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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of St. Elmo, by Augusta J. Evans
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
+other parts of the world 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.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
+to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
+
+Title: St. Elmo
+
+Author: Augusta J. Evans
+
+Posting Date: August 23, 2014 [EBook #4553]
+Release Date: October, 2003
+First Posted: February 9, 2002
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ST. ELMO ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ST. ELMO
+
+BY
+
+AUGUSTA J. EVANS
+
+Author of "Beulah," "Macaria," "At the Mercy of Tiberius" "Infelice"
+Etc., Etc.
+
+
+"Ah! the true rule is--a true wife in her husband's house is his
+servant; it is in his heart that she is queen. Whatever of the best he
+can conceive, it is her part to be; whatever of the highest he can
+hope, it is hers to promise; all that is dark in him she must purge
+into purity, all that is failing in him she must strengthen into truth;
+from her, through all the world's clamor, he must win his praise; in
+her, through all the world's warfare, he must find his peace."--JOHN
+RUSKIN.
+
+
+
+
+
+TO
+
+J. C. DERBY,
+
+IN GRATEFUL MEMORY OF MANY YEARS OF KIND AND FAITHFUL FRIENDSHIP, THESE
+PAGES ARE
+
+AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.
+
+
+
+"Ah! the true rule is--a true wife in her husband's house is his
+servant; it is in his heart that she is queen. Whatever of the best he
+can conceive, it is her part to be; whatever of the highest he can
+hope, it is hers to promise; all that is dark in him she must purge
+into purity; all that is failing in him she must strengthen into truth;
+from her, through all the world's clamor, he must win his praise; in
+her, through all the world's warfare, he must find his peace."--JOHN
+RUSKIN.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ST. ELMO.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+"He stood and measured the earth: and the everlasting mountains were
+scattered, the perpetual hills did bow."
+
+These words of the prophet upon Shigionoth were sung by a sweet, happy,
+childish voice, and to a strange, wild, anomalous tune--solemn as the
+Hebrew chant of Deborah, and fully as triumphant.
+
+A slender girl of twelve years' growth steadied a pail of water on her
+head, with both dimpled arms thrown up, in ancient classic Caryatides
+attitude; and, pausing a moment beside the spring, stood fronting the
+great golden dawn--watching for the first level ray of the coming sun,
+and chanting the prayer of Habakkuk. Behind her in silent grandeur
+towered the huge outline of Lookout Mountain, shrouded at summit in
+gray mist; while centre and base showed dense masses of foliage, dim
+and purplish in the distance--a stern cowled monk of the Cumberland
+brotherhood. Low hills clustered on either side, but immediately in
+front stretched a wooded plain, and across this the child looked at the
+flushed sky, rapidly brightening into fiery and blinding radiance.
+Until her wild song waked echoes among the far-off rocks, the holy hush
+of early morning had rested like a benediction upon the scene, as
+though nature laid her broad finger over her great lips, and waited in
+reverent silence the advent of the sun. Morning among the mountains
+possessed witchery and glories which filled the heart of the girl with
+adoration, and called from her lips rude but exultant anthems of
+praise. The young face, lifted toward the cloudless east, might have
+served as a model for a pictured Syriac priestess--one of Baalbec's
+vestals, ministering in the olden time in that wondrous and grand
+temple at Heliopolis.
+
+The large black eyes held a singular fascination in their mild,
+sparkling depths, now full of tender, loving light and childish
+gladness; and the flexible red lips curled in lines of orthodox Greek
+perfection, showing remarkable versatility of expression; while the
+broad, full, polished forehead with its prominent, swelling brows,
+could not fail to recall, to even casual observers, the calm, powerful
+face of Lorenzo de' Medicis, which, if once looked on, fastens itself
+upon heart and brain, to be forgotten no more. Her hair, black,
+straight, waveless as an Indian's, hung around her shoulders, and
+glistened as the water from the dripping bucket trickled through the
+wreath of purple morning-glories and scarlet cypress, which she had
+twined about her head, ere lifting the cedar pail to its resting-place.
+She wore a short-sleeved dress of yellow striped homespun, which fell
+nearly to her ankles, and her little bare feet gleamed pearly white on
+the green grass and rank dewy creepers that clustered along the margin
+of the bubbling spring. Her complexion was unusually transparent, and
+early exercise and mountain air had rouged her cheeks till they matched
+the brilliant hue of her scarlet crown. A few steps in advance of her
+stood a large, fierce yellow dog, with black, scowling face, and ears
+cut close to his head; a savage, repulsive creature, who looked as if
+he rejoiced in an opportunity of making good his name, "Grip." In the
+solemn beauty of that summer morning the girl seemed to have forgotten
+the mission upon which she came; but as she loitered, the sun flashed
+up, kindling diamond fringes on every dew-beaded chestnut leaf and
+oak-bough, and silvering the misty mantle which enveloped Lookout. A
+moment longer that pure-hearted Tennessee child stood watching the
+gorgeous spectacle, drinking draughts of joy, which mingled no drop of
+sin or selfishness in its crystal waves; for she had grown up alone
+with nature--utterly ignorant of the roar and strife, the burning hate
+and cunning intrigue of the great world of men and women, where, "like
+an Egyptian pitcher of tamed vipers, each struggles to get its head
+above the other." To her, earth seemed very lovely; life stretched
+before her like the sun's path in that clear sky, and, as free from
+care or foreboding as the fair June day, she walked on, preceded by her
+dog--and the chant burst once more from her lips:
+
+"He stood and measured the earth: and the everlasting mountains were
+scattered, the perpetual hills--"
+
+The sudden, almost simultaneous report of two pistol-shots rang out
+sharply on the cool, calm air, and startled the child so violently that
+she sprang forward and dropped the bucket. The sound of voices reached
+her from the thick wood bordering the path, and, without reflection,
+she followed the dog, who bounded off toward the point whence it
+issued. Upon the verge of the forest she paused, and, looking down a
+dewy green glade where the rising sun darted the earliest arrowy rays,
+beheld a spectacle which burned itself indelibly upon her memory. A
+group of five gentlemen stood beneath the dripping chestnut and
+sweet-gum arches; one leaned against the trunk of a tree, two were
+conversing eagerly in undertones, and two faced each other fifteen
+paces apart, with pistols in their hands. Ere she could comprehend the
+scene, the brief conference ended, the seconds resumed their places to
+witness another fire, and like the peal of a trumpet echoed the words:
+
+"Fire! One!--two!--three!"
+
+The flash and ringing report mingled with the command and one of the
+principals threw up his arm and fell. When with horror in her
+wide-strained eyes and pallor on her lips, the child staggered to the
+spot, and looked on the prostrate form, he was dead. The hazel eyes
+stared blankly at the sky, and the hue of life and exuberant health
+still glowed on the full cheek; but the ball had entered the heart, and
+the warm blood, bubbling from his breast, dripped on the glistening
+grass. The surgeon who knelt beside him took the pistol from his
+clenched fingers, and gently pressed the lids over his glazing eyes.
+Not a word was uttered, but while the seconds sadly regarded the
+stiffening form, the surviving principal coolly drew out a cigar,
+lighted and placed it between his lips. The child's eyes had wandered
+to the latter from the pool of blood, and now in a shuddering cry she
+broke the silence:
+
+"Murderer!"
+
+The party looked around instantly, and for the first time perceived her
+standing there in their midst, with loathing and horror in the gaze she
+fixed on the perpetrator of the awful deed. In great surprise he drew
+back a step or two, and asked gruffly:
+
+"Who are you? What business have you here?"
+
+"Oh! how dared you murder him? Do you think God will forgive you on the
+gallows?"
+
+He was a man probably twenty-seven years of age--singularly fair,
+handsome, and hardened in iniquity, but he cowered before the blanched
+and accusing face of the appalled child; and ere a reply could be
+framed, his friend came close to him.
+
+"Clinton, you had better be off; you have barely time to catch the
+Knoxville train, which leaves Chattanooga in half an hour. I would
+advise you to make a long stay in New York, for there will be trouble
+when Dent's brother hears of this morning's work."
+
+"Aye! Take my word for that, and put the Atlantic between you and Dick
+Dent," added the surgeon, smiling grimly, as if the anticipation of
+retributive justice afforded him pleasure.
+
+"I will simply put this between us," replied the homicide, fitting his
+pistol to the palm of his hand; and as he did so, a heavy antique
+diamond ring flashed on his little finger.
+
+"Come, Clinton, delay may cause you more trouble than we bargained
+for," urged his second.
+
+Without even glancing toward the body of his antagonist, Clinton
+scowled at the child, and, turning away, was soon out of sight.
+
+"Oh, sir! will you let him get away? will you let him go unpunished?"
+
+"He cannot be punished," answered the surgeon, looking at her with
+mingled curiosity and admiration.
+
+"I thought men were hung for murder."
+
+"Yes--but this is not murder."
+
+"Not murder? He shot him dead! What is it?"
+
+"He killed him in a duel, which is considered quite right and
+altogether proper."
+
+"A duel?"
+
+She had never heard the word before, and pondered an instant.
+
+"To take a man's life is murder. Is there no law to punish 'a duel'?"
+
+"None strong enough to prohibit the practice. It is regarded as the
+only method of honorable satisfaction open to gentlemen."
+
+"Honorable satisfaction?" she repeated--weighing the new phraseology as
+cautiously and fearfully as she would have handled the bloody garments
+of the victim.
+
+"What is your name?" asked the surgeon.
+
+"Edna Earl."
+
+"Do you live near this place?"
+
+"Yes, sir, very near."
+
+"Is your father at home?"
+
+"I have no father, but grandpa has not gone to the shop yet."
+
+"Will you show me the way to the house?"
+
+"Do you wish to carry him there?" she asked, glancing at the corpse,
+and shuddering violently.
+
+"Yes, I want some assistance from your grandfather."
+
+"I will show you the way, sir."
+
+The surgeon spoke hurriedly to the two remaining gentlemen, and
+followed his guide. Slowly she retraced her steps, refilled her bucket
+at the spring, and walked on before the stranger. But the glory of the
+morning had passed away; a bloody mantle hung between the splendor of
+summer sunshine and the chilled heart of the awe-struck girl. The
+forehead of the radiant, holy June day had been suddenly red-branded
+like Cain, to be henceforth an occasion of hideous reminiscences; and
+with a blanched face and trembling limbs the child followed a narrow,
+beaten path, which soon terminated at the gate of a rude, unwhitewashed
+paling. A low, comfortless looking three-roomed house stood within, and
+on the steps sat an elderly man, smoking a pipe, and busily engaged in
+mending a bridle. The creaking of the gate attracted his attention, and
+he looked up wonderingly at the advancing stranger.
+
+"Oh, grandpa! there is a murdered man lying in the grass, under the
+chestnut trees, down by the spring."
+
+"Why! how do you know he was murdered?"
+
+"Good morning, sir. Your granddaughter happened to witness a very
+unfortunate and distressing affair. A duel was fought at sunrise, in
+the edge of the woods yonder, and the challenged party, Mr. Dent, of
+Georgia, was killed. I came to ask permission to bring the body here,
+until arrangements can be made for its interment; and also to beg your
+assistance in obtaining a coffin."
+
+Edna passed on to the kitchen, and as she deposited the bucket on the
+table, a tall, muscular, red-haired woman, who was stooping over the
+fire, raised her flushed face, and exclaimed angrily:
+
+"What upon earth have you been doing? I have been halfway to the spring
+to call you, and hadn't a drop of water in the kitchen to make coffee!
+A pretty time of day Aaron Hunt will get his breakfast! What do you
+mean by such idleness?"
+
+She advanced with threatening mien and gesture, but stopped suddenly.
+
+"Edna, what ails you? Have you got an ague? You are as white as that
+pan of flour. Are you scared or sick?"
+
+"There was a man killed this morning, and the body will be brought here
+directly. If you want to hear about it, you had better go out on the
+porch. One of the gentlemen is talking to grandpa."
+
+Stunned by what she had seen, and indisposed to narrate the horrid
+details, the girl went to her own room, and seating herself in the
+window, tried to collect her thoughts. She was tempted to believe the
+whole affair a hideous dream, which would pass away with vigorous
+rubbing of her eyes; but the crushed purple and scarlet flowers she
+took from her forehead, her dripping hair and damp feet assured her of
+the vivid reality of the vision. Every fibre of her frame had received
+a terrible shock, and when noisy, bustling Mrs. Hunt ran from room to
+room, ejaculating her astonishment, and calling on the child to assist
+in putting the house in order, the latter obeyed silently,
+mechanically, as if in a state of somnambulism.
+
+Mr. Dent's body was brought up on a rude litter of boards, and
+temporarily placed on Edna's bed, and toward evening when a coffin
+arrived from Chattanooga, the remains were removed, and the coffin
+rested on two chairs in the middle of the same room. The surgeon
+insisted upon an immediate interment near the scene of combat; but the
+gentleman who had officiated as second for the deceased expressed his
+determination to carry the unfortunate man's body back to his home and
+family, and the earliest train on the following day was appointed as
+the time for their departure. Late in the afternoon Edna cautiously
+opened the door of the room which she had hitherto avoided, and with
+her apron full of lilies, while poppies and sprigs of rosemary,
+approached the coffin, and looked at the rigid sleeper. Judging from
+his appearance, not more than thirty years had gone over his handsome
+head; his placid features were unusually regular, and a soft, silky
+brown beard fell upon his pulseless breast. Fearful lest she should
+touch the icy form, the girl timidly strewed her flowers in the coffin,
+and tears gathered and dropped with the blossoms, as she noticed a
+plain gold ring on the little finger, and wondered if he were
+married--if his death would leave wailing orphans in his home, and a
+broken-hearted widow at the desolate hearthstone. Absorbed in her
+melancholy task, she heard neither the sound of strange voices in the
+passage, nor the faint creak of the door as it swung back on its rusty
+hinges; but a shrill scream, a wild, despairing shriek terrified her,
+and her heart seemed to stand still as she bounded away from the side
+of the coffin. The light of the setting sun streamed through the
+window, and over the white, convulsed face of a feeble but beautiful
+woman, who was supported on the threshold by a venerable, gray-haired
+man, down whose furrowed cheeks tears coursed rapidly. Struggling to
+free herself from his restraining grasp, the stranger tottered into the
+middle of the room.
+
+"O Harry! My husband! my husband!" She threw up her wasted arms, and
+fell forward senseless on the corpse.
+
+They bore her into the adjoining apartment, where the surgeon
+administered the usual restoratives, and though finally the pulses
+stirred and throbbed feebly, no symptom of returning consciousness
+greeted the anxious friends who bent over her. Hour after hour passed,
+during which she lay as motionless as her husband's body, and at length
+the physician sighed, and pressing his fingers to his eyes, said
+sorrowfully to the grief-stricken old man beside her: "It is paralysis,
+Mr. Dent, and there is no hope. She may linger twelve or twenty-four
+hours, but her sorrows are ended; she and Harry will soon be reunited.
+Knowing her constitution, I feared as much. You should not have
+suffered her to come; you might have known that the shock would kill
+her. For this reason I wished his body buried here."
+
+"I could not restrain her. Some meddling gossip told her that my poor
+boy had gone to fight a duel, and she rose from her bed and started to
+the railroad depot. I pleaded, I reasoned with her that she could not
+bear the journey, but I might as well have talked to the winds, I never
+knew her obstinate before, but she seemed to have a presentiment of the
+truth. God pity her two sweet babes!"
+
+The old man bowed his head upon her pillow, and sobbed aloud.
+
+Throughout the night Edna crouched beside the bed, watching the wan but
+lovely face of the young widow, and tenderly chafing the numb, fair
+hands which lay so motionless on the coverlet. Children are always
+sanguine, because of their ignorance of the stern, inexorable realities
+of the untried future, and Edna could not believe that death would
+snatch from the world one so beautiful and so necessary to her
+prattling, fatherless infants. But morning showed no encouraging
+symptoms, the stupor was unbroken, and at noon the wife's spirit passed
+gently to the everlasting reunion.
+
+Before sunrise on the ensuing day, a sad group clustered once more
+under the dripping chestnuts, and where a pool of blood had dyed the
+sod, a wide grave yawned. The coffins were lowered, the bodies of Henry
+and Helen Dent rested side by side, and, as the mound rose slowly above
+them, the solemn silence was broken by the faltering voice of the
+surgeon, who read the burial service.
+
+"Man, that is born of a woman, hath but a short time to live, and is
+full of misery. He cometh up, and is cut down, like a flower; he fleeth
+as it were a shadow, and never continueth in one stay. Yet, O Lord God
+most holy, O Lord most mighty, O holy and most merciful Saviour,
+deliver us not into the pains of eternal death!"
+
+The melancholy rite ended, the party dispersed, the strangers took
+their departure for their distant homes, and quiet reigned once more in
+the small, dark cottage. But days and weeks brought to Edna no oblivion
+of the tragic events which constituted the first great epoch of her
+monotonous life. A nervous restlessness took possession of her, she
+refused to occupy her old room, and insisted upon sleeping on a pallet
+at the foot of her grandfather's bed. She forsook her whilom haunts
+about the spring and forest, and started up in terror at every sudden
+sound; while from each opening between the chestnut trees the hazel
+eyes of the dead man, and the wan, thin face of the golden-haired wife,
+looked out beseechingly at her. Frequently, in the warm light of day,
+ere shadows stalked to and fro in the thick woods, she would steal,
+with an apronful of wild flowers, to the solitary grave, scatter her
+treasures in the rank grass that waved above it, and hurry away with
+hushed breath and quivering limbs. Summer waned, autumn passed, and
+winter came, but the girl recovered in no degree from the shock which
+had cut short her chant of praise on that bloody June day. In her
+morning visit to the spring, she had stumbled upon a monster which
+custom had adopted and petted--which the passions and sin fulness of
+men had adroitly draped and fondled, and called Honorable Satisfaction;
+but her pure, unperverted, Ithuriel nature pierced the conventional
+mask, recognized the loathsome lineaments of crime, and recoiled in
+horror and amazement, wondering at the wickedness of her race and the
+forbearance of outraged Jehovah. Innocent childhood had for the first
+time stood face to face with Sin and Death, and could not forget the
+vision.
+
+Edna Earl had lost both her parents before she was old enough to
+remember either. Her mother was the only daughter of Aaron Hunt, the
+village blacksmith, and her father, who was an intelligent, promising
+young carpenter, accidentally fell from the roof of the house which he
+was shingling, and died from the injuries sustained. Thus Mr. Hunt, who
+had been a widower for nearly ten years, found himself burdened with
+the care of an infant only six months old. His daughter had never left
+him, and after her death the loneliness of the house oppressed him
+painfully, and for the sake of his grandchild he resolved to marry
+again. The middle-aged widow whom he selected was a kind-hearted and
+generous woman, but indolent, ignorant, and exceedingly high-tempered;
+and while she really loved the little orphan committed to her care, she
+contrived to alienate her affection, and to tighten the bonds of union
+between her husband and the child. Possessing a remarkably amiable and
+equable disposition, Edna rarely vexed Mrs. Hunt, who gradually left
+her more and more to the indulgence of her own views and caprices, and
+contented herself with exacting a certain amount of daily work, after
+the accomplishment of which she allowed her to amuse herself as
+childish whims dictated. There chanced to be no children of her own age
+in the neighborhood, consequently she grew up without companionship,
+save that furnished by her grandfather, who was dotingly fond of her,
+and would have utterly spoiled her, had not her temperament fortunately
+been one not easily injured by unrestrained liberty of action. Before
+she was able to walk, he would take her to the forge, and keep her for
+hours on a sheepskin in one corner, whence she watched, with infantile
+delight, the blast of the furnace, and the shower of sparks that fell
+from the anvil, and where she often slept, lulled by the monotonous
+chorus of trip and sledge. As she grew older, the mystery of bellows
+and slack-tub engaged her attention, and at one end of the shop, on a
+pile of shavings, she collected a mass of curiously shaped bits of iron
+and steel, and blocks of wood, from which a miniature shop threatened
+to rise in rivalry; and finally, when strong enough to grasp the
+handles of the bellows, her greatest pleasure consisted in rendering
+the feeble assistance which her grandfather was always so proud to
+accept at her hands. Although ignorant and uncultivated, Mr. Hunt was a
+man of warm, tender feelings, and rare nobility of soul. He regretted
+the absence of early advantages which poverty had denied him; and in
+teaching Edna to read and to write, and to cipher, he never failed to
+impress upon her the vast superiority which a thorough education
+confers. Whether his exhortations first kindled her ambition, or
+whether her aspiration for knowledge was spontaneous and irrepressible,
+he knew not; but she manifested very early a fondness for study and
+thirst for learning which he gratified to the fullest extent of his
+limited ability. The blacksmith's library consisted of the family
+Bible, Pilgrim's Progress, a copy of Irving's Sermons on Parables, Guy
+Mannering, a few tracts, and two books which had belonged to an
+itinerant minister who preached occasionally in the neighborhood, and
+who, having died rather suddenly at Mr. Hunt's house, left the volumes
+in his saddle-bags, which were never claimed by his family, residing in
+a distant State. Those books were Plutarch's Lives and a worn school
+copy of Anthon's Classical Dictionary; and to Edna they proved a
+literary Ophir of inestimable value and exhaustless interest. Plutarch
+especially was a Pisgah of letters, whence the vast domain of learning,
+the Canaan of human wisdom, stretched alluringly before her; and as
+often as she climbed this height, and viewed the wondrous scene beyond,
+it seemed, indeed,
+
+  ...... "an arch where through
+   Gleams that untraveled world, whose margin fades
+   Forever and forever when we move."
+
+In after years she sometimes questioned if this mount of observation
+was also that of temptation, to which ambition had led her spirit, and
+there bargained for and bought her future. Love of nature, love of
+books, an earnest piety and deep religious enthusiasm were the
+characteristics of a noble young soul, left to stray through the
+devious, checkered paths of life without other guidance than that which
+she received from communion with Greek sages and Hebrew prophets. An
+utter stranger to fashionable conventionality and latitudinarian
+ethics, it was no marvel that the child stared and shivered when she
+saw the laws of God vetoed, and was blandly introduced to murder as
+Honorable Satisfaction.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+Nearly a mile from the small, straggling village of Chattanooga stood
+Aaron Hunt's shop, shaded by a grove of oak and chestnut trees, which
+grew upon the knoll, where two roads intersected. Like the majority of
+blacksmith's shops at country cross-roads, it was a low, narrow shed,
+filled with dust and rubbish, with old wheels and new single-trees,
+broken plows and dilapidated wagons awaiting repairs, and at the rear
+of the shop stood a smaller shed, where an old gray horse quietly ate
+his corn and fodder, waiting to carry the master to his home, two miles
+distant, as soon as the sun had set beyond the neighboring mountain.
+Early in winter, having an unusual amount of work on hand, Mr. Hunt
+hurried away from home one morning, neglecting to take the bucket which
+contained his dinner, and Edna was sent to repair the oversight.
+Accustomed to ramble about the woods without companionship, she walked
+leisurely along the rocky road, swinging the tin bucket in one hand,
+and pausing now and then to watch the shy red-birds that flitted like
+flame-jets in and out of the trees as she passed. The unbroken repose
+of earth and sky, the cold, still atmosphere and peaceful sunshine,
+touched her heart with a sense of quiet but pure happiness, and half
+unconsciously she began a hymn which her grandfather often sang over
+his anvil:
+
+  "Lord, in the morning Thou shalt hear
+    My voice ascending high;
+   To Thee will I direct my prayer,
+    To Thee lift up mine eye."
+
+Ere the first verse was ended, the clatter of a horse's hoofs hushed
+her song, and she glanced up as a harsh voice asked impatiently:
+
+"Are you stone deaf? I say, is there a blacksmith's shop near?"
+
+The rider reined in his horse, a spirited, beautiful animal, and waited
+for an answer.
+
+"Yes, sir. There is a shop about half a mile ahead, on the right hand
+side, where the road forks."
+
+He just touched his hat with the end of his gloved fingers and galloped
+on. When Edna reached the shop she saw her grandfather examining the
+horse's shoes, while the stranger walked up and down the road before
+the forge. He was a very tall, strong man, with a gray shawl thrown
+over one shoulder, and a black fur hat drawn so far over his face that
+only the lower portion was visible; and this, swarthy and harsh, left a
+most disagreeable impression on the child's mind as she passed him and
+went up to the spot where Mr. Hunt was at work. Putting the bucket
+behind her, she stooped, kissed him on his furrowed forehead, and said:
+
+"Grandpa, guess what brought me to see you to-day?"
+
+"I forgot my dinner, and you have trudged over here to bring it. Ain't
+I right, Pearl? Stand back, honey, or this Satan of a horse may kick
+your brains out. I can hardly manage him."
+
+Here the stranger uttered an oath, and called out, "How much longer do
+you intend to keep me waiting?"
+
+"No longer, sir, than I can help, as I like the company of polite
+people."
+
+"Oh, grandpa!" whispered Edna, deprecatingly, as she saw the traveller
+come rapidly forward and throw his shawl down on the grass. Mr. Hunt
+pushed back his old battered woolen hat, and looked steadily at the
+master of the horse--saying gravely and resolutely:
+
+"I'll finish the job as soon as I can, and that is as much as any
+reasonable man would ask. Now, sir, if that doesn't suit you, you can
+take your horse and put out, and swear at somebody else, for I won't
+stand it."
+
+"It is a cursed nuisance to be detained here for such a trifle as one
+shoe, and you might hurry yourself."
+
+"Your horse is very restless and vicious, and I could shoe two gentle
+ones while I am trying to quiet him."
+
+The man muttered something indistinctly, and laying his hand heavily on
+the horse's mane, said very sternly a few words, which were utterly
+unintelligible to his human listeners, though they certainly exerted a
+magical influence over the fiery creature, who, savage as the pampered
+pets of Diomedes, soon stood tranquil and contented, rubbing his head
+against his master's shoulder. Repelled by the rude harshness of this
+man, Edna walked into the shop, and watched the silent group outside,
+until the work was finished and Mr. Hunt threw down his tools and wiped
+his face.
+
+"What do I owe you?" said the impatient rider, springing to his saddle,
+and putting his hand into his vest pocket.
+
+"I charge nothing for 'such trifles' as that."
+
+"But I am in the habit of paying for my work."
+
+"It is not worth talking about. Good day, sir."
+
+Mr. Hunt turned and walked into his shop.
+
+"There is a dollar, it is the only small change I have." He rode up to
+the door of the shed, threw the small gold coin toward the blacksmith,
+and was riding rapidly away, when Edna darted after him, exclaiming,
+"Stop, sir! you have left your shawl!"
+
+He turned in the saddle, and even under the screen of her calico bonnet
+she felt the fiery gleam of his eyes, as he stooped to take the shawl
+from her hand. Once more his fingers touched his hat, he bowed and said
+hastily:
+
+"I thank you, child." Then spurring his horse, he was out of sight in a
+moment.
+
+"He is a rude, blasphemous, wicked man," said Mr. Hunt as Edna
+reentered the shop, and picked up the coin, which lay glistening amid
+the cinders around the anvil.
+
+"Why do you think him wicked?"
+
+"No good man swears as he did, before you came; and didn't you notice
+the vicious, wicked expression of his eyes?"
+
+"No, sir, I did not see much of his face, he never looked at me but
+once. I should not like to meet him again; I am afraid of him."
+
+"Never fear, Pearl, he is a stranger here, and there's little chance of
+your ever setting your eyes on his ugly, savage face again. Keep the
+money, dear; I won't have it after all the airs he put on. If, instead
+of shoeing his wild brute, I had knocked the fellow down for his
+insolence in cursing me, it would have served him right. Politeness is
+a cheap thing; and a poor man, if he behaves himself, and does his work
+well, is as much entitled to it as the President."
+
+"I will give the dollar to grandma, to buy a new coffee-pot; for she
+said to-day the old one was burnt out, and she could not use it any
+longer. But what is that yonder on the grass? That man left something
+after all."
+
+She picked up from the spot where he had thrown his shawl a handsome
+morocco-bound pocket copy of Dante, and opening it to discover the name
+of the owner, she saw written on the fly-leaf in a bold and beautiful
+hand, "S. E. M., Boboli Gardens, Florence. Lasciate ogni speranza voi
+ch' entrate."
+
+"What does this mean, grandpa?"
+
+She held up the book and pointed out the words of the dread inscription.
+
+"Indeed, Pearl, how should I know? It is Greek, or Latin, or Dutch,
+like the other outlandish gibberish he talked to that devilish horse.
+He must have spent his life among the heathens, to judge from his talk;
+for he has neither manner nor religion. Honey, better put the book
+there in the furnace; it is not fit for your eyes."
+
+"He may come back for it if he misses it pretty soon."
+
+"Not he. One might almost believe that he was running from the law. He
+would not turn back for it if it was bound in gold instead of leather.
+It is no account, I'll warrant, or he would not have been reading it,
+the ill-mannered heathen!"
+
+Weeks passed, and as the owner was not heard of again, Edna felt that
+she might justly claim as her own this most marvellous of books, which,
+though beyond her comprehension, furnished a source of endless wonder
+and delight. The copy was Gary's translation, with illustrations
+designed by Flaxman; and many of the grand, gloomy passages were
+underlined by pencil and annotated in the unknown tongue, which so
+completely baffled her curiosity. Night and day she pored over this new
+treasure; sometimes dreaming of the hideous faces that scowled at her
+from the solemn, mournful pages; and anon, when startled from sleep by
+these awful visions, she would soothe herself to rest by murmuring the
+metrical version of the Lord's Prayer contained in the "Purgatory."
+Most emphatically did Mrs. Hunt disapprove of the studious and
+contemplative habits of the ambitious child, who she averred was
+indulging dreams and aspirations far above her station in life, and
+well calculated to dissatisfy her with her humble, unpretending home
+and uninviting future. Education, she contended, was useless to poor
+people, who could not feed and clothe themselves with "book learning;"
+and experience had taught her that those who lounged about with books
+in their hands generally came to want, and invariably to harm. It was
+in vain that she endeavored to convince her husband of the impropriety
+of permitting the girl to spend so much time over her books; he finally
+put the matter at rest by declaring that, in his opinion, Edna was a
+remarkable child; and if well educated, might even rise to the position
+of teacher for the neighborhood, which would confer most honorable
+distinction upon the family. Laying his brawny hand fondly on her head,
+he said, tenderly:
+
+"Let her alone, wife! let her alone! You will make us proud of you,
+won't you, little Pearl, when you are smart enough to teach a school? I
+shall be too old to work by that time, and you will take care of me,
+won't you, my little mocking-bird?"
+
+"Oh, Grandy; that I will. But do you really think I ever shall have
+sense enough to be a teacher? You know I ought to learn everything, and
+I have so few books."
+
+"To be sure you will. Remember there is always a way where there's a
+will. When I pay off the debt I owe Peter Wood, I will see what we can
+do about some new books. Put on your shawl now, Pearl, and hunt up old
+Brindle, it is milking time, and she is not in sight."
+
+"Grandpa, are you sure you feel better this evening?" She plunged her
+fingers in his thick white hair, and rubbed her round, rosy cheek
+softly against his.
+
+"Oh! yes, I am better. Hurry back, Pearl, I want you to read to me."
+
+It was a bright day in January, and the old man sat in a large
+rocking-chair on the porch, smoking his pipe, and sunning himself in
+the last rays of the sinking sun. He had complained all day of not
+feeling well, and failed to go to his work as usual; and now, as his
+grandchild tied her pink calico bonnet under her chin, and wrapped
+herself in her faded plaid shawl, he watched her with a tender, loving
+light in his keen gray eyes. She kissed him, buttoned his shirt collar,
+which had become unfastened, drew his homespun coat closer to his
+throat, and springing down the steps bounded away in search of the cow,
+who often strayed so far off that she was dispatched to drive her home.
+In the grand, peaceful, solemn woods, through which the wintry wind now
+sighed in a soothing monotone, the child's spirit reached an exaltation
+which, had she lived two thousand years earlier, and roamed amid the
+vales and fastnesses of classic Arcadia, would have vented itself in
+dithyrambics to the great "Lord of the Hyle," the Greek "All," the
+horned and hoofed god, Pan. In every age, and among all people--from
+the Parsee devotees and the Gosains of India to the Pantheism of Bruno,
+Spinoza, and New England's "Illuminati"--nature has been apotheosized;
+and the heart of the blacksmith's untutored darling stirred with the
+same emotions of awe and adoration which thrilled the worshipers of
+Hertha, when the veiled chariot stood in Helgeland, and which made the
+groves and grottoes of Phrygia sacred to Dindymene. Edna loved trees
+and flowers, stars and clouds, with a warm, clinging affection, as she
+loved those of her own race; and that solace and amusement which most
+children find in the society of children and the sports of childhood
+this girl derived from the solitude and serenity of nature. To her
+woods and fields were indeed vocal, and every flitting bird and
+gurgling brook, every passing cloud and whispering breeze, brought
+messages of God's eternal love and wisdom, and drew her tender,
+yearning heart more closely to Jehovah, the Lord God Omnipotent.
+To-day, in the boundless reverence and religious enthusiasm of her
+character, she directed her steps to a large spreading oak, now
+leafless, where in summer she often came to read and pray; and here
+falling on her knees she thanked God for the blessings showered upon
+her. Entirely free from discontent and querulousness, she was
+thoroughly happy in her poor humble home, and over all, like a
+consecration, shone the devoted love for her grandfather, which more
+than compensated for any want of which she might otherwise have been
+conscious. Accustomed always to ask special favor for him, his name now
+passed her lips in earnest supplication, and she fervently thanked the
+Father that his threatened illness had been arrested without serious
+consequences. The sun had gone down when she rose and hurried on in
+search of the cow. The shadows of a winter evening gathered in the
+forest and climbed like trooping spirits up the rocky mountain side,
+and as she plunged deeper and deeper into the woods, the child began a
+wild cattle call that she was wont to use on such occasions. The echoes
+rang out a weird Brocken chorus, and at last, when she was growing
+impatient of the fruitless search, she paused to listen, and heard the
+welcome sound of the familiar lowing, by which the old cow recognized
+her summons. Following the sound, Edna soon saw the missing favorite
+coming slowly toward her, and ere many moments both were running
+homeward. As she approached the house, driving Brindle before her, and
+merrily singing her rude 'Ranz des vaches', the moon rose full and
+round, and threw a flood of light over the porch where the blacksmith
+still sat. Edna took off her bonnet and waved it at him, but he did not
+seem to notice the signal, and driving the cow into the yard, she
+called out as she latched the gate:
+
+"Grandy, dear, why don't you go in to the fire? Are you waiting for me,
+out here in the cold? I think Brindle certainly must have been cropping
+grass around the old walls of Jericho, as that is the farthest off of
+any place I know. If she is half as tired and hungry as I am, she ought
+to be glad to get home." He did not answer, and running up the steps
+she thought he had fallen asleep. The old woolen hat shaded his face,
+but when she crept on tiptoe to the chair, stooped, put her arms around
+him, and kissed his wrinkled cheek, she started back in terror. The
+eyes stared at the moon, the stiff fingers clutched the pipe from which
+the ashes had not been shaken, and the face was cold and rigid. Aaron
+Hunt had indeed fallen asleep, to wake no more amid the storms and woes
+and tears of time.
+
+Edna fell on her knees and grasped the icy hands. "Grandpa! wake up!
+Oh, grandpa! speak to me, your little Pearl! Wake up! dear Grandy! I
+have come back! My grandpa! Oh!--"
+
+A wild, despairing cry rent the still evening air, and shrieked
+dismally back from the distant hills and the gray, ghostly
+mountain--and the child fell on her face at the dead man's feet.
+
+Throughout that dreary night of agony, Edna lay on the bed where her
+grandfather's body had been placed, holding one of the stiffened hands
+folded in both hers, and pressed against her lips. She neither wept nor
+moaned, the shock was too terrible to admit of noisy grief; but
+completely stunned, she lay mute and desolate.
+
+For the first time in her life she could not pray; she wanted to turn
+away from the thought of God and heaven, for it seemed that she had
+nothing left to pray for. That silver-haired, wrinkled old man was the
+only father she had ever known; he had cradled her in his sinewy arms,
+and slept clasping her to his heart; had taught her to walk, and
+surrounded her with his warm, pitying love, making a home of peace and
+blessedness for her young life. Giving him, in return, the whole wealth
+of her affection, he had become the centre of all her hopes, joys and
+aspirations; now what remained? Bitter, rebellious feelings hardened
+her heart when she remembered that even while she was kneeling,
+thanking God for his preservation from illness, he had already passed
+away; nay, his sanctified spirit probably poised its wings close to the
+Eternal Throne, and listened to the prayer which she sent up to God for
+his welfare and happiness and protection while on earth. The souls of
+our dead need not the aid of Sandalphon to interpret the whispers that
+rise tremulously from the world of sin and wrestling, that float up
+among the stars, through the gates of pearl, down the golden streets of
+the New Jerusalem. So we all trust, and prate of our faith, and deceive
+ourselves with the fond hope that we are resigned to the Heavenly Will;
+and we go on with a show of Christian reliance, while the morning sun
+smiles in gladness and plenty, and the hymn of happy days and the dear
+voices of our loved ones make music in our ears; and lo! God puts us in
+the crucible. The light of life--the hope of all future years is
+blotted out; clouds of despair and the grim night of an unbroken and
+unlifting desolation fall like a pall on heart and brain; we dare not
+look heavenward, dreading another blow; our anchor drags, we drift out
+into a hideous Dead Sea, where our idol has gone down forever--and
+boasted faith and trust and patience are swept like straws from our
+grasp in the tempest of woe; while our human love cries wolfishly for
+its lost darling. Ah! we build grand and gloomy mausoleums for our
+precious dead hopes, but, like Artemisia, we refuse to sepulchre--we
+devour the bitter ashes of the lost, and grimly and audaciously
+challenge Jehovah to take the worthless, mutilated life that his wisdom
+reserves for other aims and future toils. Job's wife is immortal and
+ubiquitous, haunting the sorrow-shrouded chamber of every stricken
+human soul, and fiendishly prompting the bleeding, crushed spirit to
+"curse God and die." Edna had never contemplated the possibility of her
+grandfather's death--it was a horror she had never forced herself to
+front; and now that he was cut down in an instant, without even the
+mournful consolation of parting words and farewell kisses, she asked
+herself again and again: "What have I done, that God should punish me
+so? I thought I was grateful, I thought I was doing my duty; but oh!
+what dreadful sin have I committed, to deserve this awful affliction?"
+During the long, ghostly watches of that winter night, she recalled her
+past life, gilded by the old man's love, and could remember no
+happiness with which he was not intimately connected, and no sorrow
+that his hand had not soothed and lightened. The future was now a
+blank, crossed by no projected paths, lit with no ray of hope; and at
+daylight, when the cold, pale morning showed the stony face of the
+corpse at her side, her unnatural composure broke up in a storm of
+passionate woe, and she sprang to her feet, almost frantic with the
+sense of her loss:
+
+"All alone! nobody to love me; nothing to look forward to! Oh. grandpa!
+did you hear me praying for you yesterday? Dear Grandy--my own dear
+Grandy! I did pray for you while you were dying--here alone! Oh, my
+God! what have I done, that you should take him away from me? Was not I
+on my knees when he died? Oh! what will become of me now? Nobody to
+care for Edna now! Oh, grandpa! grandpa! beg Jesus to ask God to take
+me too!" And throwing up her clasped hands, she sank back insensible on
+the shrouded form of the dead.
+
+  "When some beloved voice that was to you
+   Both sound and sweetness, faileth suddenly,
+   And silence against which you dare not cry,
+   Aches round you like a strong disease and new--
+   What hope? what help? what music will undo
+   That silence to your senses? Not friendship's sigh,
+   Not reason's subtle count. Nay, none of these!
+   Speak Thou, availing Christ! and fill this pause."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+Of all that occurred during many ensuing weeks Edna knew little. She
+retained, in after years, only a vague, confused remembrance of keen
+anguish and utter prostration, and an abiding sense of irreparable
+loss. In delirious visions she saw her grandfather now struggling in
+the grasp of Phlegyas, and now writhing in the fiery tomb of Uberti,
+with jets of flame leaping through his white hair, and his shrunken
+hands stretched appealingly toward her, as she had seen those of the
+doomed Ghibelline leader, in the hideous Dante picture. All the
+appalling images evoked by the sombre and embittered imagination of the
+gloomy Tuscan had seized upon her fancy, even in happy hours, and were
+now reproduced by her disordered brain in multitudinous and aggravated
+forms. Her wails of agony, her passionate prayers to God to release the
+beloved spirit from the tortures which her delirium painted, were
+painful beyond expression to those who watched her ravings; and it was
+with a feeling of relief that they finally saw her sink into
+apathy--into a quiet mental stupor--from which nothing seemed to rouse
+her. She did not remark Mrs. Hunt's absence, or the presence of the
+neighbors at her bedside. And one morning, when she was wrapped up and
+placed by the fire, Mrs. Wood told her as gently as possible that her
+grandmother had died from a disease which was ravaging the country and
+supposed to be cholera. The intelligence produced no emotion; she
+merely looked up an instant, glanced mournfully around the dreary room,
+and, shivering slightly, drooped her head again on her hand. Week after
+week went slowly by, and she was removed to Mrs. Wood's house, but no
+improvement was discernible, and the belief became general that the
+child's mind had sunk into hopeless imbecility. The kind-hearted miller
+and his wife endeavored to coax her out of her chair by the
+chimney-corner, but she crouched there, a wan, mute figure of woe,
+pitiable to contemplate; asking no questions, causing no trouble,
+receiving no consolation. One bright March morning she sat, as usual,
+with her face bowed on her thin hand, and her vacant gaze fixed on the
+blazing fire, when, through the open window, came the impatient lowing
+of a cow. Mrs. Wood saw a change pass swiftly over the girl's face, and
+a quiver cross the lips so long frozen. She lifted her head, rose, and
+followed the sound, and soon stood at the side of Brindle, who now
+furnished milk for the miller's family. As the gentle cow recognized
+and looked at her, with an expression almost human in the mild, liquid
+eyes, all the events of that last serene evening swept back to Edna's
+deadened memory, and, leaning her head on Brindle's horns, she shed the
+first tears that had flowed for her great loss, while sobs, thick and
+suffocating, shook her feeble, emaciated frame.
+
+"Bless the poor little outcast, she will get well now. That is just
+exactly what she needs. I tell you, Peter, one good cry like that is
+worth a wagon-load of physic. Don't go near her; let her have her cry
+out. Poor thing! It ain't often you see a child love her granddaddy as
+she loved Aaron Hunt. Poor lamb!"
+
+Mrs. Wood wiped her own eyes, and went back to her weaving; and Edna
+turned away from the mill and walked to her deserted home, while the
+tears poured ceaselessly over her white cheeks. As she approached the
+old house she saw that it was shut up and neglected; but when she
+opened the gate, Grip, the fierce yellow terror of the whole
+neighborhood, sprang from the door-step, where he kept guard as
+tirelessly as Maida, and, with a dismal whine of welcome, leaped up and
+put his paws on her shoulders. This had been the blacksmith's pet, fed
+by his hand, chained when he went to the shop, and released at his
+return; and grim and repulsively ugly though he was, the only playmate
+Edna had ever known; had gamboled around her cradle, slept with her on
+the sheepskin, and frolicked with her through the woods, in many a long
+search for Brindle. He alone remained of all the happy past; and as
+precious memories crowded mournfully up, she sat upon the steps of the
+dreary homestead, with her arms around his neck, and wept bitterly.
+After an hour she left the house, and, followed by the dog, crossed the
+woods in the direction of the neighborhood graveyard. In order to reach
+it she was forced to pass by the spring and the green hillock where Mr.
+and Mrs. Dent slept side by side, but no nervous terror seized her now
+as formerly; the great present horror swallowed up all others, and,
+though she trembled from physical debility, she dragged herself on till
+the rude, rough paling of the burying-ground stood before her. Oh,
+dreary desolation; thy name is country graveyard! Here no polished
+sculptured stela pointed to the Eternal Rest beyond; no classic marbles
+told, in gilded characters, the virtues of the dead; no flowery-fringed
+gravel-walks wound from murmuring waterfalls and rippling fountains to
+crystal lakes, where trailing willows threw their flickering shadows
+over silver-dusted lilies; no spicy perfume of purple heliotrope and
+starry jasmine burdened the silent air; none of the solemn beauties and
+soothing charms of Greenwood or Mount Auburn wooed the mourner from her
+weight of woe. Decaying head-boards, green with the lichen-fingered
+touch of time, leaned over neglected mounds, where last year's weeds
+shivered in the sighing breeze, and autumn winds and winter rains had
+drifted a brown shroud of shriveled leaves; while here and there
+meek-eyed sheep lay sunning themselves upon the trampled graves, and
+the slow-measured sound of a bell dinged now and then as cattle browsed
+on the scanty herbage in this most neglected of God's Acres. Could
+Charles Lamb have turned from the pompous epitaphs and high-flown
+panegyrics of that English cemetery, to the rudely-lettered boards
+which here briefly told the names and ages of the sleepers in these
+narrow beds, he had never asked the question which now stands as a
+melancholy epigram on family favoritism and human frailty. Gold gilds
+even the lineaments and haunts of Death, making Pere la Chaise a
+favored spot for fetes champetres; while poverty hangs neither veil nor
+mask over the grinning ghoul, and flees, superstition-spurred, from the
+hideous precincts.
+
+In one corner of the inclosure, where Edna's parents slept, she found
+the new mounds that covered the remains of those who had nurtured and
+guarded her young life; and on an unpainted board was written in large
+letters:
+
+"To the memory of Aaron Hunt: an honest blacksmith, and true Christian;
+aged sixty-eight years and six months."
+
+Here, with her head on her grandfather's grave, and the faithful dog
+crouched at her feet, lay the orphan, wrestling with grief and
+loneliness, striving to face a future that loomed before her
+spectre-thronged; and here Mr. Wood found her when anxiety at her long
+absence induced his wife to search for the missing invalid. The storm
+of sobs and tears had spent itself, fortitude took the measure of the
+burden imposed, shouldered the galling weight, and henceforth, with
+undimmed vision, walked steadily to the appointed goal. The miller was
+surprised to find her so calm, and as they went homeward she asked the
+particulars of all that had occurred, and thanked him gravely but
+cordially for the kind care bestowed upon her, and for the last
+friendly offices performed for her grandfather.
+
+Conscious of her complete helplessness and physical prostration, she
+ventured no allusion to the future, but waited patiently until renewed
+strength permitted the execution of designs now fully mapped out.
+Notwithstanding her feebleness, she rendered herself invaluable to Mrs.
+Wood, who praised her dexterity and neatness as a seamstress, and
+predicted that she would make a model housekeeper.
+
+Late one Sunday evening in May, as the miller and his wife sat upon the
+steps of their humble and comfortless looking home, they saw Edna
+slowly approaching, and surmised where she had spent the afternoon.
+Instead of going into the house she seated herself beside them, and,
+removing her bonnet, traces of tears were visible on her sad but
+patient face.
+
+"You ought not to go over yonder so often, child. It is not good for
+you," said the miller, knocking the ashes from his pipe.
+
+She shaded her countenance with her hand, and after a moment said, in a
+low but steady tone:
+
+"I shall never go there again. I have said good-bye to everything, and
+have nothing now to keep me here. You and Mrs. Wood have been very kind
+to me, and I thank you heartily; but you have a family of children, and
+have your hands full to support them without taking care of me. I know
+that our house must go to you to pay that old debt, and even the horse
+and cow; and there will be nothing left when you are paid. You are very
+good, indeed, to offer me a home here, and I never can forget your
+kindness; but I should not be willing to live on anybody's charity; and
+besides, all the world is alike to me now, and I want to get out of
+sight of--of--what shows my sorrow to me every day. I don't love this
+place now; it won't let me forget, even for a minute, and--and--"
+
+Here the voice faltered and she paused.
+
+"But where could you go, and how could you make your bread, you poor
+little ailing thing?"
+
+"I hear that in the town of Columbus, Georgia, even little children get
+wages to work in the factory, and I know I can earn enough to pay my
+board among the factory people."
+
+"But you are too young to be straying about in a strange place. If you
+will stay here, and help my wife about the house and the weaving, I
+will take good care of you, and clothe you till you are grown and
+married."
+
+"I would rather go away, because I want to be educated, and I can't be
+if I stay here."
+
+"Fiddlestick! you will know as much as the balance of us, and that's
+all you will ever have any use for. I notice you have a hankering after
+books, but the quicker you get that foolishness out of your head the
+better; for books won't put bread in your mouth and clothes on your
+back; and folks that want to be better than their neighbors generally
+turn out worse. The less book-learning you women have the better."
+
+"I don't see that it is any of your business, Peter Wood, how much
+learning we women choose to get, provided your bread is baked and your
+socks darned when you want 'em. A woman has as good a right as a man to
+get book-learning, if she wants it; and as for sense, I'll thank you,
+mine is as good as yours any day; and folks have said it was a blessed
+thing for the neighborhood when the rheumatiz laid Peter Wood up, and
+his wife, Dorothy Elmira Wood, run the mill. Now, it's of no earthly
+use to cut at us women over that child's shoulders; if she wants an
+education she has as much right to it as anybody, if she can pay for
+it. My doctrine is, everybody has a right to whatever they can pay for,
+whether it is schooling or a satin frock!"
+
+Mrs. Wood seized her snuff-bottle and plunged a stick vigorously into
+the contents, and, as the miller showed no disposition to skirmish, she
+continued:
+
+"I take an interest in you, Edna Earl, because I loved your mother, who
+was the only sweet-tempered beauty that ever I knew. I think I never
+set my eyes on a prettier face, with big brown eyes as meek as a
+partridge's; and then her hands and feet were as small as a queen's.
+Now as long as you are satisfied to stay here I shall be glad to have
+you, and I will do as well for you as for my own Tabitha; but, if you
+are bent on factory work and schooling, I have got no more to say; for
+I have no right to say where you shall go or where you shall stay. But
+one thing I do want to tell you, it is a serious thing for a poor,
+motherless girl to be all alone among strangers."
+
+There was a brief silence, and Edna answered slowly:
+
+"Yes, Mrs. Wood, I know it is; but God can protect me there as well as
+here, and I have none now but Him. I have made up my mind to go,
+because I think it is the best for me, and I hope Mr. Wood will carry
+me to the Chattanooga depot to-morrow morning, as the train leaves
+early. I have a little money--seven dollars--that--that grandpa gave me
+at different times, and both Brindle's calves belong to me--he gave
+them to me--and I thought may be you would pay me a few dollars for
+them."
+
+"But you are not ready to start to-morrow."
+
+"Yes, sir, I washed and ironed my clothes yesterday, and what few I
+have are all packed in my box. Everything is ready now, and, as I have
+to go, I might as well start to-morrow."
+
+"Don't you think you will get dreadfully homesick in about a month, and
+write to me to come and fetch you back?"
+
+"I have no home and nobody to love me, how then can I ever be homesick?
+Grandpa's grave is all the home I have, and--and--God would not take me
+there when I was so sick, and--and--" The quiver of her face showed
+that she was losing her self-control, and turning away, she took the
+cedar piggin, and went out to milk Brindle for the last time.
+
+Feeling that they had no right to dictate her future course, neither
+the miller nor his wife offered any further opposition, and very early
+the next morning, after Mrs. Wood had given the girl what she called
+"some good motherly advice," and provided her with a basket containing
+food for the journey, she kissed her heartily several times, and saw
+her stowed away in the miller's covered cart, which was to convey her
+to the railway station. The road ran by the old blacksmith's shop, and
+Mr. Wood's eyes filled as he noticed the wistful, lingering, loving
+gaze which the girl fixed upon it, until a grove of trees shut out the
+view; then the head bowed itself, and a stifled moan reached his ears.
+
+The engine whistled as they approached the station, and Edna was
+hurried aboard the train, while her companion busied himself in
+transferring her box of clothing to the baggage car. She had insisted
+on taking her grandfather's dog with her, and, notwithstanding the
+horrified looks of the passengers and the scowl of the conductor, he
+followed her into the car and threw himself under the seat, glaring at
+all who passed, and looking as hideously savage as the Norse Managarmar.
+
+"You can't have a whole seat to yourself, and nobody wants to sit near
+that ugly brute," said the surly conductor.
+
+Edna glanced down the aisle, and saw two young gentlemen stretched at
+full length on separate seats, eyeing her curiously.
+
+Observing that the small seat next to the door was partially filled
+with the luggage of the parties who sat in front of it, she rose and
+called to the dog, saying to the conductor as she did so:
+
+"I will take that half of a seat yonder, where I shall be in nobody's
+way."
+
+Here Mr. Wood came forward, thrust her ticket into her fingers, and
+shook her hand warmly, saying hurriedly:
+
+"Hold on to your ticket, and don't put your head out of the window. I
+told the conductor he must look after you and your box when you left
+the cars; said he would. Good-by, Edna; take care of yourself, and may
+God bless you, child."
+
+The locomotive whistled, the train moved slowly on, and the miller
+hastened back to his cart.
+
+As the engine got fully under way, and dashed around a curve, the
+small, straggling village disappeared, trees and hills seemed to the
+orphan to fly past the window; and when she leaned out and looked back,
+only the mist-mantled rocks of Lookout, and the dim, purplish outline
+of the Sequatchie heights were familiar.
+
+In the shadow of that solitary sentinel peak her life had been passed;
+she had gathered chestnuts and chincapins among its wooded clefts, and
+clambered over its gray boulders as fearlessly as the young llamas of
+the Parime; and now, as it rapidly receded and finally vanished, she
+felt as if the last link that bound her to the past had suddenly
+snapped; the last friendly face which had daily looked down on her for
+twelve years was shut out forever, and she and Grip were indeed alone,
+in a great, struggling world of selfishness and sin. The sun shone
+dazzlingly over wide fields of grain, whose green billows swelled and
+surged under the freshening breeze; golden butterflies fluttered over
+the pink and blue morning-glories that festooned the rail-fences; a
+brakeman whistled merrily on the platform, and children inside the car
+prattled and played, while at one end a slender little girlish figure,
+in homespun dress and pink calico bonnet, crouched in a corner of the
+seat, staring back in the direction of hooded Lookout, feeling that
+each instant bore her farther from the dear graves of her dead; and
+oppressed with an intolerable sense of desolation and utter isolation
+in the midst of hundreds of her own race, who were too entirely
+absorbed in their individual speculations, fears and aims, to spare
+even a glance at that solitary young mariner, who saw the last headland
+fade from view, and found herself, with no pilot but ambition, drifting
+rapidly out on the great, unknown, treacherous Sea of Life, strewn with
+mournful human wrecks, whom the charts and buoys of six thousand years
+of navigation could not guide to a haven of usefulness and peace.
+Interminable seemed the dreary day, which finally drew to a close, and
+Edna, who was weary of her cramped position, laid her aching head on
+the window-sill, and watched the red light of day die in the west,
+where a young moon hung her silvery crescent among the dusky tree-tops,
+and the stars flashed out thick and fast. Far away among strangers,
+uncared for and unnoticed, come what might, she felt that God's
+changeless stars smiled down as lovingly upon her face as on her
+grandfather's grave; and that the cosmopolitan language of nature knew
+neither the modifications of time and space, the distinctions of social
+caste, nor the limitations of national dialects.
+
+As the night wore on, she opened the cherished copy of Dante and tried
+to read, but the print was too fine for the dim lamp which hung at some
+distance from her corner. Her head ached violently, and, as sleep was
+impossible, she put the book back in her pocket, and watched the
+flitting trees and fences, rocky banks, and occasional houses, which
+seemed weird in the darkness. As silence deepened in the car, her sense
+of loneliness became more and more painful, and finally she turned and
+pressed her cheek against the fair, chubby hand of a baby, who slept
+with its curly head on its mother's shoulder, and its little dimpled
+arm and hand hanging over the back of the seat. There was comfort and a
+soothing sensation of human companionship in the touch of that baby's
+hand; it seemed a link in the electric chain of sympathy, and, after a
+time, the orphan's eyes closed--fatigue conquered memory and sorrow,
+and she fell asleep with her lips pressed to those mesmeric baby
+fingers, and Grip's head resting against her knee.
+
+Diamond-powdered "lilies of the field" folded their perfumed petals
+under the Syrian dew, wherewith God nightly baptized them in token of
+his ceaseless guardianship, and the sinless world of birds, the "fowls
+of the air," those secure and blithe, yet improvident, little gleaners
+in God's granary, nestled serenely under the shadow of the Almighty
+wing; but was the all-seeing, all-directing Eye likewise upon that
+desolate and destitute young mourner who sank to rest with "Our Father
+which art in heaven" upon her trembling lips? Was it a decree in the
+will and wisdom of our God, or a fiat from the blind fumbling of
+Atheistic Chance, or was it in accordance with the rigid edict of
+Pantheistic Necessity, that at that instant the cherubim of death
+swooped down, on the sleeping passengers, and silver cords and golden
+bowls were rudely snapped and crushed, amid the crash of timbers, the
+screams of women and children, and the groans of tortured men, that
+made night hideous? Over the holy hills of Judea, out of crumbling
+Jerusalem, the message of Messiah has floated on the wings of eighteen
+centuries: "What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know
+hereafter."
+
+Edna was awakened by a succession of shrill sounds, which indicated
+that the engineer was either frightened or frantic; the conductor
+rushed bare-headed through the car; people sprang to their feet; there
+was a scramble on the platform; then a shock and crash as if the day of
+doom had dawned--and all was chaos.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+Viewed by the aid of lanterns and the lurid, flickering light of
+torches, the scene of disaster presented a ghastly debris of dead and
+dying, of crushed cars and wounded men and women, who writhed and
+groaned among the shattered timbers from which they found it impossible
+to extricate themselves. The cries of those who recognized relatives in
+the mutilated corpses that were dragged out from the wreck increased
+the horrors of the occasion; and when Edna opened her eyes amid the
+flaring of torches and the piercing wails of the bereaved passengers,
+the first impression was, that she had died and gone to Dante's "Hell;"
+but the pangs that seized her when she attempted to move soon dispelled
+this frightful illusion, and by degrees the truth presented itself to
+her blunted faculties. She was held fast between timbers, one of which
+seemed to have fallen across her feet and crushed them, as she was
+unable to move them, and was conscious of a horrible sensation of
+numbness; one arm, too, was pinioned at her side, and something heavy
+and cold lay upon her throat and chest. Lifting this weight with her
+uninjured hand, she uttered an exclamation of horror as the white face
+of the little baby whose fingers she had clasped now met her astonished
+gaze; and she saw that the sweet coral lips were pinched and purple,
+the waxen lids lay rigid over the blue eyes, and the dimpled hand was
+stiff and icy. The confusion increased as day dawned and a large crowd
+collected to offer assistance, and Edna watched her approaching
+deliverers as they cut their way through the wreck and lifted out the
+wretched sufferers. Finally two men, with axes in their hands, bent
+down and looked into her face.
+
+"Here is a live child and a dead baby wedged in between these beams.
+Are you much hurt, little one?"
+
+"Yes, I believe I am. Please take this log off my feet."
+
+It was a difficult matter, but at length strong arms raised her,
+carried her some distance from the ruins, and placed her on the grass,
+where several other persons were writhing and groaning. The collision
+which precipitated the train from trestle-work over a deep ravine, had
+occurred near a village station, and two physicians were busily engaged
+in examining the wounded. The sun had risen, and shone full on Edna's
+pale, suffering face, when one of the surgeons, with a countenance that
+indexed earnest sympathy and compassion, came to investigate the extent
+of her injuries, and sat down on the grass beside her. Very tenderly he
+handled her, and after a few moments said gently:
+
+"I am obliged to hurt you a little, my child, for your shoulder is
+dislocated, and some of the bones are broken in your feet; but I will
+be as tender as possible. Here, Lennox! help me."
+
+The pain was so intense that she fainted, and after a short time, when
+she recovered her consciousness, her feet and ankles were tightly
+bandaged, and the doctor was chafing her hands and bathing her face
+with some powerful extract. Smoothing back her hair, he said:
+
+"Were your parents on the cars? Do you know whether they are hurt?"
+
+"They both died when I was a baby."
+
+"Who was with you?"
+
+"Nobody but Grip--my dog."
+
+"Had you no relatives or friends on the train?"
+
+"I have none. I am all alone in the world."
+
+"Where did you come from?"
+
+"Chattanooga."
+
+"Where were you going?"
+
+"My grandpa died, and as I had nobody to take care of me, I was going
+to Columbus to work in the cotton factory."
+
+"Humph! Much work you will do for many a long day."
+
+He stroked his grayish beard, and mused a moment, and Edna said timidly:
+
+"If you please, sir, I would like to know if my dog is hurt?"
+
+The physician smiled, and looked round inquiringly.
+
+"Has any one seen a dog that was on the train?"
+
+One of the brakemen, a stout Irishman, took his pipe from his mouth,
+and answered:
+
+"Aye, aye, sir! and as vicious a brute as ever I set eyes on. Both his
+hind legs were smashed--dragged so--and I tapped him on the head with
+an axe to put him out of his misery. Yonder he now lies on the track."
+
+Edna put her hand over her eyes, and turned her face down on the grass
+to hide tears that would not be driven back. Here the surgeon was
+called away, and for a half hour the child lay there, wondering what
+would become of her, in her present crippled and helpless condition,
+and questioning in her heart why God did not take her instead of that
+dimpled darling, whose parents were now weeping so bitterly for the
+untimely death that mowed their blossom ere its petals were expanded.
+The chilling belief was fast gaining ground that God had cursed and
+forsaken her; that misfortune and bereavement would dog her steps
+through life; and a hard, bitter expression settled about her mouth,
+and looked out gloomily from the sad eyes. Her painful reverie was
+interrupted by the cheery voice of Dr. Rodney, who came back,
+accompanied by an elegantly-dressed middle-aged lady.
+
+"Ah, my brave little soldier! Tell us your name."
+
+"Edna Earl."
+
+"Have you no relatives?" asked the lady, stooping to scrutinize her
+face.
+
+"No, ma'am."
+
+"She is a very pretty child, Mrs. Murray, and if you can take care of
+her, even for a few weeks, until she is able to walk about, it will be
+a real charity. I never saw so much fortitude displayed by one so
+young; but her fever is increasing, and she needs immediate attention.
+Will it be convenient for you to carry her to your house at once?"
+
+"Certainly, doctor; order the carriage driven up as close as possible.
+I brought a small mattress, and think the ride will not be very
+painful. What splendid eyes she has! Poor little thing! Of course you
+will come and prescribe for her, and I will see that she is carefully
+nursed until she is quite well again. Here, Henry, you and Richard must
+lift this child, and put her on the mattress in the carriage. Mind you
+do not stumble and hurt her."
+
+During the drive neither spoke, and Edna was in so much pain that she
+lay with her eyes closed. As they entered a long avenue, the rattle of
+the wheels on the gravel aroused the child's attention, and when the
+carriage stopped, and she was carried up a flight of broad marble
+steps, she saw that the house was very large and handsome.
+
+"Bring her into the room next to mine," said Mrs. Murray, leading the
+way.
+
+Edna was soon undressed and placed within the snowy sheets of a
+heavily-carved bedstead, whose crimson canopy shed a ruby light down on
+the laced and ruffled pillows. Mrs. Murray administered a dose of
+medicine given to her by Dr. Rodney, and after closing the blinds to
+exclude the light, she felt the girl's pulse, found that she had fallen
+into a heavy sleep, and then, with a sigh, went down to take her
+breakfast. It was several hours before Edna awoke, and when she opened
+her eyes, and looked around the elegantly furnished and beautiful room,
+she felt bewildered. Mrs. Murray sat in a cushioned chair, near one of
+the windows, with a book in her hand, and Edna had an opportunity of
+studying her face. It was fair, proud, and handsome, but wore an
+expression of habitual anxiety; and gray hairs showed themselves under
+the costly lace that bordered her morning head-dress, while lines of
+care marked her brow and mouth. Children instinctively decipher the
+hieroglyphics which time carves on human faces, and, in reading the
+countenance of her hostess, Edna felt that she was a haughty, ambitious
+woman, with a kind but not very warm heart, who would be scrupulously
+attentive to the wants of a sick child, but would probably never dream
+of caressing or fondling such a charge. Chancing to glance towards the
+bed as she turned a leaf, Mrs. Murray met the curious gaze fastened
+upon her, and, rising, approached the sufferer.
+
+"How do you feel, Edna? I believe that is your name."
+
+"Thank you, my head is better, but I am very thirsty." The lady of the
+house gave her some iced water in a silver goblet, and ordered a
+servant to bring up the refreshments she had directed prepared. As she
+felt the girl's pulse, Edna noticed how white and soft her hands were,
+and how dazzlingly the jewels flashed on her fingers, and she longed
+for the touch of those aristocratic hands on her hot brow, where the
+hair clustered so heavily.
+
+"How old are you, Edna?"
+
+"Almost thirteen."
+
+"Had you any luggage on the train?"
+
+"I had a small box of clothes."
+
+"I will send a servant for it." She rang the bell as she spoke.
+
+"When do you think I shall be able to walk about?"
+
+"Probably not for many weeks. If you need or wish anything you must not
+hesitate to ask for it. A servant will sit here, and you have only to
+tell her what you want."
+
+"You are very kind, ma'am, and I thank you very much--" She paused, and
+her eyes filled with tears.
+
+Mrs. Murray looked at her and said gravely:
+
+"What is the matter, child?"
+
+"I am only sorry I was so ungrateful and wicked this morning."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"Oh! everything that I love dies; and when I lay there on the grass,
+unable to move, among strangers who knew and cared nothing about me, I
+was wicked, and would not try to pray, and thought God wanted to make
+me suffer all my life, and I wished that I had been killed instead of
+that dear little baby, who had a father and mother to kiss and love it.
+It was all wrong to feel so, but I was so wretched. And then God raised
+up friends even among strangers, and shows me I am not forsaken if I am
+desolate. I begin to think He took everybody away from me, that I might
+see how He could take care of me without them. I know 'He doeth all
+things well,' but I feel it now; and I am so sorry I could not trust
+Him without seeing it."
+
+Edna wiped away her tears, and Mrs. Murray's voice faltered slightly as
+she said:
+
+"You are a good little girl, I have no doubt. Who taught you to be so
+religious?"
+
+"Grandpa."
+
+"How long since you lost him?"
+
+"Four months."
+
+"Can you read?"
+
+"Oh! yes, ma'am."
+
+"Well, I shall send you a Bible, and you must make yourself as
+contented as possible. I shall take good care of you."
+
+As the hostess left the room a staid-looking, elderly negro woman took
+a seat at the window and sewed silently, now and then glancing toward
+the bed. Exhausted with pain and fatigue, Edna slept again, and it was
+night when she opened her eyes and found Dr. Rodney and Mrs. Murray at
+her pillow. The kind surgeon talked pleasantly for some time, and,
+after giving ample instructions, took his leave, exhorting his patient
+to keep up her fortitude and all would soon be well. So passed the
+first day of her sojourn under the hospitable roof which appeared so
+fortuitously to shelter her; and the child thanked God fervently for
+the kind hands into which she had fallen. Day after day wore wearily
+away, and at the end of a fortnight, though much prostrated by fever
+and suffering, she was propped up in bed by pillows, while Hagar, the
+servant, combed and plaited the long, thick, matted hair. Mrs. Murray
+came often to the room, but her visits were short, and though
+invariably kind and considerate, Edna felt an involuntary awe of her,
+which rendered her manner exceedingly constrained when they were
+together. Hagar was almost as taciturn as her mistress, and as the girl
+asked few questions, she remained in complete ignorance of the
+household affairs, and had never seen any one but Mrs. Murray, Hagar,
+and the doctor. She was well supplied with books, which the former
+brought from the library, and thus the invalid contrived to amuse
+herself during the long, tedious summer days. One afternoon in June,
+Edna persuaded Hagar to lift her to a large, cushioned chair close to
+the open window which looked out on the lawn; and here, with a book on
+her lap, she sat gazing out at the soft blue sky, the waving elm
+boughs, and the glittering plumage of a beautiful Himalayan pheasant,
+which seemed in the golden sunshine to have forgotten the rosy glow of
+his native snows. Leaning her elbows on the window-sill, Edna rested
+her face in her palms, and after a few minutes a tide of tender
+memories rose and swept over her heart, bringing a touching expression
+of patient sorrow to her sweet, wan face, and giving a far-off wistful
+look to the beautiful eyes where tears often gathered but very rarely
+fell. Hagar had dressed her in a new white muslin wrapper, with fluted
+ruffles at the wrists and throat; and the fair young face, with its
+delicate features, and glossy folds of soft hair, was a pleasant
+picture, which the nurse loved to contemplate. Standing with her
+work-basket in her hand, she watched the graceful little figure for two
+or three moments, and a warm, loving light shone out over her black
+features; then nodding her head resolutely, she muttered:
+
+"I will have my way this once; she shall stay," and passed out of the
+room, closing the door behind her. Edna did not remark her departure,
+for memory was busy among the ashes of other days, exhuming a thousand
+precious reminiscences of mountain home, chestnut groves, showers of
+sparks fringing an anvil with fire, and an old man's unpainted
+head-board in the deserted burying-ground. She started nervously when,
+a half hour later, Mrs. Murray laid her hand gently on her shoulder,
+and said:
+
+"Child, of what are you thinking?"
+
+For an instant she could not command her voice, which faltered; but
+making a strong effort, she answered in a low tone:
+
+"Of all that I have lost, and what I am to do in future."
+
+"Would you be willing to work all your life in a factory?"
+
+"No, ma'am; only long enough to educate myself, so that I could teach."
+
+"You could not obtain a suitable education in that way, and beside, I
+do not think that the factory you spoke of would be an agreeable place
+for you. I have made some inquiries about it since you came here."
+
+"I know it will not be pleasant, but then I am obliged to work in some
+way, and I don't see what else I can do. I am not able to pay for an
+education now, and I am determined to have one."
+
+Mrs. Murray's eyes wandered out toward the velvety lawn, and she mused
+for some minutes; then laying her hands on the orphan's head, she said:
+
+"Child, will you trust your future and your education to me? I do not
+mean that I will teach you--oh! no--but I will have you thoroughly
+educated, so that when you are grown you can support yourself by
+teaching. I have no daughter--I lost mine when she was a babe; but I
+could not have seen her enter a factory, and as you remind me of my own
+child, I will not allow you to go there. I will take care of and
+educate you--will see that you have everything you require, if you are
+willing to be directed and advised by me Understand me, I do not adopt
+you; nor shall I consider you exactly as one of my family; but I shall
+prove a good friend and protector till you are eighteen, and capable of
+providing for yourself. You will live in my house and look upon it as
+your home, at least for the present. What do you say to this plan? Is
+it not much better and more pleasant than a wild-goose chase after an
+education through the dust and din of a factory?"
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Murray! You are very generous and good, but I have no claim
+on you--no right to impose such expense and trouble upon you. I am--"
+
+"Hush, child! you have that claim which poverty always has on wealth.
+As for the expense, that is a mere trifle, and I do not expect you to
+give me any trouble; perhaps you may even make yourself useful to me."
+
+"Thank you! oh! thank you, ma'am! I am very grateful! I can not tell
+you how much I thank you; but I shall try to prove it, if you will let
+me stay here--on one condition."
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"That when I am able to pay you, you will receive the money that my
+education and clothes will cost you."
+
+Mrs. Murray laughed, and stroked the silky black hair.
+
+"Where did you get such proud notions? Pay me, indeed! You poor little
+beggar! Ha! ha! ha! Well, yes, you may do as you please, when you are
+able; that time is rather too distant to be considered now. Meanwhile,
+quit grieving over the past, and think only of improving yourself. I do
+not like doleful faces, and shall expect you to be a cheerful,
+contented, and obedient girl. Hagar is making you an entire set of new
+clothes, and I hope to see you always neat. I shall give you a smaller
+room than this--the one across the hall; you will keep your books
+there, and remain there during study hours. At other times you can come
+to my room, or amuse yourself as you like; and when there is company
+here, remember, I shall always expect you to sit quietly, and listen to
+the conversation, as it is very improving to young girls to be in
+really good society. You will have a music teacher, and practice on the
+upright piano in the library, instead of the large one in the parlor.
+One thing more, if you want anything, come to me, and ask for it, and I
+shall be very much displeased if you talk to the servants, or encourage
+them to talk to you. Now, everything is understood, and I hope you will
+be happy, and properly improve the advantages I shall give you."
+
+Edna drew one of the white hands down to her lips and murmured:
+
+"Thank you--thank you! You shall never have cause to regret your
+goodness; and your wishes shall always guide me."
+
+"Well, well; I shall remember this promise, and trust I may never find
+it necessary to remind you of it. I dare say we shall get on very
+happily together. Don't thank me any more, and hereafter we need not
+speak of the matter."
+
+Mrs. Murray stooped, and for the first time kissed the child's white
+forehead; and Edna longed to throw her arms about the stately form, but
+the polished hauteur awed and repelled her.
+
+Before she could reply, and just as Mrs. Murray was moving toward the
+door, it was thrown open, and a gentleman strode into the room. At
+sight of Edna he stopped suddenly, and dropping a bag of game on the
+floor, exclaimed harshly:
+
+"What the d--l does this mean?"
+
+"My son! I am so glad you are at home again. I was getting quite uneasy
+at your long absence. This is one of the victims of that terrible
+railroad disaster; the neighborhood is full of the sufferers. Come to
+my room. When did you arrive?"
+
+She linked her arm in his, picked up the game-bag, and led him to the
+adjoining room, the door of which she closed and locked.
+
+A painful thrill shot along Edna's nerves, and an indescribable
+sensation of dread, a presentiment of coming ill, overshadowed her
+heart. This was the son of her friend, and the first glimpse of him
+filled her with instantaneous repugnance; there was an innate and
+powerful repulsion which she could not analyze. He was a tall, athletic
+man, not exactly young, yet certainly not elderly; one of anomalous
+appearance, prematurely old, and, though not one white thread silvered
+his thick, waving, brown hair, the heavy and habitual scowl on his
+high, full brow had plowed deep furrows such as age claims for its
+monogram. His features were bold but very regular; the piercing,
+steel-gray eyes were unusually large, and beautifully shaded with long
+heavy, black lashes, but repelled by their cynical glare; and the
+finely formed mouth, which might have imparted a wonderful charm to the
+countenance, wore a chronic, savage sneer, as if it only opened to
+utter jeers and curses. Evidently the face had once been singularly
+handsome, in the dawn of his earthly career, when his mother's
+good-night kiss rested like a blessing on his smooth, boyish forehead,
+and the prayer learned in the nursery still crept across his pure lips;
+but now the fair, chiseled lineaments were blotted by dissipation, and
+blackened and distorted by the baleful fires of a fierce, passionate
+nature, and a restless, powerful, and unhallowed intellect. Symmetrical
+and grand as that temple of Juno, in shrouded Pompeii, whose polished
+shafts gleamed centuries ago in the morning sunshine of a day of woe,
+whose untimely night has endured for nineteen hundred years, so, in the
+glorious flush of his youth, this man had stood facing a noble and
+possibly a sanctified future; but the ungovernable flames of sin had
+reduced him, like that darkened and desecrated fane, to a melancholy
+mass of ashy arches and blackened columns, where ministering priests,
+all holy aspirations, slumbered in the dust. His dress was costly but
+negligent, and the red stain on his jacket told that his hunt had not
+been fruitless. He wore a straw hat, belted with broad black ribbon,
+and his spurred boots were damp and muddy.
+
+What was there about this surly son of her hostess which recalled to
+Edna's mind her grandfather's words, "He is a rude, wicked, blasphemous
+man." She had not distinctly seen the face of the visitor at the shop;
+but something in the impatient, querulous tone, in the hasty, haughty
+step, and the proud lifting of the regal head, reminded her painfully
+of him whose overbearing insolence had so unwontedly stirred the ire of
+Aaron Hunt's genial and generally equable nature. While she pondered
+this inexplicable coincidence, voices startled her from the next room,
+whence the sound floated through the window.
+
+"If you were not my mother, I should say you were a candidate for a
+straight-jacket and a lunatic asylum; but as those amiable proclivities
+are considered hereditary, I do not favor that comparison. 'Sorry for
+her,' indeed! I'll bet my right arm it will not be six weeks before she
+makes you infinitely sorrier for your deluded self; and you will treat
+me to a new version of 'je me regrette!' With your knowledge of this
+precious world and its holy crew, I confess it seems farcical in the
+extreme that open-eyed you can venture another experiment on human
+nature. Some fine morning you will rub your eyes and find your acolyte
+non est; ditto, your silver forks, diamonds, and gold spoons."
+
+Edna felt the indignant blood burning in her cheeks, and as she could
+not walk without assistance, and shrank from listening to a
+conversation which was not intended for her ears, she coughed several
+times to arrest the attention of the speakers, but apparently without
+effect, for the son's voice again rose above the low tones of the
+mother.
+
+"Oh, carnival of shams! She is 'pious' you say? Then, I'll swear my
+watch is not safe in my pocket, and I shall sleep with the key of my
+cameo cabinet tied around my neck. A Paris police would not insure your
+valuables or mine. The facts forbid that your pen-feathered saint
+should decamp with some of my costly travel-scrapings! 'Pious' indeed!
+'Edna,' forsooth! No doubt her origin and morals are quite as
+apocryphal as her name. Don't talk to me about 'her being
+providentially thrown into your hands,' unless you desire to hear me
+say things which you have frequently taken occasion to inform me
+'deeply grieved' you. I dare say the little vagrant whines in what she
+considers orthodox phraseology, that 'God tempers the wind to the shorn
+lamb!' and, like some other pious people whom I have heard canting,
+will saddle some Jewish prophet or fisherman with the dictum, thinking
+that it sounds like the Bible, whereas Sterne said it. Shorn lamb,
+forsooth! We, or rather you, madame, ma mere, will be shorn--thoroughly
+fleeced! Pious! Ha! ha! ha!"
+
+Here followed an earnest expostulation from Mrs. Murray, only a few
+words of which were audible, and once more the deep, strong, bitter
+tones rejoined:
+
+"Interfere! Pardon me, I am only too happy to stand aloof and watch the
+little wretch play out her game. Most certainly it is your own affair,
+but you will permit me to be amused, will you not? And with your
+accustomed suavity forgive me, if I chance inadvertently to whisper
+above my breath, 'Le jeu n'en vaut pas la chandelle?' What the deuce do
+you suppose I care about her 'faith?' She may run through the whole
+catalogue from the mustard-seed size up, as far as I am concerned, and
+you may make yourself easy on the score of my 'contaminating' the
+sanctified vagrant!"
+
+"St. Elmo! my son! promise me that you will not scoff and sneer at her
+religion; at least in her presence," pleaded the mother.
+
+A ringing, mirthless laugh was the only reply that reached the girl, as
+she put her fingers in her ears and hid her face on the window-sill.
+
+It was no longer possible to doubt the identity of the stranger; the
+initials on the fly-leaf meant St. Elmo Murray; and she knew that in
+the son of her friend and protectress, she had found the owner of her
+Dante and the man who had cursed her grandfather for his tardiness. If
+she had only known this one hour earlier, she would have declined the
+offer, which once accepted, she knew not how to reject, without
+acquainting Mrs. Murray with the fact that she had overheard the
+conversation; and yet she could not endure the prospect of living under
+the same roof with a man whom she loathed and feared. The memory of the
+blacksmith's aversion of this stranger intensified her own; and as she
+pondered in shame and indignation the scornful and opprobrious epithets
+which he had bestowed on herself, she muttered through her set teeth:
+
+"Yes, Grandy! he is cruel and wicked; and I never can bear to look at
+or speak to him! How dared he curse my dear, dear, good grandpa! How
+can I ever be respectful to him, when he is not even respectful to his
+own mother! Oh! I wish I had never come here! I shall always hate him!"
+At this juncture, Hagar entered, and lifted her back to her couch; and,
+remarking the agitation of her manner, the nurse said gravely, as she
+put her fingers on the girl's pulse:
+
+"What has flushed you so? Your face is hot; you have tired yourself
+sitting up too long. Did a gentleman come into the room a while ago?"
+
+"Yes, Mrs. Murray's son."
+
+"Did Miss Ellen--that is, my mistress--tell you that you were to live
+here, and get your education?"
+
+"Yes, she offered to take care of me for a few years."
+
+"Well, I am glad it is fixed, so--you can stay; for you can be a great
+comfort to Miss Ellen, if you try to please her."
+
+She paused, and busied herself about the room, and remembering Mrs.
+Murray's injunction that she should discourage conversation on the part
+of the servants, Edna turned her face to the wall and shut her eyes.
+But for once Hagar's habitual silence and non-committalism were laid
+aside; and, stooping over the couch, she said hurriedly:
+
+"Listen to me, child, for I like your patient ways, and want to give
+you a friendly warning; you are a stranger in this house, and might
+stumble into trouble. Whatever else you do, be sure not to cross Mass'
+Elmo's path! Keep out of his way, and he will keep out of yours; for he
+is shy enough of strangers, and would walk a mile to keep from meeting
+anybody; but if he finds you in his way, he will walk roughshod right
+over you--trample you. Nothing ever stops him one minute when he makes
+up his mind. He does not even wait to listen to his mother, and she is
+about the only person who dares to talk to him. He hates everybody and
+everything; but he doesn't tread on folks' toes unless they are where
+they don't belong. He is like a rattlesnake that crawls in his own
+track, and bites everything that meddles or crosses his trail. Above
+everything, child, for the love of peace and heaven, don't argue with
+him! If he says black is white, don't contradict him; and if he swears
+water runs up stream, let him swear, and don't know it runs down. Keep
+out of his sight, and you will do well enough, but once make him mad
+and you had better fight Satan hand to hand with red-hot pitchforks!
+Everybody is afraid of him, and gives way to him, and you must do like
+the balance that have to deal with him. I nursed him; but I would
+rather put my head in a wolf's jaws than stir him up; and God knows I
+wish he had died when he was a baby, instead of living to grow up the
+sinful, swearing, raging devil he is! Now mind what I say. I am not
+given to talking, but this time it is for your good. Mind what I tell
+you, child; and if you want to have peace, keep out of his way."
+
+She left the room abruptly, and the orphan lay in the gathering gloom
+of twilight, perplexed, distressed, and wondering how she could avoid
+all the angularities of this amiable character, under whose roof fate
+seemed to have deposited her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+At length, by the aid of crutches, Edna was able to leave the room
+where she had been so long confined, and explore the house in which
+every day discovered some new charm. The parlors and sitting-room
+opened on a long, arched veranda, which extended around two sides of
+the building, and was paved with variegated tiles; while the
+stained-glass doors of the dining-room, with its lofty frescoed ceiling
+and deep bow-windows, led by two white marble steps out on the terrace,
+whence two more steps showed the beginning of a serpentine gravel walk
+winding down to an octagonal hot-house, surmounted by a richly carved
+pagoda-roof. Two sentinel statues--a Bacchus and Bacchante--placed on
+the terrace, guarded the entrance to the dining-room; and in front of
+the house, where a sculptured Triton threw jets of water into a
+gleaming circular basin, a pair of crouching monsters glared from the
+steps. When Edna first found herself before these grim doorkeepers, she
+started back in unfeigned terror, and could scarcely repress a cry of
+alarm, for the howling rage and despair of the distorted hideous heads
+seemed fearfully real, and years elapsed before she comprehended their
+significance, or the sombre mood which impelled their creation. They
+were imitations of that monumental lion's head, raised on the
+battle-field of Chaeroneia, to commemorate the Boeotians slain. In the
+rear of and adjoining the library, a narrow, vaulted passage with high
+Gothic windows of stained-glass, opened into a beautifully proportioned
+rotunda, and beyond this circular apartment with its ruby-tinted
+skylight and Moresque frescoes, extended two other rooms, of whose
+shape or contents Edna knew nothing, save the tall arched windows that
+looked down on the terrace. The door of the rotunda was generally
+closed, but accidentally it stood open one morning, and she caught a
+glimpse of the circular form and the springing dome. Evidently this
+portion of the mansion had been recently built, while the remainder of
+the house had been constructed many years earlier; but all desire to
+explore it was extinguished when Mrs. Murray remarked one day:
+
+"That passage leads to my son's apartments, and he dislikes noise or
+intrusion."
+
+Thenceforth Edna avoided it as if the plagues of Pharaoh were pent
+therein. To her dazzled eyes this luxurious home was a fairy palace, an
+enchanted region, and, with eager curiosity and boundless admiration,
+she gazed upon beautiful articles whose use she could not even
+conjecture. The furniture throughout the mansion was elegant and
+costly; pictures, statues, bronzes, marble, silver, rosewood, ebony,
+mosaics, satin, velvet--naught that the most fastidious and cultivated
+taste or dilettanteism could suggest, or lavish expenditure supply, was
+wanting; while the elaborate and beautiful arrangement of the extensive
+grounds showed with how prodigal a hand the owner squandered a princely
+fortune. The flower garden and lawn comprised fifteen acres, and the
+subdivisions were formed entirely by hedges, save that portion of the
+park surrounded by a tall iron railing, where congregated a motley
+menagerie of deer, bison, a Lapland reindeer, a Peruvian llama, some
+Cashmere goats, a chamois, wounded and caught on the Jungfrau, and a
+large white cow from Ava. This part of the inclosure was thickly
+studded with large oaks, groups of beech and elm, and a few enormous
+cedars which would not have shamed their sacred prototypes sighing in
+Syrian breezes along the rocky gorges of Lebanon. The branches were low
+and spreading, and even at mid-day the sunshine barely freckled the
+cool, mossy knolls where the animals sought refuge from the summer heat
+of the open and smoothly-shaven lawn. Here and there, on the soft,
+green sward, was presented that vegetable antithesis, a circlet of
+martinet poplars standing vis-a-vis to a clump of willows whose long
+hair threw quivering, fringy shadows when the slanting rays of dying
+sunlight burnished the white and purple petals nestling among the
+clover tufts. Rustic seats of bark, cane and metal were scattered
+through the grounds, and where the well-trimmed numerous hedges divided
+the parterre, china, marble and iron vases of varied mould, held rare
+creepers and lovely exotics; and rich masses of roses swung their
+fragrant chalices of crimson and gold, rivaling the glory of Paestum
+and of Bendemer. The elevation upon which the house was placed
+commanded an extensive view of the surrounding country. Far away to the
+northeast purplish gray waves along the sky showed a range of lofty
+hills, and in an easterly direction, scarcely two miles distant,
+glittering spires told where the village clung to the railroad, and to
+a deep rushing creek, whose sinuous course was distinctly marked by the
+dense growth that clothed its steep banks. Now and then luxuriant
+fields of corn covered the level lands with an emerald mantle, while
+sheep and cattle roamed through the adjacent champaign; and in the
+calm, cool morning air, a black smoke-serpent crawled above the
+tree-tops, mapping out the track over which the long train of cars
+darted and thundered. Mr. Paul Murray, the first proprietor of the
+estate, and father of the present owner, had early in life spent much
+time in France, where, espousing the royalist cause, his sympathies
+were fully enlisted by the desperate daring of Charette, Stofflet, and
+Cathelineau. On his return to his native land, his admiration of the
+heroism of those who dwelt upon the Loire, found expression in one of
+their sobriquets, "Le Bocage," which he gave to his country residence;
+and certainly the venerable groves that surrounded it justified the
+application. While his own fortune was handsome and abundant, he
+married the orphan of a rich banker, who survived her father only a
+short time and died leaving Mr. Murray childless. After a few years,
+when the frosts of age fell upon his head, he married a handsome and
+very wealthy widow; but, unfortunately, having lost their first child,
+a daughter, he lived only long enough to hear the infantile prattle of
+his son, St. Elmo, to whom he bequeathed an immense fortune, which many
+succeeding years of reckless expenditure had failed to materially
+impair. Such was "Le Bocage," naturally a beautiful situation, improved
+and embellished with everything which refined taste and world-wide
+travel could suggest to the fastidious owner. Notwithstanding the
+countless charms of the home so benevolently offered to her, the
+blacksmith's granddaughter was conscious of a great need, scarcely to
+be explained, yet fully felt--the dreary lack of that which she had yet
+to learn could not be purchased by the treasures of Oude--the priceless
+peace and genial glow which only the contented, happy hearts of its
+inmates can diffuse over even a palatial homestead. She also realized,
+without analyzing the fact, that the majestic repose and boundless
+spontaneity of nature yielded a sense of companionship almost of
+tender, dumb sympathy, which all the polished artificialities and
+recherche arrangements of man utterly failed to supply. While dazzled
+by the glitter and splendor of "Le Bocage," she shivered in its silent
+dreariness, its cold, aristocratic formalism, and she yearned for the
+soft, musical babble of the spring-branch, where, standing ankle-deep
+in water under the friendly shadow of Lookout, she had spent long,
+blissful July days in striving to build a wall of rounded pebbles down
+which the crystal ripples would fall, a miniature Talulah or Tuccoa.
