that would have +prevented that journey." + +"It failed to reach me." + +Unconsciously she was wringing her hands as her thoughts whirled. + +"I will tell you something now, if you will promise me that no harm +shall--" + +He laughed scornfully. + +"As if I had anything to learn concerning that cowardly villain! +Thanks for your confidence, which comes much too late." + +"You do not know that--" + +"Yes, I know all I want to know; more than you shall ever tell me, +and I decline to hear a confession that, in my eyes, defiles you; +that would only drive me to harsh denunciation of your foul idol. +Moreover, I will not extort by torture what you have withheld so +jealously. Do not wring your hands so desperately. You are goaded to +confession now, because you believe that I have secured your lover? +Take courage, he has not yet been arrested; he is still a wanderer +hiding from retribution." + +She sprang up, trembling. + +"But you said you had seen his face?" + +"Yes, and I have come to take you where you can identify that face?" + +"Then, he is dead." She covered her face with her hands. + +"No, I wish to God he was dead! Sit down. I will not see you suffer +such agony. He is safe for the present. If you will try to think of +yourself for a moment, and pay me the compliment of listening, I +will explain. Do you recollect that during the storm on the night of +the murder the lightning was remarkably vivid and severe?" + +"Yes; can I ever forget any details of that night? Go on." + +"Do you recall the position of the glass door on the west veranda; +and also that the crimson drapery or curtain was drawn aside?" + +"I recall it distinctly because, while Gen'l Darrington was reading +my mother's letter, I looked out through the glass at the +chrysanthemums blooming in the garden." + +"That door was almost opposite the chimney, and the safe or vault in +the wall was very near the fireplace. It appears that when the +chloroform failed to stupefy Gen'l Darrington, he got up and seized +one of the andirons on the hearth, and attacked the thief who was +stealing his money. While they were struggling in front of the +vault, a burst of electricity, some peculiarly vivid flash of +lightning, sent by fate, by your guardian angel, it may have been by +God himself--photographed both men, and the interior of the room on +the wide glass panel of that door. Forms, faces, features, even the +pattern of the cloth coat, are printed plainly there, for the whole +world to study. The murderer and the victim in mortal combat over +the tin box. Accident--shall I say Providence--unexpectedly brought +this witness to light. The curtain so long looped back, was recently +lowered, and when, two days ago, the outside blinds were opened, +there lay your complete vindication. Crowds have seen it; the +newspaper issued an 'extra', and so general was the rejoicing, that +a public demonstration would have been made here at the gaol, had +not Churchill and I harangued the people and assured them it would +only annoy and embarrass you. So you are free. Free to shake the +dust of X---forever from your feet; and it must comfort your proud +soul to know that you do not owe your liberty to the mercy of a +community which wronged you. I forbade Singleton to tell you, to +allow any premature hint to reach you; for I claimed the privilege +of bringing the glad tidings. Last night I spent in that room at +'Elm Bluff', guarding that door; and the vigil was cheered by the +picture hope drew, that when I came to-day you would greet me +kindly; would lay your dear hands in mine, and tell me that, at +least, gratitude would always keep a place for me warm in your noble +heart. I have my recompense in the old currency of scorn. It were +well for you if you had shown me your hatred less plainly; now I +shall indulge less hesitation in following the clue the lightning +lays in my grasp. I warn you that your release only expedites his +arrest; for you can never pass beyond my surveillance; and the day +you hasten to him, seals his fate. Long imprisoned doves, when set +free, fly straight to their distant mates; so--take care--lest the +hawk overtake both." + +Looking up at him, listening almost breathlessly to the tale of a +deliverance that involved new peril for Bertie, the color came +slowly back to her blanched face, and her parted lips quivered. + +"If the picture means anything, it proves that Gen'l Darrington made +the assault with the brass andiron, and in the struggle that +followed, the man you saw might have killed him in self defence." + +"When he is brought to trial in X--he shall never be allowed the +benefit of your affectionate supposition. I promise you, that I will +annihilate your tenderly devised theory." + +He ground his teeth in view of the transparent fact, that she was +too intently considering the bearing of the revelation upon the +safety of another, to heed the thought of her own escape from +bondage. + +The little cluster of flowers fastened at her throat had become +loosened, and fell unnoticed into her lap. He stooped, picked them +up, and straightened them on his palm. When his eyes returned to +Beryl, she had bowed her face in her shielding hands. + +How little he dreamed that she was silently praying for strength to +deny the cry of her own beating heart, and to keep him from making +shipwreck of the honor which she supposed was still pledged to Leo! +Security for her brother, and unswerving loyalty to the absent woman +who had befriended her in the darkest hours of the accusation, were +objects difficult to accomplish simultaneously; yet at every hazard +she would struggle on. Because she had learned to love so well this +man, who was the promised husband of another, conscience made her +merciless to her own disloyalty. + +Mr. Dunbar laid on the bench a small package sealed in yellow paper. + +"Knowing that your detention here has necessarily forfeited all the +industrial engagements by which you maintained yourself, before you +came South, I have been requested to ask your acceptance of this +purse, which contains sufficient money to defray your expenses until +you resume your art labors. It is an offering from your twelve +jurors." + +"No--no. I could never touch it. Tell them for me that I am not +vindictive. I know they did the best they could for me, in view of +the evidence. Tell them I am grateful for their offer, but I cannot +accept it. I--" + +"You imagine I am one of the generous contributors? Be easy; I have +not offered you a cent. I am merely the bearer of the gift, or +rather the attempt at restitution. Your refusal will grieve them, +and add to the pangs of regret that very justly afflict them at +present." + +"I have some money which Doctor Grantlin collected for my Christmas +card. He retained only a portion of the amount, and sent me the +remainder. Mr. Singleton keeps it for me, and it is all that I need +now." + +"The purse contains also a ticket to New York, as it has been +supposed that you would desire to return there at once." + +"Take all back, with my earnest thanks. I prefer to owe X--only the +remembrance of the great kindness which some few have shown me. The +officers here have been uniformly considerate and courteous to me; +Mr. and Mrs. Singleton will ever be very dear to me for numberless +kind deeds; and Sister Serena was a staff of strength during that +frightful black week of the trial." + +She paused, and her voice betrayed something of the tumult at her +heart, as while a sudden wave of scarlet overflowed her cheeks, she +rose and held out both hands. + +"Mr. Dunbar, if I have seemed unappreciative of your great exertions +in my behalf, it is merely because there are some matters which I +can never explain in this world. One thing I ask you to believe when +I am gone. I will never, so long as I live, cease to remember the +debt I owe you. I am and shall be inexpressibly grateful to you, and +whenever I think of my terrible sojourn here, be sure I shall recall +tenderly--oh! how tenderly! the two friends who trusted and believed +in my innocence, when all the world denounced me; the two who +generously clung to me when public opinion branded me as an outcast- +-you two--my best friends, you and Miss Gordon. It makes me proud +and happy to know in this hour of my vindication, that in her, and +in your good opinion, I needed none. Out of your united lives, let +me pass as a fleeting gray shadow." + +"Out of my life you can never pass. Into it you have brought +disappointment, humiliation, and a keenness of suffering such as I +never imagined I was capable of enduring; and some recompense I will +have. You hope to plunge into the vortex of a great city, where you +can elude observation and obliterate all traces. Do not cherish the +ghost of such a delusion. Go where you may, but I give you fair +warning, you cannot escape me; and the day you meet that guilty +vagabond, you betray him to the scouts of justice." + +He held her hands in a close, warm clasp, and a flush crossed his +brow, as he looked down into her quivering face where a smile which +he could not interpret, seemed only a challenge. + +"Would a generous man, worthy of Miss Gordon, harass and persecute a +very unhappy and unfortunate woman, who asks at his hands only to be +forgotten completely, to be left in peace?" + +"I lay no claim to generosity, and, where you are concerned, I am +supremely selfish. Miss Gordon has no need of your championship; she +is quite equal to redressing her own wrongs, when the necessity +presents itself. You are struggling to free your hands, so be it. I +have a close carriage at the gate, and to make assurance doubly +sure, I have come to take you to 'Elm Bluff'; to show you the face, +and ask you to identify it. Understand me, I will harass you with no +questions; nor will I intrude upon you there. I have ordered the +grounds cleared, have posted police to prevent the possibility of +any occurrence unpleasant to you; and all I ask is, that alone, you +will examine this witness, produced so strangely for your +justification. I shall wait for you in the rose garden, and if you +can come down from that gallery and tell me that the face is unknown +to you, that the man photographed in the act of stealing, is a +stranger, is not the man you love so well that you bore worse than +death to save him from punishment, then I will give up the quest; +and you may flee unwatched to the ends of the earth." + +"Never again will I see that place which has blasted every hope that +life held for me." + +"Not even to clear away aspersion from his beloved name?" + +"I pray God, his beloved and sacred name may never be associated +with a crime so awful." + +"You will not go to see the face? Remember, I shall ask you neither +yea nor nay. I shall need only to look once into your eyes, after +you have seen the Gorgon. Beryl, my white rose! Are you ashamed to +show me your idol's face?" + +"I will never go to 'Elm Bluff'." + +"It is no longer necessary. You know already the features printed +there, and your avoidance stamps them with infamy. How can your +lofty soul, your pure heart, tolerate a creature so craven, so +vile?" + +"We love not always whom we would, or should, were choice permitted +us; and to whom I have given my heart, my whole deep heart, you +shall never learn." + +The mournful smile that lent such wistful loveliness to her flushed +face, seemed to him merely a renewed defiance. + +"I bide my time, knowing it will surely come. You are free, but be +careful. Once when you lay upon the brink of the grave, unconscious, +I knelt at your side and took you in my arms; laid your head on my +heart, felt your cheek touch mine. Then and there I made a covenant +with my soul; and no other man's arms shall ever enfold you. Ah, my +Rosa Alba! I could dig your grave with my own hands, sooner than see +that thief claim you. I am a proud man, and you have dragged me +through the slough of humiliation, but to-day, as I bid you good- +bye, I realize how one felt, who looking at the bust of him she +loved supremely, said with her last breath: 'Voila mon univers, mon +espoir, et mes dieux!' How soon we meet again depends solely on your +future course. You know the conditions; and I promise you I will not +swerve one iota." + +He took her hand, drew it across his cheek, laid it on his lips; and +a moment later walked away, with the faded flowers folded close in +his palm. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + + +Conveniently contiguous to the busy centre of a wide and populous +city, situated on the shore of one of those great inland fresh-water +seas, whose lake line girdles the primeval American upheaval, the +Laurentian rocks,--stands in the middle of a square, enclosed by a +stone coping and an iron railing, a stately pile of brick and +granite several stories high, flanked by wings that enclose in the +rear a spacious court. The facade was originally designed in the +trabeated style, and still retained its massive entrance, with +straight, grooved lintel over the door which was adorned by four +round columns; but subsequent additions reflected the fluctuations +of popular architectural taste, in the later arched windows, the +broad oriel with its carved corbel, and in the new eastern wing, +that had flowered into a Tudor tower with bulbous cupola. The strip +of velvet sward between the street and the house entrance, was +embossed with brilliant coleus set in the form of anchors; and a +raised border, running the entire length under the windows of the +basement, was ablaze with geraniums of various hues. + +On a granite pediment above the portico, a large bronze anchor was +supported, and beneath it was cut, in projecting letters: "The +Umilta Anchorage". + +In front of the building ran a broad, paved boulevard; in the rear, +the enclosure was bounded by a stone wall, overgrown with ivy, and +built upon the verge of the blue lake, whose waves broke against the +base, and rolled away in the distance beyond the northern horizon. + +Fully in accord with the liberal eclecticism that characterized its +exterior, was the wide-eyed, deep, tender-hearted charity which, +ignoring all denominational barriers, opened its doors in cordial +welcome to worthy, homeless women, whom misfortune had swept away +from family moorings, and whose clean hands and pure hearts sought +some avenue to honest work. The institution was a memorial erected +and endowed by a wealthy man, whose only child Umilta, just crossing +the threshold of womanhood, had been lost in a sudden storm on the +lake; whose fair, drowned face had been washed ashore just below the +stone wall, and whose statue stood, guarded by marble angels, in the +small chapel in the centre of the building, which was designed as an +enduring monument to commemorate her untimely fate, and perpetuate +her name. + +Divided into various industrial departments, the "Anchorage" was +maintained almost entirely by the labor of its inmates; and it had +rarely been found necessary to draw from the reserve endowment fund, +that was gradually accumulating for future contingencies. + +Trained nurses, trained housekeepers were furnished on demand; lace +curtains mended, laundered; dainty lingerie of every description, +from a baby's wardrobe to a bride's trousseau; ornamental needle- +work on all fabrics; artificial flowers, card engraving, artistic +designs for upholstering, menus, type-writing, all readily supplied +to customers; and certain confectionery put up in pretty boxes made +by the inmates, and bearing the "Anchor" stamp. A school of drawing, +etching, painting, and embroidery attracted many pupils; and a few +pensioners who had grown too infirm and dim-eyed for active work, +had a warm, bright room where they knitted stockings and underwear +of various kinds. + +At one end of the long refectory was emblazoned on the wall: "For +whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in Heaven, the +same is my brother and sister and mother." At the other: "Bear ye +one another's burdens." The chapel contained no pulpit, but on a +marble altar stood a life-size figure of a woman clinging to the +cross: and on the walls hung paintings representing the Crucifixion, +the Descent, the Resurrection and the Mater Dolorosa; while in a +niche at the extremity, behind the altar, an Ecce Homo of carved +ivory was suspended above a gilt cross, and just beneath it +glittered the motto "Faith, Hope, Charity". Every morning and +evening the band of women gathered here, and recited the Apostles' +Creed, and the Lord's Prayer; but on Sabbath the members attended +the church best suited to their individual tenets. + +The infirmary was a cheerful, airy room, and here professional +nurses were trained under the guidance of visiting physicians; and +in an adjoining kitchen were taught to prepare the articles of diet +usually belonging to the regimen of sick rooms. + +Widows, maidens, Catholics, Protestants, admitted from the age of +eighteen to forty, these "Umilta Sisters" were received on probation +for eighteen months; then entered upon a term of five years, subject +to renewal at will; bound by specified rules, but no irrevocable +vow. Yielding implicit obedience to the matron, elected by +themselves every four years--subject to approval and ratification by +the Chapter of Trustees, they were recognized wherever they went by +the gray garb, the white aprons, and snowy mob caps peculiar to the +institution. + +Fashionable women patronized and fondled the "Anchorage", for much +the same reason that led them to pamper their pugs; and since the +Chapter of Trustees consisted of men of wealth and prominence, their +wives, as magnates in le beau monde, set the seal of "style" upon +articles manufactured there, by ordering quilted satin afghans with +anchors of pansies embroidered in the centre, for their baby +carriages; painted tea gowns; favors for a "German", or fans and +bonbonnieres for birthday parties. + +If children of the Brahmin caste of millionairdom were seized by the +Pariah ills of measles, or chicken-pox, or mumps, it was deemed +quite as imperatively the duty of doting parents to provide an +"Anchorage" nurse, as to secure an eminent physician, and the most +costly brand of condensed milk. In the name of sweet charity, gay +gauzy-winged butterflies of fashion harnessed themselves in ropes of +roses, and dragged the car of benevolence; as painted papillons drew +chariots of goddesses on ancient classic walls; so in the realm of +social economy the ubiquitous law of correlation of industrial +force--of conservation of energy--transmuted the arrested labor of +the rich and idle into the fostering heat that stimulated the +working poor. + +Scarcely a month previous to her unexpected release from prison, +Beryl had received a letter from Doctor Grantlin, enclosing one +addressed to "Sister Ruth, Matron of Anchorage". He wrote that his +daughter's health demanded some German baths; and on the eve of +sailing, he desired to secure for the prisoner a temporary refuge, +should the efforts which he had heard were made to obtain her +pardon, prove successful. As a nephew of the founder, and a cousin +of the young lady for whom the "Anchorage" was intended as a lasting +memorial, he had always been accorded certain privileges by the +trustees; and the letter, if presented to the matron, would insure +at least an entrance into the haven of rest, until the prisoner +could mature some plan for her future. + +Spurred away from X--by the dread of another interview with the man +whom she had assiduously shunned, and of being required to visit +"Elm Bluff" and scrutinize the accusing picture, Beryl had shrouded +herself in her heavy mourning, and fled from the scene of her +suffering, on the 3 A.M. train Sunday morning; ten hours after +receiving the certificate of her discharge. Shrinking from +observation, she refused Mr. Singleton permission to accompany her +to the station house, and bade him good-bye three squares distant; +promising to write soon to his still absent wife, and assured by him +that a farewell letter of affectionate gratitude should be promptly +delivered to Dyce. Fortunately a stranger stood in the office and +sold her a ticket; and in the same corner, where twenty months +before she had knelt during the storm, she waited once more for the +sound of the train. How welcome to her the shuddering shriek that +tore its way through the dewy silence of the star-lit summer night, +and she hurried out, standing almost on the rails, in her impatience +to depart. + +Several travellers were grouped near a pile of luggage awaiting the +train, but as it rolled swiftly in and jarred itself to a +standstill, she saw even through her crape veil a well known figure, +leaning against an iron post that held an electric lamp. She sprang +up the steps leading to the platform, and took the first vacant +seat, which was in front of an open window. + +The silvery radiance from the globe just opposite, streamed in, and +her heart seemed to cease beating as the tall form moved forward and +taking off his hat, stood at the side of the car. Neither spoke. But +when the brass bell rang its signal and the train trembled into +motion, a hand was thrust in, and dropped upon her lap a cluster of +exquisite white roses, with one scarlet passion flower glowing in +the centre. + +During the three days spent in New York, Beryl's wounds bled afresh, +and she felt even more desolate than while sheltered behind prison +walls. The six-storied tenement house where she had last seen her +mother's face, and kissed her in final farewell, had been demolished +to make room for a new furniture warehouse. Strange nurses in the +hospital could tell her nothing concerning the last hours of the +beloved dead; and the only spot in the wide western world that +seemed to belong to her, was a narrow strip of ground in a remote +corner of the great cemetery, where a green mound held its square +granite slab, bearing the words "Ellice Darrington Brentano." + +With her face bowed upon that stone, the lonely woman had wept away +the long hours of an afternoon that decided her plan for the future. + +Dr. Grantlin had gone abroad for an indefinite period, and no one +knew the contents of his last letter. In New York her movements +would be subject to the SURVEILLANCE she most desired to escape; but +in that distant city where the "Anchorage" was situated, she might +disappear, leaving no more trace than that of a stone dropped in +some stormy, surging sea. + +To find Bertie and reclaim him, was the only goal of hope life held +for her, and to accomplish this, the first requisite was to +effectually lose herself. + +Anxious and protracted deliberation finally resulted in an +advertisement, which she carried next morning to the "Herald" +office, to be inserted for six months in the personal column, unless +answered. + +"BERTIE, IF YOU WANT THE LOST BUTTON WE BOUGHT AT LUCCA, WHEN CAN +GIGINA HAND IT TO YOU IN ST. CATHERINE'S, CANADA?" + +She wore her old blue bunting dress, and a faded blue veil when she +delivered the notice at the office of the newspaper, and paid in +advance the cost of its publication. Later in the same day, clad in +her mourning garments, she went down to the Grand Central Depot and +bought a railway ticket; and the night express bore her away on her +long journey westward. + +It was on the fourth of July, her twenty-first birthday, that she +entered the reception room at the "Anchorage", and presented in +conjunction with Doctor Grantlin's letter, a copy of the newspaper +printed at X--, which contained an article descriptive of the +discovery of the picture on the glass door; and expressive of the +profound sympathy of the public for the prisoner so unjustly +punished by incarceration. + +For twenty years a resident of the institution, over which she had +repeatedly presided, Sister Ruth was now a woman of fifty-five, +whose white hair shone beneath her cap border like a band of spun +silver, and whose yellowish, dim eyes seemed unnaturally large +behind their spectacles. Thin and wrinkled, her face was nobly +redeemed by a remarkably beautiful, patient mouth; and her angular, +wiry figure, by small feet and very slender hands, where the veins +rose like blue cords lacing ivory satin. Over the shoulders of her +gray flannel dress was worn the distinctive badge of her office, a +white mull handkerchief pleated surplice fashion into her girdle, +whence hung by a silver chain a set of tablets; and the folds of +mull were fastened at her throat by a silver anchor. + +Having deliberately read letter and paper, she put the former in her +pocket, and returned the latter with a stately yet graceful +inclination of the head, that would have been creditable in Mdm. +Recamier's salon. + +"I have expected you for some weeks, an earlier letter from Doctor +Grantlin having prepared me for your arrival; but it appears you +have not been released from prison by the pardon he anticipated?" + +"No, madam; the authorities who caused my arrest and imprisonment, +considered the discovery of the printed door a complete refutation +of the accusation against me, and ordered my release. I come here +not as a pardoned criminal, but as an unfortunate victim of +circumstantial evidence; acquitted of all suspicion by a +circumstance even stranger than those which seemed to condemn me. In +the darkest days of my desolation, Doctor Grantlin believed me +innocent, honored me with his confidence and friendship, soothed my +mother's dying hour; and he will rejoice to learn that acquittal +anticipated the mockery of a pardon. Only his generous encouragement +emboldened me to hope for a temporary shelter here." + +"Then you have no desire to become a permanent resident?" + +"At present, I shall be grateful if allowed to enjoy the privilege +of hiding my sore heart for a while from the gaze of a world that +has cruelly wronged me. I want to rest where wicked men and women do +not pollute the air, where I can try to forget the horrors of +convict life; and the rest I need is not idleness, it is labor of +some kind that will so fully employ my hands and brain, that when I +lie down at night my sad, aching heart and wounded soul can find +balm in sleep. Locked at night into a dark cell has made existence +for nearly eighteen months a mere hideous vigil, broken by fitful +nightmare. To