+The chrism of nature had anointed her early life and consecrated her
+heart, but fate brought her to the vestibule of the temple of Mammon,
+and its defiling incense floated about her. How long would the
+consecration last? As she slowly limped about the house and grounds,
+acquainting herself with the details, she was impressed with the belief
+that happiness had once held her court here, had been dethroned, exiled
+and now waited beyond the confines of the park, anxious but unable to
+renew her reign and expel usurping gloom. For some weeks after her
+arrival she took her meals in her own room, and having learned to
+recognize the hasty, heavy tread of the dreaded master of the house,
+she invariably fled from the sound of his steps as she would have
+shunned an ogre; consequently her knowledge of him was limited to the
+brief inspection and uncomplimentary conversation which introduced him
+to her acquaintance on the day of his return. Her habitual avoidance
+and desire of continued concealment was, however, summarily thwarted
+when Mrs. Murray came into her room late one night, and asked:
+
+"Did not I see you walking this afternoon without your crutches?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am, I was trying to see if I could not do without them
+entirely."
+
+"Did the experiment cause you any pain?"
+
+"No pain exactly, but I find my ankle still weak."
+
+
+
+ "Be careful not to overstrain it; by degrees it will strengthen if
+you use it moderately. By the by, you are now well enough to come to
+the table; and from breakfast to-morrow you will take your meals with
+us in the dining-room."
+
+A shiver of apprehension seized Edna, and in a frightened tone she
+ejaculated:
+
+"Ma'am!"
+
+"I say, in future you will eat at the table instead of here in this
+room."
+
+"If you please, Mrs. Murray, I would rather stay here."
+
+"Pray, what possible objection can you have to the dining-room?"
+
+Edna averted her head, but wrung her fingers nervously.
+
+Mrs. Murray frowned, and continued gravely:
+
+"Don't be silly, Edna. It is proper that you should go to the table,
+and learn to eat with a fork instead of a knife. You need not be
+ashamed to meet people; there is nothing clownish about you unless you
+affect it. Good-night; I shall see you at breakfast; the bell rings at
+eight o'clock."
+
+There was no escape, and she awoke next morning oppressed with the
+thought of the ordeal that awaited her. She dressed herself even more
+carefully than usual, despite the trembling of her hands; and when the
+ringing of the little silver bell summoned her to the dining-room, her
+heart seemed to stand still. But though exceedingly sensitive and shy,
+Edna was brave, and even self-possessed, and she promptly advanced to
+meet the trial.
+
+Entering the room, she saw that her benefactress had not yet come in,
+but was approaching the house with a basket of flowers in her hand; and
+one swift glance around discovered Mr. Murray standing at the window.
+Unobserved, she scanned the tall, powerful figure clad in a suit of
+white linen, and saw that he wore no beard save the heavy but
+closely-trimmed moustache, which now, in some degree, concealed the
+harshness about the handsome mouth. Only his profile was turned toward
+her, and she noticed that, while his forehead was singularly white, his
+cheeks and chin were thoroughly bronzed from exposure.
+
+As Mrs. Murray came in, she nodded to her young protegee, and
+approached the table, saying:
+
+"Good morning! It seems I am the laggard to-day, but Nicholas had
+mislaid the flower shears, and detained me. Hereafter I shall turn over
+this work of dressing vases to you, child. My son, this is your
+birthday, and here is your button-hole souvenir."
+
+She fastened a few sprigs of white jasmine in his linen coat, and, as
+he thanked her briefly, and turned to the table, she said, with marked
+emphasis:
+
+"St. Elmo, let me introduce you to Edna Earl."
+
+He looked around, and fixed his keen eyes on the orphan, whose cheeks
+crimsoned as she looked down and said, quite distinctly:
+
+"Good morning, Mr. Murray."
+
+"Good morning, Miss Earl."
+
+"No, I protest! 'Miss Earl,' indeed! Call the child Edna."
+
+"As you please, mother, provided you do not let the coffee and
+chocolate get cold while you decide the momentous question."
+
+Neither spoke again for some time, and in the embarrassing silence Edna
+kept her eyes on the china, wondering if all their breakfasts would be
+like this. At last Mr. Murray pushed away his large coffee-cup, and
+said abruptly:
+
+"After all, it is only one year to-day since I came back to America,
+though it seems much longer. It will soon be time to prepare for my
+trip to the South Sea Islands. The stagnation here is intolerable."
+
+An expression of painful surprise flitted across the mother's
+countenance, but she answered quickly:
+
+"It has been an exceedingly short, happy year to me. You are such a
+confirmed absentee, that when you are at home, time slips by unnoticed."
+
+"But few and far between as my visits are, they certainly never
+approach the angelic. 'Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest,'
+must frequently recur to you."
+
+Before his mother could reply he rose, ordered his horse, and as he
+drew on his gloves, and left the room, looked over his shoulder, saying
+indifferently, "That box of pictures from Munich is at the warehouse; I
+directed Henry to go after it this morning. I will open it when I come
+home."
+
+A moment after he passed the window on horseback, and with a heavy sigh
+Mrs. Murray dropped her head on her hand, compressing her lips, and
+toying abstractedly with the sugar-tongs.
+
+Edna watched the grave, troubled countenance for some seconds, and then
+putting her hand on the flower-basket, she asked softly:
+
+"Shall I dress the flower-pots?"
+
+"Yes, child, in four rooms; this, the parlors, and the library. Always
+cut the flowers very early, while the dew is on them."
+
+Her eyes went back to the sugar-tongs, and Edna joyfully escaped from a
+room whose restraints and associations were irksome.
+
+Impressed by Hagar's vehement adjuration to keep out of Mr. Murray's
+path, she avoided those portions of the house to which he seemed most
+partial, and thus although they continued to meet at meals, no words
+passed between them, after that brief salutation on the morning of
+presentation. Very often she was painfully conscious that his searching
+eyes scrutinized her; but though the blood mounted instantly to her
+cheeks at such times, she never looked up--dreading his gaze as she
+would that of a basilisk. One sultry afternoon she went into the park,
+and threw herself down on the long grass, under a clump of cedars, near
+which the deer and bison were quietly browsing, while the large white
+merinoes huddled in the shade and blinked at the sun. Opening a
+pictorial history of England, which she had selected from the library,
+she spread it on the grass, and leaning her face in her palms, rested
+her elbows on the ground, and began to read. Now and then she paused as
+she turned a leaf, to look around at the beautiful animals, each one of
+which might have served as a model for Landseer or Rosa Bonheur.
+Gradually the languor of the atmosphere stole into her busy brain; as
+the sun crept down the sky, her eyelids sunk with it, and very soon she
+was fast asleep, with her head on the book, and her cheeks flushed
+almost to a vermilion hue. From that brief summer dream she was aroused
+by some sudden noise, and starting up, she saw the sheep bounding far
+away, while a large, gaunt, wolfish, grey dog snuffed at her hands and
+face.
+
+Once before she had seen him chained near the stables, and Hagar told
+her he was "very dangerous," and was never loosed except at night;
+consequently, the expression of his fierce, red eyes, as he stood over
+her, was well calculated to alarm her; but at that instant Mr. Murray's
+voice thundered:
+
+"Keep still! don't move! or you will be torn to pieces!" Then followed
+some rapid interjections and vehement words in the same unintelligible
+dialect which had so puzzled her once before, when her grandfather
+could not control the horse he was attempting to shoe. The dog was
+sullen and unmanageable, keeping his black muzzle close to her face,
+and she grew pale with terror as she noticed that his shaggy breast and
+snarling jaws were dripping with blood.
+
+Leaping from his horse, Mr. Murray strode up, and with a quick movement
+seized the heavy brass collar of the savage creature, hurled him back
+on his haunches, and held him thus, giving vent the while to a volley
+of oaths.
+
+Pointing to a large, half-decayed elm branch, lying at a little
+distance, he tightened his grasp on the collar, and said to the still
+trembling girl:
+
+"Bring me that stick, yonder."
+
+Edna complied, and there ensued a scene of cursing, thrashing, and
+howling, that absolutely sickened her. The dog writhed, leaped, whined,
+and snarled; but the iron hold was not relaxed, and the face of the
+master rivaled in rage that of the brute, which seemed as ferocious as
+the hounds of Gian Maria Visconti, fed with human flesh, by Squarcia
+Giramo. Distressed by the severity and duration of the punishment, and
+without pausing to reflect, or to remember Hagar's warning, Edna
+interposed:
+
+"Oh! please don't whip him any more! It is cruel to beat him so!"
+
+Probably he did not hear her, and the blows fell thicker than before.
+She drew near, and, as the merciless arm was raised to strike, she
+seized it with both hands, and swung on with her whole weight,
+repeating her words. If one of his meek, frightened sheep had sprung at
+his throat to throttle him, Mr. Murray would not have been more
+astounded. He shook her off, threw her from him, but she carried the
+stick in her grasp. "D--n you! how dare you interfere! What is it to
+you if I cut his throat, which I mean to do!"
+
+"That will be cruel and sinful, for he does not know it is wrong; and
+besides, he did not bite me."
+
+She spoke resolutely, and for the first time ventured to look straight
+into his flashing eyes.
+
+"Did not bite you! Did not he worry down and mangle one of my finest
+Southdowns? It would serve you right for your impertinent meddling, if
+I let him tear you limb from limb!"
+
+"He knows no better," she answered, firmly.
+
+"Then, by G-d, I will teach him! Hand me that stick!"
+
+"Oh! please, Mr. Murray! You have nearly put out one of his eyes
+already!"
+
+"Give me the stick, I tell you, or I--"
+
+He did not finish the threat, but held out his hand with a peremptory
+gesture.
+
+Edna gave one swift glance around, saw that there were no other
+branches within reach, saw too that the dog's face was swelling and
+bleeding from its bruises, and, bending the stick across her knee, she
+snapped it into three pieces, which she threw as far as her strength
+would permit. There was a brief pause, broken only by the piteous
+howling of the suffering creature, and, as she began to realize what
+she had done, Edna's face reddened, and she put her hands over her eyes
+to shut out the vision of the enraged man, who was absolutely dumb with
+indignant astonishment. Presently a sneering laugh caused her to look
+through her fingers, and she saw "Ali," the dog, now released, fawning
+and whining at his master's feet.
+
+"Aha! The way of all natures, human as well as brute. Pet and fondle
+and pamper them, they turn under your caressing hand and bite you; but
+bruise and trample them, and instantly they are on their knees licking
+the feet that kicked them. Begone! you bloodthirsty devil! I'll settle
+the account at the kennel. Buffon is a fool, and Pennant was right
+after all. The blood of the jackal pricks up your ears."
+
+He spurned the crouching culprit, and as it slunk away in the direction
+of the house, Edna found herself alone, face to face with the object of
+her aversion, and she almost wished that the earth would open and
+swallow her. Mr. Murray came close to her, held her hands down with one
+of his, and placing the other under her chin, forced her to look at him.
+
+"How dare you defy and disobey me?"
+
+"I did not defy you, sir, but I could not help you to do what was wrong
+and cruel."
+
+"I am the judge of my actions, and neither ask your help nor intend to
+permit your interference with what does not concern you."
+
+"God is the judge of mine, sir, and if I had obeyed you, I should have
+been guilty of all you wished to do with that stick. I don't want to
+interfere, sir. I try to keep out of your way, and I am very sorry I
+happened to come here this evening. I did not dream of meeting you; I
+thought you had gone to town."
+
+He read all her aversion in her eyes, which strove to avoid his, and
+smiling gently, he continued: "You evidently think that I am the very
+devil himself, walking the earth like a roaring lion. Mind your own
+affairs hereafter, and when I give you a positive order, obey it, for I
+am master here, and my word is law. Meddling or disobedience I neither
+tolerate nor forgive. Do you understand me?"
+
+"I shall not meddle, sir."
+
+"That means that you will not obey me unless you think proper?"
+
+She was silent, and her beautiful soft eyes filled with tears.
+
+"Answer me!"
+
+"I have nothing to say that you would like to hear."
+
+"What? Out with it!"
+
+"You would have a right to think me impertinent if I said any more."
+
+"No, I swear I will not devour you, say what you may."
+
+She shook her head, and the motion brought two tears down on her cheeks.
+
+"Oh, you are one of the stubborn sweet saints, whose lips even
+Torquemada's red-hot steel fingers could not open. Child, do you hate
+or dread me most? Answer that question."
+
+He took his own handkerchief and wiped away the tears.
+
+"I am sorry for you, sir," she said in a low voice.
+
+He threw his head back and laughed heartily.
+
+"Sorry for me! For me! Me? The owner of as many thousands as there are
+hairs on your head! Keep your pity for your poverty-stricken vagrant
+self! Why the deuce are you sorry for me?"
+
+She withdrew her hands, which he seemed to hold unconsciously, and
+answered:
+
+"Because, with all your money, you never will be happy."
+
+"And what the d--l do I care for happiness? I am not such a fool as to
+expect it; and yet after all, 'Out of the mouths of babes and
+sucklings.' Pshaw! I am a fool nevertheless to waste words on you.
+Stop! What do you think of my park, and the animals? I notice you often
+come here."
+
+"The first time I saw it I thought of Noah and the ark, with two of
+every living thing; but an hour ago it seemed to me more like the
+garden of Eden, where the animals all lay down together in peace,
+before sin came into it."
+
+"And Ali and I entered, like Satan, and completed the vision? Thank
+you, considering the fact that you are on my premises, and know
+something of my angelic, sanctified temper, I must say you indulge in
+bold flights of imagery."
+
+"I did not say that, sir."
+
+"You thought it nevertheless. Don't be hypocritical! Is not that what
+you thought of?"
+
+She made no reply, and anxious to terminate an interview painfully
+embarrassing to her, stepped forward to pick up the history which lay
+on the grass.
+
+"What book is that?"
+
+She handed it to him, and the leaves happened to open at a picture
+representing the murder of Becket. A scowl blackened his face as he
+glanced at it, and turned away, muttering:
+
+"Malice prepense! or the devil!"
+
+At a little distance, leisurely cropping the long grass, stood his
+favorite horse, whose arched forehead and peculiar mouse-color
+proclaimed his unmistakable descent from the swift hordes that scour
+the Kirghise steppes, and sanctioned the whim which induced his master
+to call him "Tamerlane." As Mr. Murray approached his horse, Edna
+walked away toward the house, fearing that he might overtake her; but
+no sound of hoofs reached her ears, and looking back as she crossed the
+avenue and entered the flower-garden, she saw horse and rider standing
+where she left them, and wondered why Mr. Murray was so still, with one
+arm on the neck of his Tartar pet, and his own head bent down on his
+hand.
+
+In reflecting upon what had occurred, she felt her repugnance increase,
+and began to think that they could not live in the same house without
+continual conflicts, which would force her to abandon the numerous
+advantages now within her grasp. The only ray of hope darted through
+her mind when she recalled his allusion to a contemplated visit to the
+South Sea Islands, and the possibility of his long absence. Insensibly
+her dislike of the owner extended to everything he handled, and much as
+she had enjoyed the perusal of Dante, she determined to lose no time in
+restoring the lost volume, which she felt well assured his keen eyes
+would recognize the first time she inadvertently left it in the library
+or the greenhouse. The doubt of her honesty, which he had expressed to
+his mother, rankled in the orphan's memory, and for some days she had
+been nerving herself to anticipate a discovery of the book by
+voluntarily restoring it. The rencontre in the park by no means
+diminished her dread of addressing him on this subject; but she
+resolved that the rendition of Caesar's things to Caesar should take
+place that evening before she slept.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+The narrow, vaulted passage leading to Mr. Murray's suit of rooms was
+dim and gloomy when Edna approached the partly opened door of the
+rotunda, whence issued a stream of light. Timidly she crossed the
+threshold and stood within on the checkered floor, whose polished tiles
+glistened under the glare of gas from bronze brackets representing
+Telamones, that stood at regular intervals around the apartment. The
+walls were painted in Saracenic style, and here and there hung
+specimens of Oriental armor--Turcoman cimeters, Damascus swords,
+Bedouin lances, and a crimson silk flag, with heavy gold fringe,
+surmounted by a crescent. The cornice of the lofty arched ceiling was
+elaborately arabesque, and as Edna looked up she saw through the glass
+roof the flickering of stars in the summer sky. In the centre of the
+room, immediately under the dome, stretched a billiard-table, and near
+it was a circular one of black marble, inlaid with red onyx and lapis
+lazuli, which formed a miniature zodiac similar to that at Denderah,
+while in the middle of this table sat a small Murano hour-glass, filled
+with sand from the dreary valley of El Ghor. A huge plaster Trimurti
+stood close to the wall, on a triangular pedestal of black rock, and
+the Siva-face and the writhing cobra confronted all who entered. Just
+opposite grinned a red granite slab with a quaint basso-relievo taken
+from the ruins of Elora. Near the door were two silken divans, and a
+richly carved urn, three feet high, which had once ornamented the
+facade of a tomb in the royal days of Petra, ere the curse fell on
+Edom, now stood an in memoriam of the original Necropolis. For what
+purpose this room was designed or used Edna could not imagine, and
+after a hasty survey of its singular furniture, she crossed the
+rotunda, and knocked at the door that stood slightly ajar. All was
+silent; but the smell of a cigar told her that the owner was within,
+and she knocked once more.
+
+"Come in."
+
+"I don't wish to come in; I only want to hand you something."
+
+"Oh! the deuce you don't! But I never meet people even half-way, so
+come in you must, if you have anything to say to me. I have neither
+blue blazes nor pitchforks about me, and you will be safe inside. I
+give you my word there are no small devils shut up here, to fly away
+with whomsoever peeps in! Either enter, I say, or be off."
+
+The temptation was powerful to accept the alternative; but as he had
+evidently recognized her voice, she pushed open the door and
+reluctantly entered. It was a long room, and at the end were two
+beautiful fluted white marble pillars, supporting a handsome arch,
+where hung heavy curtains of crimson Persian silk, that were now partly
+looped back, showing the furniture of the sleeping apartment beyond the
+richly carved arch. For a moment the bright light dazzled the orphan,
+and she shaded her eyes; but the next instant Mr. Murray rose from a
+sofa near the window, and advanced a step or two, taking the cigar from
+his lips.
+
+"Come to the window and take a seat."
+
+He pointed to the sofa; but she shook her head, and said quickly:
+
+"I have something which belongs to you, Mr. Murray, which I think you
+must value very much, and therefore I wanted to see it safe in your own
+hands."
+
+Without raising her eyes she held the book toward him.
+
+"What is it?"
+
+He took it mechanically, and with his gaze fixed on the girl's face;
+but as she made no reply, he glanced down at it, and his stern, swarthy
+face lighted up joyfully.
+
+"Is it possible? my Dante! my lost Dante! The copy that has travelled
+round the world in my pocket, and that I lost a year ago, somewhere in
+the mountains of Tennessee! Girl, where did you get it?"
+
+"I found it where you left it--on the grass near a blacksmith's shop."
+
+"A blacksmith's shop! where?"
+
+"Near Chattanooga. Don't you remember the sign, under the horse-shoe,
+over the door, 'Aaron Hunt'?"
+
+"No; but who was Aaron Hunt?"
+
+For nearly a minute Edna struggled for composure, and looking suddenly
+up, said falteringly:
+
+"He was my grandfather--the only person in the world I had to care for,
+or to love me--and--sir--"
+
+"Well, go on."
+
+"You cursed him because your horse fretted, and he could not shoe him
+in five minutes."
+
+"Humph!"
+
+There was an awkward silence; St. Elmo Murray bit his lip and scowled,
+and, recovering her self-control, the orphan added:
+
+"You put your shawl and book on the ground, and when you started you
+forgot them. I called you back and gave you your shawl; but I did not
+see the book for some time after you rode out of sight."
+
+"Yes, yes, I remember now about the shawl and the shop. Strange I did
+not recognize you before. But how did you learn that the book was mine?"
+
+"I did not know it was yours until I came here by accident, and heard
+Mrs. Murray call your name; then I knew that the initials written in
+the book spelt your name. And besides, I remembered your figure and
+your voice."
+
+Again there was a pause, and her mission ended, Edna turned to go.
+
+"Stop! Why did you not give it to me when you first came?"
+
+She made no reply, and putting his hand on her shoulder to detain her,
+he said, more gently than she had ever heard him speak to any one:
+
+"Was it because you loved my book and disliked to part with it, or was
+it because you feared to come and speak to a man whom you hate? Be
+truthful."
+
+Still she was silent, and raising her face with his palm, as he had
+done in the park, he continued in the same low, sweet voice, which she
+could scarcely believe belonged to him:
+
+"I am waiting for your answer, and I intend to have it."
+
+Her large, sad eyes were brimming with precious memories, as she lifted
+them steadily to meet his, and answered:
+
+"My grandfather was noble and good, and he was all I had in this world."
+
+"And you can not forgive a man who happened to be rude to him?"
+
+"If you please, Mr. Murray, I would rather go now. I have given you
+your book, and that is all I came for."
+
+"Which means that you are afraid of me, and want to get out of my
+sight?"
+
+She did not deny it, but her face flushed painfully.
+
+"Edna Earl, you are at least honest and truthful, and those are rare
+traits at the present day. I thank you for preserving and returning my
+Dante. Did you read any of it?"
+
+"Yes, sir, all of it. Good-night, sir."
+
+"Wait a moment. When did Aaron Hunt die?"
+
+"Two months after you saw him."
+
+"You have no relatives? No cousins, uncles, aunts?"
+
+"None that I ever heard of. I must go, sir."
+
+"Good-night, child. For the present, when you go out in the grounds, be
+sure that wolf, Ali, is chained up, or you may be sorry that I did not
+cut his throat, as I am still inclined to do."
+
+She closed the door, ran lightly across the rotunda, and regaining her
+own room, felt inexpressibly relieved that the ordeal was over--that in
+future there remained no necessity for her to address one whose very
+tones made her shudder, and the touch of whose hand filled her with
+vague dread and loathing.
+
+When the echo of her retreating footsteps died away, St. Elmo threw his
+cigar out of the window, and walked up and down the quaint and elegant
+rooms, whose costly bizarrerie would more appropriately have adorned a
+villa of Parthenope or Lucanian Sybaris, than a country-house in
+soi-disant "republican" America. The floor, covered in winter with
+velvet carpet, was of white and black marble, now bare and polished as
+a mirror, reflecting the figure of the owner as he crossed it. Oval
+ormolu tables, buhl chairs, and oaken and marquetrie cabinets, loaded
+with cameos, intaglios, Abraxoids, whose "erudition" would have filled
+Mnesarchus with envy, and challenged the admiration of the Samian
+lapidary who engraved the ring of Polycrates; these and numberless
+articles of vertu testified to the universality of what St. Elmo called
+his "world-scrapings," and to the reckless extravagance and archaistic
+taste of the collector. On a verd-antique table lay a satin cushion
+holding a vellum MS., bound in blue velvet, whose uncial letters were
+written in purple ink, powdered with gold-dust, while the margins were
+stiff with gilded illuminations; and near the cushion, as if prepared
+to shed light on the curious cryptography, stood an exquisite white
+glass lamp, shaped like a vase, and richly ornamented with Arabic
+inscriptions in ultra-marine blue--a precious relic of some ruined
+Laura in the Nitrian desert, by the aid of whose rays the hoary
+hermits, whom St. Macarius ruled, broke the midnight gloom chanting,
+"Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison," fourteen hundred years before St.
+Elmo's birth. Immediately opposite, on an embossed ivory stand, and
+protected from air and dust by a glass case, were two antique goblets,
+one of green-veined agate, one of blood-red onyx; and into the coating
+of wax, spread along the ivory slab, were inserted amphorae, one dry
+and empty, the other a third full of Falerian, whose topaz drops had
+grown strangely mellow and golden in the ashy cellars of Herculaneum,
+and had doubtless been destined for some luxurious triclinium in the
+days of Titus. A small Byzantine picture, painted on wood, with a
+silver frame ornamented with cornelian stars, and the background
+heavily gilded, hung over an etagere, where lay a leaf from
+Nebuchadnezzar's diary, one of those Babylonish bricks on which his
+royal name was stamped. Near it stood a pair of Bohemian vases
+representing the two varieties of lotus--one velvety white with
+rose-colored veins, the other with delicate blue petals. This latter
+whim had cost a vast amount of time, trouble, and money, it having been
+found difficult to carefully preserve, sketch, and paint them for the
+manufacturer in Bohemia, who had never seen the holy lotus, and
+required specimens. But the indomitable will of the man, to whose
+wishes neither oceans nor deserts opposed successful barriers, finally
+triumphed, and the coveted treasures fully repaid their price as they
+glistened in the gaslight, perfect as their prototypes slumbering on
+the bosom of the Nile, under the blazing midnight stars of rainless
+Egypt. Several handsome rosewood cases were filled with rare books--two
+in Pali--centuries old; and moth-eaten volumes and valuable MSS.--some
+in parchment, some bound in boards--recalled the days of astrology and
+alchemy, and the sombre mysteries of Rosicrucianism. Side by side, on
+an ebony stand, lay an Elzevir Terence, printed in red letters, and a
+curious Birman book, whose pages consisted of thin leaves of ivory,
+gilded at the edges; and here too were black rhyta from Chiusi, and a
+cylix from Vulci, and one of those quaint Peruvian jars, which was so
+constructed that, when filled with water, the air escaped in sounds
+that resembled that of the song or cry of the animal represented on the
+vase or jar. In the space between the tall windows that fronted the
+lawn hung a weird, life-size picture that took strange hold on the
+imagination of all who looked at it. A gray-haired Cimbrian Prophetess,
+in white vestments and brazen girdle, with canvas mantle fastened on
+the shoulder by a broad brazen clasp, stood, with bare feet, on a low,
+rude scaffolding, leaning upon her sword, and eagerly watching, with
+divining eyes, the stream of blood which trickled from the throat of
+the slaughtered human victim down into the large brazen kettle beneath
+the scaffold. The snowy locks and white mantle seemed to flutter in the
+wind; and those who gazed on the stony, inexorable face of the
+Prophetess, and into the glittering blue eyes, shuddered and almost
+fancied they heard the pattering of the gory stream against the sides
+of the brass caldron. But expensive and rare as were these relics of
+bygone dynasties and mouldering epochs, there was one other object for
+which the master would have given everything else in this museum of
+curiosities, and the secret of which no eyes but his own had yet
+explored. On a sculptured slab, that once formed a portion of the
+architrave of the Cave Temple at Elephanta, was a splendid marble
+miniature, four feet high, of that miracle of Saracenic architecture,
+the Taj Mahal at Agra. The elaborate carving resembled lacework, and
+the beauty of the airy dome and slender, glittering minarets of this
+mimic tomb of Noor-Mahal could find no parallel, save in the superb and
+matchless original. The richly-carved door that closed the arch of the
+tomb swung back on golden hinges, and opened only by a curiously-shaped
+golden key, which never left Mr. Murray's watch-chain; consequently
+what filled the penetralia was left for the conjecture of the
+imaginative; and when his mother expressed a desire to examine it, he
+merely frowned and said hastily:
+
+"That is Pandora's box, MINUS imprisoned hope. I prefer it should not
+be opened."
+
+Immediately in front of the tomb he had posted a grim sentinel--a black
+marble statuette of Mors, modeled from that hideous little brass figure
+which Spence saw at Florence, representing a skeleton sitting on the
+ground, resting one arm on an urn.
+
+Filled though it was with sparkling bijouterie that would have graced
+the Barberini or Strozzi cabinets, the glitter of the room was cold and
+cheerless. No light, childish feet had ever pattered down the long rows
+of shining tiles; no gushing, mirthful laughter had ever echoed through
+those lofty windows; everything pointed to the past--a classic, storied
+past, but dead as the mummies of Karnac, and treacherously, repulsively
+lustrous as the waves that break in silver circles over the buried
+battlements, and rustling palms and defiled altars of the proud cities
+of the plain. No rosy memories of early, happy manhood lingered here;
+no dewy gleam of the merry morning of life, when hope painted and
+peopled a smiling world; no magic trifles that prattled of the
+springtime of a heart, that in wandering to and fro through the earth,
+had fed itself with dust and ashes, acrid and bitter; had studiously
+collected only the melancholy symbols of mouldering ruin, desolation,
+and death, and which found its best type in the Taj Mahal, that
+glistened so mockingly as the gas-light flickered over it.
+
+A stranger looking upon St. Elmo Murray for the first time, as he paced
+the floor, would have found it difficult to realize that only
+thirty-four years had plowed those deep, rugged lines in his swarthy
+and colorless but still handsome face; where midnight orgies and
+habitual excesses had left their unmistakable plague-spot, and
+Mephistopheles had stamped his signet. Blase, cynical, scoffing, and
+hopeless, he had stranded his life, and was recklessly striding to his
+grave, trampling upon the feelings of all with whom he associated, and
+at war with a world, in which his lordly brilliant intellect would have
+lifted him to any eminence he desired, and which, properly directed,
+would have made him the benefactor and ornament of the society he
+snubbed and derided. Like all strong though misguided natures, the
+power and activity of his mind enhanced his wretchedness, and drove him
+farther and farther from the path of rectitude; while the consciousness
+that he was originally capable of loftier, purer aims, and nobler
+pursuits than those that now engrossed his perverted thoughts, rendered
+him savagely morose. For nearly fifteen dreary years, nothing but jeers
+and oaths and sarcasms had crossed his finely sculptured lips, which
+had forgotten how to smile; and it was only when the mocking demon of
+the wine-cup looked out from his gloomy gray eyes that his ringing,
+sneering laugh struck like a dagger to the heart that loved him, that
+of his proud but anxious and miserable mother. To-night, for the first
+time since his desperate plunge into the abyss of vice, conscience,
+which he had believed effectually strangled, stirred feebly, startling
+him with a faint moan, as unexpected as the echo from Morella's tomb,
+or the resurrection of Ligeia; and down the murdered years came wailing
+ghostly memories, which even his iron will could no longer scourge to
+silence. Clamorous as the avenging Erinnys, they refused to be
+exorcised, and goaded him almost to frenzy.
+
+Those sweet, low, timid tones, "I am sorry for you," had astonished and
+mortified him. To be hated and dreaded was not at all unusual or
+surprising, but to be pitied and despised was a sensation as novel as
+humiliating; and the fact that all his ferocity failed to intimidate
+the "little vagrant" was unpleasantly puzzling.
+
+For some time after Edna's departure he pondered all that had passed
+between them, and at length he muttered: "How thoroughly she abhors me!
+If I touch her, the flesh absolutely writhes away from my hand, as if I
+were plague-stricken or a leper. Her very eyelids shudder when she
+looks at me--and I believe she would more willingly confront Apollyon
+himself. Strange! how she detests me. I have half a mind to make her
+love me, even despite herself. What a steady, brave look of scorn there
+was in her splendid eyes when she told me to my face I was sinful and
+cruel!"
+
+He set his teeth hard, and his fingers clinched as if longing to crush
+something; and then came a great revulsion, a fierce spasm of remorse,
+and his features writhed.
+
+"Sinful? Ay! Cruel? O my lost youth! my cursed and wrecked manhood! If
+there be a hell blacker than my miserable soul, man has not dreamed of
+nor language painted it. What would I not give for a fresh, pure, and
+untrampled heart, such as slumbers peacefully in yonder room, with no
+damning recollections to scare sleep from her pillow? Innocent
+childhood!"
+
+He threw himself into a chair, and hid his face in his hands; and thus
+an hour went by, during which he neither moved nor sighed.
+
+Tearing the veil from the past, he reviewed it calmly, relentlessly,
+vindictively, and at last, rising, he threw his head back, with his
+wonted defiant air, and his face hardened and darkened as he approached
+the marble mausoleum, and laid his hand upon the golden key.
+
+"Too late! too late! I can not afford to reflect. The devil himself
+would shirk the reading of such a record."
+
+He fitted the key in the lock, but paused and laughed scornfully as he
+slung it back on his chain.
+
+"Pshaw! I am a fool! After all, I shall not need to see them, the
+silly, childish mood has passed."
+
+He filled a silver goblet with some strong spicy wine, drank it, and
+taking down Candide, brightened the gas jets, lighted a fresh cigar,
+and began to read as he resumed his walk:
+
+"Lord of himself; that heritage of woe--That fearful empire which the
+human breast But holds to rob the heart within of rest."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+Mrs. Murray had informed Edna that the gentleman whom she had engaged
+to instruct her resided in the neighboring town of--, and one Monday
+morning in August she carried her to see him, telling her, as they
+drove along, that he was the minister of the largest church in the
+county, was an old friend of her family, and that she considered
+herself exceedingly fortunate in having prevailed upon him to consent
+to undertake her education. The parsonage stood on the skirts of the
+village, in a square immediately opposite the church, and was separated
+from it by a wide handsome street, lined on either side with elm trees.
+The old-fashioned house was of brick, with a wooden portico jutting out
+over the front door, and around the slender pillars twined honeysuckle
+and clematis tendrils, purple with clustering bells; while the brick
+walls were draped with luxuriant ivy, that hung in festoons from the
+eaves, and clambered up the chimneys and in at the windows. The
+daily-swept walk leading to the gate was bordered with white and purple
+lilies--"flags," as the villagers dubbed them--and over the little gate
+sprang an arch of lattice-work loaded with Belgian and English
+honeysuckle, whose fragrant wreaths drooped till they touched the heads
+of all who entered. When Mrs. Murray and Edna ascended the steps and
+knocked at the open door, bearing the name "Allan Hammond," no living
+thing was visible, save a thrush that looked out shyly from the
+clematis vines; and after waiting a moment, Mrs. Murray entered
+unannounced. They looked into the parlor, with its cool matting and
+white curtains and polished old-fashioned mahogany furniture, but the
+room was unoccupied; then passing on to the library or study, where
+tiers of books rose to the ceiling, they saw, through the open window,
+the form of the pastor, who was stooping to gather the violets blooming
+in the little shaded garden at the rear of the house. A large white cat
+sunned herself on the strawberry bed, and a mocking-bird sang in the
+myrtle-tree that overshadowed the study-window. Mrs. Murray called to
+the minister, and taking off his straw hat he bowed, and came to meet
+them.
+
+"Mr. Hammond, I hope I do not interrupt you?"
+
+"No, Ellen, you never interrupt me. I was merely gathering some violets
+to strew in a child's coffin. Susan Archer, poor thing! lost her little
+Winnie last night, and I knew she would like some flowers to sprinkle
+over her baby."
+
+He shook hands with Mrs. Murray, and turning to her companion offered
+his hand saying kindly:
+
+"This is my pupil, Edna, I presume? I expected you several days ago,
+and am very glad to see you at last. Come into the house and let us
+become acquainted at once."
+
+As he led the way to the library, talking the while to Mrs. Murray,
+Edna's eyes followed him with an expression of intense veneration, for
+he appeared to her a living original of the pictured prophets--the
+Samuel, Isaiah, and Ezekiel, whose faces she had studied in the large
+illustrated Bible that lay on a satin cushion in the sitting-room at Le
+Bocage. Sixty-five years of wrestling and conquests on the "Quarantma"
+of life had set upon his noble and benignant countenance the seal of
+holiness, and shed over his placid features the mild, sweet light of a
+pure, serene heart, of a lofty, trusting, sanctified soul. His white
+hair and beard had the silvery sheen which seems peculiar to
+prematurely gray heads, and the snowy mass wonderfully softened the
+outline of the face; while the pleasant smile on his lips, the warm,
+cheering light in his bright blue eyes, won the perfect trust, the
+profound respect, the lasting love and veneration of those who entered
+the charmed circle of his influence. Learned without pedantry,
+dignified but not pompous, genial and urbane; never forgetting the
+sanctity of his mission, though never thrusting its credentials into
+notice; judging the actions of all with a leniency which he denied to
+his own; zealous without bigotry, charitable yet rigidly just, as free
+from austerity as levity, his heart throbbed with warm, tender sympathy
+for his race; and while none felt his or her happiness complete until
+his cordial congratulations sealed it, every sad mourner realized that
+her burden of woe was lightened when poured into his sympathizing ears.
+The sage counselor of the aged among his flock, he was the loved
+companion of younger members, in whose juvenile sports and sorrows he
+was never too busy to interest himself; and it was not surprising that
+over all classes and denominations he wielded an influence incalculable
+for good.
+
+The limits of one church could not contain his great heart, which went
+forth in yearning love and fellowship to his Christian brethren and
+co-laborers throughout the world, while the refrain of his daily work
+was, "Bear ye one another's burdens." So in the evening of a life
+blessed with the bounteous fruitage of good deeds, he walked to and
+fro, in the wide vineyard of God, with the light of peace, of faith,
+and hope, and hallowed resignation shining over his worn and aged face.
+
+Drawing Edna to a seat beside him on the sofa, Mr. Hammond said: "Mrs.
+Murray has intrusted your education entirely to me; but before I decide
+positively what books you will require I should like to know what
+particular branches of study you love best. Do you feel disposed to
+take up Latin?"
+
+"Yes, sir--and--"
+
+"Well, go on, my dear. Do not hesitate to speak freely."
+
+"If you please, sir, I should like to study Greek also."
+
+"Oh, nonsense, Edna! women never have any use for Greek; it would only
+be a waste of your time," interrupted Mrs. Murray.
+
+Mr. Hammond smiled and shook his head.
+
+"Why do you wish to study Greek? You will scarcely be called upon to
+teach it."
+
+"I should not think that I was well or thoroughly educated if I did not
+understand Greek and Latin; and beside, I want to read what Solon and
+Pericles and Demosthenes wrote in their own language."
+
+"Why, what do you know about those men?"
+
+"Only what Plutarch says."
+
+"What kind of books do you read with most pleasure?"
+
+"History and travels."
+
+"Are you fond of arithmetic?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"But as a teacher you will have much more use for mathematics than for
+Greek."
+
+"I should think that, with all my life before me, I might study both;
+and even if I should have no use for it, it would do me no harm to
+understand it. Knowledge is never in the way, is it?"
+
+"Certainly not half so often as ignorance. Very well; you shall learn
+Greek as fast as you please. I should like to hear you read something.
+Here is Goldsmith's Deserted Village; suppose you try a few lines;
+begin here at 'Sweet was the sound.'"
+
+She read aloud the passage designated, and as he expressed himself
+satisfied, and took the book from her hand, Mrs. Murray said:
+
+"I think the child is as inveterate a bookworm as I ever knew; but for
+heaven's sake, Mr. Hammond, do not make her a blue-stocking."
+
+"Ellen, did you ever see a genuine blue-stocking?"
+
+"I am happy to be able to say that I never was so unfortunate."
+
+"You consider yourself lucky then, in not having known De Stael, Hannah
+More, Charlotte Bronte, and Mrs. Browning?"
+
+"To be consistent, of course, I must answer yes; but you know we women
+are never supposed to understand that term, much less possess the jewel
+itself; and beside, sir, you take undue advantage of me, for the women
+you mention were truly great geniuses. I was not objecting to genius in
+women."
+
+"Without those auxiliaries and adjuncts which you deprecate so
+earnestly, would their native genius ever have distinguished them, or
+charmed and benefited the world? Brilliant success makes blue-stockings
+autocratic, and the world flatters and crowns them; but unsuccessful
+aspirants are strangled with an offensive sobriquet, than which it were
+better that they had mill-stones tied about their necks. After all,
+Ellen, it is rather ludicrous, and seems very unfair, that the whole
+class of literary ladies should be sneered at on account of the color
+of Stillingfleet's stockings, eighty years ago."
+
+"If you please, sir, I should like to know the meaning of
+'blue-stocking?'" said Edna.
+
+"You are in a fair way to understand it if you study Greek," answered
+Mrs. Murray, laughing at the puzzled expression of the child's
+countenance.
+
+Mr. Hammond smiled, and replied: "A 'blue-stocking,' my dear, is
+generally supposed to be a lady, neither young, pleasant, nor pretty
+(and in most instances unmarried); who is unamiable, ungraceful, and
+untidy; ignorant of all domestic accomplishments and truly feminine
+acquirements, and ambitious of appearing very learned; a woman whose
+fingers are more frequently adorned with ink-spots than thimble; who
+holds housekeeping in detestation, and talks loudly about politics,
+science, and philosophy; who is ugly, and learned, and cross; whose
+hair is never smooth and whose ruffles are never fluted. Is that a
+correct likeness, Ellen?"
+
+"As good as one of Brady's photographs. Take warning, Edna."
+
+"The title of 'blue-stocking,'" continued the pastor, "originated in a
+jest, many, many years ago, when a circle of very brilliant, witty, and
+elegant ladies in London, met at the house of Mrs. Vesey, to listen to
+and take part in the conversation of some of the most gifted and
+learned men England has ever produced. One of those gentlemen,
+Stillingfleet, who always wore blue stockings, was so exceedingly
+agreeable and instructive, that when he chanced to be absent the
+company declared the party was a failure without the blue stockings,'
+as he was familiarly called. A Frenchman, who heard of the
+circumstance, gave to these conversational gatherings the name of 'bas
+bleu,' which means blue stocking; and hence, you see, that in popular
+acceptation, I mean in public opinion, the humorous title, which was
+given in compliment to a very charming gentleman, is now supposed to
+belong to very tiresome, pedantic, and disagreeable ladies. Do you
+understand the matter now?"
+
+"I do not quite understand why ladies have not as good a right to be
+learned and wise as gentlemen."
+
+"To satisfy you on that point would involve more historical discussion
+than we have time for this morning; some day we will look into the past
+and find a solution of the question. Meanwhile you may study as hard as
+you please, and remember, my dear, that where one woman is considered a
+blue-stocking, and tiresomely learned, twenty are more tiresome still
+because they know nothing. I will obtain all the books you need, and
+hereafter you must come to me every morning at nine o'clock. When the
+weather is good, you can easily walk over from Mrs. Murray's."
+
+As they drove homeward, Edna asked:
+
+"Has Mr. Hammond a family?"
+
+"No; he lost his family years ago. But why do you ask that question?"
+
+"I saw no lady, and I wondered who kept the house in such nice order."
+
+"He has a very faithful servant who attends to his household affairs.
+In your intercourse with Mr. Hammond be careful not to allude to his
+domestic afflictions."
+
+Mrs. Murray looked earnestly, searchingly at the girl, as if striving
+to fathom her thoughts; then throwing her head back, with the haughty
+air which Edna had remarked in St. Elmo, she compressed her lips,
+lowered her veil, and remained silent and abstracted until they reached
+home.
+
+The comprehensive and very thorough curriculum of studies now eagerly
+commenced by Edna, and along which she was gently and skilfully guided
+by the kind hand of the teacher, furnished the mental aliment for which
+she hungered, gave constant and judicious exercise to her active
+intellect, and induced her to visit the quiet parsonage library as
+assiduously as did Horace, Valgius, and Virgil the gardens on the
+Esquiline where Maecenas held his literary assize. Instead of skimming
+a few text-books that cram the brain with unwieldy scientific
+technicalities and pompous philosophic terminology, her range of
+thought and study gradually stretched out into a broader, grander
+cycle, embracing, as she grew older, the application of those great
+principles that underlie modern science and crop out in ever-varying
+phenomena and empirical classifications. Edna's tutor seemed impressed
+with the fallacy of the popular system of acquiring one branch of
+learning at a time, locking it away as in drawers of rubbish, never to
+be opened, where it moulders in shapeless confusion till swept out
+ultimately to make room for more recent scientific invoices. Thus in
+lieu of the educational plan of "finishing natural philosophy and
+chemistry this session, and geology and astronomy next term, and taking
+up moral science and criticism the year we graduate," Mr. Hammond
+allowed his pupil to finish and lay aside none of her studies; but
+sought to impress upon her the great value of Blackstone's aphorism:
+"For sciences are of a sociable disposition, and flourish best in the
+neighborhood of each other; nor is there any branch of learning but may
+be helped and improved by assistance drawn from other arts."
+
+Finding that her imagination was remarkably fertile, he required her,
+as she advanced in years, to compose essays, letters, dialogues, and
+sometimes orations, all of which were not only written and handed in
+for correction, but he frequently directed her to recite them from
+memory, and invited her to assist him, while he dissected and
+criticised either her diction, line of argument, choice of metaphors,
+or intonation of voice. In these compositions he encouraged her to seek
+illustrations from every department of letters, and convert her theme
+into a focus, upon which to pour all the concentrated light which
+research could reflect, assuring her that what is often denominated
+"far-fetchedness," in metaphors, furnished not only evidence of the
+laborious industry of the writer, but is an implied compliment to the
+cultured taste and general knowledge of those for whose entertainment
+or edification they are employed--provided always said metaphors and
+similes really illustrate, elucidate, and adorn the theme
+discussed--when properly understood.
+
+His favorite plea in such instances was, "If Humboldt and Cuvier, and
+Linnaeus, and Ehrenberg have made mankind their debtors by scouring the
+physical cosmos for scientific data, which every living savant devours,
+assimilates, and reproduces in dynamic, physiologic, or entomologic
+theories, is it not equally laudable in scholars, orators, and
+authors--nay, is it not obligatory on them, to subsidize the vast
+cosmos of literature, to circumnavigate the world of belles-lettres, in
+search of new hemispheres of thought, and spice islands of
+illustrations; bringing their rich gleanings to the great public mart,
+where men barter their intellectual merchandise? Wide as the universe
+and free as its winds should be the range of human mind."
+
+Yielding allegiance to the axiom that "the proper study of mankind is
+man," and recognizing the fact that history faithfully epitomizes the
+magnificent triumphs and stupendous failures, the grand capacities and
+innate frailties of the races, he fostered and stimulated his pupil's
+fondness for historic investigation; while in impressing upon her
+memory the chronologic sequence of events he not only grouped into
+great epochs the principal dramas, over which Clio holds august
+critical tribunal, but so carefully selected her miscellaneous reading,
+that poetry, novels, biography, and essays reflected light upon the
+actors of the particular epoch which she was studying; and thus through
+the subtle but imperishable links of association of ideas, chained them
+in her mind.
+
+The extensive library at Le Bocage, and the valuable collection of
+books at the parsonage, challenged research, and, with a boundless
+ambition, equalled only by her patient, persevering application, Edna
+devoted herself to the acquisition of knowledge, and astonished and
+delighted her teacher by the rapidity of her progress and the vigor and
+originality of her restless intellect.
+
+The noble catholicity of spirit that distinguished Mr. Hammond's
+character encouraged her to discuss freely the ethical and
+psychological problems that arrested her attention as she grew older,
+and facilitated her appreciation and acceptance of the great fact, that
+all bigotry springs from narrow minds and partial knowledge. He taught
+her that truth, scorning monopolies and deriding patents, lends some
+valuable element to almost every human system; that ignorance,
+superstition, and intolerance are the red-handed Huns that ravage
+society, immolating the pioneers of progress upon the shrine of
+prejudice--fettering science--blindly bent on divorcing natural and
+revealed truth, which "God hath joined together" in holy and eternal
+wedlock; and while they battle a l'outrance with every innovation, lock
+the wheels of human advancement, turning a deaf ear to the thrilling
+cry;
+
+"Yet I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs, and the
+thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns."
+
+If Carlyle be correct in his declaration that "Truly a thinking man is
+the worst enemy the prince of darkness can have, and every time such a
+one announces himself there runs a shudder through the nether empire,
+where new emissaries are trained with new tactics, to hoodwink and
+handcuff him," who can doubt that the long dynasty of Eblis will
+instantly terminate, when every pulpit in Christendom, from the frozen
+shores of Spitzbergen to the green dells of Owhyhee, from the shining
+spires of Europe to the rocky battlements that front the Pacific, shall
+be filled with meek and holy men of ripe scholarship and resistless
+eloquence, whose scientific erudition keeps pace with their evangelical
+piety, and whose irreproachable lives attest that their hearts are
+indeed hallowed temples of that loving charity "that suffereth long and
+is kind; that vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up; thinketh no evil;
+beareth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things?"
+
+While Christ walked to and fro among the palms and poppies of
+Palestine, glorifying anew an accursed and degraded human nature,
+unlettered fishermen, who mended their nets and trimmed their sails
+along the blue waves of Galilee, were fit instruments, in his guiding
+hands, for the dissemination of his Gospel; but when the days of the
+Incarnation ended, and Jesus returned to the Father, all the learning
+and the mighty genius of Saul of Tarsus were required to confront and
+refute the scoffing sophists who, replete with philhellenic lore, and
+within sight of the marvellous triglyphs and metopes of the Parthenon,
+gathered on Mars Hill to defend their marble altars to the Unknown God.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+During the months of September and October Mrs. Murray filled the house
+with company, and parties of gentlemen came from time to time to enjoy
+the game season and take part in the hunts to which St. Elmo devoted
+himself. There were elegant dinners and petits soupers that would not
+have disgraced Tusculum, or made Lucullus blush when Pompey and Cicero
+sought to surprise him in the "Apollo"; there were billiard-matches and
+horse-races, and merry gatherings at the ten-pin alley; and laughter,
+and music, and dancing usurped the dominions where silence and gloom
+had so long reigned. Naturally shy and unaccustomed to companionship,
+Edna felt no desire to participate in these festivities, but became
+more and more absorbed in her studies, and her knowledge of the company
+was limited to the brief intercourse of the table, where she observed
+the deference yielded to the opinions of the master of the house, and
+the dread that all manifested lest they should fall under the lash of
+his merciless sarcasm. An Ishmael in society, his uplifted hand smote
+all conventionalities and shams, spared neither age nor sex, nor
+sanctuaries, and acknowledged sanctity nowhere. The punctilious
+courtesy of his manner polished and pointed his satire, and when a
+personal application of his remarks was possible, he would bow
+gracefully to the lady indicated, and fill her glass with wine, while
+he filled her heart with chagrin and rankling hate. Since the
+restoration of the Dante, not a word had passed between him and Edna,
+who regarded him with increasing detestation; but on one occasion, when
+the conversation was general, and he sat silent at the foot of the
+table, she looked up at him and found his eyes fixed on her face.
+Inclining his head slightly to arrest her attention, he handed a
+decanter of sherry to one of the servants, with some brief direction,
+and a moment after her glass was filled, and the waiter said:
+
+"Mr. Murray's compliments to Aaron Hunt's granddaughter." Observation
+had taught her what was customary on such occasions, and she knew that
+he had once noticed her taking wine with the gentleman who sat next to
+her; but now repugnance conquered politeness, the mention of her
+grandfather's name seemed an insult from his lips, and putting her hand
+over her glass, she looked him full in the face and shook her head.
+Nevertheless he lifted his wine, bowed, and drank the last drop in the
+crystal goblet; then turned to a gentleman on his right hand, and
+instantly entered into a learned discussion on the superiority of the
+wines of the Levant over those of Germany, quoting triumphantly the
+lines of M. de Nevers:
+
+"Sur la membrane de leur sens, Font des sillons charmans."
+
+When the ladies withdrew to the parlor he rose, as was his custom, and
+held the door open for them. Edna was the last of the party, and as she
+passed him he smiled mockingly and said:
+
+"It was unfortunate that my mother omitted to enumerate etiquette in
+the catalogue of studies prosecuted at the parsonage."
+
+Instantly the answer sprang to her lips:
+
+"She knew I had a teacher for that branch nearer home"; but her
+conscience smote her, she repressed the words, and said gravely:
+
+"My reason was, that I think only good friends should take wine
+together."
+
+"This is your declaration of war? Very well, only remember I raise a
+black flag and show no quarter. Woe to the conquered."
+
+She hurried away to the library, and thenceforth "kept out of his way"
+more assiduously than ever; while the fact that he scrutinized her
+closely, rendered her constrained and uncomfortable, when forced to
+enter his presence. Mrs. Murray well understood her hostile feeling
+toward her son, but she never alluded to it, and his name was not
+mentioned by either.
+
+One by one the guests departed; autumn passed, winter was ushered in by
+wailing winds and drizzling rains; and one morning as Edna came out of
+the hot-house, with a basketful of camellias, she saw St. Elmo bidding
+his mother good-bye, as he started on his long journey to Oceanica.
+They stood on the steps, Mrs. Murray's head rested on his shoulder, and
+bitter tears were falling on her cheeks as she talked eagerly and
+rapidly to him. Edna heard him say impatiently:
+
+"You ask what is impossible; it is worse than useless to urge me.
+Better pray that I may find a peaceful grave in the cinnamon groves and
+under the 'plumy palms' of the far south."
+
+He kissed his mother's cheek and sprang into the saddle, but checked
+his horse at sight of the orphan, who stood a few yards distant.
+
+"Are you coming to say good-bye? Or do you reserve such courtesies for
+your 'good friends'?"
+
+Regret for her former rudeness, and sympathy for Mrs. Murray's
+uncontrollable distress, softened her heart toward him; she selected
+the finest white camellia in the basket, walked close to the horse,
+and, tendering the flower, said:
+
+"Good-bye, sir. I hope you will enjoy your travels."
+
+"And prolong them indefinitely? Ah, you offer a flag of truce? I warned
+you I should not respect it. You know my motto, 'Nemo me impune
+lacessit!' Thank you, for this lovely peace-offering. Since you are
+willing to negotiate, run and open the gate for me. I may never pass
+through it again except as a ghost."
+
+She placed her basket on the steps and ran down the avenue, while he
+paused to say something to his mother. Edna knew that he expected to be
+absent, possibly, several years, and while she regretted the pain which
+his departure gave her benefactress, she could not avoid rejoicing at
+the relief she promised herself during his sojourn in foreign lands.
+
+Slowly he rode along the venerable aisle of elms that had overarched
+his childish head in the sunny morning of a quickly clouded life, and
+as he reached the gate, which Edna held open, he dismounted.
+
+"Edna, if you are as truthful in all matters as you have proved in your
+dislikes, I may safely intrust this key to jour keeping. It belongs to
+that marble temple in my sitting-room, and opens a vault that contains
+my will and a box of papers, and--some other things that I value. There
+is no possibility of entering it, except with this key, and no one but
+myself knows the contents. I wish to leave the key with you, on two
+conditions: first, that you never mention it to any one--not even my
+mother, or allow her to suspect that you have it; secondly, that you
+promise me solemnly you will not open the tomb or temple unless I fail
+to return at the close of four years. This is the tenth of
+December--four years from to-day, if I am not here, AND IF YOU HAVE
+GOOD REASON TO CONSIDER ME DEAD, take this key (which I wish you to
+wear about your person) to my mother, inform her of this conversation,
+and then open the vault. Can you resist the temptation to look into it?
+Think well before you answer."
+
+He had disengaged the golden key from his watch-chain and held it in
+his hand.
+
+"I should not like to take charge of it, Mr. Murray. You can certainly
+trust your own mother sooner than an utter stranger like myself."
+
+He frowned and muttered an oath; then exclaimed: "I tell you I do not
+choose to leave it in any hands but yours. Will you promise or will you
+not?"
+
+The dreary wretchedness, the savage hopelessness of his countenance
+awed and pained the girl, and after a moment's silence, and a short
+struggle with her heart, she extended her hand, saying with evident
+reluctance: "Give me the key, I will not betray your trust."
+
+"Do you promise me solemnly that you will never open that vault, except
+in accordance with my directions? Weigh the promise well before you
+give it."
+
+"Yes, sir; I promise most solemnly."
+
+He laid the key in her palm and continued:
+
+"My mother loves you--try to make her happy while I am away; and if you
+succeed, you will be the first person to whom I have ever been
+indebted. I have left directions concerning my books and the various
+articles in my rooms. Feel no hesitation in examining any that may
+interest you, and see that the dust does not ruin them. Good-bye,
+child; take care of my mother."
+
+He held out his hand, she gave him hers for an instant only, and he
+mounted, lifted his cap, and rode away.
+
+Closing the ponderous gate, Edna leaned her face against the iron bars,
+and watched the lessening form. Gradually trees intervened, then at a
+bend in the road she saw him wheel his horse as if to return. For some
+moments he remained stationary, looking back, but suddenly disappeared,
+and, with a sigh of indescribable relief, she retraced her steps to the
+house. As she approached the spot where Mrs. Murray still sat, with her
+face hidden in her handkerchief, the touch of the little key, tightly
+folded in her palm, brought a painful consciousness of concealment and
+a tinge of shame to her cheeks; for it seemed in her eyes an insult to
+her benefactress that the guardianship of the papers should have been
+withheld from her.
+
+She would have stolen away to her own room to secrete the key; but Mrs.
+Murray called her, and as she sat down beside her the miserable mother
+threw her arms around the orphan, and resting her cheek on her head
+wept bitterly. Timidly, but very gently and tenderly, the latter strove
+to comfort her, caressing the white hands that were clasped in almost
+despairing anguish.
+
+"Dear Mrs. Murray, do not grieve so deeply; he may come back much
+earlier than you expect. He will get tired of travelling, and come back
+to his own beautiful home, and to you, who love him so devotedly."
+
+"No, no! he will stay away as long as possible. It is not beautiful to
+him. He hates his home and forgets me! My loneliness, my anxiety are
+nothing in comparison to his morbid love of change. I shall never see
+him again."
+
+"But he loves you very much, and that will bring him to you."
+
+"Why do you think so?"
+
+"He pointed to you, a few moments ago, and his face was full of
+wretchedness when he told me, 'Make my mother happy while I am gone,
+and you will be the first person to whom I have ever been indebted.' Do
+not weep so, dear Mrs. Murray; God can preserve him as well on sea as
+here at home."
+
+"Oh! but he will not pray for himself!" sobbed the mother.
+
+"Then you must pray all the more for him; and go where he will, he
+cannot get beyond God's sight, or out of His merciful hands. You know
+Christ said, 'Whatsoever you ask in my name, I will do it'; and if the
+Syrophenician's daughter was saved not by her own prayers but by her
+mother's faith, why should not God save your son if you pray and
+believe?"
+
+Mrs. Murray clasped Edna closer to her heart, and kissed her warmly.
+
+"You are my only comfort! If I had your faith I should not be so
+unhappy. My dear child, promise me one thing, that every time you pray
+you will remember my son, and ask God to preserve him in his
+wanderings, and bring him safely back to his mother. I know you do not
+like him, but for my sake will you not do this?"
+
+"My prayers are not worth much, but I will always remember to pray for
+him; and, Mrs. Murray, while he is away, suppose you have family
+prayer, and let all the household join in praying for the absent
+master. I think it would be such a blessing and comfort to you. Grandpa
+always had prayer night and morning, and it made every day seem almost
+as holy as Sunday."
+
+Mrs. Murray was silent a little while, and answered hesitatingly:
+
+"But, my dear, I should not know how to offer up prayers before the
+family. I can pray for myself, but I should not like to pray aloud."
+
+There was a second pause, and finally she said:
+
+"Edna, would you be willing to conduct prayers for me?"
+
+"It is your house, and God expects the head of every family to set an
+example. Even the pagans offered sacrifices every day for the good of
+the household, and you know the Jews had morning and evening
+sacrifices; so it seems to me family prayer is such a beautiful
+offering on the altar of the hearthstone. If you do not wish to pray
+yourself, you could read a prayer; there is a book called Family
+Prayer, with selections for every day in the week. I saw a copy at the
+parsonage, and I can get one like it at the book store if you desire
+it."
+
+"That will suit my purpose much better than trying to compose them
+myself. You must get the book for me. But, Edna, don't go to school
+to-day, stay at home with me; I am so lonely and low-spirited. I will
+tell Mr. Hammond that I could not spare you. Beside, I want you to help
+me arrange some valuable relics belonging to my son, and now that I
+think of it, he told me he wished you to use any of his books or MSS.
+that you might like to examine. This is a great honor, child, for he
+has refused many grown people admission to his rooms. Come with me, I
+want to lock up his curiosities."
+
+They went through the rotunda and into the rooms together; and Mrs.
+Murray busied herself in carefully removing the cameos, intaglios,
+antique vases, goblets, etc., etc., from the tables, and placing them
+in the drawers of the cabinets. As she crossed the room tears fell on
+the costly trifles, and finally she approached the beautiful miniature
+temple and stooped to look at the fastening. She selected the smallest
+key on the bunch, that contained a dozen, and attempted to fit it in
+the small opening, but it was too large; then she tried her watch-key,
+but without success, and a look of chagrin crossed her sad,
+tear-stained face.
+
+"St. Elmo has forgotten to leave the key with me."
+
+Edna's face grew scarlet, and stooping to pick up a heavy cornelian
+seal that had fallen on the carpet, she said, hastily:
+
+"What is that marble temple intended to hold?"
+
+"I have no idea; it is one of my son's oriental fancies. I presume he
+uses it as a private desk for his papers."
+
+"Does he leave the key with you when he goes from home?"
+
+"This is the first time he has left home for more than a few weeks
+since he brought this gem from the East. I must write to him about the
+key before he sails. He has it on his watch-chain."
+
+The same curiosity which, in ages long past, prompted the discovery of
+the Eleusinian or Cabiri mysteries now suddenly took possession of
+Edna, as she looked wonderingly at the shining fagade of the exquisite
+Taj Mahal, and felt that only a promise stood between her and its
+contents.
+
+Escaping to her own room, she proceeded to secrete the troublesome key,
+and to reflect upon the unexpected circumstances which not only
+rendered it her duty to pray for the wanderer but necessitated her
+keeping always about her a SOUVENIR of the man whom she could not avoid
+detesting, and was yet forced to remember continually.
+
+On the following day, when she went to her usual morning recitation,
+and gave the reason for her absence, she noticed that Mr. Hammond's
+hand trembled, and a look of keen sorrow settled on his face.
+
+"Gone again! and so soon! So far, far away from all good influences!"
+
+He put down the Latin grammar and walked to the window, where he stood
+for some time, and when he returned to his armchair Edna saw that the
+muscles of his face were unsteady.
+
+"Did he not stop to tell you good-bye?"
+
+"No, my dear, he never comes to the parsonage now. When he was a boy, I
+taught him here in this room, as I now teach you. But for fifteen years
+he has not crossed my threshold, and yet I never sleep until I have
+prayed for him." "Oh! I am so glad to hear that! Now I know he will be
+saved."
+
+The minister shook his gray head, and Edna saw tears in his mild blue
+eyes as he answered:
+
+"A man's repentance and faith can not be offered by proxy to God. So
+long as St. Elmo Murray persists in insulting his Maker, I shudder for
+his final end. He has the finest intellect I have ever met among living
+men; but it is unsanctified--worse still, it is dedicated to the work
+of scoffing at and blaspheming the truths of religion. In his youth he
+promised to prove a blessing to his race and an ornament to
+Christianity; now he is a curse to the world and a dreary burden to
+himself."
+
+"What changed him so sadly?"
+
+"Some melancholy circumstances that occurred early in his life. Edna,
+he planned and built that beautiful church where you come on Sabbath to
+hear me preach, and about the time it was finished he went off to
+college. When he returned he avoided me, and has never yet been inside
+of the costly church which his taste and his money constructed. Still,
+while I live, I shall not cease to pray for him, hoping that in God's
+good time he will bring him back to the pure faith of his boyhood."
+
+"Mr. Hammond, is he not a very wicked man?"
+
+"He had originally the noblest heart I ever knew, and was as tender in
+his sympathies as a woman, while he was almost reckless in his
+munificent charities. But in his present irreligious state I hear that
+he has grown bitter and sour and illiberal. Yet, however repulsive his
+manner may be, I can not believe that his nature is utterly perverted.
+He is dissipated but not unprincipled. Let him rest, my child, in the
+hands of his God, who alone can judge him. We can but pray and hope. Go
+on with your lesson."
+
+The recitation was resumed and ended; but Edna was well aware that for
+the first time her teacher was inattentive, and the heavy sighs that
+passed his lips almost unconsciously told her how sorely he was
+distressed by the erratic course of his quondam pupil.
+
+When she rose to go home she asked the name of the author of the Family
+Prayers which she wished to purchase for Mrs. Murray, and the pastor's
+face flushed with pleasure as he heard of her cherished scheme.
+
+"My dear child, be circumspect, be prudent; above all things, be
+consistent. Search your own heart; try to make your life an exposition
+of your faith; let profession and practice go hand in hand; ask God's
+special guidance in the difficult position in which you are placed, and
+your influence for good in Mrs. Murray's family may be beyond all
+computation." Laying his hands on her head, he continued tremulously:
+"O my God! if it be thy will, make her the instrument of rescuing, ere
+it be indeed too late. Help me to teach her aright; and let her pure
+life atone for all the inconsistencies and wrongs that have well-nigh
+wrought eternal ruin."
+
+Turning quickly away, he left the room, before she could even catch a
+glimpse of his countenance.
+
+The strong and lasting affection that sprang up between instructor and
+pupil--the sense of dependence on each other's society--rarely occurs
+among persons in whose ages so great a disparity exists. Spring and
+autumn have no affinities--age has generally no sympathy for the
+gushing sprightliness, the eager questioning, the rose-hued dreams and
+aspirations of young people; and youth shrinks chilled and constrained
+from the austere companionship of those who, with snowy locks gilded by
+the fading rays of a setting sun, totter down the hill of life,
+journeying to the dark and silent valley of the shadow of death.
+
+Preferring Mr. Hammond's society to that of the comparative strangers
+who visited Mrs. Murray, Edna spent half of her time at the quiet
+parsonage, and the remainder with her books and music. That under
+auspices so favorable her progress was almost unprecedentedly rapid,
+furnished matter of surprise to no one who was capable of estimating
+the results of native genius and vigorous application. Mrs. Murray
+watched the expansion of her mind, and the development of her beauty,
+with emotions of pride and pleasure, which, had she analyzed them,
+would have told her how dear and necessary to her happiness the orphan
+had become.
+
+As Edna's reasoning powers strengthened, Mr. Hammond led her gradually
+to the contemplation of some of the gravest problems that have from
+time immemorial perplexed and maddened humanity, plunging one half into
+blind, bigoted traditionalism, and scourging the other into the dreary
+sombre, starless wastes of Pyrrhonism. Knowing full well that of every
+earnest soul and honest, profound thinker these ontologic questions
+would sooner or later demand audience, he wisely placed her in the
+philosophic palaestra, encouraged her wrestlings, cheered her on,
+handed her from time to time the instruments and aids she needed, and
+then, when satisfied that the intellectual gymnastics had properly
+trained and developed her, he invited her--where he felt assured the
+spirit of the age would inevitably drive her--to the great Pythian
+games of speculation, where the lordly intellects of the nineteenth
+century gather to test their ratiocinative skill, and bear off the
+crown of bay on the point of a syllogism or the wings of an audacious
+hypothesis.
+
+Thus immersed in study, weeks, months, and years glided by, bearing her
+young life swiftly across the Enna meads of girlhood, nearer and nearer
+to the portals of that mystic temple of womanhood, on whose fair
+fretted shrine was to be offered a heart either consumed by the baleful
+fires of Baal, or purified and consecrated by the Shekinah, promised
+through Messiah.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+During the first year of Mr. Murray's absence his brief letters to his
+mother were written at long intervals; in the second, they were rarer
+and briefer still; but toward the close of the third he wrote more
+frequently, and announced his intention of revisiting Egypt before his
+return to the land of his birth. Although no allusion was ever made to
+Edna, Mrs. Murray sometimes read aloud descriptions of beautiful
+scenery, written now among the scoriae of Mauna Roa or Mauna Kea, and
+now from the pinnacle of Mount Ophir, whence, through waving forests of
+nutmeg and clove, flashed the blue waters of the Indian Ocean, or the
+silver ripples of Malacca; and, on such occasions, the orphan listened
+eagerly, entranced by the tropical luxuriance and grandeur of his
+imagery, by his gorgeous word-painting, which to her charmed ears
+seemed scarcely inferior to the wonderful pen-portraits of Ruskin.
+Those letters seemed flecked with the purple and gold, the amber and
+rose, the opaline and beryline tints, of which he spoke in telling the
+glories of Polynesian and Malaysian skies, and the matchless verdure
+and floral splendors of their serene spicy dells. For many days after
+the receipt of each, Mrs. Murray was graver and sadder, but the spectre
+that had disquieted Edna was thoroughly exorcised, and only when the
+cold touch of the golden key startled her was she conscious of a vague
+dread of some far-off but slowly and surely approaching evil. In the
+fourth year of her pupilage she was possessed by an unconquerable
+desire to read the Talmud, and in order to penetrate the mysteries and
+seize the treasures hidden in that exhaustless mine of Oriental myths,
+legends, and symbolisms, she prevailed upon Mr. Hammond to teach her
+Hebrew and the rudiments of Chaldee. Very reluctantly and
+disapprovingly he consented, and subsequently informed her that, as he
+had another pupil who was also commencing Hebrew, he would class them,
+and hear their recitations together. This new student was Mr. Gordon
+Leigh, a lawyer in the town, and a gentleman of wealth and high social
+position. Although quite young, he gave promise of eminence in his
+profession, and was a great favorite of the minister, who pronounced
+him the most upright and exemplary young man of his acquaintance. Edna
+had seen him several times at Mrs. Murray's dinners, but while she
+thought him exceedingly handsome, polite, and agreeable, she regarded
+him as a stranger, until the lessons at the Parsonage brought them
+every two days around the little table in the study. They began the
+language simultaneously; but Edna, knowing the flattering estimation in
+which he was held, could not resist the temptation to measure her
+intellect with his, and soon threatened to outrun him in the Talmud
+race. Piqued pride and a manly resolution to conquer spurred him on,
+and the venerable instructor looked on and laughed at the generous
+emulation thus excited. He saw an earnest friendship daily
+strengthening between the rivals, and knew that in Gordon Leigh's
+magnanimous nature there was no element which could cause an objection
+to the companionship to which he had paved the way.
+
+Four months after the commencement of the new study, Edna rorse at
+daylight to complete some exercises, which she had neglected to write
+out on the previous evening, and as soon as she concluded the task,
+went down stairs to gather the flowers. It was the cloudless morning of
+her seventeenth birthday and as she stood clipping geraniums and
+jasmine and verbena, memory flew back to the tender years in which the
+grisly blacksmith had watched her career with such fond pride and
+loving words of encouragement, and painted the white-haired old man
+smoking on the porch that fronted Lookout, while from his lips,
+tremulous with a tender smile, seemed to float the last words he had
+spoken to her on that calm afternoon when, in the fiery light of a
+dying day, he was gathered to his forefathers:
+
+"You will make me proud of you, my little Pearl, when you are smart
+enough to teach a school and take care of me, for I shall be too old to
+work by that time."
+
+Now, after the lapse of years, when her educational course was almost
+finished, she recalled every word and look and gesture; even the thrill
+of horror that shook her limbs when she kissed the lips that death had
+sealed an hour before. Mournfully vivid was her recollection of her
+tenth birthday, for then he had bought her a blue ribbon for her hair,
+and a little china cup and saucer; and now tears sprang to her eyes as
+she murmured: "I have studied hard and the triumph is at hand, but I
+have nobody to be proud of me now! Ah Grandpa! if you could only come
+back to me, your little Pearl! It is so desolate to be alone in this
+great world; so hard to have to know that nobody cares specially
+whether I live or die, whether I succeed or fail ignominiously. I have
+only myself to live for; only my own heart and will to sustain and
+stimulate me."
+
+Through the fringy acacias that waved their long hair across the
+hothouse windows, the golden sunshine flickered over the graceful,
+rounded, lithe figure of the orphan--over the fair young face with its
+delicate cameo features, warm, healthful coloring, and brave, hopeful
+expression. Four years had developed the pretty, sad-eyed child into a
+lovely woman, with a pure heart filled with humble unostentatious
+piety, and a clear, vigorous intellect inured to study, and ambitious
+of every honorable eminence within the grasp of true womanhood.
+
+Edna had endeavored to realize and remember what her Bible first taught
+her, and what moralists of all creeds, climes and ages, had
+reiterated--that human life was at best but "vanity and vexation of
+spirit," that "man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward"; yet as
+she stood on the line, narrow and thin as Al-Sirat, that divides
+girlhood and womanhood, all seemed to her fresh, pure heart as inviting
+and bewitching as the magnificent panorama upon which enraptured
+lotophagi gazed from the ancient acropolis of Cyrene.
+
+As Edna turned to leave the hothouse, the ring of horse's hoofs on the
+rocky walk attracted her attention, and a moment after, Mr. Leigh gave
+his horse to the gardener and came to meet her.
+
+"Good morning, Miss Edna. As I am bearer of dispatches from my sister
+to Mrs. Murray, I have invited myself to breakfast with you."
+
+"You are an earlier riser than I had supposed, Mr. Leigh, from your
+lamentations over your exercises."
+
+"I do not deny that I love my morning nap, and generally indulge
+myself; for, like Sydney Smith, 'I can easily make up my mind to rise
+early, but I cannot make up my body.' In one respect I certainly claim
+equality with Thorwaldsen, my 'talent for sleeping' is inferior neither
+to his nor Goethe's. Do you know that we are both to have a holiday
+to-day?"
+
+"No, sir; upon what score?"
+
+"It happens to be my birthday as well as yours, and as my sister, Mrs.
+Inge, gives a party to-night in honor of the event, I have come to
+insist that my classmate shall enjoy the same reprieve that I promise
+myself. Mrs. Inge commissioned me to insure your presence at her party."
+
+"Thank you; but I never go out to parties."
+
+"But bad precedents must not guide you any longer. If you persist in
+staying at home, I shall not enjoy the evening, for in every dance I
+shall fancy my vis-a-vis your spectre, with an exercise in one hand and
+a Hebrew grammar in the other. A propos! Mr. Hammond told me to say
+that he would not expect you to-day, but would meet you to-night at
+Mrs. Inge's. You need not trouble yourself to decline, for I shall
+arrange matters with Mrs. Murray. In honor of my birthday will you not
+give me a sprig of something sweet from your basket?"
+
+They sat down on the steps of the dining-room, and Edna selected some
+delicate oxalis cups and nutmeg geranium leaves, which she tied up, and
+handed to her companion.
+
+Fastening them in the button-hole of his coat, he drew a small box from
+his pocket, and said:
+
+"I noticed last week, when Mr. Hammond was explaining the Basilidian
+tenets, you manifested some curiosity concerning their amulets and
+mythical stones. Many years ago, while an uncle of mine was missionary
+in Arabia, he saved the life of a son of a wealthy sheik, and received
+from him, in token of his gratitude, a curious ring, which tradition
+said once belonged to a caliph, and had been found near the ruins of
+Chilminar. The ring was bequeathed to me, and is probably the best
+authenticated antique in this country. Presto! we are in Bagdad! in the
+blessed reign--
+
+  '... in the golden prime
+   Of good Haroun Alraschid!'
+
+I am versed in neither Cufic nor Neskhi lore, but the characters
+engraved on this ring are said to belong to the former dialect, and to
+mean 'Peace be with thee,' which is, and I believe has been, from time
+immemorial, the national salutation of the Arabs."
+
+He unwound the cotton that enveloped the gem, and held it before Edna's
+eyes.
+
+A broad band of dusky, tarnished gold was surmounted by a large
+crescent-shaped emerald, set with beautiful pearls, and underneath the
+Arabic inscription was engraved a ram's head, bearing on one horn a
+small crescent, on the other a star.
+
+As Edna bent forward to examine it Mr. Leigh continued: "I do not quite
+comprehend the symbolism of the ram's head and the star; the crescent
+is clear enough."
+
+"I think I can guess the meaning." Edna's eyes kindled.
+
+"Tell me your conjecture; my own does not satisfy me, as the Arabic
+love of mutton is the only solution at which I have arrived."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Leigh! look at it and think a moment."
+
+"Well, I have looked at it and thought a great deal, and I tell you
+mutton-broth sherbet is the only idea suggested to my mind. You need
+not look so shocked, for, when cooled with the snows of Caucasus, I am
+told it makes a beverage fit for Greek gods."
+
+"Think of the second chapter of St. Luke."
+
+He pondered a moment, and answered, gravely: "I am sorry to say that I
+do not remember that particular chapter well enough to appreciate your
+clew."
+
+She hesitated, and the color deepened on her cheek as she repeated, in
+a low voice:
+
+"'And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field,
+keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord
+came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them. And
+suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host
+praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
+peace, good will toward men.'
+
+"Mr. Leigh, the star on the ram's horn may be the Star of Bethlehem
+that shone over the manger, and the Arabic inscription is certainly the
+salutation of the angel to the shepherds. 'Peace, good will toward
+men,' says St. Luke; 'Peace be with thee,' said Islamism."
+
+"Your solution seems plausible, but, pardon me, is totally
+inadmissible, from the fact that it blends crescent and cross, and
+ignores antagonisms that deluged centuries with blood."
+
+"You forget, Mr. Leigh, that Mohammedanism is nothing but a huge
+eclecticism, and that its founder stole its elements from surrounding
+systems. The symbolism of the crescent he took from the mysteries of
+Isis and Astarte; the ethical code of Christ he engrafted on the
+monotheism of Judaism; his typical forms are drawn from the Old
+Testament or the more modern Mishma; and his pretended miracles are
+mere repetitions of the wonders performed by our Saviour--for instance,
+the basket of dates, the roasted lamb, the loaf of barley bread, in the
+siege of Medina. Even the Moslem Jehennam is a palpable imitation of
+the Hebrew Gehenna. Beside, sir, you know that Sabeanism reigned in
+Arabia just before the advent of Mohammed, and if you refuse to believe
+that the Star of Bethlehem was signified by this one shining here on
+the ram's horn, at least you must admit that it refers to stars studied
+by the shepherds who watched their flocks on the Chaldean plains. In a
+cabinet of coins and medals, belonging to Mr. Murray, I have examined
+one of silver, representing Astaroth, with the head of a woman adorned
+with horns and a crescent, and another of brass, containing an image of
+Baal--a human face on the head of an ox, with the horns surrounded by
+stars. However, I am very ignorant of these things, and you must refer
+the riddle of the ring to some one more astute and learned in such
+matters than your humble 'yokefellow' in Hebrew. 'Peace be with you.'"
+
+"I repeat 'Peace be with thee,' during the new year on which we are
+both entering, and, as you have at least attempted to read the riddle,
+let me beg that you will do me the honor to accept and wear the ring in
+memory of our friendship and our student life."
+
+He took her hand, and would have placed the ring on her finger, but she
+resisted.
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Leigh, I appreciate the honor, but indeed you must
+excuse me, I cannot accept the ring."
+
+"Why not, Miss Edna?"
+
+"In the first place, because it is very valuable and beautiful, and I
+am not willing to deprive you of it; in the second, I do not think it
+proper to accept presents from--any one but relatives or dear friends."
+
+"I thought we were dear friends? Why can we not be such?"
+
+At this moment Mrs. Murray came into the dining-room, and as she looked
+at the two sitting there in the early sunshine, with the basket of
+flowers between them; as she marked the heightened color and
+embarrassed expression on one fair, sweet face, and the eager pleading
+written on the other, so full of manly beauty, so frank and bright and
+genial, a possible destiny for both flashed before her; and pleased
+surprise warmed her own countenance as she hurried forward.
+
+"Good-morning, Gordon. I am very glad to see you. How is Clara?"
+
+"Quite well, thank you, and entirely absorbed in preparations for her
+party, as you will infer from this note, which she charged me to
+deliver in person, and for which I here pray your most favorable
+consideration."
+
+As Mrs. Murray glanced over the note Edna turned to leave the room; but
+Mr. Leigh exclaimed:
+
+"Do not go just yet, I wish Mrs. Murray to decide a matter for me."
+
+"Well, Gordon, what is it?"
+
+"First, do you grant my sister's petition?"
+
+"Certainly, I will bring Edna with me to-night, unless she prefers
+staying at home with her books. You know I let her do pretty much as
+she pleases."
+
+"Now then for my little quarrel! Here is a curious old ring, which she
+will appreciate more highly than any one else whom I happen to know,
+and I want her to accept it as a birthday memento from me, but a few
+minutes ago she refused to wear it. Can you not come to my assistance,
+my dear Mrs. Murray?"
+
+She took the ring, examined it, and said, after a pause:
+
+"I think, Gordon, that she did exactly right; but I also think that
+now, with my approval and advice, she need not hesitate to wear it
+henceforth, as a token of your friendship. Edna, hold out your hand, my
+dear."
+
+The ring was slipped on the slender finger, and as she released her
+hand, Mrs. Murray bent down and kissed her forehead.
+
+"Seventeen to-day! My child, I can scarcely believe it! And
+you--Gordon? May I ask how old you are?"
+
+"Twenty-five--I grieve to say! You need not tell me--"
+
+The conversation was interrupted by the ringing of the breakfast bell,
+and soon after, Mr. Leigh took his departure.
+
+Edna felt puzzled and annoyed, and as she looked down at the ring she
+thought that instead of "Peace be with thee," the Semitic characters
+must surely mean, "Disquiet seize thee!" for they had shivered the
+beautiful calm of her girlish nature, and thrust into her mind ideas
+unknown until that day. Going to her own room, she opened her books,
+but ere she could fix her wandering thoughts Mrs. Murray entered.
+
+"Edna, I came to speak to you about your dress for to-night."
+
+"Please do not say that you wish me to go, my dear Mrs. Murray, for I
+dread the very thought."
+
+"But I must tell you that I insist upon your conforming to the usages
+of good society. Mrs. Inge belongs to one of the very first families in
+the State; at her house you will meet the best people, and you could
+not possibly make your debut under more favorable circumstances.
+Beside, it is very unnatural that a young girl should not enjoy parties
+and the society of gay young people. You are very unnecessarily making
+a recluse of yourself, and I shall not permit you to refuse such an
+invitation as Mrs. Inge has sent. It would be rude in the extreme."
+
+"Dear Mrs. Murray, you speak of my debut, as if, like other girls, I
+had nothing else to do but fit myself for society. These people care
+nothing for me, and I am as little interested in them. I have no desire
+to move for a short time in a circle from which my work in life must
+soon separate me."
+
+"To what work do you allude?"
+
+"The support which I must make by teaching. In a few months I hope to
+be able to earn all I need, and then--"
+
+"Then it will be quite time enough to determine what necessity demands;
+in the meanwhile, as long as you are in my house you must allow me to
+judge what is proper for you. Clara Inge is my friend, and I can not
+allow you to be rude to her. I have sent the carriage to town for Miss
+O'Riley, my mantua-maker, and Hagar will make the skirt of your dress.
+Come into my room and let her take the measure."
+
+"Thank you for your kind thoughtfulness, but indeed I do not want to
+go. Please let me stay at home! You can frame some polite excuse, and
+Mrs. Inge cares not whether I go or stay. I will write my regrets and--"
+
+"Don't be childish, Edna; I care whether you go or stay, and that fact
+should weigh with you much more than Mrs. Inge's wishes, for you are
+quite right in supposing that it is a matter of indifference to her. Do
+not keep Hagar waiting."
+
+Mrs. Murray's brow clouded, and her lips contracted, as was their
+habit, when anything displeased her; consequently after a quick glance,
+Edna followed her to the room where Hagar was at work. It was the first
+time the orphan had been invited to a large party, and she shrank from
+meeting people whose standard of gentility was confined to high birth
+and handsome fortunes. Mrs. Inge came frequently to Le Bocage, but
+Edna's acquaintance with her was comparatively slight, and in addition
+to her repugnance to meeting strangers she dreaded seeing Mr. Leigh
+again so soon, for she felt that an undefinable barrier had suddenly
+risen between them; the frank, fearless freedom of the old friendship
+at the parsonage table had vanished. She began to wish that she had
+never studied Hebrew, that she had never heard of Basilides, and that
+the sheik's ring was back among the ruins of Chilminar. Mrs. Murray saw
+her discomposure, but chose to take no notice of it, and superintended
+her toilet that night with almost as much interest as if she had been
+her own daughter.
+
+During the drive she talked on indifferent subjects, and as they went
+up to the dressing-room had the satisfaction of seeing that her
+protegee manifested no trepidation. They arrived rather late, the
+company had assembled, and the rooms were quite full as Mrs. Murray
+entered; but Mrs. Inge met them at the threshold, and Mr. Leigh, who
+seemed on the watch, came forward at the same instant, and offered Edna
+his arm.
+
+"Ah, Mrs. Murray! I had almost abandoned the hope of seeing you. Miss
+Edna, the set is just forming, and we must celebrate our birthday by
+having the first dance together. Excuse you, indeed! You presume upon
+my well-known good nature and generosity, but this evening I am
+privileged to be selfish."
+
+As he drew her into the middle of the room she noticed that he wore the
+flowers she had given him in the morning, and this, in conjunction with
+the curious scrutiny to which she was subjected, brought a sudden surge
+of color to her cheeks. The dance commenced, and from one corner of the
+room Mr. Hammond looked eagerly at his two pupils, contrasting them
+with the gay groups that filled the brilliant apartment.
+
+Edna's slender, graceful figure was robed in white Swiss muslin, with a
+bertha of rich lace; and rose-colored ribbons formed the sash, and
+floated from her shoulders. Her beautiful glossy hair was simply coiled
+in a large roll at the back of the head, and fastened with an ivory
+comb. Scrutinizing the face lifted toward Mr. Leigh's, while he talked
+to her, the pastor thought he had never seen a countenance half so
+eloquent and lovely. Turning his gaze upon her partner, he was
+compelled to confess that though Gordon Leigh was the handsomest man in
+the room, no acute observer could look at the two and fail to discover
+that the blacksmith's granddaughter was far superior to the petted
+brother of the aristocratic Mrs. Inge. He was so much interested in
+watching the couple that he did not observe Mrs. Murray's approach
+until she sat down beside him and whispered:
+
+"Are they not a handsome couple?"
+
+"Gordon and Edna?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Indeed they are! I think that child's face is the most attractive, the
+most fascinating I ever looked at. There is such a rare combination of
+intelligence, holiness, strength and serenity in her countenance; such
+a calm, pure light shining in her splendid eyes; such a tender, loving
+look far down in their soft depths."
+
+"Child! Why she is seventeen to-day." "No matter, Ellen; to me she will
+always seem a gentle, clinging, questioning child. I look at her often
+when she is intent on her studies, and wonder how long her pure heart
+will reject the vanities and baubles that engross most women; how long
+mere abstract study will continue to charm her; and I tremble when I
+think of the future to which I know she is looking so eagerly. Now, her
+emotional nature sleeps, her heart is at rest--slumbering also, she is
+all intellect at present--giving her brain no relaxation. Ah! if it
+could always be so. But it will not! There will come a time, I fear,
+when her fine mind and pure, warm heart will be arrayed against each
+other, will battle desperately, and one or the other must be
+subordinated."
+
+"Gordon seems to admire her very much," said Mrs. Murray.
+
+Mr. Hammond sighed, and a shadow crept over his placid features, as he
+answered:
+
+"Do you wonder at it, Ellen? Can any one know the child well, and fail
+to admire and love her?"
+
+"If he could only forget her obscure birth--if he could only consent to
+marry her--what a splendid match it would be for her?"
+
+"Ellen! Ellen Murray! I am surprised at you! Let me beg of you for her
+sake, for yours, for all parties concerned, not to raise your little
+finger in this matter; not to utter one word to Edna that might arouse
+her suspicions; not to hint to Gordon that you dream such an alliance
+possible; for there is more at stake than you imagine--"
+
+He was unable to conclude the sentence, for the dance had ended, and as
+Edna caught a glimpse of the beloved countenance of her teacher, she
+drew her fingers from Mr. Leigh's arm, and hastened to the pastor's
+side, taking his hand between both hers:
+
+"O, sir! I am glad to see you. I have looked around so often; hoping to
+catch sight of you. Mrs. Murray, I heard Mrs. Inge asking for you."
+
+When the lady walked away, Edna glided into the seat next the minister,
+and continued:
+
+"I want to talk to you about a change in some of my studies."
+
+"Wait till to-morrow, my dear. I came here to-night only for a few
+moments, to gratify Gordon and now I must slip away."
+
+"But, sir, I only want to say, that as you objected at the outset to my
+studying Hebrew, I will not waste any more time on it just now, but
+take it up again after a while, when I have plenty of leisure. Don't
+you think that would be the best plan?"
+
+"My child, are you tired of Hebrew?"
+
+"No, sir; on the contrary, it possesses a singular fascination for me;
+but I think, if you are willing, I shall discontinue it--at least, for
+the present. I shall take care to forget nothing that I have already
+learned."
+
+"You have some special reason for this change, I presume?"
+
+She raised her eyes to his, and said frankly:
+
+"Yes, sir, I have."
+
+"Very well, my dear, do as you like. Good-night."
+
+"I wish I could go now with you."
+
+"Why? I thought you appeared to enjoy your dance very much. Edna, look
+at me."
+
+She hesitated--then obeyed him, and he saw tears glistening on her long
+lashes.
+
+Very quietly the old man drew her arm through his, and led her out on
+the dim veranda, where only an occasional couple promenaded.
+
+"Something troubles you, Edna. Will you confide in me?"
+
+"I feel as if I were occupying a false position here, and yet I do not
+see how I can extricate myself without displeasing Mrs. Murray, whom I
+can not bear to offend--she is so very kind and generous."
+
+"Explain yourself, my dear."
+
+"You know that I have not a cent in the world except what Mrs. Murray
+gives me. I shall have to make my bread by my own work just as soon as
+you think me competent to teach; and notwithstanding, she thinks I
+ought to visit and associate as she does with these people, who
+tolerate me now, simply because they know that while I am under her
+roof she will exact it of them. To-night, during the dance, I heard two
+of her fashionable friends criticising and sneering at me; ridiculing
+her for 'attempting to smuggle that spoiled creature of unknown
+parentage and doubtless low origin into really first circles.' Other
+things were said which I can not repeat, that showed me plainly how I
+am regarded here, and I will not remain in a position which subjects me
+to such remarks. Mrs. Murray thought it best for me to come; but it was
+a mistaken kindness. I thought so before I came--now I have
+irrefragable proof that I was right in my forebodings."
+
+"Can you not tell me all that was said?"
+
+"I shrink, sir, from repeating it, even to you."
+
+"Did Mr. Leigh hear it?"
+
+"I hope not."
+
+"My dear child, I am very much pained to learn that you have been so
+cruelly wounded; but do not let your mind dwell upon it; those weak,
+heartless, giddy people are to be pitied, are beneath your notice. Try
+to fix your thoughts on nobler themes, and waste no reflection on the
+idle words of those poor gilded moths of fashion and folly, who are
+incapable of realizing their own degraded and deplorable condition."
+
+"I do not care particularly what they think of me, but I am anxious to
+avoid hearing their comments upon me, and therefore I am determined to
+keep as much out of sight as possible. I shall try to do my duty in all
+things, and poverty is no stigma, thank God! My grandfather was very
+poor, but he was noble and honest, and as courteous as a nobleman; and
+I honor his dear, dear memory as tenderly as if he had been reared in a
+palace. I am not ashamed of my parentage, for my father was as honest
+and industrious as he was poor, and my mother was as gentle and good as
+she was beautiful."
+
+There was no faltering in the sweet voice, and no bitterness poisoning
+it. Mr. Hammond could not see the face, but the tone indexed all, and
+he was satisfied.
+
+"I am glad, my dear little Edna, that you look at the truth so bravely,
+and give no more importance to the gossip than your future peace of
+mind demands. If you have any difficulty in convincing Mrs. Murray of
+the correctness of your views, let me know, and I will speak to her on
+the subject. Good-night! May God watch over and bless you!"
+
+When the orphan reentered the parlor, Mrs. Inge presented her to
+several gentlemen who had requested an introduction; and though her
+heart was heavy, and her cheeks burned painfully, she exerted herself,
+and danced and talked constantly until Mrs. Murray announced herself
+ready to depart.
+
+Joyfully Edna ran upstairs for her wrappings, bade adieu to her
+hostess, who complimented her on the sensation her beauty had created;
+and felt relieved and comparatively happy when the carriage-door closed
+and she found herself alone with her benefactress.
+
+"Well, Edna, notwithstanding your repugnance to going, you acquitted
+yourself admirably, and seemed to have a delightful time."
+
+"I thank you, ma'am, for doing all in your power to make the evening
+agreeable to me. I think your kind desire to see me enjoy the party
+made me happier than everything else."
+
+Gratefully she drew Mrs. Murray's hand to her lips, and the latter
+little dreamed that at that instant tears were rolling over the flushed
+face, while the words of the conversation which she had overheard rang
+mockingly in her ears:
+
+"Mrs. Murray and even Mr. Hammond are scheming to make a match between
+her and Gordon Leigh. Studying Hebrew indeed! A likely story! She had
+better go back to her wash-tub and spinning-wheel! Much Hebrew she will
+learn! Her eyes are set on Gordon's fortune, and Mrs. Murray is silly
+enough to think he will step into the trap. She will have to bait it
+with something better than Hebrew and black eyes, or she will miss her
+game. Gordon will make a fool of her, I dare say, for, like all other
+young men, he can be flattered into paying her some little attention at
+first. I am surprised at Mrs. Inge to countenance the girl at all."
+
+Such was the orphan's initiation into the charmed circle of fashionable
+society; such her welcome to le beau monde.
+
+As she laid her head on her pillow, she could not avoid exclaiming:
+
+"Heaven save me from such aristocrats! and commit me rather to the
+horny but outstretched hands, the brawny arms, the untutored minds, the
+simple but kindly-throbbing hearts of proletaire!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+When Mr. Hammond mentioned Edna's determination to discontinue Hebrew,
+Mr. Leigh expressed no surprise, asked no explanation, but the minister
+noticed that he bit his lip, and beat a hurried tattoo with the heel of
+his boot on the stony hearth; and as he studiously avoided all allusion
+to her, he felt assured that the conversation which she had overheard
+must have reached the ears of her partner also, and supplied him with a
+satisfactory solution of her change of purpose. For several weeks Edna
+saw nothing of her quondam schoolmate; and fixing her thoughts more
+firmly than ever on her studies, the painful recollection of the
+birthday fete was lowly fading from her mind, when one morning, as she
+was returning from the parsonage, Mr. Leigh joined her, and asked
+permission to attend her home. The sound of his voice, the touch of his
+hand, brought back all the embarrassment and constraint, and called up
+the flush of confusion so often attributed to other sources than that
+from which it really springs.
+
+After a few commonplace remarks, he asked:
+
+"When is Mr. Murray coming home?"
+
+"I have no idea. Even his mother is ignorant of his plans."
+
+"How long has he been absent?"
+
+"Four years to-day."
+
+"Indeed! so long? Where is he?"
+
+"I believe his last letter was written at Edfu, and he said nothing
+about returning."
+
+"What do you think of his singular character?"
+
+"I know almost nothing about him, as I was too young when I saw him to
+form an estimate of him."
+
+"Do you not correspond?"
+
+Edna looked up with unfeigned astonishment, and could not avoid smiling
+at the inquiry.
+
+"Certainly not."
+
+A short silence followed, and then Mr. Leigh said:
+
+"Do you not frequently ride on horseback?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Will you permit me to accompany you to-morrow afternoon?"
+
+"I have promised to make a visit with Mr. Hammond."
+
+"To-morrow morning then, before breakfast?"
+
+She hesitated--the blush deepened, and after a brief struggle, she said
+hurriedly:
+
+"Please excuse me, Mr. Leigh; I prefer to ride alone."
+
+He bowed, and was silent for a minute, but she saw a smile lurking
+about the corners of his handsome mouth, threatening to run riot over
+his features.
+
+"By the by, Miss Edna, I am coming to-night, to ask your assistance in
+a Chaldee quandary. For several days I have been engaged in a
+controversy with Mr. Hammond on the old battlefield of ethnology, and,
+in order to establish my position of diversity of origin, have been
+comparing the Septuagint with some passages from the Talmud. I heard
+you say that there was a Rabbinical Targum in the library at Le Bocage,
+and I must beg you to examine it for me, and ascertain whether it
+contains any comments on the first chapter of Genesis. Somewhere in my
+most desultory reading I have seen it stated that in some of those
+early Targums was the declaration, that 'God originally created men
+red, white and black.' Mr. Hammond is charitable enough to say that I
+must have smoked an extra cigar, and dreamed the predicate I am so
+anxious to authenticate. Will you oblige me by searching for the
+passage?"
+
+"Certainly, Mr. Leigh, with great pleasure; though perhaps you would
+prefer to take the book and look through it yourself? My knowledge of
+Chaldee is very limited."
+
+"Pardon me! my mental vis inertiae vetoes the bare suggestion. I study
+by proxy whether an opportunity offers, for laziness is the only
+hereditary taint in the Leigh blood."
+
+"As I am very much interested in this ethnological question, I shall
+enter into the search with great eagerness."
+
+"Thank you. Do you take the unity or diversity side of the discussion?"
+
+Her merry laugh rang out through the forest that bordered the road.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Leigh! what a ridiculous question! I do not presume to take
+any side, for I do not pretend to understand or appreciate all the
+arguments advanced; but I am anxious to acquaint myself with the
+bearings of the controversy. The idea of my 'taking sides' on a subject
+which gray-haired savants have spent their laborious lives in striving
+to elucidate seems extremely ludicrous."
+
+"Still, you are entitled to an idea, either pro or con, even at the
+outset."
+
+"I have an idea that neither you nor I know anything about the matter;
+and the per saltum plan of 'taking sides' will only add the prop of
+prejudice to my ignorance. If, with all his erudition, Mr. Hammond
+still abstains from dogmatizing on this subject, I can well afford to
+hold my crude opinions in abeyance. I must stop here, Mr. Leigh, at
+Mrs. Carter's, on an errand for Mrs. Murray. Good morning, sir; I will
+hunt the passage you require."
+
+"How have I offended you, Miss Edna?"
+
+He took her hand and detained her.
+
+"I am not offended, Mr. Leigh," and she drew back.
+
+"Why do you dismiss me in such a cold, unfriendly way?"
+
+"If I sometimes appear rude, pardon my unfortunate manner, and believe
+that it results from no unfriendliness."
+
+"You will be at home this evening?"
+
+"Yes, sir, unless something very unusual occurs."
+
+They parted, and during the remainder of the walk Edna could think of
+nothing but the revelation written in Gordon Leigh's eyes; the
+immemorial, yet ever new and startling truth, that opened a new vista
+in life, that told her she was no longer an isolated child, but a
+woman, regnant over the generous heart of one of the pets of society.
+
+She saw that he intended her to believe he loved her, and suspicious as
+gossips had made her with reference to his conduct, she could not
+suppose he was guilty of heartless and contemptible trifling. She
+trusted his honor; yet the discovery of his affection brought a
+sensation of regret--of vague self-reproach, and she felt that in
+future he would prove a source of endless disquiet. Hitherto she had
+enjoyed his society, henceforth she felt that she must shun it.
+
+She endeavored to banish the recollection of that strange expression in
+his generally laughing eyes, and bent over the Targum, hoping to cheat
+her thoughts into other channels; but the face would not "down at her
+bidding," and as the day drew near its close she grew nervous and
+restless.
+
+The chandelier had been lighted, and Mrs. Murray was standing at the
+window of the sitting-room, watching for the return of a servant whom
+she had sent to the post-office, when Edna said:
+
+"I believe Mr. Leigh is coming here to tea; he told me so this morning."
+
+"Where did you see him?"
+
+"He walked with me as far as Mrs. Carter's gate, and asked me to look
+out a reference which he thought I might find in one of Mr. Murray's
+books."
+
+Mrs. Murray smiled, and said:
+
+"Do you intend to receive him in that calico dress?"
+
+"Why not? I am sure it is very neat; it is perfectly new, and fits me
+well."
+
+"And is very suitable to wear to the Parsonage, but not quite
+appropriate when Gordon Leigh takes tea here. You will oblige me by
+changing your dress and rearranging your hair, which is twisted too
+loosely."
+
+When she re-entered the room, a half-hour later, Mrs. Murray leaned
+against the mantelpiece, with an open letter in her hand and dreary
+disappointment printed on her face.
+
+"I hope you have no unpleasant tidings from Mr. Murray. May I ask why
+you seem so much depressed?"
+
+The mother's features twitched painfully as she restored the letter to
+its envelope, and answered:
+
+"My son's letter is dated Philoe, just two months ago, and he says he
+intended starting next day to the interior of Persia. He says, too,
+that he did not expect to remain away so long, but finds that he will
+probably be in Central Asia for another year. The only comforting thing
+in the letter is the assurance that he weighs more, and is in better
+health, than when he left home."
+
+The ringing of the door-bell announced Mr. Leigh's arrival, and as she
+led the way to the parlor, Mrs. Murray hastily fastened a drooping
+spray of coral berries in Edna's hair.
+
+Before tea was ended, other visitors came in, and the orphan found
+relief from her confusion in the general conversation.
+
+While Dr. Rodney, the family physician, was talking to her about some
+discoveries of Ehrenberg, concerning which she was very curious, Mr.
+Leigh engrossed Mrs. Murray's attention, and for some time their
+conversation was exceedingly earnest; then the latter rose and
+approached the sofa where Edna sat, saying gravely:
+
+"Edna, give me this seat, I want to have a little chat with the doctor;
+and, by the way, my dear, I believe Mr. Leigh is waiting for you to
+show him some book you promised to find for him. Go into the
+library--there is a good fire there."
+
+The room was tempting indeed to students, and as the two sat down
+before the glowing grate, and Mr. Leigh glanced at the warm, rich
+curtains sweeping from ceiling to carpet, the black-walnut book-cases
+girding the walls on all sides, and the sentinel bronze busts keeping
+watch over the musty tombs within, he rubbed his fingers and exclaimed:
+
+"Certainly this is the most delightful library in the world, and offers
+a premium for recluse life and studious habits. How incomprehensible it
+is that Murray should prefer to pass his years roaming over deserts and
+wandering about neglected, comfortless khans, when he might spend them
+in such an elysium as this! The man must be demented! How do you
+explain the mystery?"
+
+"Chacun a son gout! I consider it none of my business, and as I suppose
+he is the best judge of what contributes to his happiness, I do not
+meddle with the mystery."
+
+"Poor Murray! his wretched disposition is a great curse. I pity him
+most sincerely."
+
+"From what I remember of him, I am afraid he would not thank you for
+your pity, or admit that he needed or merited it. Here is the Targum,
+Mr. Leigh, and here is the very passage you want."
+
+She opened an ancient Chaldee MS., and spreading it on the library
+table, they examined it together, spelling out the words, and turning
+frequently to a dictionary which lay near. Neither knew much about the
+language; now and then they differed in the interpretation, and more
+than once Edna referred to the rules of her grammar, to establish the
+construction of the sentences.
+
+Engrossed in the translation, she forgot all her apprehensions of the
+morning, and the old ease of manner came back. Her eyes met his
+fearlessly, her smile greeted him cheerily as in the early months of
+their acquaintance; and while she bent over the pages she was
+deciphering, his eyes dwelt on her beaming countenance with a fond,
+tender look, that most girls of her age would have found it hard to
+resist, and pleasant to recall in after days.
+
+Neither suspected that an hour had passed, until Dr. Rodney peeped into
+the room and called them back to the parlor, to make up a game of whist.
+
+It was quite late when Mr. Leigh rose to say good-night; and as he drew
+on his gloves he looked earnestly at Edna, and said:
+
+"I am coming again in a day or two, to show you some plans for a new
+house which I intend to build before long. Clara differs with me about
+the arrangement of some columns and arches, and I shall claim you and
+Mrs. Murray for my allies in this architectural war."
+
+The orphan was silent, but the lady of the house replied promptly:
+
+"Yes, come as often as you can, Gordon, and cheer us up; for it is
+terribly dull here without St. Elmo."
+
+"Suppose you repudiate that incorrigible Vandal and adopt me in his
+place? I would prove a model son."
+
+"Very well. I shall acquaint him with your proposition, and threaten an
+immediate compliance with it if he does not come home soon."
+
+Mrs. Murray rang the bell for the servant to lock up the house, and
+said sutto voce:
+
+"What a noble fellow Gordon is! If I had a daughter I would select him
+for her husband. Where are you going, Edna?"
+
+"I left a MS. on the library table, and as it is very rare and valuable
+I want to replace it in the glass box where it belongs before I go to
+sleep."
+
+Lighting a candle, she lifted the heavy Targum, and slowly approached
+the suite of rooms, which she was now in the habit of visiting almost
+daily.
+
+Earlier in the day she had bolted the door, but left the key in the
+lock, expecting to bring the Targum back as soon as she had shown Mr.
+Leigh the controverted passage. Now, as she crossed the rotunda, an
+unexpected sound, as of a chair sliding on the marble floor, seemed to
+issue from the inner room, and she paused to listen. Under the flare of
+the candle the vindictive face of Siva, and the hooded viper twined
+about his arm, looked more hideous than ever, warning her not to
+approach, yet all was silent, save the tinkling of a bell far down in
+the park, where the sheep clustered under the cedars. Opening the door,
+which was ajar, she entered, held the light high over her head, and
+peered a little nervously around the room; but, here, too, all was
+quiet as the grave, and quite as dreary, and the only moving thing
+seemed her shadow, that flitted slightly as the candle-light flickered
+over the cold, gleaming white tiles. The carpets and curtains--even the
+rich silk hangings of the arch--were all packed away, and Edna shivered
+as she looked through both rooms, satisfied herself that she had
+mistaken the source of the sound, and opened the box where the MSS.
+were kept.
+
+At sight of them her mind reverted to the theme she had been
+investigating, and happening to remember the importance attached by
+ethnologists to the early Coptic inscriptions, she took from the
+book-shelves a volume containing copies of many of these characters,
+and drawings of the triumphal processions carved on granite, and
+representing the captives of various nations torn from their homes to
+swell the pompous retinue of some barbaric Rhamses or Sesostris.
+
+Drifting back over the gray, waveless, tideless sea of centuries, she
+stood, in imagination, upon the steps of the Serapeum at Memphis; and
+when the wild chant of the priests had died away under the huge
+propylaeum, she listened to the sighing of the tamarinds and cassias,
+and the low babble of the sacred Nile, as it rocked the lotus-leaves,
+under the glowing purple sky, whence a full moon flooded the ancient
+city with light, and kindled like a beacon the vast placid face of the
+Sphinx--rising solemn and lonely and weird from its desert lair--and
+staring blankly, hopelessly across arid yellow sands at the dim colossi
+of old Misraim.
+
+Following the sinuous stream of Coptic civilization to its inexplicable
+source in the date-groves of Meroe, the girl's thoughts were borne away
+to the Golden Fountain of the Sun, where Ammon's black doves fluttered
+and cooed over the shining altars and amid the mystic symbols of the
+marvelous friezes.
+
+As Edna bent over the drawings in the book, oblivious for a time of
+everything else, she suddenly became aware of the presence of some one
+in the room, for though perfect stillness reigned, there was a
+consciousness of companionship, of the proximity of some human being,
+and with a start she looked up, expecting to meet a pair of eyes
+fastened upon her. But no living thing confronted her--the tall, bent
+figure of the Cimbri Prophetess gleamed ghostly white upon the wall,
+and the bright blue augurous eyes seemed to count the dripping
+blood-drops; and the unbroken, solemn silence of night brooded over all
+things, hushing even the chime of sheep-bells, that had died away among
+the elm arches. Knowing that no superstitious terrors had ever seized
+her heretofore, the young student rose, took up the candle, and
+proceeded to search the two rooms, but as unsuccessfully as before.
+
+"There certainly is somebody here, but I can not find out where."
+
+These words were uttered aloud, and the echo of her own voice seemed
+sepulchral; then the chill silence again fell upon her. She smiled at
+her own folly, and thought her imagination had been unduly excited by
+the pictures she had been examining, and that the nervous shiver that
+crept over her was the result of the cold. Just then the candle-light
+flashed over the black marble statuette, grinning horribly as it kept
+guard over the Taj Mahal. Edna walked up to it, placed the candle on
+the slab that supported the tomb, and, stooping, scrutinized the lock.
+A spider had ensconced himself in the golden receptacle, and spun a
+fine web across the front of the temple, and Edna swept the airy
+drapery away, and tried to drive the little weaver from his den; but he
+shrank further and further, and finally she took the key from her
+pocket and put it far enough into the opening to eject the intruder,
+who slung himself down one of the silken threads, and crawled sullenly
+out of sight. Withdrawing the key, she toyed with it, and glanced
+curiously at the mausoleum. Taking her handkerchief, she carefully
+brushed off the cobwebs that festooned the minarets, and murmured that
+fragment of Persian poetry which she once heard the absent master
+repeat to his mother, and which she had found, only a few days before,
+quoted by an Eastern traveller: "The spider hath woven his web in the
+imperial palaces; and the own hath sung her watch-song on the towers of
+Afrasiab."
+
+"It is exactly four years to-night since Mr. Murray gave me this key,
+but he charged me not to open the Taj unless I had reason to believe
+that he was dead. His letter states that he is alive and well;
+consequently, the time has not come for me to unseal the mystery. It is
+strange that he trusted me with this secret; strange that he, who
+doubts all of his race, could trust a child of whom he really knew so
+little. Certainly it must have been a singular freak which gave this
+affair into my keeping, but at least I will not betray the confidence
+he reposed in me. With the contents of that vault I can have no
+concern, and yet I wish the key was safely back in his hands. It annoys
+me to conceal it, and I feel all the while as if I were deceiving his
+mother."
+
+These words were uttered half unconsciously as she fingered the key,
+and for a few seconds she stood there, thinking of the master of the
+house, wondering what luckless influence had so early blackened and
+distorted his life, and whether he would probably return to Le Bocage
+before she left it to go out and carve her fortune in the world's noisy
+quarry. The light danced over her countenance and form, showing the
+rich folds of her crimson merino dress, with the gossamer lace
+surrounding her white throat and dimpled wrists; and it seemed to
+linger caressingly on the shining mass of black hair, on the beautiful,
+polished forehead, the firm, delicate, scarlet lips, and made the large
+eyes look elfish under their heavy jet lashes.
+
+Again the girl started and glanced over her shoulder, impressed with
+the same tantalizing conviction of a human presence; of some powerful
+influence which baffled analysis. Snatching the candle, she put the
+gold key in her pocket, and turned to leave the room, but stopped, for
+this time an unmistakable sound like the shivering of a glass or the
+snapping of a musical string, fell on her strained ears. She could
+trace it to no particular spot, and conjectured that perhaps a mouse
+had taken up his abode somewhere in the room, and, frightened by her
+presence, had run against some of the numerous glass and china
+ornaments on the etagere, jostling them until they jingled. Replacing
+the book which she had taken from the shelves, and fastening the box
+that contained the MSS., she examined the cabinets, found them securely
+closed, and then hurried out of the room, locked the door, took the
+key, and went to her own apartment with nerves more unsettled than she
+felt disposed to confess.
+
+For some time after she laid her head on her pillow, she racked her
+brain for an explanation of the singular sensation she had experienced,
+and at last, annoyed by her restlessness and silly superstition, she
+was just sinking into dreams of Ammon and Serapis, when the fierce
+barking of Ali caused her to start up in terror. The dog seemed almost
+wild, running frantically to and fro, howling and whining; but finally
+the sounds receded, gradually quiet was restored, and Edna fell asleep
+soon after the scream of the locomotive and the rumble of the cars told
+her that the four o'clock train had just started to Chattanooga.
+
+Modern zoologic science explodes the popular fallacy that chameleons
+assume, and reflect at will, the color of the substance on which they
+rest or feed; but, with a profound salaam to savants, it is
+respectfully submitted that the mental saurian--human
+thought--certainly takes its changing hues, day by day, from the books
+through which it crawls devouringly.
+
+Is there not ground for plausible doubt that, if the work-bench of
+Mezzofanti had not stood just beneath the teacher's window, whence the
+ears of the young carpenter were regaled from morning till night with
+the rudiments of Latin and Greek, he would never have forsworn planing
+for parsing, mastered forty dialects, proved a walking scarlet-capped
+polygot, and attained the distinction of an honorary nomination for the
+office of interpreter-general at the Tower of Babel?
+
+The hoary associations and typical significance of the numerous relics
+that crowded Mr. Murray's rooms seized upon Edna's fancy, linked her
+sympathies with the huge pantheistic systems of the Orient, and filled
+her mind with waifs from the dusky realm of a mythology that seemed to
+antedate all the authentic chronological computations of man. To the
+East, the mighty alma mater of the human races--of letters, religions,
+arts, and politics, her thoughts wandered in wondering awe; and
+Belzoni, Burckhardt, Layard, and Champollion were hierophants of whose
+teachings she never wearied. As day by day she yielded more and more to
+this fascinating nepenthe influence, and bent over the granite
+sarcophagus in one corner of Mr. Murray's museum, where lay a shrunken
+mummy shrouded in gilded byssus, the wish strengthened to understand
+the symbols in which subtle Egyptian priests masked their theogony.
+
+While morning and afternoon hours were given to those branches of study
+in which Mr. Hammond guided her, she generally spent the evening in Mr.
+Murray's sitting-room, and sometimes the clock in the rotunda struck
+midnight before she locked up the MSS. and illuminated papyri.
+
+Two nights after the examination of the Targum, she was seated near the
+book-case looking over the plates in that rare but very valuable
+volume, Spence's Polymetis, when the idea flashed across her mind that
+a rigid analysis and comparison of all the mythologies of the world
+would throw some light on the problem of ethnology, and in conjunction
+with philology settle the vexed question.
+
+Pushing the Polymetis aside, she sprang up and paced the long room, and
+gradually her eyes kindled, her cheeks burned, as ambition pointed to a
+possible future, of which, till this hour, she had not dared to dream;
+and hope, o'erleaping all barriers, grasped a victory that would make
+her name imperishable.
+
+In her miscellaneous reading she had stumbled upon singular
+correspondences in the customs and religions of nations separated by
+surging oceans and by ages; nations whose aboriginal records appeared
+to prove them distinct, and certainly furnished no hint of an
+ethnological bridge over which traditions traveled and symbolisms crept
+in satin sandals. During the past week several of these coincidences
+had attracted her attention.
+
+The Druidic rites and the festival of Beltein in Scotland and Ireland,
+she found traced to their source in the worship of Phrygian Baal. The
+figure of the Scandinavian Disa, at Upsal, enveloped in a net precisely
+like that which surrounds some statues of Isis in Egypt. The man of
+rush sails used by the Peruvians on Lake Titicaca, and their mode of
+handling them, pronounced identical with that which is seen upon the
+sepulchre of Ramses III. at Thebes. The head of a Mexican priestess
+ornamented with a veil similar to that carved on Eastern sphinxes,
+while the robes resembled those of a Jewish high-priest. A very quaint
+and puzzling pictorial chart of the chronology of the Aztecs contained
+an image of Coxcox in his ark, surrounded by rushes similar to those
+that overshadowed Moses, and also a likeness of a dove distributing
+tongues to those born after the deluge.
+
+Now, the thought of carefully gathering up these vague mythologic
+links, and establishing a chain of unity that would girdle the world,
+seized and mastered her, as if veritably clothed with all the power of
+a bath kol.
+
+To firmly grasp the Bible for a talisman, as Ulysses did the sprig of
+moly, and to stand in the Pantheon of the universe, examining every
+shattered idol and crumbling, denied altar, where worshipping humanity
+had bowed; to tear the veil from oracles and sibyls, and show the world
+that the true, good and beautiful of all theogonies and cosmogonies, of
+every system of religion that had waxed and waned since the gray dawn
+of time, could be traced to Moses and to Jesus, seemed to her a mission
+grander far than the conquest of empires, and infinitely more to be
+desired than the crown and heritage of Solomon.
+
+The night wore on as she planned the work of coming years, but she
+still walked up and down the floor, with slow, uncertain steps, like
+one who, peering at distant objects, sees nothing close at hand. Flush
+and tremor passed from her countenance, leaving the features pale and
+fixed; for the first gush of enthusiasm, like the jets of violet flame
+flickering over the simmering mass in alchemic crucibles, had
+vanished--the thought was a crystalized and consecrated purpose.
+
+At last, when the feeble light admonished her that she would soon be in
+darkness, she retreated to her own room, and the first glimmer of day
+struggled in at her window as she knelt at her bedside praying:
+
+"Be pleased, O Lord! to make me a fit instrument for Thy work; sanctify
+my heart; quicken and enlighten my mind; grant me patience and
+perseverance and unwavering faith; guide me into paths that lead to
+truth; enable me in all things to labor with an eye single to thy
+glory, caring less for the applause of the world than for the
+advancement of the cause of Christ. O my Father and my God! bless the
+work on which I am about to enter, crown it with success, accept me as
+an humble tool for the benefit of my race, and when the days of my
+earthly pilgrimage are ended, receive my soul into that eternal rest
+which Thou hast prepared from the foundations of the world, for the
+sake of Jesus Christ."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+One afternoon about a week after Mr. Leigh's last visit, as Edna
+returned from the parsonage, where she had been detained beyond the
+usual time, Mrs. Murray placed in her hand a note from Mrs. Inge,
+inviting both to dine with her that day, and meet some distinguished
+friends from a distant State. Mrs. Murray had already completed an
+elaborate toilet, and desired Edna to lose no time in making the
+requisite changes in her own dress. The latter took off her hat, laid
+her books down on a table and said:
+
+"Please offer my excuses to Mrs. Inge. I can not accept the invitation,
+and hope you will not urge me."
+
+"Nonsense! Let me hear no more such childish stuff, and get ready at
+once; we shall be too late, I am afraid."
+
+The orphan leaned against the mantelpiece and shook her head.
+
+Mrs. Murray colored angrily and drew herself up haughtily.
+
+"Edna Earl, did you hear what I said?"
+
+"Yes, madam, but this time I cannot obey you. Allow me to give you my
+reasons, and I am sure you will forgive what may now seem mere
+obstinacy. On the night of the party given by Mrs. Inge I determined,
+under no circumstances, to accept any future invitations to her house,
+for I overheard a conversation between Mrs. Hill and Mrs. Montgomery
+which I believe was intended to reach my ears, and consequently wounded
+and mortified me very much. I was ridiculed and denounced as a 'poor
+upstart and interloper,' who was being smuggled into society far above
+my position in life, and pronounced an avaricious schemer, intent on
+thrusting myself upon Mr. Leigh's notice, and ambitious of marrying him
+for his fortune. They sneered at the idea that we should study Hebrew
+with Mr. Hammond, and declared it a mere trap to catch Mr. Leigh. Now,
+Mrs. Murray, you know that I never had such a thought, and the bare
+mention of a motive so sordid, contemptible, and unwomanly surprised
+and disgusted me; but I resolved to study Hebrew by myself, and to
+avoid meeting Mr. Leigh at the parsonage; for if his sister's friends
+entertain such an opinion of me, I know not what other people, and even
+Mrs. Inge, may think. Those two ladies added some other things equally
+unpleasant and untrue, and as I see that they are also invited to dine
+to-day, it would be very disagreeable for me to meet them in Mr.
+Leigh's presence."
+
+Mrs. Murray frowned, and her lips curled, as she clasped a diamond
+bracelet on her arm.
+
+"I have long since ceased to be surprised by any manifestation of Mrs.
+Montgomery's insolence. She doubtless judges your motives by those of
+her snub-nosed and excruciatingly fashionable daughter, Maud, who rumor
+says, is paying most devoted attention to that same fortune of
+Gordon's. I shall avail myself of the first suitable occasion to
+suggest to her that it is rather unbecoming in persons whose fathers
+were convicted of forgery, and hunted out of the State, to lay such
+stress on the mere poverty of young aspirants for admission into
+society. I have always noticed that people (women especially) whose
+lineage is enveloped in a certain twilight haze, constitute themselves
+guardians of the inviolability of their pretentious cliques, and fly at
+the throats of those who, they imagine, desire to enter their
+fashionable set--their 'mutual admiration association.' As for Mrs.
+Hill, whose parents were positively respectable, even genteel, I
+expected less nervousness from her on the subject of genealogy, and
+should have given her credit for more courtesy and less malice; but,
+poor thing, nature denied her any individuality, and she serves 'her
+circle' in the same capacity as one of those tin reflectors fastened on
+locomotives. All that you heard was excessively ill-bred, and in really
+good society ill-breeding is more iniquitous than ill-nature; but,
+however annoying, it is beneath your notice, and unworthy of
+consideration. I would not gratify them by withdrawing from a position
+which you can so gracefully occupy."
+
+"It is no privation to me to stay at home; on the contrary, I prefer
+it, for I would not exchange the companionship of the books in this
+house for all the dinners that ever were given."
+
+"There is no necessity for you to make a recluse of yourself simply
+because two rude, silly gossips disgrace themselves. You have time
+enough to read and study, and still go out with me when I consider it
+advisable."
+
+"But, my dear Mrs. Murray, my position in your family, as an unknown
+dependent on your charity, subjects me to--"
+
+"Is a matter which does not concern Mesdames Hill and Montgomery, as I
+shall most unequivocally intimate to them. I insist upon the dismissal
+of the whole affair from your mind. How much longer do you intend to
+keep me waiting?"
+
+"I am very sorry you cannot view the subject from my standpoint, but
+hereafter I cannot accompany you to dinners and parties. Whenever you
+desire me to see company in your own house, I shall be glad to comply
+with your wishes and commands; but my self-respect will not permit me
+to go out to meet people who barely tolerate me through fear of
+offending you. It is exceedingly painful, dear Mrs. Murray, for me to
+have to appear disrespectful and stubborn toward you, but in this
+instance I can not comply with your wishes."
+
+They looked at each other steadily, and Mrs. Murray's brow cleared and
+her lip unbent.
+
+"What do you expect me to tell Mrs. Inge?"
+
+"That I return my thanks for her very kind remembrance, but am closely
+occupied in preparing myself to teach, and have no time for gayeties."
+
+Mrs. Murray smiled significantly.
+
+"Do you suppose that excuse will satisfy your friend Gordon? He will
+fly for consolation to the stereotyped smile and delicious flattery of
+simpering Miss Maud."
+
+"I care not where he flies, provided I am left in peace."
+
+"Stop, my dear child; you do not mean what you say. You know very well
+that you earnestly hope Gordon will escape the tender mercies of silly
+Maud and the machinations of her most amiable mamma; if you don't, I
+do. Understand that you are not to visit Susan Montgomery's sins on
+Gordon's head. I shall come home early, and make you go to bed at nine
+o'clock, to punish you for your obstinacy. By the by, Edna, Hagar tells
+me that you frequently sit up till three or four o'clock, poring over
+those heathenish documents in my son's cabinet. This is absurd, and
+will ruin your health; and beside, I doubt if what you learn is worth
+your trouble. You must not sit up longer than ten o'clock. Give me my
+furs."
+
+Edna ate her dinner alone, and went into the library to practise a
+difficult music lesson; but the spell of her new project was stronger
+than the witchery of music, and closing the piano, she ran into the
+"Egyptian Museum," as Mrs. Murray termed her son's sitting-room.
+
+The previous night she had been reading an account of the doctrines of
+Zoroaster, in which there was an attempt to trace all the chief
+features of the Zendavesta to the Old Testament and the Jews, and now
+she returned to the subject with unflagging interest.
+
+Pushing a cushioned chair close to the window, she wrapped her shawl
+around her, put her feet on the round of a neighboring chair, to keep
+them from the icy floor and gave herself up to the perusal of the
+volume.
+
+The sun went down in a wintry sky; the solemn red light burning on the
+funeral pyre of day streamed through the undraped windows, flushed the
+fretted facade of the Taj Mahal, glowed on the marble floor, and warmed
+and brightened the serene, lovely face of the earnest young student. As
+the flame faded in the west, where two stars leaped from the pearly
+ashes, the fine print of Edna's book grew dim, and she turned the page
+to catch the mellow, silvery radiance of the full moon, which, shining
+low in the east, threw a ghastly lustre on the awful form and floating
+white hair of the Cimbrian woman on the wall. But between the orphan
+and the light, close beside her chair, stood a tall, dark figure, with
+uncovered head and outstretched hands.
+
+She sprang to her feet, uttering a cry of mingled alarm and delight,
+for she knew that erect, stately form and regal head could belong to
+but one person.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Murray! Can it be possible that you have indeed come home to
+your sad, desolate mother? Oh! for her sake I am so glad!"
+
+She had clasped her hands tightly in the first instant of surprise, and
+stood looking at him, with fear and pleasure struggling for mastery in
+her eloquent countenance.
+
+"Edna, have you no word of welcome, no friendly hand, to offer a man
+who has been wandering for four long years among strangers in distant
+lands?"
+
+It was not the harsh, bitter voice whose mocking echoes had haunted her
+ears during his absence, but a tone so low and deep and mournful, so
+inexplicably sweet, and she could not recognize it as his, and, unable
+to utter a word, she put her hand in his outstretched palm. His fingers
+closed over it with a pressure that was painful, and her eyes fell
+beneath the steady, searching gaze he fixed on her face.
+
+For fully a minute they stood motionless; then he took a match from his
+pocket, lighted a gas globe that hung over the Taj, and locked the door
+leading into the rotunda.
+
+"My mother is dining out, Hagar informed me. Tell me, is she well? And
+have you made her happy while I was far away?"
+
+He came back, leaned his elbow on the carved top of the cushioned
+chair, and partly shading his eyes with his hand, looked down into the
+girl's face.
+
+"Your mother is very well indeed, but anxious and unhappy on your
+account, and I think you will find her thinner and paler than when you
+saw her last."
+
+"Then you have not done your duty, as I requested?"
+
+"I could not take your place, sir, and your last letter led her to
+believe that you would be absent for another year. She thinks that at
+this instant you are in the heart of Persia. Last night, when the
+servant came from the post-office without the letter which she
+confidently expected, her eyes filled with tears, and she said, 'He has
+ceased to think of his home, and loves the excitement of travel better
+than his mother's peace of mind.' Why did you deceive her? Why did you
+rob her of all the joy of anticipating your speedy return?"
+
+As she glanced at him, she saw the old scowl settling heavily between
+his eyes, and the harshness had crept back to the voice that answered:
+
+"I did not deceive her. It was a sudden and unexpected circumstance
+that determined my return. Moreover, she should long since have
+accustomed herself to find happiness from other sources than my
+society; for no one knows better my detestation of settling down in any
+fixed habitation."
+
+Edna felt all her childish repugnance sweeping over her as she saw the
+swift hardening of his features, and she turned toward the door.
+
+"Where are you going?"
+
+"To send a messenger to your mother, acquainting her with your arrival.
+She would not forgive me if I failed to give her such good tidings at
+the very earliest moment."
+
+"You will do no such thing. I forbid any message. She thinks me in the
+midst of Persian ruins, and can afford to wait an hour longer among her
+friends. How happened it that you also are not at Mrs. Inge's?"
+
+Either the suddenness of the question, or the intentness of his
+scrutiny, or the painful consciousness of the true cause of her failure
+to accept the invitation, brought back the blood which surprise had
+driven from her cheeks.
+
+"I preferred remaining at home."
+
+"Home! home!" he repeated, and continued vehemently: "Do you really
+expect me to believe that a girl of your age, with the choice of a
+dinner-party among the elite, with lace, silk, and feathers, champagne,
+bon-mot, and scandal, flattering speeches and soft looks from young
+gentlemen, biting words and hard looks from old ladies, or the
+alternative of a dull, lonely evening in this cold, dreary den of mine,
+shut up with mummies, MSS., and musty books, could deliberately decline
+the former and voluntarily select the latter? Such an anomaly in
+sociology, such a lusus naturae, might occur in Bacon's 'Bensalem,' or
+in some undiscovered and unimagined realm, where the men are all brave,
+honest, and true, and the women conscientious and constant! But here!
+and now? Ah! pardon me! Impossible!"
+
+Edna felt as if Momus' suggestion to Vulcan, of a window in the human
+heart, whereby one's thoughts might be rendered visible, had been
+adopted; for, under the empaling eye bent upon her, the secret motives
+of her conduct seemed spread out as on a scroll, which he read as well.
+
+"I was invited to Mrs. Inge's, yet you find me here, because I
+preferred a quiet evening at home to a noisy one elsewhere. How do you
+explain the contradiction if you disbelieve my words?"
+
+"I am not so inexperienced as to tax my ingenuity with any such burden.
+With the Penelope web of female motives may fates and furies forbid
+rash meddling. Unless human nature here in America has undergone a
+radical change, nay, a most complete transmogrification, since I
+abjured it some years ago; unless this year is to be chronicled as an
+Avatar of truth and unselfishness, I will stake all my possessions on
+the assertion that some very peculiar and cogent reason, something
+beyond the desire to prosecute archaeological researches, has driven
+you to decline the invitation."
+
+She made no reply, but opened the book-case and replaced the volume
+which she had been reading; and he saw that she glanced uneasily toward
+the door, as if longing to escape.
+
+"Are you insulted at my presumption in thus catechising you?"
+
+"I am sorry, sir, to find that you have lost none of your cynicism in
+your travels."
+
+"Do you regard travelling as a panacea for minds diseased?"
+
+She looked up and smiled in his face--a smile so bright and arch and
+merry, that even a stone might have caught the glow.
+
+"Certainly not, Mr. Murray, as you are the most incorrigible traveller
+I have ever known."
+
+But there was no answering gleam on his darkening countenance as he
+watched her, and the brief silence that ensued was annoying to his
+companion, who felt less at ease every moment, and convinced that with
+such antagonism of character existing between them, all her peaceful,
+happy days at Le Bocage were drawing to a close.
+
+"Mr. Murray, I am cold, and I should like to go to the fire if you have
+no more questions to ask, and will be so kind as to unlock the door."
+
+He glanced round the room, and taking his grey travelling shawl from a
+chair where he had thrown it, laid it in a heap on the marble tiles,
+and said:
+
+"Yes, this floor is icy. Stand on the shawl, though I am well aware you
+are more tired of me than of the room."
+
+Another long pause followed, and then St. Elmo Murray came close to his
+companion, saying:
+
+"For four long years I have been making an experiment--one of those
+experiments which men frequently attempt, believing all the time that
+it is worse than child's play, and half hoping that it will prove so
+and sanction the wisdom of their skepticism concerning the result. When
+I left home I placed in your charge the key of my private desk or
+cabinet, exacting the promise that only upon certain conditions would
+you venture to open it. Those contingencies have not arisen,
+consequently there can be no justification for your having made
+yourself acquainted with the contents of the vault. I told you I
+trusted the key in your hands; I did not. I felt assured you would
+betray the confidence. It was not a trust--it was a temptation, which I
+believed no girl or woman would successfully resist. I am here to
+receive an account of your stewardship, and I tell you now I doubt you.
+Where is the key?"
+
+She took from her pocket a small ivory box, and opening it drew out the
+little key and handed it to him.
+
+"Mr. Murray, it was a confidence which I never solicited, which has
+caused me much pain, because it necessitated concealment from your
+mother, but which--God is my witness--I have not betrayed. There is the
+key, but of the contents of the tomb I know nothing. It was ungenerous
+in you to tempt a child as you did; to offer a premium as it were for a
+violation of secrecy, by whetting my curiosity and then placing in my
+own hands the means of gratifying it. Of course I have wondered what
+the mystery was, and why you selected me for its custodian; and I have
+often wished to inspect the interior of that marble cabinet; but child
+though I was, I think I would have gone to the stake sooner than
+violate my promise."
+
+As he took the key she observed that his hand trembled and that a
+sudden pallor overspread his face.
+
+"Edna Earl, I give you one last chance to be truthful with me. If you
+yielded to the temptation--and what woman, what girl, would not?--it
+would be no more than I really expected, and you will scarcely have
+disappointed me; for, as I told you, I put no faith in you. But even if
+you succumbed to a natural curiosity, be honest and confess it!"
+
+She looked up steadily into his inquisitorial eyes, and answered:
+
+"I have nothing to confess."
+
+He laid his hand heavily on her shoulder, and his tone was eager,
+vehement, pleading, tremulous:
+
+"Can you look me in the eye--so--and say that you never put this key in
+yonder lock? Edna! more hangs on your words than you dream of. Be
+truthful! as if you were indeed in the presence of the God you worship.
+I can forgive you for prying into my affairs, but I can not and will
+not pardon you for trifling with me now."
+
+"I never unlocked the vault; I never had the key near it but
+once--about a week ago--when I found the tomb covered with cobwebs, and
+twisted the key partly into the hole to drive out the spider. I give
+you my most solemn assurance that I never unlocked it, never saw the
+interior. Your suspicions are ungenerous and unjust--derogatory to you
+and insulting to me."
+
+"The proof is at hand, and if I have indeed unjustly suspected you,
+atonement full and ample shall be made."
+
+Clasping one of her hands so firmly that she could not extricate it, he
+drew her before the Taj Mahal, and stooping, fitted the key to the
+lock. There was a dull click as he turned it, but even then he paused
+and scrutinized her face. It was flushed, and wore a proud, defiant,
+grieved look; his own was colorless as the marble that reflected it,
+and she felt the heavy, rapid beating of his blood, and saw the cords
+thickening on his brow.
+
+"If you have faithfully kept your promise, there will be an explosion
+when I open the vault."
+
+Slowly he turned the key a second time; and as the arched door opened
+and swung back on its golden hinges, there was a flash and sharp report
+from a pistol within.
+
+Edna started involuntarily notwithstanding the warning, and clung to
+his arm an instant, but he took no notice of her whatever. His fingers
+relaxed their iron grasp of hers, his hand dropped to his side, and
+leaning forward, he bowed his head on the marble dome of the little
+temple. How long he stood there she knew not; but the few moments
+seemed to her interminable as she silently watched his motionless
+figure.
+
+He was so still, that finally she conjectured he might possibly have
+fainted from some cause unknown to her; and averse though she was to
+addressing him, she said timidly:
+
+"Mr. Murray, are you ill? Give me the key of the door and I will bring
+you some wine."
+
+There was no answer, and in alarm she put her hand on his.
+
+Tightly he clasped it, and drawing her suddenly close to his side, said
+without raising his face:
+
+"Edna Earl, I have been ill--for years--but I shall be better
+henceforth. O child! child! your calm, pure, guileless soul can not
+comprehend the blackness and dreariness of mine. Better that you should
+lie down now in death, with all the unfolded freshness of your life
+gathered in your grave, than live to know the world as I have proved
+it. For many years I have lived without hope or trust or faith in
+anything--in anybody. To-night I stand here lacking sympathy with or
+respect for my race, and my confidence in human nature was dead; but,
+child, you have galvanized the corpse."
+
+Again the mournful music of his voice touched her heart, and she felt
+her tears rising as she answered in a low, hesitating tone:
+
+"It was not death, Mr. Murray, it was merely syncope and this is a
+healthful reaction from disease."
+
+"No, it will not last. It is but an ignis fatuus that will decoy to
+deeper gloom and darker morasses. I have swept and garnished, and the
+seven other devils will dwell with me forever! My child, I have tempted
+you, and you stood firm. Forgive my suspicions. Twenty years hence, if
+you are so luckless as to live that long, you will not wonder that I
+doubted you, but that my doubt proved unjust. This little vault
+contains no skeleton, no state secrets; only a picture and a few
+jewels, my will, and the history of a wrecked, worthless, utterly
+ruined life. Perhaps if you continue true, and make my mother happy. I
+may put all in your hands some day, when I die; and then you will not
+wonder at my aimless, hopeless, useless life. One thing I wish to say
+now, if at any time you need assistance of any kind--if you are
+troubled--come to me. I am not quite so selfish as the world paints me,
+and even if I seem rude and harsh, do not fear to come to me. You have
+conferred a favor on me, and I do not like to remain in anybody's debt.
+Make me repay you as soon as possible."
+
+"I am afraid, sir, we never can be friends."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because you have no confidence in me, and I would much sooner go for
+sympathy to one of your bronze monsters yonder on the doorsteps, than
+to you. Neither of us likes the other, and consequently a sham
+cordiality would be intolerably irksome. I shall not be here much
+longer; but while we are in the same house, I trust no bitter or unkind
+feelings will be entertained. I thank you, sir, for your polite offer
+of assistance, but hope I shall soon be able to maintain myself without
+burdening your mother any longer."
+
+"How long have you burdened her?"
+
+"Ever since that night when I was picked up lame and helpless, and
+placed in her kind hands."
+
+"I should like to know whether you really love my mother?"
+
+"Next to the memory of my grandfather, I love her and Mr. Hammond; and
+I feel that my gratitude is beyond expression. There, your mother is
+coming! I hear the carriage. Shall I tell her you are here?"
+
+Without raising his face, he took the key of the door from his pocket,
+and held it toward her. "No; I will meet her in her own room."
+
+Edna hastened to the library, and throwing herself into a chair, tried
+to collect her thoughts and reflect upon what had passed in the
+"Egyptian Museum."
+
+Very soon Mrs. Murray's cry of joyful surprise rang through the house,
+and tears of sympathy rose to Edna's eyes as fancy pictured the happy
+meeting in the neighboring room. Notwithstanding the strong antipathy
+to Mr. Murray which she had assiduously cultivated, and despite her
+conviction that he held in derision the religious faith, to which she
+clung so tenaciously, she was now disquieted and pained to discover
+that his bronzed face possessed an attraction--an indescribable
+fascination--which she had found nowhere else. In striving to analyze
+the interest she was for the first time conscious of feeling, she
+soothed herself with the belief that it arose from curiosity concerning
+his past life, and sympathy for his evident misanthropy. It was in vain
+that she endeavored to fix her thoughts on a book; his eyes met hers on
+every page, and when the bell summoned her to a late supper, she was
+glad to escape from her own confused reflections.
+
+Mrs. Murray and her son were standing on the rug before the grate, and
+as Edna entered, the former held out her hand.
+
+"Have you seen my son? Come and congratulate me." She kissed the girl's
+forehead, and continued:
+
+"St. Elmo, has she not changed astonishingly? Would you have known her
+had you met her away from home?"
+
+"I should certainly have known her under all circumstances."
+
+He did not look at her, but resumed the conversation with his mother
+which her entrance had interrupted, and during supper Edna could
+scarcely realize that the cold, distant man, who took no more notice of
+her than of one of the salt cellars, was the same whom she had left
+leaning over the Taj. Not the faintest trace of emotion lingered on the
+dark, stony features, over which occasionally flickered the light of a
+sarcastic smile, as he briefly outlined the course of his wanderings;
+and now that she could, without being observed, study his countenance,
+she saw that he looked much older, more worn and haggard and hopeless,
+than when last at home, and that the thick, curling hair that clung in
+glossy rings to his temples was turning grey.
+
+When they arose from the table, Mrs. Murray took an exquisite bouquet
+from the mantelpiece and said:
+
+"Edna, I was requested to place this in your hands, as a token of the
+regard and remembrance of your friend and admirer, Gordon Leigh, who
+charged me to assure you that your absence spoiled his enjoyment of the
+day. As he seemed quite inconsolable because of your non-attendance, I
+promised that you should ride with him to-morrow afternoon."
+
+As Edna glanced up to receive the flowers, she met the merciless gaze
+she so much dreaded, and in her confusion let the bouquet fall on the
+carpet. Mr. Murray picked it up, inhaled the fragrance, rearranged some
+of the geranium leaves that had been crushed, and, smiling bitterly all
+the while, bowed, and put it securely in her hand.
+
+"Edna, you have no other engagement for to-morrow?"
+
+"Yes, madam, I have promised to spend it with Mr. Hammond."
+
+"Then you must excuse yourself, for I will not have Gordon disappointed
+again."
+
+Too much annoyed to answer, Edna left the room, but paused in the hall
+and beckoned to Mrs. Murray, who instantly joined her.
+
+"Of course, you will not have prayers to-night, as Mr. Murray has
+returned?"
+
+"For that very reason I want to have them, to make a public
+acknowledgment of my gratitude that my son has been restored to me. Oh!
+if he would only consent to be present!"
+
+"It is late, and he will probably plead fatigue."
+
+"Leave that with me, and when I ring the bell, come to the library."
+
+The orphan went to her room and diligently copied an essay which she
+intended to submit to Mr. Hammond for criticism on the following day;
+and as the comparative merits of the Solonian and Lycurgan codes
+constituted her theme, she soon became absorbed by Grecian politics,
+and was only reminded of the events of the evening, when the muezzin
+bell sounded, calling the household to prayer.
+
+She laid down her pen and hurried to the library, whither Mrs. Murray
+had enticed her son, who was standing before one of the book-cases,
+looking over the table of contents of a new scientific work. The
+servants came in and ranged themselves near the door, and suddenly Mrs.
+Murray said:
+
+"You must take my place to-night, Edna; I can not read aloud."
+
+The orphan looked up appealingly, but an imperative gesture silenced
+her, and she sat down before the table, bewildered and frightened. Mr.
+Murray glanced around the room, and with a look of wrath and scorn
+threw down the book and turned toward the door; but his mother's hand
+seized his--
+
+"My son, for my sake, do not go! Out of respect for me, remain the
+first evening of your return. For my sake, St. Elmo!"
+
+He frowned, shook off her hands, and strode to the door; then
+reconsidered the matter, came back, and stood at the fireplace, leaning
+his elbow on the mantel, looking gloomily at the coals.
+
+Although painfully embarrassed as she took her seat and prepared to
+conduct the services in his presence, Edna felt a great calm steal over
+her spirit when she opened the Bible and read her favorite chapter, the
+fourteenth of St. John.
+
+Her sweet, flexible voice, gradually losing its tremor, rolled
+soothingly through the room; and when she knelt and repeated the prayer
+selected for the occasion--a prayer of thanks for the safe return of a
+traveller to the haven of home--her tone was full of pathos and an
+earnestness that strangely stirred the proud heart of the wanderer as
+he stood there, looking through his fingers at her uplifted face, and
+listening to the first prayer that had reached his ears for nearly
+nineteen weary years of sin and scoffing.
+
+When Edna rose from her knees he had left the room, and she heard his
+swift steps echoing drearily through the rotunda.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+"I do not wish to interrupt you. There is certainly room enough in this
+library for both, and my entrance need not prove the signal for your
+departure."
+
+Mr. Murray closed the door as he came in, and walking up to the
+book-cases, stood carefully examining the titles of the numerous
+volumes. It was a cold, dismal morning, and sobbing wintry winds and
+the ceaseless pattering of rain made the outer world seem dreary in
+comparison with the genial atmosphere and the ruddy glow of the cosy,
+luxurious library, where choice exotics breathed their fragrance and
+early hyacinths exhaled their rich perfume. In the centre of the
+morocco-covered table stood a tall glass bowl, filled with white
+camellias, and from its scalloped edges drooped a fringe of scarlet
+fuchsias; while near the window was a china statuette, in whose daily
+adornment Edna took unwearied interest. It was a lovely Flora, whose
+slender fingers held aloft small tulip-shaped vases, into which fresh
+blossoms were inserted every morning. The head was so arranged as to
+contain water, and thus preserve the wreath of natural flowers which
+crowned the goddess. To-day golden crocuses nestled down on the
+streaming hair, and purple pansies filled the fairy hands, while the
+tiny, rosy feet sank deep in the cushion of fine, green mosses, studded
+with double violets.
+
+Edna had risen to leave the room when the master of the house entered,
+but at his request resumed her seat and continued reading.
+
+After searching the shelves unavailingly, he glanced over his shoulder
+and asked:
+
+"Have you seen my copy of De Guerin's 'Centaur' anywhere about the
+house? I had it a week ago."
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir, for causing such a fruitless search; here is
+the book. I picked it up on the front steps, where you were reading a
+few afternoons since, and it opened at a passage that attracted my
+attention."
+
+She closed the volume and held it toward him, but he waved it back.
+
+"Keep it if it interests you. I have read it once, and merely wished to
+refer to a particular passage. Can you guess what sentence most
+frequently recurs to me? If so, read it to me."
+
+He drew a chair close to the hearth and lighted his cigar.
+
+Hesitatingly Edna turned the leaves.
+
+"I am afraid, sir, that my selection would displease you."
+
+"I will risk it, as, notwithstanding your flattering opinion to the
+contrary, I am not altogether so unreasonable as to take offense at a
+compliance with my own request."
+
+Still she shrank from the task he imposed, and her fingers toyed with
+the scarlet fuchsias; but after eyeing her for a while, he leaned
+forward and pushed the glass bowl beyond her reach.
+
+"Edna, I am waiting."
+
+"Well, then, Mr. Murray, I should think that these two passages would
+impress you with peculiar force."
+
+Raising the book she read with much emphasis:
+
+"Thou pursuest after wisdom, O Melampus! which is the science of the
+will of the gods; AND THOU ROAMEST FROM PEOPLE TO PEOPLE, LIKE A MORTAL
+DRIVEN BY THE DESTINIES. In the times when I kept my night-watches
+before the caverns, I have sometimes believed that I was about to
+surprise the thoughts of the sleeping Cybele, and that the mother of
+the gods, betrayed by her dreams, would let fall some of her secrets.
+But I have never yet made out more than sounds which faded away in the
+murmur of night, of words inarticulate as the bubbling of the rivers.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Seekest thou to know the gods, O Macareus! and from what source men,
+animals, and the elements of the universal fire have their origin? The
+aged ocean, the father of all things, keeps locked within his own
+breast these secrets; and the nymphs who stand around sing as they
+weave their eternal dance before him, to cover any sound which might
+escape from his lips, half opened by slumber. Mortals dear to the gods
+for their virtue have received from their hands lyres to give delight
+to man, or the seeds of new plants to make him rich, but from their
+inexorable lips--nothing!"
+
+"Mr. Murray, am I correct in my conjecture?"
+
+"Quite correct," he answered, smiling grimly.
+
+Taking the book from her hand he threw it on the table, and tossed his
+cigar into the grate, adding in a defiant, challenging tone:
+
+"The mantle of Solomon did not fall at Le Cayla on the shoulders of
+Maurice de Guerin. After all, he was a wretched hypochondriac, and a
+tinge of le cahier vert doubtless crept into his eyes."
+
+"Do you forget, sir, that he said, 'When one is a wanderer, one feels
+that one fulfills the true condition of humanity'? and that among his
+last words are these, 'The stream of travel is full of delight. Oh! who
+will set me adrift on this Nile?'"
+
+"Pardon me if I remind you, par parenthese, of the preliminary and
+courteous En garde! which should be pronounced before a thrust. De
+Guerin felt starved in Languedoc, and no wonder! But had he penetrated
+every nook and cranny of the habitable globe, and traversed the vast
+zaarahs which science accords the universe, he would have died at last
+as hungry as Ugolino. I speak advisedly, for the true Io gad-fly,
+ennui, has stung me from hemisphere to hemisphere, across tempestuous
+oceans, scorching deserts, and icy mountain ranges. I have faced alike
+the bourrans of the steppes and the Samieli of Shamo, and the result of
+my vandal life is best epitomized in those grand but grim words of
+Bossuet: 'On trouve au fond de tout le vide et le neant.' Nineteen
+years ago, to satisfy my hunger, I set out to hunt the daintiest food
+this world could furnish, and, like other fools, have learned finally,
+that life is but a huge, mellow, golden Osher, that mockingly sifts its
+bitter dust upon our eager lips. Ah! truly, on trouve au fond de tout
+le vide et le neant!"
+
+"Mr. Murray, if you insist upon your bitter Osher smile, why shut your
+eyes to the palpable analogy suggested? Naturalists assert that the
+Solanum, or apple of Sodom, contains in its normal state neither dust
+nor ashes, unless it is punctured by an insect (the Tenthredo), which
+converts the whole of the inside into dust, leaving nothing but the
+rind entire, without any loss of color. Human life is as fair and
+tempting as the fruit of 'Ain Jidy,' till stung and poisoned by the
+Tenthredo of sin."
+
+All conceivable suaviter in modo characterized his mocking countenance
+and tone, as he inclined his haughty head and asked:
+
+"Will you favor me by lifting on the point of your dissecting-knife
+this stinging sin of mine to which you refer? The noxious brood swarm
+so teasingly about my ears that they deprive me of your cool, clear,
+philosophic discrimination. Which particular Tenthredo of the buzzing
+swarm around my spoiled apple of life would you advise me to select for
+my anathema maranatha?"
+
+"Of your history, sir, I am entirely ignorant; and even if I were not,
+I should not presume to levy a tax upon it in discussions with you;
+for, however vulnerable you may possibly be, I regard an argumentum ad
+hominem as the weakest weapon in the armory of dialectics--a weapon too
+often dipped in the venom of personal malevolence. I merely gave
+expression to my belief that miserable, useless lives are sinful lives;
+that when God framed the world, and called the human race into it, he
+made most munificent provision for all healthful hunger, whether
+physical, intellectual, or moral; and that it is a morbid, diseased,
+distorted nature that wears out its allotted years on earth in bitter
+carping and blasphemous dissatisfaction. The Greeks recognized this
+immemorial truth--wrapped it in classic traditions, and the myth of
+Tantalus constituted its swaddling-clothes. You are a scholar, Mr.
+Murray; look back and analyze the derivation and significance of that
+fable. Tantalus, the son of Pluto, or Wealth, was, according to Pindar,
+'a wanderer from happiness,' and the name represents a man abounding in
+wealth, but whose appetite was so insatiable, even at the ambrosial
+feast of the gods, that it ultimately doomed him to eternal unsatisfied
+thirst and hunger in Tartarus. The same truth crops out in the legend
+of Midas, who found himself starving while his touch converted all
+things to gold."
+
+"Doubtless you have arrived at the charitable conclusion that, as I am
+endowed with all the amiable idiosyncrasies of ancient cynics, I shall
+inevitably join the snarling Dives Club in Hades, and swell the howling
+chorus. Probably I shall not disappoint your kind and eminently
+Christian expectations; nor will I deprive you of the gentle
+satisfaction of hissing across the gulf of perdition, which will then
+divide us, that summum bonum of feminine felicity, 'I told you so!'"
+
+The reckless mockery of his manner made Edna shiver, and a tremor crept
+across her beautiful lips as she answered sadly:
+
+"You torture my words into an interpretation of which I never dreamed,
+and look upon all things through the distorting lenses of your own
+moodiness. It is worse than useless for us to attempt an amicable
+discussion, for your bitterness never slumbers, your suspicions are
+ever on the qui vive."
+
+She rose, but he quickly laid his hand on her shoulder, and pressed her
+back into the chair.
+
+"You will be so good as to sit still, and hear me out. I have a right
+to all my charming, rose-colored views of this world. I have gone to
+and fro on the earth, and life has proved a Barmecide's banquet of just
+thirty-eight years' duration."
+
+"But, sir, you lacked the patience and resolution of Shacabac, or, like
+him, you would have finally grasped the splendid realities. The world
+must be conquered, held in bondage to God's law and man's reason,
+before we can hope to levy tribute that will support our moral and
+mental natures; and it is only when humanity finds itself in the
+inverted order of serfdom to the world, that it dwarfs its capacities,
+and even then dies of famine."
+
+The scornful gleam died out of his eyes, and mournful compassion stole
+in.
+
+"Ah! how impetuously youth springs to the battlefield of life! Hope
+exorcises the gaunt spectre of defeat, and fancy fingers unwon trophies
+and fadeless bays; but slow-stepping experience, pallid, blood-stained,
+spent with toil, lays her icy hand on the rosy veil that floats before
+bright, brave, young eyes, and lo' the hideous wreck, the bleaching
+bones, the grinning, ghastly horrors that strew the scene of combat! No
+burnished eagles nor streaming banners, neither spoils of victory nor
+paeans of triumph, only silence and gloom and death--slow-sailing
+vultures--and a voiceless desolation! Oh, child! if you would find a
+suitable type of that torn and trampled battlefield--the human
+heart--when vice and virtue, love and hate, revenge and remorse, have
+wrestled fiercely for the mastery--go back to your Tacitus, and study
+there the dismal picture of that lonely Teutoburgium, where Varus and
+his legions went down in the red burial of battle! You talk of
+'conquering the world--holding it in bondage!' What do you know of its
+perils and subtle temptations--of the glistening quicksands whose
+smooth lips already gape to engulf you? The very vilest fiend in hell
+might afford to pause and pity your delusion ere turning to
+machinations destined to rouse you rudely from your silly dreams. Ah!
+you remind me of a little innocent, happy child, playing on some
+shining beach, when the sky is quiet, the winds are hushed, and all
+things wrapped in rest, save
+
+   'The water lapping on the crag,
+    And the long ripple washing in the reeds'--
+
+a fair, fearless child, gathering polished pearly shells with which to
+build fairy palaces, and suddenly, as she catches the mournful murmur
+of the immemorial sea, that echoes in the flushed and folded chambers
+of the stranded shells, her face pales with awe and wonder--the
+childish lips part, the childish eyes are strained to discover the
+mystery; and while the whispering monotone admonishes of howling storms
+and sinking argosies, she smiles and listens, sees only the glowing
+carmine of the fluted reels, hears only the magic music of the sea
+sirens--and the sky blackens, the winds leap to their track of ruin,
+the great deep rises wrathful and murderous, bellowing for victims, and
+Cyclone reigns? Thundering waves sweep over and bear away the frail
+palaces that decked the strand, and even while the shell symphony still
+charms the ear, the child's rosy feet are washed from their sandy
+resting-place; she is borne on howling billows far out to a lashed and
+maddened main, strewn with human drift; and numb with horror she sinks
+swiftly to a long and final rest among purple algae! Even so, Edna, you
+stop your ears with shells, and my warning falls like snow-flakes that
+melt and vanish on the bosom of a stream.
+
+"No, sirs I am willing to be advised. Against what would you warn me?"
+
+"The hollowness of life, the fatuity of your hopes, the treachery of
+that human nature of which you speak so tenderly and reverently. So
+surely as you put faith in the truth and nobility of humanity, you will
+find it as soft-lipped and vicious as Paolo Orsini, who folded his
+wife, Isabella de Medici, most lovingly in his arms, and while he
+tenderly pressed her to his heart, slipped a cord around her neck and
+strangled her."
+
+"I know, sir, that human nature is weak, selfish, sinful--that such
+treacherous monsters as Ezzolino and the Visconti have stained the
+annals of our race with blood-blotches, which the stream of time will
+never efface; but the law of compensation operates here as well as in
+other departments, and brings to light a 'fidus Achates' and Antoninus.
+I believe that human nature is a curious amalgam of meanness, malice
+and magnanimity, and that an earnest, loving Christian charity is the
+only safe touchstone, and furnishes (if you will tolerate the simile)
+the only elective affinity in moral chemistry. Because ingots are not
+dug out of the earth, is it not equally unwise and ungrateful to
+ridicule and denounce the hopeful, patient, tireless laborers who
+handle the alloy and ultimately disintegrate the precious metal? Even
+if the world were bankrupt in morality and religion--which, thank God,
+it is not--one grand shining example, like Mr. Hammond, whose
+unswerving consistency, noble charity, and sublime unselfishness all
+concede and revere, ought to leaven the mass of sneering cynics, and
+win them to a belief in their capacity for rising to pure, holy, almost
+perfect lives."
+
+"Spare me a repetition of the rhapsodies of Madame Guyon! I am not
+surprised that such a novice as you prove yourself should, in the
+stereotyped style of orthodoxy, swear by the hoary Tartuffe, that
+hypocritical wolf, Allan Hammond--"
+
+"Stop, Mr. Murray! You must not, shall not use such language in my
+presence concerning one whom I love and revere above all other human
+beings! How dare you malign that noble Christian, whose lips daily lift
+your name to God, praying for pardon and for peace? Oh! how ungrateful,
+how unworthy you are of his affection and his prayers!"
+
+She had interrupted him with an imperious wave of her hand, and stood
+regarding him with an expression of indignation and detestation.
+
+"I neither possess nor desire his affection or his prayers."
+
+"Sir, you know that you do not deserve, but you most certainly have
+both."
+
+"How did you obtain your information?"
+
+"Accidentally, when he was so surprised and grieved to hear that you
+had started on your long voyage to Oceanica."
+
+"He availed himself of that occasion to acquaint you with all my
+heinous sins, my youthful crimes and follies, my--"
+
+"No, sir! he told me nothing, except that you no longer loved him as in
+your boyhood; that you had become estranged from him; and then he wept,
+and added, 'I love him still; I shall pray for him as long as I live.'"
+
+"Impossible! You can not deceive me! In the depths of his heart he
+hates and curses me. Even a brooding dove--pshaw! Allan Hammond is but
+a man, and it would be unnatural--utterly impossible that he could
+still think kindly of his old pupil. Impossible!"
+
+Mr. Murray rose and stood before the grate with his face averted, and
+his companion seized the opportunity to say in a low, determined tone:
+
+"Of the causes that induced your estrangement I am absolutely ignorant.
+Nothing has been told me, and it is a matter about which I have
+conjectured little. But, sir, I have seen Mr. Hammond every day for
+four years, and I know what I say when I tell you that he loves you as
+well as if you were his own son. Moreover, he--"
+
+"Hush! you talk of what you do not understand. Believe in him if you
+will, but be careful not to chant his praises in my presence; not to
+parade your credulity before my eyes, if you do not desire that I shall
+disenchant you. Just now you are duped--so was I at your age. Your
+judgment slumbers, experience is in its swaddling-clothes; but I shall
+bide my time, and the day will come ere long when these hymns of
+hero-worship shall be hushed, and you stand clearer-eyed,
+darker-hearted, before the mouldering altar of your god of clay."
+
+"From such an awakening may God preserve me! Even if our religion were
+not divine, I should clasp to my heart the system and the faith that
+make Mr. Hammond's life serene and sublime. Oh! that I may be 'duped'
+into that perfection of character which makes his example beckon me
+ever onward and upward. If you have no gratitude, no reverence left, at
+least remember the veneration with which I regard him, and do not in my
+hearing couple his name with sneers and insults."
+
+"'Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone!'" muttered the master of
+the house, with one of those graceful, mocking bows that always
+disconcerted the orphan.
+
+She was nervously twisting Mr. Leigh's ring around her finger, and as
+it was too large, it slipped off, rang on the hearth, and rolled to Mr.
+Murray's feet.
+
+Picking it up he examined the emerald, and repeating the inscription,
+asked:
+
+"Do you understand these words?"
+
+"I only know that they have been translated, 'Peace be with thee, or
+upon thee.'"
+
+"How came Gordon Leigh's ring on your hand? Has Tartuffe's Hebrew
+scheme succeeded so soon and so thoroughly?"
+
+"I do not understand you, Mr. Murray."
+
+"Madame ma mere proves an admirable ally in this clerical matchmaker's
+deft hands, and Gordon's pathway is widened and weeded. Happy Gordon!
+blessed with such able coadjutors!"
+
+The cold, sarcastic glitter of his eyes wounded and humiliated the
+girl, and her tone was haughty and defiant--
+
+"You deal in innuendoes which I cannot condescend to notice. Mr. Leigh
+is my friend, and gave me this ring as a birthday present. As your
+mother advised me to accept it, and indeed placed it on my finger, her
+sanction should certainly exempt me from your censure."
+
+"Censure! Pardon me! It is no part of my business; but I happen to know
+something of gem symbols, and must be allowed to suggest that this
+selection is scarcely comme il faut for a betrothal ring."
+
+Edna's face crimsoned, and the blood tingled to her fingers' ends.
+
+"As it was never intended as such, your carping criticism loses its
+point."
+
+He stood with the jewel between his thumb and fore-finger, eyeing her
+fixedly, and on his handsome features shone a smile, treacherous and
+chilling as arctic snowblink.
+
+"Pliny's injunction to lapidaries to spare the smooth surface of
+emeralds seems to have been forgotten when this ring was fashioned. It
+was particularly unkind, nay, cruel to put it on the hand of a woman,
+who of course must and will follow the example of all her sex, and go
+out fishing most diligently in the matrimonial sea; for if you have
+chanced to look into gem history, you will remember what befell the
+fish on the coast of Cyprus, where the emerald eyes of the marble lion
+glared down so mercilessly through the nets, that the fishermen could
+catch nothing until they removed the jewels that constituted the eyes
+of the lion. Do you recollect the account?"
+
+"No, sir, I never read it."
+
+"Indeed! How deplorably your education has been neglected! I thought
+your adored Dominie Sampson down yonder at the parsonage was teaching
+you a prodigious amount?"
+
+"Give me my ring, Mr. Murray, and I will leave you."
+
+"Shall I not enlighten you on the subject of emeralds?"
+
+"Thank you, sir, I believe not, as what I have already heard does not
+tempt me to prosecute the subject."
+
+"You think me insufferably presumptuous?"
+
+"That is a word which I should scarcely be justified in applying to
+you."
+
+"You regard me as meddlesome and tyrannical?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"I generally prefer to receive answers to my questions. Pray, what do
+you consider me?"
+
+She hesitated a moment, and said sadly and gently:
+
+"Mr. Murray, is it generous in you to question me thus in your own
+house?"
+
+"I do not claim to be generous, and the world would indignantly defend
+me from such an imputation! Generous? On the contrary, I declare
+explicitly that, unlike some 'whited supulchres' of my acquaintance, I
+do not intend to stand labeled with patent virtues! Neither do I parade
+mezuzoth on my doors. I humbly beg you to recollect that I am not a
+carefully-printed perambulating advertisement of Christianity."
+
+Raising her face, Edna looked steadfastly at him, and pain, compassion,
+shuddering dread filled her soft, sad eyes.
+
+"Well, you are reading me. What is the verdict?"
+
+A long, heavily-drawn sigh was the only response.
+
+"Will you be good enough to reply to my questions?"
+
+"No, Mr. Murray. In lieu of perpetual strife and biting words, let
+there be silence between us. We can not be friends, and it would be
+painful to wage war here under your roof; consequently, I hope to
+disarm your hostility by assuring you that in future I shall not
+attempt to argue with you, shall not pick up the verbal gauntlets you
+seem disposed to throw down to me. Surely, sir, if not generous you are
+at least sufficiently courteous to abstain from attacks which you have
+been notified will not be resisted?"
+
+"You wish me to understand that hereafter I, the owner and ruler of
+this establishment, shall on no account presume to address my remarks
+to Aaron Hunt's grandchild?"
+
+"My words were very clear, Mr. Murray, and I meant what I said, and
+said what I meant. But one thing I wish to add: while I remain here, if
+at any time I can aid or serve you, Aaron Hunt's grandchild will most
+gladly do so. I do not flatter myself that you will ever require or
+accept my assistance in anything, nevertheless I would cheerfully
+render it should occasion arise."
+
+He bowed and returned the emerald, and Edna turned to leave the library.
+
+"Before you go, examine this bauble."
+
+He took from his vest pocket a velvet case containing a large ring,
+which he laid in the palm of her hand.
+
+It was composed of an oval jacinth, with a splendid scarlet fire
+leaping out as the light shone on it, and the diamonds that clustered
+around it were very costly and brilliant. There was no inscription, but
+upon the surface of the jacinth was engraved a female head crowned with
+oak leaves, among which serpents writhed and hissed, and just beneath
+the face grinned a dog's head. The small but exquisitely carved human
+face was savage, sullen, sinister, and fiery rays seemed to dart from
+the relentless eyes.
+
+"Is it a Medusa?"
+
+"No."
+
+"It is certainly very beautiful, but I do not recognize the face.
+Interpret for me."
+
+"It is Hecate, Brimo, Empusa--all phases of the same malignant power;
+and it remains a mere matter of taste which of the titles you select. I
+call it Hecate."
+
+"I have never seen you wear it."
+
+"You never will."
+
+"It is exceedingly beautiful."
+
+Edna held it toward the grate, flashed the flame now on this side, now
+on that, and handed it back to the owner.
+
+"Edna, I bought this ring in Naples, intending to ask your acceptance
+of it, in token of my appreciation of your care of that little gold
+key, provided I found you trustworthy. After your pronunciamento
+uttered a few minutes since, I presume I may save myself the trouble of
+offering it to you. Beside, Gordon might object to having his emerald
+over-shadowed by my matchless jacinth. Of course, your tender
+conscience will veto the thought of your wearing it?"
+
+"I thank you, Mr. Murray; the ring is, by far, the most beautiful I
+have ever seen, but I certainly can not accept it."
+
+"Bithus contra Bacchium!" exclaimed Mr. Murray, with a short, mirthless
+laugh that made his companion shrink back a few steps.
+
+Holding the ring at arm's length above his head, he continued:
+
+"To the 'infernal flames,' your fit type, I devote you, my costly Queen
+of Samothrace!"
+
+Leaning over the grate, he dropped the jewel in the glowing coals.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Murray! save it from destruction!"
+
+She seized the tongs and sprang forward, but he put out his arm and
+held her back.
+
+"Stand aside, if you please. Cleopatra quaffed liquid pearl in honor of
+Antony, Nero shivered his precious crystal goblets, and Suger pounded
+up sapphires to color the windows of old St. Denis! Chacun a son gout!
+If I choose to indulge myself in a diamond cremation in honor of my
+tutelary goddess Brimo, who has the right to expostulate? True, such
+costly amusements have been rare since the days of the 'Cyranides' and
+the 'Seven Seals' of Hermes Trismegistus. See what a tawny, angry glare
+leaps from my royal jacinth! Old Hecate holds high carnival down there
+in her congenial flames."
+
+He stood with one arm extended to bar Edna's approach, the other rested
+on the mantel; and a laughing, reckless demon looked out of his eyes,
+which were fastened on the fire.
+
+Before the orphan could recover from her sorrowful amazement the
+library door opened and Henry looked in.
+
+"Mr. Leigh is in the parlor, and asked for Miss Edna."
+
+Perplexed, irresolute, and annoyed, Edna stood still, watching the red
+coals; and after a brief silence, Mr. Murray smiled, and turned to look
+at her.
+
+"Pray, do not let me detain you, and rest assured that I understand
+your decree. You have entrenched yourself in impenetrable silence, and
+hung out your banner, 'noli me tangere!' Withdraw your pickets; I shall
+attempt neither siege nor escalade. Good morning. Leave my De Guerin on
+the table; it will be at your disposal after to-day."
+
+He stooped to light a cigar, and she walked away to her own room.
+
+As the door closed behind her, he laughed and reiterated the favorite
+proverb that often crossed his lips, "Bithus contra Bacchium!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+The darling scheme of authorship had seized upon Edna's mind with a
+tenacity that conquered and expelled all other purposes, and though
+timidity and a haunting dread of the failure of the experiment prompted
+her to conceal the matter, even from her beloved pastor, she pondered
+it in secret, and bent every faculty to its successful accomplishment.
+Her veneration for books--the great eleemosynary granaries of human
+knowledge to which the world resorts--extended to those who created
+them; and her imagination invested authors with peculiar sanctity, as
+the real hierophants annointed with the chrism of truth. The glittering
+pinnacle of consecrated and successful authorship seemed to her longing
+gaze as sublime, and well-nigh as inaccessible, as the everlasting and
+untrodden Himalayan solitudes appear to some curious child of Thibet or
+Nepaul; who gamboling among pheasants and rhododendrons, shades her
+dazzled eyes with her hand, and looks up awe-stricken and wondering at
+the ice-domes and snow-minarets of lonely Deodunga, earth's loftiest
+and purest altar, nimbused with the dawning and the dying light of the
+day. There were times when the thought of presenting herself as a
+candidate for admission into the band of literary esoterics seemed to
+Edna unpardonably presumptuous, almost sacrilegious, and she shrank
+back, humbled and abashed; for writers were teachers, interpreters,
+expounders, discoverers, or creators--and what could she, just
+stumbling through the alphabet of science and art, hope to donate to
+her race that would ennoble human motives or elevate aspirations? Was
+she, an unknown and inexperienced girl, worthy to be girded with the
+ephod that draped so royally the Levites of literature? Had God's own
+hand set the Urim and Thummim of Genius in her soul? Above all, was she
+mitred with the plate of pure gold--"Holiness unto the Lord?"
+
+Solemnly and prayerfully she weighed the subject, and having finally
+resolved to make one attempt, she looked trustingly to heaven for aid
+and went vigorously to work. To write currente calamo for the mere
+pastime of author and readers, without aiming to inculcate some
+regenerative principle, or to photograph some valuable phase of protean
+truth, was in her estimation ignoble; for her high standard demanded
+that all books should be to a certain extent didactic, wandering like
+evangels among the people, and making some man, woman, or child
+happier, or wiser, or better--more patient or more hopeful--by their
+utterances. Believing that every earnest author's mind should prove a
+mint, where all valuable ores are collected from the rich veins of a
+universe--are cautiously coined, and thence munificently
+circulated--she applied herself diligently to the task of gathering,
+from various sources the data required for her projected work: a
+vindication of the unity of mythologies. The vastness of the cosmic
+field she was now compelled to traverse, the innumerable ramifications
+of polytheistic and monotheistic creeds, necessitated unwearied
+research, as she rent asunder the superstitious veils which various
+nations and successive epochs had woven before the shining features of
+truth. To-day peering into the golden Gardens of the Sun at Cuzco;
+to-morrow clambering over Thibet glaciers, to find the mystic lake of
+Yamuna; now delighted to recognize in Teoyamiqui (the wife of the Aztec
+God of War) the unmistakable features of Scandinavian Valkyrias; and
+now surprised to discover the Greek Fates sitting under the Norse tree
+Ygdrasil, deciding the destinies of mortals, and calling themselves
+Nornas; she spent her days in pilgrimages to mouldering shrines, and
+midnight often found her groping in the classic dust of extinct
+systems. Having once grappled with her theme, she wrestled as
+obstinately as Jacob for the blessing of a successful solution, and in
+order to popularize a subject bristling with recondite archaisms and
+philologic problems, she cast it in the mould of fiction. The
+information and pleasure which she had derived from the perusal of
+Vaughan's delightful Hours with the Mystics, suggested the idea of
+adopting a similar plan for her own book, and investing it with the
+additional interest of a complicated plot and more numerous characters.
+To avoid anachronisms, she endeavored to treat the religions of the
+world in their chronologic sequence, and resorted to the expedient of
+introducing pagan personages. A fair young priestess of the temple of
+Neith, in the sacred city of Sais--where people of all climes collected
+to witness the festival of lamps--becoming skeptical of the miraculous
+attributes of the statues she had been trained to serve and worship,
+and impelled by an earnest love of truth to seek a faith that would
+satisfy her reason and purify her heart, is induced to question
+minutely the religious tenets of travellers who visited the temple, and
+thus familiarized herself with all existing creeds and hierarchies. The
+lore so carefully garnered is finally analyzed, classified, and
+inscribed on papyrus. The delineation of scenes and sanctuaries in
+different latitudes, from Lhasa to Copan, gave full exercise to Edna's
+descriptive power, but imposed much labor in the departments of
+physical geography and architecture.
+
+Verily! an ambitious literary programme for a girl over whose head
+scarcely eighteen years had hung their dripping drab wintry skies, and
+pearly summer clouds.
+
+One March morning, as Edna entered the breakfast-room, she saw unusual
+gravity printed on Mrs. Murray's face; and observing an open letter on
+the table conjectured the cause of her changed countenance. A moment
+after the master came in, and as he seated himself his mother said:
+
+"St. Elmo, your cousin Estelle's letter contains bad news. Her father
+is dead; the estate is wretchedly insolvent; and she is coming to
+reside with us."
+
+"Then I am off for Hammerfest and the midnight sun! Who the deuce
+invited her I should like to know?"
+
+"Remember she is my sister's child; she has no other home, and I am
+sure it is very natural that she should come to me, her nearest
+relative, for sympathy and protection."
+
+"Write to her by return mail that you will gladly allow her three
+thousand a year, provided she ensconces herself under some other roof
+than this."
+
+"Impossible! I could not wound her so deeply."
+
+"You imagine that she entertains a most tender and profound regard for
+both of us?"
+
+"Certainly, my son; we have every reason to believe that she does."
+
+Leaning back in his chair, St. Elmo laughed.
+
+"I should really enjoy stumbling upon something that would overtax your
+most marvellous and indefinitely extensible credulity! When Estelle
+Harding becomes an inmate of this house I shall pack my valise, and
+start to Tromso! She approaches like Discord, uninvited, armed with an
+apple or a dagger. I am perfectly willing to share my fortune with her,
+but I'll swear I would rather prowl for a month through the
+plague-stricken district of Constantinople than see her domesticated
+here! You tried the experiment when she was a child, and we fought and
+scratched as indefatigably as those two amiable young Theban bullies,
+who are so often cited as scarecrows for quarrelsome juveniles. Of
+course, we shall renew the battle at sight."
+
+"But, my dear son, there are claims urged by natural affection which it
+is impossible to ignore. Poor Estelle is very desolate, and has a right
+to our sympathy and love."
+
+"Poor Estelle! Hoeredipetoe! The frailties of old Rome survive her
+virtues and her ruins!"
+
+Mr. Murray laughed again, beat a tattoo with his fork on the edge of
+his plate, and, rising, left the room.
+
+Mrs. Murray looked puzzled, and said: "Edna, do you know what he meant?
+He often amuses himself by mystifying me, and I will not gratify him by
+asking an explanation."
+
+"Hoeredipetoe were legacy-hunters in Rome, where their sycophantic
+devotion to people of wealth furnished a constant theme for satire."
+
+Mrs. Murray sighed heavily, and the orphan asked:
+
+"When do you expect your niece?"
+
+"Day after to-morrow. I have not seen her for some years, but report
+says she is very fascinating, and even St. Elmo, who met her in Europe,
+admits that she is handsome. As you heard him say just now, they
+formerly quarreled most outrageously and shamefully, and he took an
+unaccountable aversion to her; but I trust all juvenile reminiscences
+will vanish when they know each other better. My dear, I have several
+engagements for to-day, and I must rely upon you to superintend the
+arrangement of Estelle's room. She will occupy the one next to yours.
+See that everything is in order. You know Hagar is sick, and the other
+servants are careless."
+
+Sympathy for Miss Harding's recent and severe affliction prepared
+Edna's heart to receive her cordially, and the fact that an
+irreconcilable feud eristed between the stranger and St. Elmo, induced
+the orphan to hope that she might find a congenial companion in the
+expected visitor.
+
+On the afternoon of her arrival, Edna leaned eagerly forward to catch a
+glimpse of her countenance, and as she threw back her long
+mourning-veil, and received her aunt's affectionate greeting, the first
+impression was, "How exceedingly handsome--how commanding she is!" But
+a few minutes later, when Mrs. Murray introduced them, and the
+stranger's keen, bright, restless eyes fell upon the orphan's face, the
+latter drew back, involuntarily repelled, and a slight shiver crept
+over her, for an unerring instinctive repulsion told her they could
+never be friends.
+
+Estelle Harding was no longer young; years had hardened the outline of
+her features, and imparted a certain staidness or fixedness to her calm
+countenance, where strong feeling or passionate impulse was never
+permitted to slip the elegant mask of polished suavity. She was
+surprisingly like Mrs. Murray, but not one line of her face resembled
+her cousin's. Fixing her eyes on Edna, with a cold, almost stern
+scrutiny more searching than courteous, she said:
+
+"I was not aware, Aunt Ellen, that you had company in the house."
+
+"I have no company at present, my dear. Edna resides here. Do you not
+remember one of my letters in which I mentioned the child who was
+injured by the railroad accident?"
+
+"True. I expected to see a child, certainly not a woman."
+
+"She seems merely a child to me. But come up to your room; you must be
+very much fatigued by your journey."
+
+When they left the sitting-room Edna sat down in one corner of the
+sofa, disappointed and perplexed.
+
+"She does not like me, that is patent; and I certainly do not like her.
+She is handsome and very graceful, and quite heartless. There is no
+inner light from her soul shining in her eyes; nothing tender and
+loving and kind in their clear depths; they are cold, bright eyes, but
+not soft, winning, womanly eyes. They might, and doubtless would, hold
+an angry dog in check, but never draw a tired, fretful child to lean
+its drooping head on her lap. If she really has any feeling, her eyes
+should be indicted for slander. I am sorry I don't like her, and I am
+afraid we never shall be nearer each other than touching our
+finger-tips."