see only pure faces, to listen to sweet feminine +voices that never knew the desecration of blasphemy, to exchange the +grim, fetid precincts of a penitentiary for a holy haven such as +this, is indeed a glimpse of paradise to a tortured spirit." + +"Have you special reasons for wishing to shun observation?" + +The dim eyes probed like some dull blade that tears the tissues. + +"Yes, madam, special cause to want to be forgotten by the public, +who have stared me at times almost to frenzy." + +"You are an orphan, I am told; with no living relatives in America." + +"I am an orphan; and think I have no relative in the United States." + +"In the very peculiar circumstances that surround and isolate you, I +should imagine you would esteem it a great privilege to cast your +lot here, and become one of the permanently located Sisters of the +'Anchorage'. Ours is a noble and consecrated mission." + +"Knowing literally nothing of your institution, except that it is a +hive of industrious good women, offering a home and honest work to +homeless and innocent unfortunates, I could not pledge myself to a +life which might not prove suitable on closer acquaintance. Take me +in; give me employment that will prevent me from being a tax upon +your hospitality and mercifully shelter me from pitiless curiosity +and gossip." + +"Even were our sympathies not enlisted in your behalf, Doctor +Grantlin's request would insure your admission, at least for a +season. Where is your luggage?" + +"I have only a trunk, for which I have retained the railway check, +until I ascertained your willingness to receive me." + +"Give it to me." + +She crossed the room and pressed the knob of a bell on the opposite +wall. Almost simultaneously a door opened, and to a stout, middle- +aged woman who appeared on the threshold, the matron gave +instructions in an under tone. + +Returning to the stranger, she resumed: + +"I infer from the Doctor's letter, that you are a gifted person. In +what lines do your talents run?" + +"Perhaps I should not lay claim to talent, but I am, by grace of +study, a good musician; and I draw and paint, at least with +facility. At one time I supported my mother and myself by singing in +a choir, but diphtheria closed that avenue of work. With the +restoration of health, I think I have recovered my voice. I am an +expert needle woman, and can embroider well, especially on fine +linen." + +"Do you feel competent to teach a class in 'water color', in our Art +School? Our aquarelle Sister is threatened with amaurosis, and the +oculist prohibits all work at present." + +"You can form an opinion of my qualifications by examining some +sketches which are in my trunk. I have furnished several designs for +the 'Society of Decorative Art', and have sold a number of painted +articles at the Woman's Exchange." + +"Then I think you have only to step into a vacant niche, and supply +a need which was beginning to perplex us. During the latter part of +September, an International Scientific Congress will be held in this +city, and one of our patrons, Mr. Brompton, who expects to entertain +the distinguished foreign delegates, has given us an order for +dinner cards for eight courses, and each set for twenty-four covers. +As nearly as we can comprehend the design, his intention is to +represent the order of creation in fish, game, fruits and flowers; +and each card will illustrate some special era in geology and +zoology. The cream and ices set are expected to show the history of +Polar regions as far as known, and at the conclusion of the banquet, +each guest will be presented with a velvet smoking cap, to which +must be attached a card representing 'scientific soap-bubbles +pricked by the last scientists' junta'. Now while the 'Anchorage's' +cultured art standard claims to be as high as any, East, we should +scarcely venture to fill this order, had not two of the professors +in our University, promised to map out the order, and furnish some +dots in the way of engravings, which will aid the accomplishment of +the work; and we are particularly desirous of pleasing our patron, +from whom the 'Anchorage' expects a bequest. If you think you can +successfully undertake a portion of this order, given us by Mr. +Brompton, we shall make you doubly welcome." + +"I think I may safely promise satisfactory work in the line you +designate; and at least, I shall be grateful for the privilege of +making the attempt." + +"You are aware, I presume, that all inmates of the 'Anchorage' are +required to wear its regulation uniform." + +"I shall be very glad to don it; hoping it may possess some spell to +exorcise memories of the last uniform I wore; the blue homespun of +penitentiary convicts." + +"You must try to forget all that. The 'Anchorage' gates shut fast on +the former lives we led; here we dwell in a busy present, hoping to +secure a blessed future. Come with me to the cutting room, and be +measured for your flannel uniform; then one of the Sisters will show +you to your own cell in this consecrated bee-hive, which you will +find as peaceful as its name implies." + +The first story contained the reception rooms, chapel, schoolroom, +apartments for the display of sample articles manufactured; the +refectory, kitchen and laundry; and one low wide room with glass on +three sides, where orchids and carnations, the floral specialties of +the institution, were grown. On the second floor were various +workrooms, supplied with materials required for the particular +fabric therein manufactured or ornamented; and cut off from +communication, was the east wing, used exclusively as an infirmary, +and provided with its separate kitchen and laundry. The third story +embraced the dormitory, a broad, lofty apartment divided by carved +scroll work and snowy curtains, into three sets of sleeves running +the entire length of the floor; separated by carpeted aisles, and +containing all the articles of furniture needed by each occupant. On +the ceiling directly over every bed, was inscribed in gilt letters, +some text from the Bible, exhorting to patience, diligence, +frugality, humility, gentleness, obedience, cheerfulness, honesty, +truthfulness and purity; and mid-way the central aisle, where a +chandelier swung, two steps led to a raised desk, whence at night +issued the voice of the reader, who made audible to all the +occupants the selected chapter in the Bible. At ten o'clock a bell +was rung by the Sister upon whom devolved the duty of acting as +night watch; then lights were extinguished save in the infirmary. +This common dormitory was reserved for Sisters who had spent at +least five years in the building; and to probationers were given +small rooms on the second story of the west wing. + +The third story of the same wing fronted north, and served as a +studio where all designs were drawn and painted; and upon its walls +hung pictures in oil and water color, engravings, vignettes, and all +the artistic odds and ends given or lent by sympathetic patrons. + +Each story was supplied with bath-rooms, and the entire work of the +various departments was performed by the appointed corps of inmates; +the Sisters of the wash tub, and of the broom brigade, being +selected for the work best adapted to their physical and +intellectual development. + +Visitors lingered longest in the great kitchen with its arched +recess where the range was fitted; where like organ pipes glittering +copper boilers rose, and burnished copper measures and buckets +glinted on the carved shelves running along one side. The adjoining +pastry room was tiled with stone, furnished with counters covered +with marble slabs, and with refrigerators built into the wall; and +here the white-capped, white-aproned priestesses of pots, pans and +pestles moved quietly to and fro, performing the labor upon which +depended in great degree the usefulness of artificers in all other +departments. + +The refectory opened on a narrow terrace at the rear of the +building, which was sodded with turf and starred with pansies and +ox-eyed daisies, and on the wide, stone window sills sat boxes and +vases filled with maiden-hair ferns and oxalis, with heliotrope and +double white violets. Three lines of tables ran down this bright +pretty room, and in the centre rose a spiral stair to a cushioned +seat, where when "Grace" had been pronounced, the Reader for the day +made selections from such volumes of prose or poetry as were deemed +by the Matron elevating and purifying in influence; tonic for the +soul, stimulant for the brain, balm for the heart. + +Close to the rear wall overhanging the lake, ran a treillage of +grape vines, and on the small grass sown plat of garden, belated +paeonies tossed up their brilliant balls, as play-things for the +wind that swept over the blue waves, breaking into a fringe of foam +beyond the stone enclosure. + +Except at meals, and during the last half hour in the dormitory, +night and morning, no restriction of silence was imposed, and one +hour was set apart at noon for merely social intercourse, or any +individual scheme of labor. Busy, tranquil, cheerful, often merry, +they endeavored to eschew evil thoughts; and cultivated that rare +charity which makes each tolerant of the failings of the other, +which broadens a sympathy that can excuse individual differences of +opinion, and that consecrates the harmony of true home life. + +The room assigned to Beryl was at the extremity of the second story, +just beneath the studio; and as the north end of the wings was built +at each corner into projections that were crowned with bell towers, +this apartment had a circular oriel window, swung like a basket from +the wall, and guarded by an iron balcony. Cool, quiet, restful as an +oratory seemed the nest; with its floor covered by matting diapered +in blue, its low, wide bedstead of curled maple, with snowy +Marseilles quilt, and crisply fluted pillow cases; its book shelves +hanging on the wall, surmounted by a copy in oil of Angelico's +Elizabeth of Hungary, with rapt face upraised as she lifted her +rose-laden skirt. + +The lambrequins of blue canton flannel were bordered with trailing +convolvulus in pink cretonne, and the diaphanous folds of white +muslin curtains held in the centre an embroidered anchor which +dragged inward, as the breeze rushed in through open windows. An +arched recess in the wall, whence a door communicated with the +adjoining chamber, was concealed by a portiere of blue that matched +the lambrequins, and the alcove served as a miniature dressing-room, +where the brass faucet emptied into a marble basin. + +In this apartment the imperial sway of dull maroons, sullen +Pompeiian reds, and sombre murky olives had never cast encroaching +shadows upon the dainty brightness of tender rose and blue, nor +toned down the silvery reflection of the great sea of waters that +flashed under the sunshine like some vast shifting mirror. + +Travel-worn and very weary, Beryl sat down by the window and looked +out over the lake, that far as the eye could reach, lifted its +sparkling bosom to the cloudless dim blue of heaven, effacing the +sky line; dotted with sails like huge white butterflies, etched here +and there with spectral, shadowy ship masts, overflown by gray gulls +burnished into the likeness of Zophiels' pinions, as their wings +swiftly dipped. + +Driven by storms of adversity away from the busy world of her +earlier youth, leaving the wrack of hopes behind, she had drifted on +the chartless current of fate into this Umilta Sisterhood, this +latter day Beguinage; where, provided with work that would furnish +her daily bread, she could hide her proud head without a sense of +shame. Doctor Grantlin, in compliance with her request, would keep +the secret of her retreat; and surely here she might escape forever +the scrutiny and the dangerous magnetism of the man who had +irretrievably marred her fair, ambitious youth. + +To-day, twenty-one, full statured in womanhood, prematurely scorched +and scarred in spirit by fierce ordeals, she saw the pale ghost of +her girlhood flitting away amid the ruins of the past; and knew that +instead of making the voyage of life under silken sails gilded with +the light, and fanned by the breath of love and happiness, she had +been swept under black skies before a howling hurricane, into an +unexpected port,--where, lashed to the deck with "torn strips of +hope", she had finally moored a strained, dismasted barque in the +"Anchorage", whence with swelling canvas and flying pennons no ships +ever went forth. + +A rush of grateful tears filled her tired eyes, and soothed by the +consciousness of an inviolable security, her trembling lips moved in +a prayer of thankfulness to God, upon whom she had stayed her +tortured soul, grappling it to the blessed promise: "Lo, I am with +you always. I will never leave you nor forsake you." + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + + +"Why deny it, Leo? Let us at least be frankly realistic, and 'call a +spade a spade' when we set ourselves to dig ditches, draining the +stagnant pools of life. Each human being has a special goal toward +which he or she strains, with nineteen chances out of twenty against +reaching it in time; and if it be won, is it worth the race? With +some of us it is love, ambition, mundane prosperity; with others, +intellectual supremacy, moral perfection, exalted spirituality, +sublimated altruism; but after all, in the final analysis, it is +only hedonism! Each struggles with teeth and claws for that which +gives the largest promise of pleasure to body, mind, or soul, as the +individual happens to incline. To Sybarites the race is too short to +be fatiguing, and the goal is only an ambuscade for satiety and +ennui; to ascetics, the race course stretches to the borders of +futurity, but even for them one form of pleasure, spiritual +pleasure, lights up eternity. The thing we want, we want; not +because of its orthodoxy, or its excellency or beauty PER SE; we +want it because it gratifies some idiosyncratic craving of our +threefold natures. The good things of this world are very adroitly +and ingeniously labelled, but we rummage in the bonbonniere for a +certain marron glace, and if it be not there, all the caramels in +Venice, all the 'gluko' in Greece, all the rahatlicum in Turkey will +not appease us." + +With her arms thrown back, and clasped around the satin cushion +crushed against her head and shoulders, Miss Cutting lay on a red +plush divan in her father's picture gallery at home; and the +swathing folds of a topaz-hued surah gown embroidered with scarlet +poppies half concealed the feet that beat a tattoo on the polished +oak floor. + +"Then you have missed your marron glace?" answered Leo, turning from +the contemplation of a new picture which Mr. Cutting had recently +added to his collection. + +"Of course. Do not all of us sooner or later? Where is yours? Safe +under lock and key, or hanging on some crag, ripening for the +confectioner; or filched by some stealthy white hand, devoured by +some eager lips that smile derisively at you while they nibble?" + +From beneath drooping lids, Alma's oblique glance noted the result +of her Scipio Africanus' tactics. + +"Alma, too intemperate and prolonged diet of sweets has ruined your +digestion; has rendered you an ethical dyspeptic. A surfeit of sugar +betrays itself in fermentation, and you have reached the stage of +moral acidulation." + +"Ah, don't drift into homiletics! I see your marron grows hard by +the vineyard where sour grapes flourish. Leo, I am not so serenely +proud as you, but a trifle more honest, and I have cried for my +bonbon, never flouting its delicious flavor; hence, when I am +ordered back to boiled milk and oatmeal, I make no feint to disguise +my wry faces." + +Alma's low, teasing laugh stung like some persistent buzzing insect, +and a slight flush tinged her companion's cheek as she replied: + +"Why plunge to the opposite extreme? You will starve on that +porridge you are desperately preparing for yourself." + +"What else remains? This world is a huge bazaar, a big church fair, +and like other eager-eyed children I promptly set my heart on the +great 'bisc' doll with its head turning coquettishly from side to +side, singing snatches from 'La Grande Duchcsse', and clad like +Sheba's queen! I stake all my pennies on a chance in the raffle, +which has a 'consolation prize' hidden away from vulgar gaze. By and +by the dice rattle, and over my head, quite out of my reach, is +borne the coveted beauty (owned now by a girl I know), bowing and +singing to the new owner, who exultantly exhibits her as she +departs; and into my outstretched arms falls something hideous +enough to play Medusa in a tableau, a rag baby with grinning +Senegambian lips, rayless owlish eyes, and a concave nose whose +nostrils suggest the Catacombs! Bitter rage and murderous fury +possess me, but I am much too wise to show my tempers at the fair; +so I hug my 'consolation prize', and get away as fast as possible +with my treasure, and once safe from observation, box, deride, +trample upon it, and toss it into the garret as suitable prey for +dust, cobwebs and mildew! After a time, the keenness of the +disappointment dulls, like all other human aches that do not kill, +and by degrees I think less vindictively of the despised substitute. +Finally comes a day, when all else failing to amuse me, I creep +sheepishly into the attic and pick up the rejected, and persuade +myself it is at least better than no doll at all, and forthwith +adorn it with rags of finery; but the echoes of 'La Grande Duchesse' +will always ring in my ears, and through the halo of tears I see +ever and anon the prize beauty that was withheld. The two-edged +sword in the diablerie of fate is, that we are ordained to fret +after 'bisc,' when stuffed rags have been meted out as our share of +the fair." + +Leo drew a chair near the divan and seated herself; looking steadily +into the velvety black eyes that instead of betraying hid, like a +domino, the soul of their owner. + +"Alma, better cross empty arms forever over empty heart, than mock +your womanhood by acceptance of a 'consolation prize'." + +"We all say that the day after the fair; but wait a few years as I +have done; and like all your sisters in the ranks of the +disappointed, you will ultimately crawl back to the attic and kiss +the thick lips, and try to persuade yourself the nose is not so +formidable, though certainly a trifle less classic than Antinous's! +We set out with our eyes fixed on Vega, blazing above, and flaunt +our banner--'tout ou rien!'--but when the campaign ends, Vega laughs +at us from the horizon, quitting our world; and we console ourselves +with a rushlight, and shelter it carefully from the wind with +another flag: 'Quand on n'a pas ce qu'on aime, il faut aimer ce +qu'on a!' Such is the worldly wisdom that comes with ripening years, +like the deep stain on the sunny side of a peach. Moreover, 'folding +empty arms,' is only melodrama metaphor, and 'empty hearts' are, +begging your pardon, only figments of romantic brains. Our hearts +aren't empty, more's the pity! They hold deep, deep, the image of +Vega, and the flare of the tallow eandle on the surface serves as +cross lights to dazzle the world, and help us to hide the reflection +of our star. I saw that metaphor in some novel, and recognize its +truth. Do you, my princess?" + +"I will never so utterly degrade myself. I could neither lower my +standard, nor sacrifice my ideal," said Leo, with a touch of scorn +in her usually gentle voice. + +"You prefer that your ideal should sacrifice you? One enjoys for a +season the wide expanse visible from that lofty emotional pinnacle; +but the atmosphere is too rarefied, and we gladly descend to the +warm, denser air of the plains of common sense selfishness. If it be +lowering your standard to become the wife of a bishop (the youngest +ever ordained in his State), clothed with the double distilled odors +of sanctity and popularity, then heaven help your standard, which +only heaven can fitly house." + +"Since you persist in assuming that so flattering an offer has been +made me, I will set this subject at rest, by a final assurance that +even were your surmise correct, I could never under any imaginable +circumstances marry my cousin, Bishop Douglass. Although I trust and +reverence him beyond all other men, 'I love my cousin cousinly, no +more,' and he is too much absorbed by his holy office and its solemn +responsibilities, to waste thought on the frail, sweet, rosy garland +of any woman's love. Fret yourself no longer in casting matrimonial +horoscopes for me." + +The flushed cheeks, and a certain icy curtness in Leo's tone, warned +her companion that she was rashly invading sacred precincts. + +"Eight years ago I made the solemn asseveration that I would never +marry; and I ran as a raw recruit to swell the army of foolish +virgins who lost all the wedding splendors, the hypothetical 'cakes +and ale', for want of the oil of worldly wisdom. Now I am thirty- +three, and my lamp is filled to the brim, and the bridegroom is in +sight. Why not? Adverse weather, rain, rust and mildew spoiled my +beautiful golden harvest ten years ago, but aftermath is better than +bare stubble fields, and though you miss the song of the reapers, +you escape starvation. Deny it as we may, we are hopelessly given +over to fetichism, and each one of us ties around her stone image +some beguiling orthodox label. Leo, yours is pride, masquerading in +the dun garb of 'religious duty'. Mine is self-love, pure and +simple, the worldly weal of Alma Cutting; but nominally it is dubbed +'grateful requital of a life of devotion' in my lover! You grieve +over my heartlessness? That is the one compensation time brings, +when men and women have killed the best in our natures. Teeth ache +fiercely; then the nerve dies, and we have surcease from pain, and +find comfort in knowing that the darkening wreck can throb no more. +There was a time when the pangs of Prometheus seemed only pastime to +mine, but all things end; and now I get on as comfortably without a +heart, as the victims of vivisection--the frogs, and guinea pigs, +and rabbits--do without their brains." + +"I do indeed grieve over the fatal step you contemplate; I grieve +over your unwomanliness in marrying a man whom you do not even +pretend to love; and some terrible penalty will avenge the outrage +against feminine nature. Some day your heart will stir in its cold +torpor, and then all Dante's visions of horror, will become your +realities, scuurging you down to despair." + +"Because 'Farleigh Court' may lie dangerously close to 'Denzil +Place'? Be easy, Leo; the cold remains of my ossified affection will +lie in as decorous repose as the harmless ash heaps of some long +buried damosel of the era of Lars Porsenna, dug out of Vulci or +Chiusi. To make a safe and brilliant marriage is the acme of social +success. What else does the world to which I belong, offer me now?" + +"There remains always, Alma, the alternative of listening to the +instinctive monitors God set to watch in every woman's nature; and +we have the precious and inalienable privilege of being true to +ourselves. Better mourn your 'bisc' than stoop to a lower +substitute. Be loyal to yourself, be true to your own heart." + +"I know myself rather too intimately to offer a tribute of +admiration on the altar of ego; and I prefer to make the experiment +of trying to be true and loyal to some one else, with whose +imperfections I am not so well acquainted. When you meet your +adorable 'bisc' in society, with a wife hanging on his arm,--when as +pater familias he convoys his flock of small children who tread on +your toes at the chrysanthemum shows, what then? The world, my +world, is generously and munificently lax, and though the limits of +respectable endurance may be as hard to find as the 'fourth +dimension of space', or the authenticity of the 'Book of Jasher', +still for decency's sake we submit there are limits of decorum; +certain proprietorial domains upon which we may not openly poach; +and mcum et tuum though moribund, is not yet numbered with belief in +the 'grail'. Female emancipation is not quite complete even in +America, and noblesse oblige! our code still reads: 'Zeus has +unquestioned right to Io; but woe betide Io when she suns her heart +in the smiles that belong to Hera!' Some women find exhilaration in +the effort to excel, by flying closest to the flame without singeing +their satin wings; by executing a pirouette on the extremest ledge +of the abyss, yet escape toppling in; female Blondins skipping +across the tight rope of Platonic friendship, stretched above the +unmentionable. You are shocked?" + +"Indeed, I am pained. I can scarcely recognize the Alma of old." + +"Wait one moment, I have the floor. In the days when I wept for my-- +shall I say 'bisc'? for impersonality is hedged about with safety, +and the consolation prize had not yet been invited to come back from +Coventry, a funny trifle set me to thinking seriously of my sin of +covetousness. One summer at a certain fashionable resort, let us +call it villeggiatura of the Lepidoptera, the amusement programme +had reached the last act, and people yawned for something new, when +'sweet charity' came to the rescue, and proposed an entertainment to +raise funds for enlarging an ecclesiastical 'Columbary' where aged, +unsightly and repentant doves might moult, and renew their plumage. +Musical, dramatic, poetic recitations, and tableaux vivants +constituted the method of collecting the money, and the selections +would have made Rabelais chuckle. We had the most flagitiously +erotic passages (rendered in costume) from opera and opera bouffe, +living reproductions of the tragic pose of Paolo and Francesca that +would hare inspired Cabanel anew; of 'Ginevra Da Siena,' of +'Vivien,'--a carnival of the carnal! where nurseries were robbed to +supply the mimic ballet, and where bald-headed clergyman, and white- +haired mothers in Israel clapped and encored. One fair forsaken +dame, whose indignant spouse was seeking a divorce, came to the +footlights in an artistic garment so decollete that a man sitting +behind me whispered to his friend: 'What pictures does she suggest +to you? "Phryne before the Judges"--or Long's "Thisbe?" She +languorously