+
+Such was Edna's unsatisfactory conclusion, and dismissing the subject,
+she picked up a book, and read until the ladies returned and seated
+themselves around the fire.
+
+To Mrs. Murray's great chagrin and mortification her son had positively
+declined going to meet his cousin, had been absent since breakfast, and
+proved himself shamefully derelict in the courtesy demanded of him. It
+was almost dark when the quick gallop of his horse announced his
+return, and, as he passed the window on his way to the stables, Edna
+noticed a sudden change in Estelle's countenance. During the next
+quarter of an hour her eyes never wandered from the door, though her
+head was turned to listen to Mrs. Murray's remarks. Soon after, Mr.
+Murray's rapid footsteps sounded in the hall, and as he entered she
+rose and advanced to meet him. He held out his hand, shook hers
+vigorously, and said, as he dropped it:
+
+"Mine ancient enemy, declare a truce and quiet my apprehensions; for I
+dreamed last night that, on sight, we flew at each other's throats, and
+renewed the sanguinary scuffles of our juvenile acquaintance. Most
+appallingly vivid is my recollection of a certain scar here on my left
+arm, where you set your pearly teeth some years ago."
+
+"My dear cousin, as I have had no provocation since I was separated
+from you, I believe I have grown harmless and amiable. How very well
+you look, St. Elmo."
+
+"Thank you. I should like to return the compliment, but facts forbid.
+You are thinner than when we dined together in Paris. Are you really in
+love with that excruciating Brummell of a Count who danced such
+indefatigable attendance upon you?"
+
+"To whom do you allude?"
+
+"That youth with languishing brown eyes, who parted his 'hyacinthine
+tresses' in the middle of his head; whose moustache required
+Ehrenberg's strongest glasses--and who absolutely believed that Ristori
+singled him out of her vast audiences as the most appreciative of her
+listeners; who was eternally humming 'Ernani' and raving about
+'Traviata.' Your memory is treacherous--as your conscience? Well, then,
+that man, who I once told you reminded me of what Guilleragues is
+reported to have said about Pelisson, 'that he abused the permission
+men have to be ugly.'"
+
+"Ah! you mean poor Victor! He spent the winter in Seville. I had a
+letter last week."
+
+"When do you propose to make him my cousin?"
+
+"Not until I become an inmate of a lunatic asylum."
+
+"Poor wretch! If he only had courage to sue you for breach of promise,
+I would, with pleasure, furnish sufficient testimony to convict you and
+secure him heavy damages; for I will swear you played fiancee to
+perfection. Your lavish expenditure of affection seemed to me
+altogether uncalled for, considering the fact that the fish already
+floundered at your feet."
+
+The reminiscence evidently annoyed her, though her lips smiled, and
+Edna saw that, while his words were pointed with a sarcasm lost upon
+herself, it was fully appreciated by his cousin.
+
+"St. Elmo, I am sorry to see that you have not improved one iota; that
+all your wickedness clings to you like Sinbad's burden."
+
+Standing at his side, she put her hand on his shoulder.
+
+As he looked down at her, his lips curled.
+
+"Nevertheless, Estelle, I find a pale ghost of pity for you wandering
+up and down what was once my heart. After the glorious intoxication of
+Parisian life, how can you endure the tedium of this dullest of
+humdrum--this most moral and stupid of all country towns? Little
+gossip, few flirtations, neither beaux esprits nor bons vivants--what
+will become of you? Now, whatever amusement, edification, or warning
+you may be able to extract from my society, I here beg permission to
+express the hope that you will appropriate unsparingly. I shall, with
+exemplary hospitality, dedicate myself to your service--shall try to
+make amends for votre cher Victor's absence, and solemnly promise to do
+everything in my power to assist you in strangling time, except parting
+my hair in the middle of my head, and making love to you. With these
+stipulated reservations, command me ad libitum."
+
+Her face flushed slightly, she withdrew her hand and sat down.
+
+Taking his favorite position on the rug, with one hand thrust into his
+pocket and the other dallying with his watch-chain, Mr. Murray
+continued:
+
+"Entire honesty on my part, and a pardonable and amiable weakness for
+descanting on the charms of my native village, compel me to assure you,
+that, notwithstanding the deprivation of opera and theatre, bal masque
+and the Bois de Bologne, I believe you will be surprised to find that
+the tone of society here is quite up to the lofty standard of the
+'Society of Areueil,' or even the requirements of the Academy of
+Sciences. Our pastors are erudite as Abelard, and rigid as Trappists;
+our young ladies are learned as that ancient blue-stocking daughter of
+Pythagoras, and as pious as St. Salvia, who never washed her face. For
+instance, girls yet in their teens are much better acquainted with
+Hebrew than Miriam was, when she sung it on the shore of the Red Sea
+(where, by the by, Talmudic tradition says Pharaoh was not drowned),
+and they will vehemently contend for the superiority of the Targum of
+Onkelos over that on the Hagiographa, ascribed to one-eyed Joseph of
+Sora! You look incredulous, my fair cousin. Nay, permit me to complete
+the inventory of the acquirements of your future companions. They quote
+fluently from the Megilloth, and will entertain you by fighting over
+again the battle of the school of Hillel versus the school of Shammai!
+Their attainments in philology reflect discredit on the superficiality
+of Max Muller; and if an incidental allusion is made to archaeology,
+lo! they bombard you with a broadside of authorities, and recondite
+terminology that would absolutely make the hair of Lepsius and
+Champollion stand on end. I assure you the savants of the Old World
+would catch their breath with envious amazement, if they could only
+enjoy the advantage of the conversation of these orthodox and erudite
+refugees from the nursery! The unfortunate men of this community are
+kept in pitiable terror lest they commit an anachronism, and if, after
+a careful reconnoissance of the slippery ground, they tremblingly
+venture an anecdote of Selwyn or Hood, or Beaumarchais, they are
+invariably driven back in confusion by the inquiry, if they remember
+this or that bon mot uttered at the court of Aurungzebe or of one of
+the early Incas! Ah! would I were Moliere to repaint Les Precieuses
+Ridicules!"
+
+Although his eyes had never once wandered from his cousin's face,
+toward the corner where Edna sat embroidering some mats, she felt the
+blood burning in her cheeks, and forced herself to look up. At that
+moment, as he stood in the soft glow of the firelight, he was handsomer
+than she had ever seen him; and when he glanced swiftly over his
+shoulder to mark the effect of his words, their eyes met, and she
+smiled involuntarily.
+
+"For shame, St. Elmo! I will have you presented by the grand jury of
+this county for wholesome defamation of the inhabitants thereof," said
+his mother, shaking her finger at him.
+
+Estelle laughed and shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"My poor cousin! how I pity you, and the remainder of the men here,
+surrounded by such a formidable coterie of blues."
+
+"Believe me, even if their shadows are as blue as those which I have
+seen thrown upon the snow of Eyriks Jokull, in Iceland, where I would
+have sworn that every shade cast on the mountain was a blot of indigo.
+Sometimes I seriously contemplate erecting an observatory and
+telescope, in order to sweep our sky and render visible what I am
+convinced exist there undiscovered--some of those deep blue nebulae
+which Sir John Herschel found in the southern hemisphere! If the
+astronomical conjectures be correct, concerning the possibility of a
+galaxy of blue stars, a huge cluster hangs in this neighborhood and
+furnishes an explanation of the color of the women."
+
+"Henceforth, St. Elmo, the sole study of my life shall be to forget my
+alphabet. Miss Earl, do you understand Hebrew?"
+
+"Oh, no; I have only begun to study it."
+
+"Estelle, it is the popular and fashionable amusement here. Young
+ladies and young gentlemen form classes for mutual aid and 'mutual
+admiration' while they clasp hands over the Masora. If Lord Brougham,
+and other members of the 'Society for the Diffusion of Useful
+Knowledge,' could only have been induced to investigate the
+intellectual status of the 'rising generation' of our village, there is
+little room to doubt that, as they are not deemed advocates for works
+of supererogation, they would long ago have appreciated the expediency
+of disbanding said society. I imagine Tennyson is a clairvoyant, and
+was looking at the young people of this vicinage, when he wrote:
+
+'Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.'
+
+Not even egoistic infallible 'Brain Town'--that self-complacent and
+pretentious 'Hub,' can show a more ambitious covey of literary
+fledgelings!"
+
+"Your random firing seems to produce no confusion on the part of your
+game," answered his cousin, withdrawing her gaze from Edna's tranquil
+features, on which a half smile still lingered.
+
+He did not seem to hear her words, but his eyebrows thickened, as he
+draw a couple of letters from his pocket and looked at the
+superscription.
+
+Giving one to his mother, who sat looking over a newspaper, he crossed
+the room and silently laid the other on Edna's lap.
+
+It was post-marked in a distant city and directed in a gentleman's
+large, round business handwriting. The girl's face flushed with
+pleasure as she broke the seal, glanced at the signature, and without
+pausing for a perusal, hastily put the letter into her pocket.
+
+"Who can be writing to you, Edna?" asked Mrs. Murray, when she had
+finished reading her own letter.
+
+"Oh! doubtless some Syrian scribe has indited a Chaldee billet-doux,
+which she can not spell out without the friendly aid of dictionary and
+grammar. Permit her to withdraw and decipher it. Meantime here comes
+Henry to announce dinner, and a plate of soup will strengthen her for
+her task."
+
+Mr. Murray offered his arm to his cousin, and during dinner he talked
+constantly, rapidly, brilliantly of men and things abroad; now hurling
+a sarcasm at Estelle's head, now laughing at his mother's
+expostulations, and studiously avoiding any further notice of Edna, who
+was never so thoroughly at ease as when he seemed to forget her
+presence.
+
+Estelle sat at his right hand, and suddenly refilling his glass with
+bubbling champagne, he leaned over and whispered a few words in her ear
+that brought a look of surprise and pleasure into her eyes. Edna only
+saw the expression of his face, and the tenderness, the pleading
+written there astonished and puzzled her. The next moment they rose
+from the table, and as Mr. Murray drew his cousin's hand under his arm,
+Edna hurried away to her own room.
+
+Among the numerous magazines to which St. Elmo subscribed was one
+renowned for the lofty tone of its articles and the asperity of its
+carping criticisms, and this periodical Edna always singled out and
+read with avidity.
+
+The name of the editor swung in terrorum in the imagination of all
+humble authorlings, and had become a synonym for merciless critical
+excoriation.
+
+To this literary Fouquier Tinville, the orphan had daringly written
+some weeks before, stating her determination to attempt a book, and
+asking permission to submit the first chapter to his searching
+inspection. She wrote that she expected him to find faults--he always
+did; and she preferred that her work should be roughly handled by him,
+rather than patted and smeared with faint praise by men of inferior
+critical astuteness.
+
+The anxiously expected reply had come at last, and as she locked her
+door and sat down to read it, she trembled from head to foot. In the
+centre of a handsome sheet of tinted paper she found these lines:
+
+"MADAM: In reply to your very extraordinary request I have the honor to
+inform you, that my time is so entirely consumed by necessary and
+important claims, that I find no leisure at my command for the
+examination of the embryonic chapter of a contemplated book. I am,
+madam,
+
+"Very respectfully,
+
+"DOUGLASS G. MANNING."
+
+Tears of disappointment filled her eyes and for a moment she bit her
+lip with uncontrolled vexation; then refolding the letter, she put it
+in a drawer of her desk, and said sorrowfully:
+
+"I certainly had no right to expect anything more polite from him. He
+snubs even his popular contributors, and of course he would not be
+particularly courteous to an unknown scribbler. Perhaps some day I may
+make him regret that letter; and such a triumph will more than
+compensate for this mortification. One might think that all literary
+people, editors, authors, reviewers, would sympathize with each other,
+and stretch out their hands to aid one another! but it seems there is
+less free-masonry among literati than other guilds. They wage an
+internecine war among themselves, though it certainly can not be termed
+'civil strife,' judging from Mr. Douglass Manning's letter."
+
+Chagrined and perplexed she walked up and down the room, wondering what
+step would be most expedient in the present state of affairs; and
+trying to persuade herself that she ought to consult Mr. Hammond. But
+she wished to surprise him, to hear his impartial opinion of a printed
+article which he could not suspect that she had written, and finally
+she resolved to say nothing to any one, to work on in silence, relying
+upon herself. With this determination she sat down before her desk,
+opened the MS. of her book, and very soon became absorbed in writing
+the second chapter. Before she had finished even the first sentence a
+hasty rap summoned her to the door.
+
+She opened it, and found Mr. Murray standing in the hall, with a candle
+in his hand.
+
+"Where is that volume of chess problems which you had last week?"
+
+"It is here, sir."
+
+She took it from the table, and as she approached him, Mr. Murray held
+the light close to her countenance, and gave her one of those keen
+looks which always reminded her of the descriptions of the scrutiny of
+the Council of Ten, in the days when "lions' mouths" grinned at the
+street-corners in Venice.
+
+Something in the curious expression of his face, and the evident
+satisfaction which he derived from his hasty investigation, told Edna
+that the book was a mere pretext. She drew back and asked:
+
+"Have I any other book that you need?"
+
+"No; I have all I came for."
+
+Smiling half mischievously, half maliciously, he turned and left her.
+
+"I wonder what he saw in my face that amused him?"
+
+She walked up to the bureau and examined her own image in the mirror;
+and there, on her cheeks, were the unmistakable traces of the tears of
+vexation and disappointment.
+
+"At least he can have no idea of the cause, and that is some comfort,
+for he is too honorable to open my letters."
+
+But just here a doubt flashed into her mind.
+
+"How do I know that he is honorable? Can any man be worthy of trust who
+holds nothing sacred, and sneers at all religions? No; he has no
+conscience; and yet--"
+
+She sighed and went back to her MS., and though for a while St. Elmo
+Murray's mocking eyes seemed to glitter on the pages, her thoughts ere
+long were anchored once more with the olive-crowned priestess in the
+temple at Sais.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+If the seers of geology are correct in assuming that the age of the
+human race is coincident with that of the alluvial stratum, from eighty
+to one hundred centuries, are not domestic traditions and household
+customs the great arteries in which beat the social life of humanity,
+linking the race in homogeneity? Roman women suffered no first day of
+May pass without celebrating the festival of Bona Dea; and two thousand
+years later, girls who know as little of the manners and customs of
+ancient Italy, as of the municipal regulations of fabulous "Manoa," lie
+down to sleep on the last day of April, and kissing the fond, maternal
+face that bends above their pillows, eagerly repeat:
+
+"You must wake and call me early, call me early, mother dear:
+To-morrow'll be the happiest time of all the glad new-year; Of all the
+glad new-year, mother, the maddest, merriest day, For I'm to be Queen
+o' the May, mother; I'm to be Queen o' the May."
+
+For a fortnight Edna had been busily engaged in writing colloquies and
+speeches for the Sabbath-school children of the village, and in
+attending the rehearsals for the perfection of the various parts.
+Assisted by Mr. Hammond and the ladies of his congregation, she had
+prepared a varied programme, and was almost as much interested in the
+success of the youthful orators, as the superintendent of the school,
+or the parents of the children. The day was propitious--clear, balmy,
+all that could be asked of the blue-eyed month--and as the festival was
+to be celebrated in a beautiful grove of elms and chestnuts, almost in
+sight of Le Bocage, Edna went over very early to aid in arranging the
+tables, decking the platforms with flowers, and training one juvenile
+Demosthenes, whose elocution was as unpromising as that of his Greek
+model.
+
+Despite her patient teaching this boy's awkwardness threatened to spoil
+everything, and as she watched the nervous wringing of his hands and
+desperate shuffling of his feet, she was tempted to give him up in
+despair. The dew hung heavily on grass and foliage, and the matin carol
+of the birds still swelled through the leafy aisles of the grove, when
+she took the trembling boy to a secluded spot, directed him to stand on
+a mossy log, where two lizards lay blinking, and repeat his speech.
+
+He stammered most unsatisfactorily through it, and, intent on his
+improvement, Edna climbed upon a stump and delivered his speech for
+him, gesticulating and emphasizing just as she wished him to do. As the
+last words of the peroration passed her lips, and while she stood on
+the stump, a sudden clapping of hands startled her, and Gordon Leigh's
+cheerful voice exclaimed:
+
+"Encore! Encore! Since the days of Hypatia you have not had your equal
+among female elocutionists. I would not have missed it for any
+consideration, so pray forgive me for eavesdropping." He came forward,
+held out his hand and added: "Allow me to assist you in dismounting
+from your temporary rostrum, whence you bear your 'blushing honors
+thick upon you.' Jamie, do you think you can do as well as Miss Edna
+when your time comes?"
+
+"Oh! no, sir; but I will try not to make her ashamed of me."
+
+He snatched his hat from the log and ran off, leaving his friends to
+walk back more leisurely to the spot selected for the tables. Edna had
+been too much disconcerted by his unexpected appearance, to utter a
+word until now, and her tone expressed annoyance as she said:
+
+"I am very sorry you interrupted me, for Jamie will make an ignominious
+failure. Have you nothing better to do than stray about the woods like
+a satyr?"
+
+"I am quite willing to be satyrized even by you on this occasion; for
+what man, whose blood is not curdled by cynicism, can prefer to spend
+Mayday among musty law books and red tape, when he has the alternative
+of listening to such declamation as you favored me with just now, or of
+participating in the sports of one hundred happy children? Beside, my
+good 'familiar,' or rather my sortes Proenestinoe, told me that I
+should find you here; and I wanted to see you before the company
+assembled: why have you so pertinaciously avoided me of late?"
+
+They stood close to each other in the shade of the elms, and Gordon
+thought that never before had she looked so beautiful, as the mild
+perfumed breeze stirred the folds of her dress, and fluttered the blue
+ribbons that looped her hair and girdled her waist.
+
+Just at that instant, ere she could reply, a rustling of the
+undergrowth arrested further conversation, and Mr. Murray stepped out
+of the adjoining thicket, with his gun in his hand, and his grim pet
+Ali at his heels. Whatever surprise he may have felt, his countenance
+certainly betrayed none, as he lifted his hat and said:
+
+"Good morning, Leigh. I shall not intrude upon the Sanhedrim, on which
+I have happened to stumble, longer than is necessary to ask if you are
+so fortunate as to have a match with you? I find my case empty."
+
+Mr. Leigh took a match from his pocket, and while Mr. Murray lighted
+his cigar, his eyes rested for an instant only on Edna's flushed face.
+
+"Are you not coming to the children's celebration?" asked Gordon.
+
+"No, indeed! I own that I as lazy as a Turk; but while I am
+constitutionally and habitually opposed to labor, I swear I should
+prefer to plough or break stones till sundown, sooner than listen to
+all the rant and fustian that spectators will be called on to endure
+this morning. I have not sufficient courage to remain and witness what
+would certainly recall 'the manner of Bombastes Furioso making love to
+Distaffina!' Will you have a cigar? Good morning."
+
+He lifted his hat, shouldered his gun, and calling to his dog,
+disappeared among the thick undergrowth.
+
+"What an incorrigible savage!" muttered Mr. Leigh, replacing the
+match-case in his pocket.
+
+His companion made no answer and was hurrying on, but he caught her
+dress and detained her.
+
+"Do not go until you hear what I have to say to you. More than once you
+have denied me an opportunity of expressing what you must long ago have
+suspected. Edna, you know very well that I love you better than every
+thing else--that I have loved you from the first day of our
+acquaintance; and I have come to tell you that my happiness is in your
+dear little hands; that my future will be joyless unless you share it;
+that the one darling hope of my life is to call you my wife. Do not
+draw your hand from mine! Dear Edna, let me keep it always. Do I
+mistake your feelings when I hope that you return my affection?"
+
+"You entirely mistake them, Mr. Leigh, in supposing that you can ever
+be more to me than a very dear and valued friend. It grieves me very
+much to be forced to give you pain or cause you disappointment; but I
+should wrong you even more than myself, were I to leave you in doubt
+concerning my feeling toward you. I like your society, and you have my
+entire confidence and highest esteem; but it is impossible that I can
+ever be your wife."
+
+"Why impossible?"
+
+"Because I never could love you as I think I ought to love the man I
+marry."
+
+"My dear Edna, answer one question candidly. Do you love any one else
+better than you love me?"
+
+"No, Mr. Leigh."
+
+"Does Mr. Murray stand between your heart and mine?"
+
+"Oh! no, Mr. Leigh."
+
+"Then I will not yield the hope of winning your love. If your heart is
+free, I will have it all my own one day! O Edna! why can not you love
+me? I would make you very happy. My darling's home should possess all
+that fortune and devoted affection could supply; not one wish should
+remain ungratified."
+
+"I am able to earn a home; I do not intend to marry for one."
+
+"Ah! your pride is your only fault, and it will cause us both much
+suffering, I fear. Edna, I know how sensitive you are, and how deeply
+your delicacy has been wounded by the malicious meddling of
+ill-mannered gossips. I know why you abandoned your Hebrew recitations,
+and a wish to spare your feelings alone prevented me from punishing
+certain scandal-mongers as they deserved. But, dearest, do not visit
+their offences upon me! Because they dared ascribe their own ignoble
+motives to you, do not lock your heart against me and refuse me the
+privilege of making your life happy."
+
+"Mr. Leigh, you are not necessary to my happiness. While our tastes are
+in many respects congenial, and it is pleasant to be with you
+occasionally, it would not cause me any deep grief if I were never to
+see you again."
+
+"O Edna! you are cruel, unlike yourself!" "Forgive me, sir, if I seem
+so, and believe me when I assure you that it pains me more to say it
+than you to hear it. No woman should marry a man whose affection and
+society are not absolutely essential to her peace of mind and heart.
+Applying this test to you, I find that mine is in no degree dependent
+on you; and, though you may have no warmer friend, I must tell you it
+is utterly useless for you to hope that I shall ever love you as you
+wish, Mr. Leigh, I regret that I can not; and if my heart were only
+puppet of my will, I would try to reciprocate your affection, because I
+appreciate so fully and so gratefully all that you generously offer me.
+To-day you stretch out your hand to a poor girl, of unknown parentage,
+reared by charity--a girl considered by your family and friends an
+obscure interloper in aristocratic circles, and with a noble
+magnanimity, for which I shall thank you always, you say, 'Come, take
+my name, share my fortune, wrap yourself in my love, and be happy! I
+will give you a lofty position in society, whence you can look down on
+those who sneer at your poverty and lineage.' O, Mr. Leigh! God knows I
+wish I loved you as you deserve! Ambition and gratitude alike plead for
+you; but it is impossible that I could ever consent to be your wife."
+
+Her eyes were full of tears as she looked in his handsome face,
+hitherto so bright and genial; now clouded and saddened by a bitter
+disappointment; and suddenly catching both his hands in hers, she
+stooped and pressed her lips to them.
+
+"Although you refuse to encourage, you cannot crush the hope that my
+affection will, after a while, win yours in return. You are very young,
+and as yet scarcely know your own heart, and unshaken constancy on my
+part will plead for me in coming years. I will be patient, and as long
+as you are Edna Earl--as long as you remain mistress of your own
+heart--I shall cling fondly to the only hope that gladdens my future.
+Over my feelings you have no control; you may refuse me your hand--that
+is your right--but while I shall abstain from demonstrations of
+affection, I shall certainly cherish the hope of possessing it.
+Meantime, permit me to ask whether you still contemplate leaving Mrs.
+Murray's house? Miss Harding told my sister yesterday that in a few
+months you would obtain a situation as governess or teacher in a
+school."
+
+"Such is certainly my intention; but I am at a loss to conjecture how
+Miss Harding obtained her information, as the matter has not been
+alluded to since her arrival."
+
+"I trust you will pardon me the liberty I take, in warning you to be
+exceedingly circumspect in your intercourse with her, for I have reason
+to believe that her sentiments toward you are not so friendly as might
+be desired."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Leigh. I am aware of her antipathy, though of its cause
+I am ignorant; and our intercourse is limited to the salutations of the
+day, and the courtesies of the table."
+
+Drawing from her finger the emerald which had occasioned so many
+disquieting reflections, Edna continued:
+
+"You must allow me to return the ring, which I have hitherto worn as a
+token of friendship, and which I cannot consent to retain any longer.
+'Peace be with you,' dear friend, is the earnest prayer of my heart.
+Our paths in life will soon diverge so widely that we shall probably
+see each other rarely; but none of your friends will rejoice more
+sincerely than I to hear of your happiness and prosperity, for no one
+else has such cause to hold you in grateful remembrance. Good-bye, Mr.
+Leigh. Think of me hereafter only as a friend."
+
+She gave him both hands for a minute, left the ring in his palm, and,
+with tears in her eyes, went back to the tables and platforms.
+
+Very rapidly chattering groups of happy children collected in the
+grove; red-cheeked boys clad in white linen suits, with new straw hats
+belted with black, and fair-browed girls robed in spotless muslin,
+garlanded with flowers, and bright with rosy badges. Sparkling eyes,
+laughing lips, sweet, mirthful, eager voices, and shadowless hearts.
+Ah! that Mayday could stretch from the fairy tropic-land of childhood
+to the Arctic zone of age, where snows fall chilling and desolate,
+drifting over the dead but unburied hopes which the great stream of
+time bears and buffets on its broad, swift surface.
+
+The celebration was a complete success; even awkward Jamie acquitted
+himself with more ease and grace than his friends had dared to hope.
+Speeches and songs were warmly applauded, proud parents watched their
+merry darlings with eyes that brimmed with tenderness; and the heart of
+Semiramis never throbbed more triumphantly than that of the delighted
+young Queen of May, who would not have exchanged her floral crown for
+all the jewels that glittered in the diadem of the Assyrian sovereign.
+
+Late in the evening of that festal day Mr. Hammond sat alone on the
+portico of the old-fashioned parsonage. The full moon, rising over the
+arched windows of the neighboring church, shone on the marble monuments
+that marked the rows of graves; and the golden beams stealing through
+the thick vines which clustered around the wooden columns, broidered in
+glittering arabesque the polished floor at the old man's feet.
+
+That solemn, mysterious silence which nature reverently folds like a
+velvet pall over the bier of the pale, dead day, when the sky is
+
+  "Filling more and more with crystal light,
+  As pensive evening deepens into night,"
+
+was now hushing the hum and stir of the village; and only the
+occasional far-off bark of a dog, and the clear, sweet vesper-song of a
+mocking-bird singing in the myrtle tree, broke the repose so soothing
+after the bustle of the day. To labor and to pray from dawn till dusk
+is the sole legacy which sin-stained man brought through the flaming
+gate of Eden, and, in the gray gloaming, mother Earth stretches her
+vast hands tenderly over her drooping, toil-spent children, and
+mercifully murmurs nunc dimillis.
+
+Close to the minister's armchair stood a small table covered with a
+snowy cloth, on which was placed the evening meal, consisting of
+strawberries, honey, bread, butter and milk. At his feet lay the white
+cat, bathed in moonshine, and playing with a fragrant spray of
+honeysuckle which trailed within reach of her paws, and swung to and
+fro, like a spicy censer, as the soft breeze stole up from the starry
+south. The supper was untasted, the old man's silvered head leaned
+wearily on his shrunken hand, and through a tearful mist his mild eyes
+looked toward the churchyard, where gleamed the monumental shafts that
+guarded his mouldering household idols, his white-robed, darling dead.
+
+His past was a wide, fair, fruitful field of hallowed labor, bounteous
+with promise for that prophetic harvest whereof God's angels are
+reapers; and his future, whose near horizon was already rimmed with the
+light of eternity, was full of that blessed 'peace which passeth all
+understanding.' Yet to-night, precious reminiscences laid their soft,
+mesmeric fingers on his heart, and before him, all unbidden, floated
+visions of other Maydays, long, long ago, when the queen of his boyish
+affections had worn her crown of flowers; and many, many years later,
+when, as the queen of his home, and the proud mother of his children,
+she had stood with her quivering hand nestled in his, listening
+breathlessly to the Mayday speech of their golden-haired daughter,
+
+"Why does the sea of thought thus backward roll? Memory's the breeze
+that through the cordage raves, And ever drives us on some homeward
+shoal, As if she loved the melancholy waves That, murmuring shoreward,
+break o'er a reef of graves."
+
+The song of the mocking-bird still rang from the downy cradle of myrtle
+blossoms, and a whip-poor-will answered from a cedar in the churchyard,
+when the slamming of the parsonage gate startled the shy thrush that
+slept in the vines that overarched it, and Mr. Leigh came slowly up the
+walk, which was lined with purple and white lilies whose loveliness,
+undiminished by the wear of centuries, still rivaled the glory of
+Solomon.
+
+As he ascended the steps and removed his hat, the pastor rose and
+placed a chair for him near his own.
+
+"Good evening, Gordon. Where did you immure yourself all day? I
+expected to find you taking part in the children's festival, and hunted
+for you in the crowd."
+
+"I expected to attend, but this morning something occurred which
+unfitted me for enjoyment of any kind; consequently I thought it best
+to keep myself and my moodiness out of sight."
+
+"I trust nothing serious has happened?"
+
+"Yes, something that threatens to blast all my hopes, and make my life
+one great disappointment. Has not Edna told you?"
+
+"She has told me nothing relative to yourself, but I noticed that she
+was depressed and grieved about something. She was abstracted and
+restless, and went home very early, pleading fatigue and headache."
+
+"I wish I had a shadow of hope that her heart ached also! Mr. Hammond,
+I am very wretched, and have come to you for sympathy and counsel. Of
+course you have seen for a long time that I loved her very devotedly,
+that I intended if possible to make her my wife. Although she was very
+shy and guarded, and never gave me any reason to believe she returned
+my affection, I thought--I hoped she would not reject me, and I admired
+her even more because of her reticence, for I could not value a love
+which I knew was mine unasked. To-day I mentioned the subject to her,
+told her how entirely my heart was hers, offered her my hand and
+fortune, and was refused most decidedly. Her manner more than her words
+distressed and discouraged me. She showed so plainly that she felt only
+friendship for me, and entertained only regret for the pain she gave
+me. She was kind and delicate, but oh! so crushingly positive! I saw
+that I had no more place in her heart than that whip-poor-will in the
+cedars yonder. And yet I shall not give her up; while I live I will
+cling to the hope that I may finally win her. Thousands of women have
+rejected a man again and again and at last yielded and accepted him;
+and I do not believe Edna can withstand the devotion of a lifetime."
+
+"Do not deceive yourself, Gordon. It is true many women are flattered
+by a man's perseverance, their vanity is gratified. They first reproach
+themselves for the suffering they inflict, then gratitude for constancy
+comes to plead for the inconsolable suitor, and at last they persuade
+themselves that such devotion can not fail to make them happy. Such a
+woman Edna is not, and if I have correctly understood her character,
+never can be. I sympathize with you, Gordon, and it is because I love
+you so sincerely that I warn you against a hope destined to cheat you."
+
+"But she admitted that she loved no one else, and I can see no reason
+why, after a while, she may not give me her heart."
+
+"I have watched her for years. I think I know her nature better than
+any other human being, and I tell you, Edna Earl will never coax and
+persuade herself to marry any man, no matter what his position and
+endowments may be. She is not a dependent woman; the circumstances of
+her life have forced her to dispense with companionship, she is
+sufficient for herself; and while she loves her friends warmly and
+tenderly, she feels the need of no one. If she ever marries, it will
+not be from gratitude or devotion, but because she learned to love,
+almost against her will, some strong, vigorous thinker, some man whose
+will and intellect masters hers, who compels her heart's homage, and
+without whose society she can not persuade herself to live."
+
+"And why may I not hope that such will, one day, be my good fortune?"
+
+For a few minutes Mr. Hammond was silent, walking up and down the wide
+portico; and when he resumed his seat, he laid his hand affectionately
+on the young man's shoulder, saying:
+
+"My dear Gordon, your happiness as well as hers is very dear to me. I
+love you both, and you will, you must, forgive me if what I am about to
+say should wound or mortify you. Knowing you both as I do, and wishing
+to save you future disappointment, I should, even were you my own son,
+certainly tell you. Gordon, you will never be Edna's husband, because
+intellectually she is your superior. She feels this, and will not marry
+one to whose mind her own does not bow in reverence. To rule the man
+she married would make her miserable, and she could only find happiness
+in being ruled by an intellect to which she looked up admiringly. I
+know that many very gifted women have married their inferiors, but Edna
+is peculiar, and in some respects totally unlike any other woman whose
+character I have carefully studied. Gordon, you are not offended with
+me?"
+
+Mr. Leigh put out his hand, grasped that of his companion, and his
+voice was marked by unwonted tremor as he answered:
+
+"You pain and humiliate me beyond expression, but I could never be
+offended at words which I am obliged to feel are dictated by genuine
+affection. Mr. Hammond, might not years of thought and study remove the
+obstacle to which you allude? Can I not acquire all that you deem
+requisite? I would dedicate my life to the attainment of knowledge, to
+the improvement of my faculties."
+
+"Erudition would not satisfy her. Do you suppose she could wed a mere
+walking encyclopaedia? She is naturally more gifted than you are, and,
+unfortunately for you, she discovered the fact when you were studying
+together."
+
+"But, sir, women listen to the promptings of heart much oftener than to
+the cold, stern dictates of reason."
+
+"Very true, Gordon; but her heart declares against you."
+
+"Do you know any one whom you regard as fully worthy of her--any one
+who will probably win her?"
+
+"I know no man whose noble, generous heart renders him so worthy of her
+as yourself; and if she could only love you as you deserve, I should be
+rejoiced; but that I believe to be impossible."
+
+"Do you know how soon she expects to leave Le Bocage?"
+
+"Probably about the close of the year."
+
+"I cannot bear to think of her as going among strangers--being buffeted
+by the world, while she toils to earn a maintenance. It is
+inexpressibly bitter for me to reflect, that the girl whom I love above
+everything upon earth, who would preside so gracefully, so elegantly
+over my home, and make my life so proud and happy, should prefer to
+shut herself up in a school-room, and wear out her life in teaching
+fretful, spoiled, trying children! Oh, Mr. Hammond! can you not prevail
+upon her to abandon this scheme? Think what a complete sacrifice it
+will be."
+
+"If she feels that the hand of duty points out this destiny as hers, I
+shall not attempt to dissuade her; for peace of mind and heart is found
+nowhere, save in accordance with the dictates of conscience and
+judgment. Since Miss Harding's arrival at Le Bocage, I fear Edna will
+realize rapidly that she is no longer needed as a companion by Mrs.
+Murray, and her proud spirit will rebel against the surveillance to
+which I apprehend she is already subjected. She has always expressed a
+desire to maintain herself by teaching, but I suspect that she will do
+so by her pen. When she prepares to quit Mrs. Murray's house I shall
+offer her a home in mine; but I have little hope that she will accept
+it, much as she loves me, for she wants to see something of that
+strange mask called 'life' by the world. She wishes to go to some large
+city, where she can command advantages beyond her reach in this quiet
+little place, and where her own exertions will pay for the roof that
+covers her. However we may deplore this decision, certainly we can not
+blame her for the feeling that prompts it."
+
+"I have racked my brain for some plan by which I could share my fortune
+with her without her suspecting the donor; for if she rejects my hand,
+I know she would not accept one cent from me. Can you suggest any
+feasible scheme?"
+
+Mr. Hammond shook his head, and after some reflection answered:
+
+"We can do nothing but wait and watch for an opportunity of aiding her.
+I confess, Gordon, her future fills me with serious apprehension; she
+is so proud, so sensitive, so scrupulous, and yet so boundlessly
+ambitious. Should her high hopes, her fond dreams be destined to the
+sharp and summary defeat which frequently overtakes ambitious men and
+women early in life, I shudder for her closing years and the almost
+unendurable bitterness of her disappointed soul."
+
+"Why do you suppose that she aspires to authorship?"
+
+"She has never intimated such a purpose to me; but she can not be
+ignorant of the fact that she possesses great talent, and she is too
+conscientious to bury it."
+
+"Mr. Hammond, you may be correct in your predictions, but I trust you
+are wrong; and I can not believe that any woman whose heart is as warm
+and noble as Edna's, will continue to reject such love as I shall
+always offer her. Of one thing I feel assured, no man will ever love
+her as well, or better than I do, and to this knowledge she will awake
+some day. God bless her! she is the only woman I shall ever want to
+call my wife."
+
+"I sympathize most keenly with your severe disappointment, my dear
+young friend, and shall earnestly pray that in this matter God will
+overrule all things for your happiness as well as hers. He who notes
+the death of sparrows, and numbers even the hairs of our heads, will
+not doom your noble, tender heart to life-long loneliness and hunger."
+
+With a long, close clasp of hands they parted. Gordon Leigh walked
+sadly between the royal lily-rows, hoping that the future would redeem
+the past; and the old man sat alone in the serene, silent night,
+watching the shimmer of the moon on the marble that covered his dead.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+"It is impossible, Estelle! The girl is not a fool, and nothing less
+than idiocy can explain such conduct!"
+
+Flushed and angry, Mrs. Murray walked up and down the floor of the
+sitting-room; and playing with the jet bracelet on her rounded arm,
+Miss Harding replied:
+
+"As Mrs. Inge happens to be his sister, I presume she speaks ex
+cathedra, and she certainly expressed very great delight at the failure
+of Gordon Leigh's suit. She told me that he was much depressed in
+consequence of Edna's rejection, and manifested more feeling than she
+had deemed possible under the circumstances. Of course she is much
+gratified that her family is saved from the disgrace of such a
+mesalliance."
+
+"You will oblige me by being more choice in the selection of your
+words, Estelle, as it is a poor compliment to me to remark that any man
+would be disgraced by marrying a girl whom I have raised and educated,
+and trained as carefully as if she were my own daughter. Barring her
+obscure birth, Edna is as worthy of Gordon as any dainty pet of fashion
+who lounges in Clara Inge's parlors, and I shall take occasion to tell
+her so if ever she hints at 'mesalliance' in my presence."
+
+"In that event she will doubtless retort by asking you in her bland and
+thoroughly well-bred style, whether you intend to give your consent to
+Edna's marriage with my cousin, St. Elmo?"
+
+Mrs. Murray stopped suddenly, and confronting her niece, said sternly:
+
+"What do you mean, Estelle Harding?"
+
+"My dear aunt, the goodness of your heart has strangely blinded you to
+the character of the girl you have taken into your house, and honored
+with your confidence and affection. Be patient with me while I unmask
+this shrewd little intrigante. She is poor and unknown, and if she
+leaves your roof, as she pretends is her purpose, she must work for her
+own maintenance, which no one will do from choice, when an alternative
+of luxurious ease is within reach. Mr. Leigh is very handsome, very
+agreeable, wealthy and intelligent, and is considered a fine match for
+any girl; yet your protegee discards him most positively, alleging as a
+reason that she does not love him, and prefers hard labor as a teacher
+to securing an elegant home by becoming his wife. That she can decline
+so brilliant an offer seems to you incredible, but I knew from the
+beginning that she would not accept it. My dear Aunt Ellen, she aspires
+to the honor of becoming your daughter-in-law, and can well afford to
+refuse Mr. Leigh's hand, when she hopes to be mistress of Le Bocage.
+She is pretty, and she knows it, and her cunning handling of her cards
+would really amuse and interest me, if I were not grieved at the
+deception she is practicing upon you. It has, I confess, greatly
+surprised me that, with your extraordinary astuteness in other matters,
+you should prove so obtuse concerning the machinations which the girl
+carries on in your own house. Can you not see how adroitly she natters
+St. Elmo by pouring over his stupid MSS., and professing devotion to
+his pet authors? Your own penetration will show you how unnatural it is
+that any pretty young girl like Edna should sympathize so intensely
+with my cousin's outre studies and tastes. Before I had been in this
+house twenty-four hours, I saw the game she plays so skillfully, and
+only wonder that you, my dear aunt, should be victimized by the cunning
+of one on whom you have lavished so much kindness. Look at the facts.
+She certainly has refused to marry Mr. Leigh, and situated as she is,
+how can you explain the mystery by any other solution than that which I
+have given, and which I assure you is patent to every one save
+yourself?"
+
+Painful surprise kept Mrs. Murray silent for some moments, and at last
+shaking her head, she exclaimed:
+
+"I do not believe a word of it! I know her much better than you
+possibly can, and so far from wishing to marry my son, she fears and
+dislikes him exceedingly. Her evident aversion to him has even caused
+me regret, and at times they scarcely treat each other with ordinary
+courtesy. She systematically avoids him, and occasionally, when I
+request her to take a message to him, I have been amused at the
+expression of her face, and her manoeuvres to find a substitute. No!
+no! she is too conscientious to wear a mask. You must tax your
+ingenuity for some better solution."
+
+"She is shrewd enough to see that St. Elmo is satiated with flattery
+and homage; she suspects that pique alone can force an entrance into
+the citadel of his heart, and her demonstrations of aversion are only a
+ruse de guerre. My poor aunt! I pity the disappointment and
+mortification to which you are destined, when you discover how complete
+is the imposture she practices."
+
+"I tell you, Estelle, I am neither blind nor exactly in my dotage, and
+that girl has no more intention of--"
+
+The door opened, and Mr. Murray came in. Glancing round the room, and
+observing the sudden silence--his mother's flushed cheeks and angry
+eyes, his cousin's lurking smile, he threw himself on the sofa, saying:
+
+"Tantoene animis coelestibus iroe? Pray what dire calamity has raised a
+feud between you two? Has the French Count grown importunate, and does
+my mother refuse her consent to your tardy decision to follow the
+dictates of your long outraged conscience, and bestow speedily upon him
+that pretty hand of yours, which has so often been surrendered to his
+tender clasp? If my intercession in behalf of said Victor is considered
+worthy of acceptance, pray command me, Estelle, for I swear I never
+keep Runic faith with an ally."
+
+"My son, did it ever occur to you that your eloquence might be more
+successfully and agreeably exercised in your own behalf?"
+
+Mrs. Murray looked keenly at her niece as she spoke:
+
+"My profound and proverbial humility never permitted the ghost of such
+a suggestion to affright my soul! Judging from the confusion which
+greeted my entrance, I am forced to conclude that it was mal apropos.
+But prudent regard for the reputation of the household urged me to
+venture near enough to the line of battle to inform you that the noise
+of the conflict proclaims it to the servants, and the unmistakable
+tones arrested my attention even in the yard. Family feuds become
+really respectable if only waged sotto voce."
+
+He rose as if to leave the room, but his mother motioned him to remain.
+
+"I am very much annoyed at a matter which surprises me beyond
+expression. Do you know that Gordon Leigh has made Edna an offer of
+marriage, and she has been insane enough to refuse him? Was ever a girl
+so stupidly blind to her true interest? She can not hope to make half
+so brilliant a match, for he is certainly one of the most promising
+young men in the State, and would give her a position in the world that
+otherwise she can never attain."
+
+"Refused him! Refused affluence, fashionable social stains! diamonds,
+laces, rose-curtained boudoir, and hot-houses! Refused the glorious
+privilege of calling Mrs. Inge 'sister,' and the opportunity of
+snubbing le beau monde who persistently snub her. Impossible! You are
+growing old and oblivious of the strategy you indulged in when throwing
+your toils around your devoted admirer, whom I, ultimately had the
+honor of calling my father. Your pet vagrant, Edna, is no simpleton;
+she can take care of her own interests, and, accept my word for it,
+intends to do so. She is only practising a little harmless
+coquetry--toying with her victim, as fish circle round and round the
+bait which they fully intend to swallow. Were she Aphaea herself, I
+should say Gordon's success is as fixed as any other decree--
+
+'In the chamber of Fate, where, through tremulous hands, Hum the
+threads from an old-fashioned distaff uncurled, And those three blind
+old women sit spinning the world!'
+
+Be not cast down, O my mother! Your protegee is a true daughter of Eve,
+and she eyes Leigh's fortune as hungrily as the aforesaid venerable
+mother of mankind did the tempting apple."
+
+"St. Elmo, it is neither respectful nor courteous to be eternally
+sneering at women in the presence of your own mother. As for Edna, I am
+intensely provoked at her deplorable decision, for I know that when she
+once decides on a course of conduct neither persuasion nor argument
+will move her one iota. She is incapable of the contemptible coquetry
+you imputed to her, and Gordon may as well look elsewhere for a bride."
+
+"You are quite right, Aunt Ellen; her refusal was most positive."
+
+"Did she inform you of the fact?" asked Mr. Murray.
+
+"No, but Mr. Leigh told his sister that she gave him no hope whatever."
+
+"Then, for the first time in my life, I have succeeded in slandering
+human nature! which, hitherto, I deemed quite impossible. Peccavi,
+peccavi! O my race! And she absolutely, positively declines to sell
+herself? I am unpleasantly startled in my pet theories concerning the
+cunning, lynx selfishness of women, by this feminine phenomenon! Why, I
+would have bet half my estate on Gordon's chances; for his handsome
+face, aided by such incomparable coadjutors as my mother here and the
+infallible sage and oracle of the parsonage constituted a 'triple
+alliance' more formidable, more invincible, than those that threatened
+Louis XIV. or Alberoni! I imagined the girl was clay in the experienced
+hands of matrimonial potters, and that Hebrew strategy would prove
+triumphant! Accept, my dear mother, my most heartfelt sympathy in your
+ignominious defeat. You will not doubt the sincerity of my condolence
+when I confess that it springs from the mortifying consciousness of
+having found that all women are not so entirely unscrupulous as I
+prefer to believe them. Permit me to comfort you with the assurance
+that the campaign has been conducted with distinguished ability on your
+part. You have displayed topographical accuracy, wariness, and an
+insight into the character of your antagonist, which entitle you to an
+exalted place among modern tacticians; and you have the consolation of
+knowing that you have been defeated most unscientifically, and in
+direct opposition to every well-established maxim and rule of strategy,
+by this rash, incomprehensible, feminine Napoleon! Believe me--"
+
+"Hush, St. Elmo! I don't wish to hear anything more about the miserable
+affair. Edna is very obstinate and exceedingly ungrateful after all the
+interest I have manifested in her welfare, and henceforth I shall not
+concern myself about her future. If she prefers to drudge through life
+as a teacher, I shall certainly advise her to commence as soon as
+possible; for if she can so entirely dispense with my counsel, she no
+longer needs my protection."
+
+"Have you reasoned with her concerning this singular obliquity of her
+mental vision?"
+
+"No. She knows my wishes, and since she defies them, I certainly shall
+not condescend to open my lips to her on this subject."
+
+"Women arrogate such marvellous astuteness in reading each other's
+motives, that I should imagine Estelle's ingenuity would furnish an
+open sesame to the locked chamber of this girl's heart, and supply some
+satisfactory explanation of her incomprehensible course."
+
+Mr. Murray took his cousin's hand and drew her to a seat beside him on
+the sofa.
+
+"The solution is very easy, my dear cynic. Edna can well afford to
+decline Gordon Leigh's offer when she expects and manoeuvres to sell
+herself for a much higher sum than he can command."
+
+As Miss Harding uttered these words, Mrs. Murray turned quickly to
+observe their effect.
+
+The cousins looked steadily at each other, and St. Elmo laughed
+bitterly, and patted Estelle's cheek, saying:
+
+"Bravo! 'Set a thief to catch a thief!' I knew you would hit the nail
+on the head! But who the d--l is this fellow who is writing to her from
+New York? This is the second letter I have taken out of the office, and
+there is no telling how often they come; for, on both occasions, when I
+troubled myself to ride to the post-office, I have found letters
+directed to her in this same handwriting."
+
+He drew a letter from his pocket and laid it on his knee, and as
+Estelle looked at it, and then glanced with a puzzled expression toward
+her aunt's equally curious face, Mr. Murray passed his hand across his
+eyes, to hide their malicious twinkle.
+
+"Give me the letter, St. Elmo; it is my duty to examine it; for as long
+as she is under my protection she has no right to carry on a
+clandestine correspondence with strangers."
+
+"Pardon me if I presume to dispute your prerogative to open her
+letters. It is neither your business nor mine to dictate with whom she
+shall or shall not correspond, now that she is no longer a child.
+Doubtless you remember that I warned you against her from the first day
+I ever set my eyes upon her, and predicted that you would repent in
+sackcloth and ashes your charitable credulity? I swore then she would
+prove a thief; you vowed she was a saint! But, nevertheless, I have no
+intention of turning spy at this late day, and assisting you in the
+eminently honorable work of waylaying letters from her distant swain."
+
+Very coolly he put the letter back in his pocket.
+
+Mrs. Murray bit her lip, and held out her hand, saying peremptorily:
+
+"I insist upon having the letter. Since you are so spasmodically and
+exceedingly scrupulous, I will carry it immediately to her and demand a
+perusal of the contents, St. Elmo, I am in no mood for jesting."
+
+He only shook his head, and laughed.
+
+"The dictates of filial respect forbid that I should subject my
+mother's curiosity to so severe an ordeal. Moreover, were the letter
+once in your hands, your conscience would persuade you that it is your
+imperative duty to a 'poor, inexperienced, motherless' girl, to inspect
+it ere her eager fingers have seized it. Beside, she is coming, and
+will save you the trouble of seeking her. I heard her run up the steps
+a moment ago."
+
+Before Mrs. Murray could frame her indignation in suitable words, Edna
+entered, holding in one hand her straw hat, in the other basket, lined
+with grape leaves, and filled with remarkably large and fine
+strawberries. Exercise had deepened the color in her fair, sweet face,
+which had never looked more lovely than now, as she approached her
+benefactress, holding up the fragrant, tempting fruit.
+
+"Mrs. Murray, here is a present from Mr. Hammond, who desired me to
+tell you that these berries are the first he has gathered from the new
+bed, next to the row of lilacs. It is the variety he ordered from New
+York last fall, and some roots of which he says he sent to you. Are
+they not the most perfect specimens you ever saw? We measured them at
+the parsonage and six filled a saucer."
+
+She was selecting a cluster to hold up for inspection, and had not
+remarked the cloud on Mrs. Murray's brow.
+
+"The strawberries are very fine. I am much obliged to Mr. Hammond."
+
+The severity of the tone astonished Edna, who looked up quickly, saw
+the stern displeasure written on her face, and glanced inquiringly at
+the cousins. There was an awkward silence, and feeling the eyes of all
+fixed upon her, the orphan picked up her hat, which had fallen on the
+floor, and asked:
+
+"Shall I carry the basket to the dining-room, or leave it here?"
+
+"You need not trouble yourself to carry it anywhere."
+
+Mrs. Murray laid her hand on the bell-cord and rang sharply. Edna
+placed the fruit on the centre-table, and suspecting that she must be
+de trop, moved toward the door, but Mr. Murray rose and stood before
+her.
+
+"Here is a letter which arrived yesterday."
+
+He put it in her hand, and as she recognized the peculiar
+superscription, a look of delight flashed over her features, and
+raising her beaming eyes to his, she murmured, "Thank you, sir," and
+retreated to her own room.
+
+Mr. Murray turned to his mother and said carelessly:
+
+"I neglected to tell you that I heard from Clinton to-day. He has
+invited himself to spend some days here, and wrote to say that he might
+be expected next week. At least his visit will be welcome to you,
+Estelle, and I congratulate you on the prospect of adding to your list
+of admirers the most fastidious exquisite it has ever been my
+misfortune to encounter."
+
+"St. Elmo, you ought to be ashamed to mention your father's nephew in
+such terms. You certainly have less respect and affection for your
+relatives than any man I ever saw."
+
+"Which fact is entirely attributable to my thorough knowledge of their
+characters. I have generally found that high appreciation and intimate
+acquaintance are in inverse ratios. As for Clinton Allston, were he my
+father's son, instead of his nephew. I imagine my flattering estimate
+of him would be substantially the same. Estelle, do you know him?"
+
+"I have not that pleasure, but report prepares me to find him extremely
+agreeable. I am rejoiced at the prospect of meeting him. Some time ago,
+just before I left Paris, I received a message from him, challenging me
+to a flirtation at sight so soon as an opportunity presented itself."
+
+"For your sake, Estelle, I am glad Clinton is coming, for St. Elmo is
+so shamefully selfish and oblivious of his duties as host, that I know
+time often hangs very heavily on your hands."
+
+Mrs. Murray was too thoroughly out of humor to heed the dangerous
+sparkle in her son's eyes.
+
+"Very true, mother, his amiable and accommodating disposition commends
+him strongly to your affection; and knowing what is expected of him, he
+will politely declare himself her most devoted lover before he has been
+thirty-six hours in her society. Now, if she can accept him for a
+husband, and you will only consent to receive him as your son, I swear
+I will reserve a mere scanty annuity for my traveling expenses; I will
+gladly divide the estate between them, and transport myself permanently
+and joyfully beyond the animadversion on my inherited sweetness of
+temper. If you, my dear coz, can only coax Clinton into this
+arrangement for your own and my mother's happiness, you will render me
+eternally grateful, and smooth the way for a trip to Thibet and
+Siberia, which I have long contemplated. Bear this proposition in mind,
+will you, especially when the charms of Le Bocage most favorably
+impress you? Remember you will become its mistress the day that you
+marry Clinton, make my mother adopt him, and release me. If my terms
+are not sufficiently liberal, confer with Clinton as soon as maidenly
+propriety will permit, and acquaint me with your ultimatum; for I am so
+thoroughly weary and disgusted with this place that I am anxious to get
+away on almost any terms. Here come the autocrats of the neighborhood,
+the nouveaux enrichis! your friends the Montgomeries and Hills, than
+whom I would sooner shake hands with the Asiatic plague! I hear Madame
+Montgomery asking if I am not at home, as well as the ladies! Tell her
+I am in Spitzbergen or Mantchooria, where I certainly intend to be ere
+long."
+
+As the visitors approached the sitting-room, he sprang through the
+window opening on the terrace and disappeared.
+
+The contents of the unexpected letter surprised and delighted Edna much
+more than she would willingly have confessed. Mr. Manning wrote that
+upon the eve of leaving home for a tour of some weeks' travel, he
+chanced to stumble upon her letter, and in a second perusal some
+peculiarity of style induced him to reconsider the offer it contained,
+and he determined to permit her to send the manuscript (as far as
+written) for his examination. If promptly forwarded it would reach him
+before he left home, and expedite an answer.
+
+Drawing all happy auguries from this second letter, and trembling with
+pleasure, Edna hastened to prepare her manuscript for immediate
+transmission. Carefully enveloping it in a thick paper, she sealed and
+directed it, then fell on her knees, and, with clasped hands resting on
+the package, prayed earnestly, vehemently, that God's blessing would
+accompany it, would crown her efforts with success.
+
+Afraid to trust it to the hand of a servant, she put on her hat and
+walked back to town.
+
+The express agent gave her a receipt for the parcel, assured her that
+it would be forwarded by the evening train, and with a sigh of relief
+she turned her steps homeward.
+
+Ah! it was a frail paper bark, freighted with the noblest, purest
+aspirations that ever possessed a woman's soul, launched upon the
+tempestuous sea of popular favor, with ambition at the helm, hope for a
+compass, and the gaunt spectre of failure grinning in the shrouds.
+Would it successfully weather the gales of malice, envy and detraction?
+Would it battle valiantly and triumphantly with the piratical hordes of
+critics who prowl hungrily along the track over which it must sail?
+Would it become a melancholy wreck on the mighty ocean of literature,
+or would it proudly ride at anchor in the harbor of immortality, with
+her name floating for ever at the masthead?
+
+It was an experiment such as had stranded the hopes of hundreds and
+thousands; and the pinched, starved features of Chatterton, and the
+white, pleading face of Keats, stabbed to death by reviewers' poisoned
+pens, rose like friendly phantoms and whispered sepulchral warnings.
+
+But to-day the world wore only rosy garments, unspotted by shadows, and
+the silvery voice of youthful enthusiasm sung only of victory and
+spoils, as hope gayly struck the cymbals and fingered the timbrels.
+
+When Edna returned to her room, she sat down before her desk to
+reperuse the letter which had given her so much gratification; and, as
+she refolded it, Mrs. Murray came in and closed the door after her.
+
+Her face was stern and pale; she walked up to the orphan, looked at her
+suspiciously, and when she spoke her voice was hard and cold.
+
+"I wish to see that letter which you received to-day, as it is very
+improper that you should, without my knowledge, carry on a
+correspondence with a stranger. I would not have believed that you
+could be guilty of such conduct."
+
+"I am very much pained, Mrs. Murray, that you should even for a moment
+have supposed that I had forfeited your confidence. The nature of the
+correspondence certainly sanctions my engaging in it, even without
+consulting you. This letter is the second I have received from Mr.
+Manning, the editor of--Magazine, and was written in answer to a
+request of mine, with reference to a literary matter which concerns
+nobody but myself. I will show you the signature; there it is--Douglass
+G. Manning. You know his literary reputation and his high position. If
+you demand it, of course, I can not refuse to allow you to read it;
+but, dear Mrs. Murray, I hope you will not insist upon it, as I prefer
+that no one should see the contents, at least at present. As I have
+never deceived you, I think you might trust me when I assure you that
+the correspondence is entirely restricted to literary subjects."
+
+"Why, then, should you object to my reading it?"
+
+"For a reason which I will explain at some future day, if you will only
+have confidence in me. Still, if you are determined to examine the
+letter, of course I must submit, though it would distress me
+exceedingly to know that you can not, or will not, trust me in so small
+a matter."
+
+She laid the open letter on the desk and covered her face with her
+hands.
+
+Mrs. Murray took up the sheet, glanced at the signature, and said:
+
+"Look at me; don't hide your face, that argues something wrong."
+
+Edna raised her head, and lifted her eyes full of tears to meet the
+scrutiny from which there was no escape.
+
+"Mr. Manning's signature somewhat reassures me, and beside, I never
+knew you to prevaricate or attempt to deceive me. Your habitual
+truthfulness encourages me to believe you, and I will not insist on
+reading this letter, though I can not imagine why you should object to
+it. But, Edna, I am disappointed in you, and in return for the
+confidence I have always reposed in you, I want you to answer candidly
+the question I am about to ask. Why did you refuse to marry Gordon
+Leigh?"
+
+"Because I did not love him."
+
+"Oh, pooh! that seems incredible, for he is handsome and very
+attractive, and some young ladies show very plainly that they love him,
+though they have never been requested to do so. There is only one way
+in which I can account for your refusal, and I wish you to tell me the
+truth. You are unwilling to marry Gordon because you love somebody else
+better. Child, whom do you love?"
+
+"No, indeed, no! I like Mr. Leigh as well as any gentleman I know; but
+I love no one except you and Mr. Hammond."
+
+Mrs. Murray put her hand under the girl's chin, looked at her for some
+seconds, and sighed heavily.
+
+"Child, I find it difficult to believe you."
+
+"Why, whom do you suppose I could love? Mr. Leigh is certainly more
+agreeable than anybody else I know."
+
+"But girls sometimes take strange whims in these matters. Do you ever
+expect to receive a better offer than Mr. Leigh's?"
+
+"As far as fortune is concerned, I presume I never shall have so good
+an opportunity again. But, Mrs. Murray, I would rather marry a poor
+man, whom I really loved, and who had to earn his daily bread, than to
+be Mr. Leigh's wife and own that beautiful house he is building. I know
+you wish me to accept him, and that you think me very unwise, very
+short-sighted; but it is a question which I have settled after
+consulting my conscience and my heart."
+
+"And you give me your word of honor that you love no other gentleman
+better than Gordon?"
+
+"Yes, Mrs. Murray, I assure you that I do not."
+
+As the mistress of the house looked down into the girl's beautiful
+face, and passed her hand tenderly over the thick, glossy folds of hair
+that crowned the pure brow, she wondered if it were possible that her
+son could ever regard the orphan with affection; and she asked her own
+heart why she could not willingly receive her as a daughter.
+
+Mrs. Murray believed that she entertained a sincere friendship for Mrs.
+Inge, and yet she had earnestly endeavored to marry her brother to a
+girl whom she could not consent to see the wife of her own son. Verily,
+when human friendships are analyzed, it seems a mere poetic fiction
+that--
+
+"Love took up the harp of Life, and smote on all the chords with might;
+Smote the chord of Self, that, trembling, passed in music out of sight."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+One afternoon, about ten days after the receipt of Mr. Manning's
+letter, when Edna returned from the parsonage, she found the family
+assembled on the front veranda, and saw that the expected visitor had
+arrived. As Mrs. Murray introduced her to Mr. Allston, the latter rose,
+advanced a few steps, and held out his hand. Edna was in the act of
+giving him hers, when the heart-shaped diamond cluster on his finger
+flashed, and one swift glance at his face and figure made her snatch
+away her hand ere it touched his, and draw back with a half-smothered
+exclamation.
+
+He bit his lip, looked inquiringly around the circle, smiled, and
+returning to his seat beside Estelle, resumed the gay conversation in
+which he had been engaged.
+
+Mrs. Murray was leaning over the iron balustrade, twining a wreath of
+multiflora around one of the fluted columns, and did not witness the
+brief pantomime; but when she looked around she could not avoid
+remarking the unwonted pallor and troubled expression of the girl's
+face.
+
+"What is the matter, child? You look as if you were either ill or
+dreadfully fatigued."
+
+"I am tired, thank you," was the rather abstracted reply, and she
+walked into the house and sat down before the open window in the
+library.
+
+The sun had just gone down behind a fleecy cloud-mountain and kindled a
+volcano, from whose silver-rimmed crater fiery rays of scarlet shot up,
+almost to the clear blue zenith; while here and there, through clefts
+and vapory gorges, the lurid lava light streamed down toward the
+horizon.
+
+Vacantly her eyes rested on this sky-Hecla, and its splendor passed
+away unheeded, for she was looking far beyond the western gates of day,
+and saw a pool of blood--a ghastly face turned up to the sky--a
+coffined corpse strewn with white poppies and rosemary--a wan, dying
+woman, whose waving hair braided the pillow with gold--a wide, deep
+grave under the rustling chestnuts, from whose green arches rang the
+despairing wail of a broken heart:
+
+"Oh, Harry! my husband!"
+
+Imagination travelling into the past, painted two sunny-haired,
+prattling babes, suddenly smitten with orphanage, and robed in mourning
+garments for parents whose fond, watchful eyes were closed forever
+under wild clover and trailing brambles. Absorbed in retrospection of
+that June day, when she stood by the spring, and watched
+
+  "God make himself an awful rose of dawn,"
+
+she sat with her head resting against the window-facing, and was not
+aware of Mr. Murray's entrance until his harsh, querulous voice
+startled her.
+
+"Edna Earl! what apology have you to offer for insulting a relative and
+guest of mine under my roof?"
+
+"None, sir."
+
+"What! How dare you treat with unparalleled rudeness a visitor, whose
+claim upon the courtesy and hospitality of this household is certainly
+more legitimate and easily recognized than that of--"
+
+He stopped and kicked out of his way a stool upon which Edna's feet had
+been resting. She had risen, and they stood face to face.
+
+"I am waiting to hear the remainder of your sentence, Mr. Murray."
+
+He uttered an oath, and hurled his cigar through the window.
+
+"Why the d--l did you refuse to shake hands with Allston? I intend to
+know the truth, and it may prove an economy of trouble for you to speak
+it at once."
+
+"If you demand my reasons, you must not be offended at the plainness of
+my language. Your cousin is a murderer, and ought to be hung! I could
+not force myself to touch a hand all smeared with blood."
+
+Mr. Murray leaned down and looked into her eyes.
+
+"You are either delirious or utterly mistaken with reference to the
+identity of the man. Clinton is no more guilty of murder than you are,
+and I have been led to suppose that you are rather too 'pious' to
+attempt the role of Marguerite de Brinvillers or Joanna of Hainault!
+Cufic lore has turned your brain; 'too much learning hath made thee
+mad.'"
+
+"No, sir, it is no hallucination; there can be no mistake; it is a
+horrible, awful fact, which I witnessed, which is burned on my memory,
+and which will haunt my brain as long as I live. I saw him shoot Mr.
+Dent, and heard all that passed on that dreadful morning. He is doubly
+criminal--is as much the murderer of Mrs. Dent as of her husband, for
+the shock killed her. Oh! that I could forget her look and scream of
+agony as she fainted over her husband's coffin!"
+
+A puzzled expression crossed Mr. Murray's face; then he muttered:
+
+"Dent? Dent? Ah! yes; that was the name of the man whom Clinton killed
+in a duel. Pshaw! you have whipped up a syllabub storm in a tea-cup!
+Allston only took 'satisfaction' for an insult offered publicly by
+Dent."
+
+His tone was sneering and his lip curled, but a strange pallor crept
+from chin to temples; and a savage glare in his eyes, and a thickening
+scowl that bent his brows till they met, told of the brewing of no
+slight tempest of passion.
+
+"I know, sir, that custom, public opinion, sanctions--at least
+tolerates that relic of barbarous ages--that blot upon Christian
+civilization which, under the name of 'duelling,' I recognize as a
+crime, a heinous crime, which I abhor and detest above all other
+crimes! Sir, I call things by their proper names, stripped of the
+glozing drapery of conventional usage. You say 'honorable
+satisfaction'; I say murder! aggravated, unpardonable murder; murder
+without even the poor palliation of the sudden heat of anger. Cool,
+deliberate, willful murder, that stabs the happiness of wives and
+children, and for which it would seem that even the infinite mercy of
+Almighty God could scarcely accord forgiveness! Oh! save me from the
+presence of that man who can derive 'satisfaction' from the reflection
+that he has laid Henry and Helen Dent in one grave, under the quiet
+shadow of Lookout, and brought desolation and orphanage to their two
+innocent, tender darlings! Shake hands with Clinton Allston? I would
+sooner stretch out my fingers to clasp those of Gardiner, reeking with
+the blood of his victims, or those of Ravaillac! Ah! well might Dante
+shudder in painting the chilling horrors of Cama."
+
+The room was dusky with the shadow of coming night; but the fading
+flush, low in the west, showed St. Elmo's face colorless, rigid,
+repulsive in its wrathful defiance.
+
+He bent forward, seized her hands, folded them together, and grasping
+them in both his, crushed them against his breast.
+
+"Ha! I knew that hell and heaven were leagued to poison your mind! That
+your childish conscience was frightened by tales of horror, and your
+imagination harrowed up, your heart lacerated by the cunning devices of
+that arch maudlin old hypocrite! The seeds of clerical hate fell in
+good ground, and I see a bountiful harvest nodding for my sickle! Oh!
+you are more pliable than I had fancied! You have been thoroughly
+trained down yonder at the parsonage. But I will be--"
+
+There was a trembling pant in his voice like that of some wild creature
+driven from its jungle, hopeless of escape, holding its hunters
+temporarily at bay, waiting for death.
+
+The girl's hand ached in his unyielding grasp and after two ineffectual
+efforts to free them, a sigh of pain passed her lips and she said
+proudly:
+
+"No, sir; my detestation of that form of legalized murder, politely
+called 'duelling,' was not taught me at the parsonage. I learned it in
+my early childhood, before I ever saw Mr. Hammond; and though I doubt
+not he agrees with me in my abhorrence of the custom, I have never
+heard him mention the subject."
+
+"Hypocrite! hypocrite! Meek little wolf in lamb's wool! Do you dream
+that you can deceive me? Do you think me an idiot, to be cajoled by
+your low-spoken denials of a fact which I know? A fact, to the truth of
+which I will swear till every star falls!"
+
+"Mr. Murray, I never deceived you, and I know that however incensed you
+may be, however harsh and unjust, I know that in your heart you do not
+doubt my truthfulness. Why you invariably denounce Mr. Hammond when you
+happen to be displeased with me, I can not conjecture; but I tell you
+solemnly that he has never even indirectly alluded to the question of
+'duelling' since I have known him. Mr. Murray, I know you do entirely
+believe me when I utter these words."
+
+A tinge of red leaped into his cheek, something that would have been
+called hope in any other man's eyes looked out shyly under his heavy
+black lashes, and a tremor shook off the sneering curl of his bloodless
+lips.
+
+Drawing her so close to him that his hair touched her forehead, he
+whispered:
+
+"If I believe in you, my--it is in defiance of judgment, will, and
+experience, and some day you will make me pay a most humiliating
+penalty for my momentary weakness. To-night I trust you as implicitly
+as Samson did the smooth-lipped Delilah; to-morrow I shall realize
+that, like him, I richly deserve to be shorn for my silly credulity."
+
+He threw her hands rudely from him, turned hastily and left the library.
+
+Enda sat down and covered her face with her bruised and benumbed
+fingers, but she could not shut out the sight of something that
+astonished and frightened her--of something that made her shudder from
+head to foot, and crouch down in her chair cowed and humiliated.
+Hitherto she had fancied that she thoroughly understood and sternly
+governed her heart--that conscience and reason ruled it; but within the
+past hour it had suddenly risen in dangerous rebellion, thrown off its
+allegiance to all things else, and insolently proclaimed St. Elmo
+Murray its king. She could not analyze her new feelings, they would not
+obey the summons to the tribunal of her outraged self-respect; and with
+bitter shame and reproach and abject contrition, she realized that she
+had begun to love the sinful, blasphemous man who had insulted her
+revered grandfather, and who barely tolerated her presence in his house.
+
+This danger had never once occurred to her, for she had always believed
+that love could only exist where high esteem and unbounded reverence
+prepared the soil; and she was well aware that this man's character had
+from the first hour of their acquaintance excited her aversion and
+dread. Ten days before she had positively disliked and feared him; now,
+to her amazement, she found him throned in her heart, defying ejection.
+The sudden revulsion bewildered and mortified her, and she resolved to
+crush out the feeling at once, cost what it might. When Mr. Murray had
+asked if she loved any one else better than Mr. Leigh, she thought, nay
+she knew, she answered truly in the negative. But now, when she
+attempted to compare the two men, such a strange, yearning tenderness
+pleaded for St. Elmo, and palliated his grave faults, that the girl's
+self-accusing severity wrung a groan from the very depths of her soul.
+
+When the sad discovery was first made, conscience lifted its hands in
+horror, because of the man's reckless wickedness; but after a little
+while a still louder clamor was raised by womanly pride, which bled at
+the thought of tolerating a love unsought, unvalued; and with this
+fierce rush of reinforcements to aid conscience, the insurgent heart
+seemed destined to summary subjugation. Until this hour, although
+conscious of many faults, she had not supposed that there was anything
+especially contemptible in her character; but now the feeling of
+self-abasement was unutterably galling. She despised herself most
+cordially, and the consistent dignity of life which she had striven to
+attain appeared hopelessly shattered.
+
+While the battle of reason versus love was at its height, Mrs. Murray
+put her head in the room and asked: "Edna! Where are you, Edna?"
+
+"Here I am."
+
+"Why are you sitting in the dark? I have searched the house for you."
+She groped her way across the room, lighted the gas, and came to the
+window.
+
+"What is the matter, child? Are you sick?"
+
+"I think something must be the matter, for I do not feel at all like
+myself," stammered the orphan, as she hid her face on the window-sill.
+
+"Does your head ache?"
+
+"No, ma'am."
+
+She might have said very truly that her heart did.
+
+"Give me your hand, let me feel your pulse. It is very quick, but shows
+nervous excitement rather than fever. Child, let me see your tongue, I
+hear there are some typhoid cases in the neighborhood. Why, how hot
+your cheeks are!"
+
+"Yes, I shall go up and bathe them, and perhaps I may feel better."
+
+"I wish you would come into the parlor as soon as you can, for Estelle
+says Clinton thought you were very rude to him; and though I apologized
+on the score of indisposition, I prefer that you should make your
+appearance this evening. Stop, you have dropped your handkerchief."
+
+Edna stooped to pick it up, saw Mr. Murray's name printed in one
+corner, and her first impulse was to thrust it into her pocket; but
+instantly she held it towards his mother.
+
+"It is not mine, but your son's. He was here about an hour ago and must
+have dropped it."
+
+"I thought he had gone out over the grounds with Clinton. What brought
+him here?"
+
+"He came to scold me for not shaking hands with his cousin."
+
+"Indeed! you must have been singularly rude if he noticed any want of
+courtesy. Change your dress and come down."
+
+It was in vain that Edna bathed her hot face and pressed her cold hands
+to her cheeks. She felt as if all curious eyes read her troubled heart.
+She was ashamed to meet the family--above all things to see Mr. Murray.
+Heretofore she had shunned him from dislike; now she wished to avoid
+him because she began to feel that she loved him, and because she
+dreaded that his inquisitorial eyes would discover the contemptible,
+and, in her estimation, unwomanly weakness.
+
+Taking the basket which contained her sewing utensils and a piece of
+light needlework, she went into the parlor and seated herself near the
+centre-table, over which hung the chandelier.
+
+Mr. Murray and his mother were sitting on a sofa, the former engaged in
+cutting the leaves of a new book, and Estelle Harding was describing in
+glowing terms a scene in "Phedre," which owed its charm to Rachel's
+marvelous acting. As she repeated the soliloquy beginning:
+
+"O toi, qui vois la honte ou je suis descendue, Implacable Venus,
+suis--je assez confondue!" Edna felt as if her own great weakness were
+known to the world, and she bent her face close to her basket and
+tumbled the contents into inextricable confusion.
+
+To-night Estelle seemed in unusually fine spirits, and talked on
+rapidly, till St. Elmo suddenly appeared to become aware of the import
+of her words, and in a few trenchant sentences he refuted the criticism
+on Phedre, advising his cousin to confine her comments to dramas with
+which she was better acquainted.
+
+His tone and manner surprised Mr. Allston, who remarked:
+
+"Were I Czar, I would issue a ukase, chaining you to the steepest rock
+on the crest of the Ural, till you learned the courtesy due to lady
+disputants. Upon my word, St. Elmo, you assault Miss Estelle with as
+much elan as if you were carrying a redoubt. One would suppose that you
+had been in good society long enough to discover that the fortiter in
+re style is not allowable in discussions with ladies."
+
+"When women put on boxing-gloves and show their faces in the ring, they
+challenge rough handling, and are rarely disappointed. I am sick of
+sciolism, especially that phase where it crops out in shallow
+criticism, and every day something recalls the reprimand of Apelles to
+the shoemaker. If a worthy and able literary tribunal and critical code
+could be established, it would be well to revive an ancient Locrian
+custom, which required that the originators of new laws or propositions
+should be brought before the assembled wisdom, with halters around
+their necks, ready for speedy execution if the innovation proved, on
+examination, to be utterly unsound or puerile. Ah! what a wholesale
+hanging of socialists would gladden my eyes!"
+
+Mr. Murray bowed to his cousin as he spoke, and rising, took his
+favorite position on the rug.
+
+"Really, Aunt Ellen, I would advise you to have him re-christened,
+under the name of Timon," said Mr. Allston.
+
+"No, no. I decidedly object to any such gratification of his would-be
+classic freaks; and, as he is evidently aping Timon, though,
+unfortunately, nature denied him the Attic salt requisite to flavor the
+character, I would suggest, as a more suitable sobriquet, that bestowed
+on Louis X., 'Le Hutin'--freely translated, The Quarrelsome!' What say
+you, St. Elmo?"
+
+Estelle walked up to her cousin and stood at his side.
+
+"That is very bad policy to borrow one's boxing-gloves; and I happened
+to overhear Edna Earl when she made that same suggestion to Gordon
+Leigh, with reference to my amiable temperament. However, there is a
+maxim which will cover your retreat, and which you can conscientiously
+utter with much emphasis, if your memory is only good in repeating all
+the things you may have heard: Pereant qui ante nos nostra dixerunt!
+Shall I translate?"
+
+She laughed lightly and answered:
+
+"So much for eavesdropping! Of all the gentlemen of my acquaintance, I
+should fancy you were the very last who could afford to indulge in that
+amusement."
+
+"Miss Estelle, is this your first, second or third Punic war? You and
+St. Elmo, or rather, my cousin, 'The Quarrelsome,' seem to wage it in
+genuine Carthaginian style."
+
+"I never signed a treaty, sir, and, consequently, keep no records."
+
+"Clinton, there is a chronic casus belli between us, the original
+spring of which antedates my memory. But at present, Estelle is
+directing all her genius and energy to effect, for my individual
+benefit, a practical reenactment of the old Papia Poppoea, which
+Augustus hurled at the heads of all peaceful, happy bachelordom!"
+
+For the first time during the conversation Edna glanced up at Estelle,
+for, much as she disliked her, she regretted this thrust; but her pity
+was utterly wasted, and she was surprised to find her countenance calm
+and smiling.
+
+Mr. Allston shrugged his shoulders, and Mrs. Murray exclaimed:
+
+"I sound a truce! For heaven's sake, St. Elmo, lock up your learning
+with your mummies, and when you will say barbarous things, use language
+that will enable us to understand that we are being snubbed. Now, who
+do you suppose comprehends 'Papia Poppasa?' You are insufferably
+pedantic!"
+
+"My dear mother, do you remember ever to have read or heard the
+celebrated reply of a certain urbane lexicographer to the rashly
+ambitious individual who attempted to find fault with his dictionary?
+Permit me, most respectfully, to offer it for your consideration. 'I am
+bound to furnish good definitions, but not brains to comprehend them.'"
+
+"I think, sir, that it is a very great misfortune for those who have to
+associate with you now that you were not raised in Sparta, where it was
+everybody's privilege to whip their neighbor's vicious, spoiled
+children. Such a regimen would doubtless have converted you into an
+amiable, or at least endurable member of society."
+
+Miss Harding tapped his hand with her fan.
+
+"That is problematical, my fair cousin, for if my provocative playmate
+had accompanied me, I'll be sworn but I think the supply of Spartan
+birch would have utterly failed to sweeten my temper. I should have
+shared the fate of those unfortunate boys who were whipped to death in
+Lacedaemon, in honor of Diana; said whipping-festival (I here remark
+parenthetically, for my mother's enjoyment) being known in classic
+parlance as Diamastigosis!"
+
+Her mother answered laughingly:
+
+"Estelle is quite right; you contrived to grow up without the necessary
+healthful quota of sound whipping which you richly deserved."
+
+Mr. Murray did not seem to hear her words; he was looking down
+intently, smiling into his cousin's handsome face, and, passing his arm
+around her waist, drew her close to his side. He murmured something
+that made her throw her head quickly back against his shoulder and look
+up at him.
+
+"If such is the end of all your quarrels, it offers a premium for
+unamiability," said Mr. Allston, who had been studying Edna's face, and
+now turned again to his cousin. Curling the end of his moustache, he
+continued:
+
+"St. Elmo, you have travelled more extensively than any one I know, and
+under peculiarly favorable circumstances. Of all the spots you have
+visited, which would you pronounce the most desirable for a permanent
+residence?"
+
+"Have you an idea of expatriating yourself--of 'quitting your country
+for your country's good'?"
+
+"One never knows what contingencies may arise, and I should like to
+avail myself of your knowledge; for I feel assured only very charming
+places would have detained you long."
+
+"Then, were I at liberty to select a home, tranquil, blessed beyond all
+expression, I should certainly lose no time in domesticating myself in
+the Peninsula of Mount Athos."
+
+"Ah! yes; the scenery all along that coast is described as surprisingly
+beautiful and picturesque."
+
+"Oh, bah! the scenery is quite as grand in fifty other places. Its
+peculiar attraction consists in something far more precious."
+
+"To what do you refer?"
+
+"Its marvelous and bewildering charm is to be found entirely in the
+fact that, since the days of Constantine, no woman has set foot on its
+peaceful soil; and the happy dwellers in that sole remaining earthly
+Eden are so vigilant, dreading the entrance of another Eve, that no
+female animal is permitted to intrude upon the sacred precincts. The
+embargo extends even to cats, cows, dogs, lest the innate female
+proclivity to make mischief should be found dangerous in the brute
+creation. Constantine lived in the latter part of the third and the
+beginning of the fourth century. Think of the divine repose, the
+unapproachable beatification of residing in a land where no woman has
+even peeped for fifteen hundred years!"
+
+"May all good angels help me to steer as far as possible from such a
+nest of cynics! I would sooner confront an army of Amazons headed by
+Penthesilea herself, than trust myself among a people unhumanized and
+uncivilized by the refining influence and companionship of women! St.
+Elmo, you are the most abominable misogamist I ever met, and you
+deserve to fall into the clutches of those 'eight mighty daughters of
+the plow,' to which Tennyson's Princess consigned the Prince. Most
+heartily I pity you!"
+
+"For shame, St. Elmo! A stranger listening to your gallant diatribe
+would inevitably conclude that your mother was as unnatural and
+unamiable as Lord Byron's; and that I, your most devoted, meek, and
+loving cousin, was quite as angelic as Miss Edgeworth's Modern
+Griselda!"
+
+Affecting great indignation, Estelle attempted to quit his side; but,
+tightening his arm, Mr. Murray bowed and resumed:
+
+"Had your imaginary stranger ever heard of the science of logic, or
+even dreamed of Whately or Mill, the conclusion would, as you say, be
+inevitable. More fortunate than Rasselas, I found a happy spot where
+the names of women are never called, where the myths of Ate and Pandora
+are forgotten, and where the only females that have successfully run
+the rigid blockade are the tormenting fleas, that wage a ceaseless war
+with the unoffending men, and justify their nervous horror lest any
+other creature of the same sex should smuggle herself into their
+blissful retreat. I have seen crowned heads, statesmen, great military
+chieftains, and geniuses, whose names are destined to immortality; but
+standing here, reviewing my certainly extended acquaintance, I swear I
+envy above all others that handsome monk whom Curzon found at
+Simopetra, who had never seen a woman! He was transplanted to the Holy
+Mountain while a mere infant, and though assured he had had a mother,
+he accepted the statement with the same blind faith, which was required
+for some of the religious dogmas he was called on to swallow. I have
+frequently wondered whether the ghost of poor Socrates would not be
+allowed, in consideration of his past sufferings and trials, to wander
+forever in that peaceful realm where even female ghosts are tabooed."
+
+"There is some terrible retribution in store for your libels on our
+sex! How I do long to meet some woman brave and wily enough to marry
+and tame you, my chivalric cousin! to revenge the insults you have
+heaped upon her sisterhood!"
+
+"By fully establishing the correctness of my estimate of their
+amiability? That were dire punishment indeed for what you deem my
+heresies. If I could realize the possibility of such a calamity, I
+should certainly bewail my fate in the mournful words of that most
+astute of female wits, who is reported to have exclaimed, in
+considering the angelic idiosyncrasies of her gentle sisterhood, 'The
+only thought which can reconcile me to being a woman is that I shall
+not have to marry one."
+
+The expression with which Mr. Murray regarded Estelle reminded Edna of
+the account given by a traveller of the playful mood of a lion, who,
+having devoured one gazelle, kept his paw on another, and, amid
+occasional growls, teased and toyed with his victim.
+
+As the orphan sat bending over her work listening to the conversation,
+she asked herself scornfully:
+
+"What hallucination has seized me? The man is a mocking devil, unworthy
+the respect or toleration of any Christian woman. What redeeming trait
+can even my partial eyes discover in his distorted, sinful nature? Not
+one. No, not one!"
+
+She was rejoiced when he uttered a sarcasm or an opinion that shocked
+her, for she hoped that his irony would cauterize what she considered a
+cancerous spot in her heart.
+
+"Edna, as you are not well, I advise you to put aside that embroidery,
+which must try your eyes very severely," said Mrs. Murray.
+
+So she folded up the piece of cambric and was putting it in her basket,
+when Mr. Allston asked, with more effrontery than the orphan was
+prepared for:
+
+"Miss Earl, have I not seen you before to-day?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"May I ask where?"
+
+"In a chestnut grove, where you shot Mr. Dent."
+
+"Indeed! Did you witness that affair? It happened many years ago."
+
+There was not a shadow of pain or sorrow in his countenance or tone,
+and, rising, Edna said, with unmistakable emphasis:
+
+"I saw all that occurred, and may God preserve me from ever witnessing
+another murder so revolting!"
+
+In the silence that ensued she turned toward Mrs. Murray, bowed, and
+said as she quitted the parlor:
+
+"Mrs. Murray, as I am not very well, you will please excuse my retiring
+early."
+
+"Just what you deserve for bringing the subject on tapis; I warned you
+not to allude to it." As St. Elmo muttered these words, he pushed
+Estelle from him, and nodded to Mr. Allston, who seemed as nearly
+nonplussed as his habitual impudence rendered possible.
+
+Thoroughly dissatisfied with herself, and too restless to sleep, the
+orphan passed the weary hours of the night in endeavoring to complete a
+chapter on Buddhism, which she had commenced some days before; and the
+birds were chirping their reveille, and the sky blanched and reddened
+ere she lay down her pen and locked up her MS. Throwing open the blinds
+of the eastern window, she stood for some time looking out, gathering
+strength from the holy calm of the dewy morning, resolving to watch her
+own heart ceaselessly, to crush promptly the feeling she had found
+there, and to devote herself unreservedly to her studies. At that
+moment the sound of horse's hoofs on the stony walk attracted her
+attention, and she saw Mr. Murray riding from the stables. As he passed
+her window, he glanced up, their eyes met, and he lifted his hat and
+rode on. Were those the same sinister, sneering features she had looked
+at the evening before? His face was paler, sterner, and sadder than she
+had ever seen it, and, covering her own with her hands, she murmured:
+
+"God help me to resist that man's wicked magnetism! Oh, Grandpa! are
+you looking down on your poor little Pearl? Will you forgive me for
+allowing myself ever to have thought kindly and tenderly of this
+strange temptation which Satan has sent to draw my heart away from my
+God and my duty? Ah, Grandpa! I will crush it--I will conquer it! I
+will not yield!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+Avoiding as much as possible the society of Mrs. Murray's guests, as
+well as that of her son, Edna turned to her books with increased energy
+and steadfastness, while her manner was marked by a studied reticence
+hitherto unnoticed. The house was thronged with visitors, and families
+residing in the neighborhood were frequently invited to dinner; but the
+orphan generally contrived on these occasions to have an engagement at
+the parsonage; and as Mrs. Murray no longer required, or seemed to
+desire her presence, she spent much of her time alone, and rarely saw
+the members of the household, except at breakfast. She noticed that Mr.
+Allston either felt or feigned unbounded admiration for Estelle, who
+graciously received his devoted attentions; while Mr. Murray now and
+then sneered openly at both, and appeared daily more impatient to quit
+the home, of which he spoke with undisguised disgust. As day after day
+and week after week slipped by without bringing tidings of Edna's MS.,
+her heart became oppressed with anxious forebodings, and she found it
+difficult to wait patiently for the verdict upon which hung all her
+hopes.
+
+One Thursday afternoon, when a number of persons had been invited to
+dine at Le Bocage, and Mrs. Murray was engrossed by preparations for
+their entertainment, Edna took her Greek books and stole away
+unobserved to the parsonage, where she spent a quiet evening in reading
+aloud from the Organon of Aristotle.
+
+It was quite late when Mr. Hammond took her home in his buggy, and bade
+her good-night at the doorstep. As she entered the house she saw
+several couples promenading on the veranda, and heard Estelle and
+Clinton Allston singing a duet from "Il Trovatore." Passing the parlor
+door, one quick glance showed her Mr. Murray and Mr. Leigh standing
+together under the chandelier--the latter gentleman talking earnestly,
+the former with his gaze fastened on the carpet, and a chilling smile
+fixed on his lip. The faces of the two presented a painful
+contrast--one fair, hopeful, bright with noble aims, and youthful yet
+manly beauty; the other swarthy, cold, repulsive as some bronze image
+of Abaddon. For more than three weeks Edna had not spoken to Mr.
+Murray, except to say "good-morning," as she entered the dining-room or
+passed him in the hall; and now, with a sigh which she did not possess
+the courage to analyze, she went up to her room and sat down to read.
+
+Among the books on her desk was Machiavelli's Prince and History of
+Florence, and the copy, which was an exceedingly handsome one,
+contained a portrait of the author. Between the regular features of the
+Florentine satirist and those of the master of the house, Edna had so
+frequently found a startling resemblance, that she one day mentioned
+the subject to Mrs. Murray, who, after a careful examination of the
+picture, was forced to admit, rather ungraciously, that, "they
+certainly looked somewhat alike." To-night, as the orphan lifted the
+volume from its resting-place, it opened at the portrait, and she
+looked long at the handsome face which, had the lips been thinner, and
+the hair thicker and more curling at the temples, might have been
+daguerreotyped from that one downstairs under the chandelier.