waved a floral fan of crimson carnations, and recited +with all of Siddons' grace and Rachel's fire selections from a book +of poems, that were so many dynamite bombs of vice smothered in +roses. Amid tumultuous applause, she gave as encore something that +contained a fragment of Feydeau, and its closing words woke up my +drowsy soul, like a clap of thunder: 'Ce que les poetes appellent +l'amour, et les moralistes l'adultere!' Leo, there is a moral +somnambulism more frightful than that which leads to midnight +promenades on the combs of roofs, and the borders of Goat Island; so +I wiped my tears away, and after that day, began to read the billet +doux and wear the flowers of my 'consolation prize'." + +"You do not love him, and your marriage will degrade you in your own +estimation. Your bridal vows will be perjury, an insult to your God, +and a foul terrible wrong against the man who trusts your +truthfulness. According to our church, wedlock is a 'holy +ordinance'; and to me an unloving wife is unhallowed; is a blot on +her sex, only a few degrees removed from unmarried mothers. You know +the difference between friendship and love, and when you go to the +altar, and give the former in exchange for the latter, the base +counterfeit for the true gold, you are consciously and +premeditatedly dishonest." + +"Thanks, for your clearness of diction, your perspicuity which +leaves no cobweb of misty doubt wherewith to drape my shivering +moral deformity! To 'see ourselves as others see us' is as +disappointing as the result of plunging one's hand into the 'grab- +bag', but at least it brings the stimulating tingle of a new +sensation. Suppose each knows perfectly well that as regards the +true gold, both are equally bankrupt? There is a queer moral fungus +called 'honesty among thieves', and we both know that we never sang +snatches from Offenbach to each other, through pink 'bisc' lips. He +loved quite desperately a mignonne of a blonde, with heavenly blue +eyes and cherubic yellow hair, who, not knowing his expectations +from a California uncle, jilted him for a rich Cuban. Look you, Leo, +because I cannot wear Kohinoor, must I disport myself without any +diamond necklace? Since he can never own 'La Peregrina,' must he +eschew pearl studs in his shield front? We distinctly understand +that we are not first prizes; but perhaps we may be something better +than total blanks in the lottery, even though we quite realize the +difference between love and friendship. Do you? Portia should know +every jot and tittle of the law, and all the subtle shades of +evidence, before she lifts her voice in court." + +Alma pushed away her cushion, sat upright, and the slumbering fire +flashed up under her jet lashes. + +"If I do, that knowledge which earlier or later comes to all women, +is certainly linked with the comforting consciousness that I can +trust myself to govern and protect myself, without being tied to a +watch-dog, whose baying would serve much the same purpose as that +picture in mosaic in the House of the Tragic Poet. I have a very +sincere affection for you, Alma, but the day on which you sell +yourself in a loveless marriage, will strain hard on the cable of +esteem." + +"Is it for this reason that you refuse to officiate as my +bridesmaid?" + +"Solely because I will neither witness nor participate in an act +which will give me great pain by lowering my estimate of your +character." + +Alma's long, supple, tapering fingers were outstretched, and taking +Leo's white dimpled hands, drew them caressingly to her face, +pressing a palm against each cheek. + +"Your good opinion is so precious, I cannot afford to lose it. We +accept men's flattery and expect their compliments, because it is a +traditional homage that survives the chivalry that inspired it; but +we don't mistake chaff for wheat, and the purest, sweetest, noblest +and holiest friendship in life is that of a true, good woman. The +perfume is as different as the stale odor of a cigar, from the +breath of the honeysuckle that bleached all night under crystal dew, +floats in at your window like a message from heaven, I love you +dearly, my pretty Portia, hence I wince a trifle at your harsh +ascription of cave canem motives in my marriage. In the idyllic +Arthurian days, the 'Lily Maid of Astolot' made a touching picture, +weeping and dying for the man who rode away, marauding on kingly +preserves; but this is the era of wise, common sense 'Maud Mullers', +and she and the Judge, mating as best they can, lead peaceful lives +in a wholesome atmosphere, and cause no scandal by following +'affinities' across the lines of law; as some high in literature, +art, and society have done, trusting that the starred mantle of +genius would hide their moral leprosy. With all my faults, at least +I am honest; and when I bow my stiff neck under the yoke connubial, +I promise you I will keep step demurely and sedately. Do you +remember a sombre book we read while yachting, which contained this +brave confession of a woman, whose marriage made her historic? 'I +thought I had done with life. I knew I had now cause to be proud of +belonging to this man, and I was proud. At the same time I as little +feigned ardent love for him, as he demanded it from me.' Leo, you +and I represent different types. You are an eagle brooding in cold +eternal solitude upon the heights, rather than be wooed by valley +hawks; I am only a very tired wren, who missed a mate on my first +Valentine season, and seeing my plumage grows a rusty brown, I +accept the overtures of one similarly forlorn, and hope for serene +domesticity under the sheltering eaves of some quiet, cosey barn. +You are a nobler bird, no doubt; but trust me dear, I shall be the +happier." + +Leo withdrew her hands, and pushed back her chair, widening the +space that divided them. + +"You disappoint me keenly. I thought you too brave to crouch before +the jeers hurled at 'old maidenism'. Moral cowardice is the last +flaw I expected in one of your fibre." + +"Wait till you are thirty-three, and stand as a target at Society's +archery meeting. Yesterday Celeste was pale with horror when she +showed me two white hairs pulled from my 'bangs', and added, 'Helas +races! and powdered hair no more the style!' My dear girl-- + + "'True love, of course, is scarcely in society, + Unless in fancy dress, and masked like one of us--'" + +still I really am very proud of my six feet two inches prospective +conjugal yoke-fellow; proud of his martial bearing, his brilliant +reputation, 'proud of his pride'; and I think I shall grow very fond +of him, because in a mild way I think he cares for me'; and we can +make a little Indian Summer for each other before the frosts of +Winter fall upon us. What else can I do with my life? Think of it. +Papa will be married soon, and while I don't propose to tear my hair +and insult his bride, nobody can be expected to reach such altitudes +of self-abnegation as to want a step-mother. Poor papa, I am sure I +hope he may be very happy, but it is superhuman to elect to live +under the same roof, and smile benignantly on his bliss. Rivers, +too, has slipped under the matrimonial noose, and I am absolutely +thrown on my own resources for companionship. What does society +offer me? Haggard, weazen old witch, bedizened in a painted mask; +don't I know the yellow teeth and bleared eyes behind the paste- +board, and the sharp nails in the claws hidden under undressed kid? +Have not I gone around for years on her gaudy wheel, like that +patient, uncomplaining goat we saw stepping on the broad spokes of +the great wheel that churned the butter, and pressed the cheese in +that dairy, near Udine? The dizzying circle, where one must step, +step--keep time or be lost! In Winter, balls, receptions, luncheons, +teas, Germans, theatre parties, opera suppers; a rush for the first +glimpse of the last picture that emerges from the custom-house; for +a bouquet of the newest rose that took the prize at the London Show. +In season, coaching parties, tally ho! Then fox hunting minus the +fox, and later, boating and bathing and lawn tennis!--and--always-- +everywhere heart-burnings, vapid formalities; beaux setting belles +at each other like terriers scrambling after a mouse; mothers lying +in wait, as wise cats watching to get their paws on the first-class +catch they know their pretty kittens cannot manage successfully. Oh! +Don't I know it all! I dare say my world is the very best possible +of its kind; and I am not cynical, but oh Lord! I am so deadly tired +of everything, and everybody." + +"No wonder, unless you mercilessly calumniate it; but you have only +yourself to blame. You made social success your aim, fashionable +life your temple of worship, sham your only God. If you habitually +drink poppy juice, can you fail to be drowsy?" + +"Oh bless you! I have been polytheistic as any other well-read pagan +of my day, and changed the heads and the labels of the fetiches on +my altar almost as often as my ball wardrobe. I aspired to 'culture' +in all the 'cults', and I improved diligently my opportunities. One +year the stylish craze was sesthetics, and I fought my way to the +front of the bedlamites raving about Sapphic types, 'Sibylla +Palmifera' and 'Astarte Syriaca'; and I wore miraculously limp, +draggled skirts, that tangled about my feet tight as the robes of +Burne Jones' 'Vivien.' Next season the star of ceramics and bric-a- +brac was in the ascendant, and I ran the gamut of Satsuma, Kyoto, de +la Robbia, Limoge and Gubbio; of niello, and millchori glass, of +Queen Anne brass and Japanese bronze; while my snuff boxes and my +'symphony in fans' graced all the loan exhibitions. Soon after, a +celebrated scientist from England who had bowled over all the pins +set up by his predecessors, lectured in our Bojotia; and fired with +zeal for truth, I swept aside all my costly idealistic rubbish into +a 'doomed pyramid of the vanities', and swore allegiance to the +Positive, the 'Knowable', whose priests handled hammers, +spectroscopes, electric batteries--and who set up for me a whole +Pantheon of science fetiches. I bought a microscope and peered into +tissues, pollen cells, diatoms, ditch ooze; and pitied my clever and +very talented grandmother who died ignorant of the family secrets +revealed by 'totemism', ignorant of 'parthenogenesis' which proved +so conclusively the truth of her own firm conviction, that the +faults she deplored in her son's children were all inherited +directly from her daughter-in-law, whom she detested; ignorant of +the fact that the sun which she regarded as a dazzling yellow fire +was by bolometric measures shown to be in reality of a restful, and +refreshing blue color. By the time I was fully convinced that +teleology was as dead as the Ptolemaic theory, and that 'wings were +not planned for flight, but that flight has produced wings', hence +that Haeckel's gospel of 'Dysteleology' or purposelessness in Nature +satisfactorily explained creation--a great wave of oriental +theosophy overflowed us; and a revival of Buddhism invited me to +seek Nirvana as the final beatitude, where-- + + "'We shall be + Part of the mighty universal whole, + And through all icons mix and mingle with the + Kosmic Soul!'" + +Or to make matters clearer still: + + "'Om, mani Padma, Om! the dewdrop slips + Into the shining sea!'" + +Even a sponge can hold only so much, and I fell back--or shall I say +forward--in the path of progress to rest in the dimness of +agnosticism. Is it strange, Leo, that I am desperately tired; and +willing to plant my feet on the rock of matrimony, which will +neither dissolve nor slip away, and to which my vows will moor me +firmly?" + +"If you had clung to your Bible, and prayed more, you would not have +wasted so signally the years that might have brought you enduring +happiness. Forgive me, Alma, but you have lived solely for self." + +"Yet now, when I propose to live solely for somebody else, you shake +me off, and repudiate me? Selfish you think? I dare say I am, but +religion now-a-day winks at that, nay fosters it. Each church is an +octopus, and the members are laboriously striving to disprove the +Saviour's admonition: 'Ye cannot serve God and mammon.' I am no +worse than my ritualistic sisters whom I meet and gossip with, under +cover of the organ muttering, and sometimes I wonder if after all we +are any nearer the kingdom of heaven that Christ preached, than the +pagans whose customs we retain under evangelical names. 'They +sacrificed a white kid to the propitious divinities, and a black kid +to the unpropiticus.' Do not we likewise? The church or one of its +pensioners needs money; so instead of denying ourselves some secular +amusement, cutting short our chablis, terrapin, pate de foie gras, +gateau, Grec, Amontillado; wearing less sealskin and sables, buying +fewer pigeon-blood rubies, absolutely mortifying the flesh in order +to offer a contribution out of our pockets to God, how ingeniously +we devise schemes to extract the largest possible amount of purely +personal pleasure from the expenditure of the sum, we call our +contribution to charity? We build chapels, and feed orphans, and +clothe widows, and endow reformatories, and establish beds in +hospitals, how? By a devout, consecrating self-denial which +manifests itself in eating and drinking, in singing and dancing, at +kirmess, charity balls, amateur theatricals, garden parties; where +the cost of our XV. Siecle costume is quadruple the price of the +ticket that admits to our sacrifice of black and white kids in the +same sanctuary. We serve God with one hand, and we surely serve with +the other the Mammon of selfishness and vanity. We have Lenten +service, Lenten dietetics, Lenten costumes even; Lenten progressive +euchre, Lenten clubs; but where are the Lenten virtues, where the +genuine humility, charity, self-dedication of body and soul to true +holiness?" + +"The church is a school. If pupils will not heed admonition, and +defy the efforts of instructors, is the institution responsible for +the failure in education? The eradication of selfishness is the +mission of the churches; and if we individually practised at home a +genuine self-denial for righteousness' sake, we should collectively +show the world fewer flaws for scoffing reprimand." + +"The Shepherds are too timid to control their flocks. If they only +had the nerve to pick us up, turn our hearts inside out, show us the +black corners, and the ossifications, and call sin, sin, we should +begin to realize what despicable shams we are. Dr. Douglass, the +Bishop, is the only one I know who lays us on the dissecting table, +and who does not speak of 'human fallibility' when he means vice. He +told us one day that the Gospel required a line of demarcation +between the godly and the ungodly, between Christians and +unbelievers; but that it has become imaginary like the meridian and +the equator; and that he very much feared the strongest microscope +in the laboratories could not find where the boundary line ran +between the World, the Flesh and the Devil, and the Kingdom of God +in our souls. I am sorry a distant State called him to her Episcopal +chair, for his cold steel is needed among us. Now tell me, Leo, what +you intend to do with your life?" + +"Spend it for God and my fellow creatures; and enjoy all the pure +happiness I can appropriate without wronging others. I have so many +privileges granted me, that I ought to accomplish some good in this +world, as a thank offering." + +"Take care you don't make a fetich of Jerusalem missions, Chinese +tracts, and Sheltering Arms; and lose your dear, sweet personality +in a goody-goody machine bigot. Forgive me, dear old girl, but +sometimes I fear a shadow has fallen in your sunshine." + +"Sooner or later they fall into every life, yet mine will pass away +I feel assured. 'Pain, suffering, failure are as needful as ballast +to a ship, without which it does not draw enough water, becomes a +plaything for the winds and waves, travels no certain road, and +easily overturns.' If the gloomiest pessimist of this century can +extract that comfort, what may I not hope for my future? I am going +to rebuild my house at X----and when it is completed, I shall expect +the privilege of returning the hospitality you have so kindly shown +me. I shall be very busy for at least two years, and I am glad to +know that Aunt Patty is beginning to manifest some interest in my +plans." + +"Leo, may I ask something?" + +"If you are quite sure you have the right to ask, and that I can +have no reason to decline answering." + +"I can't bear that you should live and die without being a happy +wife. I don't want you to become a mere benevolent automaton set +aside for church work, and charities; getting solemn and thin, with +patient curves deepening around your mouth, and loneliness looking +out of-- + +"'Eyes, meek as gentle Mercy's at the throne of heaven.'" + +"To be a happy wife is the dream of womanhood, and if the day should +ever dawn when God gives me that crown of joy, I shall wear it +gladly, proudly, and feel that this world has yielded me its richest +blessing; but, Alma, to-day I know no man whom I could marry with +the hope of that perfect union which alone sanctions and hallows +wedded love. I must be all the world to my husband; and he--next to +God--must be the universe to me. There is Gen'l Haughton coming up +the stairs, so I considerately efface myself. Good-bye till +luncheon." + +As she glided away and disappeared behind the curtain leading into +the library, Alma looked after her, with very misty eyes, full of +tenderness. + +"Brave, proud soul; deep, sorrowful heart. If she can't drown her +star, at least she will admit no lesser light. She will never swerve +one iota from her lofty standard, and some day, please God, she may +yet wear her coveted crown right royally. Governor Glenbeigh is +worthy even of her, but will his devotion win her at last?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + + +If it be true that the universal Law of Labor, physical or mental, +emanated from the Creator as a penal statute, for disobedience which +forfeited Eden, how merciful and how marvellous is the delicacy of +an adjustment, whereby all growth of body, mind and soul being +conditioned by work, humanity converts punishment into benediction; +escapes degeneration, attains development solely in accordance with +the provisions of the primeval curse, man's heritage of labor? Amid +the wreck of sacerdotal systems, the destruction of national gods, +the periodical tidal waves of scepticism, the gospel of work +maintains triumphantly its legions of evangels; its apostolic +succession direct from Adam; its myriad temples always alight with +altar fires, always vocal with the sublime hymn swelling from +millions of consecrated throats. + +The one infallible tonic for weakened souls, the one supreme balm +for bruised hearts is the divinely distilled chrism of labor. + +Absorbed in the round of duties that employed her hands and +thoughts, and necessitated dedication of every waking hour, Beryl +found more solace than she had dared to hope; and the artistic +fancies which she had supposed extinguished, spread their frail +gossamer wings and fluttered shyly into the serene sunshine that had +broken rpon her frozen life. The distinctively ornamental character +of many of the industrial pursuits at the "Anchorage", demanded +originality and variety of designs, and as this department had been +assigned to her, she entered with increasing zest the tempting field +of congenial employment; yet day by day, bending over her tasks, she +never lost sight of the chain that clanked at her wrist, that bound +her to a hideous past, to a murky, lowering and menacing future. + +Weeks slipped away, months rolled on; Autumn overtook her. Winter +snows and sleet blanched the heavenly blue of the dimpling lake, and +no tidings reached her from the wanderer, for whom she prayed. The +advertisement had elicited no reply, and though it had long ceased +to appear, she daily searched the personal column of the "Herald", +with a vague expectation of some response. If her brother still +lived, was the world so wide, that she could never trace his erring +passage through it? Would no instinct of natural affection prompt +him to seek news of the mother who had idolized him? After a while +she must renew the quest, but for the present, safety demanded her +seclusion; and since only Doctor Grantlin knew the place of her +retreat, she felt secure from discovery. + +One Spring day, when warm South winds had kissed open the spicy lips +of lilacs, and yellowed the terrace with crocus flakes, Beryl +dismissed her class of pupils in drawing and painting, and was +engaged in dusting the plaster casts, and arranging the palettes and +pencils left in disorder. The door opened, and a pretty, young +German Sister looked in. + +"Sister Ruth have need of you to do some errands; and you must go on +the street; so you will get your bonnet and veil. Is it that you +will be there soon?" + +"I will come at once, Sister Elsbeth." + +For several days Sister Ruth had been confined to her room by +inflammatory rheumatism, and when Beryl entered, the invalid +presented the appearance of a mummy swathed in red flannel. + +"I am sorry to disturb you, and equally sorry that I feel obliged to +exact a reluctant service, because I know you dislike to visit the +business part of the city, and there I must send you. This note from +Mrs. Vanderdonk will explain the nature of the business, which I can +intrust to no one except yourself; and you will see that the +commission admits of no delay. Here is your car fare. Go first to +No. 100 Lucre Avenue, talk fully with Mrs. Vanderdonk, and then ride +down to Jardon & Jackson's and get all the material you think will +be required. You will observe, she lays great stress on the +superfine quality of the plush. Order the bill delivered with the +goods; and if anything be required in your department, you had +better leave the list with Kling & Turner." + +Three squares south of the "Anchorage" ran a line of street cars +which carried her away to the heart of the city; and at the +expiration of an hour and a half, Beryl had executed the commission, +and was walking homeward, watching for a car which would expedite +her return. Dreading identification, she went rarely into the great +thoroughfare; and now felt doubly shielded from observation by the +Quaker-shaped drab bonnet and veil that covered her white cap. As +she was passing the entrance of a dancing academy, a throng of boys +and girls poured out, filling the sidewalk, and creating a temporary +blockade, through which a gentleman laden with several packages, +elbowed his way. A moment later, Beryl's foot struck some obstacle, +and looking down she saw a large portfolio lying on the pavement. It +was a handsome morocco case, with the initials "G. McI.", stamped in +gilt upon the cover, which was tied with well-worn strings. She held +it up, looked around, even turned back, thinking that the owner +might have returned to search for it; but the gentleman who had +hurried through the crowd was no longer visible, and in the distance +she fancied she saw a similar figure cross the street, and spring +upon a car rolling in the opposite direction. + +The human clot had dissolved, the juvenile assembly had drifted +away; and as no one appeared to claim the lost article, she +signalled to the driver of the car passing just then, entered and +took a seat in one corner. The only passengers were two nurses with +bands of little ones, seeking fresh air in a neighboring park; and +slipping the book under her veil, Beryl began to examine its +contents. A glance showed her that it belonged to some artist, and +was filled with sketches neatly numbered and dated; while between +the leaves lay specimens of ferns and lichens carefully pressed. + +The studies were varied, and in all stages of advancement; here two +elk heads and a buffalo; there a gaunt coyote crouching in the +chaparral; a cluster of giant oaks; far off, a waving line of +mountain peaks; a canon with vultures sailing high above it; cow +boys, and a shoreless sea of prairie, with no shadows except those +cast by filmy clouds drifting against the sun. Slowly turning the +leaves, which showed everywhere a master's skilful hand, Beryl found +two sheets of paper tied together with a strand of silk; and between +them lay a fold of tissue paper, to preserve some delicate lines. +She untied the knot, and carefully lifted the tissue, looking at the +sketch. + +A faint, inarticulate cry escaped her, and she sank back an instant +in the corner of the seat; but the chatter of the nurses, and the +whimpering wail of one dissatisfied baby mercifully drowned the +sound. The car, the trees on the Street, the belfry of a church +seemed spinning in some witch's dance, and an icy wind swept over +and chilled her. She threw aside her veil, stooped, and her lips +whitened. + +What was there in the figure of a kneeling monk, to drive the blood +in cold waves to her throbbing heart? The sketch represented the +head and shoulders of a man, whose cowl had fallen back, exposing +the outlines and moulding of a face and throat absolutely flawless +in beauty, yet darkened by the reflection of some overpowering and +irremediable woe. The features were youthful as St. Sebastian's; the +expression that of one prematurely aged by severe and unremitting +mental conflict; but neither shaven crown, nor cowl availed to +disguise Bertie Brentano, and as his sister's eyes gazed at the +sketch, it wavered, swam, vanished in a mist of tears. + +In one corner of the sheet a man's hand had written "Brother Luke", +August the 10th. Had relenting fate, or a merciful prayer-answering- +God placed in her hand the long sought clue? When Beryl recovered +from the shock of recognition, and looked around, she found the car +empty; and discovered that she had been carried several squares +beyond the street where she intended to get out and walk. + +Carefully replacing the tissue paper and silk thread, she tied the +leathern straps of the portfolio, and left the car, holding the +sketches close to her heart as she hurried homeward. When she turned +a corner and caught sight of the bronze anchor over the door, she +involuntarily