+
+One maxim of the Prince had certainly been adopted by Mr. Murray, "It
+is safer to be feared than to be loved"; and, while the orphan detested
+the crafty and unscrupulous policy of Niccolo Machiavelli, her reason
+told her that the character of St. Elmo Murray was scarcely more worthy
+of respect.
+
+She heard the guests take their departure, heard Mrs. Murray ask Hagar
+whether "Edna had returned from the parsonage," and then doors were
+closed and the house grew silent.
+
+Vain were the girl's efforts to concentrate her thoughts on her books
+or upon her MS., they wandered toward the portrait; and, finally
+remembering that she needed a book of reference, she lighted a candle,
+took the copy of Machiavelli, which she determined to put out of sight,
+and went down to the library. The smell of a cigar aroused her
+suspicions as she entered, and, glancing nervously around the room, she
+saw Mr. Murray seated before the window.
+
+His face was turned from her, and, hoping to escape unnoticed, she was
+retracing her steps when he rose.
+
+"Come in, Edna. I am waiting for you, for I knew you would be here some
+time before day."
+
+Taking the candle from her hand, he held it close to her face, and
+compressed his lips tightly for an instant.
+
+"How long do you suppose your constitution will endure the tax you
+impose upon it? Midnight toil has already robbed you of your color, and
+converted a rosy, robust child into a pale, weary, hollow-eyed woman.
+What do you want here?"
+
+"The Edda."
+
+"What business have you with Norse myths, with runes and scalds and
+sagas? You can't have the book. I carried it to my room yesterday, and
+I am in no mood to-night to play errand-boy for any one."
+
+Edna turned to place the copy of Machiavelli on the shelves, and he
+continued:
+
+"It is a marvel that the index expurgatorius of your saintly tutor does
+not taboo the infamous doctrines of the greatest statesman of Italy. I
+am told that you do me the honor to discover a marked likeness between
+his countenance and mine. May I flatter myself so highly as to believe
+the statement?"
+
+"Even your mother admits the resemblance."
+
+"Think you the analogy extends further than the mere physique, or do
+you trace it only in the corporeal development?"
+
+"I believe, sir, that your character is as much a counterpart of his as
+your features; that your code is quite as lax as his."
+
+She had abstained from looking at him, but now her eyes met his
+fearlessly, and in their beautiful depths he read an expression of
+helpless repulsion, such as a bird might evince for the serpent whose
+glittering eyes enchained it.
+
+"Ah! at least your honesty is refreshing in these accursed days of
+hypocritical sycophancy! I wonder how much more training it will
+require before your lips learn fashionable lying tricks? But you
+understand me as little as the world understood poor Machiavelli, of
+whom Burke justly remarked, 'He is obliged to bear the iniquities of
+those whose maxims and rules of government he published. His
+speculation is more abhorred than their practice.' We are both painted
+blacker than--"
+
+"I came here, sir, to discuss neither his character nor yours. It is a
+topic for which I have as little leisure as inclination. Good-night,
+Mr. Murray."
+
+He bowed low, and spoke through set teeth:
+
+"I regret the necessity of detaining you a moment longer, but I believe
+you have been anxiously expecting a letter for some time, as I hear
+that you every day anticipate my inquiries at the post-office. This
+afternoon the express agent gave me this package."
+
+He handed her a parcel and smiled as he watched the startled look, the
+expression of dismay, of keen disappointment that came into her face.
+
+The frail bark had struck the reefs; she felt that her hopes were going
+down to ruin, and her lips quivered with pain as she recognized Mr.
+Manning's bold chirography on the paper wrapping.
+
+"What is the matter, child?"
+
+"Something that concerns only myself."
+
+"Are you unwilling to trust me with your secret, whatever it may be? I
+would sooner find betrayal from the grinning skeletons in monastic
+crypts than from my lips."
+
+Smothering a sigh, she shook her head impatiently.
+
+"That means that red-hot steel could not pinch it out of you; and that,
+despite your boasted charity and love of humanity, you really entertain
+as little confidence in your race as it is my pleasure to indulge. I
+applaud your wisdom, but certainly did not credit you with so much
+craftiness. My reason for not delivering the parcel more promptly was
+simply the wish to screen you from the Argus scrutiny with which we are
+both favored by some now resident at Bocage. As your letters subjected
+you to suspicion, I presumed it would be more agreeable to you to
+receive them without witnesses."
+
+He took a letter from his pocket and gave it to her.
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Murray; you are very kind."
+
+"Pardon me! that is indeed a novel accusation! Kind, I never professed
+to be. I am simply not quite a brute, nor altogether a devil of the
+most malicious and vindictive variety, as you doubtless consider it
+your religious duty to believe. However, having hopelessly lost my
+character, I shall not trespass on your precious time by wasting words
+in pronouncing a eulogy upon it, as Antony did over the stabbed corpse
+of Caesar! I stand in much the same relation to society that King John
+did to Christendom, when Innocent III. excommunicated him; only I snap
+my fingers in the face of my pontiff, the world, and jingle my
+Peter-pence in my pocket; whereas poor John's knees quaked until he
+found himself at the feet of Innocent, meekly receiving Langton, and
+paying tribute! Child, you are in trouble; and your truthful
+countenance reveals it as unmistakably as did the Phrygian reeds that
+babbled of the personal beauties of Midas. Of course, it does not
+concern me--it is not my business--and you certainly have as good a
+right as any other child of Adam, to fret and cry and pout over your
+girlish griefs, to sit up all night, ruin your eyes, and grow rapidly
+and prematurely old and ugly. But whenever I chance to stumble over a
+wounded creature trying to drag itself out of sight, I generally either
+wring its neck, or set my heel on it, to end its torment; or else, if
+there is a fair prospect of the injury healing by 'first intention,' I
+take it gently on the tip of my boot, and help it out of my way.
+Something has hurt you, and I suspect I can aid you. Your anxiety about
+those letters proves that you doubt your idol. You and your lover have
+quarreled? Be frank with me; tell me his name, and I swear upon the
+honor of a gentleman I will rectify the trouble--will bring him in
+contrition to your feet."
+
+Whether he dealt in irony, as was his habit, or really meant what he
+said, she was unable to determine; and her quick glance at his
+countenance showed her only a dangerous sparkle in his eyes.
+
+"Mr. Murray, you are wrong in your conjecture; I have no lover."
+
+"Oh, call him what you please! I shall not presume to dictate your
+terms of endearment. I merely wish to say that if poverty stands
+forbiddingly between you and happiness, why, command me to the extent
+of half my fortune, I will give you a dowry that shall equal the
+expectations of any ambitious suitor in the land. Trust me, child, with
+your sorrow and I will prove a faithful friend. Who has your heart?"
+
+The unexpected question alarmed and astonished her, and a shivering
+dread took possession of her that he suspected her real feelings, and
+was laughing at her folly. Treacherous blood began to paint confusion
+in her face, and vehement and rapid were her words.
+
+"God and my conscience own my heart. I know no man to whom I would
+willingly give it; and the correspondence to which you allude contains
+not a syllable of love. My time is rather too valuable to be frittered
+away in such trifling."
+
+"Edna, would you prefer to have me a sworn ally or an avowed enemy?"
+
+"I should certainly prefer to consider you as neither."
+
+"Did you ever know me fail in any matter which I had determined to
+accomplish?"
+
+"Yes, sir; your entire life is a huge, hideous, woeful failure, which
+mocks and maddens you."
+
+"What the d--l do you know of my life? It is not ended yet, and it
+remains to be seen whether a grand success is not destined to crown it.
+Mark you! the grapple is not quite over, and I may yet throttle the
+furies whose cursed fingers clutched me in my boyhood. If I am
+conquered finally, take my oath for it, I shall die so hard that the
+howling hags will be welcome to their prey. Single-handed, I am
+fighting the world, the flesh, and the devil, and I want neither
+inspection, nor sympathy, nor assistance. Do you understand me?"
+
+"Yes, sir. And as I certainly desire to thrust neither upon you, I will
+bid you good-night."
+
+"One moment! What does that package contain?"
+
+"The contents belong exclusively to me--could not possibly interest
+you--would only challenge your sarcasm, and furnish food for derision.
+Consequently, Mr. Murray, you must excuse me if I decline your
+question."
+
+"I'll wager my title to Le Bocage that I can guess so accurately that
+you will regret that you did not make a grace of necessity and tell me."
+
+A vague terror overshadowed her features as she examined the seals on
+the package, and replied:
+
+"That, sir, is impossible, if you are the honorable gentleman I have
+always tried to force myself to believe."
+
+"Silly child! Do you imagine I would condescend to soil my fingers with
+the wax that secures that trash? That I could stoop to an inspection of
+the correspondence of a village blacksmith's granddaughter? I will give
+you one more chance to close the breach between us by proving your
+trust. Edna, have you no confidence in me?"
+
+"None, Mr. Murray."
+
+"Will you oblige me by looking me full in the face, and repeating your
+flattering words?"
+
+She raised her head, and though her heart throbbed fiercely as she met
+his eyes, her voice was cold, steady and resolute.
+
+"None, Mr. Murray."
+
+"Thank you. Some day those same red lips will humbly, tremblingly crave
+my pardon for what they utter now; and then, Edna Earl, I shall take my
+revenge, and you will look back to this night and realize the full
+force of my parting words--voe victis!"
+
+He stooped and picked up a bow of rose-colored ribbon which had fallen
+from her throat, handed it to her, smiled, and, with one of those low,
+graceful, haughty bows so indicative of his imperious nature, he left
+the library. A moment after, she heard his peculiar laugh, mirthless
+and bitter, ring through the rotunda; then the door was slammed
+violently, and quiet reigned once more through the mansion.
+
+Taking the candle from the table, where Mr. Murray had placed it, Edna
+went back to her own room and sat down before the window.
+
+On her lap lay the package and letter, which she no longer felt any
+desire to open, and her hands drooped listlessly at her side. The fact
+that her MS. was returned rung a knell for all her sanguine hopes, for
+such was her confidence in the critical acumen of Mr. Manning that she
+deemed it utterly useless to appeal to any other tribunal. A higher one
+she knew not; a lower she scorned to consult.
+
+She felt like Alice Lisle on that day of doom, when Jeffreys pronounced
+the fatal sentence; and, after a time, when she summoned courage to
+open the letter, her cheeks were wan and her lips compressed so firmly
+that their curves of beauty were no longer traceable.
+
+"MISS EARL: I return your MS., not because it is devoid of merit, but
+from the conviction that were I to accept it, the day would inevitably
+come when you would regret its premature publication. While it contains
+irrefragable evidence of extraordinary ability, and abounds in
+descriptions of great beauty, your style is characterized by more
+strength than polish, and is marred by crudities which a dainty public
+would never tolerate. The subject you have undertaken is beyond your
+capacity--no woman could successfully handle it--and the sooner you
+realize your overestimate of your powers, the sooner your aspirations
+find their proper level, the sooner you will succeed in your treatment
+of some theme better suited to your feminine ability. Burn the enclosed
+MS., the erudition and archaisms of which would fatally nauseate the
+intellectual dyspeptics who read my 'Maga,' and write sketches of home
+life-descriptions of places and things that you understand better than
+recondite analogies of ethical creeds and mythologic systems, or the
+subtle lore of Coptic priests. Remember that women never write
+histories or epics; never compose oratorios that go sounding down the
+centuries; never paint 'Last Suppers' and 'Judgment Days'; though now
+and then one gives the world a pretty ballad that sounds sweet and
+soothing when sung over a cradle, or another paints a pleasant little
+genre sketch which will hang appropriately in some quiet corner and
+rest and refresh eyes that are weary with gazing at the sublime
+spiritualism of Fra Bartolomeo, or the gloomy grandeur of Salvator
+Rosa. If you have any short articles that you desire to see in print,
+you may forward them, and I will select any for publication, which I
+think you will not blush to acknowledge in future years.
+
+"Very respectfully,
+
+"Your obedient servant,
+
+"DOUGLASS G. MANNING."
+
+Unwrapping the MS., she laid it with its death-warrant in a drawer,
+then sat down, crossed her arms on the top of her desk, and rested her
+head upon them. The face was not concealed, and, as the light shone on
+it, an experienced physiogomist would have read there profound
+disappointment, a patient weariness, but unbending, resolution and no
+vestige of bitterness. The large, thoughtful eyes were sad but dry, and
+none who looked into them could have imagined for an instant that she
+would follow the advice she had so eagerly sought. During her long
+reverie, she wondered whether all women were browbeaten for aspiring to
+literary honors; whether the poignant pain and mortification gnawing at
+her heart was the inexorable initiation-fee for entrance upon the arena
+where fame adjudges laurel crowns, and reluctantly and sullenly drops
+one now and then on female brows. To possess herself of the golden
+apple of immortality was a purpose from which she had never swerved;
+but how to baffle the dragon critics who jealously guarded it was a
+problem whose solution puzzled her.
+
+To abandon her right to erudition formed no part of the programme which
+she was mentally arranging as she sat there watching a moth singe its
+filmy, spotted wings in the gas-flame; for she was obstinately wedded
+to the unpardonable heresy that, in the nineteenth century, it was a
+woman's privilege to be as learned as Cuvier, or Sir William Hamilton,
+or Humboldt, provided the learning was accurate, and gave out no
+hollow, counterfeit ring under the merciless hammering of the dragons.
+If women chose to blister their fair, tender hands in turning the
+windlass of that fabled well where truth is hidden, and bruised their
+pretty, white feet in groping finally on the rocky bottom, was the
+treasure which they ultimately discovered and dragged to light any the
+less truth because stentorian, manly voices were not the first to shout
+Eureka?
+
+She could not understand why, in the vineyard of letters, the laborer
+was not equally worthy of hire, whether the work was successfully
+accomplished in the toga virilis or the gay kirtle of contadina.
+
+Gradually the expression of pain passed from the girl's countenance,
+and, lifting her head, she took from her desk several small MSS., that
+she had carefully written from time to time, as her reading suggested
+the ideas embodied in the articles. Among the number were two, upon
+which she had bestowed much thought, which she determined to send to
+Mr. Manning.
+
+One was an elaborate description of that huge iconoclasm attributed to
+Alcibiades, and considered by some philosophic students of history the
+chief cause of the ruin of Athens. In order to reflect all possible
+light on this curious occurrence, she had most assiduously gleaned the
+pages of history, and massed the grains of truth; had studied maps of
+the city and descriptions of travellers, that she might thoroughly
+understand the topography of the scene of the great desecration. So
+fearful was she of committing some anachronism, or of soaring on the
+wings of fancy beyond the realm of well-authenticated facts, that she
+searched the ancient records to ascertain whether on that night in May,
+415 B. c., a full or a new moon looked down on the bronze helmet of
+Minerva Promachus and the fretted frieze of the Parthenon.
+
+The other MS., upon which she had expended much labor, was entitled
+"Keeping the Vigil of St. Martin Under the Pines of Grutli"; and while
+her vivid imagination revelled in the weird and solemn surroundings of
+the lonely place of rendezvous, the sketch contained a glowing and
+eloquent tribute to the liberators of Helvetia, the Confederates of
+Schweitz, Uri, and Underwalden.
+
+Whether Mr. Manning would consider either of these articles worthy of
+preservation in the pages of his magazine, she thought exceedingly
+doubtful; but she had resolved to make one more appeal to his
+fastidious judgment, and accordingly sealed and directed the roll of
+paper.
+
+Weary but sleepless, she pushed back the heavy folds of hair that had
+fallen on her forehead, brightened the gaslight, and turned to the
+completion of a chapter in that MS. which the editor had recommended
+her to commit to the flames. So entirely was she absorbed in her work
+that the hours passed unheeded. Now and then, when her thoughts failed
+to flow smoothly into graceful sentence moulds, she laid aside her pen,
+walked up and down the floor, turning the idea over and over, fitting
+it first to one phrase, then to another, until the verbal drapery fully
+suited her.
+
+The whistle of the locomotive at the station told her that it was four
+o'clock before her task was accomplished; and, praying that God's
+blessing would rest upon it, she left it unfinished, and threw herself
+down to sleep.
+
+But slumber brought no relaxation to the busy brain that toiled on in
+fitful, grotesque dreams; and when sunshine streamed through the open
+window at the foot of her bed, it showed no warm flush of healthful
+sleep on the beautiful face, but weariness and pallor. Incoherent words
+stirred the lips, troubled thought knitted the delicately arched brows,
+and the white, dimpled arms were tossed restlessly above her head.
+
+Was the tired midnight worker worthy of her hire? The world would one
+day pay her wages in the currency of gibes, and denunciation, and
+envious censoriousness; but the praise of men had not tempted her to
+the vineyard, and she looked in faith to Him "who seeth in secret," and
+whose rewards are at variance with those of the taskmasters of earth.
+"Wherefore," O lonely but conscientious student! "be ye steadfast,
+unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye
+know that your labor is not in vain."
+
+Literary women, whose avocation is selected simply because they fancy,
+it easier to write than to sew for bread, or because they covet the
+applause and adulation heaped upon successful genius, or desire mere
+notoriety, generally barter their birthright of quiet, life-long
+happiness in the peaceful seclusion of home for a nauseous mess of
+poisoned pottage that will not appease their hunger; and they go down
+to untimely graves disappointed, embittered, hating the public for
+whose praises they toiled, cheated out of the price for which they
+bargained away fireside joys and domestic serenity.
+
+The fondest hope of Edna's heart was to be useful in "her day and
+generation"--to be an instrument of some good to her race; and while
+she hoped for popularity as an avenue to the accomplishment of her
+object, the fear of ridicule and censure had no power to deter her from
+the line of labor upon which she constantly invoked the guidance and
+blessing of God.
+
+The noble words of Kepler rang a ceaseless silvery chime in her soul,
+and while they sustained and strengthened her, she sought to mould her
+life in harmony with their sublime teachings:
+
+"Lo! I have done the work of my life with that power of intellect which
+thou hast given. If I, a worm before Thine eyes, and born in the bonds
+of sin, have brought forth anything that is unworthy of Thy counsels,
+inspire me with Thy spirit, that I may correct it. If by the wonderful
+beauty of Thy works I have been led into boldness--if I have sought my
+own honor among men as I advanced in the work which was destined to
+Thine honor, pardon me in kindness and charity, and by Thy grace grant
+that my teaching may be to Thy glory and the welfare of all men. Praise
+ye the Lord, ye heavenly harmonies! and ye that understand the new
+harmonies, praise ye the Lord!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+"Mr. Hammond, are you ill? What can be the matter?"
+
+Edna threw down her books and put her hand on the old man's shoulder.
+His face was concealed in his arms, and his half-stifled groan told
+that some fierce trial had over-taken him.
+
+"Oh, child! I am troubled, perplexed, and my heart is heavy with a
+sorrow which I thought I had crushed."
+
+He raised his head for a moment, looked sadly into the girl's face, and
+dropped his furrowed cheek on his hand.
+
+"Has anything happened since I saw you yesterday?"
+
+"Yes, I have been surprised by the arrival of some of my relatives,
+whose presence in my house revives very painful associations connected
+with earlier years. My niece, Mrs. Powell, and her daughter Gertrude,
+came very unexpectedly last night to make me a visit of some length;
+and to you, my child, I can frankly say the surprise is a painful one.
+Many years have elapsed since I received any tidings of Agnes Powell,
+and I knew not, until she suddenly appeared before me last night, that
+she was a widow, and bereft of a handsome fortune. She claims a
+temporary home under my roof; and, though she has caused me much
+suffering, I feel that I must endeavor to be patient and kind to her
+and her child. I have endured many trials, but this is one of the
+severest I have yet been called to pass through."
+
+Distressed by the look of anguish on his pale face, Edna took his hand
+between both hers, and stroking it caressingly, said:
+
+"My dear sir, if it is your duty, God will strengthen and sustain you.
+Cheer up; I can't bear to see you looking so troubled. A cloud on your
+face, my dear Mr. Hammond, is to me like an eclipse of the sun. Pray do
+not keep me in shadow."
+
+"If I could know that no mischief would result from Agnes's presence, I
+would not regard it so earnestly. I do not wish to be uncharitable or
+suspicious; but I fear that her motives are not such as I could--"
+
+"May I intrude, Uncle Allan?"
+
+The stranger's voice was very sweet and winning, and as she entered the
+room Edna could scarcely repress an exclamation of admiration; for the
+world sees but rarely such perfect beauty as was the portion of Agnes
+Powell.
+
+She was one of those few women who seem the pets of time, whose form
+and features catch some new grace and charm from every passing year;
+and but for the tall, lovely girl who clung to her hand and called her
+"mother," a stranger would have believed her only twenty-six or eight.
+
+Fair, rosy, with a complexion fresh as a child's, and a face faultless
+in contour, as that of a Greek goddess, it was impossible to resist the
+fascination which she exerted over all who looked upon her. Her waving
+yellow hair flashed in the morning sunshine, and as she raised one hand
+to shade her large, clear, blue eyes, her open sleeve fell back,
+disclosing an arm dazzlingly white and exquisitely moulded. As Mr.
+Hammond introduced his pupil to his guests, Mrs. Powell smiled
+pleasantly, and pressed the offered hand; but the eyes, blue and cold
+as the stalactites of Capri, scanned the orphan's countenance, and when
+Edna had seen fully into their depths, she could not avoid recalling
+Heine's poem of Loreley.
+
+"My daughter Gertrude promises herself much pleasure in your society,
+Miss Earl; for uncle's praises prepare her to expect a most charming
+companion. She is about your age, but I fear you will find great
+disparity in her attainments, as she has not been so fortunate as to
+receive her education from Uncle Allan. You are, I believe, an adopted
+daughter of Mrs. Murray?"
+
+"No, madam; only a resident in her house until my education is
+pronounced sufficiently advanced to justify my teaching."
+
+"I have a friend, Miss Harding, who has recently removed to Le Bocage,
+and intends making it her home. How is she?"
+
+"Quite well, I believe."
+
+Mr. Hammond left the study for a moment, and Mrs. Powell added:
+
+"Her friends at the North tell me that she is to marry her cousin, Mr.
+Murray, very soon."
+
+"I had not heard the report."
+
+"Then you think there are no grounds for the rumor?"
+
+"Indeed, madam, I know nothing whatever concerning the matter."
+
+"Estelle is handsome and brilliant."
+
+Edna made no reply; and, after waiting a few seconds, Mrs. Powell asked:
+
+"Does Mr. Murray go much into society now?"
+
+"I believe not."
+
+"Is he as handsome as ever?"
+
+"I do not know when you saw him last, but the ladies here seem rather
+to dread than admire him. Mrs. Powell, you are dipping your sleeve in
+your uncle's inkstand."
+
+She by no means relished this catechism, and resolved to end it.
+Picking up her books, she said to Mr. Hammond, who now stood in the
+door:
+
+"I presume I need not wait, as you will be too much occupied to-day to
+attend to my lessons."
+
+"Yes; I must give you holiday until Monday."
+
+"Miss Earl, may I trouble you to hand this letter to Miss Harding? It
+was entrusted to my care by one of her friends in New York. Pray be so
+good as to deliver it, with my kindest regards."
+
+As Edna left the house, the pastor took his hat from the rack in the
+hall, and walked silently beside her until she reached the gate.
+
+"Mr. Hammond, your niece is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen."
+
+He sighed heavily, and answered, hesitatingly:
+
+"Yes, yes. She is more beautiful now than when she first grew up."
+
+"How long has she been a widow?"
+
+"Not quite a year."
+
+The troubled expression settled once more over his placid face, and
+when Edna bade him good-morning, and had walked some distance, she
+happened to look back, and saw him still leaning on the little gate
+under the drooping honeysuckle tendrils, with his gray head bent down
+on his hand. That Mrs. Powell was in some way connected with Mr.
+Murray's estrangement from the minister Edna felt sure, and the
+curiosity which the inquiries of the former had betrayed, told her that
+she must be guarded in her intercourse with a woman who was an object
+of distrust even to her own uncle.
+
+Very often she had been tempted to ask Mr. Hammond why Mr. Murray so
+sedulously shunned him; but the shadow which fell upon his countenance
+whenever St. Elmo's name was accidentally mentioned, made her shrink
+from alluding to the subject which he evidently avoided discussing.
+
+Before she had walked beyond the outskirts of the village, Mr. Leigh
+joined her and she felt the color rise in her cheeks as his fine eyes
+rested on her face, and his hand pressed hers. "You must forgive me for
+telling you how bitterly I was disappointed in not seeing you two days
+ago. Why did you absent yourself from the table?"
+
+"Because I had no desire to meet Mrs. Murray's guests, and preferred to
+spend my time with Mr. Hammond."
+
+"If he were not old enough to be your grandfather, I believe I should
+be jealous of him. Edna, do not be offended, I am so anxious about
+you--so pained at the change in your appearance. Last Sunday as you sat
+in church I noticed how very pale and worn you looked, and with what
+weariness you leaned your head upon your hand. Mrs. Murray says you are
+very well, but I know better. You are either sick in body or mind;
+which is it?"
+
+"Neither, Mr. Leigh. I am quite well, I assure you."
+
+"You are grieved about something, which you are unwilling to confide to
+me. Edna, it is keen pain that sometimes brings that quiver to your
+lips, and if you would only tell me! Edna, I know that I--"
+
+"You conjure up a spectre. I have nothing to confide, and there is no
+trouble which you can relieve."
+
+They walked on silently for a while, and then Gordon said:
+
+"I am going away day after to-morrow, to be absent at least for several
+months, and I have come to ask a favor which you are too generous to
+deny. I want your ambrotype or photograph, and I hope you will give it
+to me without hesitation."
+
+"I have never had a likeness of any kind taken."
+
+"There is a good artist here; will you not go to-day and have one taken
+for me?"
+
+"No, Mr. Leigh."
+
+"Oh, Edna! Why not?"
+
+"Because I do not wish you to think of remembering me. The sooner you
+forget me entirely, save as a mere friend, the happier we both shall
+be."
+
+"But that is impossible. If you withhold your picture it will do no
+good, for I have your face here in my heart, and you cannot take that
+image from me."
+
+"At least I will not encourage feelings which can bring only pain to me
+and disappointment to yourself. I consider it unprincipled and
+contemptible in a woman to foster or promote in any degree an affection
+which she knows she can never reciprocate. If I had fifty photographs I
+would not give you one. My dear friend, let the past be forgotten; it
+saddens me whenever I think of it, and is a barrier to all pleasant,
+friendly intercourse. Good-bye, Mr. Leigh. You have my best wishes on
+your journey."
+
+"Will you not allow me to see you home?"
+
+"I think it is best--I prefer that you should not. Mr. Leigh, promise
+me that you will struggle against this feeling which distresses me
+beyond expression."
+
+She turned and put out her hand. He shook his head mournfully, and said
+as he left her:
+
+"God bless you! It will be a dreary, dreary season with me till I
+return and see your face again. God preserve you till then!"
+
+Walking rapidly homeward, Edna wondered why she could not return Gordon
+Leigh's affection--why his noble face never haunted her dreams instead
+of another's--of which she dreaded to think.
+
+Looking rigorously into the past few weeks, she felt that long before
+she was aware of the fact, an image to which she refused homage must
+have stood between her heart and Gordon's.
+
+When she reached home she inquired for Miss Harding, and was informed
+that she and Mrs. Murray had gone visiting with Mr. Allston; had taken
+lunch, and would not return until late in the afternoon. Hagar told her
+that Mr. Murray had started at daylight to one of his plantations about
+twelve miles distant, and would not be back in time for dinner; and,
+rejoiced at the prospect of a quiet day, she determined to complete the
+chapter which she had left unfinished two night previous.
+
+Needing a reference in the book which Mr. Murray had taken from the
+library, she went up to copy it; and as she sat down and opened the
+volume to find the passage she required, a letter slipped out and fell
+at her feet. She glanced at the envelope as she picked it up, and her
+heart bounded painfully as she saw Mr. Murray's name written in Mr.
+Manning's peculiar and unmistakable chirography.
+
+The postmark and date corresponded exactly with the one that she had
+received the night Mr. Murray gave her the roll of MS., and the
+strongest temptation of her life here assailed her. She would almost
+have given her right hand to know the contents of that letter, and Mr.
+Murray's confident assertion concerning the package was now fully
+explained. He had recognized the handwriting on her letters, and
+suspected her ambitious scheme. He was not a stranger to Mr. Manning,
+and must have known the nature of their correspondence; consequently
+his taunt about a lover was entirely ironical.
+
+She turned the unsealed envelope over and over longing to know what it
+contained.
+
+The house was deserted--there was, she knew, no human being nearer than
+the kitchen, and no eye but God's upon her. She looked once more at the
+superscription of the letter, sighed, and put it back into the book
+without opening the envelope.
+
+She copied into her note-book the reference she was seeking, and
+replacing the volume on the window-sill where she had found it, went
+back to her own room and tried to banish the subject of the letter from
+her mind.
+
+After all, it was not probable that Mr. Murray had ever mentioned her
+name to his correspondent; and as she had not alluded to Le Bocage or
+its inmates in writing to Mr. Manning, St. Elmo's hints concerning her
+MS. were merely based on conjecture. She felt as if she would rather
+face any other disaster sooner than have him scoffing at her daring
+project; and more annoyed and puzzled than she chose to confess, she
+resolutely bent her thoughts upon her work.
+
+It was almost dusk before Mrs. Murray and her guests returned; and when
+it grew so dark that Edna could not see the lines of her paper, she
+smoothed her hair, changed her dress, and went down to the parlor.
+
+Mrs. Murray was resting in a corner of the sofa, fanning herself
+vigorously, and Mr. Allston smoked on the veranda, and talked to her
+through the open window.
+
+"Well, Edna, where have you been all day?"
+
+"With my books."
+
+"I am tired almost to death! This country visiting is an intolerable
+bore! I am worn out with small talk and back-biting. Society nowadays
+is composed of cannibals--infinitely more to be dreaded than the
+Fijians--who only devour the body and leave the character of an
+individual intact. Child, let us have some music by way of variety.
+Play that symphony of Beethoven that I heard you practicing last week."
+
+She laid her head on the arm of the sofa, and shut her eyes, and Edna
+opened the piano and played the piece designated.
+
+The delicacy of her touch enabled her to render it with peculiar pathos
+and power; and she played on and on, unmindful of Miss Harding's
+entrance--oblivious of everything but the sublime strains of the great
+master.
+
+The light streamed over her face, and showed a gladness, an exaltation
+of expression there, as if her soul had broken from its earthly
+moorings, and was making its way joyfully into the infinite sea of
+eternal love and blessedness.
+
+At last her fingers fell from the keys, and as she rose she saw Mr.
+Murray standing outside of the parlor door, with his fingers shading
+his eyes.
+
+He came in soon after, and his mother held out her hand, saying:
+
+"Here is a seat, my son. Have you just returned?"
+
+"No, I have been here some time."
+
+"How are affairs at the plantation?"
+
+"I really have no idea."
+
+"Why? I thought you went there to-day."
+
+"I started; but found my horse so lame that I went no further than
+town."
+
+"Indeed! Hagar told me you had not returned, when I came in from
+visiting."
+
+"Like some other people of my acquaintance, Hagar reckons without her
+host. I have been at home ever since twelve o'clock, and saw the
+carriage as you drove off."
+
+"And pray how have you employed yourself, you incorrigible ignis
+fatuus? O my cousin! you are well named. Aunt Ellen must have had an
+intuitive insight into your character when she had you christened St.
+Elmo; only she should have added the 'Fire--' How have you spent the
+day, sir?"
+
+"Most serenely and charmingly, my fair cousin, in the solitude of my
+den. If my mother could give me satisfactory security that all my days
+would prove as quiet and happy as this has been, I would enter into
+bonds never to quit the confines of Le Bocage again. Ah! the
+indescribable relief of feeling that nothing was expected of me; that
+the galling gyves of hospitality and etiquette were snapped, and that I
+was entirely free from all danger of intrusion. This day shall be
+marked with a white stone; for I entered my rooms at twelve o'clock,
+and remained there in uninterrupted peace till five minutes ago; when I
+put on my social shackles once more, and hobbled down to entertain my
+fair guest."
+
+Edna was arranging some sheets of music that were scattered on the
+piano; but as he mentioned the hour of his return, she remembered that
+the clock struck one just as she went into the sitting-room where he
+kept his books and cabinets; and she knew now that he was at that very
+time in the inner room, beyond the arch. She put her hand to her
+forehead, and endeavored to recollect the appearance of the apartment.
+The silk curtains, she was sure, were hanging over the arch; for she
+remembered distinctly having noticed a large and very beautiful golden
+butterfly which had fluttered in from the terrace, and was flitting
+over the glowing folds that fell from the carved intrados to the marble
+floor. But though screened from her view, he must have heard and seen
+her, as she sat before his book-case, turning his letter curiously
+between her fingers.
+
+She dared not look up, and bent down to examine the music, so absorbed
+in her own emotions of chagrin and astonishment, that she heard not one
+word of what Miss Harding was saying. She felt well assured that if Mr.
+Murray were cognizant of her visit to the "Egyptian museum," he
+intended her to know it, and she knew that his countenance would solve
+her painful doubt.
+
+Gathering up her courage, she raised her eyes quickly in the direction
+of the sofa, where he had thrown himself, and met just what she most
+dreaded, his keen gaze riveted on her face. Evidently he had been
+waiting for this eager, startling, questioning glance; for instantly he
+smiled, inclined his head slightly, and arched his eyebrows, as if much
+amused. Never before had she seen his face so bright and happy, so free
+from bitterness. If he had said, "Yes, I saw you: are you not
+thoroughly discomfited, and ashamed of your idle curiosity? What
+interest can you possibly have in carefully studying the outside of my
+letters? How do you propose to mend matters?"--he could not have more
+fully conveyed his meaning. Edna's face crimsoned, and she put up her
+hand to shield it; but Mr. Murray turned toward the window, and coolly
+discussed the merits of a popular race-horse, upon which Clinton
+Allston lavished extravagant praise.
+
+Estelle leaned against the window, listening to the controversy, and
+after a time, when the subject seemed very effectually settled by an
+oath from the master of the house, Edna availed herself of the lull in
+the conversation to deliver the letter.
+
+"Miss Harding, I was requested to hand you this."
+
+Estelle broke the seal, glanced rapidly over the letter and exclaimed:
+
+"Is it possible? Can she be here? Who gave you this letter?"
+
+"Mrs. Powell, Mr. Hammond's niece."
+
+"Agnes Powell?"
+
+"Yes. Agnes Powell."
+
+During the next three minutes one might have distinctly heard a pin
+fall, for the ticking of two watches was very audible.
+
+Estelle glanced first at her cousin, then at her aunt, then back at her
+cousin. Mrs. Murray involuntarily laid her hand on her son's knee, and
+watched his face with an expression of breathless anxiety; and Edna saw
+that, though his lips blanched, not a muscle moved, not a nerve
+twitched; and only the deadly hate, that appeared to leap into his
+large shadowy eyes, told that the name stirred some bitter memory.
+
+The silence was growing intolerable when Mr. Murray turned his gaze
+full on Estelle, and said in his usual sarcastic tone:
+
+"Have you seen a ghost? Your letter must contain tidings of Victor's
+untimely demise; for, if there is such a thing as retribution, such a
+personage as Nemesis, I swear that poor devil of a Count has crept into
+her garments and come to haunt you. Did he cut his white womanish
+throat with a penknife, or smother himself with charcoal fumes, or
+light a poisoned candle and let his poor homoeopathic soul drift out
+dreamily into eternity? If so, Gabriel will require a powerful
+microscope to find him. Notwithstanding the fact that you destined him
+for my cousin, the little curly creature always impressed me as being a
+stray specimen of an otherwise extinct type of intellectual
+Lacrymatoria. Is he really dead? Peace to his infusorial soul! Who had
+the courage to write and break the melancholy tidings to you? Or
+perhaps, after all, it is only the ghost of your own conscience that
+has brought that scared look into your face."
+
+She laughed and shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"How insanely jealous you are of Victor! He's neither dead nor dreaming
+of suicide, but enjoying himself vastly in Baden-Baden. Edna, did Mrs.
+Powell bring Gertrude with her?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Do you know how long she intends remaining at the parsonage?"
+
+"I think her visit is of indefinite duration."
+
+"Edna, will you oblige me by inquiring whether Henry intends to give us
+any supper to-night? He forgets we have had no dinner. St. Elmo, do
+turn down that gas--the wind makes it flare dreadfully."
+
+Edna left the room to obey Mrs. Murray's command, and did not return
+immediately; but, after the party seated themselves at the table, she
+noticed that the master seemed in unusually high spirits; and when the
+meal was concluded, he challenged his cousins to a game of billiards.
+
+They repaired to the rotunda, and Mrs. Murray beckoned to Edna to
+follow her. As they entered her apartment she carefully closed the door.
+
+"Edna, when did Mrs. Powell arrive?"
+
+"Last night."
+
+"Did you see her?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am."
+
+"Is she very pretty?"
+
+"She is the most beautiful woman I ever met."
+
+"How did Mr. Hammond receive her?"
+
+"Her visit evidently annoys him, but he gave me no explanation of the
+matter, which I confess puzzles me. I should suppose her society would
+cheer and interest him."
+
+"Oh, pooh! Talk of what you understand. She surely has not come here to
+live?"
+
+"I think he fears she has. She is very poor."
+
+Mrs. Murray set her teeth together and muttered something which her
+companion did not understand.
+
+"Edna, is she handsomer than Estelle?"
+
+"Infinitely handsomer, I think. Indeed, they are so totally unlike it
+would be impossible to compare them. Your niece is very fine-looking,
+very commanding; Mrs. Powell is beautiful."
+
+"But she is no longer young. She has a grown daughter."
+
+"True; but in looking at her you do not realize it. Did you never see
+her?"
+
+"No; and I trust I never may! I am astonished that Mr. Hammond can
+endure the sight of her. You say he has told you nothing about her?"
+
+"Nothing which explains the chagrin her presence seems to cause."
+
+"He is very wise. But, Edna, avoid her society as much as possible. She
+is doubtless very fascinating; but I do not like what I have heard of
+her, and prefer that you should have little conversation or intercourse
+with her. On the whole, you might as well stay at home now; it is very
+warm, and you can study without Mr. Hammond's assistance."
+
+"You do not mean that my visits must cease altogether?"
+
+"Oh! no; go occasionally--once or twice a week--but certainly not every
+day, as formerly. And, Edna, be careful not to mention that woman's
+name again; I dislike her exceedingly."
+
+The orphan longed to ask for an explanation, but was too proud to
+solicit confidence so studiously withheld.
+
+Mrs. Murray leaned back in her large rocking-chair and fell into a
+reverie. Edna waited patiently for some time, and finally rose.
+
+"Mrs. Murray, have you anything more to say to me tonight? You look
+very much fatigued!"
+
+"Nothing, I believe. Good-night, child. Send Hagar to me."
+
+Edna went back to her desk and resolutely turned to her work; for it
+was one of the peculiar traits of her character that she could at will
+fasten her thoughts upon whatever subject she desired to master. All
+irrelevant ideas were sternly banished until such season as she chose
+to give them audience; and to-night she tore her mind from the events
+of the day, and diligently toiled among the fragments of Scandinavian
+lore for the missing links in her mythologic chain.
+
+Now and then peals of laughter from the billiard-room startled her; and
+more than once Mr. Murray's clear, cold voice rose above the subdued
+chatter of Estelle and Clinton.
+
+After a while the game ended, good-nights were exchanged, the party
+dispersed, doors were closed, and all grew silent.
+
+While Edna wrote on, an unexpected sound arrested her pen. She
+listened, and heard the slow walk of a horse beneath her window. As it
+passed she rose and looked out. The moon was up, and Mr. Murray was
+riding down the avenue.
+
+The girl returned to her MS., and worked on without intermission for
+another hour; then the last paragraph was carefully punctuated, the
+long and difficult chapter was finished. She laid aside her pen, and
+locked her desk.
+
+Shaking down the mass of hair that had been tightly coiled at the back
+of her head, she extinguished the light, and drawing a chair to the
+window, seated herself.
+
+Silence and peace brooded over the world; not a sound broke the solemn
+repose of nature.
+
+The summer breeze had rocked itself to rest in the elm boughs, and only
+the waning moon seemed alive and toiling as it climbed slowly up a
+cloudless sky, passing starry sentinels whose mighty challenge was lost
+in vast vortices of blue, as they paced their ceaseless round in the
+mighty camp of constellations.
+
+With her eyes fixed on the gloomy, groined archway of elms, where an
+occasional slip of moonshine silvered the ground, Edna watched and
+waited. The blood beat heavily in her temples and throbbed sullenly at
+her heart; but she sat mute and motionless as the summer night,
+reviewing all that had occurred during the day.
+
+Presently the distant sound of hoofs on the rocky road leading to town
+fell upon her strained ear; the hard, quick gallop ceased at the gate,
+and very slowly Mr. Murray walked his horse up the dusky avenue, and on
+toward the stable.
+
+From the shadow of her muslin curtain, Edna looked down on the walk
+beneath, and after a few moments saw him coming to the house.
+
+He paused on the terrace, took off his hat, swept back the thick hair
+from his forehead, and stood looking out over the quiet lawn.
+
+Then a heavy, heavy sigh, almost a moan, seemed to burst from the
+depths of his heart, and he turned and went into the house.
+
+The night was far spent, and the moon had cradled herself on the
+tree-tops, when Edna raised her face all blistered with tears.
+Stretching out her arms she fell on her knees, while a passionate,
+sobbing prayer struggled brokenly across her trembling lips:
+
+"O my God! have mercy upon him! save his wretched soul from eternal
+death! Help me so to live and govern myself that I bring no shame on
+the cause of Christ. And if it be thy will, O my God! grant that I may
+be instrumental in winning this precious but wandering, sinful soul
+back to the faith as it is in Jesus!"
+
+Ah! verily--
+
+... "More things are wrought by prayer Than this world dreams of.
+Wherefore let thy voice Rise like a fountain for him night and day. For
+what are men better than sheep or goats, That nourish a blind life
+within the brain, If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer Both
+for themselves, and those who call them friend?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+"Where are you going, St. Elmo? I know it is one of your amiable
+decrees that your movements are not to be questioned, but I dare to
+brave your ire."
+
+"I am going to that blessed retreat familiarly known as 'Murray's den,'
+where, secure from feminine intrusion, as if in the cool cloisters of
+Coutloumoussi, I surrender my happy soul to science and cigars, and
+revel in complete forgetfulness of that awful curse which Jove hurled
+against all mankind, because of Prometheus's robbery."
+
+"There are asylums for lunatics and inebriates, and I wonder it has
+never occurred to some benevolent millionaire to found one for such
+abominable cynics as you, my most angelic cousin! where the snarling
+brutes can only snap at and worry one another."
+
+"An admirable idea, Estelle, which I fondly imagined I had successfully
+carried out when I built those rooms of mine."
+
+"You are as hateful as Momus, MINUS his wit! He was kicked out of
+heaven for grumbling, and you richly deserve his fate."
+
+"I have a vague recollection that the Goddess Discord shared the fate
+of the celestial growler. I certainly plead guilty to an earnest
+sympathy with Momus's dissatisfaction with the house that Minerva
+built, and only wish that mine was movable, as he recommended, in order
+to escape bad neighborhoods and tiresome companions."
+
+"Hospitable, upon my word! You spin some spiteful idea out of every
+sentence I utter and are not even entitled to the compliment which
+Chesterfield paid to old Samuel Johnson, 'The utmost I can do for him
+is to consider him a respectable Hottentot.' If I did not know that
+instead of proving a punishment it would gratify you beyond measure, I
+would take a vow not to speak to you again for a month; but the
+consciousness of the happiness I should thereby bestow upon you, vetoes
+the resolution. Do you know that even a Comanche chief, or a Bechuana
+of the desert, shames your inhospitality? I assure you I am the victim
+of hopeless ennui, am driven to the verge of desperation; for Mr.
+Allston will probably not return until to-morrow, and it is raining so
+hard that I can not wander out of doors. Here I am shut up in this
+dreary house, which reminds me of the descriptions of that doleful
+retreat for sinners in Normandy, where the inmates pray eleven hours a
+day, dig their own graves every evening, and if they chance to meet one
+another, salute each other with 'Memento mori!' Ugh! if there remains
+one latent spark of chivalry in your soul, I beseech you be merciful!
+Do not go off to your den, but stay here and entertain me. It is said
+that you read bewitchingly, and with unrivalled effect; pray favor me
+this morning. I will promise to lay my hand on my lips; it is not white
+enough for a flag of truce? I will be meek, amiable, docile, absolutely
+silent."
+
+Estelle swept aside a mass of papers from the corner of the sofa, and,
+taking Mr. Murray's hand, drew him to a seat beside her.
+
+"Your 'amiable silence,' my fair cousin, is but a cunningly fashioned
+wooden horse. Timco Danaos et dona ferentes! I am to understand that
+you actually offer me your hand as a flag of truce? It is wonderfully
+white and pretty; but excuse me, C'est une main de fer, gantee de
+velours! Your countenance, so serenely radiant, reminds me of what
+Madame Noblet said of M. de Vitri, 'His face looked just like a
+stratagem!' Reading aloud is a practice in which I never indulge,
+simply because I cordially detest it, and knowing this fact, it is a
+truly feminine refinement of cruelty on your part to select this mode
+of penance. Nevertheless, your appeal to my chivalry, which always
+springs up, armed cap-a-pie 'to do or die'; and since read I must, I
+only stipulate that I may be allowed to select my book. Just now I am
+profoundly interested in a French work on infusoria, by Dujardin; and
+as you have probably not studied it, I will select those portions which
+treat of the animalcula that inhabit grains of sugar and salt and drops
+of water; so that by the time lunch is ready, your appetite will be
+whetted by a knowledge of the nature of your repast. According to
+Leeuwenhoek, Muller, Gleichen, and others, the campaigns of
+Zenzis-Khan, Alexander, Attila, were not half so murderous as a single
+fashionable dinner; and the battle of Marengo was a farce in comparison
+with the swallowing of a cup of tea, which contains--"
+
+"For shame, you tormentor! when you know that I love tea as well as did
+your model of politeness, Dr. Johnson! Not one line of all that
+nauseating scientific stuff shall you read to me. Here is a volume of
+poems of the 'Female Poets'; do be agreeable for once in your life, and
+select me some sweet little rhythmic gem of Mrs. Browning, or Mrs.
+Norton, or L. E. L."
+
+"Estelle, did you ever hear of the Peishwah of the Mahrattas?"
+
+"I most assuredly never had even a hint of a syllable on the subject.
+What of him, or her, or it?"
+
+"Enough, that though you are evidently ambitious of playing his
+despotic role at Le Bocage, you will never succeed in reducing me to
+that condition of abject subjugation necessary to make me endure the
+perusal of 'female poetry.' I have always desired an opportunity of
+voting my cordial thanks to the wit who expressed so felicitously my
+own thorough conviction, that Pegasus had an unconquerable repugnance,
+hatred, to side-saddles. You vow you will not listen to science; and I
+swear I won't read poetry! Suppose we compromise on this new number of
+the--Magazine? It is the ablest periodical published in this country.
+Let me see the contents of this number."
+
+It was a dark, rainy morning in July. Mrs. Murray was winding a
+quantity of zephyr wool, of various bright colors, which she had
+requested Edna to hold on her wrists; and at the mention of the
+magazine the latter looked up suddenly at the master of the house.
+
+Holding his cigar between his thumb and third finger, his eye ran over
+the table of contents.
+
+"'Who smote the Marble Gods of Greece?' Humph! rather a difficult
+question to answer after the lapse of twenty-two centuries. But
+doubtless our archaeologists are so much wiser than the Athenian Senate
+of Five Hundred, who investigated the affair the day after it happened,
+that a perusal will be exceedingly edifying. Now, then, for a solution
+of this classic mystery of the nocturnal iconoclasm; which, in my
+humble opinion, only the brazen lips of Minerva Promachus could
+satisfactorily explain."
+
+Turning to the article he read it aloud, without pausing to comment,
+while Edna's heart bounded so rapidly that she could scarcely conceal
+her agitation. It was, indeed, a treat to listen to him; and as his
+musical voice filled the room, she thought of Jean Paul Richter's
+description of Goethe's reading: "There is nothing comparable to it. It
+is like deep-toned thunder blended with whispering rain-drops."
+
+But the orphan's pleasure was of short duration, and as Mr. Murray
+concluded the perusal, he tossed the magazine contemptuously across the
+room, and exclaimed:
+
+"Pretentious and shallow! A tissue of pedantry and error from beginning
+to end--written, I will wager my head, by some scribbler who never saw
+Athens! Moreover, the whole article is based upon a glaring blunder;
+for, according to Plutarch and Diodorus, on the memorable night in
+question there was a new moon. Pshaw! it is a tasteless, insipid
+plagiarism from Grote; and if I am to be bored with such insufferable
+twaddle, I will stop my subscription. For some time I have noticed
+symptoms of deterioration, but this is altogether intolerable; and I
+shall write to Manning that, if he cannot do better, it would be
+advisable for him to suspend at once before his magazine loses its
+reputation. If I were not aware that his low estimate of female
+intellect coincides fully with my own, I should be tempted to suppose
+that some silly but ambitious woman wrote that stuff, which sounds
+learned and is simply stupid."
+
+He did not even glance toward Edna, but the peculiar emphasis of his
+words left no doubt in her mind that he suspected, nay, felt assured,
+that she was the luckless author. Raising her head which had been
+drooped over the woolen skeins, she said, firmly, yet very quietly:
+
+"If you will permit me to differ with you, Mr. Murray, I will say that
+it seems to me all the testimony is in favor of the full-moon theory.
+Beside, Grote is the latest and best authority; he has carefully
+collected and sifted the evidence, and certainly sanctions the position
+taken by the author of the article which you condemn."
+
+"Ah! how long since you investigated the matter? The affair is so
+essentially Paganish that I should imagine that it possessed no charm
+for so orthodox a Christian as yourself. Estelle, what say you
+concerning this historic sphinx?"
+
+"That I am blissfully ignorant of the whole question, and have a vague
+impression that it is not worth the paper it is written on, much less a
+quarrel with you, Monsieur 'Le Hutin'; that it is the merest matter of
+moonshine--new moon versus full moon, and must have been written by a
+lunatic. But, my Chevalier Bayard, one thing I do intend to say most
+decidedly, and that is, that your lunge at female intellect was as
+unnecessary and ill-timed and ill-bred as it was ill-natured. The
+mental equality of the sexes is now as unquestioned, as universally
+admitted, as any other well-established fact in science or history; and
+the sooner you men gracefully concede us our rights, the sooner we
+shall cease wrangling, and settle back into our traditional amiability."
+
+"The universality of the admission I should certainly deny, were the
+subject of sufficient importance to justify a discussion. However, I
+have been absent so long from America, that I confess my ignorance of
+the last social advance in the striding enlightenment of this most
+progressive people. According to Moleschott's celebrated
+dictum--'Without phosphorus no thought,' and if there be any truth in
+physiology and phrenology, you women have been stinted by nature in the
+supply of phosphorus. Peacock's measurements prove that in the average
+weight of male and female brains, you fall below our standard by not
+less than six ounces. I should conjecture that in the scales of
+equality six ounces of ideas would turn the balance in favor of our
+superiority."
+
+"If you reduce it to a mere question of avoirdupois, please be so good
+as to remember that even greater differences exist among men. For
+instance, your brain (which is certainly not considered over average)
+weighs from three to three and a half pounds, while Cuvier's brain
+weighed over four pounds, giving him the advantage of more than eight
+ounces over our household oracle! Accidental difference in brain weight
+proves nothing; for you will not admit your mental inferiority to any
+man, simply because his head requires a larger hat than yours."
+
+"Pardon me, I always bow before facts, no matter how unflattering, and
+I consider one of Cuvier's ideas worthy of just exactly eight degrees
+more of reverence than any phosphorescent sparkle which I might choose
+to hold up for public acceptance and guidance. Without doubt, the most
+thoroughly ludicrous scene I ever witnessed was furnished by a 'woman's
+rights' meeting,' which I looked in upon one night in New York, as I
+returned from Europe. The speaker was a raw-boned, wiry, angular,
+short-haired, lemon-visaged female of very certain age; with a hand
+like a bronze gauntlet, and a voice as distracting as the shrill squeak
+of a cracked cornet-a-piston. Over the wrongs and grievances of her
+down-trodden, writhing sisterhood she ranted and raved and howled,
+gesticulating the while with a marvelous grace, which I can compare
+only to the antics of those inspired goats who strayed too near the
+Pythian cave, and were thrown into convulsions. Though I pulled my hat
+over my eyes and clapped both hands to my ears, as I rushed out of the
+hall after a stay of five minutes, the vision of horror followed me,
+and for the first and only time in my life, I had such a hideous
+nightmare that night, that the man who slept in the next room broke
+open my door to ascertain who was strangling me. Of all my pet
+aversions my most supreme abhorrence is of what are denominated 'gifted
+women'; strong-minded (that is, weak-brained but loud-tongued),
+would-be literary females, who, puffed up with insufferable conceit,
+imagine they rise to the dignity and height of man's intellect,
+proclaim that their 'mission' is to write or lecture, and set
+themselves up as shining female lights, each aspiring to the rank of
+protomartyr of reform. Heaven grant us a Bellerophon to relieve the age
+of these noisy Amazons! I should really enjoy seeing them tied down to
+their spinning-wheels, and gagged with their own books, magazines, and
+lectures! When I was abroad and contrasted the land of my birth with
+those I visited, the only thing for which, as an American, I felt
+myself called on to blush, was my country-women. An insolent young
+count who had traveled through the Eastern and Northern States of
+America, asked me one day in Berlin, if it were really true that the
+male editors, lawyers, doctors and lecturers in the United States were
+contemplating a hegira, in consequence of the rough elbowing by the
+women, and if I could inform him at what age the New England girls
+generally commenced writing learned articles, and affixing LL.D.,
+F.E.S., F.S.A., and M.M.S.S. to their signature?"
+
+"'Lay on, Macduff!' I wish you distinctly to understand that my toes
+are not bruised in the slightest degree; for I am entirely innocent of
+any attempt at erudition or authorship, and the sole literary dream of
+my life is to improve the present popular recipe for biscuit glace. But
+mark you, 'Sir Oracle,' I must 'ope my lips' and bark a little under my
+breath at your inconsistencies. Now, if there are two living men whom,
+above all others, you swear by, they are John Stuart Mill and John
+Ruskin. Well do I recollect your eulogy of both, on that ever-memorable
+day in Paris, when we dined with that French encyclopaedia, Count W--,
+and the leading lettered men of the day were discussed. I was
+frightened out of my wits, and dared not raise my eyes higher than the
+top of my wineglass, lest I should be asked my opinion of some book or
+subject of which I had never even heard, and in trying to appear
+well-educated, make as horrible a blunder as poor Madame Talleyrand
+committed, when she talked to Denon about his man Friday, believing
+that he wrote 'Robinson Crusoe.' At that time I had never read either
+Mill or Ruskin; but my profound reverence for the wisdom of your
+opinions taught me how shamefully ignorant I was, and thus, to fit
+myself for your companionship, I immediately bought their books. Lo, to
+my indescribable amazement, I found that Mill claimed for women what I
+never once dreamed we were worthy of--not only equality, but the right
+of suffrage. He, the foremost dialectician of England and the most
+learned of political economists, demands that, for the sake of equity
+and 'social improvement,' we women (minus the required six ounces of
+brains) should be allowed to vote. Behold the Corypheus of the 'woman's
+rights' school! Were I to follow his teachings, I should certainly
+begin to clamor for my right of suffrage--for the lady-like privilege
+of elbowing you away from the ballot-box at the next election.
+
+"I am quite as far from admitting the infallibility of man as the
+equality of the sexes. The clearest thinkers of the world have had soft
+spots in their brains; for instance, the daemon belief of Socrates and
+the ludicrous superstitions of Pythagoras; and you have laid your
+finger on the softened spot in Mill's skull, 'suffrage.' That is a
+jaded, spavined hobby of his, and he is too shrewd a logician to
+involve himself in the inconsistency of 'extended suffrage' which
+excludes women. When I read his 'Representative Government' I saw that
+his reason had dragged anchor, the prestige of his great name vanished,
+and I threw the book into the fire and eschewed him henceforth. Sic
+transit."
+
+Here Mrs. Murray looked up and said:
+
+"John Stuart Mill--let me see--Edna, is he not the man who wrote that
+touching dedication of one of his books to his wife's memory? You
+quoted it for me a few days ago, and said that you had committed it to
+memory because it was such a glowing tribute to the intellectual
+capacity of woman. My dear, I wish you would repeat it now! I should
+like to hear it again."
+
+With her fingers full of purple woolen skeins, and her eyes bent down,
+Edna recited, in a low, sweet voice the most eloquent panegyric which
+man's heart ever pronounced on woman's intellect:
+
+"To the beloved and deplored memory of her who was the inspirer, and in
+part, the author, of all that is best in my writings, the friend and
+wife whose exalted sense of truth and right was my strongest
+incitement, and whose approbation was my chief reward, I dedicate this
+volume. Like all that I have written for many years, it belongs as much
+to her as to me; but the work as it stands has had, in a very
+insufficient degree, the inestimable advantage of her revision; some of
+the most important portions having been reserved for a more careful
+re-examination, which they are now never destined to receive. Were I
+but capable of interpreting to the world one half the great thoughts
+and noble feelings which are buried in her grave, I should be the
+medium of a greater benefit to it than is ever likely to arise from
+anything that I can write unprompted and unassisted by her all but
+unrivalled wisdom."
+
+"Where did you find that dedication?" asked Mr. Murray.
+
+"In Mill's book on liberty."
+
+"It is not in my library."
+
+"I borrowed it from Mr. Hammond."
+
+"Strange that a plant so noxious should be permitted in such a
+sanctified atmosphere! Do you happen to recollect the following
+sentences? 'I regard utility as the ultimate appeal on all ethical
+questions!' 'There is a Greek ideal of self-development which the
+Platonic and Christian ideal of self-government blends with but does
+not supersede. It may be better to be a John Knox than an Alcibiades,
+but it is better to be a Pericles than either.'"
+
+"Yes, sir. They occur in the same book; but, Mr. Murray, I have been
+advised by my teacher to bear always in mind that noble maxim, 'I can
+tolerate every thing else but every other man's intolerance'; and it is
+with his consent and by his instructions that I go like Ruth, gleaning
+in the great fields of literature." "Take care you don't find Boaz
+instead of barley. After all, the universal mania for match-making
+schemes and manoeuvers which continually stir society from its dregs to
+the painted foam-bubble dancing on its crested wave, is peculiar to no
+age or condition, but is an immemorial and hereditary female
+proclivity; for I defy Paris or London to furnish a more perfectly
+developed specimen of a 'manoeuvring mamma' than was crafty Naomi, when
+she sent that pretty little Moabitish widow out husband-hunting."
+
+"I heartily wish she was only here to outwit you!" laughed his cousin,
+nestling her head against his arm as they sat together on the sofa.
+
+"Who? The widow or the match-maker?"
+
+"Oh! the match-maker, of course. There is more than one Ruth already in
+the field."
+
+The last clause was whispered so low that only St. Elmo heard it, and
+any other woman but Estelle Harding would have shrunk away in utter
+humiliation from the eye and the voice that answered:
+
+"Yourself and Mrs. Powell! Eat Boaz's barley as long as you like--nay,
+divide Boaz's broad fields between you; and you love your lives, keep
+out of Boaz's way."
+
+"You ought both to be ashamed of yourselves. I am surprised at you,
+Estelle, to encourage St. Elmo's irreverence," said Mrs. Murray,
+severely.
+
+"I am sure, Aunt Ellen, I am just as much shocked as you are; but when
+he does not respect even your opinions, how dare I presume to hope he
+will show any deference to mine? St. Elmo, what think you of the last
+Sibylline leaves of your favorite Ruskin? In looking over his new book,
+I was surprised to find this strong assertion ... Here is the volume
+now--listen to this, will you?"
+
+"'Shakespeare has no heroes; he has only heroines. In his labored and
+perfect plays you find no hero, but almost always a perfect woman;
+steadfast in grave hope and errorless purpose. The catastrophe of every
+play is caused always by the folly or fault of a man; the redemption,
+if there be any, is by the wisdom and virtue of a woman, and failing
+that, there is none!'"
+
+"For instance, Lady Macbeth, Ophelia, Regan, Goneril, and last, but not
+least, Petruchio's sweet and gentle Kate! De gustibus!" answered Mr.
+Murray.
+
+"Those are the exceptions, and of course you pounce upon them. Ruskin
+continues: 'In all cases with Scott, as with Shakespeare, it is the
+woman who watches over, teaches and guides the youth; it is never by
+any chance the man who watches over or educates her; and thus--'"
+
+"Meg Merrilies, Madge Wildfire, Mause Headrigg, Effie Deans, and Rob
+Roy's freckle-faced, red-haired, angelic Helen!" interrupted her cousin.
+
+"Don't be rude, St. Elmo. You fly in my face like an exasperated wasp.
+I resume: 'Dante's great poem is a song of praise for Beatrice's watch
+over his soul; she saves him from hell, and leads him star by star up
+into heaven--'"
+
+"Permit me to suggest that conjugal devotion should have led him to
+apostrophize the superlative charms of his own wife, Gemma, from whom
+he was forced to separate; and that his vision of hell was a faint
+reflex of his domestic felicity."
+
+"Mask your battery, sir, till I finish this page, which I am resolved
+you shall hear: 'Greek literature proves the same thing, as witness the
+devoted tenderness of Andromache, the wisdom of Cassandra, the domestic
+excellence of Penelope, the love of Antigone, the resignation of
+Iphigenia, the faithfulness of--'"
+
+"Allow me to assist him in completing the list: the world-renowned
+constancy of Helen to Menelaus, the devotion of Clytemnestra to her
+Agamemnon, the sublime filial affection of Medea, and the bewitching--"
+
+"Hush, sir! Aunt Ellen, do call him to order! I will have a hearing,
+and I close the argument by the unanswerable assertion of Ruskin: 'That
+the Egyptians and Greeks (the most civilized of the ancients) both gave
+to their spirit of wisdom the form of a woman, and for symbols, the
+weaver's shuttle and the olive!"
+
+"An inevitable consequence of the fact, that they considered wisdom as
+synonymous with sleepless and unscrupulous cunning! Schiller declares
+that 'man depicts himself in his gods'; and even a cursory inspection
+of the classics proves that all the abhorred and hideous ideas of the
+ancients were personified by woman. Pluto was affable, and beneficent,
+and gentlemanly, in comparison with Brimo; ditto might be said of Loke
+and Hela, and the most appalling idea that ever attacked the brain of
+mankind, found incarnation in the Fates and Furies, who are always
+women. Unfortunately the mythologies of the world crystallized before
+the age of chivalry, and a little research will establish the
+unflattering fact that human sins and woes are traced primarily to
+female agency; while it is patent that all the rows and squabbles that
+disgraced Olympus were stirred up by scheming goddesses!"
+
+"Thank heaven! here comes Mr. Allston; I can smooth the ruffled plumes
+of my self-love in his sunny smiles, and forget your growls. Good
+morning, Mr. Allston; what happy accident brought you again so soon to
+Le Bocage and its disconsolate inmates?"
+
+Edna picked up the magazine which lay in one corner, and made her
+escape.
+
+The gratification arising from the acceptance and prompt publication of
+her essay, was marred by Mr. Murray's sneering comments; but still her
+heart was happier than it had been for many weeks, and as she turned to
+the Editor's Table and read a few lines complimenting "the article of a
+new contributor," and promising another from the same pen for the
+ensuing month, her face flushed joyfully.
+
+While she felt it difficult to realize that her writings had found
+favor in Mr. Manning's critical eyes, she thanked God that she was
+considered worthy of communicating; with her race through the medium of
+a magazine so influential and celebrated. She thought it probable that
+Mr. Manning had written her a few lines, and wondered whether at that
+moment a letter was not hidden in St. Elmo's pocket.
+
+Taking the magazine, she went into Mrs. Murray's room, and found her
+resting on a lounge. Her face wore a troubled expression, and Edna saw
+traces of tears on the pillow.
+
+"Come in, child; I was just thinking of you."
+
+She put out her hand, drew the girl to a seat near the lounge, and
+sighed heavily.
+
+"Dear Mrs. Murray, I am very, very happy, and I have come to make a
+confession and ask your congratulations."
+
+She knelt down beside her, and, taking the white fingers of her
+benefactress, pressed her forehead against them.
+
+"A confession, Edna! What have you done?"
+
+Mrs. Murray started up and lifted the blushing face.
+
+"Some time ago you questioned me concerning some letters which excited
+your suspicion, and which I promised to explain at some future day. I
+dare say you will think me very presumptuous when I tell you that I
+have been aspiring to authorship; that I was corresponding with Mr.
+Manning on the subject of a MS. which I had sent for his examination,
+and now I have come to show you what I have been doing. You heard Mr.
+Murray read an essay this morning from the--Magazine, which he
+ridiculed very bitterly, but which Mr. Manning at least thought worthy
+of a place in his pages. Mrs. Murray, I wrote that article."
+
+"Is it possible? Who assisted you--who revised it, Mr. Hammond? I did
+not suppose that you, my child, could ever write so elegantly, so
+gracefully."
+
+"No one saw the MS. until Mr. Manning gave it to the printers. I wished
+to surprise Mr. Hammond, and therefore told him nothing of my ambitious
+scheme. I was very apprehensive that I should fail, and for that reason
+was unwilling to acquaint you with the precise subject of the
+correspondence until I was sure of success. Oh, Mrs. Murray! I have no
+mother, and feeling that I owe everything to you--that without your
+generous aid and protection I should never have been able to accomplish
+this one hope of my life, I come to you to share my triumph, for I know
+you will fully sympathize with me. Here is the magazine containing Mr.
+Manning's praise of my work, and here are the letters which I was once
+so reluctant to put into your hands. When I asked you to trust me, you
+did so nobly and freely; and thanking you more than my feeble words can
+express, I want to show you that I was not unworthy of your confidence."
+
+She laid magazine and letters on Mrs. Murray's lap, and in silence the
+proud, reserved woman wound her arms tightly around the orphan,
+pressing the bright young face against her shoulder, and resting her
+own cheek on the girl's fair forehead.
+
+The door was partly ajar, and at that instant St. Elmo entered.
+
+He stopped, looked at the kneeling figure locked so closely in his
+mother's arms, and over his stern face broke a light that transformed
+it into such beauty as Lucifer's might have worn before his sin and
+banishment, when God--
+
+   "'Lucifer'--kindly said as 'Gabriel,'
+    'Lucifer'--soft as 'Michael'; while serene
+     He, standing in the glory of the lamps,
+     Answered, 'My Father,' innocent of shame
+     And of the sense of thunder!"
+
+Yearningly he extended his arms toward the two, who, absorbed in their
+low talk, were unconscious of his presence; then the hands fell heavily
+to his side, the brief smile was swallowed up by scowling shadows, and
+he turned silently away and went to his own gloomy rooms.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+"Mrs. Powell and her daughter to see Miss Estelle and Miss Edna."
+
+"Why did you not say we were at dinner?" cried Mrs. Murray,
+impatiently, darting an angry glance at the servant.
+
+"I did, ma'am, but they said they would wait."
+
+As Estelle folded up her napkin and slipped it into the silver ring,
+she looked furtively at St. Elmo, who, holding up a bunch of purple
+grapes, said in an indifferent tone to his mother:
+
+"The vineyards of Axarquia show nothing more perfect. This cluster
+might challenge comparison with those from which Red Hermitage is made,
+and the seeds of which are said to have been brought from Schiraz. Even
+on the sunny slopes of Cyprus and Naxos I found no finer grapes than
+these. A propos! I want a basketful this afternoon. Henry, tell old
+Simon to gather them immediately."
+
+"Pray what use have you for them? I am sure the courteous idea of
+sending them as a present never could have forced an entrance into your
+mind, much less have carried the outworks of your heart!"
+
+As his cousin spoke she came to the back of his chair and leaned over
+his shoulder.
+
+"I shall go out on the terrace and renew the obsolete Dionysia,
+shouting 'Evoe! Eleleus!' I shall crown and pelt my marble Bacchus
+yonder with the grapes till his dainty sculptured limbs are bathed in
+their purple sacrificial blood. What other use could I possibly have
+for them?"
+
+He threw his head back and added something in a lower tone, at which
+Estelle laughed, and put up her red, full lip.
+
+Mrs. Murray frowned, and said sternly:
+
+"If you intend to see those persons, I advise you to do so promptly."
+
+Her niece moved toward the door, but glanced over her shoulder.
+
+"I presume Gertrude expects to see Edna, as she asked for her."
+
+The orphan had been watching Mr. Murray's face, but could detect no
+alteration in its expression, save a brief gleam as of triumph when the
+visitors were announced. Rising, she approached Mrs. Murray, whose
+clouded brow betokened more than ordinary displeasure, and whispered:
+
+"Gertrude is exceedingly anxious to see the house and grounds; have I
+your permission to show her over the place? She is particularly anxious
+to see the deer."
+
+"Of course, if she requests it; but their effrontery in coming here
+caps the climax of all the impudence I ever heard of. Have as little to
+say as possible."
+
+Edna went to the parlor, leaving mother and son together.
+
+Mrs. Powell had laid aside her mourning garments and wore a dress of
+blue muslin which heightened her beauty, and as the orphan looked from
+her to Gertrude she found it difficult to decide who was the loveliest.
+After a few desultory remarks she rose, saying:
+
+"As you have repeatedly expressed a desire to examine the park and
+hothouses, I will show you the way this afternoon."
+
+"Take care, my love, that you do not fatigue yourself," were Mrs.
+Powell's low, tenderly spoken words as her daughter rose to leave the
+room.
+
+Edna went first to the greenhouse, and though her companion chattered
+ceaselessly, she took little interest in her exclamations of delight,
+and was conjecturing the probable cause of Mrs. Murray's great
+indignation.
+
+For some weeks she had been thrown frequently into the society of Mr.
+Hammond's guests, and while her distrust of Mrs. Powell, her aversion
+to her melting, musical voice, increased at every interview, a genuine
+affection for Gertrude had taken root in her heart.
+
+They were the same age, but one was an earnest women, the other a
+fragile, careless, gleeful, enthusiastic child. Although the orphan
+found it impossible to make a companion of this beautiful, warm-hearted
+girl, who hated books and turned pale at the mention of study, still
+Edna liked to watch the lovely, radiant face, with its cheeks tinted
+like sea-shells, its soft, childish blue eyes sparkling with
+joyousness; and she began to caress and to love her, as she would have
+petted a canary or one of the spotted fawns gamboling over the lawn.
+
+As they stood hand in hand, admiring some goldfish in a small aquarium
+in the centre of the greenhouse, Gertrude exclaimed:
+
+"The place is as fascinating as its master! Do tell me something about
+him; I wonder very often why you never mention him. I know I ought not
+to say it; but really, after he has talked to me for a few minutes, I
+forget every thing else, and think only of what he says for days and
+days after."
+
+"You certainly do not allude to Mr. Murray?" said Edna.
+
+"I certainly do. What makes you look so astonished?"
+
+"I was not aware that you knew him."
+
+"Oh! I have known him since the week after our arrival here. Mamma and
+I met him at Mrs. Inge's. Mr. Inge had some gentlemen to dinner, and
+they came into the parlor while we were calling. Mr. Murray sat down
+and talked to me then for some time, and I have frequently met him
+since; for it seems he loves to stroll about the woods almost as well
+as I do, and sometimes we walk together. You know he and my uncle are
+not friendly, and I believe mamma does not like him, so he never comes
+to the parsonage; and never seems to see me if I am with her or Uncle
+Allan. But is he not very fascinating? If he were not a little too old
+for me, I believe I should really be very much in love with him."
+
+An expression of disgust passed swiftly over Edna's pale face; she
+dropped her companion's hand, and asked coldly:
+
+"Does your mother approve of your walks with Mr. Murray?"
+
+"For heaven's sake, don't look so solemn! I--she--really I don't know!
+I never told her a word about it. Once I mentioned having met him, and
+showed her some flowers he gave me; and she took very little notice of
+the matter. Several times since he has sent me bouquets, and though I
+kept them out of uncle's sight, she saw them in my room, and must have
+suspected where they came from. Of course he can not come to the
+parsonage to see me when he does not speak to my uncle or to mamma; but
+I do not see any harm in his walking and talking with me, when I happen
+to meet him. Oh! how lovely those lilies are, leaning over the edge of
+the aquarium! Mr. Murray said that some day he would show me all the
+beautiful things at Le Bocage; but he has forgotten his promise, I am
+afraid and I--"
+
+"Ah! Miss Gertrude, how could you doubt me? I am here to fulfill my
+promise."
+
+He pushed aside the boughs of a guava which stood between them, and,
+coming forward, took Gertrude's hand, drew it under his arm, and looked
+down eagerly, admiringly, into her blushing face.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Murray! I had no idea you were anywhere near me. I am sure I
+could--"
+
+"Did you imagine you could escape my eyes, which are always seeking
+you? Permit me to be your cicerone over Le Bocage, instead of Miss Edna
+here, who looks as if she had been scolding you. Perhaps she will be so
+good as to wait for us, and I will bring you back in a half-hour at
+least."
+
+"Edna, will you wait here for me?" asked Gertrude.
+
+"Why can not Mr. Murray bring you to the house? There is nothing more
+to see here."
+
+"Allow us to judge for ourselves, if you please. There is a late Paris
+paper, which will amuse you till we return."
+
+St. Elmo threw a newspaper at her feet, and led Gertrude away through
+one of the glass doors into the park.
+
+Edna sat down on the edge of the aquarium, and the hungry little fish
+crowded close to her, looking up wistfully for the crumbs she was wont
+to scatter there daily; but now their mute appeal was unheeded.
+
+Her colorless face and clasped hands grew cold as the marble basin on
+which they rested, and the great, hopeless agony that seized her heart
+came to her large eyes and looked out drearily.
+
+It was in vain that she said to herself:
+
+"St. Elmo Murray is nothing to me; why should I care if he loves
+Gertrude? She is so beautiful and confiding and winning. Of course, if
+he knows her well he must love her. It is no business of mine. We are
+not even friends; we are worse than strangers; and it can not concern
+me whom he loves or whom he hates."
+
+Her own heart laughed her words to scorn, and answered defiantly: "He
+is my king! my king! I have crowned and sceptred him, and right royally
+he rules!"
+
+In pitiable humiliation she acknowledged that she had found it
+impossible to tear her thoughts from him; that his dark face
+followed--haunted her, sleeping and waking. While she shrank from his
+presence, and dreaded his character, she could not witness his fond
+manner to Gertrude without a pang of the keenest pain she had ever
+endured.
+
+The suddenness of the discovery shocked her into a thorough
+understanding of her own feelings. The grinning fiend of jealousy had
+swept aside the flimsy veil which she had never before fully lifted;
+and looking sorrowfully down into the bared holy of holies, she saw
+standing between the hovering wings of golden cherubim an idol of clay
+demanding homage, daring the wrath of conscience, the high priest. She
+saw all now, and saw, too, at the same instant, whither her line of
+duty led.
+
+The atmosphere was sultry, but she shivered; and if a mirror could have
+been held before her eyes, she would have started back from the gray,
+stony face so unlike hers.
+
+It seemed so strange that the heart of the accomplished
+misanthrope--the man of letters and science, who had ransacked the
+world for information and amusement--should surrender itself to the
+prattle of a pretty young thing, who could sympathize in no degree with
+his pursuits, and was as utterly incapable of understanding his nature
+as his Tartar horse or his pet bloodhound.
+
+She had often heard Mrs. Murray say, "If there is one thing more
+uncertain even than the verdict of a jury--if there is one thing which
+is known neither in heaven, earth, or hell, and which angels and demons
+alike waste time in guessing at--it is what style of woman any man will
+fancy and select for his wife. It is utterly impossible to predict what
+matrimonial caprice may or may not seize even the wisest, most
+experienced, most practical, and reasonable of men; and I would sooner
+undertake to conjecture how high the thermometer stands at this instant
+on the crest of Mount Copernicus up yonder in the moon, than attempt to
+guess what freak will decide a man's choice of a bride."
+
+Sternly Edna faced the future, and pictured Gertrude as Mr. Murray's
+wife; for if he loved her (and did not his eyes declare it?), of course
+he would sweep every objection, every obstacle to the winds, and marry
+her speedily. She tried to think of him--the cold, harsh scoffer--as
+the fond husband of that laughing child; and though the vision was
+indescribably painful, she forced herself to dwell upon it.
+
+The idea that he would ever love any one or anything had never until
+this hour occurred to her; and while she could neither tolerate his
+opinions or respect his character, she found herself smitten with a
+great, voiceless anguish at the thought of his giving his sinful bitter
+heart to any woman.
+
+  "Why did she love him? Curious fool be still!
+   Is human love the growth of human will?"
+
+Pressing her hand to her eyes she murmured:
+
+"Gertrude is right; he is fascinating, but it is the fascination of a
+tempting demon! Ah! if I had never come here, if I had never been
+cursed with the sight of his face! But I am no weak, silly child like
+Gertrude Powell; I know what my duty is, and I am strong enough to
+conquer, and if necessary to crush my foolish heart. Oh! I know you,
+Mr. Murray, and I can defy you. To-day, shortsighted as I have been, I
+look down on you. You are beneath me, and the time will come when I
+shall look back to this hour and wonder if I were temporarily bewitched
+or insane. Wake up! wake up! come to your senses, Edna Earl! Put an end
+to this sinful folly; blush for your unwomanly weakness!"
+
+As Gertrude's merry laugh floated up through the trees the orphan
+lifted her head, and the blood came back to her cheeks while she
+watched the two figures sauntering across, the smooth lawn. Gertrude
+leaned on Mr. Murray's arm, and as he talked to her his head was bent
+down, so that he could see the flushed face shaded by her straw hat.
+
+She drew her hand from his arm when they reached the greenhouse, and
+looking much embarrassed, said hurriedly:
+
+"I am afraid I have kept you waiting an unconscionable time; but Mr.
+Murray had so many beautiful things to show me that I quite forgot we
+had left you here alone."
+
+"I dare say your mother thinks I have run away with you; and as I have
+an engagement, I must either bid you good-bye and leave you here with
+Mr. Murray, or go back at once with you to the house."
+
+The orphan's voice was firm and quiet; and as she handed the French
+paper to St. Elmo, she turned her eyes full on his face.
+
+"Have you read it already?" he asked, giving her one of his steely,
+probing glances.
+
+"No, sir, I did not open it, as I take little interest in continental
+politics. Gertrude, will you go or stay?"
+
+Mr. Murray put out his hand, took Gertrude's, and said:
+
+"Good-bye till to-morrow. Do not forget your promise."
+
+Turning away, he went in the direction of the stables.
+
+In silence Edna walked on to the house, and presently Gertrude's soft
+fingers grasped hers.
+
+"Edna, I hope you are not mad with me. Do you really think it is wrong
+for me to talk to Mr. Murray, and to like him so much?"
+
+"Gertrude, you must judge for yourself concerning the propriety of your
+conduct. I shall not presume to advise you; but the fact that you are
+unwilling to acquaint your mother with your course ought to make you
+look closely at your own heart. When a girl is afraid to trust her
+mother, I should think there were grounds for uneasiness."
+
+They had reached the steps, and Mrs. Powell came out to meet them.
+
+"Where have you two runaways been? I have waited a half hour for you.
+Estelle, do come and see me. It is very dreary at the parsonage, and
+your visits are cheering and precious. Come, Gertrude."
+
+When Gertrude kissed her friend, she whispered:
+
+"Don't be mad with me, dearie. I will remember what you said, and talk
+to mamma this very evening."
+
+Edna saw mother and daughter descend the long avenue and then running
+up to her room, she tied on her hat and walked rapidly across the park
+in an opposite direction.
+
+About a mile and a half from Le Bocage, on a winding and unfrequented
+road leading to a sawmill, stood a small log-house containing only two
+rooms. The yard was neglected, full of rank weeds, and the gate was
+falling from its rusty hinges.
+
+Edna walked up the decaying steps, and without pausing to knock,
+entered one of the comfortless-looking rooms.
+
+On a cot in one corner lay an elderly man in the last stage of
+consumption, and by his side, busily engaged in knitting, sat a child
+about ten years old, whose pretty white face wore that touching look of
+patient placidity peculiar to the blind. Huldah Reed had never seen the
+light, but a marvellous change came over her countenance when Edna's
+light step and clear, sweet voice fell on her ear.
+
+"Huldah, how is your father to-day?"
+
+"Not as well as he was yesterday; but he is asleep now, and will be
+better when he wakes."
+
+"Has the doctor been here to-day?"
+
+"No, he has not been here since Sunday."
+
+Edna stood for a while watching the labored breathing of the sleeper,
+and, putting her hand on Huldah's head, she whispered:
+
+"Do you want me to read to you this evening? It is late, but I shall
+have time for a short chapter."
+
+"Oh! please do, if it is only a few lines. It will not wake him."
+
+The child rose, spread out her hands, and groped her way across the
+room to a small table, whence she took an old Bible.
+
+The two sat down together by the western window, and Edna asked:
+
+"Is there any particular chapter you would like to hear?"
+
+"Please read about blind Bartimeus sitting by the roadside, waiting for
+Jesus."
+
+Edna turned to the verses and read in a subdued tone for some moments.
+In her eager interest Huldah slid down on her knees, rested her thin
+hands on her companion's lap and raised her sweet face, with its wide,
+vacant, sad, hazel eyes.
+
+When Edna read the twenty-fourth verse of the next chapter, the small
+hands were laid upon the page to arrest her attention.
+
+"Edna, do you believe that? 'What things soever you desire, when ye
+pray believe that ye receive them, AND YE SHALL HAVE THEM!' Jesus said
+that: and if I pray that my eyes may be opened, do you believe I shall
+see? They tell me that--that pa will not live. Oh! do you think if I
+pray day and night, and if I believe, and oh! I do believe, I will
+believe! do you think Jesus will let me see him--my father--before he
+dies? If I could only see his dear face once, I would be willing to be
+blind afterward. All my life I have felt his face, and I knew it by my
+fingers; but oh! I can't feel it in the grave! I have been praying so
+hard ever since the doctor said he must die; praying that Jesus would
+have mercy on me, and let me see him just once. Last night I dreamed
+Christ came and put his hands on my eyes, and said to me, too, 'Thy
+faith hath made thee whole'; and I waked up crying, and my own fingers
+were pulling my eyes open; but it was all dark, dark. Edna, won't you
+help me pray! And do you believe I shall see him?"
+
+Edna took the quivering face in her soft palms, and tenderly kissed the
+lips several times.
+
+"My dear Huldah, you know the days of miracles are over, and Jesus is
+not walking in the world now to cure the suffering and the blind and
+the dumb."
+
+"But he is sitting close to the throne of God, and he could send some
+angel down to touch my eyes, and let me see my dear, dear pa once--ah!
+just once. Oh! he is the same Jesus now as when he felt sorry for
+Bartimeus. And why won't He pity me, too? I pray and believe, and that
+is what He said I must do."
+
+"I think that the promise relates to spiritual things, and means that
+when we pray for strength to resist temptation and sin, Jesus sends the
+Holy Spirit to assist all who earnestly strive to do their duty. But,
+dear Huldah, one thing is very certain, even if you are blind in this
+world, there will come a day when God will open your eyes, and you
+shall see those you love, face to face; 'for there shall be no night
+there' in that city of rest--no need of sun or moon, for 'the Lamb is
+the light thereof.'"
+
+"Huldah--daughter!"
+
+The child glided swiftly to the cot, and, looking round, Edna doubted
+the evidence of her senses; for by the side of the sufferer stood a
+figure so like Mr. Murray that her heart began to throb painfully.
+
+The corner of the room was dim and shadowy, but a strong, deep voice
+soon dispelled all doubt.
+
+"I hope you are better to-day, Reed. Here are some grapes which will
+refresh you, and you can eat them as freely as your appetite prompts."
+
+Mr. Murray placed a luscious cluster in the emaciated hands, and put
+the basket down on the floor near the cot. As he drew a chair from the
+wall and seated himself, Edna crossed the room stealthily, and, laying
+her hand on Huldah's shoulder, led her out to the front steps.
+
+"Huldah, has Mr. Murray ever been here before?"
+
+"Oh! yes--often and often; but he generally comes later than this. He
+brings all the wine poor pa drinks, and very often peaches and grapes.
+Oh! he is so good to us. I love to hear him come up the steps; and many
+a time, when pa is asleep, I sit here at night, listening for the
+gallop of Mr. Murray's horse. Somehow I feel so safe, as if nothing
+could go wrong, when he is in the house."
+
+"Why did you never tell me this before? Why have you not spoken of him?"
+
+"Because he charged me not to speak to any one about it--said he did
+not choose to have it known that he ever came here. There! pa is
+calling me. Won't you come in and speak to him?"
+
+"Not this evening. Good-bye. I will come again soon."
+
+Edna stooped, kissed the child hastily, and walked away.
+
+She had only reached the gate, where Tamerlane was fastened, when Mr.
+Murray came out of the house.
+
+"Edna!"
+
+Reluctantly she stopped and waited for him.
+
+"Are you not afraid to walk home alone?"
+
+"No, sir; I am out frequently even later than this."
+
+"It is not exactly prudent for you to go home now alone; for it will be
+quite dark before you can possibly reach the park gate."
+
+He passed his horse's reins over his arm, and led him along the road.
+
+"I am not going that way, sir. There is a path through the woods that
+is much shorter than the road and I can get through an opening in the
+orchard fence. Good evening."
+
+She turned abruptly from the beaten road, but he caught her dress and
+detained her.
+
+"I told you some time ago that I never permitted espionage in my
+affairs; and now with reference to what occurred at the greenhouse, I
+advise you to keep silent. Do you understand me?"
+
+"In the first place, sir, I could not condescend to play spy on the
+actions of any one; and in the second, you may rest assured I shall not
+trouble myself to comment upon your affairs, in which I certainly have
+no interest. Your estimate of me must be contemptible indeed, if you
+imagine that I can only employ myself in watching your career. Dismiss
+your apprehensions, and rest in the assurance that I consider it no
+business of mine where you go or what you may choose to do."
+
+"My only desire is to shield my pretty Gertrude's head from the wrath
+that may be bottled up for her."
+
+Edna looked up fixedly into the deep, glittering eyes that watched
+hers, and answered quietly:
+
+"Mr. Murray, if you love her half as well as I do, you will be more
+careful in the future not to subject her to the opening of the vials of
+wrath."
+
+He laughed contemptuously, and exclaimed:
+
+"You are doubtless experienced in such matters, and fully competent to
+advise me."
+
+"No, sir; it does not concern me, and I presume neither to criticise
+nor to advise. Please be so good as to detain me no longer, and believe
+me when I repeat that I have no intention whatever of meddling with any
+of your affairs, or reporting your actions."
+
+Putting his hands suddenly on her shoulders, he stooped, looked keenly
+at her, and she heard him mutter an oath. When he spoke again it was
+through set teeth:
+
+"You will be wise if you adhere to that decision. Tell them at home not
+to wait supper for me."
+
+He sprang into his saddle and rode toward the village; and Edna hurried
+homeward, asking herself:
+
+"What first took Mr. Murray to the blacksmith's hovel? Why is he so
+anxious that his visits should remain undiscovered? After all, is there
+some latent nobility in his character? Is he so much better or worse
+than I have thought him? Perhaps his love for Gertrude has softened his
+heart, perhaps that love may be his salvation. God grant it! God grant
+it!"
+
+The evening breeze rose and sang solemnly through the pine trees, but
+to her it seemed only to chant the melancholy refrain, "My pretty
+Gertrude, my pretty Gertrude."