slackened her pace, and at the same moment a policeman +crossed the street, stood in front of her, and touched his cap. The +sight of his uniform thrilled her with a premonition of danger. + +"Pardon me, Sister, but something has been lost on the street." + +"A portfolio? I have found it." + +"It is very valuable to the owner." + +"I intend having it advertised in to-morrow's paper." + +"The person to whom it belongs, wishes to leave the city; to-night, +hence his haste in trying to recover it." + +"I picked it up in front of Heilwiggs' Dancing Academy. How did you +know who had found it?" + +"The owner discovered he had dropped it, soon after he boarded a +car, where Captain Tunstall of our force happened to be, and he at +once telegraphed to all the stations to be on the look out. A boot- +black whose stand is near Heilwiggs', reported that he saw one of +the 'Gray Women' pick up something, and get on an upbound car. Our +station was telephoned to interview the 'Anchorage', so you see we +are prompt. I was just going over to ring the bell, and make +inquiries." + +"Who lost the book?" + +"A man named McIlvane, an Englishman I think, who is obliged to +hurry on to-night, in order to catch some New York steamer where his +passage is engaged." + +"You are sure he is a foreigner?" asked Beryl, who was feverishly +revolving the possibility that the sketch belonged to some +detective, and was intended for identification of the picture on the +glass door at X----. + +"You can't be sure of anything that is only lip deep, but that was +the account telephoned to us. There is a reward of twenty dollars if +the book is delivered by eight P.M.; after that time, ten dollars, +and directions left by which to forward it to London. He said it was +worthless to anybody else, but contained a lot of pictures he +valued." + +"I do not want the reward, but before I surrender the portfolio, I +must see the owner." + +"Why?" + +"For reasons that concern only myself. He can come here, and claim +his property; or I will take it to him, and restore it, after he has +answered some questions. You are quite welcome to the reward, which +I am sure you merit because of your promptness and circumspection. +Will you notify him that he can obtain his book by calling at the +'Anchorage'?" + +"Our instructions are, to deliver the book at Room 213, Hotel +Lucullus. It is now four o'clock." + +"I will not surrender the book to you; but I will accompany you to +the hotel, and deliver it to the owner in your presence. Let us lose +no time." + +"Very well. Sister, I'll keep a little behind, and jump on the first +red star car that passes down. Look out for me on the platform, and +I'll stop the car for you." + +"Thank you," said Beryl, wondering whether the sanctity of her garb +exacted this mark of deference, or whether the instinctive chivalry +of American manhood prompted him to spare her the appearance of +police surveillance. + +Keeping her in sight, he loitered until they found themselves on the +same car, where the officer, apparently engrossed by his cigarette, +retained his stand on the rear platform. In front of the hotel two +omnibuses were discharging their human freight, and in the +confusion, Beryl and her escort passed unobserved into the building. +He motioned her into one of the reception rooms on the second floor, +and made his way to the office. + +Drawing her quaint bonnet as far over her face as possible, and +straightening her veil, Beryl sat down on a sofa and tried to quiet +the beating of her pulses, the nervous tremor that shook her. She +had ventured shyly out of her covert, and like all other hunted +creatures, trembled at her own daring in making capture feasible. +Memory rendered her vaguely apprehensive; bitter experience +quickened her suspicions. + +Was she running straight into some fatal trap, ingeniously baited +with her brother's portrait? Would the Sheriff in X----, would Mr. +Dunbar himself, recognize her in her gray disguise? She walked to a +mirror set in the wall, and stared at her own image, put up one hand +and pushed out of sight every ring of hair that showed beneath the +white cap frill; then reassured, resumed her seat. How long the +waiting seemed. + +Somebody's pet Skye terrier, blanketed with scarlet satin +embroidered with a monogram in gilt, had defied the bienseance of +fashionable canine and feline etiquette, by flying at somebody's +sedate, snowy Maltese cat, whose collar of silver bells jangled out +of tune, as the combatants rolled on the velvet carpet, swept like a +cyclone through the reception room, fled up the corridor. Two pretty +children, gay as paroquets, in their cardinal plush cloaks, ran to +the piano and began a furious tattoo, while their nurse gossiped +with the bell boy. + +With her hands locked around the portfolio, Beryl sat watching the +door; and at last the policeman appeared at the threshold, where he +paused an instant, then vanished. + +A gentleman apparently forty years of age came in, and approached +her. He was short in stature, florid, slightly bald; wore mutton +chop whiskers, and a traveling suit of gray tweed broadly checked. + +Beryl rose, the stranger bowed. + +"Ah, you have my sketch book! Madam, I am eternally your debtor. +Intrinsically worthless, perhaps; yet there are reasons which make +it inestimably valuable to me." + +"I picked it up from the pavement, and though I opened and examined +it, you will find the contents intact. Will you look through it?" + +"Oh! I dare say it is all right. No one cares for unfinished +sketches, and these are mere studies." + +He untied the thongs, turned over a dozen or more papers, then +closed the lid, and put his hand in his pocket. + +"I offered a reward to--" + +"I wish no fee, sir; but the policeman has taken some trouble in the +matter, and without his aid I should probably not have been able to +restore it. Pay him what you promised, or may deem proper; and then +permit me to ask for some information, which I think you can give +me." + +She beckoned to the officer who looked in just then; and when the +money had been counted into his hand, the latter lifted his cap. + +"Sister, shall I see you safe on the car?" + +"Thank you, no. I can find my way home. I teach drawing at the +'Anchorage', and desire to ask a few questions of this gentleman, +who I am sure is an artist." + +When the policeman had left them, Beryl took the portfolio and +opened it, while the owner watched her curiously, striving to +penetrate the silver gray folds of her veil. + +"May I ask whether you expect to leave America immediately?" + +"I expect to sail on the steamer for Liverpool next Saturday." + +"Have you relatives in this country?" + +"None. I am merely a tourist, seeking glimpses of the best of this +vast continent of yours." + +"Did you make these sketches?" + +"I did, from time to time; in fact, mine has been a sketching tour, +and this book is one of several I have filled in America." + +With trembling fingers she untied the silk, lifted the sketch, and +said in a voice which, despite her efforts, quivered: + +"I hope, sir, you will not consider me unwarrantably inquisitive, if +I ask, where did you see this face?" + +"Ah! My monk of the mountains? That is 'Brother Luke'; looks like +one of Il Frate's wonderful heads, does he not? I saw him--let me +see? Egad! Just exactly where it was, that is the rub! It was far +west, beyond Assiniboia; somewhere in Alberta I am sure." + +"Was it on British soil, or in the United States?" + +"Certainly in British territory; and on one of the excursions I made +from Calgary. I think it was while hunting in the mountains between +Alberta and British Columbia. Let me see the sketch. Yes--10th of +August; I was in that region until 1st of September." + +Beryl drew a deep breath of intense relief, as she reflected that +foreign territory might bar pursuit; and leaning forward, she asked +hesitatingly: + +"Have you any objection to telling me the circumstances under which +you saw him; the situation in which you found him?" + +"None whatever; but may I ask if you know him? Is my sketch so good +a portrait?" + +"It is wonderfully like one I knew years ago; and of whom I desire +to receive tidings. My friend is a handsome man about twenty-four +years of age." + +"I was camping out with a hunting party, and one day while they were +away gunning, I went to sketch a bit of fir wood clinging to the +side of a rocky gorge. The day was hot, and I sat down to rest in +the shadow of a stone ledge, that jutted over the cove where a +spring bubbled from the crag, and made a ribbon of water. Here is +the place, on this sheet. Over there, are the fir trees. Very soon I +heard a rich voice chanting a solemn strain from Palestrinas' +Miserere; the very music I had listened to in the Sistine Chapel, a +few months before; and peeping from my sheltered nook, I saw a man +clad in monkish garb stoop to drink from the spring. He sat a while, +with his arms clasped around his knees, and his profile was so +perfect I seized my pencil and drew the outlines; but before I +completed it, he suddenly fell upon his knees, and the intense +anguish, remorse, contrition--what not--so changed the countenance, +that while he prayed, I made rapidly a new sketch. Then the most +extraordinary thing happened. He rose, and turning fully toward me, +I saw that one-half of his face was nobly regular, classically +perfect; while the other side was hideously distorted, deformed. +Absolutely he was 'Hyperion and Satyr' combined--with one set of +features between them. I suppose my astonishment caused me to utter +some exclamation, for he glanced up the cliff, saw me, turned and +fled. I shouted and ran, but could not overtake him, and when I +reached the open space, I saw a figure speeding away on a white +mustang pony, and knew from the fluttering of the black skirts that +it was the same man. My sketch shows the right side of his face, the +other was drawn down almost beyond the lineaments of humanity. Beg +pardon, madam, but would you be so good as to tell me whether this +freak of nature was congenital, or the result of some frightful +accident?" + +Beryl had shut her eyes, and her lips were compressed to stifle the +moan that struggled in her throat. When she spoke, the stranger +detected a change in her voice. + +"The person whose countenance was recalled by your sketch, was +afflicted by no physical blemish, when last I saw him." + +"His appearance was so singular, that I made sundry inquiries about +him, but only one person seemed ever to have encountered him; and +that was a half-breed Indian driver, belonging to our party. He told +me, 'Brother Luke' belonged to a band of monks living somewhere +beyond the mountains; and that he sometimes crossed, searching for +stray cattle. That is the history of my sketch, and since I am +indebted to you for its recovery, I regret for your sake that it is +so meagre." + +"It was last August that you made the sketch?" + +"Last August. And now may I ask, to whom my thanks are due?" + +"I am merely an humble member of a sisterhood of working women, and +my name could possess no interest for you. I owe you an apology for +trespassing upon your time, and prying into the mysteries of your +portfolio; but the beauty of your sketch, and its startling +resemblance to one in whom I have long felt an interest, must plead +my pardon. I am grateful, sir, for your courtesy, and will detain +you no longer." + +He bowed profoundly; she bent her head, and walked quickly away, +keeping her face lowered, dreading observation. + +For the first time since her trial and conviction, a sensation of +perfect tranquillity shed rest upon her anxious and foreboding +heart. Bertie was safe from capture, on foreign soil; and the +testimony of the traveller that he prayed in the solitude of the +wilderness, brought her the comforting assurance, that the fires of +remorse had begun the purification of his sinful soul from the crime +that had blackened so many lives. Trained in his early youth at a +Jesuit College, his sympathies had ever been with the priesthood to +whom his tutors belonged; and his sister readily understood how +swiftly he fled to their penitential, expiatory system, when the +blood of his grandfather had stained his hands, and the scouts of +the law hunted him to desert wilds. + +Vain of the personal beauty that had always distinguished him, she +comprehended the keenness of the humiliation, which would goad him +to screen in a cloister, the facial mutilation, that punished him +more excruciatingly than hair shirt, or flagellation. Beyond the +reach of extradition (as she fondly hoped), inviolate beneath the +cowl of some Order which, in protecting his body, essayed also to +cleanse, regenerate and sanctify his imperilled soul, could she not +now dismiss the tormenting apprehension that sleeping or waking had +persistently dogged her, since the day when she saw the fuchsias on +the handkerchief, and the mother-of-pearl grapes on the sleeve +button, in the penitentiary cell? + +In a crisis of dire extremity, overborne by adversity, terrified by +the realization of human helplessness, we fly to God, and barter by +promise all our future, for the boon of temporary succor. + +How different, how holy the mood that brings us in tearful gratitude +to dedicate our lives to His service, when having abandoned all +hope, His healing hand lifts us out of long agony into unexpected +rest? + +When an ignominious death stared this woman in the face, she had +cried to her God: "Though You slay me, yet will I trust You!" and +to-night she bowed her head in prayer, thankful that the uplifted +hand held no longer a dagger, but had fallen tenderly in +benediction. + +Far away in the heart of the city, the clock in its granite tower +was striking two; yet Beryl knelt at her oriel window, with her arms +crossed on the wide sill, and her eyes fixed upon the shimmering +sea, where a soft south wind ruffled it into ridges of silver, +beneath a full May moon. Beyond those silent waters, hidden in some +lonely, snow-girt eyry, where perhaps the muffled thunder of the +Pacific responded to the midnight chants of his oratory, dwelt +Bertie; and to touch his hand once more, to hear from his own lips +that he had made his peace with God, to kiss him good-bye seemed all +that was left for accomplishment. + +Poor and unknown, she lacked apparently every means requisite for +this attainment; but faith, patience, and courage were hers. Daily +work for daily wage was the present duty; and in God's good time she +would find her brother. How, or when, so expensive and difficult a +quest could be successfully prosecuted, disquieted her not; she had +learned to labor and to trust; she remembered: "Their strength is to +sit still." + +The symphony of her life was set in minors, yet subtle and perfect +was the harmony that dwelt therein; and because she had sternly shut +love out of her lonely heart, she kept votive lights burning +ceaselessly on the cold altar of duty. The solitary red rose of +happiness that might have brightened and perfumed her thorny path, +she had cut off, ere the bud expanded, and offered it as a loyal +tribute to broaden the garland that crowned Miss Gordon. At the +mandate of conscience, she had unmurmuringly surrendered this +precious blossom, but memory was tantalizingly tenacious; and in +sorrowful hours of sore temptation, the brave, pure soul came +swiftly to the rescue of famishing heart: "What? Is it so hard for +us to keep the Ten Commandments? Do we covet our neighbor's lover?" + +In the garden of earthly existence, some are ordained to bloom as +human plantae tristes, shedding their delicate aroma like the +"Pretty-by-nights", only when the glory of the day is done, and +twilight shadows coax open their pure hearts. + +To-night she seemed cradled in the arms of peace, soothed by an +unfaltering trust that whispered: + + "Would I could wish my wishes all to rest; + And know to wish the wish, that were the best." + +While her lips moved in a prayer for Bertie, she fell asleep; like a +child at ease, after long paroxysms of pain. When she awoke, the +lilacs were swinging their purple thuribles filled with dew, in +honor of the new day; a silvery mist, tinged here and there with the +pale pink hue of an almond blossom, wavered and curled over the +quiet lake, and a robin red-breast, winging his way from the orange +and jasmine boughs of the far sweet South, rested on the ivied wall, +and poured out his happy heart in a salutatory to the rising sun. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + + +"I fear, my sister, that you have made a great mistake in refusing +an offer of marriage, which almost any woman might be proud to +accept." + +Sister Ruth closed her writing desk, and looked at Beryl over her +spectacles. + +"Why should you infer that any such proposal has been made to me?" + +"Simply because I know all that has occurred, and my cousin writes +me that you decline to marry him. If you had intended to remain here +and identify yourself with this institution, I could better +understand your motives in rejecting a man who offers you wealth, +good looks, a stainless reputation, an honored name, and the best +possible social position." + +"All of which tempt me in no degree. Mr. Brompton is doubtless +everything you consider him; lives in a brown stone palace, is an +influential and respected citizen, but comparatively, we are +strangers. He bought my pictures, took a fleeting fancy to my face, +and to my great surprise, indulged in a romantic whim. What does he +comprehend of my past? How little he understands the barrier that +shuts me out from the lot of most women." + +"He is fully acquainted with every detail of your life that has been +confided to me, or discovered by the public; and he has studied and +admired you ever since you came to dwell among us. In view of your +very peculiar history, you must admit that his affection is +certainly strong. If you married him, your past would be effectually +blotted out." + +"I have no desire to blot it out, and though misfortune overshadowed +my name, it is the untarnished legacy my father left me, and I hold +it very sacred; wrap it as a mantle about me. When suspicion of any +form of disgrace falls upon a woman, it is as though some delicate +flower had been thrust too close to a scorching fire; and no matter +how quickly or how far removed, no matter how heavy the dews that +empearl it, how fresh and cool the wind that sweeps over it, how +bright the sun that feeds its pulses,--the curled petals are never +smoothed, the hot blasts leaves its ineffaceable blight. To me, the +thought of marriage comes no more than to one who knows death sits +waiting only for the setting of the sun, to claim his own. That +phase of life is as inaccessible and uninviting to me, as Antartic +circumpolar lands; and even in thought, I have no temptation to +explore it. My future and my past are so interblended, that I could +as easily tear out my heart and continue to breathe, as attempt to +separate them. I have a certain work to do, and its accomplishment +bars all other paths." + +"Does the nature of that work involve vows of celibacy?" + +"Sometimes fate decrees for us, allowing no voluntary vows. How soon +the path to my work will open before me, I cannot tell; but the day +must come, and like a pilgrim girded, I wait and watch." + +"Can you find elsewhere a nobler field of work than surrounds you +here?" + +"Certainly not, and some dross of selfishness mingles with the +motives that will ultimately bear me beyond these hallowing +precincts; yet a day may come, when having fulfilled a sacred duty, +I shall travel back, praying you to let me live, and work, and die +among you." + +"My sister, your patient submission, your tireless application, have +endeared you to me; and I should grieve to lose you from our little +gray band, where your artistic labors have reflected so much credit +on the 'Home'." + +"Thank you, Sister Ruth; praise from fellow toilers is praise +indeed, and the greatest blessing one human being can bestow upon +another, I owe to you; the blessing of being helped to procure work, +which enables me to help myself. If I leave the 'Anchorage' for a +season, it will be on an errand such as Noah's dove went forth from +refuge to perform; and when I return with my olive branch, the +deluge of my life will have spent its fury, and I shall rest in +peace where the ark is anchored." + +"Do you imagine that desertion from our ranks will be so readily +condoned? Drum-head court martial obtains here." + +"Would you call it desertion, if seizing the flag of duty that +floats over us here, I forsook the camp only long enough to scout on +a dangerous outpost, to fight single-handed a desperate battle! If I +fell, the folds of our banner would shroud me; if I conquered, would +you not all greet me, when weary and worn I dragged myself back to +the ranks? Some day, when I tap at the ark window, you will open +your arms and take me in; for then my earthly mission will have +ended, and the smoke of the accepted sacrifice will linger in my +garments." + +"Meantime, to-day's duties demand attention. I have a note from +Cyril Brompton requesting that special courtesy be shown by us to +his friend, the new Bishop, who is in the city, and who desires to +inspect the 'Anchorage'. Cyril declines escorting the party, because +he finds it painful to meet you now, and he wishes particularly that +you should show your own department. I shall not be able to climb to +the third story, while my ankles are so swollen, so I must deputize +you to do the honors on your floor. Hold yourself in readiness, if I +should send for you, and do not forget to give the Bishop a package +of the new prospectus of the art school. That basket of orchids must +be delivered before five o'clock. Sister Joanna said you detained +her to make a sketch of it." + +"I had almost finished when you summoned me. Send her up for the +basket in half an hour." + +The long studio was deserted, and very quiet on that sultry Saturday +afternoon in midsummer, and the drowsy air was laden with fragrance +from the pots of white carnations, massed on the iron balcony, upon +which the tall, plate glass windows opened to the north. Down the +centre of the apartment ran a table covered with oil cloth, and on +the walls hung pictures in oil, water-color, crayon, while upon +brackets and pedestals were mounted plaster casts, terra cotta +heads, a few bronzes, and some hammered brass plaques. In the +corners of the room, four marvels of taxidermy contributed brilliant +colors mixed on the feathered palettes of a pea-fowl, a scarlet +flamingo, a gold and a silver pheasant, all perched on miniature +mounds, built of curious specimens of rock, of shells, coral and +sphagnum. + +The slow, languid swish, swish of the waters stirred by a passing +steamer, broke on the cliff beyond the wall; and along the sky line +where lake and atmosphere melted insensibly into blue distance, +great cumulus copper-colored clouds hooded with salmon-tinted folds, +tipped here and there with molten silver, shadowed with pearly +hollows, hung entranced by their own image, over the inland sea that +gleamed like a mirror. + +At the end of the studio, near the open windows, Beryl had placed +the plateau basket of orchids on the table; and she stood before an +easel, transferring to the surface of a concave brass plaque, the +fluted outlines of the scarlet and orange ribbons, the vivid green, +purple and golden-brown lips, the rose velvet cups, the tender +canary-hued calyxes of the glistening floral mass, whose aroma +seemed a panting breath from equatorial jungles. Having secured the +strange forms of these vegetable simulacra of the insect world, she +replaced the sheathing of tissue paper around the gorgeous mosaic of +color; and just then, Sister Joanna threw open the door, and ushered +in a party of visitors, consisting of two gentlemen and a lady. One +was Mr. Kendall, a member of the Chapter of Trustees. + +"Good evening, Sister. Bishop Douglass, of our State, and Miss +Gordon, from the South. I have been boasting to them of the perfect +success of the 'Anchorage', as an industrial institution. Will you +show us some of the work done in this department?" + +As on a swiftly revolving wheel, Beryl saw the black eyes and gold- +rimmed spectacles of Leighton Douglass; the shield-shaped amethyst +ring on his broad, white hand; the slender figure by his side, +draped in some soft brown tint of surah silk, the blond hair, the +wide, startled hazel eyes of Leo, who made a step forward, then +paused irresolute. + +The gaze of the visitors was fastened upon the superb form wearing +the gray garb of flannel, with snowy fluted frills at the rounded +wrists and throat, and a ruffled white muslin mob cap crowning rich +waves of bronze hair, that framed a beautiful pale face, whose gray +eyes kept always the soft shadow of their long jet lashes. + +Only half a minute sufficed to gird Beryl, and with no hint of +recognition in her tranquil countenance, she moved forward, opened +the drawers, and spread out for inspection various specimens of +drawing and painting, in all stages of advancement. + +A crimson tide overflowed Leo's cheeks, but accepting the cue of +silence, she refrained from any manifestation of previous +acquaintance; and bending over the pictures, listened to the grave, +sweet voice that briefly, though courteously answered all inquiries +concerning the school, hours of classes, tuition fees, remunerative +rates paid for designs for carpets, wall papers and decorative +upholstering. Unrolling from a wooden cylinder a strip of thick +paper, two yards long and twenty inches wide, she displayed an +elaborate arabesque pattern done in sepia for a sgraffito frieze, +sixteenth century, which had been ordered by the architect of the +new "Museum of Art". + +"A bit of your favorite Florentine facade," said the Bishop, +addressing his cousin, and peering closely at the scroll work. + +"In this corner of the world, one scarcely expects a glimpse of +Andrea Feltrini," answered Leo, avoiding the necessity of looking at +Beryl, by glancing at Mr. Kendall. + +"What are your sources of information?" inquired Bishop Douglass. + +"We have a carefully selected collection of engravings, and a