+
+The chill light of stars fell on the orphan's pathway, and over her
+pale features, where dwelt the reflection of a loneliness--a silent
+desolation, such as she had never realized, even when her grandfather
+was snatched from her clinging arms. She passed through the orchard,
+startling a covey of partridges that nestled in the long grass, and a
+rabbit that had stolen out under cover of dusk; and when she came to
+the fountain, she paused and looked out over the dark, quiet grounds.
+
+Hitherto duty had worn a smiling, loving countenance, and walked gently
+by her side as she crossed the flowery vales of girlhood; now, the
+guide was transformed into an angel of wrath, pointing with drawn sword
+to the gate of Eden.
+
+As the girl's light fingers locked themselves tightly, her beautiful
+lips uttered mournfully:
+
+  "What hast thou done, O soul of mine
+   That thou tremblest so?
+   Hast thou wrought His task, and kept the line
+   He bade thee go?
+   Ah! the cloud is dark, and day by day
+   I am moving thither:
+   I must pass beneath it on my way--
+   God pity me! Whither?"
+
+When Mrs. Murray went to her own room later than usual that night, she
+found Edna sitting by the table, with her Bible lying open on her lap,
+and her eyes fixed on the floor.
+
+"I thought you were fast asleep before this. I sat up waiting for St.
+Elmo, as I wished to speak to him about some engagements for to-morrow."
+
+The lady of the house threw herself wearily upon the lounge, and sighed
+as she unclasped her bracelets and took off the diamond cross that
+fastened her collar.
+
+"Edna, ring for Hagar."
+
+"Will you not let me take her place to-night? I want to talk to you
+before I go to sleep."
+
+"Well, then, unlace my gaiters and take down my hair. Child, what makes
+you look so very serious?"
+
+"Because what I am about to say saddens me very much. My dear Mrs.
+Murray, I have been in this house five peaceful, happy, blessed years;
+I have become warmly attached to everything about the home where I have
+been so kindly sheltered during my girlhood, and the thought of leaving
+it is exceedingly painful to me."
+
+"What do you mean, Edna? Have you come to your senses at last, and
+consented to make Gordon happy?"
+
+"No, no. I am going to New York to try to make my bread."
+
+"You are going to a lunatic asylum! Stuff! nonsense! What can you do in
+New York? It is already overstocked with poor men and women, who are on
+the verge of starvation. Pooh! pooh! you look like making your bread.
+Don't be silly."
+
+"I know that I am competent now to take a situation as teacher in a
+school, or family, and I am determined to make the experiment
+immediately. I want to go to New York because I can command advantages
+there which no poor girl can obtain in any Southern city; and the
+magazine for which I expect to write is published there. Mr. Manning
+says he will pay me liberally for such articles as he accepts, and if I
+can only get a situation which I hear is now vacant, I can easily
+support myself. Mrs. Powell received a letter yesterday from a wealthy
+friend in New York who desires to secure a governess for her young
+children, one of whom is deformed. She said she was excessively
+particular as to the character of the woman to whose care she committed
+her crippled boy, and that she had advertised for one who could teach
+him Greek. I shall ask Mrs. Powell and Mr. Hammond to telegraph to her
+to-morrow and request her not to engage any one till a letter can reach
+her from Mr. Hammond and myself. I believe he knows the lady, who is
+very distantly related to Mrs. Powell. Still, before I took this step,
+I felt that I owed it to you to acquaint you with my intention."
+
+"It is a step which I cannot sanction. I detest that Mrs. Powell--I
+utterly loathe the sound of her name, and I should be altogether
+unwilling to see you domesticated with any of her 'friends.' I am
+surprised that Mr. Hammond could encourage any such foolish scheme on
+your part."
+
+"As yet he is entirely ignorant of my plan, for I have mentioned it to
+no one except yourself; but I do not think he will oppose it. Dear Mrs.
+Murray, much as I love you, I cannot remain here any longer, for I
+could not continue to owe my bread even to your kind and tender
+charity. You have educated me, and only God knows how inexpressibly
+grateful I am for all your goodness; but now, I could no longer
+preserve my self-respect or be happy as a dependent on your bounty."
+
+She had taken Mrs. Murray's hand, and while tears gathered in her eyes,
+she kissed the fingers and pressed them against her cheek.
+
+"If you are too proud to remain here as you have done for so many
+years, how do you suppose you can endure the humiliations and affronts
+which will certainly be your portion when you accept a hireling's
+position in the family of a stranger? Don't you know that of all
+drudgery that required of governesses is most fraught with vexation and
+bitterness of spirit? I have never treated you as an upper servant, but
+loved you and shielded you from slights and insults as if you were my
+niece or my daughter. Edna, you could not endure the lot you have
+selected; your proud, sensitive nature would be galled to desperation.
+Stay here and help me keep house; write and study as much as you like,
+and do as you please; only don't leave me."
+
+She drew the girl to her bosom, and while she kissed her, tears fell on
+the pale face.
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Murray! it is hard to leave you! For indeed I love you more
+than you will ever believe or realize; but I must go! I feel it is my
+duty, and you would not wish me to stay here and be unhappy."
+
+"Unhappy here! Why so? Something is wrong, and I must know just what it
+is. Somebody has been meddling--taunting you. Edna, I ask a plain
+question, and I want the whole truth. You and Estelle do not like each
+other; is her presence here the cause of your determination to quit my
+house?"
+
+"No, Mrs. Murray; if she were not here I should still feel it my duty
+to go out and earn my living. You are correct in saying we do not
+particularly like each other; there is little sympathy between us, but
+no bad feeling that I am aware of, and she is not the cause of my
+departure."
+
+Mrs. Murray was silent a moment, scrutinizing the face on her shoulder.
+
+"Edna, can it be my son? Has some harsh speech of St. Elmo's piqued and
+wounded you?"
+
+"Oh! no. His manner toward me is quite as polite, nay, rather more
+considerate than when I first came here. Beside, you know, we are
+almost strangers; sometimes weeks elapse without our exchanging a word."
+
+"Are you sure you have not had a quarrel with him? I know you dislike
+him; I know how exceedingly provoking he frequently is; but, child, he
+is unfortunately constituted; he is bitterly rude to everybody, and
+does not mean to wound you particularly."
+
+"I have no complaint to make of Mr. Murray's manner to me. I do not
+expect or desire that it should be other than it is. Why do you doubt
+the sincerity of the reason I gave for quitting dear old Bocage? I have
+never expected to live here longer than was necessary to qualify myself
+for the work I have chosen."
+
+"I doubt it because it is so incomprehensible that a young girl, who
+might be Gordon Leigh's happy wife and mistress of his elegant home,
+surrounded by every luxury, and idolized by one of the noblest,
+handsomest men I ever knew, should prefer to go among strangers and
+toil for a scanty livelihood. Now I know something of human nature, and
+I know that your course is very singular, very unnatural. Edna, my
+child! My dear, little girl! I can't let you go. I want you! I can't
+spare you! I find I love you too well, my sweet comforter in all my
+troubles! My only real companion!"
+
+She clasped the orphan closer and wept.
+
+"Oh! you don't know how precious your love is to my heart, dear, dear
+Mrs. Murray! In all this wide world whom have I to love me but you and
+Mr. Hammond? Even in the great sorrow of leaving you, it will gladden
+me to feel that I possess so fully your confidence and affection. But I
+must go away; and after a little while you will not miss me; for
+Estelle will be with you, and you will not need me. Oh, it is hard to
+leave you! it is a bitter trial! But I know what my duty is; and were
+it even more difficult, I would not hesitate. I hope you will not think
+me unduly obstinate when I tell you, that I have fully determined to
+apply for that situation in New York."
+
+Mrs. Murray pushed the girl from her, and, with a sob, buried her face
+in her arms.
+
+Edna waited in vain for her to speak, and finally she stooped and
+kissed one of the hands, and said brokenly as she left the room:
+
+"Good-night--my dearest--my best friend. If you could only look into my
+heart and see how it aches at the thought of separation, you would not
+add the pain of your displeasure to that which I already suffer."
+
+When the orphan opened her eyes on the following morning, she found a
+note pinned to her pillow:
+
+"MY DEAR EDNA: I could not sleep last night in consequence of your
+unfortunate resolution, and I write to beg you, for my sake if not for
+your own, to reconsider the matter. I will gladly pay you the same
+salary that you expect to receive as governess, if you will remain as
+my companion and assist at Le Bocage. I cannot consent to give you up;
+I love you too well, my child, to see you quit my house. I shall soon
+be an old woman, and then what should I do without my little orphan
+girl? Stay with me always, and you shall never know what want and toil
+and hardship mean. As soon as you are awake, come and kiss me
+good-morning, and I shall know that you are my own dear, little Edna.
+"Affectionately yours,
+                  "ELLEN MURRAY."
+
+Edna knelt and prayed for strength to do what she felt duty sternly
+dictated; but, though her will did not falter her heart bled, as she
+wrote a few lines thanking her benefactress for the affection that had
+brightened and warmed her whole lonely life, and assuring her that the
+reasons which induced her to leave Le Bocage were imperative and
+unanswerable.
+
+An hour later she entered the breakfast-room, and found the members of
+the family already assembled. While Mrs. Murray was cold and haughty,
+taking no notice of Edna's salutation, Estelle talked gayly with Mr.
+Allston concerning a horseback ride they intended to take that morning;
+and Mr. Murray, leaning back in his chair, seemed engrossed in the
+columns of the London Times which contained a recent speech of
+Gladstone's. Presently he threw down the paper, looked at his watch and
+ordered his horse.
+
+"St. Elmo, where are you going? Do allow yourself to be prevailed upon
+to wait and ride with us."
+
+Estelle's tone was musical and coaxing as she approached her cousin and
+put one of her fingers through the button-hole of his coat.
+
+"Not for all the kingdoms that Satan pointed out from the pinnacle of
+Mount Quarantina! I have as insuperable an objection to constituting
+one of a trio as some superstitious people have to forming part of a
+dinner-party of thirteen. Where am I going? To that 'Sea of Serenity'
+which astronomers tell us is located in the left eye of the face known
+in common parlance as the man in the moon. Where am I going? To Western
+Ross-shire, to pitch my tent and smoke my cigar in peace, on the brink
+of that blessed Loch Maree, whereof Pennant wrote."
+
+He shook off Estelle's touch, walked to the mantel-piece, and, taking a
+match from the china case, drew it across the heel of his boot.
+
+"Where is Loch Maree? I do not remember ever to have seen the name,"
+said Mrs. Murray, pushing aside her coffee-cup.
+
+"Oh! pardon me, mother, if I decline to undertake your geographical
+education. Ask that incipient Isotta Nogarole, sitting there at your
+right hand. Doubtless she will find it a pleasing task to instruct you
+in Scottish topography, while I have an engagement that forces me most
+reluctantly and respectfully to decline the honor of enlightening you.
+Confound these matches! they are all damp."
+
+Involuntarily Mrs. Murray's eyes turned to Edna, who had not even
+glanced at St. Elmo since her entrance. Now she looked up, and though
+she had not read Pennant, she remembered the lines written on the old
+Druidic well by an American poet. Yielding to some inexplicable
+impulse, she slowly and gently repeated two verses:
+
+  "'Oh, restless heart and fevered brain!
+    Unquiet and unstable.
+   That holy well of Loch Maree
+    Is more than idle fable!
+   The shadows of a humble will
+    And contrite heart are o'er it:
+   Go read its legend--"TRUST IN GOD"--
+    On Faith's white stones before it!'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+"While your decision is very painful to me, I shall not attempt to
+dissuade you from a resolution which I know has not been lightly or
+hastily taken. But, ah, my child! what shall I do without you?"
+
+Mr. Hammond's eyes filled with tears as he looked at his pupil, and his
+hand trembled when he stroked her bowed head.
+
+"I dread the separation from you and Mrs. Murray; but I know I ought to
+go; and I feel that when duty commands me to follow a path, lonely and
+dreary though it may seem, a light will be shed before my feet, and a
+staff will be put into my hands. I have often wondered what the
+Etrurians intended to personify in their Dii Involuti, before whose
+awful decrees all other gods bowed. Now I feel assured that the chief
+of the 'Shrouded Gods' is Duty, veiling her features with a
+silver-lined cloud, scorning to parley, but whose unbending figure
+signs our way--an unerring pillar of cloud by day, of fire by night.
+Mr. Hammond, I shall follow that stern finger till the clods on my
+coffin shut it from my sight."
+
+The August sun shining through the lilac and myrtle boughs that rustled
+close to the study-window glinted over the pure, pale face of the
+orphan, and showed a calm mournfulness in the eyes which looked out at
+the quiet parsonage garden, and far away to the waving lines against
+the sky, where--
+
+  "A golden lustre slept upon the hills."
+
+Just beyond the low, ivy-wreathed stone wall that marked the boundary
+of the garden ran a little stream, overhung with alders and willows,
+under whose tremendous shadows rested contented cattle--some knee-deep
+in water, some browsing leisurely on purple-tufted clover. From the
+wide, hot field, stretching away on the opposite side, came the clear
+metallic ring of the scythes, as the mowers sharpened them; the mellow
+whistle of the driver lying on top of the huge hay mass, beneath which
+the oxen crawled toward the lowered bars; and the sweet gurgling
+laughter of two romping, sunburned children, who swung on at the back
+of the wagon.
+
+Edna pointed to the peaceful picture, and said: "If Rosa Bonheur could
+only put that on canvas for me, I would hang it upon my walls in the
+great city whither I am going; and when my weary days of work ended, I
+could sit down before it, and fold my tired hands and look at it
+through the mist of tears till its blessed calm stole into my heart,
+and I believed myself once more with you, gazing out of the
+study-window. Ah! blessed among all gifted women is Rosa Bonheur!
+accounted worthy to wear what other women may not aspire to--the Cross
+of the Legion of Honor! Yesterday when I read the description of the
+visit of the Empress to the studio, I think I was almost as proud and
+happy as that patient worker at the easel, when over her shoulders was
+hung the ribbon which France decrees only to the mighty souls who
+increase her glory, and before whom she bows in reverent gratitude. I
+am glad that a woman's hand laid that badge of immortality on womanly
+shoulders--a crowned head crowning the Queen of Artists. I wonder if,
+when obscure and in disguise, she haunted the abattoir du Roule, and
+worked on amid the lowing and bleating of the victims--I wonder if
+faith prophesied of that distant day of glorious recompense, when the
+ribbon of the Legion fluttered from Eugenie's white fingers and she was
+exalted above all thrones? Ah, Mr. Hammond! we all wear our crosses,
+but they do not belong to the order of the Legion of Honor."
+
+The minister enclosed in his own the hand which she had laid on his
+knee, and said gently but gravely:
+
+"My child, your ambition is your besetting sin. It is Satan pointing to
+the tree of knowledge, tempting you to eat and become 'as gods.' Search
+your heart, and I fear you will find that while you believe you are
+dedicating your talent entirely to the service of God, there is a
+spring of selfishness underlying all. You are too proud, too ambitious
+of distinction, too eager to climb to some lofty niche in the temple of
+fame, where your name, now unknown, shall shine in the annals of
+literature and serve as a beacon to encourage others equally as anxious
+for celebrity. I was not surprised to see you in print; for long, long
+ago, before you realized the extent of your mental dowry, I saw the
+kindling of that ambitious spark whose flame generally consumes the
+women in whose hearts it burns. The history of literary females is not
+calculated to allay the apprehension that oppresses me, as I watch you
+just setting out on a career so fraught with trials of which you have
+never dreamed. As a class they are martyrs, uncrowned and uncanonized;
+jeered at by the masses, sincerely pitied by a few earnest souls, and
+wept over by the relatives who really love them. Thousands of women
+have toiled over books that proved millstones and drowned them in the
+sea of letters. How many of the hundreds of female writers scattered
+through the world in this century, will be remembered six months after
+the coffin closes over their weary, haggard faces? You may answer,
+'They made their bread.' Ah, child! it would have been sweeter if
+earned at the wash-tub, or in the dairy, or by their needles. It is the
+rough handling, the jars, the tension of the heartstrings that sap the
+foundations of a woman's life and consign her to an early grave; and a
+Cherokee rose-hedge is not more thickly set with thorns than a literary
+career with grievous, vexatious, tormenting disappointments. If you
+succeed after years of labor and anxiety and harassing fears, you will
+become a target for envy and malice, and, possibly, for slander. Your
+own sex will be jealous of your eminence, considering your superiority
+an insult to their mediocrity; and mine will either ridicule or barely
+tolerate you; for men detest female competitors in the Olympian game of
+literature. If you fail, you will be sneered down till you become
+embittered, soured, misanthropic; a curse to yourself, a burden to the
+friends who sympathize with your blasted hopes. Edna, you have talent,
+you write well, you are conscientious; but you are not De Stael, or
+Hannah More, or Charlotte Bronte, or Elizabeth Browning; and I shudder
+when I think of the disappointment that may overtake all your eager
+aspirations. If I could be always near you, I should indulge less
+apprehension for your future; for I believe that I could help you to
+bear patiently whatever is in store for you. But far away among
+strangers you must struggle alone."
+
+"Mr. Hammond, I do not rely upon myself; my hope is in God."
+
+"My child, the days of miraculous inspiration are ended."
+
+"Ah! do not discourage me. When the Bishop of Noyon hesitated to
+consecrate St. Radegund, she said to him, 'Thou wilt have to render thy
+account, and the Shepherd will require of thee the souls of his sheep.'
+My dear sir, your approbation is the consecration that I desire upon my
+purpose. God will not forsake me; He will strengthen and guide me and
+bless my writing, even as He blesses your preaching. Because He gave
+you five talents and to me only one, do you think that in the great day
+of reckoning mine will not be required of me? I do not expect to 'enter
+into the joy of my Lord' as you will be worthy to do; but with the
+blessing of God, I trust the doom of the altogether unprofitable
+servant will not be pronounced against me."
+
+She had bowed her head till it rested on his knee, and presently the
+old man put his hands upon the glossy hair and murmured solemnly:
+
+"And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your
+heart and mind through Christ Jesus."
+
+A brief silence reigned in the study, broken first by the shout of the
+haymakers and the rippling laugh of the children in the adjacent field,
+and then by the calm voice of the pastor:
+
+"I have offered you a home with me as long as I have a roof that I can
+call my own; but you prefer to go to New York, and henceforth I shall
+never cease to pray that your resolution may prove fortunate in all
+respects. You no longer require my direction in your studies, but I
+will suggest that it might be expedient for you to give more attention
+to positive and less to abstract science. Remember those noble words of
+Sir David Brewster, to which, I believe, I have already called your
+attention, 'If the God of love is most appropriately worshipped in the
+Christian temple, the God of nature may be equally honored in the
+temple of science. Even from its lofty minarets the philosopher may
+summon the faithful to prayer, and the priest and the sage may exchange
+altars without the compromise of faith or of knowledge.' Infidelity has
+shifted the battlefield from metaphysics to physics, from idealism and
+rationalism to positivism or rank materialism; and in order to combat
+it successfully, in order to build up an imperishable system of
+Christian teleology, it is necessary that you should thoroughly
+acquaint yourself with the 'natural sciences,' with dynamics, and all
+the so-called 'inherent forces of nature,' or what Humboldt terms
+'primordial necessity.' This apotheosis of dirt, by such men as
+Moleschott, Buchner, and Voght, is the real Antaeus which, though
+continually over-thrown, springs from mother earth with renewed vigor,
+and after a little while some Hercules of science will lift the boaster
+in his inexorable arms and crush him."
+
+Here Mrs. Powell entered the room, and Edna rose and tied on her hat.
+
+"Mr. Hammond, will you go over to see Huldah this afternoon? Poor
+little thing! she is in great distress about her father."
+
+"I fear he cannot live many days. I went to see him yesterday morning,
+and would go again with you now, but have promised to baptize two
+children this evening."
+
+Edna was opening the gate when Gertrude called to her from a shaded
+corner of the yard, and turning, she saw her playing with a fawn, about
+whose neck she had twined a long spray of honeysuckle.
+
+"Do come and see the beautiful present Mr. Murray sent me several days
+ago. It is as gentle and playful as a kitten, and seems to know me
+already."
+
+Gertrude patted the head of her pretty pet and continued:
+
+"I have often read about gazelle's eyes, and I wonder if these are not
+quite as lovely? Very often when I look at them they remind me of
+yours. There is such a soft, sad, patient expression, as if she knew
+perfectly well that some day the hunters would be sure to catch and
+kill her, and she was meekly biding her time to be turned into venison
+steak. I never will eat another piece! The dear little thing! Edna, do
+you know that you have the most beautiful eyes in the world, except Mr.
+Murray's? His glitter like great stars under long, long black silk
+fringe. By the way, how is he? I have not seen him for some days and
+you can have no idea how I do want to look into his face, and hear his
+voice, which is so wonderfully sweet and low. I wrote him a note
+thanking him for this little spotted darling; but he has not answered
+it--has not come near me, and I was afraid he might be sick."
+
+Gertrude stole one arm around her companion's neck and nestled her
+golden head against the orphan's shoulder.
+
+"Mr. Murray is very well; at least, appears so. I saw him at breakfast."
+
+"Does he ever talk about me?"
+
+"No; I never heard him mention your name but once, and then it occurred
+incidentally."
+
+"Oh, Edna! is it wrong for me to think about him so constantly? Don't
+press your lips together in that stern, hard way. Dearie, put your arms
+around me, and kiss me. Oh! if you could know how very much I love him!
+How happy I am when he is with me. Edna, how can I help it? When he
+touches my hand, and smiles down at me, I forget everything else! I
+feel as if I would follow him to the end of the earth. He is a great
+deal older than I am; but how can I remember that when he is looking at
+me with those wonderful eyes? The last time I saw him, he said--well,
+something very sweet, and I was sure he loved me, and I leaned my head
+against his shoulder; but he would not let me touch him; he pushed me
+away with a terrific frown, that wrinkled and blackened his face. Oh!
+it seems an age since then."
+
+Edna kissed the lovely coral lips, and smoothed the bright curls that
+the wind had blown about the exquisitely moulded cheeks.
+
+"Gertrude, when he asks you to love him, you will have a right to
+indulge your affection; but until then you ought not to allow him to
+know your feelings, or permit yourself to think so entirely of him."
+
+"But do you believe it is wrong for me to love him so much?"
+
+"That is a question which your own heart must answer."
+
+Edna felt that her own lips were growing cold, and she disengaged the
+girl's clasping arms.
+
+"Edna, I know you love me; will you do something for me? Please give
+him this note. I am afraid that he did not receive the other, or that
+he is offended with me."
+
+She drew a dainty three-cornered envelope from her pocket.
+
+"No, Gertrude; I can be a party to no clandestine correspondence. I
+have too much respect for your uncle, to assist in smuggling letters in
+and out of his house. Beside, your mother would not sanction the course
+you are pursuing."
+
+"Oh! I showed her the other note, and she only laughed, and patted my
+cheek, and said, 'Why, Mignonne! he is old enough to be your father.'
+This note is only to find out whether he received the other. I sent it
+by the servant who brought this fawn--oh dear me! just see what a hole
+the pretty little wretch has nibbled in my new Swiss muslin dress!
+Won't mamma scold! There, do go away, pet; I will feed you presently.
+Indeed, Edna, there is no harm in your taking the note, for I give you
+my word mamma does not care. Do you think I would tell you a story?
+Please, Edna. It will reach him so much sooner if you carry it over,
+than if I were to drop it into the post-office where it may stay for a
+week; and Uncle Allan has no extra servants to run around on errands
+for me."
+
+"Gertrude, are you not deceiving me? Are you sure your mother read the
+other note and sanctions this?"
+
+"Certainly; you may ask her if you doubt me. There! I must hurry in;
+mamma is calling me. Dear Edna, if you love me! Yes, mamma, I am
+coming."
+
+Edna could not resist the pleading of the lovely face pressed close to
+hers, and with a sigh she took the tiny note and turned away.
+
+More than a week had elapsed since Mr. Hammond and Mrs. Powell had
+written, recommending her for the situation in Mrs. Andrews's famity;
+and with feverish impatience she awaited the result. During this
+interval she had not exchanged a word with Mr. Murray--had spent much
+of her time in writing down in her note-book such references from the
+library as she required in her MS.; and while Estelle seemed unusually
+high-spirited, Mrs. Murray watched in silence the orphan's preparations
+for departure.
+
+Absorbed in very painful reflections, the girl walked on rapidly till
+she reached the cheerless home of the blacksmith, and knocked at the
+door.
+
+"Come in, Mr. Murray."
+
+Edna pushed open the door and walked in.
+
+"It is not Mr. Murray this time."
+
+"Oh, Edna! I am so glad you happened to come. He would not let me tell
+you; he said he did not wish it known. But now you are here, you will
+stay with me, won't you, till it is over?"
+
+Huldah was kneeling at the side of her father's cot, and Edna was
+startled by the look of eager, breathless anxiety printed on her white,
+trembling face.
+
+"What does she mean, Mr. Reed?"
+
+"Poor little lamb, she is so excited she can hardly speak, and I am not
+strong enough to talk much. Huldah, daughter, tell Miss Edna all about
+it."
+
+"Mr. Murray heard all I said to you about praying to have my eyes
+opened, and he went to town that same evening, and telegraphed to some
+doctor in Philadelphia, who cures blindness, to come on and see if he
+could do anything for my eyes. Mr. Murray was here this morning, and
+said he had heard from the doctor, and that he would come this
+afternoon. He said he could only stay till the cars left for
+Chattanooga, as he must go back at once. You know he--hush! There!
+there! I hear the carriage now. Oh, Edna! pray for me! Pa, pray for my
+poor eyes!"
+
+The sweet, childish face was colorless, and tears filled the filmy,
+hazel eyes as Huldah clasped her hands. Her lips moved rapidly, though
+no sound was audible.
+
+Edna stepped behind the door, and peeped through a crack in the planks.
+
+Mr. Murray entered first and beckoned to the stranger, who paused at
+the threshold, with a case of instruments in his hand.
+
+"Come in, Hugh; here is your patient, very much frightened, too, I am
+afraid. Huldah, come to the light."
+
+He drew her to the window, lifted her to a chair, and the doctor bent
+down, pushed back his spectacles, and cautiously examined the child's
+eyes.
+
+"Don't tremble so, Huldah; there is nothing to be afraid of. The doctor
+will not hurt you."
+
+"Oh! it is not that I fear to be hurt! Edna, are you praying for me?"
+
+"Edna is not here," answered Mr. Murray, glancing round the room.
+
+"Yes, she is here. I did not tell her, but she happened to come a
+little while ago. Edna, won't you hold one of my hands? Oh, Edna! Edna!"
+
+Reluctantly the orphan came forward, and, without lifting her eyes,
+took one of the little outstretched hands firmly in both her own. While
+Mr. Murray silently appropriated the other, Huldah whispered:
+
+"Please both of you pray for me."
+
+The doctor raised the eyelids several times, peered long and curiously
+at the eyeballs, and opened his case of instruments.
+
+"This is one of those instances of congenital cataract which might have
+been relieved long ago. A slight operation will remove the difficulty.
+St. Elmo, you asked me about the probability of an instantaneous
+restoration, and I had begun to tell you about that case which Wardrop
+mentions of a woman, blind from her birth till she was forty-six years
+of age. She could not distinguish objects for several days--"
+
+"Oh, sir! will I see? Will I see my father?" Her fingers closed
+spasmodically over those that clasped them, and the agonizing suspense
+written in her countenance was pitiable to contemplate.
+
+"Yes, my dear, I hope so--I think so. You know, Murray, the eye has to
+be trained; but Haller mentions a case of a nobleman who saw distinctly
+at various distances, immediately after the cataract was removed from
+the axis of vision. Now, my little girl, hold just as still as
+possible. I, shall not hurt you."
+
+Skilfully he cut through the membrane and drew it down, then held his
+hat between her eyes and the light streaming through the window.
+
+Some seconds elapsed and suddenly a cry broke from the child's lips.
+
+"Oh! something shines! there is a light, I believe!"
+
+Mr. Murray threw his handkerchief over her head, caught her in his arms
+and placed her on the side of the cot.
+
+"The first face her eyes ever look upon shall be that which she loves
+best--her father's."
+
+As he withdrew the handkerchief Mr. Reed feebly raised his arms toward
+his child, and whispered:
+
+"My little Huldah--my daughter, can you see me?"
+
+She stooped, put her face close to his, swept her small fingers
+repeatedly over the emaciated features, to convince herself of the
+identity of the new sensation of sight with the old and reliable sense
+of touch; then she threw her head back with a wild laugh, a scream of
+delight.
+
+"Oh! I see! Thank God I see my father's face! My dear pa! my own dear
+pa!"
+
+For some moments she hung over the sufferer, kissing him, murmuring
+brokenly her happy, tender words, and now and then resorting to the old
+sense of touch.
+
+While Edna wiped away tears of joyful sympathy which she strove in vain
+to restrain, she glanced at Mr. Murray, and wondered how he could stand
+there watching the scene with such bright, dry eyes.
+
+Seeming suddenly to remember that there were other countenances in the
+world beside that tear-stained one on the pillow, Huldah slipped down
+from the cot, turned toward the group, and shaded her eyes with her
+fingers.
+
+"Oh, Edna! a'n't you glad for me? Where are you? I knew Jesus would
+hear me. 'What things soever ye desire, when ye pray believe that ye
+receive them, and ye shall have them.' I did believe, and I see! I see!
+I prayed that God would send down some angel to touch my eyes, and He
+sent Mr. Murray and the doctor."
+
+After a pause, during which the oculist prepared some bandages, Huldah
+added:
+
+"Which one is Mr. Murray? Will you, please, come to me? My ears and my
+fingers know you, but my eyes don't."
+
+He stepped forward and putting out her hands she grasped his, and
+turned her untutored eyes upon him. Before he could suspect her design
+she fell at his feet, threw her arms around his knees, and exclaimed:
+
+"How good you are! How shall I ever thank you enough? How good." She
+clung to him and sobbed hysterically.
+
+Edna saw him lift her from the floor and put her back beside her
+father, while the doctor bandaged her eyes; and waiting to hear no
+more, the orphan glided away and hurried along the road.
+
+Ere she had proceeded far, she heard the quick trot of the horses, the
+roll of the carriage. Leaning out as they overtook her, Mr. Murray
+directed the driver to stop, and swinging open the door, he stepped out
+and approached her.
+
+"The doctor dines at Le Bocage; will you take a seat with us, or do
+you, as usual, prefer to walk alone?"
+
+"Thank you, sir; I am not going home now. I shall walk on."
+
+He bowed, and was turning away, but she drew the delicately perfumed
+envelope from her pocket.
+
+"Mr. Murray, I was requested by the writer to hand you this note, as
+she feared its predecessor was lost by the servant to whom she
+entrusted it."
+
+He took it, glanced at the small, cramped, school-girlish handwriting,
+smiled, and thrust it into his vest pocket, saying in a low, earnest
+tone:
+
+"This is, indeed, a joyful surprise. You are certainly more reliable
+than Henry. Accept my cordial thanks, which I have not time to
+reiterate. I generally prefer to owe my happiness entirely to Gertrude;
+but in this instance I can bear to receive it through the medium of
+your hands. As you are so prompt and trusty, I may trouble you to carry
+my answer."
+
+The carriage rolled on, leaving a cloud of dust which the evening
+sunshine converted into a glittering track of glory, and seating
+herself on a grassy bank, Edna leaned her head against the body of a
+tree; and all the glory passed swiftly away, and she was alone in the
+dust.
+
+As the sun went down, the pillared forest aisles stretching westward,
+filled first with golden haze, then glowed with a light redder than
+Phthiotan wine poured from the burning beaker of the sun; and only the
+mournful cooing of doves broke the solemn silence as the pine organ
+whispered its low coranach for the dead day; and the cool shadow of
+coming night crept, purple-mantled, velvet-sandaled, down the forest
+glades.
+
+"Oh! if I had gone away a week ago! before I knew there was any
+redeeming charity in his sinful nature! If I could only despise him
+utterly, it would be so much easier to forget him. Ah! God pity me! God
+help me! What right have I to think of Gertrude's lover--Gertrude's
+husband! I ought to be glad that he is nobler than I thought, but I am
+not! Oh! I am not! I wish I had never known the good that he has done.
+Oh, Edna Earl! has it come to this? How I despise--how I hate myself!"
+
+Rising, she shook back her thick hair, passed her hands over her hot
+temples, and stood listening to the distant whistle of a partridge--to
+the plaint of the lonely dove nestled among the pine boughs high above
+her; and gradually a holy calm stole over her face, fixing it as the
+merciful touch of death stills features that have long writhed in
+mortal agony. Into her struggling heart entered a strength which comes
+only when weary, wrestling, honest souls turn from human sympathy, seek
+the hallowed cloisters of Nature and are folded tenderly in the loving
+arms of Mother Cybele, who "never did betray the heart that loved her."
+
+  "Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
+   And the round ocean and the living air,
+   And the blue sky * * * 'Tis her privilege,
+   Through all the years of this our life, to lead
+   From joy to joy, for she can so inform
+   The mind that is within us, so impress
+   With quietness and beauty, and so feed
+   With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues,
+   Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men,
+   Nor greetings where no kindness is--nor all
+   The dreary intercourse of daily life,
+   Shall e'er prevail against us or disturb
+   Our cheerful faith, that all which we behold
+   Is full of blessing"
+
+To her dewy altars among the mountains of Gilead fled Jephthah's
+daughter, in the days when she sought for strength to fulfill her
+father's battle-vow; and into her pitying starry eyes looked stricken
+Rizpah, from those dreary rocks where love held faithful vigil,
+guarding the bleaching bones of her darling dead, sacrificed for the
+sins of Saul.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+"Mrs. Andrews writes that I must go on with as little delay as
+possible, and I shall start early Monday morning, as I wish to stop one
+day at Chattanooga."
+
+Edna rose and took her hat from the study table, and Mr. Hammond asked:
+
+"Do you intend to travel alone?"
+
+"I shall be compelled to do so, as I know of no one who is going on to
+New York. Of course, I dislike very much to travel alone, but in this
+instance I do not see how I can avoid it."
+
+"Do not put on your hat--stay and spend the evening with me."
+
+"Thank you, sir, I want to go to the church and practice for the last
+time on the organ. After to-morrow, I may never sing again in our dear
+choir. Perhaps I may come back after awhile and stay an hour or two
+with you."
+
+During the past year she had accustomed herself to practising every
+Saturday afternoon the hymns selected by Mr. Hammond for the services
+of the ensuing day, and for this purpose had been furnished by the
+sexton with a key, which enabled her to enter the church whenever
+inclination prompted. The church-yard was peaceful and silent as the
+pulseless dust in its numerous sepulchres; a beautiful red-bird sat on
+the edge of a marble vase that crowned the top of one of the monuments,
+and leisurely drank the water which yesterday's clouds had poured
+there, and a rabbit nibbled the leaves of a cluster of pinks growing
+near a child's grave.
+
+Edna entered the cool church, went up into the gallery and sat down
+before the organ. For some time the low, solemn tones whispered among
+the fluted columns that supported the gallery, and gradually swelled
+louder and fuller and richer as she sang:
+
+  "Cast thy burden on the Lord."
+
+Her sweet, well-trained voice faltered more than once, and tears fell
+thick and fast on the keys. Finally she turned and looked down at the
+sacred spot where she had been baptized by Mr. Hammond, and where she
+had so often knelt to receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
+
+The church was remarkably handsome and certainly justified the pride
+with which the villagers exhibited it to all strangers. The massive
+mahogany pew-doors were elaborately carved and surmounted by small
+crosses; the tall, arched windows were of superb stained glass,
+representing the twelve apostles; the floor and balustrade of the
+altar, and the grand Gothic pillared pulpit, were all of the purest
+white marble; and the capitals of the airy, elegant columns of the same
+material, that supported the organ gallery, were ornamented with rich
+grape-leaf moulding; while the large window behind and above the pulpit
+contained a figure of Christ bearing his Cross--a noble copy of the
+great painting of Solario, at Berlin.
+
+As the afternoon sun shone on the glass, a flood of ruby light fell
+from the garments of Jesus upon the glittering marble beneath, and the
+nimbus that radiated around the crown of thorns caught a glory that was
+dazzling.
+
+With a feeling of adoration that no language could adequately express,
+Edna had watched and studied this costly painted window for five long
+years; had found a marvellous fascination in the pallid face stained
+with purplish blood-drops; in the parted lips quivering with human pain
+and anguish of spirit; in the unfathomable, divine eyes that pierced
+the veil and rested upon the Father's face. Not all the sermons of
+Bossuet, or Chalmers, or Jeremy Taylor, or Melville, had power to stir
+the great deeps of her soul like one glance at that pale, thorn-crowned
+Christ, who looked in voiceless woe and sublime resignation over the
+world he was dying to redeem.
+
+To-day she gazed up at the picture of Emmanuel till her eyes grew dim
+with tears, and she leaned her head against the mahogany railing and
+murmured sadly:
+
+"'And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not
+worthy of me!' Strengthen me, O my Saviour! so that I neither faint nor
+stagger under mine!"
+
+The echo of her words died away among the arches of the roof, and all
+was still in the sanctuary. The swaying of the trees outside of the
+windows threw now a golden shimmer, then a violet shadow over the
+gleaming altar pavement; and the sun sunk lower, and the nimbus faded,
+and the wan Christ looked ghastly and toil-spent.
+
+"Edna! My darling! my darling!"
+
+The pleading cry, the tremulous, tender voice so full of pathos, rang
+startlingly through the silent church, and the orphan sprang up and saw
+Mr. Murray standing at her side, with his arms extended toward her, and
+a glow on his face and a look in his eyes which she had never seen
+there before.
+
+She drew back a few steps and gazed wonderingly at him; but he
+followed, threw his arm around her, and, despite her resistance,
+strained her to his heart.
+
+"Did you believe that I would let you go? Did you dream that I would
+see my darling leave me, and go out into the world to be buffeted and
+sorely tried, to struggle with poverty--and to suffer alone? Oh, silly
+child! I would part with my own life sooner than give you up! Of what
+value would it be without you, my pearl, my sole hope, my only love, my
+own, pure Edna--"
+
+"Such language you have no right to utter, and I none to hear! It is
+dishonorable in you and insulting to me. Gertrude's lover can not, and
+shall not, address such words to me. Unwind your arms instantly! Let me
+go!"
+
+She struggled hard to free herself, but his clasp tightened, and as he
+pressed her face against his bosom, he threw his head back and laughed:
+
+"'Gertrude's lover!' Knowing my history, how could you believe that
+possible? Am I, think you, so meek and forgiving a spirit as to turn
+and kiss the hand that smote me? Gertrude's lover! Ha! ha!! Your
+jealousy blinds you, my--"
+
+"I know nothing of your history; I have never asked; I have never been
+told one word! But I am not blind, I know that you love her, and I
+know, too, that she fully returns your affection. If you do not wish me
+to despise you utterly, leave me at once."
+
+He laughed again, and put his lips close to her ear, saying softly,
+tenderly--ah! how tenderly:
+
+"Upon my honor as a gentleman, I solemnly swear that I love but one
+woman; that I love her as no other woman ever was loved; with a love
+that passes all language; a love that is the only light and hope of a
+wrecked, cursed, unutterably miserable life; and that idol which I have
+set up in the lonely gray ruins of my heart is Edna Earl!"
+
+"I do not believe you! You have no honor! With the touch of Gertrude's
+lips and arms still on yours, you come to me and dare to perjure
+yourself! Oh, Mr. Murray! Mr. Murray! I did not believe you capable of
+such despicable dissimulation! In the catalogue of your sins, I never
+counted deceit. I thought you too proud to play the hypocrite. If you
+could realize how I loathe and abhor you, you would get out of my
+sight! You would not waste time in words that sink you deeper and
+deeper in shameful duplicity. Poor Gertrude! How entirely you mistake
+your lover's character! How your love will change to scorn and
+detestation!"
+
+In vain she endeavored to wrench away his arm, a band of steel would
+have been as flexible; but St. Elmo's voice hardened, and Edna felt his
+heart throb fiercely against her cheek as he answered:
+
+"When you are my wife you will repent your rash words, and blush at the
+remembrance of having told your husband that he was devoid of honor.
+You are piqued and jealous, just as I intended you should be; but,
+darling, I am not a patient man, and it frets me to feel you struggling
+so desperately in the arms that henceforth will always enfold you. Be
+quiet and hear me, for I have much to tell you. Don't turn your face
+away from mine, your lips belong to me. I never kissed Gertrude in my
+life, and so help me God, I never will! Hear--"
+
+"No! I will hear nothing! Your touch is profanation. I would sooner go
+down into my grave, out there in the churchyard, under the granite
+slabs, than become the wife of a man so unprincipled. I am neither
+piqued nor jealous, for your affairs cannot affect my life; I am only
+astonished and mortified and grieved. I would sooner feel the coil of a
+serpent around my waist than your arms."
+
+Instantly they fell away. He crossed them on his chest, and his voice
+sank to a husky whisper, as the wind hushes itself just before the
+storm breaks.
+
+"Edna, God is my witness that I am not deceiving you; that my words
+come from the great troubled depths of a wretched heart. You said you
+knew nothing of my history. I find it more difficult to believe you
+than you to credit my declarations. Answer one question: Has not your
+pastor taught you to distrust me? Can it be possible that no hint of
+the past has fallen from his lips?"
+
+"Not one unkind word, not one syllable of your history has he uttered.
+I know no more of your past than if it were buried in mid-ocean."
+
+Mr. Murray placed her in one of the cushioned chairs designed for the
+use of the choir, and leaning back against the railing of the gallery,
+fixed his eyes on Edna's face.
+
+"Then it is not surprising that you distrust me, for you know not my
+provocation. Edna, will you be patient? Will you go back with me over
+the scorched and blackened track of an accursed and sinful life? It is
+a hideous waste I am inviting you to traverse! Will you?"
+
+"I will hear you, Mr. Murray, but nothing that you can say will justify
+your duplicity to Gertrude, and--"
+
+"D--n Gertrude! I ask you to listen, and suspend your judgment till you
+know the circumstances."
+
+He covered his eyes with his hand, and in the brief silence she heard
+the ticking of his watch.
+
+"Edna, I roll away the stone from the charnel house of the past, and
+call forth the Lazarus of my buried youth, my hopes, my faith in God,
+my trust in human nature, my charity, my slaughtered manhood! My
+Lazarus has tenanted the grave for nearly twenty years, and comes
+forth, at my bidding, a grinning skeleton. You may or may not know that
+my father, Paul Murray, died when I was an infant, leaving my mother
+the sole guardian of my property and person. I grew up at Le Bocage
+under the training of Mr. Hammond, my tutor; and my only associate, my
+companion from earliest recollections, was his son Murray, who was two
+years my senior, and named for my father. The hold which that boy took
+upon my affection was wonderful, inexplicable! He wound me around his
+finger as you wind the silken threads with which you embroider. We
+studied, read, played together. I was never contented out of his sight,
+never satisfied until I saw him liberally supplied with everything that
+gave me pleasure. I believe I was very precocious, and made
+extraordinary strides in the path of learning; at all events, at
+sixteen I was considered a remarkable boy. Mr. Hammond had six
+children; and as his salary was rather meagre I insisted on paying his
+son's expenses as well as my own when I went to Yale. I could not bear
+that my Damon, my Jonathan, should be out of my sight; I must have my
+idol always with me. His father was educating him for the ministry, and
+he had already commenced the study of theology; but no! I must have him
+with me at Yale, and so to Yale we went. I had fancied myself a
+Christian, had joined the church, was zealous and faithful in all my
+religious duties. In a fit of pious enthusiasm I planned this
+church--ordered it built. The cost was enormous, and my mother
+objected, but I intended it as a shrine for the 'apple of my eye,' and
+where he was concerned, what mattered the expenditure of thousands? Was
+not my fortune quite as much at his disposal as at mine? I looked
+forward with fond pride to the time when I should see my idol--Murray
+Hammond--standing in yonder shining pulpit. Ha! at this instant it is
+filled with a hideous spectre! I see him there! His form and features
+mocking me, daring me to forget! Handsome as Apollo! treacherous as
+Apollyon!"
+
+He paused, pointing to the pure marble pile where a violet flame seemed
+flickering, and then with a groan bowed his head upon the railing. When
+he spoke again, his face wore an ashy hue, and his stern mouth was
+unsteady.
+
+"Hallowed days of my blessed boyhood! Ah! they rise before me now, like
+holy, burning stars, breaking out in a stormy, howling night, making
+the blackness blacker still! My short happy springtime of life! So full
+of noble aspirations, of glowing hopes, of philanthropic schemes, of
+all charitable projects! I would do so much good with my money! my
+heart was brimming with generous impulses, with warm sympathy and care
+for my fellow-creatures. Every needy sufferer should find relief at my
+hands as long as I possessed a dollar or a crust! As I look back now at
+that dead self, and remember all that I was, all the purity of my life,
+the nobility of my character, the tenderness of my heart--I do not
+wonder that people who knew me then, predicted that I would prove an
+honor, a blessing to my race! Mark you! that was St. Elmo Murray--as
+nature fashioned him; before man spoiled God's handiwork. Back! back to
+your shroud and sepulchre, O Lazarus of my youth! and when I am called
+to the final judgment, rise for me! stand in my place, and confront
+those who slaughtered you! * * * My affection for my chum, Murray,
+increased as I grew up to manhood, and there was not a dream of my
+brain, a hope of my heart which was not confided to him. I reverenced,
+I trusted, I almost--nay, I quite worshipped him! When I was only
+eighteen I began to love his cousin, whose father was pastor of a
+church in New Haven, and whose mother was Mr. Hammond's sister. You
+have seen her. She is beautiful even now, and you can imagine how
+lovely Agnes Hunt was in her girlhood. She was the belle and pet of the
+students, and before I had known her a month I was her accepted lover.
+I loved her with all the devotion of my chivalric, ardent, boyish
+nature; and for me she professed the most profound attachment. Her
+parents favored our wishes for an early marriage, but my mother refused
+to sanction such an idea until I had completed my education and visited
+the old world. I was an obedient, affectionate son then, and yielded
+respectfully; but as vacation approached, I prepared to come home,
+hoping to prevail on mother to consent to my being married just before
+we sailed for Europe the ensuing year, after I left Yale. Murray was my
+confidant and adviser. In his sympathizing ears I poured all my fond
+hopes, and he insisted that I ought to take my lovely bride with me; it
+would be cruel to leave her so long; and, beside, he was so impatient
+for the happy day when he should call me his cousin. He declined coming
+home, on the plea of desiring to prosecute his theological studies with
+his uncle, Mr. Hunt. Well do I recollect the parting between us. I had
+left Agnes in tears--inconsolable because of my departure; and I flew
+to Murray for words of consolation. When I bade him good-bye my eyes
+were full of tears, and as he passed his arm around my shoulders, I
+whispered, 'Murray, take care of my angel Agnes for me! watch over and
+comfort her while I am away.' Ah! as I stand here to-day, I hear again
+ringing over the ruins of the past twenty years, his loving musical
+tones answering:
+
+"'My dear boy, trust her to my care. St. Elmo, for your dear sake I
+will steal time from my books to cheer her while you are absent. But
+hurry back, for you know I find black-letter more attractive than
+blue-eyes. God bless you, my precious friend. Write to me constantly.'
+
+"Since then, I always shudder involuntarily when I hear parting friends
+bless each other--for well, well do I know the stinging curse coiled up
+in those smooth liquid words! I came home and busied myself in the
+erection of this church; in plans for Murray's advancement in life, as
+well as my own. My importunity prevailed over my mother's sensible
+objections, and she finally consented that I should take my bride to
+Europe; while I had informed Mr. Hammond that I wished Murray to
+accompany us; that I would gladly pay his travelling expenses--I was so
+anxious for him to see the East, especially Palestine. Full of happy
+hopes, I hurried back earlier than I had intended, and reached New
+Haven very unexpectedly. The night was bright with moonshine, my heart
+was bright with hope, and too eager to see Agnes, whose letters had
+breathed the most tender solicitude and attachment, I rushed up the
+steps, and was told that she was walking in the little flower-garden.
+Down the path I hurried, and stopped as I heard her silvery laugh
+blended with Murray's; then my name was pronounced in tones that almost
+petrified me. Under a large apple-tree in the parsonage-garden they sat
+on a wooden bench, and only the tendrils and branches of an Isabella
+grape vine divided us. I stood there, grasping the vine--looking
+through the leaves at the two whom I had so idolized; and saw her
+golden head flashing in the moonlight as she rested it on her cousin's
+breast; heard and saw their kisses; heard--what wrecked, blasted me! I
+heard myself ridiculed--sneered at--maligned; heard that I was to be a
+mere puppet--a cat's paw, that I was a doting, silly fool--easily
+hoodwinked; that she found it difficult, almost impossible, to endure
+my caresses; that she shuddered in my arms, and flew for happiness to
+his! I heard that from the beginning I had been duped; that they had
+always loved each other--always would; but poverty stubbornly barred
+their marriage--and she must be sacrificed to secure my fortune for the
+use of both! All that was uttered I can not now recapitulate; but it is
+carefully embalmed, and lies in the little Taj Mahal, among other
+cherished souvenirs of my precious friendships! While I stood there, I
+was transformed; the soul of St. Elmo seemed to pass away--a fiend took
+possession of me; love died, hope with it--and an insatiable thirst for
+vengeance set my blood on fire. During those ten minutes my whole
+nature was warped, distorted; my life blasted--mutilated--deformed. The
+loss of Agnes's love I could have borne, nay--fool that I was!--I think
+my quondam generous affection for Murray would have made me relinquish
+her almost resignedly, if his happiness had demanded the sacrifice on
+my part. If he had come to me frankly and acknowledged all, my insane
+idolatry would have made me place her hand in his, and remove the
+barrier of poverty; and the assurance that I had secured his lifelong
+happiness would have sufficed for mine. Oh! the height and depth and
+marvellous strength of my love for that man passes comprehension! But
+their scorn, their sneers at my weak credulity, their bitter ridicule
+of my awkward, overgrown boyishness, stung me to desperation. I
+wondered if I were insane, or dreaming, or the victim of some horrible
+delusion. My veins ran fire as I listened to the tingling of her
+silvery voice with the rich melody of his, and I turned and left the
+garden, and walked back toward the town. The moon was full, but I
+staggered and groped my way, like one blind, to the college buildings.
+I knew where a pair of pistols was kept by one of the students, and
+possessing myself of them, I wandered out on the road leading to the
+parsonage. I was aware that Murray intended coming into the town, and
+at last I reeled into a shaded spot near the road, and waited for him.
+Oh! the mocking glory of that cloudless night! To this day I hate the
+cold glitter of stars, and the golden sheen of midnight moons! For the
+first time in my life, I cursed the world and all it held; cursed the
+contented cricket singing in the grass at my feet; cursed the blood in
+my arteries, that beat so thick and fast I could not listen for the
+footsteps I was waiting for. At last I heard him whistling a favorite
+tune, which all our lives we had whistled together, as we hunted
+through the woods around Le Bocage; and, as the familiar sound of 'The
+Braes of Balquither' drew nearer and nearer, I sprang up with a cry
+that must have rung on the night air like the yell of some beast of
+prey. Of all that passed I only know that I cursed and insulted and
+maddened him till he accepted the pistol, which I thrust into his hand.
+We moved ten paces apart--and a couple of students, who happened
+accidentally to pass along the road and heard our altercation, stopped
+at our request, gave the word of command, and we fired simultaneously.
+The ball entered Murray's heart, and he fell dead without a word. I was
+severely wounded in the chest, and now I wear the ball here in my side.
+Ah! a precious in memoriam of murdered confidence!"
+
+Until now Edna had listened breathlessly, with her eyes upon his; but
+here a groan escaped her, and she shuddered violently, and hid her face
+in her hands.
+
+Mr. Murray came nearer, stood close to her, and hurried on.
+
+"My last memory of my old idol is as he lay with his handsome,
+treacherous face turned up to the moon; and the hair which Agnes had
+been fingering, dabbled with dew and the blood that oozed down from his
+side. When I recovered my consciousness Murray Hammond had been three
+weeks in his grave. As soon as I was able to travel, my mother took me
+to Europe, and for five years we lived in Paris, Naples, or wandered to
+and fro. Then she came home, and I plunged into the heart of Asia.
+After two years I returned to Paris, and gave myself up to every
+species of dissipation. I drank, gambled, and my midnight carousals
+would sicken your soul were I to paint all their hideousness. You have
+read in the Scriptures of persons possessed of devils? A savage,
+mocking, tearing devil held me in bondage. I sold myself to my
+Mephistopheles on condition that my revenge might be complete. I hated
+the whole world with an intolerable, murderous hate; and to mock and
+make my race suffer was the only real pleasure I found. The very name,
+the bare mention of religion maddened me. A minister's daughter, a
+minister's son, a minister himself, had withered my young life, and I
+blasphemously derided all holy things. Oh, Edna! my darling! it is
+impossible to paint all the awful wretchedness of that period, when I
+walked in the world seeking victims and finding many. Verily,
+
+  'There's not a crime
+   But takes its proper change out still in crime,
+   If once rung on the counter of this world,
+   Let sinners look to it.'
+
+Ah! upon how many lovely women have I visited Agnes's sin of hypocrisy!
+Into how many ears have I poured tender words, until fair hands were as
+good as offered to me, and I turned their love to mockery! I hated and
+despised all womanhood; and even in Paris I became notorious as a
+heartless trifler with the affections I won and trampled under my feet.
+Whenever a brilliant and beautiful woman crossed my path, I attached
+myself to her train of admirers, until I made her acknowledge my power
+and give public and unmistakable manifestation of her preference for
+me; then I left her--a target for the laughter of her circle. It was
+not vanity; oh! no, no! That springs from self-love, and I had none. It
+was hate of every thing human, especially of every thing feminine. One
+of the fairest faces that ever brightened the haunts of fashion--a
+queenly, elegant girl--the pet of her family and of society, now wears
+serge garments and a black veil, and is immured in an Italian convent,
+because I entirely won her heart; and when she waited for me to declare
+my affection and ask her to become my wife, I quitted her side for that
+of another belle, and never visited her again. On the day when she bade
+adieu to the world, I was among the spectators; and as her mournful but
+lovely eyes sought mine, I laughed, and gloried in the desolation I had
+wrought. Sick of Europe, I came home...
+
+  'And to a part I come where no light shines.'
+
+My tempting fiend pointed to one whose suffering would atone for much
+of my misery. Edna, I withhold nothing; there is much I might conceal,
+but I scorn to do so. During one terribly fatal winter, scarlet-fever
+had deprived Mr. Hammond of four children, leaving him an only
+daughter--Annie--the image of her brother Murray. Her health was
+feeble; consumption was stretching its skeleton hands toward her, and
+her father watched her as a gardener tends his pet, choice, delicate
+exotic. She was about sixteen, very pretty, very attractive. After
+Murray's death, I never spoke to Mr. Hammond, never crossed his path;
+but I met his daughter without his knowledge, and finally I made her
+confess her love for me. I offered her my hand; she accepted it. A day
+was appointed for an elopement and marriage; the hour came; she left
+the parsonage, but I did not meet her here on the steps of this church
+as I had promised, and she received a note that announced my inability
+to fulfill the engagement. Two hours later her father found her
+insensible on the steps, and the marble was dripping with a hemorrhage
+of blood from her lungs. The dark stain is still there; you must have
+noticed it. I never saw her again. She kept her room from that day, and
+died three months after. When on her deathbed she sent for me, but I
+refused to obey the summons. As I stand here, I see through the window
+the gray, granite vault overgrown with ivy, and the marble slab where
+sleep in untimely death Murray and Annie Hammond, the victims of my
+insatiable revenge. Do you wonder that I doubted you when you said that
+afflicted father, Allan Hammond, had never uttered one unkind word
+about me?"
+
+Mr. Murray pointed to a quiet corner of the church-yard, but Edna did
+not lift her face, and he heard the half-smothered, shuddering moan
+that struggled up as she listened to him.
+
+He put his hand on hers, but she shivered and shrank away from him.
+
+"Years passed. I grew more and more savage; the very power of loving
+seemed to have died out in my nature. My mother endeavored to drag me
+into society, but I was surfeited, sick of the world--sick of my own
+excesses; and gradually I became a recluse, a surly misanthrope. How
+often have I laughed bitterly over those words of Mill's: 'Yet nothing
+is more certain than that improvement in human affairs is wholly the
+work of the uncontented characters!' My indescribable, my tormenting
+discontent, daily belied his aphorism. My mother is a woman of stern
+integrity of character and sincerity of purpose; but she is worldly and
+ambitious, and inordinately proud, and for her religion I had lost all
+respect. Again I went abroad, solely to kill time; was absent two
+years, and came back. I had ransacked the world, and was disgusted,
+hopeless, prematurely old. A week after my return I was attacked by a
+very malignant fever, and my life was despaired of, but I exulted in
+the thought that at last I should find oblivion. I refused all
+remedies, and set at defiance all medical advice, hoping to hasten the
+end; but death cheated me. I rose from my bed of sickness, cursing the
+mockery, realizing that indeed:
+
+        'The good die first,
+   And they whose hearts are dry as summer dust
+   Burn to the socket.'
+
+Some months after my recovery, while I was out on a camp-hunt, you were
+brought to Le Bocage, and the sight of you made me more vindictive than
+ever. I believed you selfishly designing, and I could not bear that you
+should remain under the same roof with me. I hated children as I hated
+men and women. But that day when you defied me in the park, and told me
+I was sinful and cruel, I began to notice you closely. I weighed your
+words, watched you when you little dreamed that I was present, and
+often concealed myself in order to listen to your conversation. I saw
+in your character traits that annoyed me, because they were noble and
+unlike what I had believed all womanhood or girlhood to be. I was aware
+that you dreaded and disliked me; I saw that very clearly every time I
+had occasion to speak to you. How it all came to pass I can not tell--I
+know not--and it has always been a mystery even to me; but, Edna, after
+the long lapse of years of sin and reckless dissipation, my heart
+stirred and turned to you, child though you were, and a strange,
+strange, invincible love for you sprang from the bitter ashes of a dead
+affection for Agnes Hunt. I wondered at myself; I sneered at my idiocy;
+I cursed my mad folly, and tried to believe you as unprincipled as I
+had found others; but the singular fascination strengthened day by day.
+Finally I determined to tempt you, hoping that your duplicity and
+deceit would wake me from the second dream into which I feared there
+was danger of my falling. Thinking that at your age curiosity was the
+strongest emotion, I carefully arranged the interior of the Taj Mahal,
+so that it would be impossible for you to open it without being
+discovered; and putting the key in your hands, I went abroad. I wanted
+to satisfy myself that you were unworthy, and believed you would betray
+the trust. For four years I wandered, restless, impatient, scorning
+myself more and more because I could not forget your sweet, pure,
+haunting face; because, despite my jeers, I knew that I loved you. At
+last I wrote to my mother from Egypt that I should go to Central
+Persia, and so I intended. But one night as I sat alone, smoking, amid
+the ruins of the propylon at Philas, a vision of Le Bocage rose before
+me, and your dear face looked at me from the lotus-crowned columns of
+the ancient temple. I forgot the hate I bore all mankind; I forgot
+every thing but you; your pure, calm, magnificent eyes; and the longing
+to see you, my darling--the yearning to look into your eyes once more,
+took possession of me. I sat there till the great, golden, dewless dawn
+of the desert fell upon Egypt, and then came a struggle long and
+desperate. I laughed and swore at my folly; but far down in the abysses
+of my distorted nature hope had kindled a little feeble, flickering
+ray. I tried to smother it, but its flame clung to some crevice in my
+heart, and would not be crushed. While I debated, a pigeon that dwelt
+somewhere in the crumbling temple fluttered down at my feet, cooed
+softly, looked in my face, then perched on a mutilated red granite
+sphinx immediately in front of me, and after a moment rose, circled
+above me in the pure, rainless air and flew westward. I accepted it as
+an omen, and started to America instead of to Persia. On the night of
+the tenth of December, four years after I bade you good-bye at the park
+gate, I was again at Le Bocage. Silently and undiscovered I stole into
+my own house, and secreted myself behind the curtains in the library. I
+had been there one hour when you and Gordon Leigh came in to examine
+the Targum. Oh, Edna! how little you dreamed of the eager, hungry eyes
+that watched you! During that hour that you two sat there bending over
+the same book, I became thoroughly convinced that while I loved you as
+I never expected to love any one, Gordon also loved you, and intended
+if possible to make you his wife. I contrasted my worn, haggard face
+and grayish locks with his, so full of manly hope and youthful beauty,
+and I could not doubt that any girl would prefer him to me. Edna, my
+retribution began then. I felt that my devil was mocking me, as I had
+long mocked others, and made me love you when it was impossible to win
+you. Then and there I was tempted to spring upon and throttle you both
+before he triumphantly called you his. At last Leigh left, and I
+escaped to my own rooms. I was pacing the floor when I heard you cross
+the rotunda and saw the glimmer of the light you carried. Hoping to see
+you open the little Taj, I crawled behind the sarcophagus that holds my
+two mummies, crouched close to the floor, and peeped at you across the
+gilded byssus that covered them. My eyes, I have often been told,
+possess magnetic or mesmeric power. At all events, you felt my eager
+gaze, you were restless, and searched the room to discover whence that
+feeling of a human presence came. Darling, were you superstitious, that
+you avoided looking into the dark corner where the mummies lay?
+Presently you stopped in front of the little tomb, and swept away the
+spider-web, and took the key from your pocket, and as you put it into
+the lock I almost shouted aloud in my savage triumph! I absolutely
+panted to find Leigh's future wife as unworthy of confidence as I
+believed the remainder of her sex. But you did not open it. You merely
+drove away the spider and rubbed the marble clean with your
+handkerchief, and held the key between your fingers. Then my heart
+seemed to stand still, as I watched the light streaming over your
+beautiful, holy face and warm, crimson dress; and when you put the key
+in your pocket and turned away, my groan almost betrayed me. I had
+taken out my watch to see the hour, and in my suspense I clutched it so
+tightly that the gold case and the crystal within all crushed in my
+hand. You heard the tingling sound and wondered whence it came; and
+when you had locked the door and gone, I raised one of the windows and
+swung myself down to the terrace. Do you remember that night?"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Murray."
+
+Her voice was tremulous and almost inaudible.
+
+"I had business in Tennessee, no matter now, what, or where, and I went
+on that night. After a week I returned, that afternoon when I found you
+reading in my sitting-room. Still I was sceptical, and not until I
+opened the tomb, was I convinced that you had not betrayed the trust
+which you supposed I placed in you. Then, as you stood beside me in all
+your noble purity and touching girlish beauty,--as you looked up half
+reproachfully, half defiantly at me--it cost me a terrible effort to
+master myself--to abstain from clasping you to my heart, and telling
+you all that you were to me. Oh! how I longed to take you in my arms
+and feed my poor famished heart with one touch of your lips! I dared
+not look at you, lest I should lose my self-control. The belief that
+Gordon was a successful rival sealed my lips on that occasion; and ah!
+the dreary wretchedness of the days of suspense that followed. I was a
+starving beggar who stood before what I coveted above everything else
+on earth, and saw it labelled with another man's name and beyond my
+reach. The daily sight of that emerald ring on your finger maddened me;
+and you can form no adequate idea of the bitterness of feeling with
+which I noted my mother's earnest efforts and manoeuvres to secure for
+Gordon Leigh--to sell to him--the little hand which her own son would
+have given worlds to claim in the sight of God and man! Continually I
+watched you when you least expected me; I strewed infidel books where I
+knew you must see them; I tempted you more than you dreamed of; I
+teased and tormented and wounded you whenever an opportunity offered;
+for I hoped to find some flaw in your character, some defect in your
+temper, some inconsistency between your professions and your practice.
+I knew Leigh was not your equal, and I said bitterly, 'She is poor and
+unknown, and will surely marry him for his money, for his position--as
+Agnes would have married me.' But you did not! and when I knew that you
+had positively refused his fortune, I felt that a great dazzling light
+had broken suddenly upon my darkened life; and, for the first time
+since I parted with Murray Hammond, tears of joy filled my eyes. I
+ceased to struggle against my love--I gave myself up to it, and only
+asked, How can I overcome her aversion to me? You were the only tie
+that linked me with my race, and for your sake I almost felt as if I
+could forget my hate. But you shrank more and more from me, and my
+punishment overtook me when I saw how you hated Clinton Allston's
+blood-smeared hands, and with what unfeigned horror you regarded his
+career. When you declared so vehemently that his fingers should never
+touch yours--oh! it was the fearful apprehension of losing you that
+made me catch your dear hands and press them to my aching heart. I was
+stretched upon a rack that taught me the full import of Isaac Taylor's
+grim words, 'Remorse is man's dread prerogative!' Believing that you
+knew all my history and that your aversion was based upon it, I was too
+proud to show you my affection. Douglass Manning was as much my friend
+as I permitted any man to be; we had travelled together through Arabia,
+and with his handwriting I was familiar. Suspecting your literary
+schemes, and dreading a rival in your ambition, I wrote to him on the
+subject, discovered all I wished to ascertain, and requested him, for
+my sake, to reconsider and examine your MS. He did so to oblige me, and
+I insisted that he should treat your letters and your MS. with such
+severity as to utterly crush your literary aspirations. Oh, child! do
+you see how entirely you fill my mind and heart? How I scrutinize your
+words and actions? Oh, my darling--"
+
+He paused, and leaned over her, putting his hand on her head, but she
+shook off his touch and exclaimed:
+
+"But Gertrude! Gertrude!"
+
+"Be patient, and you shall know all; for as God reigns above us, there
+is no recess of my heart into which you shall not look. It is, perhaps,
+needless to tell you that Estelle came here to marry me for my fortune.
+It is not agreeable to say such things of one's own cousin, but to-day
+I deal only in truths, and facts sustain me. She professes to love me!
+has absolutely avowed it more than once in days gone by. Whether she
+really loves anything but wealth and luxury, I have never troubled
+myself to find out; but my mother fancies that if Estelle were my wife,
+I might be less cynical. Once or twice I tried to be affectionate
+toward her, solely to see what effect it would have upon you; but I
+discovered that you could not easily be deceived in that direction--the
+mask was too transparent, and beside, the game disgusted me. I have no
+respect for Estelle, but I have a shadowy traditional reverence for the
+blood in her veins which forbids my flirting with her as she deserves.
+The very devil himself brought Agnes here. She had married a rich old
+banker only a few months after Murray's death, and lived in ease and
+splendor until a short time since, when her husband failed and died,
+leaving her without a cent. She knew how utterly she had blasted my
+life, and imagined that I had never married because I still loved her!
+With unparalleled effrontery she came here, and trusting to her
+wonderfully preserved beauty, threw herself and her daughter in my way.
+When I heard SHE was at the parsonage, all the old burning hate leaped
+up strong as ever. I fancied that she was the real cause of your
+dislike to me, and that night, when the game of billiards ended, I went
+to the parsonage for the first time since Murray's death. Oh! the
+ghostly thronging memories that met me at the gate, trooped after me up
+the walk, and hovered like vultures as I stood in the shadow of the
+trees, where my idol and I had chatted and romped and shouted and
+whistled in the far past, in the sinless bygone! Unobserved I stood
+there, and looked once more, after the lapse of twenty years, on the
+face that had caused my crime and ruin. I listened to her clear laugh,
+silvery as when I heard it chiming with Murray's under the apple-tree
+on the night that branded me and drove me forth to wander like Cain;
+and I resolved, if she really loved her daughter, to make her suffer
+for all that she had inflicted on me. The first time I met Gertrude I
+could have sworn my boyhood's love was restored to me; she is so
+entirely the image of what Agnes was. To possess themselves of my home
+and property is all that brought them here; and whether as my wife or
+as my mother-in-law I think Agnes cares little. The first she sees is
+impracticable, and now to make me wed Gertrude is her aim. Like mother,
+like daughter!"
+
+"Oh! no, no! visit not her mother's sins on her innocent head! Gertrude
+is true and affectionate, and she loves you dearly."
+
+Edna spoke with a great effort, and the strange tones of her own voice
+frightened her.
+
+"Loves me? Ha! ha! just about as tenderly as her mother did before her!
+That they do both 'dearly love'--my purse, I grant you. Hear me out.
+Agnes threw the girl constantly and adroitly in my way; the demon here
+in my heart prompted revenge, and, above all, I resolved to find out
+whether you were indeed as utterly indifferent to me as you seemed. I
+know that jealousy will make a woman betray her affection sooner than
+any other cause, and I deliberately set myself to work to make you
+believe that I loved that pretty cheat over yonder at the
+parsonage--that frolicsome wax-doll, who would rather play with a
+kitten than talk to Cicero; who intercepts me almost daily, to favor me
+with manifestations of devotion, and shows me continually that I have
+only to put out my hand and take her to rule over my house, and trample
+my heart under her pretty feet! When you gave me that note of hers a
+week ago, and looked so calmly, so coolly in my face, I felt as if all
+hope were dying in my heart; for I could not believe that, if you had
+one atom of affection for me, you could be so generous, so unselfish
+toward one whom you considered your rival. That night I did not close
+my eyes, and had almost decided to revisit South America; but next
+morning my mother told me you were going to New York--that all
+entreaties had failed to shake your resolution. Then once more a hope
+cheered me, and I believed that I understood why you had determined to
+leave those whom I know you love tenderly--to quit the home my mother
+offered you and struggle among strangers. Yesterday they told me you
+would leave on Monday, and I went out to seek you; but you were with
+Mr. Hammond, as usual, and instead of you I met--that curse of my
+life--Agnes! Face to face, at last, with my red-lipped Lamia! Oh! it
+was a scene that made jubilee down in Pandemonium! She plead for her
+child's happiness--ha, ha, ha!--implored me most pathetically to love
+her Gertrude as well as Gertrude loved me, and that my happiness would
+make me forget the unfortunate past! She would willingly give me her
+daughter, for did she not know how deep, how lasting, how deathless was
+my affection? I had Gertrude's whole heart, and I was too generous to
+trifle with her tender love! Edna, darling! I will not tell you all she
+said--you would blush for your sisterhood. But my vengeance was
+complete when I declined the honor she was so eager to force upon me;
+when I overwhelmed her with my scorn, and told her that there was only
+one woman whom I respected or trusted; only one woman upon the broad
+earth whom I loved; only one woman who could ever be my wife, and her
+name was--Edna Earl!"
+
+His voice died away, and all was still as the dead in their grassy
+graves.
+
+The orphan's face was concealed, and after a moment St. Elmo Murray
+opened his arms, and said in that low winning tone which so many women
+had found it impossible to resist: "Come to me now, my pure, noble
+Edna. You whom I love, as only such a man as I have shown myself to be
+can love."
+
+"No, Mr. Murray; Gertrude stands between us."
+
+"Gertrude! Do not make me swear here, in your presence--do not madden
+me by repeating her name! I tell you she is a silly child, who cares no
+more for me than her mother did before her. Nothing shall stand between
+us. I love you; the God above us is my witness that I love you as I
+never loved any human being, and I will not--I swear I will not live
+without you! You are mine, and all the legions in hell shall not part
+us!"
+
+He stooped, snatched her from the chair as if she had been an infant,
+and folded her in his strong arms.
+
+"Mr. Murray, I know she loves you. My poor little trusting friend! You
+trifled with her warm heart, as you hope to trifle with mine; but I
+know you; you have shown me how utterly heartless, remorseless,
+unprincipled you are. You had no right to punish Gertrude for her
+mother's sins; and if you had one spark of honor in your nature, you
+would marry her, and try to atone for the injury you have already done."
+
+"By pretending to give her a heart which belongs entirely to you? If I
+wished to deceive you now, think you I would have told all that hideous
+past, which you can not abhor one half as much as I do?"
+
+"Your heart is not mine! It belongs to sin, or you could not have so
+maliciously deceived poor Gertrude. You love nothing but your ignoble
+revenge and the gratification of your self-love! You--"
+
+"Take care, do not rouse me. Be reasonable, little darling. You doubt
+my love? Well, I ought not to wonder at your scepticism after all you
+have heard. But you can feel how my heart throbs against your cheek,
+and if you will look into my eyes, you will be convinced that I am
+fearfully in earnest, when I beg you to be my wife
+to-morrow--to-day--now! if you will only let me send for a minister or
+a magistrate! You are--"
+
+"You asked Annie to be your wife, and--"
+
+"Hush! hush! Look at me. Edna, raise your head and look at me."
+
+She tried to break away, and finding it impossible, pressed both hands
+over her face and hid it against his shoulder.
+
+He laughed, and whispered:
+
+"My darling, I know what that means. You dare not look up because you
+cannot trust your own eyes! Because you dread for me to see something
+there which you want to hide, which you think it your duty to conceal."
+
+He felt a long shudder creep over her, and she answered resolutely:
+
+"Do you think, sir, that I could love a murderer? A man whose hands are
+red with the blood of the son of my best friend?"
+
+"Look at me then."
+
+He raised her head, drew down her hands, took them firmly in one of
+his, and placing the other under her chin, lifted the burning face
+close to his own.
+
+She dreaded the power of his lustrous, mesmeric eyes, and instantly her
+long silky lashes swept her flushed cheeks.
+
+"Ah! you dare not! You can not look me steadily in the eye and say,
+'St. Elmo, I never have loved--do not--and never can love you!' You are
+too truthful; your lips can not dissemble. I know you do not want to
+love me. Your reason, your conscience forbid it; you are struggling to
+crush your heart. You think it your duty to despise and hate me. But,
+my own, Edna--my darling! my darling! you do love me! You know you do
+love me, though you will not confess it! My proud darling!"
+
+He drew the face tenderly to his own, and kissed her quivering lips
+repeatedly, and at last a moan of anguish told how she was wrestling
+with her heart.
+
+"Do you think you can hide your love from my eager eyes? Oh! I know
+that I am unworthy of you! I feel it more and more every day, every
+hour. It is because you seem so noble--so holy--to my eyes, that I
+reverence while I love you. You are so far above all other women--so
+glorified in your pure, consistent piety--that you only have the power
+to make my future life--redeem the wretched and sinful past. I tempted
+and tried you, and when you proved so true and honest and womanly, you
+kindled a faint beam of hope that, after all, there might be truth and
+saving, purifying power in religion. Do you know that since this church
+was finished I have never entered it until a month ago, when I followed
+you here, and crouched downstairs--yonder, behind one of the pillars,
+and heard your sacred songs, your hymns so full of grandeur, so full of
+pathos, that I could not keep back my tears while I listened. Since
+then I have come every Saturday afternoon, and during the hour spent
+here my unholy nature was touched and softened as no sermon ever
+touched it. Oh! you wield a power over me--over all my future, which
+ought to make you tremble! The first generous impulse that has stirred
+my callous, bitter soul since I was a boy, I owe to you. I went first
+to see poor Reed, in order to discover what took you so often to that
+cheerless place; and my interest in little Huldah arose from the fact
+that you loved the child. Oh, my darling! I know I have been sinful and
+cruel and blasphemous; but it is not too late for me to atone! It is
+not too late for me to do some good in the world; and if you will only
+love me, and trust me, and help me--"
+
+His voice faltered, his tears fell upon her forehead, and stooping he
+kissed her lips softly, reverently, as if he realized the presence of
+something sacred.
+
+"My precious Edna, no oath shall ever soil my lips again; the touch of
+yours has purified them. I have been mad--I think, for many, many
+years, and I loath my past life; but remember how sorely I was tried,
+and be merciful when you judge me. With your dear little hand in mine
+to lead me, I will make amends for the ruin and suffering I have
+wrought, and my Edna--my own wife, shall save me!" Before the orphan's
+mental vision rose the picture of Gertrude, the trembling coral mouth,
+the childish wistful eyes, the lovely head nestled down so often and so
+lovingly on her shoulder; and she saw, too, the bent figure and white
+locks of her beloved pastor, as he sat in his old age, in his
+childless, desolate home, facing the graves of his murdered children.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Murray! You can not atone! You can not call your victims from
+their tombs. You can not undo what you have done! What amends can you
+make to Mr. Hammond, and to my poor little confiding Gertrude? I can
+not help you! I can not save you!"
+
+"Hush! You can, you shall! Do you think I will ever give you up? Have
+mercy on my lonely life! my wretched, darkened soul. Lean your dear
+head here on my heart, and say, 'St. Elmo, what a wife can do to save
+her erring, sinful husband, I will do for you.' If I am ever to be
+saved, you, you only can effect my redemption; for I trust, I reverence
+you. Edna, as you value my soul, my eternal welfare, give yourself to
+me! Give your pure, sinless life to purify mine."
+
+With a sudden bound she sprang from his embrace, and lifted her arms
+toward the Christ, who seemed to shudder as the flickering light of
+fading day fell through waving foliage upon it.
+
+"Look yonder to Jesus, bleeding! Only his blood can wash away your
+guilt. Mr. Murray, I can never be your wife. I have no confidence in
+you. Knowing how systematically you have deceived others, how devoid of
+conscientious scruples you are, I should never be sure that I too was
+not the victim of your heartless cynicism. Beside, I--"
+
+"Hush! hush! To your keeping I commit my conscience and my heart."
+
+"No! no! I am no vicegerent of an outraged and insulted God! I put no
+faith in any man whose conscience another keeps. From the species of
+fascination which you exert, I shrink with unconquerable dread and
+aversion, and would almost as soon entertain the thought of marrying
+Lucifer himself. Oh! your perverted nature shocks, repels, astonishes,
+grieves me. I can neither respect nor trust you. Mr. Murray, have mercy
+upon yourself! Go yonder to Jesus. He only can save and purify you."
+
+"Edna, you do not, you can not intend to leave me? Darling--"
+
+He held out his arms and moved toward her, but she sprang past him,
+down the steps of the gallery, out of the church, and paused only at
+sight of the dark, dull spot on the white steps, where Annie Hammond
+had lain insensible.
+
+An hour later, St. Elmo Murray raised his face from the mahogany
+railing where it had rested since Edna left him, and looked around the
+noble pile which his munificence had erected. A full moon eyed him
+pityingly through the stained glass, and the gleam of the marble pulpit
+was chill and ghostly; and in that weird light the Christ was
+threatening, wrathful, appalling.
+
+As St. Elmo stood there alone, confronting the picture--confronting the
+past-memory, like the Witch of Endor, called up visions of the departed
+that were more terrible than the mantled form of Israel's prophet; and
+the proud, hopeless man bowed his haughty head, with a cry of anguish
+that rose mournfully to the vaulted ceiling of the sanctuary:
+
+  "It went up single, echoless, 'My God! I am forsaken!'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+The weather was so inclement on the following day that no service was
+held in the church; but, notwithstanding the heavy rain, Edna went to
+the parsonage to bid adieu to her pastor and teacher. When she ascended
+the steps Mr. Hammond was walking up and down the portico with his
+hands clasped behind him, as was his habit when engrossed by earnest
+thought; and he greeted his pupil with a degree of mournful tenderness
+very soothing to her sad heart.
+
+Leading the way to his study, where Mrs. Powell sat with an open book
+on her lap, he said gently:
+
+"Agnes, will you be so kind as to leave us for a while? This is the
+last interview I shall have with Edna for a long time, perhaps forever,
+and there are some things I wish to say to her alone. You will find a
+better light in the dining-room, where all is quiet."
+
+As Mrs. Powell withdrew he locked the door, and for some seconds paced
+the floor; then, taking a seat on the chintz-covered lounge beside his
+pupil, he said eagerly:
+
+"St. Elmo was at the church yesterday afternoon. Are you willing to
+tell me what passed between you?"
+
+"Mr. Hammond, he told me his melancholy history. I know all now--know
+why he shrinks from meeting you, whom he has injured so cruelly; know
+all his guilt and your desolation."
+
+The old man bowed his white head on his bosom, and there was a painful
+silence. When he spoke, his voice was scarcely audible.
+
+"The punishment of Eli has fallen heavily upon me, and there have been
+hours when I thought that it was greater than I could bear--that it
+would utterly crush me; but the bitterness of the curse has passed
+away; and I can say truly of that 'meekest angel of God,' the Angel of
+Patience:
+
+  'He walks with thee, that angel kind,
+   And gently whispers, Be resigned;
+   Bear up, bear on; the end shall tell,
+   The dear Lord ordereth all things well!'
+
+"I tried to train up my children in the fear and admonition of the
+Lord; but I must have failed signally in my duty, though I have never
+been able to discover in what respect I was negligent. One of the sins
+of my life was my inordinate pride in my only boy--my gifted, gifted,
+handsome son. My love for Murray was almost idolatrous; and when my
+heart throbbed with proudest hopes and aspirations, my idol was broken
+and laid low in the dust; and, like David mourning for his rebellious
+child Absalom, I cried out in my affliction, 'My son! my son! would God
+I had died for thee!' Murray Hammond was my precious diadem of earthly
+glory; and suddenly I found myself uncrowned, and sackcloth and ashes
+were my portion."
+
+"Why did you never confide these sorrows to me? Did you doubt my
+earnest sympathy?"
+
+"No, my child; but I thought it best that St. Elmo should lift the veil
+and show you all that he wished you to know. I felt assured that the
+time would come when he considered it due to himself to acquaint you
+with his sad history; and when I saw him go into the church yesterday I
+knew that the hour had arrived. I did not wish to prejudice you against
+him; for I believe that through your agency the prayers of twenty years
+would be answered, and that his wandering, embittered heart would
+follow you to that cross before which he bowed in his boyhood. Edna, it
+was through my son's sin and duplicity that St. Elmo's noble career was
+blasted, and his most admirable character perverted; and I have hoped
+and believed that through your influence, my beloved pupil, he would be
+redeemed from his reckless course. My dear little Edna, you are very
+lovely and winning, and I believe he would love you as he never loved
+any one else. Oh! I have hoped everything from your influence! Far, far
+beyond all computation is the good which a pious, consistent, Christian
+wife can accomplish in the heart of a husband who truly loves her."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Hammond! you pain and astonish me. Surely you would not be
+willing to see me marry a man who scoffs at the very name of religion;
+who wilfully deceives and trifles with the feelings of all who are
+sufficiently credulous to trust his hollow professions--whose hands are
+red with the blood of your children! What hope of happiness or peace
+could you indulge for me, in view of such a union? I should merit all
+the wretchedness that would inevitably be my life--long portion if,
+knowing his crimes, I could consent to link my future with his."
+
+"He would not deceive you, my child! If you knew him as well as I do,
+if you could realize all that he was before his tender, loving heart
+was stabbed by the two whom he almost adored, you would judge him more
+leniently. Edna, if I whom he has robbed of all that made life
+beautiful--if I, standing here in my lonely old age, in sight of the
+graves of my murdered darlings--if I can forgive him, and pray for him,
+and, as God is my witness, love him! you have no right to visit my
+injuries and my sorrows upon him!"
+
+Edna looked in amazement at his troubled earnest countenance, and
+exclaimed:
+
+"Oh! if he knew all your noble charity, your unparalleled magnanimity,
+surely, surely, your influence would be his salvation! His stubborn,
+bitter heart would be melted. But, sir, I should have a right to expect
+Annie's sad fate if I could forget her sufferings and her wrongs."
+
+Mr. Hammond rose and walked to the window, and after a time, when he
+resumed his seat, his eyes were full of tears, and his wrinkled face
+was strangely pallid.
+
+"My darling Annie, my sweet, fragile flower, my precious little
+daughter, so like her sainted mother! Ah! it is not surprising that she
+could not resist his fascinations. But, Edna, he never loved my pet
+lamb. Do you know that you have become almost as dear to me as my own
+dead child? She deceived me! she was willing to forsake her father in
+his old age; but through long years you have never once betrayed my
+perfect confidence."
+
+The old man put his thin hand on the orphan's head and turned the
+countenance toward him.
+
+"My dear little girl, you will not think me impertinently curious when
+I ask you a question, which my sincere affection for and interest in
+you certainly sanction? Do you love St. Elmo?"
+
+"Mr. Hammond, it is not love; for esteem, respect, confidence, belong
+to love. But I can not deny that he exerts a very singular, a wicked
+fascination over me. I dread his evil influence, I avoid his presence,
+and know that he is utterly unworthy of any woman's trust; and yet--and
+yet--Oh, sir! I feel that I am very weak, and I fear that I am
+unwomanly; but I can not despise, I can not hate him as I ought to do!"
+
+"Is not this feeling on your part one of the causes that hurry you away
+to New York?"
+
+"That is certainly one of the reasons why I am anxious to go away as
+early as possible. Oh, Mr. Hammond! much as I love, much as I owe you
+and Mrs. Murray, I sometimes wish that I had never come here! Never
+seen Le Bocage, and the mocking, jeering man who owns it!"
+
+"Try to believe that somehow in the mysterious Divine economy it is all
+for the best. In reviewing the apparently accidental circumstances that
+placed you among us, I have thought that, because this was your
+appointed field of labor, God in his wisdom brought you where he
+designed you to work. Does Mrs. Murray know that her son offered to
+make you his wife?"
+
+"No! no! I hope she never will; for it would mortify her exceedingly to
+know that he could be willing to give his proud name to one of whose
+lineage she is so ignorant. How did you know it?"
+
+"I knew what his errand must be when he forced himself to visit a spot
+so fraught with painful memories as my church. Edna, I shall not urge
+you; but ponder well the step you are taking; for St. Elmo's future
+will be colored by your decision. I have an abiding and comforting
+faith that he will yet lift himself out of the abyss of sinful
+dissipation and scoffing scepticism, and your hand would aid him as
+none other human can."
+
+"Mr. Hammond, it seems incredible that you can plead for him. Oh, do
+not tempt me! Do not make me believe that I could restore his purity of
+faith and life. Do not tell me that it would be right to give my hand
+to a blasphemous murderer? Oh! my own heart is weak enough already! I
+know that I am right in my estimate of his unscrupulous character, and
+I am neither so vain nor so blind as to imagine that my feeble efforts
+could accomplish for him what all your noble magnanimity and patient
+endeavors have entirely failed to effect. If he can obstinately resist
+the influence of your life, he would laugh mine to scorn. It is hard
+enough for me to leave him, when I feel that duty demands it. Oh, my
+dear Mr. Hammond! do not attempt to take from me the only staff which
+can carry me firmly away--do not make my trial even more severe. I must
+not see his face; for I will not be his wife. Instead of weakening my
+resolution by holding out flattering hopes of reforming him, pray for
+me! oh! pray for me! that I may be strengthened to flee from a great
+temptation! I will marry no man who is not an earnest, humble believer
+in the religion of our Lord Jesus Christ. Rather than become the wife
+of a sacrilegious scoffer, such as I know Mr. Murray to be, I will, so
+help me God! live and work alone, and go down to my grave, Edna Earl!"
+
+The minister sighed heavily.
+
+"Bear one thing in mind. It has been said, that in disavowing
+guardianship, we sometimes slaughter Abel. You can not understand my
+interest in St. Elmo. Remember that if his wretched soul is lost at
+last, it will be required at the hands of my son, in that dread
+day--Dies Irae! Dies Illa!--when we shall stand at the final judgment!
+Do you wonder that I struggle in prayer, and in all possible human
+endeavor to rescue him from ruin; so that when I am called from earth,
+I can meet the spirit of my only boy with the blessed tidings that the
+soul he jeopardized, and well-nigh wrecked, has been redeemed! is safe!
+anchored once more in the faith of Christ? But I will say no more. Your
+own heart and conscience must guide you in this matter. It would pour a
+flood of glorious sunshine upon my sad and anxious heart, as I go down
+to my grave, if I could know that you, whose life and character I have
+in great degree moulded, were instrumental in saving one whom I have
+loved so long, so well, and under such afflicting circumstances, as my
+poor St. Elmo."
+
+"To the mercy of his Maker, and the intercession of his Saviour, I
+commit him."
+
+  'As for me, I go my way, onward, upward.'"
+
+A short silence ensued, and at last Edna rose to say good-bye.
+
+"Do you still intend to leave at four o'clock in the morning? I fear
+you will have bad weather for your journey."
+
+"Yes, sir, I shall certainly start to-morrow. And now, I must leave
+you. Oh, my best friend! how can I tell you good-bye!"