few +good sketches and cartoons; moreover, some of our Sisterhood have +been in Italy." + +In attempting to roll the strip, it slipped from her fingers. Both +women stooped to catch it, and their hands met. Looking into Leo's +eyes, Beryl whispered: "See me alone." Then she rewound the paper, +restored its oil silk cover, and shut the drawer. + +"Do you find that the demand for purely ornamental work renders this +department self-sustaining?" asked Leighton Douglass. + +"I think the experience of the 'Anchorage' justifies that belief; +especially since the popularization of so-called 'Decorative Art', +which projects the useful into the realm of the beautiful; and by +lending the grace of ornament to the strictly utilitarian, dims the +old line of demarcation." + +"We are particularly interested in acquiring accurate knowledge on +this subject, because Miss Gordon hopes to establish a similar +institution near her home in the South; where so many of our +countrywomen, rendered destitute in consequence of the late war, +need training which will enable them to do faithful remunerative +work, without compromising their feminine refinement. While in +Europe she inspected various industrial organizations; saw +Kaiserswerth, and the Training Schools for Nurses, even the Swedish +'Naas Slojd', and her visit here is solely to verify the flattering +accounts she has received of the success of the eclectic system of +the 'Anchorage'. The South is so rich in fine materials that appear +to offer a premium for carving, that we wish to investigate this +branch of 'decorative' labor, and hope you can help us by some +practical suggestions." + +"Within the past twelve months, we have commenced the experiment of +wood work; make all the utensils we need, and one of our patrons +secured for us some models from the school you mentioned near +Gothenburg. As yet we have received only two orders; one for a base +in walnut for a baptismal font; the other an oak triptych frame for +a choir in a Minnesota church. The carving is a distinct branch, +that does not belong to my department; but if you will knock at the +arched door on the right hand side of the hall, Sister Katrina, who +has charge of that work, will take pleasure in exhibiting the +process. Mr. Kendall knows the 'Anchorage' so well, he needs no +guide to the work-rooms. Permit me to offer you some copies of our +new prospectus, and also a photograph of this building, as a slight +souvenir of your visit here." + +She fitted papers and picture into a square envelope stamped with an +anchor in red ink, and handing it to Miss Gordon, walked to the door +and opened it. On the threshold Leo turned, and looked intently into +her face: + +"Are you sufficiently at leisure to allow me a little further +conversation this afternoon; or shall I call again?" + +"I am entirely at your service, and shall gladly furnish any +information you may desire. Our matron has placed my time at your +disposal." + +"Mr. Kendall, if you will kindly accompany the Bishop to the wood- +carving room, I can remain here a little while, to ask Sister some +questions, which would scarcely interest you gentlemen. I will join +you there, very soon. Leighton, please get an estimate of the cost +of the necessary outfit, and talk with Mr. Kendall concerning the +feasibility of sending one of our women here for a year." + +Closing the door, Beryl put out both hands, and took Leo's. She +stood a moment, holding them in a tight clasp. + +"Thank you, for considerately withholding a recognition that would +have embarrassed me. I hoped that the habit of our Order would in +some degree disguise me, yet, at a glance you knew me." + +"Shall I infer that your history is unknown here?" + +"Sister Ruth, our Matron, is thoroughly acquainted with my past +life, but she kindly respects my sorrows, and deems it unnecessary +to publish the details among the Sisterhood. Do you know me so +little, that you imagine I am capable of abusing the confidence of +the head of an establishment which mercifully shelters an outcast?" + +She stepped back, and motioned her visitor to a seat near the +balcony. + +"I should be very reluctant to ascribe any unworthy motive to you; +therefore I fail to understand why you desire to preserve your +incognito, especially since the signal vindication of your +innocence. The news of the extraordinary discovery of the picture on +the glass, and of your complete acquittal, even of suspicion, gave +me so much pleasure that I should have written you my hearty +congratulations, had I been able to obtain your address." + +"I felt assured you would rejoice with me; and because I hold your +good opinion so valuable, let me say that my happiness in the +unexpected vindication of my character was enhanced by the proud +consciousness that in your estimation I needed none. When the +blackness of an intolerable shame overshadowed me, you groped your +way to the dungeon, and held out your hands in confidence and +sympathy. All the world suspected; you trusted me. You offered your +noble name as bond, and made a place for me at your own sacred +hearthstone. Do you think I can ever forget the blessedness of the +balm that your faith in me poured into my crushed, despairing heart? +Do you doubt that no sun sets, without seeing me on my knees, +praying God's blessing of perfect happiness for you? What would I +not do--what would I not suffer--to secure your peace, and to prove +my gratitude?" + +Her voice vibrated like the silver string of a deep violon-cello, +and Leo, gazing up into the misty splendor of the beautiful sad +eyes, ceased to wonder at the fascination which she had exerted over +Mr. Dunbar. Unintentionally this woman's face had marred her life; +had unwittingly stolen her lover's heart; yet she believed no +treachery sullied the pure perfection of the soft red lips, and +Leo's generous nature rose above the narrow limits of ordinary +feminine jealousy. Had she doubted for an instant the theory that +Beryl was heroically suffering the penalty of a crime, in order to +screen her guilty lover, some suspicion of the truth might have +dawned upon her. + +"Suppose I intend to put your gratitude to the test? You have +exaggerated the debt which you acknowledge; are you prepared to +cancel it? If I say to you, because I believed in you, trusted you, +will you repay me now, by granting a favor which I shall ask?" + +"I think Miss Gordon could express no wish that I would not gladly +execute, in order to promote her happiness." + +"Will you come back to X----and help me to establish a home for +women, who are destitute alike of money and of family ties? When you +preside over it I shall be haunted by no fears of failure. Once, I +gave you my sympathy; now, when I need help, will you give me +yours?" + +Beryl shivered, and looked wonderingly at her companion. Was she +indeed so unsuspicious of the quicksand on which stood the fair +temple of her hopes in marriage? + +"O, Miss Gordon! That is the one thing, in all the world, that for +your sake as well as mine, I could never do. No, no; impossible." + +"Why, not for my sake, since I desire it so earnestly?" + +A bright flush had risen in Leo's cheeks, and she threw back her +small head challengingly. + +For a moment Beryl wavered. Could she bear to wound that proud +spirit? + +"Go back to X----? To X----! It would be a renewal of my martyrdom, +and I should only be a stumbling block in the scheme you +contemplate. You do not understand, perhaps; but believe me, I prove +my gratitude by refusing your kind offer." + +"I think I understand; and if I am willing to run the risk, what +then?" + +"Do not ask me the impossible. The very atmosphere of X----would +numb me, destroy all capability of usefulness, by reviving harrowing +memories." + +"Had not every shadow of suspicion vanished, and the entire +community manifested delight in your triumphant innocence, I should +never have suggested a return to the scene of your sufferings. +Certainly, I cannot press the payment of a debt, which you +volunteered to cancel; but I am sorry your refuse to oblige me." + +There was a starry sparkle in the soft hazel eyes, and an +involuntary and unconscious hardening of her lips, as Leo rose. + +"It is hard, Miss Gordon, to be always misunderstood; but sometimes +duty points to lines that subject us to harsh and bitter censure. I +bear ever a heavy burden; do not increase my load by condemning me +as ungrateful, God knows, you hold a warm and a holy place in my +heart, and your happiness is more to me than my own; yet the one +thing you ask, my conscience forbids." + +"How long have you been here?" + +"It will be two years to-morrow since I entered these peaceful +walls." + +"Then your probation ends, and you become permanently a Sister of +the 'Anchorage'?" + +"Not yet. I have been permitted to earn my daily bread here, upon +conditions somewhat at variance with the regulations that usually +govern the institution. I have not applied for admission to +permanent membership, because my stay is contingent upon +circumstances, which may call me hence to-morrow; which may never +arise to beckon me away. Sister Ruth generously allows me the +latitude of choice; not for my own sake, but for that of a friend, +whose influence secured my admission. After a while, when I have +finished my work, I hope to come back; to spend the residue of my +earthly days, and to die here, a faithful Umilta Sister of the +'Anchorage', which opened its arms when I was a needy and desolate +waif." + +"The peace of your new life is certainly reflected in your face. +Patience has had its perfect work; and that 'peace that passeth all +understanding' is the reward granted you." + +Leo held out her hand, and Beryl took it between both hers. + +"Dear Miss Gordon, grapes yield no wine until they are crushed, +trampled, bereft of bloom, of rounded symmetry, of beautiful color; +but the Lord of the Vineyard is entitled to His own. I was a very +proud, self-reliant girl, impatient of poverty, daringly ambitious; +and what I deemed a cruel fate, threw me into the vat, to be trodden +under foot. It may be, that when the ferment ends, and time mellows +all, the purple wine of my bruised and broken life may be accounted +worthy the seal of a sacramental sacrifice. I have ceased to +question, to struggle, to plan. Like a blind child, fearing to +stumble into ruin, I stand, and stretch out my hands to Him, who has +led me safely through deep waters, along frightful gorges. Each day +brings its work, which I strive worthily to accomplish; but my aim +is to lay my heart, mind, soul, my stubborn will, all in God's +hands. You think peace the summum bonum? Sometimes we obtain it by +an ignominious surrender, when we should possess it by conquest. +'Peace of mind is a beautiful and heavenly thing; but even peace of +mind may become an idol; and there is perhaps no idol to which women +bow down more passionately.' For this reason, I am waiting for the +drum beat of duty, and my march may begin at any moment. I asked to +see you alone, in order to beg that you will increase my debt of +obligations, by promising to reveal to no one the place of my +retreat. Accident has betrayed to you that which I am anxious to +keep secret; and I trust you will tell no one where you met me." + +"Why should you hide, as though you were a culprit? You have been so +completely exonerated from the imputation of guilt which once hung +over you, that you owe it to yourself to front the gaze of the world +fearlessly. What have you to dread?" + +"The failure of something, which, though its accomplishment costs me +very dear, I shall not relax my efforts to promote. I am trying to +be loyal to my duty, even when the command is to strangle my own +weak heart. You do not, cannot understand. God grant you never will. +There are reasons why it is best for me to live in strict seclusion, +for the present. Those reasons I can explain neither to you, nor to +any other human being; and yet, I ask you to respect them, and to +keep my secret. You trusted me in the terrible exigencies of the +past; and you must trust me now, for--oh! God knows--I do indeed +deserve your confidence." + +She raised the hand folded in her own, and bowed her head upon it. + +"You have my promise. Without your permission, I will mention our +meeting to no one. I trust you; and perhaps if you would trust me, I +might render you some aid." + +"The day may come, when I can find it compatible with duty to tell +you the secret of my life. In future years, when you are a happy +wife, I shall by God's help be able to seek you and your husband, +and thank you both for many kindnesses. I pray that you may be as +happy as you deserve." + +There was no tremor in the voice that answered quickly. + +"If you refer to Mr. Dunbar, you have been led astray by the gossip +in X----. Once, there seemed a probability that our lives might be +united; but long ago, we found that ardent friendship could not take +the place of love; and rather more than three years have passed +since we have even seen each other." + +With a startled movement Beryl dropped her companion's fingers, and +laid a hand on her shoulder. + +"Oh! do not tell me that you have broken your engagement!" + +The two looked steadily at each other, and while Leo's proud face +gave no hint of pain or embarrassment, Beryl's blanched, quivered. + +"How did you know that any engagement ever existed?" + +"All X----knew it. Mrs. Singleton and Sister Serena told me." + +"I dissolved that engagement before I went to Europe." + +"Then you rashly wrecked your beautiful future. Why did you cast him +off? He would have made you happy; he is worthy, I think, even of +you." + +"Yes, he is worthy, I believe, of any woman whom he may really love; +but my happiness is not in his keeping, and my future holds, I +trust, something much brighter than our marriage would hate proved +to me." + +"You have thrown away the substance for the shadow. Before it is too +late, reconsider your decision; give him an opportunity to reinstate +himself in your affection. You have both been so kind to me, that I +have hoped you would find life long happiness in each other." + +"Dismiss that delusion. His path and mine diverge more and more, and +we no longer dwell in the same State. He has inherited a large +amount of property in Louisiana, and now lives in New Orleans; hence +you can readily perceive how far apart the currents of our lives +have drifted. I rejoice in my freedom; and he, I suspect, is not +inconsolable for my loss." + +Through Beryl's whirling brain darted the recollection of a rumor, +that Leighton Douglass was suitor for his cousin's hand; and that +Miss Dent favored the alliance. Was the solution of Miss Gordon's +cold, calm indifference to be found in the presence and devotion of +the Bishop? Could he have supplanted Mr. Dunbar in her affection? +Had the world swung from its moorings? What meant the light that +broke upon her, as if the walls of heaven had fallen, and let all +the glory out? + +After a moment she said, solemnly: + +"I pray God to overrule all earthly things, for your welfare, for +your heart's truest happiness; and for the realization of your +dearest hopes. When my mission has been accomplished, and duty lifts +her seal from my lips, I may try to see you once more, and explain +the necessity that forced me to seek seclusion." + +"I believe I understand; and I trust your reward will not be +delayed. You and I can lean with confidence upon the wisdom and the +mercy of the God we worship; but each must serve out His appointed +time of bondage in the Egypt of suffering, in the famine of the +desert; and must drink at Marah, before the blessing of the manna, +the grapes of Eshcol, the roses of Sharon. If ever you should need +an earthly friend, remember me; and if all other refuge fail you, my +home can be always yours." + +Hand in hand they walked to the door, and Leo pitied the future of +this woman, whose lover was a wandering outlaw, with a price set +upon his head; and beneath her gray flannel habit, Beryl's heart was +torn with conflicting emotions, as she watched the placid, proud +face, that showed no vestige of the storm of disappointment which +had stranded her sweetest hope in life. + +"Good-bye, Beryl; God keep you in His tender care." + +"Good-bye, dear Miss Gordon. I will pray for your happiness, so long +as I live." + +She stooped, drew Leo's hands to her face, pressed her trembling +lips twice upon them; then turned quickly, and locked herself in the +studio. + +Is it true, that "Orestes and Pylades have no sisters?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + + +A Persian proverb tells us: "A stone that is fit for the wall is not +left in the way." Strong artistic aspirations will plough through +arid sands, leap across bottomless chasms, toil over bristling +obstacles, climb bald, freezing crags to reach that shining plateau, +where "beauty pitches her tents", and the Ideal beckons. Favorable +environment is the steaming atmosphere that fosters, forces and +develops germs which might not survive the struggle against adverse +influences, in uncongenial habitat; but nature moulds some types +that attain perfection through perpetual elementary warfare which +hardens the fibre, and strengthens the hold; as in those invincible +algx towering in the stormy straits of Tierra del Fuego, swept from +Antartic homes toward the equator,--defying the fierce flail of surf +that pulverizes rock, "Breed is stronger than pasture; and no matter +how savage a stepmother the circumstances of life may prove, the +inherited psychological strain will sometimes dominate, and triumph." +According to the Talmud: "A myrtle, even in a desert, remains a +myrtle". + +From her tenth year, Beryl had begun to build her castle in the +Spain of Art; daubed its walls with wonderful frescoes, filled its +echoing corridors with heroic men and lovely women of the classic +ages; and through its mullioned windows looked into an enchanted +land, clothed with that witching "light that never was on sea or +land". When all else on earth was sombre and dun-hued, sunlight and +moonlight still gilded those magical towers. In darkest nights, +through hissing rain and hurtling hail, she caught the glitter of +its starry vanes smiling through murkiness, and above the wail and +sob of the storms that had swept over the waste places of her youth, +she heard the divine melodies which the immortal harper, Hope, +played always in the marvellous palace of the Muses. + +In early girlhood she had followed her father into the solemn +mysteries of Greek Tragedy; and in that vast white temple dedicated +to the inexorable Fates, where predestined victims moved like marble +images to their immolation, her own plastic nature had been moulded +in unison with the classic cult. Among the throng of Attic types, an +immortal statue of filial devotion and sisterly love had attracted +her irresistibly, and to Antigone she rendered the homage of a +boundless admiration, an unwavering fealty. + +Intellectually, humanity cleaves to idolatry; and each of us +worships in the Pantheon, where our favorite divinities in +literature crowd the niches. To become a skilful artist, and paint +the portrait of Antigone, vas the ambition that had shaped and +colored Beryl's young dreams, long ere she suspected that a mournful +parallelism in fate would consign her to a living tomb more +intolerable than that devised by Theban Creon. + +Our grandest pictures, statues, poems, are not the canvas, the +marble, the bronze, and the gilded vellum, that the world handles, +criticises, weighs, buys and sells, accepts with praise, or rejects +with anathema. Invisible and inviolate, imagination, keeps our best, +our ideals, locked in the cerebrum cells of "gray matter", which we +are pleased to call our workshop. + +What art gallery, what library can rival the sublime and beautiful +images that crowd the creased and folded labyrinth of the human +brain; as far beyond the ken and analysis of the biologist's +microscope, as some remote nebulae shining in blue gulfs of +interstellar space, that no telescopic Jense can ever discover, even +as a faint blur of silvery mist upon the black velvet vault that +suns and planets spangle? + +In some degree, Beryl's artistic dream had been realized; and the +study of years slowly flowered into a large painting, which +represented Antigone standing beside the heap of dust, strewn +reverently to sepulchre the form dimly outlined at her feet. The +sullen red sunset of a tempestuous day flared from the horizon, +across a desolate plain; showed the city walls in the background, +the hungry vultures poised high above the dead, the marauding dogs +crouched in the wind-swept sand, watching their banquet, decreed by +the king. The dust had been scattered from a black vase that bore on +its front, in a circular medallion, the lurid head of grinning +Hecate; and the last rite to appease the unquiet manes was performed +by the uplifted right arm that poured libations from a burnished +brass urn, held aloft over the pall of earth that denned the figure +beneath. The left hand was stretched, not heavenward, but +shieldingly over the mound, and in the beautiful, stern face bent a +little downward in invocation of the infernal gods, one read sublime +self-surrender, grief for Oedipus, regret for Hasmon, farewell to +life,--mingled with exultant consciousness that a successful +sacrifice had been accomplished for Polynices, and that the spirit +of the brother rested in peace. + +The soul of the artist seemed to look triumphantly through the +solemn, purplish blue eyes of the young martyr, and Beryl knew that +her own heart beat under the pamted folds of the diploidion; that +she had epitomized in a symbolic picture, the history of her own +joyless youth. + +The canvas had been framed and hung at the art exhibition of the new +"Museum", opened in September; and only the "U" traced in one corner +beneath an anchor, indicated that it was the work of the Umilta +Sisters' "Anchorage". + +The public peered, puzzled, shook its sapient head, shrugged its +authoritative shoulders, and sundry criticisms crept into the +journals; but the prophet was judged in "his own country"; and home +work, according to universal canons, rarely finds favor among home +awarding committees, whose dulness its uncomprehended excellence +affronts. + +One censured vehemently the masonry of the city wall; another +deplored pathetically the "defective foreshortening of a dog's +shoulders"; the picture "lacked depth of tone"; the "coloring was +too bizarre", the "tints too neutral". + +Like chemicals tested in a laboratory, or like Pharaoh's lean kine, +each objection devoured the preceding one; and unanimity of blame +assaulted only one salient point on the entire canvas: the red +sandals of the Greek girl--upon which outraged good taste fell with +pitiless fury. + +Undismayed, Beryl withdrew her picture, erased the ciphers in the +corner, and shipped it to New York to Doctor Grantlin, who had +recently returned from Europe; requesting him to place it at a +picture dealer's on Broadway, and to withhold the name of its birth- +place. + +Two weeks later, a popular journal published an elaborate +description of "A painting supposed to have been obtained abroad by +a New York collector, who merited congratulation upon possession of +a masterpiece, which recalled the marvellous technique of Gerome, +the atmosphere of Jules Breton, the rich, mellow coloring, and +especially the scrupulous fidelity of archaic detail, which +characterized Alma Tadema; and was conspicuously manifest in the red +shoes so distinctively typical of Theban women". + +Mr. Kendall caused this article to be copied into the leading +newspaper of his own city; and the first mail, thereafter, carried +to New York an offer of eight hundred dollars for the painting, from +the President of the "Museum" Directors, who had been so shocked by +the unknown significance of the "red shoes". After a few days, it +was generally known, but mentioned with bated breath, that the +"Antigone" had been bought by a wealthy Philadelphian, who paid for +it two thousand dollars, and hung it in his gallery, where Fortunys, +Madrazos, and Diazs ornamented the walls. + +Why should journeying abroad to render "Caesar's things" to foreign +Caesars, demand such total bankruptcy that we must needs repudiate +the just debts of home creditors, whose chimneys smoke just beyond +the fence that divides us? De mortuis nil nisi bonum is a +traditional and sacred duty to departed workers; but does it exhaust +human charity, or require contemptuous crusade against equally +honest, living toilers? Are antiquity and foreign birthplace +imperatively essential factors in the award of praise for even +faithful and noble work? We lament the caustic moroseness of +embittered Schopenhauer, brooding savagely over his failure to +secure contemporaneous recognition; yet after all, did he malign his +race, or his age, when, in answer to the inquiry where he desired to +be buried, he scornfully exclaimed: "No matter where; posterity will +find me." + +It was on the 26th of October, a week subsequent to the receipt of +the letter which contained the check sent in payment for the +picture, that Beryl sat down on the stone sill of her oriel window, +to rest in the seclusion of her room, after the labors of the day. + +It was the anniversary of her ill-starred visit to X----, and +melancholy memories had greeted her at dawn, clung to her skirts, +chanted their dismal refrain, and renewed the pain which time had in +some degree dulled. Four years ago she had felt her mother's +feverish lips on hers, in a parting kiss, and four years ago to-day +the sun of her girlhood had passed suddenly into total eclipse. +Since then, moving in a semi-twilight, suffering had prematurely +aged her, and she had schooled herself to expect no star, save that +of duty, to burn along her lonely path. To-day, she thought of the +pride her picture would have aroused in her devoted father; of the +comforts the money would have purchased for her invalid mother; of +the pleasure, success as an artist would have brought to her own +ambitious soul, if only it had not come so many years too late. What +crown could fame bring to one, dwelling always in the chill shadow +of a terrible shame? The glory of noble renown could never gild a +name that had answered at the convicts' roll call; a name which, at +any moment, Bertie's arrest might drag back to the disgrace of +established felony. + +Of all mocking fiends, the arch torturer is that hand which draws +aside the black curtain of grim actuality, and shows us the +wonderful realm of "might have been", where lost hopes blossom +eternally, and the witchery of hallowed illusions is never +dispelled. + +Wearily Beryl closed her eyes, as though the white lids availed to +shut out visions, tantalizing as the dream of bubbling springs, and +palm-fringed isles of dewy verdure, to the delirious traveller dying +of thirst, in the furnace blasts of mid-desert. + +If she had defied her mother's wishes, and refused to go to X--? How +different the world would seem to her; but, what was a world worth, +that had never known Mr. Dunbar? + +Over burning ploughshares she had walked to meet one destined to +stir to its depths the slumbering sea of her tenderest love; and to +forego the pain, would she relinquish the recompense? + +During the months that elapsed after Leo's visit to the "Anchorage", +Beryl had surrendered her heart to the great happiness of dwelling, +unrebuked by conscience, upon the precious assurance that the love +of the man whom she had so persistently defied and shunned, was +irrevocably hers. The sharpest pain that can horrow womanhood, +springs from the contemplation of the superior right of another to +the object of her affection; and though honor coerces submission to +the just claims of a rival, renunciation of the beloved entails +pangs that no anaesthetic has power to quiet. + +After the long struggle to aid Miss Gordon's accepted lover in +keeping his vows of loyalty, the discovery of his freedom, and the +belief that Bishop Douglass had supplanted him in the affection of +her generous benefactress, had brought to Beryl an exquisite +release; sweet as the spicy breath of the tropics wafted suddenly to +some stranded, frozen Arctic voyager. Heroic and patient, keeping +her numb face steadfastly turned to the pole star of duty, where the +compass of conscience pointed--was the floe ice on which she had +been wrecked, drifting slowly, imperceptibly, yet surely down to the +purple warmth of the Gulf Stream, dotted with swelling sails of +rescue? Like oceanic streams meeting, running side by side, +freighted with cold for the equatorial caldrons, with heat for the +poles, are not the divinely appointed currents of mercy and of +affliction, God's agents of compensation, to equalize the destinies +of humanity? + +We rail at Fate as triple monsters; but sometimes it happens, that +the veil of inscrutability floats aside, for an instant, and we +catch a glimpse of the radiant smile of an infinite love. + +Hope had set in Beryl's sky, but a tender afterglow held off the +coming night, when she thought of the face that had bent so +yearningly above her, of the passionate voice and the thrilling +touch that were now her most precious memories. The pearl which Miss +Gordon had cast away as worthless, the discarded convict might +surely, without sin, claim as her own for ever. To-day an intense +longing to see him once more, to hear from his lips praise of her +"Antigone", disturbed the tranquillity that was spreading its robes +of minever over a stony path; but she put aside the temptation. + +To the Sisterhood of the "Anchorage" she had given one-half the +proceeds of the picture sale; and the remainder would enable her at +last to renew the search for her unhappy brother. So vague were the +topographical lines furnished by the English tourist, that +prosecuting her quest in the remote wilderness of mountains, which +wore their crown of snow, seemed a reckless waste of hope, time and +money; nevertheless, she must make the attempt. She knew that a +gigantic railway system was crawling like an anaconda under rocky +ranges, over foaming rivers, stretching its sinuous steel trail from +Bay of Chaleur to Georgia Gulf; with termini that saw the sun rise +from the Atlantic Ocean, and watched its setting in the red glory of +the far Pacific; and perhaps steam shovels, and iron tight-ropes +might furnish her facilities on her long journey. + +Winter would soon overtake her, and in the inhospitable region where +her brother had been surprised at his prayers, how could a lonely +woman travel without protection? Doubt, apprehension flitted as ill- +boding birds of night, flapping dusky wings to hide the signal +beacon, which love and duty swung to and fro; yet the yearning to +see her brother's face again, dwarfed all barriers, and she trusted +God's guidance. + +On a chair near her, lay, on this afternoon, a map which for many +days she had been studying; and opening it once more, she ran a +finger along the dotted lines, mentally debating whether it would be +best to go by rail to Ottawa, by water to Sault St. Marie, whence +the new railway could be easily reached, or whether the most direct +route would be via St. Paul to Winnepeg. When she left the +"Anchorage", her destination must remain a secret; hence she could +ask no counsel. In view of approaching cold weather, economy of time +seemed imperative; and she resolved to buy a railway ticket to +Fargo, where she could elude suspicion, should the threatened +invisible detective "shadow" her; and whence another Pacific highway +offered egress to western wilds. With this definite conclusion she +closed the map, and a moment later, some one knocked at her door. + +"Come in." + +She went forward, and met Sister Katrina, a robust dame of forty +years, blond as Gerda; with the "light of the glowworm's tails" in +her golden-lashed violet eyes, and the "ruby spots of the cowslip's +leaves" on her full, frank lips. + +"Will you sit a while with me? There is still a half hour, before +your evening work begins in the carving shop. Come in." + +"I am sorry I have not time now, to indulge myself in such luxury as +a chat with you always proves. I came to beg the loan of your India +ink copy of the marble screens at Agra; which I have an idea would +be very effective done in cherry, for the panels under the new +bookcases we are designing for the library." + +"The copy is up stairs in the studio; but I shall be glad to get it +for you." + +"No; with your permission I can help myself, and I am going up there +now, for some red chalk. I know exactly where to find the picture, +because I was examining it two days ago. What think you of my idea?" + +"I am afraid you will find cherry too dark. A lighter wood, I think, +would be better adapted to the exceeding delicacy of the design." + +"Wait till I cut out a sample scroll, and we will talk it over. +Sister Ruth asked me to hand to you this paper, which contains a +very complimentary notice of your lovely picture. I read it as I +came up, and congratulate you on all the fine things said. You +scarcely know how proud we feel of our Sister's work. Thanks for the +use of the drawing." + +She smiled, nodded and closed the door; and when her bright cheery +countenance vanished, it seemed as though a film of cloud had +drifted across the sun. + +Beryl went back to a low chair in front of the window, and opened +the paper, which chanced to be the New York "Herald." Unfolding it +to hunt the designated article, her glance fell accidentally upon +the personal column. Her heart leaped, then almost ceased beating, +as she read: + +"Important. Bertie will meet Gigina in the Museum at Niagara Falls, +Canada side, any day during the last week in October." + +Two years and a half had almost gone by since she inserted the +advertisement, to which this was evidently a reply. Long ago she had +ceased to expect any tidings through this channel; but the seed sown +in faith, watered by tears, and guarded by continual prayer had +stirred to life; blossomed in the sunshine of God's pitying smile, +and after weary waiting, the ripe fruit fell at her feet. How fair +and smooth, rosy and fragrant it appeared to her famishing heart? +How opportune the guiding hand that pointed her way, when cross +roads baffled her. Two days later, she would have been journeying +away from the coveted goal. Now the tide of battle was turning. Had +the stars rolled back on their courses to rescue Sisera? + +How long the happy woman sat there, exulting in the mellowness of +the perfect fruit of patience, she never knew. + +Day died slowly; the vivid crimson and dazzling gold that fired the +West were reflected in the tranquil bosom of the lake, faded into +the tender pale rose of the sacred lotus, into the exquisite tints +that gild the outer petals of a daffodil, the heart of buttercups; +and then, robed in faintest violet powdered with silvery dust, the +vast pinions of Crepuscule spread over sky and water, fanning into +full flame the glittering sparks of planets and constellations that +lighted the chariot course of the coming moon. + +Across the sleeping lake hurried a north wind, on its long journey +to blow open the snowy camellias folded close in the heart of the +South, and under his winged sandals the waters crimped, rippled, +swelled into wavelets that played their minor adagio in nature's +nocturn, as their foam fingers fell on the pebbles that fringed the +beach. From the deck of a schooner anchored off shore, floated the +deep voice of a man singing Schubert's "Ave Maria"; and far, far +away over the weird waste of waters, where a buoy marked a sunken +wreck, its red beacon burned like the eye of Polyphemus, crouching +in darkness, watching to surprise Galatea. + +The penetrating chill of the night air aroused Beryl from her +profound trance; and lighting the gas over her dressing table, she +re-read the magical words that had transformed her narrow world. +This was Monday the 26th, and next Saturday was the limit of the +proposed interview. One day must suffice for necessary preparation, +and starting by early morning express on Wednesday, she would arrive +in time to keep the tryst that involved so much. She cut out the +notice that was merely a sentence in the page of social +hieroglyphics, where no key fitted more than one paragraph, and +forgetting the criticism on her picture, she went swiftly down +stairs. + +The members of the Sisterhood were at supper, and she waited at the +refectory door for an opportunity to meet the matron. + +On the platform raised in the centre of the long room, sat the +reader for the day, Sister Agatha; a plump, florid young woman, with +bright black eyes, and a voice sweet and strong as the flute stop of +an organ. The selection that evening had been from "Agate Windows" +and "Ice Morsels", and the closing words were: + +"Alpine flowers are warmed by snow; the summer beauty of our hills, +and the autumn fertility of our valleys, have been caused by the +cold embrace of the glacier; and so, by the chill of trial and +sorrow, are the outlines of Christian character moulded and +beautified. And we, who recognize the loving kindness as well as the +power of God in what may seem the harsher and more forbidding +agencies of nature, ought not to be weary and faint in our minds, if +over our own warm human life, the same kind pitying Hand should +sometimes cause His snow of disappointment to fall like wool, and +cast forth His ice of adversity like morsels; knowing that even by +these unlikely means, shall ultimately be given to us also, as to +nature, the beauty of Sharon, and the peace of Carmel!" + +Somewhere in the apartment, a bell tapped. All rose, and each head +in the gray ranks bowed, while "thanks" were offered; then amid a +subdued murmur of conversation, the Sisterhood filed out, gathered +in groups, separated for various duties. + +"Sister Ruth, may I see you alone?" asked Beryl, touching her arm in +the hall. + +"This is the night for the examination of accounts, of last week's +expenses, and I shall be busy with Sister Elena, our book-keeper; +moreover, I promised to look over the linen closet of the Infirmary, +with Sister Consuelo, whose demands are like those of the daughter +of the horse-leech. Is your business urgent?" + +"Yes; but I will not detain you more than ten minutes." + +"Very well, come to my cabinet." + +The place designated was a pigeon box in size, and adjoined the +reception room on the first floor. Two desks packed with papers, +three chairs and a picture of Elijah and the ravens, constituted the +furniture. The matron brightened the light, seated herself and +looked at her companion. + +"Well. What can I do for you? Why, Sister? Something has happened; +your face is all aglow, your eyes are great stars." + +"Yes; a heavy burden I have long borne is slipping from my heart, +and after the pressure it rebounds. I have told you that my stay +here was contingent on events which I could not control; that at any +moment I might consider it incumbent upon me to go away into the +world; therefore, I could bind myself by no compact to remain +permanently in the 'Anchorage'. The time has come; the drum taps, I +must march away." + +"And you are so glad to leave us?" said the matron, gazing in wonder +at the radiant face, usually so impassive and cold with its locked +lips, and grave, sad, downcast eyes. + +"No, glad only in the occasion that calls me; regretting that duty +separates me temporarily from the Sisterhood, who so mercifully +opened their arms, when I had no spot in all the wide world where I +could lay my head, but the sod on my mother's grave. This blessed +haven is for those whose first duty in life summons them nowhere +beyond its walls. If conscience bade you leave these peaceful and +hallowed halls, for work far more difficult, would you hesitate to +obey? It is safer and less arduous to keep step with the main army; +but some must perish on picket duty, and is the choice ours, when an +order details us?" + +"Who signed your order?" + +Sister Ruth took off her spectacles, and bent closer, with a +keenness of scrutiny, that was unflatteringly suspicious. + +"My dear mother." + +"I understood that you had been an orphan for years?" + +"Yes, for four wretched, lonely and terrible years; but no tomb is +deep enough to shut in the voice that uttered our mother's last +wishes; and all time cannot hush the sound of the command, cannot +hide the beloved hand that pointed to the path she asked us to +follow. When my mother kissed me good-bye, she blessed me, because +of a promise I gave her; and Heaven means to me the place where I +can look into her sainted face, and tell her 'Hold me close to your +tender heart, for oh! I have indeed kept my word. Your little girl +obeyed your last command.'" Her voice trembled, and she passed one +hand over her eyes for an instant. + +"Sister Ruth, the opportunity has arrived, and I go to execute the +last clause of a sacred order. When I shall have finished my +mission, I shall want to come back home. Oh! you see? I call it +home. For where else can I ever have a home, till I join my father +and mother? If I should come back and ask you to take me for the +remainder of my life, as a sister worker, will you let me die with +the 'anchor' on my breast? I shall be as worthy of your confidence +then, as I am now." + +"Where are you going?" + +"I hoped that you would not ask me, because I cannot tell you now. +Will you not trust me?" + +"Your extremely cautious reticence makes it difficult; and I have +always known that some distressing mystery brought you here." + +"Confidence that defies suspicious appearances is precious indeed; +but confidence that crumbles like Jericho's walls at the blast of +Joshua's trumpets, is as worthless a sham as a cable whose strands +part at the first taut strain. Sister Ruth, there are reasons why I +go away alone, to an unknown destination; and I am about to tax +your trust yet more severely, when I tell you that I need the +disguise of the 'Umilta' uniform. I ask your permission to wear it +during my absence." + +The matron shook her head. + +"Surely, Sister Ruth, you cannot think it possible that I should +bring discredit upon this dear gray flannel, which I hold as sacred +as priestly vestments?" + +She laid her cheek against her own shoulder, with a caressing +motion, and passed her fingers softly across her sleeve. + +"My young sister, to some extent I am responsible for those who wear +the 'Umilta' gray. If I allowed you to carry our badge under such +peculiar circumstances beyond the limits of my supervision, I should +hazard too much; should deserve the severity of the censure I most +certainly should receive, if any disaster brought reproach upon our +spotless record as an institution. It was not designed as a disguise +in which to masquerade for unknown purposes." + +Beryl put up both hands, pressing her pretty white cap close to her +ears; and her lips trembled, as was their wont, when she was +wounded. + +"Do not discrown me. My father's Beryl will never sully your pure +record; and it would be as impossible for me to disgrace your +uniform, as defile my mother's shroud. Grant me the protection of +this consecrated garb." + +"No. The 'Anchorage' must remain as heretofore, like Caesar's wife." + +"Although I have lived here so long, how little you know me." + +"Very true, my Sister; therefore, as custodian of the interests of +our little community, I must not put them in jeopardy. When do you +expect to take your departure?" + +"Wednesday, at 6 A.M., on the express for New York." + +"Have you received letters?" + +"No, Sister. Doctor Grantlin is the only person who writes to me, +and as his letters are always addressed to your care, I receive them +from your hands." + +"How long do you propose to stay in New York?" + +"I am not going to New York, and I know not how long I may be +detained; but I desire to return without needless delay." + +"Then you want your money." + +"Give me to-morrow five hundred dollars, and keep the remainder +until I come, or until you hear from me. Please say that I have gone +on a journey to fulfil a pledge made years ago; and try not to show +the Sisters that you have no confidence in me. That--would rob my +home-coming of half its pleasure. If any unforeseen accident should +keep me away, should cut short a life which has overflowed with +great sorrow, then retain the money and the pictures I leave behind; +and believe that I died, as I have lived, not unworthy of all thy +kindness and true charity this dear sacred 'Anchorage' has shown to +me. Sister Elena is impatient; I hear her walking up and down the +floor. While I am absent, Sister Katrina, and especially Sister +Anice, can take my place in the Art School; and all my orders were +finished last week, except the mirror for Mrs. St. Clair. She wished +it framed in scarlet bignonias, and as the painting is more than +half done, Sister Anice can easily complete it. I will not detain +you longer. Good-night, Sister Ruth." + +No sleep visited Beryl, and as she lay at two o'clock, watching the +shimmer of the moonlight reflected from the tossing waves upon the +panes of her wide window, where the tangled mesh of quivering rays +coiled, uncoiled, glided hither and yon like golden serpents, she +heard the click of the key, and the turning of the knob in a door, +which opened from the alcove into an adjoining room. That apartment +was reserved as a guest chamber; had been unoccupied for months; and +puzzled by the sound, Beryl sat up in her bed and listened. The blue +folds of the drapery hanging over the alcove arch, were drawn aside, +and Sister Ruth, wrapped in a trailing dressing-gown, held up a +small lamp and peered cautiously around. + +"What is the matter, Sister?" + +"Did I frighten you? I came this way rather than knock at the other +door, because Sister Frances is on watch to-night; and though she is +a dear good soul, she is afflicted with an undue share of the +feminine frailty, curiosity, and I prefer that no one should canvass +my unseasonable visit to you. Do not get up." + +She put the brass lamp on a chair, and sat down on the edge of the +bed. + +"Our conversation has disquieted me, and I cannot sleep. Long ago, +for my own sake, I made a rule by which to govern my judgment of my +fellow beings; and it amounts to this: where I cannot be sure of +evil in others, I give them the benefit of the doubt, and sincerely +endeavor to think the best. I have watched you very closely. There +is much that I cannot understand; much that it appears strange you +should hesitate to explain; yet in these years I have had no cause +to question your truthfulness, and that is the basis of all human +worth. We profess to live here as one family, as sisters, holding +each other in love, charity and trust; yet in searching myself to- +night, I fear I have gone astray. I have pondered and prayed over +this matter, and my heart yearns toward you. I feel as I fancy a +mother might, who had too hastily slapped the face of her child; +and, my sister, I have come to say, forgive me, if I too harshly +refused your request, if I wounded you." + +She held out her hand, but Beryl did not see it; she had covered her +face, and unable to speak she leaned forward and laid her head on +the matron's lap. Gently the thin fingers stroked the shining hair, +until they were drawn down and pressed to the girl's lips. + +"Again, I asked myself, whether my decision had not been inspired by +an overweening pride in the public estimation of our home; rather +than by an unselfish regard for the welfare and peace of mind of one +of its members? What will the world think of us, must be +subordinated to, what is the best for my young sister, whose cross +it is my duty to lighten? I cannot bear to give you up; and I shall, +I will trust you. Wear the 'gray' armor, and remember, if any blot +stain it, you will bring disgrace upon a holy cause; you will be the +first to stain the Umilta uniform; and I shall be blamed, for +reposing confidence in one who betrayed us to public scorn. My +Sister Beryl, I give you 'the gray'. God grant it may shelter you +from harm, and bring you home to fill my place with honor, when I +have passed into the eternal Anchorage." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + + +Over the region of the great lakes, her favorite haunt, hung the +enchanted stillness, the misty glamour of the purple-cloaked witch-- +Indian Summer; whose sorcery veiled the dazzling face of the sun, +and changed the silver lustre of Selene into the vast, solemn red +blot that stared wonderingly at its own weird image in the glassy +waters. + +Wrapped in that soft, sweet haze, which like the eider down of +charity smooths all roughness, rounds all angles, the world of shore +and lake presented a magical panorama of towns and villages, herds +of cattle, flocks of sheep, spires of churches, masts of vessels,-- +all flashing past the open window of the car, where Beryl sat, +watching the shadows lengthen as the long train thundered eastward, +and the tree dials marked the hour record on the golden brown +stubble fields. + +When the goal is in sight, do we dwell on the hazard, the strained +muscles, the blistered feet, and the fierce thirst the long race- +course cost us? Who know that they are weary and spent, while the +prize brightens, nears as they stretch panting to grasp it? + +The certainty of meeting her brother, the anticipation of all that +she felt assured he would promise concerning his future, when he +learned the severity of the ordeal which she had endured in his +behalf, blotted out the costliness of the accomplishment. Like that +glorious violet haze of Indian Summer, which was drawing its +opalescent drapery along the vanishing iron railway track blackened +with cinders, and softly shrouding the grim outlines of wreck, that +told where a vessel had foundered on the lake in the early autumn +gale, an overruling Providence seemed shedding peace even upon her +troubled past. In the swift flash of the divine fire that sanctified +the accepted sacrifice, she was too dazzled to remember the moan of +the slaughtered victim, the agony of the death struggle; and now, +her thoughts spanned the gulf of time, and painted the eternal +reunion of the broken and dishonored family group. + +From these comforting reflections she was aroused by a piercing cry +that made her spring forward, and scan the crowd of human faces +collected close to the rails, at a small town where the cars had +halted. + +On a side track in front of her window, was a train which had just +dashed in from Buffalo, and amid the surging mass of jeering +spectators, two officers stepped down from the platform, each with a +hand on the arm of a man, who was heavily handcuffed. At the sight, +a white-haired, withered woman leaning from a carriage and staring +with horror-haunted eyes, had screamed, and was falling back +insensible. + +"That is his mother. Poor thing, why did they let her come? He is +her only boy," said a man to his comrade, who stood near Beryl's +seat. + +"What is the matter?" asked a gentleman, sitting immediately in +front of her. + +"Two of our officers winged a bird, who thought it was safe flying +over yonder, with the lake between him and the county jail. Canada +is handy hunting-ground, when the game happens to be runaway +thieves; and we have bagged one. He was the cashier of our Savings +Bank, and not satisfied with tampering with the books, and forcing +balances, he finally robbed the vault of a lot of gold, and flew +across the line. His wife met him at St. Catherine's, and he met the +iron bracelets he was dodging." + +The train moved on, and once more Beryl heard the howling of the +wolves, that she had hoped were left forever behind; that now seemed +in full cry bearing down upon their prey. Should she return to the +"Anchorage", and advertise Bertie's danger? So vague were her ideas +relative to the limits of extradition, that she had regarded Canada +as a city of refuge; considered its protection of United States' +criminal fugitives as efficacious, as meeting a Vestal Priestess on +the way to his execution, proved in rescuing a Roman malefactor from +the penalty of violated law; but this shred of comfort had parted, +when most she required its aid. + +"Yes, I understand extradition provisions have been arranged, which +are bound to have a wholesome effect; especially in this section, +where it is so easy to slip across