+
+The minister folded her in his trembling arms, and his silver locks
+mingled with her black hair, while he solemnly blessed her. She sobbed
+as he pressed his lips to her forehead, and gently put her from him;
+and turning, she hurried away, anxious to escape the sight of
+Gertrude's accusing face; for she supposed that Mrs. Powell had
+repeated to her daughter Mr. Murray's taunting words.
+
+Since the previous evening she had not spoken to St. Elmo, who did not
+appear at breakfast; but when she passed him in the hall an hour later,
+he was talking to his mother, and took no notice of her bow.
+
+Now as the carriage approached the house, she glanced in the direction
+of his apartment, and saw him sitting at the window, with his elbow
+resting on the sill, and his cheek on his hand.
+
+She went at once to Mrs. Murray, and the interview was long and
+painful. The latter wept freely, and insisted that if the orphan grew
+weary of teaching (as she knew would happen), she should come back
+immediately to Le Bocage; where a home would always be hers, and to
+which a true friend would welcome her.
+
+At length, when Estelle Harding came in with some letters, which she
+wished to submit to her aunt's inspection, Edna retreated to her own
+quiet room. She went to her bureau to complete the packing of her
+clothes, and found on the marble slab a box and note directed to her.
+
+Mr. Murray's handwriting was remarkably graceful, and Edna broke the
+seal which bore his motto, Nemo me impune lacessit.
+
+"EDNA: I send for your examination the contents of the little tomb,
+which you guarded so faithfully. Read the letters written before I was
+betrayed. The locket attached to a ribbon, which was always worn over
+my heart, and the miniatures which it contains are those of Agnes Hunt
+and Murray Hammond. Read all the record, and then judge me, as you hope
+to be judged. I sit alone, amid the mouldering, blackened ruins of my
+youth; will you not listen to the prayer of my heart, and the
+half-smothered pleadings of your own, and come to me in my desolation,
+and help me to build up a new and noble life? Oh, my darling, you can
+make me what you will. While you read and ponder, I am praying. Aye,
+praying for the first time in twenty years! praying that if God ever
+hears prayer, He will influence your decision, and bring you to me.
+Edna, my darling! I wait for you. "Your own,
+                     "ST. ELMO."
+
+Ah! how her tortured heart writhed and bled; how piteously it pleaded
+for him, and for itself!
+
+Edna opened the locket, and if Gertrude had stepped into the golden
+frame, the likeness could not have been more startling. She looked at
+it until her lips blanched and were tightly compressed, and the memory
+of Gertrude became paramount. Murray Hammond's face she barely glanced
+at, and its extraordinary beauty stared at her like that of some
+avenging angel. With a shudder she put it away, and turned to the
+letters that St. Elmo had written to Agnes and to Murray, in the early,
+happy days of his engagement.
+
+Tender, beautiful, loving letters, that breathed the most devoted
+attachment and the purest piety; letters that were full of lofty
+aspirations, and religious fervor, and generous schemes for the
+assistance and enlightenment of the poor about Le Bocage; and
+especially for "my noble, matchless Murray." Among the papers were
+several designs for charitable buildings: a house of industry, an
+asylum for the blind, and a free school-house. In an exquisite ivory
+casket, containing a splendid set of diamonds, and the costly betrothal
+ring, bearing the initials, Edna found a sheet of paper around which
+the blazing necklace was twisted. Disengaging it. she saw that it was a
+narration of all that had stung him to desperation on the night of the
+murder.
+
+As she read the burning taunts, the insults, the ridicule heaped by the
+two under the apple-tree upon the fond, faithful, generous, absent
+friend, she felt the indignant blood gush into her face; but she read
+on and on, and two hours elapsed ere she finished the package. Then
+came a trial, a long, fierce, agonizing trial, such as few women have
+ever been called upon to pass through; such as the world believes no
+woman ever triumphantly endured. Girded by prayer, the girl went down
+resolutely into the flames of the furnace, and the ordeal was terrible
+indeed. But as often as Love showed her the figure of Mr. Murray, alone
+in his dreary sitting-room, waiting, watching for her, she turned and
+asked of Duty, the portrait of Gertrude's sweet, anxious face; the
+picture of dying Annie; the mournful countenance of a man, shut up by
+iron bars from God's beautiful world, from the home and the family who
+had fondly cherished her in her happy girlhood, ere St. Elmo trailed
+his poison across her sunny path.
+
+After another hour, the orphan went to her desk, and while she wrote, a
+pale, cold rigidity settled upon her features, which told that she was
+calmly, deliberately shaking hands with the expelled, the departing
+Hagar of her heart's hope and happiness. "To the mercy of God, and the
+love of Christ, and the judgment of your own conscience, I commit you.
+Henceforth we walk different paths, and after to-night, it is my wish
+that we meet no more on earth. Mr. Murray, I cannot lift up your
+darkened soul; and you would only drag mine down. For your final
+salvation I shall never cease to pray till we stand face to face before
+the Bar of God. "EDNA EARL."
+
+Ringing for a servant, she sent back the box, and even his own note,
+which she longed to keep, but would not trust herself to see again; and
+dreading reflection, and too miserable to sleep, she went to Mrs.
+Murray's room, and remained with her till three o'clock.
+
+Then Mr. Murray's voice rang through the house, calling for the
+carriage, and as Edna put on her bonnet and shawl, he knocked at his
+mother's door.
+
+"It is raining very hard, and you must not think of going to the train,
+as you intended."
+
+"But, my son, the carriage is close and--"
+
+"I can not permit you to expose yourself so unnecessarily, and, in
+short, I will not take you, so there is an end of it. Of course I can
+stand the weather, and I will go over with Edna, and put her under the
+care of some one on the train. As soon as possible send her down to the
+carriage. I shall order her trunks strapped on."
+
+He was very pale and stern, and his voice rang coldly clear as he
+turned and went downstairs.
+
+The parting was very painful, and Mrs. Murray followed the orphan to
+the front door.
+
+"St. Elmo, I wish you would let me go. I do not mind the rain."
+
+"Impossible. You know I have an unconquerable horror of scenes, and I
+do not at all fancy witnessing one that threatens to last until the
+train leaves. Go upstairs and cry yourself to sleep in ten minutes;
+that will be much more sensible. Come, Edna, are you ready?"
+
+The orphan was folded in a last embrace, and Mr. Murray held out his
+hand, drew her from his mother's arms, and taking his seat beside her
+in the carriage, ordered the coachman to drive on.
+
+The night was very dark, the wind sobbed down the avenue, and the rain
+fell in such torrents that as Edna leaned out for a last look at the
+stately mansion, which she had learned to love so well, she could only
+discern the outline of the bronze monsters by the glimmer of the light
+burning in the hall. She shrank far back in one corner, and her fingers
+clutched each other convulsively; but when they had passed through the
+gate and entered the main road Mr. Murray's hand was laid on hers--the
+cold fingers were unlocked gently but firmly, and raised to his lips.
+
+She made an effort to withdraw them, but found it useless, and the
+trial which she had fancied was at end seemed only beginning.
+
+"Edna, this is the last time I shall ever speak to you of myself; the
+last time I shall ever allude to all that has passed. It is entirely
+useless for one to ask you to reconsider? If you have no pity for me,
+have some mercy on yourself. You can not know how I dread the thought
+of your leaving me, and being roughly handled by a cold, selfish,
+ruthless world. Oh! it maddens me when I think of your giving your
+precious life, which would so glorify my home and gladden my desolate
+heart, to a public, who will trample upon you if possible, and, if it
+can not entirely crush you, will only value you as you deserve, when,
+with ruined health and withered hopes, you sink into the early grave
+malice and envy will have dug for you. Already your dear face has grown
+pale, and your eyes have a restless, troubled look, and shadows are
+gathering about your young, pure, fresh spirit. My darling, you are not
+strong enough to wrestle with the world; you will be trodden down by
+the masses in this conflict, upon which you enter so eagerly. Do you
+not know that 'literati' means literally the branded? The lettered
+slave! Oh! if not for my sake, at least for your own, reconsider before
+the hot irons sear your brow; and hide it here, my love; keep it white
+and pure and unfurrowed here, in the arms that will never weary of
+sheltering and clasping you close and safe from the burning brand of
+fame. Literati! A bondage worse than Roman slavery! Help me to make a
+proper use of my fortune, and you will do more real good to your race
+than by all you can ever accomplish with your pen, no matter how
+successful it may prove. If you were selfish and heartless as other
+women, adulation and celebrity and the praise of the public might
+satisfy you. But you are not, and I have studied your nature too
+thoroughly to mistake the result of your ambitious career. My darling,
+ambition is the mirage of the literary desert you are anxious to
+traverse; it is the Bahr Sheitan, the Satan's water, which will ever
+recede and mock your thirsty, toil-spent soul. Dear little pilgrim, do
+not scorch your feet and wear out your life in the hot, blinding sands,
+struggling in vain for the constantly fading, vanishing oasis of happy
+literary celebrity. Ah! the Sahara of letters is full of bleaching
+bones that tell where many of your sex as well as of mine fell and
+perished miserably, even before the noon of life. Ambitious spirit,
+come, rest in peace in the cool, quiet, happy, palm-grove that I offer
+you. My shrinking violet, sweeter than all Paestum boasts! You cannot
+cope successfully with the world of selfish men and frivolous,
+heartless women, of whom you know absolutely nothing. To-day I found a
+passage which you had marked in one of my books, and it echoes
+ceaselessly in my heart:
+
+  "'MY FUTURE WILL NOT COPY FAIR MY PAST.'
+    I wrote that once; and thinking at my side
+    My ministering life-angel justified
+    The word by his appealing look upcast
+    To the white throne of God, I turned at last,
+    And there instead saw thee, not unallied
+    To angels in thy soul! * * Then I, long tired
+    By natural ills, received the comfort fast;
+    While budding at thy sight, my pilgrim's staff
+    Gave out green leaves with morning dews impearled.
+    I seek no copy of life's first half:
+    Leave here the pages with long musing curled,
+    Write me new my future's epigraph.
+    New angel mine--unhoped-for in the world!'"
+
+He had passed his arm around her and drawn her close to his side, and
+the pleading tenderness of his low voice was indeed hard to resist.
+
+"No, Mr. Murray, my decision is unalterable. If you do really love me,
+spare me, spare me, further entreaty. Before we part there are some
+things I should like to say, and I have little time left. Will you hear
+me?"
+
+He did not answer, but tightened his arm, drew her head to his bosom,
+and leaned his face down on hers.
+
+"Mr. Murray, I want to leave my Bible with you, because there are many
+passages marked which would greatly comfort and help you. It is the
+most precious thing I possess, for Grandpa gave it to me when I was a
+little girl, and I could not bear to leave it with any one but you. I
+have it here in my hand; will you look into it sometimes if I give it
+to you?"
+
+He merely put out his hand and took it from her.
+
+She paused a few seconds, and as he remained silent, she continued:
+
+"Mr. Hammond is the best friend you have on earth. Yesterday, having
+seen you enter the church and suspecting what passed, he spoke to me of
+you, and oh! he pleaded for you as only he could! He urged me not to
+judge you too harshly; not to leave you, and these were his words:
+'Edna, if I, whom he has robbed of all that life made beautiful; if I,
+standing here alone in my old age, in sight of the graves of my
+murdered darlings, if I can forgive him, and pray for him, and, as God
+is my witness, love him! you have no right to visit my injuries and my
+sorrows upon him!' Mr. Murray, he can help you, and he will, if you
+will only permit him. If you could realize how dearly he is interested
+in your happiness, you could not fail to reverence that religion which
+enables him to triumph over all the natural feelings of resentment. Mr.
+Murray, you have declared again and again that you love me. Oh, if it
+be true, meet me in heaven! I know that I am weak and sinful; but I am
+trying to correct the faults of my character, I am striving to do what
+I believe to be my duty, and I hope at last to find a home with my God.
+For several years, ever since you went abroad, I have been praying for
+you; and while I live I shall not cease to do so. Oh! will you not pray
+for yourself? Mr. Murray, I believe I shall not be happy even in heaven
+if I do not see you there. On earth we are parted--your crimes divide
+us; but there! there! Oh! for my sake, make an effort to redeem
+yourself, and meet me there!"
+
+She felt his strong frame tremble, and a heavy shuddering sigh broke
+from his lips and swept across her cheek. But when he spoke his words
+contained no hint of the promise she longed to receive:
+
+"Edna, my shadow has fallen across your heart, and I am not afraid that
+you will forget me. You will try to do so, you will give me as little
+thought as possible; you will struggle to crush your aching heart, and
+endeavor to be famous. But amid your ovations the memory of a lonely
+man, who loves you infinitely better than all the world for which you
+forsook him, will come like a breath from the sepulchre, to wither your
+bays; and my words, my pleading words, will haunt you, rising above the
+paeans of your public worshippers. When the laurel crown you covet now
+shall become a chaplet of thorns piercing your temples, or a band of
+iron that makes your brow ache, you will think mournfully of the days
+gone by, when I prayed for the privilege of resting your weary head
+here on my heart. You can not forget me. Sinful and unworthy as I
+confess myself, I am conqueror, I triumph now, even though you never
+permit me to look upon your face again; for I believe I have a place in
+my darling's heart which no other man, which not the whole world can
+usurp or fill! You are too proud to acknowledge it, too truthful to
+deny it; but, my pure Pearl, my heart feels it as well as yours, and it
+is a comfort of which all time can not rob me. Without it, how could I
+face my future, so desolate, sombre, lonely? Edna, the hour has come
+when, in accordance with your own decree, we part. For twenty years no
+woman's lips, except my mother's, have touched mine until yesterday,
+when they pressed yours. Perhaps we may never meet again in this world,
+and, ah! do not shrink away from me, I want to kiss you once more, my
+darling! my darling! I shall wear it on my lips till death stiffens
+them; and I am not at all afraid that any other man will ever be
+allowed to touch lips that belong to me alone; that I have made, and
+here seal, all my own! Good-bye."
+
+He strained her to him and pressed his lips twice to hers, then the
+carriage stopped at the railroad station.
+
+He handed her out, found a seat for her in the cars, which had just
+arrived, arranged her wrappings comfortably, and went back to attend to
+her trunks. She sat near an open window, and though it rained heavily,
+he buttoned his coat to the throat, and stood just beneath it, with his
+eyes bent down. Twice she pronounced his name, but he did not seem to
+hear her, and Edna put her hand lightly on his shoulder and said:
+
+"Do not stand here in the rain. In a few minutes we shall start, and I
+prefer that you should not wait. Please go home at once, Mr. Murray."
+
+He shook his head, but caught her hand and leaned his cheek against the
+soft palm, passing it gently and caressingly over his haggard face.
+
+The engine whistled; Mr. Murray pressed a long, warm kiss on the hand
+he had taken, the cars moved on; and as he lifted his hat, giving her
+one of his imperial, graceful bows, Edna had a last glimpse of the
+dark, chiselled, repulsive yet handsome face that had throws its
+baleful image deep in her young heart, and defied all her efforts to
+expel it. The wind howled around the cars, the rain fell heavily,
+beating a dismal tattoo on the glass, the night was mournfully dreary,
+and the orphan sank back and lowered her veil, and hid her face in her
+hands.
+
+Henceforth she felt that in obedience to her own decision, and fiat
+
+  "They stood aloof, the scars remaining
+   Like cliffs that had been rent asunder;
+   A dreary sea now flows between;
+   But neither heat nor frost nor thunder
+   Shall wholly do away, I ween,
+   The marks of that which once hath been."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+
+As day dawned the drab clouds blanched, broke up in marbled masses, the
+rain ceased, the wind sang out of the west, heralding the coming blue
+and gold, and at noon not one pearly vapor sail dotted the sky. During
+the afternoon Edna looked anxiously for the first glimpse of "Lookout,"
+but a trifling accident detained the train for several hours, and it
+was almost twilight when she saw it, a purple spot staining the clear
+beryl horizon; spreading rapidly, shifting its Tyrian mantle for gray
+robes; and at length the rising moon silvered its rocky crest, as it
+towered in silent majesty over the little village nestled at its base.
+The kind and gentlemanly conductor on the cars accompanied Edna to the
+hotel, and gave her a parcel containing several late papers. As she sat
+in her small room, weary and yet sleepless, she tried to divert her
+thoughts by reading the journals, and found in three of them notices of
+the last number of ---- Magazine, and especial mention of her essay:
+"Keeping the Vigil of St. Martin under the Pines of Grutli."
+
+The extravagant laudations of this article surprised her, and she saw
+that while much curiosity was indulged concerning the authorship, one
+of the editors ventured to attribute it to a celebrated and very able
+writer, whose genius and erudition had lifted him to an enviable
+eminence in the world of American letters. The criticisms were
+excessively flattering, and the young author, gratified at the complete
+success that had crowned her efforts, cut out the friendly notices,
+intending to enclose them in a letter to Mrs. Murray.
+
+Unable to sleep, giving audience to memories of her early childhood,
+she passed the night at her window, watching the constellations go down
+behind the dark, frowning mass of rock that lifted its parapets to the
+midnight sky, and in the morning light saw the cold, misty cowl drawn
+over the venerable hoary head.
+
+The village had changed so materially that she could scarcely recognize
+any of the old landmarks, and the people who kept the hotel could tell
+her nothing about Peter Wood, the miller. After breakfast she took a
+box containing some flowers packed in wet cotton, and walked out on the
+road leading in the direction of the blacksmith's shop. Very soon the
+trees became familiar, she remembered every turn of the road and bend
+on the fences; and at last the grove of oak and chestnut shading the
+knoll at the intersection of the roads met her eye. She looked for the
+forge and bellows, for the anvil and slack-tub; but shop and shed had
+fallen to decay, and only a heap of rubbish, overgrown with rank weeds
+and vines, marked the spot where she had spent so many happy hours. The
+glowing yellow chestnut leaves dropped down at her feet, and the oaks
+tossed their gnarled arms as if welcoming the wanderer whose head they
+had shaded in infancy, and, stifling a moan, the orphan hurried on.
+
+She saw that the timber had been cut down, and fences enclosed
+cultivated fields where forests had stood when she went away. At a
+sudden bend in the narrow, irregular road when she held her breath and
+leaned forward to see the old house where she was born and reared, a
+sharp cry of pain escaped her. Not a vestige of the homestead remained,
+save the rocky chimney, standing in memoriam in the centre of a
+cornfield. She leaned against the low fence, and tears trickled down
+her cheeks as memory rebuilt the log-house, and placed the
+split-bottomed rocking-chair on the porch in front, and filled it with
+the figure of a white-haired old man, with his pipe in his hand and his
+blurred eyes staring at the moon.
+
+Through the brown corn-stalks she could see the gaping mouth of the
+well, now partly filled with rubbish; and the wreaths of scarlet
+cypress which once fringed the shed above it and hung their flaming
+trumpets down until they almost touched her childish head, as she sang
+at the well where she scoured the cedar piggin, were bereft of all
+support and trailed helplessly over the ground. Close to the fence, and
+beyond the reach of plough and hoe, a yellow four-o'clock with closed
+flowers marked the location of the little garden; and one tall larkspur
+leaned against the fence, sole survivor of the blue pets that Edna had
+loved so well in the early years. She put her fingers through a
+crevice, broke the plumy spray, and as she pressed it to her face, she
+dropped her head upon the rails and gave herself up to the flood of
+painful yet inexpressibly precious memories.
+
+How carefully she had worked and weeded this little plat; how proud she
+once was of her rosemary and pinks, her double feathery poppies, her
+sweet-scented lemon-grass; how eagerly she had transplanted wood
+violets and purple phlox from the forest; how often she had sat on the
+steps watching for her grandfather's return, and stringing those
+four-o'clock blossoms into golden crowns for her own young head; and
+how gayly she had sometimes swung them over Brindle's horns, when she
+went out to milk her.
+
+  "Ah! sad and strange, as in dark summer dawns
+   The earliest pipe of half-awakened birds
+   To dying ears, when unto dying eyes
+   The casement slowly grows a glimmering square;
+   So sad, so strange, the days that are no more."
+
+With a sob she turned away and walked in the direction of the
+burying-ground; for there, certainly, she would find all unchanged;
+graves at least were permanent.
+
+The little spring bubbled as of yore, the brush creepers made a tangled
+tapestry around it, and crimson and blue convolvulus swung their
+velvety, dew-beaded chalices above it, as on that June morning long ago
+when she stood there filling her bucket, waiting for the sunrise.
+
+She took off her gloves, knelt down beside the spring, and dipping up
+the cold, sparkling water in her palms, drank and wept, and drank
+again. She bathed her aching eyes, and almost cheated herself into the
+belief that she heard again Grip's fierce bark ringing through the
+woods, and the slow, drowsy tinkle of Brindle's bell. Turning aside
+from the beaten track, she entered the thick grove of chestnuts, and
+looked around for the grave of the Dents; but the mound had
+disappeared, and though she recognized the particular tree which had
+formerly overhung it, and searched the ground carefully, she could
+discover no trace of the hillock where she had so often scattered
+flowers. A squirrel leaped and frisked in the boughs above her, and she
+startled a rabbit from the thick grass and fallen yellow leaves: but
+neither these, nor the twitter of gossiping orioles, nor the harsh,
+hungry cry of a bluebird told her a syllable of all that had happened
+in her absence.
+
+She conjectured that the bodies had probably been disinterred by
+friends and removed to Georgia; and she hurried on toward the hillside,
+where the neighborhood graveyard was situated. The rude, unpainted
+paling still enclosed it, and rows of headboards stretched away among
+grass and weeds; but whose was that shining marble shaft, standing in
+the centre of a neatly arranged square, around which ran a handsome
+iron railing? On that very spot, in years gone by, had stood a piece of
+pine board: "Sacred to the memory of Aaron Hunt, an honest blacksmith
+and true Christian."
+
+Who had dared to disturb his bones, to violate his last resting-place,
+and to steal his grave for the interment of some wealthy stranger? A
+cry of horror and astonishment broke from the orphan's trembling lips,
+and she shaded her eyes with her hand, and tried to read the name
+inscribed on the monument of the sacrilegious interloper. But bitter,
+scalding tears of indignation blinded her. She dashed them away, but
+they gathered and fell faster; and, unbolting the gate, she entered the
+enclosure and stepped close to the marble.
+
+              ERECTED
+            IN HONOR OF
+             AARON HUNT:
+     BY HIS DEVOTED GRANDDAUGHTER.
+
+These gilded words were traced on the polished surface of the pure
+white obelisk, and on each corner of the square pedestal or base stood
+beautifully carved vases, from which drooped glossy tendrils of ivy.
+
+As Edna looked in amazement at the glittering shaft, which rose twenty
+feet in the autumn air; as she rubbed her eyes and re-read the golden
+inscription, and looked at the sanded walks, and the well-trimmed
+evergreens, which told that careful hands kept the lot in order, she
+sank down at the base of the beautiful monument, and laid her hot cheek
+on the cold marble.
+
+"Oh, Grandpa, Grandpa! He is not altogether wicked and callous as we
+once thought him, or he could never have done this! Forgive your poor
+little Pearl, if she can not help loving one who, for her sake, honors
+your dear name and memory! Oh, Grandpa! if I had never gone away from
+here. If I could have died before I saw him again! before this great
+pain fell upon my heart!"
+
+She knew now where St. Elmo Murray went that night, after he had
+watched her from behind the sarcophagus and the mummies; knew that only
+his hand could have erected this noble pillar of record; and most fully
+did she appreciate the delicate feeling which made him so proudly
+reticent on this subject. He wished no element of gratitude in the love
+he had endeavored to win, and scorned to take advantage of her devoted
+affection for her grandfather, by touching her heart with a knowledge
+of the tribute paid to his memory. Until this moment she had sternly
+refused to permit herself to believe all his protestations of love; had
+tried to think that he merely desired to make her acknowledge his
+power, and confess an affection flattering to his vanity. But to-day
+she felt that all he had avowed was true; that his proud, bitter heart
+was indeed entirely hers; that this assurance filled her own heart with
+a measureless joy, a rapture that made her eyes sparkle through their
+tears and brought a momentary glow to her cheeks. Hour after hour
+passed; she took no note of time, and sat there pondering her past
+life, thinking how the dusty heart deep under the marble would have
+throbbed with fond pride, if it could only have known what the world
+said of her writings. That she should prove competent to teach the
+neighbors' children had been Aaron Hunt's loftiest ambition for his
+darling; and now she was deemed worthy to speak to her race through the
+columns of a periodical that few women were considered able to fill.
+
+She wondered if he were not really cognizant of it all; if he were not
+watching her struggles and her triumph; and she asked herself why he
+was not allowed, in token of tender sympathy, to drop one palm-leaf on
+her head, from the fadeless branch he waved in heaven?
+
+                   "Oh! how far,
+   How far and safe, God, dost thou keep thy saints
+   When once gone from us! We may call against
+   The lighted windows of thy fair June heaven
+   Where all the souls are happy; and not one,
+   Not even my father, look from work or play,
+   To ask, 'Who is it that cries after us,
+   Below there, in the dark?"
+
+The shaft threw a long slanting shadow eastward as the orphan rose,
+and, taking from the box the fragrant exotics which she had brought
+from Le Bocage, arranged them in the damp soil of one of the vases, and
+twined their bright-hued petals among the dark green ivy leaves. One
+shining wreath she broke and laid away tenderly in the box, a hallowed
+souvenir of the sacred spot where it grew; and as she stood there,
+looking at a garland of poppy leaves chiselled around the inscription,
+neither flush nor tremor told aught that passed in her mind, and her
+sculptured features were calm, as the afternoon sun showed how pale and
+fixed her face had grown. She climbed upon the broad base and pressed
+her lips to her grandfather's name, and there was a mournful sweetness
+in her voice as she said aloud:
+
+"Pray God to pardon him, Grandpa! Pray Christ to comfort and save his
+precious soul! Oh, Grandpa! pray the Holy Spirit to melt and sanctify
+his suffering heart!"
+
+It was painful to quit the place. She lingered, and started away, and
+came back, and at last knelt down and hid her face, and prayed long and
+silently.
+
+Then turning quickly, she closed the iron gate, and without trusting
+herself for another look, walked away. She passed the spring and the
+homestead ruins, and finally found herself in sight of the miller's
+house, which alone seemed unchanged. As she lifted the latch of the
+gate and entered the yard, it seemed but yesterday that she was driven
+away to the depot in the miller's covered cart.
+
+An ancient apple-tree, that she well remembered, stood near the house,
+and the spreading branches were bent almost to the earth with the
+weight of red-streaked apples, round and ripe. The shaggy, black dog,
+that so often frolicked with Grip in the days gone by, now lay on the
+step, blinking at the sun and the flies that now and then buzzed over
+the golden balsam, whose crimson seed glowed in the evening sunshine.
+
+Over the rocky well rose a rude arbor, where a scuppernong vine
+clambered and hung its rich, luscious brown clusters; and here, with a
+pipe between her lips, and at her feet a basket full of red
+pepper-pods, which she was busily engaged in stringing, sat an elderly
+woman. She was clad in blue and yellow plaid homespun, and wore a white
+apron and a snowy muslin cap, whose crimped ruffles pressed caressingly
+the grizzled hair combed so smoothly over her temples. Presently she
+laid her pipe down on the top of the mossy well, where the dripping
+bucket sat, and lifted the scarlet wreath of peppers, eyed it
+satisfactorily, and, as she resumed her work, began to hum "Auld Lang
+Syne."
+
+  "Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
+    And never brought to mind?
+   Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
+    And days o' lang syne?"
+
+The countenance was so peaceful and earnest and honest, that, as Edna
+stood watching it, a warm, loving light came into her own beautiful
+eyes, and she put out both hands unconsciously, and stepped into the
+little arbor.
+
+Her shadow fell upon the matronly face, and the woman rose and
+courtesied.
+
+"Good evening, miss. Will you be seated? There is room enough for two
+on my bench."
+
+The orphan did not speak for a moment, but looked up in the brown,
+wrinkled face, and then, pushing back her bonnet and veil, she said
+eagerly:
+
+"Mrs. Wood, don't you know me?"
+
+The miller's wife looked curiously at her visitor, glanced at her
+dress, and shook her head.
+
+"No, miss; if ever I set my eyes on you before, it's more than I
+remember, and Dorothy Wood has a powerful memory, they say, and seldom
+forgets faces."
+
+"Do you remember Aaron Hunt, and his daughter Hester?"
+
+"To be sure I do; but you a'n't neither the one nor the other, I take
+it. Stop--let me see. Aha! Tabitha, Willis, you children, run
+here--quick! But, no--it can't be. You can't be Edna Earl?"
+
+She shaded her eyes from the glare of the sun and stooped forward, and
+looked searchingly at the stranger; then the coral wreath fell from her
+fingers, she stretched out her arms, and the large mouth trembled and
+twitched.
+
+"Are you--can you be--little Edna? Aaron Hunt's grandchild?"
+
+"I am the poor little Edna you took such tender care of in her great
+affliction--"
+
+"Samson and the Philistines! Little Edna--so you are! What was I
+thinking about, that I didn't know you right away? God bless your
+pretty white face!"
+
+She caught the orphan in her strong arms and kissed her, and cried and
+laughed alternately.
+
+A young girl, apparently about Edna's age, and a tall, lank young man,
+with yellow hair full of meal dust, came out of the house, and looked
+on in stupid wonder.
+
+"Why, children! don't you know little Edna that lived at Aaron
+Hunt's--his granddaughter? This is my Tabitha and my son Willis, that
+tends the mill and takes care of us, now my poor Peter--God rest his
+soul!--is dead and buried these three years. Bring some seats, Willis.
+Sit down here by me, Edna, and take off your bonnet, child, and let me
+see you. Umph! umph! Who'd have thought it? What a powerful handsome
+woman you have made, to be sure! to be sure! Well! well! The very
+saints up in glory can't begin to tell what children will turn out!
+Lean your face this way. Why, you a'n't no more like that little
+bare-footed, tangle-haired, rosy-faced Edna that used to run around
+these woods in striped homespun, hunting the cows, than I, Dorothy
+Elmira Wood, am like the Queen of Sheba when she went up visiting to
+Jerusalem to call on Solomon. How wonderful pretty you are! And how
+soft and white your hands are! Now I look at you good I see you are
+like your mother, Hester Earl; and she was the loveliest, mild little
+pink in the county. You are taller than your mother, and
+prouder-looking; but you have got her big, soft, shining, black eyes;
+and your mouth is sweet and sorrowful, and patient as hers always was,
+after your father fell off that frosty roof and broke his neck. Little
+Edna came back a fine, handsome woman, looking like a queen! But,
+honey, you don't seem healthy, like my Tabitha. See what a bright red
+she has in her face. You are too pale; you look as if you had just been
+bled. A'n't you well, child?"
+
+Mrs. Wood felt the girl's arms and shoulders, and found them thinner
+than her standard of health demanded.
+
+"I am very well, thank you, but tired from my journey, and from walking
+all about the old place."
+
+"And like enough you've cried a deal. Your eyes are heavy. You know,
+honey, the old house burnt down one blustry night in March, and so we
+sold the place; for when my old man died we were hard-pressed, we were,
+and a man by the name of Simmons, he bought it and planted it in corn.
+Edna, have you been to your Grandpa's grave?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am, I was there a long time to-day."
+
+"Oh! a'n't it beautiful! It would be a real comfort to die, if folks
+knew such lovely gravestones would cover 'em. I think your Grandpa's
+grave is the prettiest place I ever saw, and I wonder, sometimes, what
+Aaron Hunt would say if he could rise out of his coffin and see what is
+over him. Poor thing! You haven't got over it yet, I see. I thought we
+should have buried you, too, when he died; for never did I see a child
+grieve so."
+
+"Mrs. Wood, who keeps the walks so clean, and the evergreens so nicely
+cut?"
+
+"My Willis, to be sure. The gentleman that came here and fixed
+everything last December, paid Willis one hundred dollars to attend to
+it, and keep the weeds down. He said he might come back unexpectedly
+almost any time, and that he did not want to see so much as a blade of
+grass in the walks; so you see Willis goes there every Saturday and
+straightens up things. What is his name, and who is he anyhow? He only
+told us he was a friend of yours, and that his mother had adopted you."
+
+"What sort of a looking person was he, Mrs. Wood?"
+
+"Oh, child! if he is so good to you, I ought not to say; but he was a
+powerful, grim-looking man, with fierce eyes and a thick mustache, and
+hair almost pepper-and-salt; and bless your soul, honey! his shoulders
+were as broad as a barn-door. While he talked I didn't like his
+countenance, it was dark like a pirate's, or one of those prowling
+cattle-thieves over in the coves. He asked a power of questions about
+you and your Grandpa, and when I said you had no kin on earth, that I
+ever heard of, he laughed, that is, he showed his teeth, and said, 'So
+much the better! so much the better!' What is his name?"
+
+"Mr. Murray, and he has been very kind to me."
+
+"But, Edna, I thought you went to the factory to work? Do tell me how
+you fell into the hands of such rich people?"
+
+Edna briefly acquainted her with what had occurred during her long
+absence, and informed her of her plans for the future; and while she
+listened Mrs. Wood lighted her pipe, and resting her elbow on her knee,
+dropped her face on her hands, and watched her visitor's countenance.
+
+Finally she nodded to her daughter, saying: "Do you hear that, Bitha?
+She can write for the papers and get paid for it! And she is smart
+enough to teach! Well! well! that makes me say what I do say, and I
+stick to it, where there's a will there's a way! and where there's no
+hearty will, all the ways in creation won't take folks to an education!
+Some children can't be kicked and kept down; spite of all the world
+they will manage to scuffle up somehow; and then again, some can't be
+cuffed and coaxed and dragged up by the ears! Here's Edna, that always
+had a hankering after books, and she has made something of herself; and
+here's my girl, that I wanted to get book-learning, and I slaved and I
+saved to send her to school, and sure enough she has got no more use
+for reading, and knows as little as her poor mother, who never had a
+chance to learn. It is no earthly use to fly in the face of blood and
+nature! 'What is bred in the bone, won't come out in the flesh!' Some
+are cut out for one thing and some for another! Jerusalem artichokes
+won't bear hops, and persimmons don't grow on blackjacks!"
+
+She put her brawny brown hand on Edna's forehead, and smoothed the
+bands of hair, and sighed heavily.
+
+"Mrs. Wood, I should like to see Brindle once more."
+
+"Lord bless your soul, honey! she has been dead these three years! Why,
+you forget cows don't hang on as long as Methuselah, and Brindle was no
+yearling when we took her. She mired down in the swamp, back of the
+millpond, and before we could find her she was dead. But her calf is as
+pretty a young thing as ever you saw; speckled all over, most as thick
+as a guinea, and the children call her 'Speckle.' Willis, step out and
+see if the heifer is in sight. Edna, a'n't you going to stay with me
+to-night?"
+
+"Thank you, Mrs. Wood, I should like very much to do so, but have not
+time, and must get back to Chattanooga before the train leaves, for I
+am obliged to go on to-night."
+
+"Well, any how, lay off your bonnet and stay and let me give you some
+supper, and then we will all go back with you, that is, if you a'n't
+too proud to ride to town in our cart? We have got a new cart, but it
+is only a miller's cart, and may be it won't suit your fine fashionable
+clothes."
+
+"I shall be very glad to stay, and I only wish it was the same old cart
+that took me to the depot, more than five years ago. Please give me
+some water."
+
+Mrs. Wood rolled up her sleeves, put away her pretty peppers, and
+talking vigorously all the time, prepared some refreshments for her
+guest.
+
+A table was set under the apple-tree, a snowy cotton cloth spread over
+it, and yellow butter, tempting as Goshen's, and a loaf of fresh bread,
+and honey amber-hued, and buttermilk, and cider, and stewed pears, and
+a dish of ripe red apples crowned the board.
+
+The air was laden with the fragrance it stole in crossing a hayfield
+beyond the road, the bees darted in and out of their hives, and a
+peacock spread his iridescent feathers to catch the level yellow rays
+of the setting sun, and from the distant millpond came the gabble of
+geese, as the noisy fleet breasted the ripples.
+
+Speckle, who had been driven to the gate for Edna's inspection, stood
+close to the paling, thrusting her pearly horns through the cracks, and
+watching the party at the table with her large, liquid, beautiful,
+earnest eyes; and afar off Lookout rose solemn and sombre.
+
+"Edna, you eat nothing. What ails you, child! They say too much
+brainwork is not healthy, and I reckon you study too hard. Better stay
+here with me, honey, and run around the woods and get some red in your
+face, and churn and spin and drink buttermilk, and get plump, and go
+chestnutting with my children. Goodness knows they are strong enough
+and hearty enough, and too much study will never make shads of them:
+for they won't work their brains, even to learn the multiplication
+table. See here, Edna, if you will stay a while with me, I will give
+Speckle to you."
+
+"Thank you, dear Mrs. Wood, I wish I could; but the lady who engaged me
+to teach her children, wrote that I was very much needed; and,
+consequently, I must hurry on. Speckle is a perfect little beauty, but
+I would not be so selfish as to take her away from you."
+
+Clouds began to gather in the southwest, and as the covered cart was
+brought to the gate, a distant mutter of thunder told that a storm was
+brewing.
+
+Mrs. Wood and her two children accompanied the orphan, and as they
+drove through the woods, myriads of fireflies starred the gloom. It was
+dark when they reached the station, and Willis brought the trunks from
+the hotel, and found seats for the party in the cars, which were
+rapidly filling with passengers. Presently the down-train from
+Knoxville came thundering in, and the usual rush and bustle ensued.
+
+Mrs. Wood gave the orphan a hearty kiss and warm embrace, and bidding
+her "Be sure to write soon, and say how you are getting along!" the
+kind-hearted woman left the cars, wiping her eyes with the corner of
+her apron.
+
+At last the locomotive signalled that all was ready; and as the train
+moved on, Edna caught a glimpse of a form standing under a lamp,
+leaning with folded arms against the post--a form strangely like Mr.
+Murray's. She leaned out and watched it till the cars swept round a
+curve, and lamp and figure and village vanished. How could he possibly
+be in Chattanooga? The conjecture was absurd; she was the victim of
+some optical illusion. With a long, heavily-drawn sigh, she leaned
+against the window-frame and looked at the dark mountain mass looming
+behind her; and after a time, when the storm drew nearer, she saw it
+only now and then, as
+
+  "A vivid, vindictive, and serpentine flash
+   Gored the darkness, and shore it across with a gash."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+
+In one of those brown-stone, palatial houses on Fifth Avenue, which
+make the name of the street a synonym for almost royal luxury and
+magnificence, sat Mrs. Andrews's "new governess," a week after her
+arrival in New York. Her reception, though cold and formal, had been
+punctiliously courteous; and a few days sufficed to give the stranger
+an accurate insight into the characters and customs of the family with
+whom she was now domesticated.
+
+Though good-natured, intelligent, and charitable, Mrs. Andrews was
+devoted to society, and gave to the demands of fashion much of the time
+which had been better expended at home in training her children, and
+making her hearth-stone rival the attractions of the club, where Mr.
+Andrews generally spent his leisure hours. She was much younger than
+her husband, was handsome, gay, and ambitious, and the polished hauteur
+of her bearing often reminded Edna of Mrs. Murray; while Mr. Andrews
+seemed immersed in business during the day, and was rarely at home
+except at his meals.
+
+Felix, the eldest of the two children, was a peevish, spoiled, exacting
+boy of twelve years of age, endowed with a remarkably active intellect,
+but pitiably dwarfed in body and hopelessly lame in consequence of a
+deformed foot. His sister Hattie was only eight years old, a bright,
+pretty, affectionate girl, over whom Felix tyrannized unmercifully, and
+whom from earliest recollection had been accustomed to yield both her
+rights and privileges to the fretful invalid.
+
+The room occupied by the governess was small but beautifully furnished,
+and as it was situated in the fourth story, the windows commanded a
+view of the trees in a neighboring park, and the waving outline of Long
+Island.
+
+On the day of her arrival Mrs. Andrews entered into a minute analysis
+of the characters of the children, indicated the course which she
+wished pursued toward them, and, impressing upon Edna the grave
+responsibility of her position, the mother gave her children to the
+stranger's guardianship and seemed to consider her maternal duties
+fully discharged.
+
+Edna soon ascertained that her predecessors had found the path
+intolerably thorny, and abandoned it in consequence of Felix's
+uncontrollable fits of sullenness and passion. Tutors and governesses
+had quickly alternated, and as the cripple finally declared he would
+not tolerate the former, his mother resolved to humor his caprice in
+the choice of a teacher.
+
+Fortunately the boy was exceedingly fond of his books, and as the
+physicians forbade the constant use of his eyes, the governess was
+called on to read aloud at least one half of the day. From eight
+o'clock in the morning till eight at night the whole care of these
+children devolved on Edna; who ate, talked, drove with them,
+accompanied them wherever their inclination led, and had not one quiet
+moment from breakfast until her pupils went to sleep. Sometimes Felix
+was restless and wakeful, and on such occasions he insisted that his
+governess should come and read him to sleep.
+
+Notwithstanding the boy's imperious nature, he possessed some redeeming
+traits, and Edna soon became much attached to him; while his affection
+for his new keeper astonished and delighted his mother.
+
+For a week after Edna's arrival, inclement weather prevented the
+customary daily drive which contributed largely to the happiness of the
+little cripple; but one afternoon as the three sat in the schoolroom,
+Felix threw his Latin grammar against the wall and exclaimed:
+
+"I want to see the swans in Central Park, and I mean to go, even if it
+does rain! Hattie, ring for Patrick to bring the coupe round to the
+door. Miss Earl, don't you want to go?"
+
+"Yes, for there is no longer any danger of rain, the sun is shining
+beautifully; and besides, I hope you will be more amiable when you get
+into the open air."
+
+She gave him his hat and crutches, took his gray shawl on her arm, and
+they went down to the neat carriage drawn by a handsome chestnut horse,
+and set apart for the use of the children.
+
+As they entered the park, Edna noticed that the boy's eyes brightened,
+and that he looked eagerly at every passing face.
+
+"Now, Hattie, you must watch on your side, and I will keep a good
+lookout on mine. I wonder if she will come this evening?"
+
+"For whom are you both looking?" asked the teacher.
+
+"Oh! for little Lila, Bro' Felix's sweetheart!" laughed Hattie,
+glancing at him with a mischievous twinkle in her bright eyes.
+
+"No such thing! Never had a sweetheart in my life! Don't be silly,
+Hattie! mind your window, or I guess we shan't see her."
+
+"Well, any how. I heard Uncle Gray tell Mamma that he kissed his
+sweetheart's hand at the party, and I saw Bro' Felix kiss Lila's last
+week."
+
+"I didn't, Miss Earl!" cried the cripple, reddening as he spoke.
+
+"Oh! he did, Miss Earl! Stop pinching me, Bro' Felix. My arm is all
+black and blue, now. There she is! Look, here on my side! Here is 'Red
+Ridinghood!'"
+
+Edna saw a little girl clad in scarlet, and led by a grave, middle-aged
+nurse, who was walking leisurely toward one of the lakes.
+
+Felix put his head out of the window and called to the woman.
+
+"Hannah, are going to feed the swans?"
+
+"Good evening. Yes, we are going there now."
+
+"Well, we will meet you there."
+
+"What is the child's name?" asked Edna.
+
+"Lila Manning, and she is deaf and dumb. We talk to her on our fingers."
+
+They left the carriage, and approached the groups of children gathered
+on the edge of the water, and at sight of Felix, the little girl in
+scarlet sprang to meet him, moving her slender fingers rapidly as she
+conversed with him. She was an exceedingly lovely but fragile child,
+apparently about Hattie's age; and as Edna watched the changing
+expression of her delicate features, she turned to the nurse and asked:
+
+"Is she an orphan?"
+
+"Yes, miss; but she will never find it out as long as her uncle lives.
+He makes a great pet of her."
+
+"What is his name, and where does he live?"
+
+"Mr. Douglass G. Manning. He boards at No.--Twenty-third street; but he
+spends most of his time at the office. No matter what time of night he
+comes home, he never goes to his own room till he has looked at Lila,
+and kissed her good-night. Master Felix, please don't untie her hat,
+the wind will blow her hair all out of curl."
+
+For some time the children were much amused in watching the swans, and
+when they expressed themselves willing to resume their drive, an
+arrangement was made with Hannah to meet at the same place the ensuing
+day. They returned to the carriage, and Felix said:
+
+"Don't you think Lila is a little beauty?"
+
+"Yes, I quite agree with you. Do you know her uncle?"
+
+"No, and don't want to know him; he is too cross and sour. I have seen
+him walking sometimes with Lila, and mamma has him at her parties and
+dinners; but Hattie and I never see the company unless we peep, and,
+above all things, I hate peeping! It is ungenteel and vulgar; only poor
+people peep. Mr. Manning is an old bachelor, and very crabbed, so my
+uncle Grey says. He is the editor of the--Magazine, that mamma declares
+she can't live without. Look! look, Hattie! There goes mamma this
+minute! Stop, Patrick! Uncle Grey! Uncle Grey! hold up, won't you, and
+let me see the new horses!"
+
+An elegant phaeton, drawn by a pair of superb black horses, drew up
+close to the coupe, and Mrs. Andrews and her only brother, Mr. Grey
+Chilton, leaned forward and spoke to the children; while Mr. Chilton,
+who was driving, teased Hattie by touching her head and shoulders with
+his whip.
+
+"Uncle Grey, I think the bays are the handsomest."
+
+"Which proves you utterly incapable of judging horseflesh; for these
+are the finest horses in the city. I presume this is Miss Earl, though
+nobody seems polite enough to introduce us."
+
+He raised his hat slightly, bowed, and drove on.
+
+"Is this the first time you have met my uncle?" asked Felix.
+
+"Yes. Does he live in the city?"
+
+"Why! he lives with us! Haven't you seen him about the house? You must
+have heard him romping around with Hattie; for they make noise enough
+to call in the police. I think my uncle Grey is the handsomest man I
+ever saw, except Edwin Booth, when he plays 'Hamlet.' What do you say?"
+
+"As I had barely a glimpse of your uncle, I formed no opinion. Felix,
+button your coat and draw your shawl over your shoulders; it is getting
+cold."
+
+When they reached home the children begged for some music, and placing
+her hat on a chair, Edna sat down before the piano, and played and
+sang; while Felix stood leaning on his crutches, gazing earnestly into
+the face of his teacher.
+
+The song was Longfellow's "Rainy Day," and when she concluded it, the
+cripple laid his thin hand on hers and said:
+
+"Sing the last verse again. I feel as if I should always be a good boy,
+if you would only sing that for me every day. 'Into each life some rain
+must fall?' Yes, lameness fell into mine."
+
+While she complied with his request, Edna watched his sallow face, and
+saw tears gather in the large, sad eyes, and she felt that henceforth
+the boy's evil spirit could be exorcised.
+
+"Miss Earl, we never had a governess at all like you. They were old,
+and cross, and ugly, and didn't love to play chess, and could not sing,
+and I hated them! But I do like you, and I will try to be good."
+
+He rested his head against her arm, and she turned and kissed his pale,
+broad forehead.
+
+"Halloo, Felix! flirting with your governess? This is a new phase of
+school life. You ought to feel quite honored, Miss Earl, though upon my
+word I am sorry for you. The excessive amiability of my nephew has
+driven not less than six of your predecessors in confusion from the
+field, leaving him victorious. I warn you he is an incipient Turenne,
+and the schoolroom is the Franche Comte of his campaigns."
+
+Mr. Chilton came up to the piano, and curiously scanned Edna's face;
+but taking her hat and veil, she rose and moved toward the door, saying:
+
+"I am disposed to believe that he has been quite as much sinned against
+as sinning. Come, children, it is time for your tea."
+
+From that hour her influence over the boy strengthened so rapidly that
+before she had been a month in the house he yielded implicit obedience
+to her wishes, and could not bear for her to leave him, even for a
+moment. When more than usually fretful, and inclined to tyrannize over
+Hattie, or speak disrespectfully to his mother, a warning glance or
+word from Edna, or the soft touch of her hand, would suffice to
+restrain the threatened outbreak.
+
+Her days were passed in teaching, reading aloud, and talking to the
+children; and when released from her duties she went invariably to her
+desk, devoting more than half the night to the completion of her MS.
+
+As she took her meals with her pupils, she rarely saw the other members
+of the household, and though Mr. Chilton now and then sauntered into
+the schoolroom and frolicked with Hattie, his visits were coldly
+received by the teacher; who met his attempts at conversation with very
+discouraging monosyllabic replies.
+
+His manner led her to suspect that the good-looking lounger was as vain
+and heartless as he was frivolous, and she felt no inclination to
+listen to his trifling, sans souci chatter; consequently, when he
+thrust himself into her presence, she either picked up a book or left
+him to be entertained by the children.
+
+One evening in November she sat in her own room preparing to write, and
+pondering the probable fate of a sketch which she had finished and
+dispatched two days before to the office of the magazine.
+
+The principal aim of the little tale was to portray the horrors and sin
+of duelling, and she had written it with great care; but well aware of
+the vast, powerful current of popular opinion that she was bravely
+striving to stem, and fully conscious that it would subject her to
+severe animadversion from those who defended the custom, she could not
+divest herself of apprehension lest the article should be rejected.
+
+The door bell rang, and soon after a servant brought her a card: "Mr.
+D.G. Manning. To see Miss Earl."
+
+Flattered and frightened by a visit from one whose opinions she valued
+so highly, Edna smoothed her hair, and with trembling fingers changed
+her collar and cuffs, and went downstairs, feeling as if all the blood
+in her body were beating a tattoo on the drum of her ears.
+
+As she entered the library, into which he had been shown (Mrs. Andrews
+having guests in the parlor), Edna had an opportunity of looking
+unobserved at this critical ogre, of whom she stood in such profound
+awe.
+
+Douglass Manning was forty years old, tall, and well built; wore
+slender, steel-rimmed spectacles which somewhat softened the light of
+his keen, cold, black eyes; and carried his slightly bald head with the
+haughty air of one who habitually hurled his gauntlet in the teeth of
+public opinion.
+
+He stood looking up at a pair of bronze griffins that crouched on the
+top of the rosewood bookcase, and the gas-light falling full on his
+face, showed his stern, massive features, which, in their granitic
+cast, reminded Edna of those Egyptian Androsphinx--vast, serene,
+changeless.
+
+There were no furrows on cheek or brow, no beard veiled the lines and
+angles about the mouth, but as she marked the chilling repose of the
+countenance, so indicative of conscious power and well-regulated
+strength, why did memory travel swiftly back among the "Stones of
+Venice," repeating the description of the hawthorn on Bourges
+Cathedral? "A perfect Niobe of May." Had this man petrified in his
+youth before the steady stylus of time left on his features that subtle
+tracery which passing years engrave on human faces? The motto of his
+magazine, Veritas sine clementia, ruled his life, and, putting aside
+the lenses of passion and prejudice, he coolly, quietly, relentlessly
+judged men and women and their works; neither loving nor hating,
+pitying nor despising his race; looking neither to right nor left;
+laboring steadily as a thoroughly well-balanced, a marvellously perfect
+intellectual automaton.
+
+"Good evening, Mr. Manning. I am very glad to meet you; for I fear my
+letters have very inadequately expressed my gratitude for your
+kindness."
+
+Her voice trembled slightly, and she put out her hand. He turned,
+bowed, offered her a chair, and, as they seated themselves, he examined
+her face as he would have searched the title-page of some new book for
+an insight into its contents.
+
+"When did you reach New York, Miss Earl?"
+
+"Six weeks ago."
+
+"I was not aware that you were in the city, until I received your note
+two days since. How long do you intend to remain?"
+
+"Probably the rest of my life, if I find it possible to support myself
+comfortably."
+
+"Is Mrs. Andrews an old friend?"
+
+"No, sir; she was a stranger to me when I entered her house as
+governess for her children."
+
+"Miss Earl, you are much younger than I had supposed. Your writings led
+me to imagine that you were at least thirty, whereas I find you almost
+a child. Will your duties as governess conflict with your literary
+labors?"
+
+"No, sir. I shall continue to write."
+
+"You appear to have acted upon my suggestion, to abandon the idea of a
+book, and confine your attention to short sketches."
+
+"No, sir. I adhere to my original purpose, and am at work upon the
+manuscript which you advised me to destroy."
+
+He fitted his glasses more firmly on his nose, and she saw the gleam of
+his strong white teeth, as a half smile moved his lips.
+
+"Miss Earl, my desk is very near a window, and as I was writing late
+last night, I noticed several large moths beating against the glass
+which fortunately barred their approach to the flame of the gas inside.
+Perhaps inexperience whispered that it was a cruel fate that shut them
+out; but which heals soonest, disappointed curiosity or singed wings?"
+
+"Mr. Manning, why do you apprehend more danger from writing a book than
+from the preparation of magazine articles?"
+
+"Simply because the peril is inherent in the nature of the book you
+contemplate. Unless I totally misunderstand your views, you indulge in
+the rather extraordinary belief that all works of fiction should be
+eminently didactic, and inculcate not only sound morality but
+scientific theories. Herein, permit me to say, you entirely
+misapprehend the spirit of the age. People read novels merely to be
+amused, not educated; and they will not tolerate technicalities and
+abstract speculation in lieu of exciting plots and melodramatic
+denouements. Persons who desire to learn something of astronomy,
+geology, chemistry, philology, etc., never think of finding what they
+require in the pages of a novel, but apply at once to the text-books of
+the respective sciences, and would as soon hunt for a lover's
+sentimental dialogue in Newton's 'Principia,' or spicy small-talk in
+Kant's 'Critique,' as expect an epitome of modern science in a work of
+fiction."
+
+"But, sir, how many habitual novel readers do you suppose will educate
+themselves thoroughly from the text-books to which you refer?"
+
+"A modicum, I grant you; yet it is equally true that those who merely
+read to be amused will not digest the scientific dishes you set before
+them. On the contrary, far from appreciating your charitable efforts to
+elevate and broaden their range of vision, they will either sneer at
+the author's pedantry, or skip over every passage that necessitates
+thought to comprehend it, and rush on to the next page to discover
+whether the heroine, Miss Imogene Arethusa Penelope Brown, wore blue or
+pink tarlatan to her first ball, or whether on the day of her elopement
+the indignant papa succeeded in preventing the consummation of her
+felicity with Mr. Belshazzar Algernon Nebuchadnezzar Smith. I neither
+magnify nor dwarf, I merely state a simple fact."
+
+"But, Mr. Manning, do you not regard the writers of each age as the
+custodians of its tastes as well as its morals?"
+
+"Certainly not; they simply reflect and do not mould public taste.
+Shakespeare, Hogarth, Rabelais, portrayed men and things as they found
+them; not as they might, could, would, or should have been. Was Sir
+Peter Lely responsible for the style of dress worn by court beauties in
+the reign of Charles II.? He faithfully painted what passed before him.
+Miss Earl, the objection I urge against the novel you are preparing
+does not apply to magazine essays, where an author may concentrate all
+the erudition he can obtain and ventilate it unchallenged; for review
+writers now serve the public in much the same capacity that cup-bearers
+did royalty in ancient days; and they are expected to taste strong
+liquors as well as sweet cordials and sour light wines. Moreover, a
+certain haze of sanctity envelops the precincts of 'Maga,' whence the
+incognito 'we' thunders with oracular power; for, notwithstanding the
+rapid annihilation of all classic faith in modern times which permits
+the conversion of Virgil's Avernus into a model oyster-farm, the
+credulous public fondly cling to the myth that editorial sanctums alone
+possess the sacred tripod of Delphi. Curiosity is the best stimulant
+for public interest, and it has become exceedingly difficult to conceal
+the authorship of a book while that of magazine articles can readily be
+disguised. I repeat, the world of novel-readers constitute a huge
+hippodrome, where, if you can succeed in amusing your spectators or
+make them gasp in amazement at your rhetorical legerdemain, they will
+applaud vociferously, and pet you, as they would a graceful danseuse,
+or a dexterous acrobat, or a daring equestrian; but if you attempt to
+educate or lecture them, you will either declaim to empty benches or be
+hissed down. They expect you to help them kill time, not improve it."
+
+"Sir, is it not nobler to struggle against than to float ignominiously
+with the tide of degenerate opinion?"
+
+"That depends altogether on the earnestness of your desire for
+martyrdom by drowning. I have seen stronger swimmers than you go down,
+after desperate efforts to keep their heads above water."
+
+Edna folded her hands in her lap, and looked steadily into the calm,
+cold eyes of the editor, then shook her head, and answered:
+
+"I shall not drown. At all events I will risk it. I would rather sink
+in the effort than live without attempting it."
+
+"When you require ointment for singed wings, I shall have no sympathy
+with which to anoint them; for, like most of your sex, I see you
+mistake blind obstinacy for rational, heroic firmness. The next number
+of the magazine will contain the contribution you sent me two days
+since, and, while I do not accept all your views, I think it by far the
+best thing I have yet seen from your pen. It will, of course, provoke
+controversy, but for that result, I presume you are prepared. Miss
+Earl, you are a stranger in New York, and if I can serve you in any
+way, I shall be glad to do so."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Manning. I need some books which I am not able to
+purchase, and can not find in this house; if you can spare them
+temporarily from your library, you will confer a great favor on me."
+
+"Certainly. Have you a list of those which you require?"
+
+"No, sir, but--"
+
+"Here is a pencil and piece of paper; write down the titles, and I will
+have them sent to you in the morning."
+
+She turned to the table to prepare the list, and all the while Mr.
+Manning's keen eyes scanned her countenance, dress, and figure. A
+half-smile once more stirred his grave lips when she gave him the
+paper, over which he glanced indifferently.
+
+"Miss Earl, I fear you will regret your determination to make
+literature a profession; for your letters informed me that you are
+poor; and doubtless you remember the witticism concerning the 'republic
+of letters which contained not a sovereign.' Your friend, Mr. Murray,
+appreciated the obstacles you are destined to encounter, and I am
+afraid you will not find life in New York as agreeable as it was under
+his roof."
+
+"When did you hear from him?"
+
+"I received a letter this morning."
+
+"And you called to see me because he requested you to do so?"
+
+"I had determined to come before his letter arrived."
+
+He noticed the incredulous smile that flitted across her face, and,
+after a moment's pause, he continued:
+
+"I do not wish to discourage you, on the contrary, I sincerely desire
+to aid you, but Mill has analyzed the subject very ably in his
+'Political Economy,' and declares that 'on any rational calculation of
+chances in the existing competition, no writer can hope to gain a
+living by books; and to do so by magazines and reviews becomes daily
+more difficult.'"
+
+"Yes, sir, that passage is not encouraging; but I comfort myself with
+another from the same book: 'In a national or universal point of view
+the labor of the savant or speculative thinker is as much a part of
+production, in the very narrowest sense, as that of the inventor of a
+practical art. The electro-magnetic telegraph was the wonderful and
+most unexpected consequence of the experiments of Oersted, and the
+mathematical investigations of Ampere; and the modern art of navigation
+is an unforseen emanation from the purely speculative and apparently
+meekly curious inquiry, by the mathematicians of Alexandria, into the
+properties of three curves formed by the intersection of a plane
+surface and a cone. No limit can be set to the importance, even in a
+purely productive and material point of view, of mere thought.' Sir,
+the economic law which regulates the wages of mechanics should operate
+correspondingly in the realm of letters."
+
+"Your memory is remarkably accurate."
+
+"Not always, sir; but when I put it on its honor, and trust some
+special treasure to its guardianship, it rarely proves treacherous."
+
+"I think you can command better wages for your work in New York than
+anywhere else on this continent. You have begun well; permit me to say
+to you be careful, do not write too rapidly, and do not despise adverse
+criticism. If agreeable to you, I will call early next week and
+accompany you to the public libraries, which contain much that may
+interest you. I will send you a note as soon as I acertain when I can
+command the requisite leisure; and should you need my services, I hope
+you will not hesitate to claim them. Good-evening, Miss Earl."
+
+He bowed himself out of the library, and Edna went back to her own
+room, thinking of the brief interview, and confessing her
+disappointment in the conversation of this most dreaded of critics.
+
+"He is polished as an icicle, and quite as cold. He may be very
+accurate and astute and profound, but certainly he is not half so
+brilliant as--"
+
+She did not complete the parallel, but compressed her lips, took up her
+pen, and began to write.
+
+On the following morning Mrs. Andrews came into the schoolroom, and,
+after kissing her children, turned blandly to the governess.
+
+"Miss Earl, I believe Mr. Manning called upon you last evening. Where
+did you know him?"
+
+"I never saw him until yesterday, but we have corresponded for some
+time."
+
+"Indeed! you are quite honored. He is considered very fastidious."
+
+"He is certainly hypercritical, yet I have found him kind and
+gentlemanly, even courteous. Our correspondence is entirely
+attributable to the fact that I write for his magazine."
+
+Mrs. Andrews dropped her ivory crochet-needle and sat, for a moment,
+the picture of wild-eyed amazement.
+
+"Is it possible! I had no idea you were an author. Why did you not tell
+me before? What have you written?"
+
+Edna mentioned the titles of her published articles, and the lady of
+the house exclaimed:
+
+"Oh! that 'Vigil of Grutli' is one of the most beautiful things I ever
+read, and I have often teased Mr. Manning to tell me who wrote it. That
+apostrophe to the Thirty Confederates is so mournfully grand that it
+brings tears to my eyes. Why, Miss Earl, you will be famous some day!
+If I had your genius, I should never think of plodding through life as
+a governess."
+
+"But, my dear madam, I must make my bread, and am compelled to teach
+while I write."
+
+"I do not see what time you have for writing. I notice you never leave
+the children till they are asleep; and you must sleep enough to keep
+yourself alive. Are you writing anything at present?"
+
+"I finished an article several days ago which will be published in the
+next number of the magazine. Of course, I have no leisure during the
+day, but I work till late at night."
+
+"Miss Earl, if you have no objection to acquainting me with your
+history, I should like very much to know something of your early life
+and education."
+
+While Edna gave a brief account of her childhood, Felix nestled his
+hand into hers, and laid his head on her knee, listening eagerly to
+every word.
+
+When she concluded, Mrs. Andrews mused a moment, and then said:
+
+"Henceforth, Miss Earl, you will occupy a different position in my
+house; and I shall take pleasure in introducing you to such of my
+friends as will appreciate your talent. I hope you will not confine
+yourself exclusively to my children, but come down sometimes in the
+evening and sit with me; and, moreover, I prefer that you should dine
+with us, instead of with these nursery folks, who are not quite capable
+of appreciating you--"
+
+"How do you know that, mamma? I can tell you one thing, I appreciated
+her before I found out that she was likely to be 'famous'! Before I
+knew that Mr. Manning condescended to notice her. We 'nursery folk'
+judge for ourselves, we don't wait to find out what other people think,
+and I shan't give up Miss Earl! She is my governess, and I wish you
+would just let her alone!"
+
+There was a touch of scorn in the boy's impatient tone, and his mother
+bit her lip, and laughed constrainedly:
+
+"Really, Felix! who gave you a bill of sale to Miss Earl? She should
+consider herself exceedingly fortunate, as she is the first of all your
+teachers with whom you have not quarrelled most shamefully, even fought
+and scratched."
+
+"And because she is sweet, and good and pretty, and I love her, you
+must interfere and take her off to entertain your company. She came
+here to take care of Hattie and me, and not to go down-stairs to see
+visitors. She can't go, mamma! I want her myself. You have all the
+world to talk to, and I have only her. Don't meddle, mamma."
+
+"You are very selfish and ill-tempered, my poor little boy, and I am
+heartily ashamed of you."
+
+"If I am, it is because--"
+
+"Hush, Felix!"
+
+Edna laid her hand on the pale, curling lips of the cripple, and
+luckily at this instant Mrs. Andrews was summoned from the room.
+
+Scarcely waiting till the door closed after her, the boy exclaimed
+passionately:
+
+"Felix! don't call me Felix! That means happy, lucky! and she had no
+right to give me such a name. I am Infelix! nobody loves me! nobody
+cares for me, except to pity me, and I would rather be strangled than
+pitied! I wish I was dead and at rest in Greenwood! I wish somebody
+would knock my brains out with my crutch! and save me from hobbling
+through life. Even my mother is ashamed of my deformity! She ought to
+have treated me as the Spartans did their dwarfs! She ought to have
+thrown me into the East River before I was a day old! I wish I was
+dead! Oh! I do! I do!"
+
+"Felix, it is very wicked to--"
+
+"I tell you I won't be called Felix. Whenever I hear the name it makes
+me feel as I did one day when my crutches slipped on the ice, and I
+fell on the pavement before the door, and some newsboys stood and
+laughed at me. Infelix Andrews! I want that written on my tombstone
+when I am buried."
+
+He trembled from head to foot, and angry tears dimmed his large,
+flashing eyes, while Hattie sat with her elbows resting on her knees,
+and her chin in her hands, looking sorrowfully at her brother.
+
+Edna put her arm around the boy's shoulder, and drew his head down on
+her lap, saying tenderly:
+
+"Your mother did not mean that she was ashamed of her son, but only
+grieved and mortified by his ungovernable temper, which made him
+disrespectful to her. I know that she is very proud of your fine
+intellect, and your ambition to become a thorough scholar, and--"
+
+"Oh! yes, and of my handsome body! and my pretty feet!"
+
+"My dear little boy, it is sinful for you to speak in that way, and God
+will punish you if you do not struggle against such feelings."
+
+"I don't see how I can be punished any more than I have been already.
+To be a lame dwarf is the worst that can happen."
+
+"Suppose you were poor and friendless--an orphan with no one to care
+for you? Suppose you had no dear, good little sister like Hattie to
+love you? Now, Felix, I know that the very fact that you are not as
+strong and well-grown as most boys of your age, only makes your mother
+and all of us love you more tenderly; and it is very ungrateful in you
+to talk so bitterly when we are trying to make you happy and good and
+useful. Look at little Lila, shut up in silence, unable to speak one
+word, or to hear a bird sing or a baby laugh, and yet see how merry and
+good-natured she is. How much more afflicted she is than you are!
+Suppose she was always fretting and complaining, looking miserable and
+sour, and out of humor, do you think you would love her half as well as
+you do now?"
+
+He made no reply, but his thin hands covered his sallow face.
+
+Hattie came close to him, sat down on the carpet, and put her head,
+thickly crowned with yellow curls, on his knee. Her uncle Grey had
+given her a pretty ring the day before, and now she silently and softly
+took it from her own finger, and slipped it on her brother's.
+
+"Felix, you and Hattie were so delighted with that little poem which I
+read to you from the Journal of Eugenie de Guerin, that I have tried to
+set it to music for you. The tune does not suit it exactly, but we can
+use it until I find a better one."
+
+She went to the piano and sang that pretty nursery ballad, "JOUJOU, THE
+ANGEL OF THE PLAYTHINGS."
+
+Hattie clapped her hands with delight, and Felix partly forgot his woes
+and grievances.
+
+"Now, I want you both to learn to sing it, and I will teach Hattie the
+accompaniment. On Felix's birthday, which is not very distant, you can
+surprise your father and mother by singing it for them. In gratitude to
+the author I think every little child should sing it and call it
+'Eugenie's Angel Song.' Hattie, it is eleven o'clock, and time for you
+to practice your music-lesson."
+
+The little girl climbed upon the piano-stool and began to count aloud,
+and after a while Edna bent down and put her hand on Felix's shoulder.
+
+"You grieved your mother this morning and spoke very disrespectfully to
+her. I know you regret it, and you ought to tell her so and ask her to
+forgive you. You would feel happier all day if you would only
+acknowledge your fault. I hear your mother in her own room; will you
+not go and kiss her?"
+
+He averted his head and muttered:
+
+"I don't want to kiss her."
+
+"But you ought to be a dutiful son, and you are not; and your mother
+has cause to be displeased with you. If you should ever be so
+unfortunate as to lose her, and stand as I do, motherless, in the
+world, you will regret the pain you gave her this morning. Oh! if I had
+the privilege of kissing my mother, I could bear almost any sorrow
+patiently. If it mortifies you to acknowledge your bad behavior, it is
+the more necessary that you should humble your pride. Felix, sometimes
+I think it requires more nobility of soul to ask pardon for our faults
+than to resist the temptation to commit them."
+
+She turned away and busied herself in correcting his Latin exercise,
+and for some time the boy sat sullen and silent.
+
+At length he sighed heavily, and taking his crutches, came up to the
+table where she sat.
+
+"Suppose you tell my mother I am sorry I was disrespectful."
+
+"Felix, are you really sorry?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, then go and tell her so, and she will love you a thousand times
+more than ever before. The confession should come from your own lips."
+
+He stood irresolute and sighed again:
+
+"I will go if you will go with me."
+
+She rose and they went to Mrs. Andrew's room. The mother was superbly
+dressed in visiting costume, and was tying on her bonnet when they
+entered.
+
+"Mrs. Andrews, your son wishes to say something which I think you will
+be glad to hear."
+
+"Indeed! Well, Felix, what is it?"
+
+"Mamma--I believe--I know I was very cross--and disrespectful to
+you--and oh, mamma! I hope you will forgive me!"
+
+He dropped his crutches and stretched out his arms, and Mrs. Andrews
+threw down the diamond cluster, with which she was fastening her
+ribbons, and caught the boy to her bosom.
+
+"My precious child! my darling! Of course I forgive you gladly. My dear
+son, if you only knew half how well I love you, you would not grieve me
+so often by your passionate temper. My darling!--"
+
+She stooped to kiss him, and when she turned to look for the girlish
+form of the governess, it was no longer visible; mother and son were
+alone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+
+During the first few months after her removal to New York, Edna
+received frequent letters from Mrs. Murray and Mr. Hammond; but as
+winter advanced they wrote more rarely and hurriedly, and finally, many
+weeks elapsed without bringing any tidings from Le Bocage. St. Elmo's
+name was never mentioned, and while the girl's heart ached, she crushed
+it more ruthlessly day by day, and in retaliation imposed additional
+and unremitting toil upon her brain.
+
+Mr. Manning had called twice to escort her to the libraries and art
+galleries, and occasionally he sent her new books, and English and
+French periodicals; but his chill, imperturbable calmness oppressed and
+embarrassed Edna, and formed a barrier to all friendly worth in their
+intercourse. He so completely overawed her that in his august presence
+she was unable to do herself justice, and felt that she was not gaining
+ground in his good opinion. The brooding serenity of his grave, Egyptic
+face was not contagious; and she was conscious of a vague disquiet, a
+painful restlessness, when in his company and under his cold,
+changeless eyes.
+
+One morning in January, as she sat listening to Felix's recitations,
+Mrs. Andrews came into the school-room with an open note in one hand,
+and an exquisite bouquet in the other.
+
+"Miss Earl, here is an invitation for you to accompany Mr. Manning to
+the opera to-night; and here, too, is a bouquet from the same
+considerate gentleman. As he does me the honor to request my company
+also, I came to confer with you before sending a reply. Of course, you
+will go?"
+
+"Yes, Mrs. Andrews, if you will go with me."
+
+Edna bent over her flowers, and recognizing many favorites that
+recalled the hothouse at Le Bocage, her eyes filled with tears, and she
+hastily put her lips to the snowy cups of an oxalis. How often she had
+seen just such fragile petals nestling in the buttonhole of Mr.
+Murray's coat.
+
+"I shall write and invite him to come early and take tea with us. Now,
+Miss Earl, pardon my candor, I should like to know what you intend to
+wear? You know that Mr. Manning is quite lionized here, and you will
+have to face a terrific battery of eyes and lorgnettes; for everybody
+will stretch his or her neck to find out, first, who you are, and
+secondly, how you are dressed. Now I think I understand rather better
+than you do what is comme il faut in these matters and I hope you will
+allow me to dictate on this occasion. Moreover, our distinguished
+escort is extremely fastidious concerning ladies' toilettes."
+
+"Here are my keys, Mrs. Andrews; examine my wardrobe and select what
+you consider appropriate for to-night."
+
+"On condition that you permit me to supply any deficiencies which I may
+discover? Come to my room at six o'clock, and let Victorine dress your
+hair. Let me see, I expect a la Grec will best suit your head and face."
+
+Edna turned to her pupils and their books, but all day the flowers in
+the vase on the table prattled of days gone by; of purple sunsets
+streaming through golden starred acacia boughs; of long, languid,
+luxurious Southern afternoons dying slowly on beds of heliotrope and
+jasmine, spicy geraniums and gorgeous pelargoniums; of dewy, delicious
+summer mornings, for ever and ever past, when standing beside a
+quivering snowbank of Lamarque roses, she had watched Tamerlane and his
+gloomy rider go down the shadowy avenue of elms.
+
+The monotonous hum of the children's voices seemed thin and strange and
+far, far off, jarring the sweet bouquet babble; and still as the hours
+passed, and the winter day waned, the flower Fugue swelled on and on,
+through the cold and dreary chambers of her heart; now rising stormy
+and passionate, like a battle-blast, from the deep orange trumpet of a
+bignonia; and now whispering and sobbing and pleading, from the pearly
+white lips of hallowed oxalis.
+
+When she sat that night in Mr. Manning's box at the Academy of Music,
+the editor raised his opera-glass, swept the crowded house, scanning
+the lovely, beaming faces wreathed with smiles, and then his grave,
+piercing glance came back and dwelt on the countenance at his side. The
+cherry silk lining and puffing on her opera-cloak threw a delicate
+stain of color over her exquisitely moulded cheeks, and in the braid of
+black hair which rested like a coronal on her polished brow, burned a
+scarlet anemone. Her long lashes drooped as she looked down at the
+bouquet between her fingers, and listening to the Fugue which memory
+played on the petals, she sighed involuntarily.
+
+"Miss Earl, is this your first night at the opera?"
+
+"No, sir; I was here once before with Mr. Andrews and his children."
+
+"I judge from your writings that you are particularly fond of music."
+
+"Yes, sir; I think few persons love it better than I do."
+
+"What style do you prefer?"
+
+"Sacred music--oratorios rather than operas."
+
+The orchestra began an overture of Verdi's, and Edna's eyes went back
+to her flowers.
+
+Presently Mrs. Andrews said eagerly:
+
+"Look, Miss Earl! Yonder, in the box directly opposite, is the
+celebrated Sir Roger Percival, the English nobleman about whom all
+Gotham is running mad. If he has not more sense than most men of his
+age, his head will be completely turned by the flattery heaped upon
+him. What a commentary on Republican Americans, that we are so dazzled
+by the glitter of a title! However, he really is very agreeable; I have
+met him several times, dined with him last week at the Coltons. He has
+been watching us for some minutes. Ah! there is a bow for me; and one I
+presume for you, Mr. Manning."
+
+"Yes, I knew him abroad. We spent a month together at Dresden, and his
+brain is strong enough to bear all the adulation New Yorkers offer his
+title."
+
+Edna looked into the opposite box, and saw a tall, elegantly-dressed
+man, with huge whiskers and a glittering opera-glass; and then as the
+curtain rose on the first act of "Ernani," she turned to the stage, and
+gave her entire attention to the music.
+
+At the close of the second act Mrs. Andrews said:
+
+"Pray who is that handsome man down yonder in the parquet, fanning
+himself with a libretto! I do not think his eyes have moved from this
+box for the last ten minutes. He is a stranger to me."
+
+She turned her fan in the direction of the person indicated, and Mr.
+Manning looked down and answered:
+
+"He is unknown to me."
+
+Edna's eyes involuntarily wandered over the sea of heads, and the
+editor saw her start and lean forward, and noticed the sudden joy that
+flashed into her face, as she met the earnest, upward gaze of Gordon
+Leigh.
+
+"An acquaintance of yours, Miss Earl?"
+
+"Yes, sir, an old friend from the South."
+
+The door of the box opened, and Sir Roger Percival came in and seated
+himself near Mrs. Andrews, who in her cordial welcome seemed utterly to
+forget the presence of the governess.
+
+Mr. Manning sat close to Edna, and taking a couple of letters from his
+pocket he laid them on her lap, saying:
+
+"These letters were directed to my care by persons who are ignorant of
+your name and address. If you will not consider me unpardonably
+curious, I should like to know the nature of their contents."
+
+She broke the seals and read the most flattering commendations of her
+magazine sketches, the most cordial thanks for the pleasure derived
+from their perusal; but the signatures were unknown to her.
+
+A sudden wave of crimson surged into her face as she silently put the
+letters into Mr. Manning's hand, and watched his grave, fixed,
+undemonstrative features, while he read, refolded, and returned them to
+her.
+
+"Miss Earl, I have received several documents of a similar character
+asking for your address. Do you still desire to write incognito, or do
+you wish your name given to your admirers?"
+
+"That is a matter which I am willing to leave to your superior
+judgment."
+
+"Pardon me, but I much prefer that you determine it for yourself."
+
+"Then you may give my name to those who are sufficiently interested in
+me to write and make the inquiry."
+
+Mr. Manning smiled slightly, and lowered his voice as he said:
+
+"Sir Roger Percival came here to-night to be introduced to you. He has
+expressed much curiosity to see the author of the last article which
+you contributed to the magazine; and I told him that you would be in my
+box this evening. Shall I present him now?"
+
+Mr. Manning was rising, but Edna put her hand on his arm, and answered
+hurriedly:
+
+"No, no! He is engaged in conversation with Mrs. Andrews, and,
+moreover, I believe I do not particularly desire to be presented to
+him."
+
+"Here comes your friend; I will vacate this seat in his favor."
+
+He rose, bowed to Gordon Leigh, and gave him the chair which he had
+occupied.
+
+"Edna! how I have longed to see you once more!"
+
+Gordon's hand seized hers, and his handsome face was eloquent with
+feelings which he felt no inclination to conceal.
+
+"The sight of your countenance is an unexpected pleasure in New York.
+Mr. Leigh, when did you arrive?"
+
+"This afternoon. Mr. Hammond gave me your address, and I called to see
+you, but was told that you were here."
+
+"How are they all at home?"
+
+"Do you mean at Le Bocage or the Parsonage?"
+
+"I mean how are all my friends?"
+
+"Mrs. Murray is very well, Miss Estelle, ditto. Mr. Hammond has been
+sick, but was better and able to preach before I left. I brought a
+letter for you from him, but unfortunately left it in the pocket of my
+travelling coat. Edna, you have changed very much since I saw you last."
+
+"In what respect, Mr. Leigh?"
+
+The crash of the orchestra filled the house, and people turned once
+more to the stage. Standing with his arms folded, Mr. Manning saw the
+earnest look on Gordon's face as, with his arm resting on the back of
+Edna's chair, he talked in a low, eager tone; and a pitying smile
+partly curved the editor's granite mouth as he noticed the expression
+of pain on the girl's face, and heard her say coldly:
+
+"No, Mr. Leigh; what I told you then I repeat now. Time has made no
+change."
+
+The opera ended, the curtain fell, and an enthusiastic audience called
+out the popular prima donna.
+
+While bouquets were showered upon her, Mr. Manning stooped and put his
+hand on Edna's:
+
+"Shall I throw your tribute for you?"
+
+She hastily caught the bouquet from his fingers, and replied:
+
+"Oh! no, thank you! I am so selfish, I can not spare it."
+
+"I shall call at ten o'clock to-morrow to deliver your letter," said
+Gordon, as he stood hat in hand.
+
+"I shall be glad to see you, Mr. Leigh."
+
+He shook hands with her and with Mr. Manning, to whom she had
+introduced him, and left the box.
+
+Sir Roger Percival gave his arm to Mrs. Andrews, and the editor drew
+Edna's cloak over her shoulders, took her hand and led her down the
+steps.
+
+As her little gloved fingers rested in his, the feeling of awe and
+restraint melted away, and looking into his face she said:
+
+"Mr. Manning, I do not think you will ever know half how much I thank
+you for all your kindness to an unknown authorling. I have enjoyed the
+music very much indeed. How is Lila to-night?"
+
+A slight tremor crossed his lips; the petrified hawthorn was quivering
+into life.
+
+"She is quite well, thank you. Pray, what do you know about her? I was
+not aware that I had ever mentioned her name in your presence."
+
+"My pupil, Felix, is her most devoted knight, and I see her almost
+every afternoon when I go with the children to Central Park."
+
+They reached the carriage where the Englishman stood talking to Mrs.
+Andrews, and when Mr. Manning had handed Edna in, he turned and said
+something to Sir Roger, who laughed lightly and walked away.
+
+During the drive Mrs. Andrews talked volubly of the foreigner's ease
+and elegance and fastidious musical taste, and Mr. Manning listened
+courteously and bowed coldly in reply. When they reached home she
+invited him to dinner on the following Thursday, to meet Sir Roger
+Percival.
+
+As the editor bade them good-night he said to Edna:
+
+"Go to sleep at once; do not sit up to work to-night."
+
+Did she follow his sage advice? Ask of the stars that watched her
+through the long winter night, and the dappled dawn that saw her
+stooping wearily over her desk.
+
+At the appointed hour on the following morning Mr. Leigh called, and
+after some desultory remarks he asked, rather abruptly:
+
+"Has St. Elmo Murray written to you about his last whim?"
+
+"I do not correspond with Mr. Murray."
+
+"Everybody wonders what droll freak will next seize him. Reed, the
+blacksmith, died several months ago and, to the astonishment of our
+people, Mr. Murray has taken his orphan, Huldah, to Le Bocage; has
+adopted her I believe; at all events, is educating her."
+
+Edna's face grew radiant.
+
+"Oh! I am glad to hear it! Poor little Huldah needed a friend, and she
+could not possibly have fallen into kinder hands than Mr. Murray's."
+
+"There certainly exists some diversity of opinion on that subject. He
+is rather too grim a guardian, I fancy, for one so young as Huldah
+Reed."
+
+"Is Mr. Hammond teaching Huldah?"
+
+"Oh! no. Herein consists the wonder. Murray himself hears her lessons,
+so Estelle told my sister. A propos! rumor announces the approaching
+marriage of the cousins. My sister informed me that it would take place
+early in the spring."
+
+"Do you allude to Mr. Murray and Miss Harding?"
+
+"I do. They will go to Europe immediately after their marriage."
+
+Gordon looked searchingly at his companion, but saw only a faint,
+incredulous smile cross her calm face.
+
+"My sister is Estelle's confidante, so you see I speak advisedly. I
+know that her trousseau has been ordered from Paris."
+
+Edna's fingers closed spasmodically over each other, but she laughed as
+she answered:
+
+"How then dare you betray her confidence? Mr. Leigh, how long will you
+remain in New York?"
+
+"I shall leave to-morrow, unless I have reason to hope that a longer
+visit will give you pleasure. I came here solely to see you."
+
+He attempted to unclasp her fingers, but she shook off his hand and
+said quickly:
+
+"I know what you are about to say, and I would rather not hear what
+would only distress us both. If you wish me to respect you, Mr. Leigh,
+you must never again allude to a subject which I showed you last night
+was exceedingly painful to me. While I value you as a friend, and am
+rejoiced to see you again, I should regret to learn that you had
+prolonged your stay even one hour on my account."
+
+"You are ungrateful, Edna! And I begin to realize that you are utterly
+heartless."
+
+"If I am, at least I have never trifled with or deceived you, Mr.
+Leigh."
+
+"You have no heart, or you certainly could not so coldly reject an
+affection which any other woman would proudly accept. A few years
+hence, when your insane ambition is fully satiated, and your beauty
+fades, and your writings pall upon public taste, and your
+smooth-tongued flatterers forsake your shrine to bow before that of
+some new and more popular idol, then Edna, you will rue your folly."
+
+She rose and answered quietly:
+
+"The future may contain only disappointments for me, but however
+lonely, however sad my lot may prove, I think I shall never fall so low
+as to regret not having married a man whom I find it impossible to
+love. The sooner this interview ends the longer our friendship will
+last. My time is not now my own, and as my duties claim me in the
+school-room, I must bid you good-bye."
+
+"Edna, if you send me away from you now, you shall never look upon my
+face again in this world!"
+
+Mournfully her tearful eyes sought his, but her voice was low and
+steady as she put out both hands, and said solemnly:
+
+"Farewell, dear friend. God grant that when next we see each other's
+faces they may be overshadowed by the shining, white plumes of our
+angel wings, in that city of God, 'where the wicked cease from
+troubling and the weary are at rest.' 'Never again in this world,' ah!
+such words are dreary and funereal as the dull fall of clods on a
+coffin-lid; but so be it. Thank God! time brings us all to one
+inevitable tryst before the great white throne."
+
+He took the hands, bowed his forehead upon them and groaned; then drew
+them to his lips and left her.
+
+With a slow, weary step she turned and went up to her room and read Mr.
+Hammond's letter. It was long and kind, full of affection and wise
+counsel, but contained no allusion to Mr. Murray.
+
+As she refolded it she saw a slip of paper which had fallen unnoticed
+on the carpet, and picking it up she read these words:
+
+"It grieves me to have to tell you that, after all, I fear St. Elmo
+will marry Estelle Harding. He does not love her, she can not influence
+him to redeem himself; his future looks hopeless indeed. Edna, my
+child! what have you done! Oh! what have you done!"
+
+Her heart gave a sudden, wild bound, then a spasm seemed to seize it,
+and presently the fluttering ceased, her pulses stopped, and a chill
+darkness fell upon her.
+
+Her head sank heavily on her chest, and when she recovered, her memory
+she felt an intolerable sensation of suffocation, and a sharp pain that
+seemed to stab the heart, whose throbs were slow and feeble.
+
+She raised the window and leaned out panting for breath, and the
+freezing wind powdered her face with fine snowflakes, and sprinkled its
+fairy flower-crystals over her hair.
+
+The outer world was chill and dreary, the leafless limbs of the trees
+in the park looked ghostly and weird against the dense dun clouds which
+seemed to stretch like a smoke mantle just above the sea of roofs; and,
+dimly seen through the white mist, Brooklyn's heights and Staten's
+hills were huge outlines monstrous as Echidna.
+
+Physical pain blanched Edna's lips, and she pressed her hand repeatedly
+to her heart, wondering what caused those keen pangs. At last, when the
+bodily suffering passed away, and she sat down exhausted, her mind
+reverted to the sentence in Mr. Hammond's letter.
+
+She knew the words were not lightly written, and that his reproachful
+appeal had broken from the depths of his aching heart, and was intended
+to rouse her to some action.
+
+"I can do nothing, say nothing! Must sit still and wait
+patiently--prayerfully. To-day, if I could put out my hand and touch
+Mr. Murray, and bind him to me for ever, I would not. No, no! Not a
+finger must I lift, even between him and Estelle! But he will not marry
+her! I know--I feel that he will not. Though I never look upon his face
+again, he belongs to me! He is mine, and no other woman can take him
+from me."
+
+A strange, mysterious, shadowy smile settled on her pallid features,
+and faintly and dreamily she repeated:
+
+"And yet I know past all doubting, truly--A knowledge greater than
+grief can dim--I know as he loved, he will love me duly, Yea, better,
+e'en better than I love him. And as I walk by the vast, calm river, The
+awful river so dread to see, I say, 'Thy breadth and thy depth for ever
+Are bridged by his thoughts that cross to me.'"
+
+Her lashes drooped, her head fell back against the top of the chair,
+and she lost all her woes until Felix's voice roused her, and she saw
+the frightened boy standing at her side, shaking her hand and calling
+piteously upon her.
+
+"Oh! I thought you were dead! You looked so white and felt so cold. Are
+you very sick? Shall I go for mamma?"
+
+For a moment she looked in his face with a perplexed, bewildered
+expression, then made an effort to rise.
+
+"I suppose that I must have fainted, for I had a terrible pain here,
+and--" She laid her hand over her heart.
+
+"Felix, let us go down-stairs. I think if your mother would give me
+some wine, it might strengthen me."
+
+Notwithstanding the snow, Mrs. Andrews had gone out; but Felix had the
+wine brought to the school-room, and after a little while the blood
+showed itself shyly in the governess's white lips, and she took the
+boy's Latin book and heard him recite his lesson.
+
+The day appeared wearily long, but she omitted none of the appointed
+tasks, and it was nearly nine o'clock before Felix fell asleep that
+night. Softly unclasping his thin fingers which clung to her hand, she
+went up to her own room, feeling the full force of those mournful words
+in Eugenie de Guerin's Journal:
+
+"It goes on in the soul. No one is aware of what I feel; no one suffers
+from it. I only pour out my heart before God--and here. Oh! to-day what
+efforts I make to shake off this profitless sadness--this sadness
+without tears--arid, bruising the heart like a hammer!"