the lakes any dark night. I am +told nearly all felonies will be embraced now--from murder to +burglary--and that Her Majesty's Secretaries are more willing to aid +our officers, than was the case a few years ago, when no end of +quibbling tied up justice." + +The gentlemen on the seat in front of her, moved away to the smoking +car; and the woman in gray listened to the creak and whirr of the +wheel of torturing dread, upon which some malignant fate once more +bound her. Bertie had been safe in his mountain fastness, until her +ill-starred advertisement coaxed him within reach of the police +Briareus. Could she discern the hand of merciful warning in this +fortuitous meeting with a captured culprit; which so vividly +recalled the maddening incidents of her return to X---, when the +sheriff had hurried her from the car? A sickening terror seized her, +and along the expanse of pearly mist that united earth and sky, in +tke snowy fringe of ripples breaking their teeth on the shelving +beach, she seemed to read the doom of her stratagem written in words +of menace: + +"Go where you may, but I give you fair warning you cannot escape me; +and the day on which you meet that guilty vagabond, you betray him +to the scouts of justice." + +Far away, among the orange groves of Louisiana, would he forget his +threat, or fail to execute it? On and on darted the train; people +laughed and talked; a tired baby swayed from side to side on the +nurse's knees, crooned herself to sleep; and a canary in a cage +covered with pink net, broke suddenly into a spasm of trills and +roulades. + +It was almost four o'clock when the dull roar of Niagara set the air +a tremble, and the few remaining passengers left the train. The +little town was unusually quiet and deserted, the tide of summer +travel having ebbed; and not until the crystal fingers of the ice +fairy had built her wonderful Giralda out of foam and spray, would +that of Winter tourists begin to flow. + +Leaving her trunk at the "baggage room" of the station, Beryl +engaged a carriage driver to take her to the Suspension Bridge. +Drawing her gray bonnet and veil as far as possible over her face, +she paid the toll, and noticed that the keeper peered curiously at +her, and muttered something in an undertone to a man wearing a +uniform, who turned and stared at her. + +She hurried away along that iron mesh swinging high in air like a +vast spider web, spun from shore to shore across the swirling, +snarling caldron of hissing waters. Was the officer the wary spider +watching her movements, waiting to slip down the metal snare, and +devour her hopes? Her heart beats sounded as the heavy thuds of a +drum; the rush of dire forebodings drowned even the roar of the +Falls, and the magnificence of the spectacle vanished before the +awful realization of the danger to which she had invited Bertie. + +The bridge was deserted; no human being was visible; and now and +then she glanced back over her shoulder, dreading she knew not what +form of pursuit. At last her flying feet touched British soil, but +she knew now, that neither Bezer nor yet Shechcm lay before her; and +no sign-post rose to welcome her, with the "Refuge--Refuge"--the +water and the bread appointed of old, for spent fugitives. Canada +was an ambush that, despite all caution, might betray her. Against +the last rail of the bridge she leaned, tried to steady her nerves; +and put up one passionate prayer: + +"Turn not Thy face from me, O my God! in this last hour! Guide me +aright. Overrule all my mistakes, and save my repentant brother." + +On the wide gallery of the "Clifton House" stood a gardener engaged +in removing the flower baskets that hung between the columns; and as +he paused in his work, to observe the quaint gray figure below, she +asked, in a voice that was strained beyond its customary sweetness: + +"Please direct me to the Museum." + +"Follow the street along the cliff, and you can't miss it. Behind +those trees yonder, on the right hand side. To the best of my +belief, it is shut up this week." + +Turning south, she walked more leisurely, lest undue haste should +excite suspicion; and all the solemn sublimity of the scene +confronted her. The green crescent of the Horseshoe blanched to +foam, as it leaped to the stony gulf below, the wreaths of mist +floating up, gilded by the sunshine; the maddened rush of the +tossing, frothing, whirling rapids seething like melted gold as the +western radiance smote the bubbling surface; the scarlet flakes of +foliage clinging to the trees on Goat Island, and far above, on the +wooded height beyond, the picturesque outlines of the Convent, +lifting its belfry against the azure sky. As doomed swimmers lost in +those rapids, swept head downward to destruction, nearing the last +wild plunge catch the glimmer of that consecrated tower held aloft, +so to Beryl's eyes it now seemed a symbol of comfort; and faith once +more girded her. + +A woman wearing a blue plaid handkerchief tied over her head and +knotted under her chin, and carrying a basket of red apples on one +arm, while with the other she led a lowing cow along the dusty road, +paused at a signal, in front of the gray clad stranger. + +"Which is the Museum?" + +"Yonder, where the goats are huddled." + +The building was closed, but in those days a garden lay to the north +of it; and a small gate that gave admittance to seats and flowers +connected with the Museum, now stood open. + +The walks were strewn with pale yellow poplar leaves, and bordered +with belated pink hollyhocks, and crimson chrysanthemums blighted by +frost, shivering in their death chill; and from a neighboring willow +stripped of curtaining foliage, a lonely bird piped its plaintive +threnody, for the loss of one summer's mate. At the extremity of the +little garden, under shelter of an ancient, gnarled tree, that +screened a semicircular seat from the observation of those passing +on the street, Beryl sat down to rest; to collect her thoughts. + +In the solitude, she threw back her veil, leaned her head against +the trunk of the tree where wan lichens made a pearly cushion, and +shut her eyes. The afternoon was wearing away; a keen wind shook the +bare boughs; only the ceaseless, unchanging chant of waters rose +from the vast throat of nature, invoking its God. + +She heard no footsteps; but some strange current attacked her veins, +thrilled along her nerves, strung as taut as the wires of a harp, +and starting up she became aware that a man was standing on the +clover sward close to her. A dark brown overcoat, a broad brimmed, +soft wool hat, drawn as a mask down to the bridge of the nose, and a +bare hand covering the mouth, was all she saw. + +Stretching out her arms, she sprang to meet him: + +"O Bertie! At last! At last!" + +The figure drew back slightly, lifted his hat; and where she had +expected to see her brother's golden curls, the crisp, black locks +of Mr. Dunbar met her gaze. + +"You! Here?" + +She staggered, and sank back on the bench; the realization of +Bertie's peril throttling the joy that leaped up in her heart, at +sight of the beloved features. + +"I am here. I come as promptly to fulfil my promise as you to keep +your tryst. Do you understand me so little, that you doubted my +word?" + +Her bonnet had slipped back, and as all the chastened beauty of her +face framed in the dainty cap, became fully exposed, a heavy sigh +escaped him, and he set his teeth, like one nerved to endure +torture. + +For months he had nourished the germ of a generous purpose, had +tried to accustom himself to the idea of ultimately surrendering +her; but in her presence, a certain bitter fury swept away the +wretched figment, and he remembered only how fair, how holy, how +dear she was to him. Once more the cry of his famishing heart was: +"Death may part us. I swear no man's arms ever shall." + +"Why waylay and torment me? Have I not suffered enough at your +hands? Between me and mine not even you can come." + +"Take care! For your sake I am here, hoping to spare you some pangs; +to allow you at least an opportunity to see him--" + +"What have you done? Don't tell me I am too late. Where is he? Oh! +where--where is he?" + +She had sprung up, and her hands closed around his arm, shaking it +in the desperation of her dread; while her voice quivered under the +strain of a conjecture that Bertie had already been arrested. + +"Where is your chivalrous, courageous, unselfish, devoted lover? To +ascertain exactly where he skulks, is my mission to Canada; for I +thought I had schooled myself to bear the pain of--" + +"What do you mean? What have you done with my Bertie? Oh--" + +She threw herself suddenly on her knees, held up her hands, and a +wailing cry broke the stillness: + +"Save him, Mr. Dunbar! You will break my heart if you bring ruin +upon his dear head. He is all I have on earth, he is my own brother! +My brother! my brother!" + +The blood ebbed from his face; the haughty mouth twitched in a +sudden spasm, and he put his hand over his eyes. + +Could she adopt this ruse to thwart pursuit of the man whom she +idolized? For half a moment he stood, with whitened lips; then +stooped, took the face of the kneeling woman in his palms, and +scanned it. + +"Your brother?" + +"My brother. Do you understand at last, why I must save him? Why you +must help me to screen him from ruin?" + +"Great God! After all, what a blind fool I have been!" + +He raised her, placed her on the bench; sat down and leaned his head +on his hand. To Beryl, the silence that followed was an excruciating +torture, beyond even her power of endurance. + +"Do not keep me in suspense. Where is Bertie? Let me see him, if he +is here." + +"He is not here. It was to assist you in finding him, that I enticed +you here." + +"You enticed me?" + +"I put the advertisement in the 'Herald', knowing that if you +chanced to see it, all the legions of Satan could not keep you away. +I have been here since Sunday, waiting and watching. I was obliged +to see you, for your own sake, as well as to satisfy my longing to +look once more into your face; and I felt assured the magnetic name +of 'Bertie' would draw you here swiftly." + +"Then it was only a snare, that advertisement? Oh! you are cruel!" + +"Not to you. It was to promote your peace of mind, by enabling you +to meet the man who, I supposed was your lover, that I invited you +to this place. Mark you, only to see, never to marry him." + +"Where is he?" + +"Exactly where, I do not yet know; but very soon you shall learn." + +"Is he in peril?" + +"Not from arrest at present, by human officers of retributive +justice." + +"He is not coming here?" + +"Certainly not." + +"How did you learn his name?" + +"I suspected that the advertisement you published in the "Herald" +after leaving X---, was a clue that would aid me. I clung to it, for +I was sure it referred to the man whom I have hunted so +persistently." + +"You have something to tell me. Be merciful, and end my suspense." + +"First, answer one question. Why did you conceal from me the fact +that you had a brother? Why did you allow me to suffer from a false +theory, that you knew made my life a slow torture?" + +He leaned nearer, and under the blue fire of his eager eyes, the +blood mounted into her pale cheeks. + +"My motive belongs to a past, with which I trust I have done +forever; and you have no right to violate its buried ashes." + +"I must, and I will have all the truth, cost what it may. Between +you and me, no spectre of mystery shall longer stalk. If you had +trusted me, and confessed the facts before the trial, you would have +muzzled me effectually, and prevented the employment of detectives +whom I have hissed on your brother's track. Why did you lead me +astray, and confirm my suspicion that you were shielding a lover?" + +"I was innocent; but my name, my father's honored name, was in +jeopardy of dishonor, and to protect it, I would not undeceive you. +Had my brother been convicted, the established guilt would have +tarnished forever our only legacy, all that father left to Bertie +and to me--his spotless name." + +"You are quibbling. Did you shield the family name by enduring the +purgatory of seeing your own on the list of penitentiary convicts? +You deliberately fastened the odium of the crime upon your father's +daughter; and you knew, you understood perfectly, that by +strengthening my erroneous supposition, you were lashing me to a +pursuit of the person, whom you could have best protected by frankly +telling me all. If he is really your brother, what did you expect to +accomplish by fostering my belief that he was your lover?" + +"Mr. Dunbar, spare me this inquisition. Release me from the rack of +suspense. Tell me why you set this snare, baited with Bertie's +name?" + +"I must first end my own suspense. If you wish to find the man, you +tell me is your brother, I will aid you only when you have bared +your heart to me. You had some powerful incentive unrevealed. I will +know exactly, why you made me suffer all these years, the pangs of a +devouring jealousy, keener than a vulture's talons." + +With crimson cheeks, and shy, averted eyes, she sat trembling; +unconsciously locking and unlocking her fingers. Her head drooped, +and the voice was a low flutter: + +"If I had told you that the handkerchief was one I gave to my +brother, because he fancied the gay border, and that the pipe +belonged to my dear father, and if you had known that for more than +a year before I went to X---no tidings from that brother had reached +me, would you have kept my secret, when you saw my life laid in the +scales held by the jury? Suppose they had condemned me to death? I +expected that fate; but knowing the truth, would you have permitted +the execution of that sentence?" + +"Certainly not; and you understand why I should never have allowed +it." + +"I knew that in such an emergency I could not trust you." + +Five minutes passed, while he silently sought to unravel the web; +and Beryl dared not meet his gaze. + +"You had some stronger motive, else you would have confessed all, +when I started to Dakota. Anxiety for your brother's safety would +have unsealed your lips. What actuated you then? I mean to know +everything now." + +"Miss Gordon was my friend. She showed me kindness which I could +never forget." + +"Miss Gordon is a very noble woman, kinder to all the world than to +herself; but did gratitude to her involve sacrifice of me?" + +"You were betrothed. I owed it to her, to keep you loyal to your +vows, as far as my power extended. I tried faithfully to guard her +happiness, while endeavoring to shield my brother." + +"Knowing you had all my heart, you dared not let me learn that the +rival existed only in my imagination? loyal soul! Did you deem it a +kindness to aid in binding her to an unloving husband? Her womanly +instincts saved her from that death in life; and years ago, she set +us both free. She wears no willows, let me tell you; and those who +should know best, think that before very long she will sail for +Europe as wife of Governor Glenbeigh, the newly appointed minister +to Z---, a brilliant position, which she will nobly grace. She will +be happier as Glenbeigh's wife than I could possibly have made her; +for he loves her as she deserves to be loved. So, for Miss Gordon's +sake, you immolated me?" + +Only the pathetic piping of the lonely bird made answer. + +Like the premonitory thrill that creeps through forest leaves, +before the coming burst of a tempest, he seemed to tremble slightly; +his tone had a rising ring, and a dark flush stained his swarthy +face, deepened the color in his brilliant eyes. + +"Oh, my white rose! A wonderful fragrance of hope steals into the +air; a light breaks upon my dreary world that makes me giddy! Can it +be possible that you--" + +He paused, and she covered her face with her hands. + +"Beryl, you are the only woman I have ever loved. You came suddenly +into my life, as an irresistible incarnation of some fateful +witchery that stole and fired my heart, subverted all my plans, made +havoc of lifelong hopes, dominated my will, changed my nature; +overturned the cool selfishness on the altar of my worship, and set +up your own image in a temple, swept, garnished, and sanctified +forever by your in-dwelling. You have cost me stinging humiliation, +years of regret, of bitter disappointment; and the ceaselessly +gnawing pain of a jealous dread that despite my vigilance, another +man might some day possess you. I have money, influence, +professional success, gratified ambition, and enviable social +eminence; I have all but that which a man wants most, the one woman +in the great wide world whom he loves truly, loves better than he +loves himself; and who holds his heart in the hollow of her hand. I +want my beautiful, proud, pure, stately white rose. I want my Beryl. +I will have my own." + +He had risen, stood before her; took the hands that veiled her +countenance, and drew her to her feet. + +"You have been loyal to parents, to brother, to friends, to duty; be +loyal now to your own heart; answer me truly. What did you mean when +you once said, with a mournful pathos I cannot forget: 'We love not +always whom we should, or would, were choice permitted us?' You +defied me that day, and prayed God to bless your lover; taunted me +with words that have made days dreary, nights hideous: 'To whom I +have given my whole deep heart, you shall never know.' Did you mean- +-ah--will you tell me now?" + +She bent her head till it almost touched him, but no answer came. + +"You will not? I swear you shall; else I shall hope, believe, know +beyond all doubt, that during these years, I have not been the only +sufferer; and that loyal as was your soul, your rebel heart is as +truly mine, as all my deathless love is surely yours." + +She tried to withdraw her hands; but his hold tightened, and +infinite exultation rang in his voice. + +"My darling! My darling--you dare not deny it? I shall wear my white +rose to make all the future sweet with a blessed love; but have you +no word of assurance for my hungry ears? Is my darling too proud?" + +He raised her hands, laid her arms around his neck, and folded very +close to his heart, the long coveted prize. + +"My Beryl, it was a stubborn battle, but Lennox Dunbar claims his +own; and will hold her safe forever. Will you be loyal to your +tyrant?" + +Was it a white or a crimson rose that hid its lovely petals against +his shoulder, and whispered with lips that his kiss had rouged: + +"Have I ever been allowed a choice? Was I not foredoomed to be +always at the mercy of Tiberius?" + +The little garden was growing dusky, the gilded mist waving its +spectral banners over the thundering cataract, had whitened as the +sun went down behind the wooded crest that barred the western sky +line; and the shimmering gold on the heaving, whirling current of +the Rapids faded to leaden tints, flecked with foam, as like a +maddened suitor, parted by Goat Island from its beloved, it rushed +to plunge into the abyss, where the silvery bridal veil shook her +signal, and all the roaring gorge filled with purple gloom. + +Mr. Dunbar drew his companion's hand under his arm, and led her +toward the Clifton House. + +"You and I have done with shadows. On the heights yonder, the sun +still shines. Up there waits one, who will tell you that which he +refuses to divulge to any one else. Ten days ago my agents notified +me that a man was searching for Mrs. Brentano and her daughter Beryl +in New York; and that he had gone to X---, where he spent several +days in consultation with the Catholic priest. Singleton sent me a +telegram, and I reached X---in time to accompany the stranger back +to New York. To me he admits only, that he lives in Montreal; and is +the bearer of a message, the import of which, sacred promises +prevent him from revealing to any one but Miss Brentano. He is an +elderly man, and so wary, no amount of dexterity can circumvent his +caution. Very complex and inexplicable motives brought me here; +chiefly the longing to see you, to learn your retreat, your mode of +existence; and also the intention to exact one condition, before I +made it possible for you to find the object of your search. When you +had given me your promise not to marry him, it was my purpose to +allow you one final meeting; and if you forfeited your compact, the +dungeon and the gallows awaited him. Love makes women martyrs; they +are the apostles of the gospel of altruism. Love revives in men of +my stamp, the primeval and undifferentiated tiger. When I think of +all that you have endured, of how nearly I lost you, my snowdrop, do +you wonder I shall hasten to set you in the garden of my heart, and +shelter your dear head from every chill wind of adversity?" + +They had passed through a gate, crossed a lawn, and reached a long, +steep flight of steps leading straight up the face of a cliff, to +the grounds attached to a villa. With her hand clasped tightly in +his, Mr. Dunbar and Beryl slowly mounted the abrupt stairway, and +when they gained the elevated terrace, a man who was walking up and +down the sward, came quickly forward. + +Pressing her fingers tenderly, Mr. Dunbar released her hand. + +"When your interview is ended, come to me yonder at the side gate, +where I have a carriage to take you over the bridge. Father Beckx, +this is Miss Brentano. I leave her in your care." + +The sun was sending his last level shafts of light from the edge of +the sky, when a man dressed in long black vestments, a raven-haired, +raven-eyed, thin lipped and clean shaven personage, with a placid +countenance as coldly irresponsive as a stone mask, sat down on the +top step of the long stairs, beside the woman in gray, whose eager +white face was turned to meet his, in breathless and mute +expectancy. + +The lingering twilight held at bay slowly marching night; the sunset +glory streamed up almost to the zenith in bands of amethyst and +faint opaline green, like the far reaching plumes of an archangel's +pinions beating the still, crystal air. Later, the vivid orange of +the afterglow burned with a transient splendor, as the dying smile +of a day that had gone to its eternal grave; and all the West was +one vast evening primrose of palest gold sprinkled with star dust, +when Beryl went slowly to join the figure pacing restlessly in front +of the gate. + +Across the grassy lawn he came to meet her. In mute surrender she +lifted her arms, laid her proud head, with its bared wealth of +burnished bronze hair, down on his shoulder, and wept passionately. + +When he had placed her in the carriage, and held her close to his +heart, with his dark cheek resting on hers, where tears still +trickled, he whispered: + +"How much are you willing to tell me?" + +"Only that I must start at once on a long, lonely journey to a +desolate retreat, in mountain solitudes; far away in the wilderness +of the Northwest. Bertie is there; and I must see him once more." + +"How soon do you wish to start?" + +"Within the next three days." + +"You must wait one week. I cannot go before that time." + +"You--?" + +"Do you suppose I shall allow you to travel there without me? Do you +imagine I shall ever lose sight of you, till the vows are uttered +that make you my wife? You cannot see your brother's face, until you +have first looked into your husband's. In one week I can arrange to +go, to the ends of the earth if you will; but you will meet your +brother only when you are Beryl Dunbar." + +"No--no! You forget, ah!--You forget. I have worn the penitentiary +homespun, and the brand of the convict seared my fair name, scarred +all my life. The wounds will heal, but time can never efface the +hard lines of the cicatrice; and I could not bear to mar the lustre +of your honored name by--" + +"Hush!--hush. It is ungenerous in you to wound me so sorely. When I +remember the fiery furnace through which my wife walked unscorched, +with such sublime and patient heroism, is it possible that I should +forget whose rash hand, whose besotted idiocy consigned her to the +awful ordeal? Out of the black shadow where I thrust you, sprang the +halo that glorifies you. How often, in the silence of my sleepless +nights, have I heard the echo of your wild, despairing cry: 'You +have ruined my life!' Oh, my darling! If you withhold yourself, if +you cast me away, you will indeed ruin mine. If you could realize +how I wince at the recollection of your suffering, you would not +cruelly remind me of my own accursed work." + +"If the soul of my brother be ransomed thereby, I shall thank you, +even for all that X---cost me. The world knows now, that no +suspicion clings to me; but, Mr. Dunbar, the disgrace blots forever +the dear name I tried to shield; and my vindication only blackens +Bertie." + +"The world will never know. Your sad secret shall be kept, and my +name shall wrap you in ermine, and my love make your future redeem +the past. Having found my darling, can I afford to run the risk of +losing her? You belong to me, and I will not trust you out of my +sight, until the law gives me a husband's claim. The mother of one +of my oldest friends is boarding here in Niagara. I will commit you +to her care until to-morrow; then some church will furnish an altar +where you shall pledge me your loyalty." + +"Impossible! To-night a train will take me to Buffalo, where I can +catch the express going West. There are reasons why I must make no +delay; must hasten back to explain many things to the Matron of the +Sisterhood, where I have dwelt so safely and so peacefully since I +left X---." + +"Give me the reasons. 'Impossible' ne me dites jamais ce bete de +mot!' Give me your reasons." + +His arm tightened around her. + +"Not now." + +"Then you shall not leave me. I will endure no more mysteries." + +"Mr. Dunbar, I wear the uniform of a celibate Order of Gray Sisters; +and the matron trusted me in an unusual degree, when she consented +that I should undertake this journey on a secret mission. I came to +Niagara, as I supposed, to keep an appointment with my brother, and +I met you. If I lingered one instant here, it might reflect some +discredit upon this dear gray garb, which all hold so +irreproachable. Sister Ruth trusted me. I cannot, I will not, even +in the smallest iota, appear to betray her confidence; and I must go +at once, and go as I came--alone. Bid the driver take me to the +railway station, and you must remain in the carriage. I can have no +escort. Your presence would subject me to criticism, and I will +guard the 'gray' that so mercifully guarded me." + +"Beryl, are you trying to elude me?" + +"I am faithfully trying to keep my compact with Sister Ruth. Here is +a card bearing the exact address of the 'Anchorage'. I am going +there as quickly as possible, to make speedy arrangements for my +long journey West, to that place almost within sound of the Pacific +Ocean." + +"Put your hand in mine. Promise me before God, that you will not +vanish from me; that you will not leave the 'Anchorage' until I come +and see you there." + +"I promise; but time presses. I must hasten to find Bertie." + +"Do you know exactly where to go?" + +"Yes. I have minute directions written down." + +"Wait until I come. I trust you to keep your promise. Ah! after to- +day, I could not bear to lose my 'Rosa Alba.' God make me more +worthy of my loyal and beautiful darling. After all, not Alcestis, +but Antigone!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + + +White and still, lay the world of the far Northwest, wrapped in +peace as profound as that which reigned in primeval ages; when +ancestral Nahuas, dragging their sleds across frozen Behring +Straits, or cast amid other drift of the Japanese current upon the +strange new Pacific shore, climbed the mountains, and fell on their +faces before the sun, whose worshippers have sacrificed in all +hemispheres. + +If civilization be the analogue of geologic accretion, how tortuous +is the trend and dip of the ethnological strata, how abrupt the +overlapping of myths. How many aeons divided the totem coyote from +the she-wolf of Romulus and Remus? Which is the primitive and parent +flame, the sacred fire of Pueblo Estufas, of Greek Prytaneum, of +Roman Vesta, of Persian Atish-khudahs? If the Laurentian system be +the oldest upheaval of land, and its "dawn animal" the first +evolution of life that left fossil footprints, where are all the +missing links in ethnology, which would save science that rejects +Genesis--the paradox of peopling the oldest known continent by +immigration from those incalculably younger? + +Winter had lagged, loath to set his snow shoes upon the lingering, +diaphanous train of Indian Summer, but December was inexorable, and +the livery of ice glittered everywhere in the mid-day sun. + +Along a well-worn bridle trail, now slippery as glass, winding +around the base of crags, through narrow gorges that almost +overarched, leaving a mere skylight of intense blue to mark the way, +moved a party of four persons in single file, slowly ascending a +steep spiral. In advance, mounted on a black pony, was a cowled +monk, whose long, thin profile suggested that of Savonarola; and +just behind him rode a Canadian half-breed guide, with the copperish +red of aboriginal America on his high cheek bones, and the warm glow +of sunny France in his keen black eyes. Guiding his horse with the +left hand, his right led the dappled mustang belonging to the third +figure; a tall, broad-shouldered man wearing an overcoat that +reached to his knees, who walked with his hand on the bridle bit of +a white mule, whereon sat a woman, wrapped in silver fox furs from +throat to feet. A cap or hood of the same soft, warm material was +worn over her head, where a roll of dark auburn hair coiled at the +back; and around her white temples clustered rings and tendrils of +the glossy bronze locks that contrasted so singularly with the black +arch of the brows, and the fringe that darkened the luminous gray +eyes. + +One month had elapsed since the Umilta Sisters of the "Anchorage", +following Sister Ruth, walked in the star-lit dawn of a November +day, to a neighboring church, and watched Doctor Grantlin lead down +the aisle, a pale, trembling woman whose hand he placed in that of +the man, waiting in front of the altar. The Sisterhood had listened +to the solemn words of the marriage service, the interchange of +vows, and the benediction, while priestly hands were laid tapon two +bowed heads. + +When the rising sun greeted the husband and wife, they were speeding +westward, on the first stage of their long journey. + +To-day, the quest would end; and into Beryl's face had crept the +wistful yearning that was a reflection of that strange blending of +patience and longing, which made her so beautiful in her husband's +eyes; so strong in faith, so serene in waiting resignation. Suddenly +the monk drew rein, threw up his drooping head, and listened. Clear +and sweet as the silvery chime of bells ringing in happy dreams, +floated through the crystal air the sound of the Angelus; and +fainter and fainter fell the echoes, dying in immeasurable distance. +Low bent the shaven head, and through brown, fingers stole the +consecrated beads, while with closed eyes the prayers were uttered; +and in the pause, the guide made the sign of the cross, and Mr. +Dunbar instinctively took off his hat. + +"Six hours' steady climbing is a severe tax. Are you very tired?" he +whispered, laying his arm around Beryl's waist, and lifting his +brilliant eyes eloquent with an infinite tenderness. + +With one hand on his shoulder as he stood beside her, she leaned +down until her lips touched the black hair tossed back from his +forehead. + +"After waiting so many terrible years, what are a few more hours of +suspense? Since I have you, can I ever again feel tired?" + +Behind them lay a dark undulating line, where oak and cedar had made +their last stand on the upward march; nearer, the spectral ranks of +stunted firs showed the outposts of forest advance; and a few feet +from the narrow path, a perpendicular cliff formed one wall of a +deep canon, where a glittering ribbon of water hurried to leap into +the Pacific, ere pursuing Winter arrested and bound it with icy +manacles to its stony bed. To the north dazzling white peaks cut +strange solemn shapes, like silver cameos on a ground of indigo sky; +and overhead, burnished lines of snow geese printed their glittering +triangles on the paler blue of the zenith, as the winged host dipped +southward. + +The monk moved on, and after a while his companions perceived that +the way descended rapidly until they reached the face of a rock that +rose straight and smooth as a wall of human masonry, and apparently +barred further progress. Taking from his bosom the twisted section +of a polished horn, only a finger's length, the cowled figure raised +it to his lips, and blew three whistles, that ended in a rising +inflection which waked all the wolfish pack of mountain echoes into +fitful barking. Two moments later, an answering signal seemed to +issue from the invisible jaws of Hades; a wild, quivering sepulchral +cry, as of a monster half throttled. Twenty feet beyond the spot +where the party had halted, a steep descent led them to a shelving +canon, once the bed of a broad mountain torrent, whose course some +seismic upheaval had diverted to other channels. Following for a few +yards the sinuous stony way, worn here and there into smooth +circular cavities like miniature wells, by the eddying of the +ancient current and the grinding of pebbles, the travellers turned a +sharp angle, and found themselves at the mouth of Tartarus. + +The force of the stream had originally cut a low arch in its egress, +which human needs and ingenuity had broadened, heightened and closed +by heavy iron bars, slipped into stone slots. Behind this gateway +glimmered a faint light that brightened into a red star; and soon, a +figure clad in the long, black monastic gown, and bearing a huge +torch of blazing pitch pine, emerged from the bowels of the earth. +There was the rattle of a chain, the creak of a pulley, and the bars +were lowered. + +So vividly did the scene recall that black, stormy night in +February, when Mr. Dunbar had seen the lantern of the gaoler flash +through the penitentiary gates closing on the young convict, that he +drew his breath now through clinched teeth, and quickly laid his +hand upon that of his wife, which grasped the bridle resting upon +the neck of her mule. Silently the procession filed in, and with +little delay the torch bearer replaced the bars, advanced to the +head of the column, and with long, swift strides led the way down a +wide tunnel. Between the monks no salutation was exchanged; and only +the ringing tramp of the horses' feet on the stone pavement, jarred +the profound stillness. The lurid glare of the torch danced on the +rocky vault, and the shadows projected by men and beasts were +gigantic and grotesque. Very soon a gray twilight stole to meet +them; an arch of light like a window opening into heaven brightened, +glared, and the party emerged into a courtyard that seemed an +entrance to some vast amphitheatre. + +Opposite the mouth of the tunnel, and distant perhaps two hundred +yards, lay an oval lake, bordered on the right by a valley running +southeast, while its northern shore rose abruptly in a parapet of +rock, that patient cloistered workmen had cut into broad terraces; +and upon which opened rows of cells excavated from the mountain +side, and resembling magnified swallow nests, or a huge petrified +honeycomb sliced vertically. + +A legend so hoary, that "the memory of man runneth not to the +contrary", had assigned the outlines of this stone cutting to that +dim dawn of primeval tribal life, which left its later traces in the +Watch Tower of the Mancos, the Casa del Eco, and the "niche stairway +of the Hovenweep". + +In the slow deposition of the human strata, cliff dwellers +disappeared beneath predatory, nomadic modern savages, who, hunting +and fishing in this lonely fastness, had increased its natural +fortifications, and made it an impregnable depot of supplies, until +Hudson Bay trappers wrenched it from their grasp, and appropriated +it as a peltry magazine. To the dynasty of traders had succeeded the +spiritual rule of a Jesuit Mission; then miners kindled camp fires +in the deserted excavations, as they probed the mountain for ores; +and more recently the noiseless feet of a band of holy celibates +belonging to an austere Order, went up and down the face of the +cliff, with cross and bell and incense exorcising haunting +aboriginal spectres; while holy water sprinkled the uncanny, dismal +precincts of a circular room hollowed behind and beneath all other +apartments, the monumental, sacred Estufa. + +At a signal from the monk who had escorted them, Mr. Dunbar lifted +Beryl from her saddle, and hand in hand they followed him across the +courtyard, mounted a flight of steps cut in the rock, and passed +into a low, dim room, where the ceiling was crossed in squares by +heavy, red cedar beams. The floor was paved with diamond-shaped +slabs of purple slate, the whitewashed wall adorned with colored +lithographs of the Passion; and above the cavernous chimney arch, +where cedar logs blazed, ran the inscription: "Otiositas inimica est +animae." + +Noiselessly as the wings of a huge bat, a leathern screen was folded +back from the corner of the room, and a venerable man advanced from +the gloom. + +A fringe of white hair surrounded his head like a laurel chaplet in +old statues, and the heavy, straight brows that almost met across +the nose, hung as snowflakes over the intensely black eyes as +glowing as lamps set in the sockets of an ivory image. Scholarly and +magnetic as Abelard, with a certain innate proud poise of the head +and shoulders, that ill accorded with the Carlo-Borromeo expression +of seraphic serenity and meekness, set like a seal on the large +square mouth, he looked a veritable type of the ecclesiastical +cenobites who, since the days of Pachomius at Tabennae, have made +their hearts altars of the Triple Vows, and girdled the globe with a +cable of scholastic mysticism. The pale, shrunken hand he laid on +the black serge that covered his breast, was delicate as a woman's, +and checkered with knotted lines where the blood crept feebly. + +Bowing low, he spoke in a carefully modulated voice, deep and +resonant as a bass viol: + +"Welcome to such hospitality as our poverty permits. A cipher +telegram forwarded from the nearest station, sixty miles hence, +prepared us to expect a newly-married woman searching for a man, +known to the secular world as Robert Luke Brentano. You claim to be +his nearest blood relative?" + +"I am his sister. How is he?" + +"Alive, but sinking fast; sustained beyond all human calculation by +the hope of seeing you. You have not come one moment too soon. The +man you seek is only a lay brother here. The rules of our Order +forbid the admission of women to the cloister, but in articulo +mortis! can I deny him now the confession he wishes to offer you? +Our holy ordinances have done their divine work; the last rites of +the Church have soothed and consecrated the heart of Brother Luke, +and an hour ago, extreme unction was administered. Follow me." + +"He knows that I am coming?" asked Beryl, raising her white, tear- +drenched face from her husband's shoulder. + +"He knows; and holds death back to see you. His self-imposed penance +makes him steadfastly refuse the comparative comfort of our meagre +infirmary, and it is his wish to die, where he has spent so many +nights in penitential prayer. For several days, the paralysis of +years has been gradually loosening its fetters, and this morning, +the distressing and ghastly distortion of one side of his face +almost disappeared. Though his voice is well nigh gone, it returns +fitfully, and his strength seems supernatural. Fearing that you +might not arrive in time, I have written down his last confession, +and here commit it to you." + +He placed a roll of paper in her hand, and drawing his cowl over his +head, led them up an easy stairway cut in the stone, to a second +terrace four feet wide, that projected as a roof beyond the lower +tier of cells. + +A hundred feet below lay the lakelet, shining as a mirror; to the +southeast stretched a valley bounded by buttes crowned with cedar, +and in the undulating field, locked from fierce winds, cattle and +goats sunned themselves, where in summer time grain waved, fruit +ripened, and bees hummed. + +From the parapet of a low wall facing west, rose a round tower +heavily buttressed, where swung the bell; and through an open arch +in the side, under the uplifted cross, the eye swept on and on, over +a world of snowy peaks, dark canons, mountain minarets girding the +northern horizon; and far, far away a scintillating thread of white +fire marked where the Pacific smiled behind the fiords that +channelled the rock-ribbed coast. + +In that still, cold and brilliant atmosphere, how dazzling the snow +blink, how sharp the outline of projected shadows, how close the +bending heavens seemed; but to the yearning soul of Beryl, the +silent, solemn sublimity of the mighty panorama made no appeal. + +Through slowly dripping tears she saw only the spectral flitting of +her mother's sad face, as in their last interview she had committed +the soul of the son to the guardianship of the daughter. + +The monk paused, and pointed to the third cell from the spot where +he stood. + +"It is but a step farther. Yonder, where the skull is set over the +entrance." + +"I will wait here," said Mr. Dunbar, relinquishing with a tight +pressure, his wife's cold hand. + +"No, come. Are we not one?" + +She hurried along the terrace, and reached the low open doorway +fronting the South, where the sunshine streamed in like God's smile +of forgiveness. + +On the stone floor was a straw pallet covered with coarse brown +blankets, whereon, half propped by one elbow, with head against the +gray rocky wall, lay the emaciated wreck of a man, whose pallid face +might have been mistaken for that of a corpse, but for the +superhuman splendor of the wide, deep brown eyes. + +Beryl sprang into the cave-like recess, and fell on her knees. She +snatched him to her heart, laid his head on her shoulder. + +"Bertie! My darling! my darling!--" + +He tried to raise one arm to her neck, but it fell back. She lifted +it, held it close, and face to face with her lips on his, she broke +into passionate sobbing, rocking herself to and fro, in the tempest +of grief. + +"Give me, give--me--air--" He struggled for breath, which her tight +clasp denied him; and for some minutes he panted, while Mr. Dunbar +fanned him with his hat. Then the heaving chest grew more quiet, and +after a moment, his eyes lighted with a happy smile as they fastened +on Beryl's face, bent over him. + +"Gigina, sweet, faithful sister, it is almost heaven to see you once +more. God is good, even to me." + +"If I could have found you sooner! All these dreadful years I have +lived at God's feet--with one prayer: let me help my Bertie, let me +see my brother's face," moaned Beryl, pressing her lips to the +clammy, fleshless hand she held against her throat. + +"I was too unworthy. I dreaded your pure eyes, and mother's, as I +would an accusing angel's. I did not know, then, that mother was +already one of the Beatified. I know now, that neither life nor +death, nor sin nor shame, nor the brand of disgrace can change +mother's love; for I see her to-day, smiling at the door, beckoning +me to follow where the sun shines forever. My sainted mother." + +"Her last breath was a blessing for you. See, Bertie! this was her +wedding ring. Her final message was, 'Give this to my darling!' Be +comforted, dear Bertie, she loved you even to the end--supremely. +You were her idol in death as in life. Our father's ring was the +most sacred relic she owned, and she left it to you." + +She attempted to place the gold band on one of his fingers, but he +closed that hand, and the dark eyes so like his mother's, were for +an instant dimmed by tears. + +"Keep it; no sin of theft soils your hands. You can wear it without +a blush. You never robbed an old man of his gold. That was my crime, +I am a thief." + +"Our God sees you have repented bitterly; and He has pardoned your +sins for His dear Son's sake. Tell me, Bertie, have you made your +eternal salvation sure? Are you, in your soul, at peace with God?" + +"At perfect peace. I want to die, because now I am no longer afraid +to meet Him, who forgives even thieves. Gigi, wait a little--" + +He seemed to make a desperate effort to rally his strength, and the +thin, fine nostril flared, in the battle for breath. + +"There has been a terrible mistake, and they made you suffer for +what they imagined happened. When I found I had only a few months to +live, I wrote to Father Beckx, whom I had known in Montreal, and +asked him to tell mother where I was. I never knew till he went to +X---and wrote us about the trial, that you were suspected and +punished for a crime that was never committed. I thought you and +mother were safe in New York, all those years, and I knew that you +would be sure to take care of her. I have it all written down--and I +can't tell you now--but I want to look straight into your dear eyes- +-my brave sister, my loving sister--and let you learn first from me- +-the reward you have won--your Bertie is not a murderer. I did take +the money from the vault which was wide open, when first I saw it. I +did steal and destroy the will, which I thought unjustly robbed us +all of our right to the Darrington estate, but that was my sole +offence. I am a thief, before God and man, but there is no more +stain of blood on my hands than on yours. General Darrington was not +murdered. He died by the hand of God alone--" + +A bluish shadow settled around his parted lips, and he panted. + +Mr. Dunbar raised him, fanned him, rested his head more comfortably +against his sister's shoulder; and again he looked intently into her +eyes, as though his soul, plumed for departure, must right itself in +the presence of hers, before the final flight. + +"He struck me with the andiron, and broke my wrist here--then before +I ever touched him--as he raised it to assault me the second time-- +there came an awful blinding glare--the world was wrapped in a blue +fire--and God struck us both down. When I became conscious, my +senses were all stunned, but after a while I knew I was lying on the +floor, with a cold hand resting like lead on my face. I got up; the +figure didn't move, and I supposed that like myself he was stunned +by the shock. As I passed a mirror on my way to the window--I saw +myself--for the lamp was burning bright. God had branded me a thief. +Do you see here--drawn--paralyzed, oh, Gina! All these years I have +worn the dark streak, and one eye was blind, one ear stone deaf. I +was a walking shadow of my own sin; horrible to look upon--and I +fled to avoid the gaze of my race. Somewhere, in Illinois I think, I +heard two men on a train speak of a large reward offered for the +recovery of Gen'l Darrington's will, which had been stolen by one of +his heirs, whom the police were hunting. I was branded--and on my +breast here was printed the face of the dead man--for he had torn my +shirt open as he seized me with one hand, and struck me with the +other. I hid in mines, crossed the plains, secreted myself in a bee +ranche. Then the Canadian railroad was partly built, and I joined +the grading party and worked--until the curse of my sin was more +than I could bear. I heard of the holy Brothers here, made my last +journey, confessed my theft, and entered on my penance. Gina, +General Darrington was killed instantly by the lightning." + +As the burden Beryl had long borne slipped suddenly from her heart, +the joy of release from blood-stain was so unexpected, so intense, +that her face blanched to a deadly pallor, and the glad eyes she +lifted to her husband's shone as those of an angel. + +"Bertie--Bertie--" Words failed her. She could only kiss the wasted +cold hands that were innocent of bloodshed. + +After some moments, the dying man said almost in a whisper: + +"I never knew you were punished for my sin, until it was too late to +save you, but God's witness cleared your pure name. The lightning +that scorched me, printed its testimony to set you free. My sister-- +my sister--God will surely recompense your faithful--" The voice +died in a quivering gurgle. + +"I have my reward, dear Bertie. Oh, how much more than I deserve! I +have you in my arms, innocent of murder, thank God! thank God! I +have the blessed absurance that your pardoned soul goes to meet +mother's in Eternal Peace; and to secure that, I would have +willingly died an ignominious death. It was through the fiery flames +of prison, and trial and convict shame, that God led me to the most +precious crown any woman ever wore, my husband's confidence and +love. Only behind dungeon bars could I have won my husband's heart, +which holds for me the whole wide world of earthly peace and hope. +For your sin, you have suffered. Its consequences to others from the +destruction of the will, have been averted by the prompt transfer of +all the property which Gen'l Darrington left, to his chosen heir +Prince. Pecuniarily no one was injured by your act. Dear Bertie-- +Bertie, are you listening?" + +He smiled but made no answer, and his eyes had a strained and +exultant expression. After a long silence, he cried huskily: + +"The curse is taken away--out of my blinded eye I see--Agnus Dei qui +tollis peccata mundi--" + +A slight spasm shook him, and feeling his cheek grow colder, Beryl +threw off the fur cloak, and folded it closely around the wasted +body which leaned heavily against her. The sunny short rings of hair +clung to his sunken, blue veined temples, where cold drops gathered; +and a gray seal was set about the wan lips that writhed in the fight +for breath. + +"Bertie, kiss me--tell me you are not afraid." + +She fancied he nestled his face closer, but the wide eyes were fixed +on the golden light that was fading fast across the narrow doorway. + +Pressing her quivering lips to his, she sobbed: + +"Tell mother, her little girl was faithful--" + +Another spasm shook the form, and after a little while, the eyes +closed; the panting ceased, and the tired breath was drawn in long, +shuddering sighs. + +Mr. Dunbar beckoned to the cowled form who, rosary in hand, paced +the terrace, and the two laid the dying man back on his pallet of +straw. + +Fainter grew the slow breath, and the voice of the monk rolled +through the silence, like the tremolo swell of an organ: + +"Delicta juventutis, et ignorantias ejus, quoesumus, ne memineris, +Domine; sed secundum magnam misericordiam tuam memor esto illius in +gloria claritatis tuoe." + +On the stone floor Beryl knelt, with her brother's icy hand clasped +against her cheek, and as she watched, the twitching of the muscles +ceased, the lips so long distorted, took on their old curves of +beauty. A marble pallor blanched the dark stain of the branded +cheek, and the Bertie of innocent youth came slowly out of the long +eclipse. + +Death, God's most tender angel, laid her divine lips upon the scars +of sin, that vanished at her touch; drew her white fingers across +the lines and shadows of suffering time, and leaving the halo of +eternal peace upon the frozen features, gave back to Beryl her +beautiful Bertie of old. + +The sun was setting; and far away the ice domes and minarets of +immemorial mountains took on the burnished similitude of the New +Jerusalem, which only the exiled saw from lonely Patmos. + +Lennox Dunbar lifted his wife from the form of the sleeper, whose +ransomed soul had entered early into Rest; and folded her tenderly +to the heart that henceforth was her refuge from all earthly woes. + +At midnight, the brooding silence of the snow-hooded solitude was +broken by the tolling of the monastery bell; and while all the +mountain echoes responded to the slow knell for the departed soul, +there rose from the chapel under the cliffs, the solemn chant of the +monks for their dead: + +"Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis." + +"Give them eternal rest, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon +them." + +THE END. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's At the Mercy of Tiberius, by Augusta Evans Wilson + diff --git a/old/mrctb10.zip b/old/mrctb10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b9b8286 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/mrctb10.zip |