+
+There was no recurrence of the physical agony; and after two days the
+feeling of prostration passed away, and only the memory of the attack
+remained.
+
+The idea of lionizing her children's governess, and introducing her to
+soi-disant "fashionable society," had taken possession of Mrs.
+Andrews's mind, and she was quite as much delighted with her
+patronizing scheme as a child would have been with a new hobby-horse.
+Dreams at which even Macaenas might have laughed floated through her
+busy brain, and filled her kind heart with generous anticipations. On
+Thursday she informed Edna that she desired her presence at dinner, and
+urged her request with such pertinacious earnestness that no
+alternative remained but acquiescence, and reluctantly the governess
+prepared to meet a formidable party of strangers.
+
+When Mrs. Andrews presented Sir Roger Percival, he bowed rather
+haughtily, and with a distant politeness, which assured Edna that he
+was cognizant of her refusal to make his acquaintance at the opera.
+
+During the early part of dinner he divided his gay words between his
+hostess and a pretty Miss Morton, who was evidently laying siege to his
+heart and carefully flattering his vanity; but whenever Edna, his
+vis-a-vis, looked toward him, she invariably found his fine brown eyes
+scrutinizing her face.
+
+Mr. Manning, who sat next to Edna, engaged her in an animated
+discussion concerning the value of a small volume containing two essays
+by Buckle, which he had sent her a few days previous.
+
+Something which she said to the editor with reference to Buckle's
+extravagant estimate of Mill, brought a smile to the Englishman's lip,
+and bowing slightly, he said:
+
+"Pardon me, Miss Earl, if I interrupt you a moment to express my
+surprise at hearing Mill denounced by an American. His books on
+Representative Government and Liberty are so essentially democratic
+that I expected only gratitude and eulogy from his readers on this side
+of the Atlantic."
+
+Despite her efforts to control it, embarrassment unstrung her nerves,
+and threw a quiver into her voice, as she answered:
+
+"I do not presume, sir, to 'denounce' a man whom Buckle ranks above all
+other living writers and statesmen, but, in anticipating the inevitable
+result of the adoption of some of Mill's proposed social reforms, I
+could not avoid recalling that wise dictum of Frederick the Great
+concerning philosophers--a saying which Buckle quotes so triumphantly
+against Plato, Aristotle, Descartes--even Bacon, Newton, and a long
+list of names illustrious in the annals of English literature.
+Frederick declared: 'If I wanted to ruin one of my provinces I would
+make over its government to the philosopher.' With due deference to
+Buckle's superior learning and astuteness, I confess my study of Mill's
+philosophy assures me that, if society should be turned over to the
+government of his theory of Liberty and Suffrage, it would go to ruin
+more rapidly than Frederick's province. Under his teachings the women
+of England might soon marshal their amazonian legions, and storm not
+only Parnassus but the ballot-box, the bench, and the forum. That this
+should occur in a country where a woman nominally rules, and certainly
+reigns, is not so surprising, but I dread the contagion of such an
+example upon America."
+
+"His influence is powerful, from the fact that he never takes up his
+pen without using it to break some social shackles; and its strokes are
+tremendous as those of the hammer of Thor. But surely, Miss Earl, you
+Americans can not with either good taste, grace, or consistency,
+upbraid England on the score of woman's rights' movements?"
+
+"At least, sir, our statesmen are not yet attacked by this most
+loathsome of political leprosies. Only a few crazy fanatics have fallen
+victims to it, and if lunatic asylums were not frequently cheated of
+their dues, these would not be left at large, but shut up together in
+high-walled enclosures, where, like Sydney Smith's 'gramnivorous
+metaphysicians,' or Reaumur's spiders, they could only injure one
+another and destroy their own webs. America has no Bentham, Bailey,
+Hare or Mill, to lend countenance or strength to the ridiculous clamor
+raised by a few unamiable and wretched wives, and as many embittered,
+disappointed, old maids of New England. The noble apology which Edmund
+Burke once offered for his countrymen always recurs to my mind when I
+hear these 'women's conventions' alluded to: 'Because half-a-dozen
+grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their importunate
+chink, while thousands of great cattle repose beneath the shade of the
+British oak, chew the cud, and are silent, pray do not imagine that
+those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field; that,
+of course, they are many in number, or that, after all, they are other
+than the little, shrivelled, meagre, hopping, though loud and
+troublesome insects of the hour.' I think, sir, that the noble and true
+women of this continent earnestly believe that the day which invests
+them with the elective franchise would be the blackest in the annals of
+humanity, would ring the death-knell of modern civilization, of
+national prosperity, social morality, and domestic happiness! and would
+consign the race to a night of degradation and horror infinitely more
+appalling than a return to primeval barbarism."
+
+"Even my brief sojourn in America has taught me the demoralizing
+tendency of the doctrine of 'equality of races and of sexes,' and you
+must admit, Miss Earl, that your countrywomen are growing dangerously
+learned," answered Sir Roger, smiling.
+
+"I am afraid, sir, that it is rather the quality than the quantity of
+their learning that makes them troublesome. One of your own noble seers
+has most gracefully declared: 'A woman may always help her husband,'
+(or race,) 'by what she knows, however little; by what she half knows
+or misknows, she will only tease him.'"
+
+Sir Roger bowed, and Mr. Manning said:
+
+"Very 'true, good, and beautiful,' as a mere theory in sociology, but
+in an age when those hideous hermaphrodites, ycleped 'strong-minded
+women,' are becoming so alarmingly numerous, our eyes are rarely
+gladdened by a conjunction of highly cultivated intellects; notable,
+loving hearts; tender, womanly sensibilities. Can you shoulder the anus
+probandi?"
+
+"Sir, that rests with those who assert that learning renders women
+disagreeable and unfeminine; the burden of proof remains for you."
+
+"Permit me to lift the weight for you, Manning, by asking Miss Earl
+what she thinks of the comparative merits of the 'Princess,' and of
+'Aurora Leigh,' as correctives of the tendency she deprecates?"
+
+Hitherto the discussion had been confined to the trio, while the
+conversation was general, but now silence reigned around the table, and
+when the Englishman's questions forced Edna to look up, she saw all
+eyes turned upon her; and embarrassment flushed her face, and her
+lashes drooped as she answered:
+
+"It has often been asserted by those who claim proficiency in the
+analysis of character, that women are the most infallible judges of
+womanly, and men of manly natures; but I am afraid that the poems
+referred to would veto this decision. While I yield to no human being
+in admiration of, and loving gratitude to Mrs. Browning, and regard the
+first eight books of 'Aurora Leigh' as vigorous, grand and marvellously
+beautiful, I can not deny that a painful feeling of mortification
+seizes me when I read the ninth and concluding book, wherein 'Aurora,'
+with most unwomanly vehemence, voluntarily declares and reiterates her
+love for 'Romney.' Tennyson's 'Princess' seems to me more feminine and
+refined and lovely than 'Aurora'; and it is because I love and revere
+Mrs. Browning, and consider her not only the pride of her own sex, but
+an ornament to the world, that I find it difficult to forgive the
+unwomanly inconsistency into which she betrays her heroine. Allow me to
+say that in my humble opinion nothing in the whole range of literature
+so fully portrays a perfect woman as that noble sketch by Wordsworth,
+and the inimitable description in Rogers's 'Human Life.'"
+
+"The first is, I presume, familiar to all of us, but the last, I
+confess, escapes my memory. Will you be good enough to repeat it?" said
+the editor, knitting his brows slightly.
+
+"Excuse me, sir; it is too long to be quoted here, and it seems that I
+have already monopolized the conversation much longer than I expected
+or desired. Moreover, to quote Rogers to an Englishman would be
+equivalent to 'carrying coal to Newcastle,' or peddling 'owls in
+Athens.'"
+
+Sir Roger smiled as he said:
+
+"Indeed, Miss Earl, while you spoke, I was earnestly ransacking my
+memory for the passage to which you allude; but I am ashamed to say, it
+is as fruitless an effort as 'calling spirits from the vasty deep.'
+Pray be so kind as to repeat it for me."
+
+At that instant little Hattie crept softly to the back of Edna's chair,
+and whispered:
+
+"Bro' Felix says, won't you please come back soon, and finish that
+story where you left off reading last night?"
+
+Very glad to possess so good an excuse, the governess rose at once; but
+Mrs. Andrews said:
+
+"Wait, Miss Earl. What do you want, Hattie?"
+
+"Bro' Felix wants Miss Earl, and sent me to beg her to come."
+
+"Go back and tell him he is in a hopeless minority, and that in this
+country the majority rule. There are fifteen here who want to talk to
+Miss Earl, and he can't have her in the schoolroom just now," said Grey
+Chilton, slyly pelting his niece with almonds.
+
+"But Felix is really sick to-day, and if Mrs. Andrews will excuse me, I
+prefer to go."
+
+She looked imploringly at the lady of the house, who said nothing; and
+Sir Roger beckoned Hattie to him, and exclaimed:
+
+"Pray, may I inquire, Mrs. Andrews, why your children do not make their
+appearance? I am sure you need not fear a repetition of the sarcastic
+rebuke of that wit who, when dining at a house where the children were
+noisy and unruly, lifted his glass, bowed to the troublesome little
+ones, and drank to the memory of King Herod. I am very certain 'the
+murder of the innocents' would never be recalled here, unless--forgive
+me, Miss Earl! but from the sparkle in your eyes, I believe you
+anticipate me. Do you really know what I am about to say?"
+
+"I think, sir, I can guess."
+
+"Let me see whether you are a clairvoyant!"
+
+"On one occasion when a sign for a children's school was needed, and
+the lady teacher applied to Lamb to suggest a design, he meekly advised
+that of 'The Murder of the Innocents.' Thank you, sir. However, I am
+not surprised that you entertain such flattering opinions of a
+profession which in England boasts 'Squeers' as its national type and
+representative."
+
+The young man laughed good-humoredly, and answered:
+
+"For the honor of my worthy pedagogical countrymen, permit me to assure
+you that the aforesaid 'Squeers' is simply one of Dickens's inimitable
+caricatures."
+
+"Nevertheless I have somewhere seen the statement that when 'Nicholas
+Nickleby' first made its appearance, only six irate schoolmasters went
+immediately to London to thrash the author; each believing that he
+recognized his own features in the amiable portrait of 'Squeers.'"
+
+She bowed and turned from the table, but Mrs. Andrews exclaimed:
+
+"Before you go, repeat that passage from Rogers; then we will excuse
+you."
+
+With one hand clasping Hattie's, and the other resting on the back of
+her chair, Edna fixed her eyes on Mrs. Andrews's face, and gave the
+quotation.
+
+"His house she enters, there to be a light Shining within when all
+without is night; A guardian angel o'er his life presiding, Doubling
+his pleasures and his cares dividing; Winning him back, when mingling
+in the throng From a vain world we love, alas! too long, To fireside
+happiness and hours of ease, Blest with that charm, the certainty to
+please. How oft her eyes read his! her gentle mind To all his wishes,
+all his thoughts inclined; Still subject--ever on the watch to borrow
+Mirth of his mirth, and sorrow of his sorrow."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+
+Flowery as Sicilian meads was the parsonage garden on that quiet
+afternoon late in May, when Mr. Hammond closed the honeysuckle-crowned
+gate, crossed the street, and walked slowly into the church-yard, down
+the sacred streets of the silent city of the dead, and entered the
+enclosure where slept his white-robed household band.
+
+The air was thick with perfume, as if some strong, daring south wind
+had blown wide the mystic doors of Astarte's huge laboratory, and
+overturned the myriad alembics, and deluged the world with her fragrant
+and subtle distillations.
+
+Honey-burdened bees hummed their hymns to labor, as they swung to and
+fro; and numbers of Psyche-symbols, golden butterflies, floated
+dreamily in and around and over the tombs, now and then poising on
+velvet wings, as if waiting, listening for the clarion voice of
+Gabriel, to rouse and reanimate the slumbering bodies beneath the
+gleaming slabs. Canary-colored orioles flitted in and out of the
+trailing willows, a redbird perched on the brow of a sculptured angel
+guarding a child's grave, and poured his sad, sweet, monotonous notes
+on the spicy air; two purple pigeons, with rainbow necklaces, cooed and
+fluttered up and down from the church belfry, and close under the
+projecting roof of the granite vault, a pair of meek brown wrens were
+building their nest and twittering softly one to another.
+
+The pastor cut down the rank grass and fringy ferns, the flaunting
+weeds and coreopsis that threatened to choke his more delicate flowers,
+and, stooping, tied up the crimson pinks, and wound the tendrils of the
+blue-veined clematis around its slender trellis, and straightened the
+white petunias and the orange-tinted crocaes, which the last heavy
+shower had beaten to the ground.
+
+The small, gray vault was overrun with ivy, whose dark, polished leaves
+threatened to encroach on a plain slab of pure marble that stood very
+near it; and as the minister pruned away the wreaths, his eyes rested
+on the black letters in the centre of the slab: "Murray Hammond. Aged
+21."
+
+Elsewhere the sunshine streamed warm and bright over the graves, but
+here the rays were intercepted by the church, and its cool shadow
+rested over vault and slab and flowers.
+
+The old man was weary from stooping so long, and now he took off his
+hat and passed his hand over his forehead, and sighed as he leaned
+against the door of the vault, where fine, fairy-fingered mosses were
+weaving their green arabesque immortelles.
+
+In a mournfully measured, yet tranquil tone, he said aloud:
+
+"Ah! truly throughout all the years of my life I have never heard the
+promise of perfect love, without seeing aloft amongst the stars,
+fingers as of a man's hand, writing the sacred legend: 'Ashes to ashes!
+dust to dust!'"
+
+Age was bending his body toward the earth with which it was soon to
+mingle; the ripe and perfect wheat nodded lower and lower day by day,
+as the Angel of the Sickle delayed; but his noble face wore that
+blessed and marvellous calm, that unearthly peace which generally comes
+some hours after death, when all traces of temporal passions and woes
+are lost in eternity's repose.
+
+A low, wailing symphony throbbed through the church, where the organist
+was practising; and then out of the windows, and far away on the
+evening air, rolled the solemn waves of that matchlessly mournful
+Requiem which, under prophetic shadows, Mozart began on earth and
+finished, perhaps in heaven, on one of those golden harps whose
+apocalyptic ringing smote St. John's eager ears among the lonely rocks
+of Aegean-girdled Patmos. The sun had paused as if to listen on the
+wooded crest of a distant hill, but as the Requiem ended and the organ
+sobbed itself to rest, he gathered up his burning rays and disappeared;
+and the spotted butterflies, like "winged tulips," flitted silently
+away, and the evening breeze bowed the large yellow primroses, and
+fluttered the phlox; the red nasturtiums that climbed up at the foot of
+the slab shuddered and shook their blood-colored banners over the
+polished marble. A holy hush fell upon all things save a towering
+poplar that leaned against the church, and rustled its leaves
+ceaselessly, and shivered and turned white, as tradition avers it has
+done since that day, when Christ staggered along the Via Dolorosa
+bearing his cross, carved out of poplar wood.
+
+Leaning with his hands folded on the handle of the weeding hoe, his
+gray beard sweeping over his bosom, his bare, silvered head bowed, and
+his mild, peaceful blue eyes resting on his son's tomb, Mr. Hammond
+stood listening to the music; and when the strains ceased, his thoughts
+travelled onward and upward till they crossed the sea of crystal before
+the Throne, and in imagination he heard the song of the four and twenty
+elders.
+
+From this brief reverie some slight sound aroused him, and lifting his
+eyes, he saw a man clad in white linen garments, wearing oxalis
+clusters in his coat, standing on the opposite side of the monumental
+slab.
+
+"St. Elmo! my poor, suffering wanderer! Oh, St. Elmo! come to me once
+more before I die!"
+
+The old man's voice was husky, and his arms trembled as he stretched
+them across the grave that intervened.
+
+Mr. Murray looked into the tender, tearful, pleading countenance, and
+the sorrow that seized his own, making his features writhe, beggars
+language. He instinctively put out his arms, then drew them back, and
+hid his face in his hands; saying in low, broken, almost inaudible
+tones:
+
+"I am too unworthy. Dripping with the blood of your children, I dare
+not touch you."
+
+The pastor tottered around the tomb, and stood at Mr. Murray's side,
+and the next moment the old man's arms were clasped around the tall
+form, and his white hair fell on his pupil's shoulder.
+
+"God be praised! After twenty years' separation I hold you once more to
+the heart that, even in its hours of deepest sorrow, has never ceased
+to love you! St. Elmo!--"
+
+He wept aloud, and strained the prodigal convulsively to his breast.
+
+After a moment Mr. Murray's lips moved, twitched; and with a groan that
+shook his powerful frame from head to foot, he asked:
+
+"Will you ever, ever forgive me?"
+
+"God is my witness that I freely and fully forgave you many, many years
+ago! The dearest hope of my lonely life has been that I might tell you
+so, and make you realize how ceaselessly my prayers and my love have
+followed you in all your dreary wanderings. Oh! I thank God that, at
+last! at last you have come to me, my dear, dear boy! My poor, proud
+prodigal!"
+
+A magnificent jubilate swelled triumphantly through church and
+churchyard, as if the organist up in the gallery knew what was
+happening at Murray Hammond's grave; and when the thrilling music died
+away St. Elmo broke from the encircling arms, and knelt with his face
+shrouded in his hands and pressed against the marble that covered his
+victim.
+
+After a little while the pastor sat down on the edge of the slab, and
+laid his shrunken fingers softly and caressingly upon the bowed head.
+
+"Do not dwell upon a past that is fraught only with bitterness to you,
+and from which you can draw no balm. Throw your painful memories behind
+you, and turn resolutely to a future which may be rendered noble and
+useful and holy. There is truth, precious truth in George Herbert's
+words:
+
+'For all may have, If they dare choose, a glorious life or grave!'
+
+and the years to come may, by the grace of God, more than cancel those
+that have gone by."
+
+"What have I to hope for--in time of eternity? Oh! none but Almighty
+God can ever know the dreary blackness and wretchedness of my
+despairing soul! the keen sleepless pain of my remorse! my utter
+loathing of my accursed, distorted nature!" "And His pitying eyes see
+all, and Christ stretches out his hands to lift you up to Himself, and
+His own words of loving sympathy and pardon are spoken again to you:
+'Come unto Me, all ye weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.'
+Throw all your galling load of memories down at the foot of the cross,
+and 'the peace that passeth all understanding' shall enter your
+sorrowing soul, and abide there for ever. St. Elmo, only prayer could
+have sustained and soothed me since we parted that bright summer
+morning twenty long, long years ago. Prayer took away the sting and
+sanctified my sorrows for the good of my soul; and, my dear, dear boy,
+it will extract the poison and the bitterness from yours. That God
+answers prayer and comforts the afflicted among men, I am a living
+attestation. It is by His grace only that 'I am what I am'; erring and
+unworthy I humbly own, but patient at least, and fully resigned to His
+will. The only remaining cause of disquiet passed away just now, when I
+saw that you had come back to me. St. Elmo, do you ever pray for
+yourself?"
+
+"For some weeks I have been trying to pray, but my words seem a
+mockery; they do not rise, they fall back hissing upon my heart. I have
+injured and insulted you; I have cursed you and yours, have robbed you
+of your peace of mind, have murdered your children--"
+
+"Hush! hush! we will not disinter the dead. My peace of mind you have
+to-day given back to me; and the hope of your salvation is dearer to me
+than the remembered faces of my darlings, sleeping here beside us. Oh,
+St. Elmo, I have prayed for you as I never prayed even for my own
+Murray; and I know, I feel that all my wrestling before the Throne of
+Grace has not been in vain. Sometimes my faith grew faint, and as the
+years dragged on and I saw no melting of your haughty, bitter spirit, I
+almost lost hope; but I did not, thank God, I did not! I held on to the
+precious promise, and prayed more frequently, and, blessed be his holy
+name! at last, just before I go hence, the answer comes. As I see you
+kneeling here at my Murray's grave, I know now that your soul is
+snatched 'as a brand from the burning!' Oh! bless my merciful God, that
+in that day when we stand for final judgment, and your precious soul is
+required at my son's hands, the joyful cry of the recording angel shall
+be, 'Saved! saved! for ever and ever, through the blood of the Lamb!'"
+
+Overwhelmed with emotion, the pastor dropped his white head on his
+bosom; and once more silence fell over the darkening cemetery.
+
+One by one the birds hushed their twitter and went to rest, and only
+the soft cooing of the pigeons floated down now and then from the lofty
+belfry.
+
+On the eastern horizon a thin, fleecy scarf of clouds was silvered by
+the rising moon, the west was a huge shrine of beryl whereon burned
+ruby flakes of vapor, watched by a solitary vestal star; and the
+sapphire arch overhead was beautiful and mellow as any that ever
+vaulted above the sculptured marbles of Pisan Campo Santo.
+
+Mr. Murray rose and stood with his head uncovered and his eyes fixed on
+the nobbing nasturtiums that glowed like blood-spots.
+
+"Mr. Hammond, your magnanimity unmans me; and if your words be true, I
+feel in your presence like a leper and should lay my lips in the dust,
+crying, 'Unclean! unclean!' For all that I have inflicted on you, I
+have neither apology nor defence to offer; and I could much better have
+borne curses from you than words of sympathy and affection. You amaze
+me, for I hate and scorn myself so thoroughly, that I marvel at the
+interest you still indulge for me; I can not understand how you can
+endure the sight of my features, the sound of my voice. Oh! if I could
+atone! If I could give Annie back to your arms, there is no suffering,
+no torture that I would not gladly embrace! No penance of body or soul
+from which I would shrink!"
+
+"My dear boy, (for such you still seem to me, notwithstanding the lapse
+of time,) let my little darling rest with her God. She went down early
+to her long home, and though I missed her sweet laugh, and her soft,
+tender hands about my face, and have felt a chill silence in my house,
+where music once was, she has been spared much suffering and many
+trials; and I would not recall her if I could, for after a few more
+days I shall gather her back to my bosom in that eternal land where the
+blighting dew of death never falls; where
+
+'Adieus and farewells are a sound unknown.'
+
+Atone? Ah, St. Elmo! you can atone. Save your soul, redeem your life,
+and I shall die blessing your name. Look at me in my loneliness and
+infirmity. I am childless; you took my idols from me, long, long ago;
+you left my heart desolate; and now I have a right to turn to you, to
+stretch out my feeble, empty arms, and say, Come, be my child, fill my
+son's place, let me lean upon you in my old age, as I once fondly
+dreamed I should lean on my own Murray! St. Elmo, will you come? Will
+you give me your heart, my son! my son!"
+
+He put out his trembling hands, and a yearning tenderness shone in his
+eyes as he raised them to the tall, stern man before him.
+
+Mr. Murray bent eagerly forward, and looked wonderingly at him.
+
+"Do you, can you mean it? It appears so impossible, and I have been so
+long sceptical of all nobility in my race. Will you indeed shelter
+Murray's murderer in your generous, loving heart?"
+
+"I call my God to witness, that it has been my dearest hope for dreary
+years that I might win your heart back before I die."
+
+"It is but a wreck, a hideous ruin, black with sins; but such as I am,
+my future, my all, I lay at your feet! If there is any efficacy in
+bitter repentance and remorse; if there is any mercy left in my Maker's
+hands; if there be saving power in human will, I will atone! I will
+atone!"
+
+The strong man trembled like a wave-lashed reed, as he sank on one knee
+at the minister's feet, and buried his face in his arms; and spreading
+his palms over the drooped head, Mr. Hammond gently and solemnly
+blessed him.
+
+For some time both were silent, and then Mr. Murray stretched out one
+arm over the slab, and said brokenly:
+
+"Kneeling here at Murray's tomb, a strange, incomprehensible feeling
+creeps into my heart. The fierce, burning hate I have borne him seems
+to have passed away; and something, ah! something, mournfully like the
+old yearning toward him, comes back, as I look at his name. Oh, idol of
+my youth! hurled down and crushed by my own savage hands! For the first
+time since I destroyed him, since I saw his handsome face whitening in
+death, I think of him kindly. For the first time since that night, I
+feel that--that--I can forgive him. Murray! Murray! you wronged me! you
+wrecked me! but oh! if I could give you back the life I took in my
+madness! how joyfully would I forgive you all my injuries! His blood
+dyes my hands, my heart, my soul!"
+
+"The blood of Jesus will wash out those stains. The law was fully
+satisfied when He hung on Calvary; there, ample atonement was made for
+just such sins as yours, and you have only to claim and plead his
+sufferings to secure your salvation. St. Elmo, bury your past here, in
+Murray's grave, and give all your thoughts to the future. Half of your
+life has ebbed out, and yet your life-work remains undone, untouched.
+You have no time to spend in looking over your unimproved years."
+
+"'Bury my past!' Impossible, even for one hour. I tell you I am chained
+to it, as the Aloides were chained to the pillars of Tartarus! and the
+croaking fiend that will not let me sleep in memory! Memory of sins
+that--that avenge your wrongs, old man! that goad me sometimes to the
+very verge of suicide! Do you know, ha! how could you possibly know?
+Shall I tell you that only one thought has often stood between me and
+self-destruction? It was not the fear of death, no, no, no! It was not
+even the dread of facing an outraged God! but it was the horrible fear
+of meeting Murray! Not all eternity was wide enough to hold us both!
+The hate I bore him made me shrink from a deed which I felt would
+instantly set us face to face once more in the land of souls. Ah! a
+change has come over me; now if I could see his face, I might learn to
+forget that look it wore when last I gazed upon it. Time bears healing
+for some natures; to mine it has brought only poison. It is useless to
+bid me forget. Memory is earth's retribution for man's sins. I have
+bought at a terrible price my conviction of the melancholy truth, that
+he who touches the weapons of Nemesis effectually slaughters his own
+peace of mind, and challenges her maledictions, from which there is no
+escape. In my insanity I said, 'Vengeance is mine! I will repay!' and
+in the hour when I daringly grasped the prerogative of God, His curse
+smote me! Mr. Hammond, friend of my happy youth, guide of my innocent
+boyhood! if you could know all the depths of my abasement, you would
+pity me indeed! My miserable heart is like the crater of some extinct
+volcano: the flames of sin have burned out, and left it rugged, rent,
+blackened. I do not think that--"
+
+"St. Elmo, do not upbraid yourself so bitterly--"
+
+"Sir, your words are kind and noble and full of Christian charity; they
+are well meant, and I thank you; but they cannot comfort me. My
+desolation, my utter wretchedness isolate me from the sympathy of my
+race, whom I have despised and trampled so relentlessly. Yesterday I
+read a passage which depicts so accurately my dreary isolation, that I
+have been unable to expel it; I find it creeping even now to my lips:
+
+"'O misery and mourning! I have felt--Yes, I have felt like some
+deserted world That God hath done with, and had cast aside To rock and
+stagger through the gulfs of space, He never looking on it any more;
+Unfilled, no use, no pleasure, not desired, Nor lighted on by angels in
+their flight From heaven to happier planets; and the race That once
+hath dwelt on it withdrawn or dead. Could such a world have hope that
+some blest day God would remember her, and fashion her Anew?'"
+
+"Yes, my dear St. Elmo, so surely as God reigns above us, He will
+refashion it, and make the light of His pardoning love and the
+refreshing dew of his grace fall upon it! And the waste places shall
+bloom as Sharon, and the purpling vineyards shame Engedi, and the
+lilies of peace shall lift up their stately heads, and the 'voice of
+the turtle shall be heard in the land!' Have faith, grapple yourself by
+prayer to the feet of God, and he will gird, and lift up, and guide
+you."
+
+Mr. Murray shook his head mournfully, and the moonlight shining on his
+face showed it colorless, haggard, hopeless.
+
+The pastor rose, put on his hat, and took St. Elmo's arm.
+
+"Come home with me. This spot is fraught with painful associations that
+open afresh all your wounds."
+
+They walked on together until they reached the parsonage gate, and as
+the minister raised the latch, his companion gently disengaged the arm
+clasped to the old man's side.
+
+"Not to-night. After a few days I will try to come."
+
+"St. Elmo, to-morrow is Sunday, and--"
+
+He paused, and did not speak the request that looked out from his eyes.
+
+It cost Mr. Murray a severe struggle, and he did not answer
+immediately. When he spoke his voice was unsteady.
+
+"Yes, I know what you wish. Once I swore I would tear the church down,
+scatter its dust to the winds, leave not a stone to mark the site! But
+I will come and hear you preach for the first time since that sunny
+Sabbath, twenty years dead, when your text was, 'Cast thy bread upon
+the waters; for thou shalt find it after many days.' Sodden, and
+bitter, and worthless from the long tossing in the great deep of sin,
+it drifts back at last to your feet; and instead of stooping tenderly
+to gather up the useless fragments, I wonder that you do not spurn the
+stranded ruin from you. Yes, I will come."
+
+"Thank God! Oh! what a weight you have lifted from my heart! St. Elmo,
+my son!"
+
+There was a long, lingering clasp of hands, and the pastor went into
+his home with tears of joy on his furrowed face, while his smiling lips
+whispered to his grateful soul:
+
+"In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand;
+for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or
+whether they both shall be alike good."
+
+Mr. Murray watched the stooping form until it disappeared, and then
+went slowly back to the silent burying ground, and sat down on the
+steps of the church.
+
+Hour after hour passed and still he sat there, almost as motionless as
+one of the monuments, while his eyes dwelt as if spellbound, on the
+dark, dull stain where Annie Hammond had rested, in days long, long
+past; and Remorse, more powerful than Erictho, evoked from the charnel
+house the sweet girlish features and fairy figure of the early dead.
+
+His pale face was propped on his hand, and there in the silent watches
+of the moon-lighted midnight, he held communion with God and his own
+darkened spirit.
+
+"What hast thou wrought for Right and Truth, For God and man, From the
+golden hours of bright-eyed youth, To life's mid-span?"
+
+His almost Satanic pride was laid low as the dead in their mouldering
+shrouds, and all the giant strength of his perverted nature was
+gathered up and hurled in a new direction. The Dead Sea Past moaned and
+swelled, and bitter waves surged and broke over his heart, but he
+silently buffeted them; and the moon rode in mid-heaven when he rose,
+went around the church, and knelt and prayed, with his forehead pressed
+to the marble that covered Murray Hammond's last resting-place.
+
+"Oh! that the mist which veileth my To Come Would so dissolve and yield
+unto mine eyes A worthy path! I'd count not wearisome Long toil nor
+enterprise, But strain to reach it; ay, with wrestlings stout Is there
+such a path already made to fit The measure of my foot? It shall atone
+For much, if I at length may light on it And know it for mine own."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+
+"On! how grand and beautiful it is! Whenever I look at it, I feel
+exactly as I did on Easter-Sunday when I went to the cathedral to hear
+the music. It is a solemn feeling", as if I were in a holy place. Miss
+Earl, what makes me feel so?"
+
+Felix stood in an art gallery, and leaning on his crutches looked up at
+Church's "Heart of the Andes."
+
+"You are impressed by the solemnity and the holy repose of nature; for
+here you look upon a pictured cathedral, built not by mortal hands, but
+by the architect of the universe. Felix, does it not recall to your
+mind something of which we often speak?"
+
+The boy was silent for a few seconds, and then his thin, sallow face
+brightened.
+
+"Yes, indeed! You mean that splendid description which you read to me
+from 'Modern Painters'? How fond you are of that passage, and how very
+often you think of it! Let me see whether I can remember it."
+
+Slowly but accurately he repeated the eloquent tribute to "Mountain
+Glory," from the fourth volume of "Modern Painters."
+
+"Felix, you know that a celebrated English poet, Keats, has said, 'A
+thing of beauty is a joy forever'; and as I can never hope to express
+my ideas in half such beautiful language as Mr. Ruskin uses, it is an
+economy of trouble to quote his words. Some of his expressions are like
+certain songs which, the more frequently we sing them, the more
+valuable and eloquent they become; and as we rarely learn a fine piece
+of music to be played once or twice and then thrown aside, why should
+we not be allowed the same privilege with verbal melodies? Last week
+you asked me to explain to you what is meant by 'aerial perspective,'
+and if you will study the atmosphere in this great picture, Mr. Church,
+will explain it much more clearly to you than I was able to do."
+
+"Yes, Miss Earl, I see it now. The eye could travel up and up, and on
+and on, and never get out of the sky; and it seems to me those birds
+yonder would fly entirely away, out of sight, through that air in the
+picture. But, Miss Earl, do you really believe that the Chimborazo in
+South America is as grand as Mr. Church's? I do not, because I have
+noticed that pictures are much handsomer than the real things they
+stand for. Mamma carried me last spring to see some paintings of scenes
+on the Hudson River, and when we went travelling in the summer, I saw
+the very spot where the artist stood when he sketched the hills and the
+bend of the river, and it was not half so pretty as the picture. And
+yet I know God is the greatest painter. Is it the far-off look that
+everything wears when painted.
+
+"Yes, the 'far-off look,' as you call it, is one cause of the effect
+you wish to understand; and it has been rather more elegantly expressed
+by Campbell, in the line:
+
+''Tis distance lends enchantment to the view.'
+
+I have seen this fact exemplified in a very singular manner, at a house
+in Georgia, where I was once visiting. From the front door I had a very
+fine prospect or view of lofty hills, and a dense forest, and a pretty
+little town where the steeples of the churches glittered in the
+sunshine, and I stood for some time admiring the landscape; but
+presently, when I turned to speak to the lady of the house, I saw, in
+the glass sidelights of the door, a miniature reflection of the very
+same scene that was much more beautiful. I was puzzled, and could not
+comprehend how the mere fact of diminishing the size of the various
+objects, by increasing the distance, could enhance their loveliness;
+and I asked myself whether all far-off things were handsomer than those
+close at hand? In my perplexity I went as usual to Mr. Ruskin,
+wondering whether he had ever noticed the same thing; and of course he
+had, and has a noble passage about it in one of his books on
+architecture. I will see if my memory appreciates it as it deserves:
+'Are not all natural things, it may be asked, as lovely near as far
+away? Nay, not so. Look at the clouds, and watch the delicate sculpture
+of their alabaster sides and the rounded lustre of their magnificent
+rolling. They are meant to be beheld far away; they were shaped for
+this place, high above your head; approach them, and they fuse into
+vague mists, or whirl away in fierce fragments of thunderous vapors.'
+(And here, Felix, your question about Chimborazo is answered.) 'Look at
+the crest of the Alps, from the far-away plains over which its light is
+cast, whence human souls have communion with it by their myriads. The
+child looks up to it in the dawn, and the husbandman in the burden and
+heat of the day, and the old man in the going down of the sun, and it
+is to them all as the celestial city on the world's horizon; dyed with
+the depths of heaven and clothed with the calm of eternity. There was
+it set for holy dominion by Him who marked for the sun his journey, and
+bade the moon know her going down. It was built for its place in the
+far-off sky; approach it, and the glory of its aspect fades into
+blanched fearfulness; its purple walls are rent into grisly rocks, its
+silver fretwork saddened into wasting snow; the stormbrands of ages are
+on its breast, the ashes of its own ruin lie solemnly on its white
+raiment!' Felix, in rambling about the fields, you will frequently be
+reminded of this. I have noticed that the meadow in the distance is
+always greener and more velvety, and seems more thickly studded with
+flowers, than the one I am crossing; or the hillside far away has a
+golden gleam on its rocky slopes, and the shadow spots are softer and
+cooler and more purple than those I am climbing and panting over; and I
+have hurried on, and after a little, turning to look back, lo! all the
+glory I saw beckoning me on has flown, and settled over the meadow and
+the hillside that I have passed, and the halo is behind! Perfect beauty
+in scenery is like the mirage that you read about yesterday; it fades
+and flits out of your grasp, as you travel toward it. When we go home I
+will read you something which Emerson has said concerning this same
+lovely ignis fatuus; for I can remember only a few words: 'What
+splendid distance, what recesses of ineffable pomp and loveliness in
+the sunset! But who can go where they are, or lay his hand, or plant
+his foot thereon? Off they fall from the round world forever.' Felix, I
+suppose it is because we see all the imperfections and inequalities of
+objects close at hand, put the fairy film of air like a silvery mist
+hides these when it a distance; and we are charmed with the heightened
+beauties, which alone are visible."
+
+Edna's eyes went back to the painting, and rested there; and little
+Hattie, who had been gazing up at her governess in curious perplexity,
+pulled her brother's sleeve and said:
+
+"Bro' Felix, do you understand all that? I guess I don't; for I know
+when I am hungry (and seems to me I always am); why, when I am hungry
+the closer I get to my dinner the nicer it looks! And then there was
+that hateful, spiteful old Miss Abby Tompkins, that mamma would have to
+teach you! Ugh! I have watched her many a time coming up the street,
+(you know she never would ride in stages for fear of pickpockets,) and
+she always looked just as ugly as far off as I could see her as when
+she came close to me--"
+
+A hearty laugh cut short Hattie's observation; and, coming forward, Sir
+Roger Percival put his hand on her head, saying:
+
+"How often children tumble down 'the step from the sublime to the
+ridiculous,' and drag staid, dignified folks after them? Miss Earl, I
+have been watching your little party for some time, listening to your
+incipient art-lecture. You Americans are queer people; and when I go
+home I shall tell Mr. Ruskin that I heard a little boy criticizing 'The
+Heart of the Andes,' and quoting from 'Modern Painters.' Felix, as I
+wish to be accurate, will you tell me your age?"
+
+The poor sensitive cripple imagined that he was being ridiculed, and he
+only reddened and frowned and bit his thin lips.
+
+Edna laid her hand on his shoulder, and answered for him.
+
+"Just thirteen years old; and though Mr. Ruskin is a distinguished
+exception to the rule that 'prophets are not without honor, save in
+their own country,' I think he has no reader who loves and admires his
+writings more than Felix Andrews."
+
+Here the boy raised his eyes and asked:
+
+"Why is it that prophets have no honor among their own people? Is it
+because they too have to be seen from a great distance in order to seem
+grand? I heard mamma say the other day that if some book written in
+America had only come from England everybody would be raving about it."
+
+"Some other time, Felix, we will talk of that problem. Hattie, you look
+sleepy."
+
+"I think it will be lunch time before we get home," replied the yawning
+child.
+
+Sir Roger took her by her shoulders, and shook her gently, saying:
+
+"Come, wake up, little sweetheart! How can you get sleepy or hungry
+with all these handsome pictures staring at you from the walls?"
+
+The good-natured child laughed; but her brother, who had an
+unconquerable aversion to Sir Roger's huge whiskers, curled his lips,
+and exclaimed scornfully:
+
+"Hattie, you ought to be ashamed of yourself! Hungry, indeed! You are
+almost as bad as that English lady--, who, when her husband was
+admiring some beautiful lambs, and called her attention to them,
+answered, 'Yes, lambs are beautiful--boiled!'"
+
+Desirous of conciliating him, Sir Roger replied:
+
+"When you and Hattie come to see me in England, I will show you the
+most beautiful lambs in the United Kingdom; and your sister shall have
+boiled lamb three times a day, if she wishes it. Miss Earl, you are so
+fond of paintings that you would enjoy a European tour more than any
+lady whom I have met in this country. I have seen miles of canvas in
+Boston, New York and Philadelphia, but very few good pictures."
+
+"And yet, sir, when on exhibition in Europe this great work here before
+us received most extravagant praise from transatlantic critics, who are
+very loath to accord merit to American artists. If I am ever so
+fortunate as to be able to visit Europe, and cultivate and improve my
+taste, I think I shall still be very proud of the names of Allston,
+West, Church, Bierstadt, Kensett and Gifford."
+
+She turned to quit the gallery, and Sir Roger said:
+
+"I leave to-morrow for Canada, and may possibly sail for England
+without returning to New York. Will you allow me the pleasure of
+driving you to the park this afternoon? Two months ago you refused a
+similar request, but since then I flatter myself we have become better
+friends."
+
+"Thank you, Sir Roger. I presume the children can spare me, and I will
+go with pleasure."
+
+"I will call at five o'clock."
+
+He handed her and Hattie into the coupe, tenderly assisted Felix, and
+saw them driven away.
+
+Presently Felix laughed, and exclaimed:
+
+"Oh! I hope Miss Morton will be in the park this evening. It would be
+glorious fun to see her meet you and Sir Roger."
+
+"Why, Felix?"
+
+"Oh! because she meddles. I heard Uncle Grey tell mamma that she was
+making desperate efforts to catch the Englishman; and that she turned
+up her nose tremendously at the idea of his visiting you. When Uncle
+Grey told her how often he came to our house, she bit her lips almost
+till the blood spouted. Sir Roger drives very fine horses, uncle says,
+and Miss Morton hints outrageously for him to ask her to ride, but she
+can't manage to get the invitation. So she will be furious when she
+sees you this afternoon. Yonder is Goupil's; let us stop and have a
+look at those new engravings mamma told us about yesterday. Hattie, you
+can curl up in your corner, and go to sleep and dream of boiled lamb
+till we come back."
+
+Later in the day Mrs. Andrews went up to Edna's room, and found her
+correcting an exercise.
+
+"At work as usual. You are incorrigible. Any other woman would be so
+charmed with her conquest that her head would be quite turned by a
+certain pair of brown eyes that are considered irresistible. Come, get
+ready for your drive; it is almost five o'clock, and you know
+foreigners are too polite, too thoroughly well-bred not to be punctual.
+No, no, Miss Earl; not that hat, on the peril of your life! Where is
+that new one that I ordered sent up to you two days ago? It will match
+this delicate white shawl of mine, which I brought up for you to wear;
+and come, no scruples if you please! Stand up and let me see whether
+its folds hang properly. You should have heard Madame De G--when she
+put it around my shoulders for the first time, 'Juste ciel! Madame
+Andrews, you are a Greek statue!' Miss Earl, put your hair back a
+little from the left temple. There, now the veins show! Where are your
+gloves? You look charmingly, my dear; only too pale, too pale! If you
+don't contrive to get up some color, people will swear that Sir Roger
+was airing the ghost of a pretty girl. There is the bell! Just as I
+told you, he is punctual. Five o'clock to a minute."
+
+She stepped to the window and looked down at the equipage before the
+door.
+
+"What superb horses! You will be the envy of the city."
+
+There was something in the appearance and manner of Sir Roger which
+often reminded Edna of Gordon Leigh; and during the spring he visited
+her so constantly, sent her so frequently baskets of elegant flowers,
+that he succeeded in overcoming her reticence, and established himself
+on an exceedingly friendly footing in Mrs. Andrews's house.
+
+Now, as they drove along the avenue and entered the park, their spirits
+rose; and Sir Roger turned very often to look at the fair face of his
+companion, which he found more and more attractive each day. He saw,
+too, that under his earnest gaze the faint color deepened, until her
+cheeks glowed like sea-shells; and when he spoke he bent his face much
+nearer to hers than was necessary to make her hear his words. They
+talked of books, flowers, music, mountain scenery, and the green lanes
+of "Merry England." Edna was perfectly at ease, and in a mood to enjoy
+everything.
+
+They dashed on, and the sunlight disappeared, and the gas glittered all
+over the city before Sir Roger turned his horses' heads homeward. When
+they reached Mrs. Andrews's door he dismissed his carriage and spent
+the evening. At eleven o'clock he rose to say good-bye.
+
+"Miss Earl, I hope I shall have the pleasure of renewing our
+acquaintance at an early day; if not in America in Europe. The
+brightest reminiscences I shall carry across the ocean are those that
+cluster about the hours I have spent with you. If I should not return
+to New York, will you allow me the privilege of hearing from you
+occasionally?"
+
+His clasp of the girl's hand was close, but she withdrew it, and her
+face flushed painfully as she answered:
+
+"Will you excuse me, Sir Roger, when I tell you that I am so constantly
+occupied I have not time to write, even to my old and dearest friends."
+
+Passing the door of Felix's room, on her way to her own apartment, to
+boy called to her: "Miss Earl, are you very tired?"
+
+"Oh, no. Do you want anything?"
+
+"My head aches and I can't go to sleep. Please read to me a little
+while."
+
+He raised himself on his elbow, and looked up fondly at her.
+
+"Ah! how very pretty you are to-night! Kiss me, won't you?"
+
+She stooped and kissed the poor parched lips, and as she opened a
+volume of the Waverly Novels, he said:
+
+"Did you see Miss Morton?"
+
+"Yes; she was on horseback, and we passed her twice."
+
+"Glad of it! She does not like you. I guess she finds it as hard to get
+to sleep to-night as I do."
+
+Edna commenced reading, and it was nearly an hour before Felix's eyes
+closed, and his fingers relaxed their grasp on hers. Softly she put the
+book back on the shelf, extinguished the light, and stole upstairs to
+her desk. That night, as Sir Roger tossed restlessly on his pillow,
+thinking of her, recalling all that she had said during the drive, he
+would not have been either comforted or flattered by a knowledge of the
+fact that she was so entirely engrossed by her MS. that she had no
+thought of him or his impending departure.
+
+When the clock struck three she laid down her pen; and the mournful
+expression that crept into her eyes told that memory was busy with the
+past years. When she fell asleep she dreamed not of Sir Roger but of Le
+Bocage and its master, of whom she would not permit herself to think in
+her waking hours.
+
+The influence which Mr. Manning exerted over Edna increased as their
+acquaintance ripened; and the admiring reverence with which she
+regarded the editor was exceedingly flattering to him. With curious
+interest he watched the expansion of her mind, and now and then warned
+her of some error into which she seemed inclined to plunge, or wisely
+advised some new branch of research.
+
+So firm was her confidence in his nature and dispassionate judgment,
+that she yielded to his opinions a deferential homage, such as she had
+scarcely paid even to Mr. Hammond.
+
+Gradually and unconsciously she learned to lean upon his strong, clear
+mind, and to find in his society a quiet but very precious happiness.
+The antagonism of their characters was doubtless one cause of the
+attraction which each found in the other, and furnished the
+balance-wheel which both required.
+
+Edna's intense and dreamy idealism demanded a check, which the
+positivism of the editor supplied; and his extensive and rigidly
+accurate information, on almost all scientific topics, constituted a
+valuable treasury of knowledge to which he never denied her access.
+
+His faith in Christianity was like his conviction of the truth of
+mathematics, more an intellectual process and the careful deduction of
+logic than the result of some emotional impulse; his religion like his
+dialectics was cold, consistent, irreproachable, unanswerable. Never
+seeking a controversy on any subject, he never shunned one, and, during
+its continuance, his demeanor was invariably courteous, but unyielding,
+and even when severe he was rarely bitter.
+
+Very early in life his intellectual seemed to have swallowed up his
+emotional nature, as Aaron's rod did those of the magicians of Pharaoh,
+and only the absence of dogmatism, and the habitual suavity of his
+manner, atoned for his unbending obstinacy on all points.
+
+Edna's fervid and beautiful enthusiasm surged and chafed and broke over
+this man's stern, flinty realism, like the warm, blue waters of the
+Gulf Stream that throw their silvery spray and foam against the
+glittering walls of sapphire icebergs sailing slowly southward. Her
+glowing imagery fell upon the bristling points of his close phalanx of
+arguments, as gorgeous tropical garlands caught and empaled by bayonets
+until they faded.
+
+Merciless as an anatomical lecturer, he would smilingly take up one of
+her metaphors and dissect it, and over the pages of her MSS. for "Maga"
+his gravely spoken criticisms fell withering as hoar frost.
+
+They differed in all respects, yet daily they felt the need of each
+other's society. The frozen man of forty sunned himself in the genial
+presence of the lovely girl of nineteen, and in the dawn of her
+literary career she felt a sense of security from his proffered
+guidance, even as a wayward and ambitious child, just learning to walk,
+totters along with less apprehension when the strong, steady hand it
+refuses to hold is yet near enough to catch and save from a serious
+fall.
+
+While fearlessly attacking all heresy, whether political, scientific,
+or ethical, all latitudinarianism in manners and sciolism in letters,
+he commanded the confidence and esteem of all, and became in great
+degree the centre around which the savants and literati of the city
+revolved.
+
+Through his influence Edna made the acquaintance of some of the most
+eminent scholars and artists who formed this clique, and she found that
+his friendship and recommendation was an "open sesame" to the charmed
+circle.
+
+One Saturday she sat with her bonnet on, waiting for Mr. Manning, who
+had promised to accompany her on her first visit to Greenwood, and, as
+she put on her gloves, Felix handed her a letter which his father had
+just brought up.
+
+Recognizing Mrs. Murray's writing, the governess read it immediately,
+and, while her eyes ran over the sheet, an expression, first of
+painful, then of joyful, surprise, came into her countenance.
+
+"MY DEAR CHILD: Doubtless you will be amazed to hear that your quondam
+lover has utterly driven your image from his fickle heart; and that he
+ignores your existence as completely as if you were buried twenty feet
+in the ruins of Herculaneum. Last night Gordon Leigh was married to
+Gertrude Powell, and the happy pair, attended by that despicable
+mother, Agnes Powell, will set out for Europe early next week. My dear,
+it is growing fashionable to 'marry for spite.' I have seen two
+instances recently, and know of a third which will take place ere long.
+Poor Gordon will rue his rashness, and, before the year expires, he
+will arrive at the conclusion that he is an unmitigated fool, and has
+simply performed, with great success, an operation familiarly known as
+cutting off one's nose to spite one's face! Your rejection of his
+renewed offer piqued him beyond expression, and when he returned from
+New York he was in exactly the most accommodating frame of mind which
+Mrs. Powell could desire. She immediately laid siege to him. Gertrude's
+undisguised preference for his society was extremely soothing to his
+vanity, which you had so severely wounded, and in fine, the
+indefatigable manoeuvres of the wily mamma, and the continual flattery
+of the girl, who is really very pretty, accomplished the result. I once
+credited Gordon with more sense than he has manifested, but each year
+convinces me more firmly of the truth of my belief, that no man is
+proof against the subtle and persistent flattery of a beautiful woman.
+When he announced his engagement to me, we were sitting in the library,
+and I looked him full in the face, and answered: 'Indeed! Engaged to
+Miss Powell? I thought you swore that so long as Edna Earl remained
+unmarried you would never relinquish your suit?' He pointed to that
+lovely statuette of Pallas that stands on the mantelpiece, and said
+bitterly, 'Edna Earl has no more heart than that marble Athena.'
+Whereupon I replied, 'Take care, Gordon. I notice that of late you seem
+inclined to deal rather too freely in hyperbole. Edna's heart may
+resemble the rich veins of gold, which in some mines run not near the
+surface but deep in the masses of quartz. Because you can not obtain
+it, you have no right to declare that it does not exist. You will
+probably live to hear some more fortunate suitor shout Eureka! over the
+treasure.' He turned pale as the Pallas and put his hand over his face.
+Then I said, 'Gordon, my young friend, I have always been deeply
+interested in your happiness; tell me frankly, do you love this girl
+Gertrude?' He seemed much embarrassed, but finally made his confession:
+'Mrs. Murray, I believe I shall be fond of her after a while. She is
+very lovely, and deeply, deeply attached to me, (vanity you see, Edna,)
+and I am grateful for her affection. She will brighten my lonely home,
+and at least I can be proud of her rare beauty. But I never expect to
+love any woman as I loved Edna Earl. I can pet Gertrude; I should have
+worshipped my first love, my proud, gifted, peerless Edna! Oh! she will
+never realize all she threw away when she coldly dismissed me.' Poor
+Gordon! Well, he is married; but his bride might have found cause of
+disquiet in his restless, abstracted manner on the evening of his
+wedding. What do you suppose was St. Elmo's criticism on this
+matrimonial mismatch? 'Poor devil! Before a year rolls over his head he
+will feel like plunging into the Atlantic, with Plymouth Rock for a
+necklace! Leigh deserves a better fate, and I would rather see him tied
+to wild horses and dragged across the Andes.' These pique marriages are
+terrible mistakes; so, my dear, I trust you will duly repent of your
+cruelty to poor Gordon."
+
+As Edna put the letter in her pocket, she wondered whether Gertrude
+really loved her husband, or whether chagrin at Mr. Murray's heartless
+desertion had not goaded the girl to accept Mr. Leigh.
+
+"Perhaps after all, Mr. Murray was correct in his estimate of her
+character, when he said that she was a mere child, and was capable of
+no very earnest affection. I hope so--I hope so."
+
+Edna sighed as she tried to assure herself of the probability that the
+newly married pair would become more attached as time passed; and her
+thoughts returned to that paragraph in Mrs. Murray's letter which
+seemed intentionally mysterious: "I know of a third instance which will
+take place ere long."
+
+Did she allude to her son and her niece? Edna could not believe this
+possible, and shook her head at the suggestion; but her lips grew cold,
+and her fingers locked each other as in a clasp of steel.
+
+When Mr. Manning called, and assisted her into the carriage, he
+observed an unusual preoccupancy of mind; but after a few desultory
+remarks she rallied, gave him her undivided attention, and seemed
+engrossed by his conversation.
+
+It was a fine, sunny day, bright but cool, with a fresh and stiffening
+west wind ripping the waters of the harbor.
+
+The week had been one of unusual trial, for Felix was sick, and even
+more than ordinarily fretful and exacting; and weary of writing and of
+teaching so constantly, the governess enjoyed the brief season of
+emancipation.
+
+Mr. Manning's long residence in the city had familiarized him with the
+beauties of Greenwood, and the history of many who slept dreamlessly in
+the costly mausoleums which they paused to examine and admire; and when
+at last he directed the driver to return, Edna sank back in one corner
+of the carriage and said: "Some morning I will come with the children
+and spend the entire day."
+
+She closed her eyes, and her thoughts travelled swiftly to that pure
+white obelisk standing in the shadow of Lookout; and melancholy
+memories brought a sigh to her lips and a slight cloud to the face that
+for two hours past had been singularly bright and animated. The silence
+had lasted some minutes, when Mr. Manning, who was gazing abstractedly
+out of the window, turned to his companion and said:
+
+"You look pale and badly to-day."
+
+"I have not felt as strong as usual, and it is a great treat to get
+away from the schoolroom and out into the open air, which is bracing
+and delightful. I believe I have enjoyed this outing more than any I
+have taken since I came North; and you must allow me to tell you how
+earnestly I thank you for your considerate remembrance of me."
+
+"Miss Earl, what I am about to say will perhaps seem premature, and
+will doubtless surprise you; but I beg you to believe that it is the
+result of mature deliberation--"
+
+He paused and looked earnestly at her.
+
+"You certainly have not decided to give up the editorship of 'Maga,' as
+you spoke of doing last winter. It would not survive your desertion six
+months."
+
+"My allusion was to yourself, not to the magazine, which I presume I
+shall edit as long as I live. Miss Earl, this state of affairs cannot
+continue. You have no regard for your health, which is suffering
+materially, and you are destroying yourself. You must let me take care
+of you, and save you from the ceaseless toil in which you are rapidly
+wearing out your life. To teach, as you do, all day, and then sit up
+nearly all night to write, would exhaust a constitution of steel or
+brass. You are probably not aware of the great change which has taken
+place in your appearance during the last three months. Hitherto
+circumstances may have left you no alternative, but one is now offered
+you. My property is sufficient to render you comfortable. I have
+already purchased a pleasant home, to which I shall remove next week,
+and I want you to share it with me--to share my future--all that I
+have. You have known me scarcely a year, but you are not a stranger to
+my character or position, and I think that you repose implicit
+confidence in me. Notwithstanding the unfortunate disparity in our
+years, I believe we are becoming mutually dependent on each other, and
+in your society I find a charm such as no other human being possesses;
+though I have no right to expect that a girl of your age can derive
+equal pleasure from the companionship of a man old enough to be her
+father. I am not demonstrative, but my feelings are warm and deep; and
+however incredulous you may be, I assure you that you are the first,
+the only woman I have ever asked to be my wife. I have known many who
+were handsome and intellectual, whose society I have really enjoyed,
+but not one until I met you whom I would have married. To you alone am
+I willing to entrust the education of my little Lila. She was but six
+months old when we were wrecked off Barnegat, and, in attempting to
+save his wife, my brother was lost. With the child in my arms I clung
+to a spar, and finally swam ashore; and since then, regarding her as a
+sacred treasure committed to my guardianship, I have faithfully
+endeavored to supply her father's place. There is a singular magnetism
+about you, Edna Earl, which makes me wish to see your face always at my
+hearthstone; and for the first time in my life I want to say to the
+world, 'This woman wears my name, and belongs to me for ever!' You are
+inordinately ambitious; I can lift you to a position that will fully
+satisfy you, and place you above the necessity of daily labor--a
+position of happiness and ease, where your genius can properly develop
+itself. Can you consent to be Douglass Manning's wife?"
+
+There was no more tremor in his voice than in the measured beat of a
+base drum; and in his granite face not a feature moved, not a muscle
+twitched, not a nerve quivered.
+
+So entirely unexpected was this proposal that Edna could not utter a
+word. The idea that he could ever wish to marry anybody seemed
+incredible, and that he should need her society appeared utterly
+absurd. For an instant she wondered if she had fallen asleep in the
+soft, luxurious corner of the carriage, and dreamed it all.
+
+Completely bewildered, she sat looking wonderingly at him.
+
+"Miss Earl, you do not seem to comprehend me, and yet my words are
+certainly very explicit. Once more I ask you, can you put your hand in
+mine and be my wife?"
+
+He laid one hand on hers, and with the other pushed back his glasses.
+
+Withdrawing her hands, she covered her face with them, and answered
+almost inaudibly:
+
+"Let me think--for you astonish me."
+
+"Take a day, or a week, if necessary, for consideration, and then give
+me your answer."
+
+Mr. Manning leaned back in the carriage, folded his hands, and looked
+quietly out of the window; and for a half hour silence reigned.
+
+Brief but sharp was the struggle in Edna's heart. Probably no woman's
+literary vanity and ambition has ever been more fully gratified than
+was hers, by this most unexpected offer of marriage from one whom she
+had been taught to regard as the noblest ornament of the profession she
+had selected. Thinking of the hour when she sat alone, shedding tears
+of mortification and bitter disappointment over his curt letter
+rejecting her MS., she glanced at the stately form beside her, the
+mysteriously calm, commanding face, the large white, finely moulded
+hands, waiting to clasp hers for all time, and her triumph seemed
+complete.
+
+To rule the destiny of that strong man, whose intellect was so
+influential in the world of letters, was a conquest of which, until
+this hour, she had never dreamed; and the blacksmith's darling was,
+after all, a mere woman, and the honor dazzled her.
+
+To one of her peculiar temperament wealth offered no temptation; but
+Douglass Manning had climbed to a grand eminence, and, looking up at
+it, she knew that any woman might well be proud to share it.
+
+He filled her ideal, he came fully up to her lofty moral and mental
+standard. She knew that his superior she could never hope to meet, and
+her confidence in his integrity of character was boundless.
+
+She felt that his society had become necessary to her peace of mind;
+for only in his presence was it possible to forget her past. Either she
+must marry him, or live single, and work and die--alone.
+
+To a girl of nineteen the latter alternative seems more appalling than
+to a woman of thirty, whose eyes have grown strong in the gray, cold,
+sunless light of confirmed old-maidenhood; even as the vision of those
+who live in dim caverns requires not the lamps needed by new-comers
+fresh from the dazzling outer world.
+
+Edna was weary of battling with precious memories of that reckless,
+fascinating cynic whom, without trusting, she had learned to love; and
+she thought that, perhaps, if she were the wife of Mr. Manning, whom
+without loving she fully trusted, it would help her to forget St. Elmo.
+
+She did not deceive herself; she knew that, despite her struggles and
+stern interdicts, she loved him as she could never hope to love any one
+else. Impatiently she said to herself:
+
+"Mr. Murray is as old as Mr. Manning, and in the estimation of the
+public is his inferior. Oh! why can not my weak, wayward heart follow
+my strong, clear-eyed judgment? I would give ten years of my life to
+love Mr. Manning as I love--"
+
+She compared a swarthy, electrical face, scowling and often repulsively
+harsh, with one cloudless and noble, over which brooded a solemn and
+perpetual peace; and she almost groaned aloud in her chagrin and
+self-contempt, as she thought, "Surely, if ever a woman was
+infatuated--possessed by an evil spirit--I certainly am."
+
+In attempting to institute a parallel between the two men, one seemed
+serene, majestic, and pure as the vast snowdome of Oraefa, glittering
+in the chill light of midsummer-midnight suns; the other fiery,
+thunderous, destructive as Izalco--one moment crowned with flames and
+lava-lashed--the next wrapped in gloom and dust and ashes.
+
+While she sat there wrestling as she had never done before, even on
+that day of trial in the church, memory, as if leagued with Satan,
+brought up the image of Mr. Murray as he stood pleading for himself,
+for his future. She heard once more his thrilling, passionate cry, "Oh,
+my darling' my darling! come to me!" And pressing her face to the
+lining of the carriage to stifle a groan, she seemed to feel again the
+close clasp of his arms, the throbbing of his heart against her cheek,
+the warm, tender, lingering pressure of his lips on hers.
+
+When they had crossed the ferry and were rattling over the streets of
+New York, Edna took her hands from her eyes; and there was a rigid
+paleness in her face and a mournful hollowness in her voice, as she
+said almost sorrowfully:
+
+"No, Mr Manning! We do not love each other, and I can never be your
+wife. It is useless for me to assure you that I am flattered by your
+preference, that I am inexpressibly proud of the distinction you have
+generously offered to confer upon me. Sir, you can not doubt that I do
+most fully and gratefully appreciate this honor, which I had neither
+the right to expect nor the presumption to dream of. My reverence and
+admiration are, I confess, almost boundless, but I find not one atom of
+love; and an examination of my feelings satisfies me that I could never
+yield you that homage of heart, that devoted affection which God
+demands that every wife should pay her husband. You have quite as
+little love for me. We enjoy each other's society because our pursuits
+are similar, our tastes congenial, our aspirations identical. In
+pleasant and profitable companionship we can certainly indulge as
+heretofore, and it would greatly pain me to be deprived of it in
+future, but this can be ours without the sinful mockery of a
+marriage--for such I hold a loveless union. I feel that I must have
+your esteem and your society, but your love I neither desire nor ever
+expect to possess; for the sentiments you cherish for me are precisely
+similar to those which I entertain toward you. Mr. Manning, we shall
+always be firm friends, but nothing more."
+
+An expression of surprise and disappointment drifted across, but did
+not settle on the editor's quiet countenance.
+
+Turning to her, he answered with grave gentleness:
+
+"Judge your own heart, Edna; and accept my verdict with reference to
+mine. Do you suppose that after living single all these years I would
+ultimately marry a woman for whom I had no affection? You spoke last
+week of the mirror of John Galeazzo Visconte, which showed his beloved
+Correggia her own image; and though I am a proud and reticent man, I
+beg you to believe that could you look into my heart you would find it
+such a mirror. Permit me to ask whether you intend to accept the love
+which I have reason to believe Mr. Murray has offered you?"
+
+"Mr. Manning, I never expect to marry any one, for I know I shall never
+meet your superior, and yet I can not accept your most flattering
+offer. You fill all my requirements of noble, Christian manhood; but
+after to-day this subject must not be alluded to."
+
+"Are you not too hasty? Will you not take more time for reflection? Is
+your decision mature and final?"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Manning--final, unchangeable. But do not throw me from you! I
+am very, very lonely, and you surely will not forsake me?"
+
+There were tears in her eyes as she looked up pleadingly in his face,
+and the editor sighed and paused a moment before he replied:
+
+"Edna, if under any circumstances you feel that I can aid or advise
+you, I shall be exceedingly glad to render all the assistance in my
+power. Rest assured I shall not forsake you as long as we both shall
+live. Call upon me without hesitation, and I will respond as readily
+and promptly as to the claims of my little Lila. In my heart you are
+associated with her. You must not tax yourself so unremittingly, or you
+will soon ruin your constitution. There is a weariness in your face and
+a languor in your manner mournfully prophetic of failing health. Either
+give up your situation as governess or abandon your writing. I
+certainly recommend the former, as I can not spare you from 'Maga.'"
+
+Here the carriage stopped at Mrs. Andrews's door, and as he handed her
+out Mr. Manning said:
+
+"Edna, my friend, promise me that you will not write to-night."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Manning; I promise."
+
+She did not go to her desk; but Felix was restless, feverish,
+querulous, and it was after midnight when she laid her head on her
+pillow. The milkmen in their noisy carts were clattering along the
+streets next morning, before her heavy eyelids closed, and she fell
+into a brief, troubled slumber; over which flitted a Fata Morgana of
+dreams, where the central figure was always that tall one whom she had
+seen last standing at the railroad station with the rain dripping over
+him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+
+"Let thy abundant blessing rest upon it, O Almighty God! else indeed my
+labor will be in vain. 'Paul planted, Apollos watered, but thou only
+can give the increase.' It is finished; look down in mercy, and
+sanctify it, and accept it."
+
+The night was almost spent when Edna laid down her pen, and raised her
+clasped hands over the MS., which she had just completed.
+
+For many weary months she had toiled to render it worthy of its noble
+theme, had spared neither time nor severe trains of thought; by day and
+by night she had searched and pondered; she had prayed fervently and
+ceaselessly, and worked arduously, unflaggingly to accomplish this
+darling hope of her heart, to embody successfully this ambitious dream,
+and at last the book was finished.
+
+The manuscript was a mental tapestry, into which she had woven
+exquisite shades of thought, and curious and quaint devices and rich,
+glowing imagery that necked the groundwork with purple and amber and
+gold.
+
+But would the design be duly understood and appreciated by the great,
+busy, bustling world, for whose amusement and improvement she had
+labored so assiduously at the spinning-wheels of fancy--the loom of
+thought? Would her fellow-creatures accept it in the earnest, loving
+spirit in which it had been manufactured? Would they hang this Gobelin
+of her brain along the walls of memory, and turn to it tenderly,
+reading reverently its ciphers and its illuminations; or would it be
+rent and ridiculed, and trampled under foot? This book was a shrine to
+which her purest thoughts, her holiest aspirations travelled like
+pilgrims, offering the best of which her nature was capable. Would
+those for whom she had patiently chiselled and built it guard and prize
+and keep it; or smite and overturn and defile it?
+
+Looking down at the mass of MS. now ready for the printer, a sad,
+tender, yearning expression filled the author's eyes; and her little
+white hands passed caressingly over its closely-written pages, as a
+mother's soft fingers might lovingly stroke the face of a child about
+to be thrust out into a hurrying crowd of cold, indifferent strangers,
+who perhaps would rudely jeer at and browbeat her darling.
+
+For several days past Edna had worked hard to complete the book, and
+now at last she could fold her tired hands, and rest her weary brain.
+
+But outraged nature suddenly swore vengeance, and her overworked nerves
+rose in fierce rebellion, refusing to be calm. She had so long
+anticipated this hour that its arrival was greeted by emotions beyond
+her control. As she contemplated the possible future of that pile of
+MS., her heart bounded madly, and then once more a fearful agony seized
+her, and darkness and a sense of suffocation came upon her. Rising, she
+strained her eyes and groped her way toward the window, but ere she
+reached it fell, and lost all consciousness.
+
+The sound of the fall, the crash of a china vase which her hand had
+swept from the table, echoed startlingly through the silent house, and
+aroused some of its inmates. Mrs. Andrews ran upstairs and into Felix's
+room, saw that he was sleeping soundly, and then she hastened up
+another flight of steps, to the apartment occupied by the governess.
+The gas burned dazzlingly over the table where rested the roll of MS.
+and on the floor near the window lay Edna.
+
+Ringing the bell furiously to summon her husband, and the servants,
+Mrs. Andrews knelt, raised the girl's head, and rubbing her cold hands,
+tried to rouse her. The heart beat faintly, and seemed to stop now and
+then, and the white, rigid face was as ghastly as if the dread kiss of
+Samael had indeed been pressed upon her still lips.
+
+Finding all her restoratives ineffectual, Mrs. Andrews sent her husband
+for the family physician, and with the assistance of the servants, laid
+the girl on her bed.
+
+When the doctor arrived and questioned her, she could furnish no clew
+to the cause of the attack, save by pointing to the table, where pen
+and paper showed that the sufferer had been at work.
+
+Edna opened her eyes at last, and looked around at the group of anxious
+faces, but in a moment the spasm of pain returned. Twice she muttered
+something, and putting his ear close to her mouth, the doctor heard her
+whispering to herself:
+
+"Never mind; it is done at last! Now I can rest."
+
+An hour elapsed before the paroxysms entirely subsided, and then, with
+her ivory-like hands clasped and thrown up over her head, the governess
+slept heavily, dreamlessly.
+
+For two days she remained in her own apartment, and on the morning of
+the third came down to the schoolroom, with a slow, weary step and a
+bloodless face, and a feeling of hopeless helplessness.
+
+She dispatched her MS. to the publisher to whom she had resolved to
+offer it, and, leaning far back in her chair, took up Felix's Greek
+grammar.
+
+Since the days of Dionysius Thrax, it had probably never appeared so
+tedious, so intolerably tiresome, as she found it now, and she felt
+relieved, almost grateful when Mrs. Andrews sent for her to come to the
+library, where Dr. Howell was waiting to see her.
+
+Seating himself beside her, the physician examined her countenance and
+pulse, and put his ear close to her heart.
+
+"Miss Earl, have you had many such attacks as the one whose effects
+have not yet passed away?"
+
+"This is the second time I have suffered so severely; though very
+frequently I find a disagreeable fluttering about my heart, which is
+not very painful."
+
+"What mode of treatment have you been following?"
+
+"None, sir. I have never consulted a physician."
+
+"Humph! Is it possible?"
+
+He looked at her with the keen, incisive eye of his profession, and
+pressed his ear once more to her heart, listening to the irregular and
+rapid pulsations.
+
+"Miss Earl, are you an orphan?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Have you any living relatives?"
+
+"None that I ever heard of."
+
+"Did any of your family die suddenly?"
+
+"Yes, I have been told that my mother died while apparently as well as
+usual, and engaged in spinning; and my grandfather I found dead,
+sitting in his rocking-chair, smoking his pipe."
+
+Dr. Howell cleared his throat, sighed and was silent.
+
+He saw a strange, startled expression leap into the large shadowy eyes,
+and the mouth quivered, the wan face grew whiter, and the thin fingers
+grasped each other; but she said nothing, and they sat looking at one
+another.
+
+The physician had come like Daniel to the banquet of life, and solved
+for the Belshazzar of youth the hideous riddle scrawled on the walls.
+
+"Dr. Howell, can you do nothing for me?"
+
+Her voice had sunk to a whisper, and she leaned eagerly forward to
+catch his answer.
+
+"Miss Earl, do you know what is meant by hypertrophy of the heart?"
+
+"Yes, yes, I know."
+
+She shivered slightly.
+
+"Whether you inherited your disease, I am not prepared to say, but
+certainly in your case there are some grounds for the belief."
+
+Presently she said abstractedly:
+
+"But grandpa lived to be an old man."
+
+The doctor's eyes fell upon the mosaic floor of the library; and then
+she knew that he could give her no hope.
+
+When at last he looked up again, he saw that she had dropped her face
+in her palms, and he was awed by the deathlike repose of her figure,
+the calm fortitude she evinced.
+
+"Miss Earl, I never deceive my patients. It is useless to dose you with
+medicine, and drug you into semi-insensibility. You must have rest and
+quiet; rest for mind as well as body; there must be no more teaching or
+writing. You are overworked, and incessant mental labor has hastened
+the approach of a disease which, under other circumstances, might have
+encroached very slowly and imperceptibly. If latent (which is barely
+possible) it has contributed to a fearfully rapid development. Refrain
+from study, avoid all excitement, exercise moderately but regularly in
+the open air; and, above all things, do not tax your brain. If you
+carefully observe these directions you may live to be as old as your
+grandfather. Heart diseases baffle prophecy, and I make no predictions."
+
+He rose and took his hat from the table.
+
+"Miss Earl, I have read your writings with great pleasure, and watched
+your brightening career with more interest than I ever felt in any
+other female author; and God knows it is exceedingly painful for me to
+tear away the veil from your eyes. From the first time you were pointed
+out to me in church, I saw that in your countenance which distressed
+and alarmed me; for its marble pallor whispered that your days were
+numbered. Frequently I have been tempted to come and expostulate with
+you, but I knew it would be useless. You have no reader who would more
+earnestly deplore the loss of your writings, but, for your own sake, I
+beg you to throw away your pen and rest."
+
+She raised her head and a faint smile crept feebly across her face.
+
+"Rest! rest! If my time is so short I can not afford to rest. There is
+so much to do, so much that I have planned, and hoped to accomplish. I
+am only beginning to learn how to handle my tools, my life-work is as
+yet barely begun. When my long rest overtakes me, I must not be found
+idly sitting with folded hands. Since I was thirteen years old I have
+never once rested; and now I am afraid I never shall. I would rather
+die working than live a drone."
+
+"But, my dear Miss Earl, those who love you have claims upon you."
+
+"I am alone in this world. I have no family to love me, and my work is
+to me what I suppose dear relatives must be to other women. For six
+years I have been studying to fit myself for usefulness, have lived
+with and for books; and though I have a few noble and kind friends, do
+you suppose I ever forget that I am kinless? It is a mournful thing to
+know that you are utterly isolated among millions of human beings; that
+not a drop of your blood flows in any other veins. My God only has a
+claim upon me. Dr. Howell, I thank you for your candor. It is best that
+I should know the truth; and I am glad that, instead of treating me
+like a child, you have frankly told me all. More than once I have had a
+singular feeling, a shadowy presentiment that I should not live to be
+an old woman, but I thought it the relic of childish superstition, and
+I did not imagine that--that I might be called away at any instant. I
+did not suspect that just as I had arranged my workshop, and sharpened
+all my tools, and measured off my work, that my morning sun would set
+suddenly in the glowing east, and the long, cold night fall upon me,
+'wherein no man can work'--"
+
+Her voice faltered and the physician turned away, and looked out of the
+window.
+
+"I am not afraid of death, nor am I so wrapped up in the mere happiness
+which this world gives; no, no; but I love my work! Ah! I want to live
+long enough to finish something grand and noble, something that will
+live when the hands that fashioned it have crumbled back to dust;
+something that will follow me across and beyond the dark, silent
+valley; something that can not be hushed and straightened and bandaged
+and screwed down under my coffin-lid--oh! something that will echo in
+eternity! that grandpa and I can hear 'sounding down the ages,' making
+music for the people, when I go to my final rest! And, please God! I
+shall! I will! Oh, doctor! I have a feeling here which assures me I
+shall be spared till I finish my darling scheme. You know Glanville
+said, and Poe quoted, 'Man doth not yield himself to the angels, nor
+unto death utterly, save only through the weakness of his feeble will.'
+Mine is strong, invincible; it will sustain me for a longer period than
+you seem to believe. The end is not yet. Doctor, do not tell people
+what you have told me. I do not want to be watched and pitied, like a
+doomed victim who walks about the scaffold with a rope already around
+his neck. Let the secret rest between you and me."
+
+He looked wonderingly at the electric white face, and something in its
+chill radiance reminded him of the borealis light, that waves its
+ghostly banners over a cold midnight sky.
+
+"God grant that I may be in error concerning your disease; and that
+threescore years and ten may be alloted you, to embody the airy dreams
+you love so well. I repeat, if you wish to prolong your days, give
+yourself more rest. I can do you little good; still, if at any time you
+fancy that I can aid or relieve you, do not hesitate to send for me. I
+shall come to see you as a friend, who reads and loves all that has yet
+fallen from your pen. God help and bless you, child!"
+
+As he left the room she locked the door, and walked slowly back to the
+low mantelpiece. Resting her arms on the black marble, she laid her
+head down upon them, and ambition and death stared face to face, and
+held grim parley over the coveted prey.
+
+Taking the probable measure of her remaining days, Edna fearlessly
+fronted the future, and pondered the possibility of crowding into two
+years the work which she had designed for twenty.
+
+To tell the girl to "rest," was a mockery; the tides of thought ebbed
+and flowed as ceaselessly as those of ocean, and work had become a
+necessity of her existence. She was far, far beyond the cool, quiet
+palms of rest, far out on the burning sands; and the Bahr-Sheitan
+rippled and glittered and beckoned, and she panted and pressed on.
+
+One book was finished, but before she had completed it the form and
+features of another struggled in her busy brain, and she longed to put
+them on paper.
+
+The design of the second book appeared to her partial eyes almost
+perfect, and the first seemed insignificant in comparison. Trains of
+thought that had charmed her, making her heart throb and her temples
+flush; and metaphors that glowed as she wrote them down, ah! how tame
+and trite all looked now, in the brighter light of a newer revelation!
+The attained, the achieved tarnished in her grasp. All behind was dun;
+all beyond clothed with a dazzling glory that lured her on.
+
+Once the fondest hopes of her heart had been to finish the book now in
+the publisher's hands; but ere it could be printed, other characters,
+other aims, other scenes usurped her attention. If she could only live
+long enough to incarnate the new ideal!
+
+Moreover, she knew that memory would spring up and renew its almost
+intolerable torture the moment that she gave herself to aimless
+reveries; and she felt that her sole hope of peace of mind, her only
+rest, was in earnest and unceasing labor. Subtle associations,
+merciless as the chains of Bonnivard, bound her to a past which she was
+earnestly striving to forget; and she continually paced as far off as
+her shackles would permit, sternly refusing to sit down meekly at the
+foot of the stake. She worked late at night until her body was
+exhausted, because she dreaded to lie awake, tossing helplessly on her
+pillow; haunted by precious recollections of days gone by forever.
+
+Her name was known in the world of letters, her reputation was already
+enviable; extravagant expectations were entertained concerning her
+future; and to maintain her hold on public esteem, to climb higher, had
+become necessary for her happiness.
+
+Through Mr. Manning's influence and friendship she was daily making the
+acquaintance of leading men in literature, and their letters and
+conversation stimulated her to renewed exertion.
+
+Yet she had never stooped to conciliate popular prejudices, had never
+written a line which her conscience did not dictate and her religious
+convictions sanction; had bravely attacked some of the pet vices and
+shameless follies of society, and had never penned a page without a
+prayer for guidance from on High.
+
+Now in her path rose God's Reaper, swinging his shining sickle,
+threatening to cut off and lay low her budding laurel wreath.
+
+While she stood silent and motionless in the quiet library, the woman's
+soul was wrestling with God for permission to toil a little while
+longer on earth, to do some good for her race, and to assist in saving
+a darkened soul almost as dear to her as her own.
+
+She never knew how long that struggle for life lasted; but when the
+prayer ended, and she lifted her face, the shadows and the sorrowful
+dread had passed away, and the old calm, the old sweet, patient smile
+reigned over pale, worn features.
+
+Early in July, Felix's feeble health forced his mother to abandon her
+projected tour to the White Mountains; and in accordance with Dr.
+Howell's advice, Mr. Andrews removed his family to a seaside
+summer-place, which he had owned for some years, but rarely occupied,
+as his wife preferred Newport, Saratoga, and Nahant.
+
+The house at the "Willows" was large and airy, the ceilings were high,
+windows wide, and a broad piazza, stretching across the front, was
+shaded by two aged and enormous willows, that stood on either side of
+the steps, and gave a name to the place.
+
+The fresh matting on the floors, the light cane sofa and chairs, the
+white muslin curtains and newly-painted green blinds imparted an
+appearance of delicious coolness and repose to the rooms; and while not
+one bright-hued painting was visible, the walls were hung with soft,
+gray, misty engravings of Landseer's pictures, framed in carved ebony
+and rosewood and oak.
+
+The gilded splendor of the Fifth Avenue house was left behind; here
+simplicity and quiet comfort held sway. Even the china wore no glitter,
+but was enamelled with green wreaths of vine-leaves; and the vases held
+only plumy ferns, fresh and dewy.
+
+Low salt meadow-lands extended east and west, waving fields of corn
+stretched northward, and the slight knoll on which the building stood
+sloped smoothly down to the ever-moaning, foam-fretted bosom of the
+blue Atlantic.
+
+To the governess and her pupils the change from New York heat and
+bustle to seaside rest, was welcome and delightful; and during the long
+July days, when the strong ocean breeze tossed aside the willow boughs,
+and swept through the rustling blinds, and lifted the hair on Edna's
+hot temples, she felt as if she had indeed taken a new lease on life.
+
+For several weeks her book had been announced as in press, and her
+publishers printed most flattering circulars, which heightened
+expectation, and paved the way for its favorable reception. Save the
+first chapter, rejected by Mr. Manning long before, no one had seen the
+MS., and while the reading public was on the qui vive, the author was
+rapidly maturing the plot of a second work.
+
+Finally, the book was bound; editors' copies winged their way
+throughout the country; the curious eagerly supplied themselves with
+the latest publication; and Edna's destiny as an author hung in the
+balance.
+
+It was with strange emotions that she handled the copy sent to her, for
+it seemed indeed a part of herself. She knew that her own heart was
+throbbing in its pages, and wondered whether the great world-pulses
+would beat in unison.
+
+Instead of a preface she had quoted on the title-page those pithy lines
+in "Aurora Leigh":
+
+"My critic Belfair wants a book Entirely different, which will sell and
+live; A striking book, yet not a startling book--The public blames
+originalities. You must not pump spring-water unawares Upon a gracious
+public full of nerves--Good things, not subtle--new, yet orthodox; As
+easy reading as the dog-eared page That's fingered by said public fifty
+years, Since first taught spelling by its grandmother, And yet a
+revelation in some sort: That's hard, my critic Belfair!"
+
+Now, as Edna nestled her fingers among the pages of her book, a tear
+fell and moistened them, and the unvoiced language of her soul was,
+"Grandpa! do you keep close enough to me to read my book? Oh! do you
+like it? are you satisfied? Are you proud of your poor little Pearl?"
+
+The days were tediously long while she waited in suspense for the
+result of the weighing in editors' sanctums, for the awful verdict of
+the critical Sanhedrim. A week dragged itself away; and the severity of
+the decree might have entitled it to one of those slips of blue paper
+upon which Frederick the Great required his courts to inscribe their
+sentences of death. Edna learned the full import of the words:
+
+"He that writes, Or makes a feast, more certainly invites His judges
+than his friends; there's not a guest But will find something wanting
+or ill-drest."
+
+Newspapers pronounced the book a failure. Some sneered in a gentlemanly
+manner, employing polite phraseology; others coarsely caricatured it.
+Many were insulted by its incomprehensible erudition; a few growled at
+its shallowness. To-day there was a hint at plagiarism; to-morrow an
+outright, wholesale theft was asserted. Now she was a pedant; and then
+a sciolist. Reviews poured in upon her thick and fast; all found
+grievous faults, but no two reviewers settled on the same error. What
+one seemed disposed to consider almost laudable the other denounced
+violently. One eminently shrewd, lynx-eyed editor discovered that two
+of her characters were stolen from a book which Edna had never seen;
+and another, equally ingenious and penetrating, found her entire plot
+in a work of which she had never heard; while a third, shocked at her
+pedantry, indignantly assured her readers that they had been imposed
+upon, that the learning was all "picked up from encyclopaedias";
+whereat the young author could not help laughing heartily, and wondered
+why, if her learning had been so easily gleaned, her irate and insulted
+critics did not follow her example.
+
+The book was for many days snubbed, buffeted, browbeaten; and the care
+fully-woven tapestry was torn into shreds and trampled upon; and it
+seemed that the patiently sculptured shrine was overtured and despised
+and desecrated.
+
+Edna was astonished. She knew that her work was not perfect, but she
+was equally sure that it was not contemptible. She was surprised rather
+than mortified, and was convinced, from the universal howling, that she
+had wounded more people than she dreamed were vulnerable.
+
+She felt that the impetuosity and savageness of the attacks must
+necessitate a recoil; and though it was difficult to be patient under
+such circumstances, she waited quietly, undismayed by the clamor.
+
+Meantime the book sold rapidly, the publishers could scarcely supply
+the demand; and at last Mr. Manning's Magazine appeared, and the
+yelping pack of Dandie Dinmont's pets--Auld Mustard and Little Mustard,
+Auld Pepper and Little Pepper, Young Mustard and Young Pepper, stood
+silent and listened to the roar of the lion.
+
+The review of Edna's work was headed by that calm retort of Job to his
+self-complacent censors, "No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom
+shall die with you"; and it contained a withering rebuke to those who
+had so flippantly essayed to crush the young writer.
+
+Mr. Manning handled the book with the stern impartiality which gave
+such value to his criticisms--treating it as if it had been written by
+an utter stranger.
+
+He analyzed it thoroughly; and while pointing out some serious errors
+which had escaped all eyes but his, he bestowed upon a few passages
+praise which no other American writer had ever received from him, and
+predicted that they would live when those who attempted to ridicule
+them were utterly forgotten in their graves.
+
+The young author was told that she had not succeeded in her grand aim,
+because the subject was too vast for the limits of a novel, and her
+acquaintance with the mythologies of the world was not sufficiently
+extensive or intimate. But she was encouraged to select other themes
+more in accordance with the spirit of the age in which she lived; and
+the assurance was given to her, that her writings were destined to
+exert a powerful influence on her race. Some faults of style were
+gravely reprimanded, some beauties most cordially eulogized and held up
+for the admiration of the world.
+
+Edna had as little literary conceit as personal vanity; she saw and
+acknowledged the errors pointed out by Mr. Manning, and resolved to
+avoid them in future. She felt that some objections urged against her
+book were valid, but knew that she was honest and earnest in her work,
+and could not justly be accused of trifling.
+
+Gratefully and joyfully she accepted Mr. Manning's verdict, and turned
+her undivided attention upon her new manuscript.
+
+While the critics snarled, the mass of readers warmly approved; and
+many who did not fully appreciate all her arguments and illustrations,
+were at least clear-eyed enough to perceive that it was their
+misfortune, not her fault.
+
+Gradually the book took firm hold on the affections of the people; and
+a few editors came boldly to the rescue, and ably championed it.
+
+During these days of trial, Edna could not avoid observing one
+humiliating fact, that saddened without embittering her nature. She
+found that instead of sympathizing with her, she received no mercy from
+authors, who, as a class, out-Heroded Herod in their denunciations, and
+left her little room to doubt that--
+
+"Envy's a sharper spur than pay, And unprovoked 'twill court the fray;
+No author ever spared a brother; Wits are gamecocks to one another."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+
+"Miss Earl, you promised that as soon as I finished the 'Antiquary' you
+would read me a description of the spot which Sir Walter Scott selected
+for the scene of his story. We have read the last chapter; now please
+remember your promise."
+
+"Felix, in your hunger for books you remind me of the accounts given of
+cormorants. The 'Antiquary' ought to satisfy you for the present, and
+furnish food for thought that would last at least till to-morrow;
+still, if you exact an immediate fulfillment of my promise, I am quite
+ready to comply."
+
+Edna took from her workbasket a new and handsomely illustrated volume,
+and read Bertram's graphic description of Auchmithie and the coast of
+Forfarshire.
+
+Finding that her pupils were deeply interested in the "Fisher Folk,"
+she read on and on; and when she began the pathetic story of the widow
+at Prestonpans, Hattie's eyes widened with wonder, and Felix's were dim
+with tears:
+
+"We kent then that we micht look across the sea; but ower the waters
+would never blink the een that made sunshine around our hearths; ower
+the waters would never come the voices that were mair delightfu' than
+the music o' the simmer winds, when the leaves gang dancing till they
+sang. My story, sir, is dune. I hae nae mair tae tell. Sufficient and
+suffice it till say, that there was great grief at the Pans--Rachel
+weeping for her weans, and wouldna be comforted. The windows were
+darkened, and the air was heavy wi' sighin' and sabbin'."
+
+The governess closed the book, laid it back in her basket, and raising
+the lid of the piano, she sang that sad, wailing lyric of Kingsley's,
+"The Three Fishers."
+
+It was one of those rare and royal afternoons late in August, when
+summer, conscious that her reign is well-nigh ended, gathers all her
+gorgeous drapery, and proudly robes the world in regal pomp and
+short-lived splendor. Pearly cloud islets, with silver strands,
+clustered in the calm blue of the upper air; soft, salmon-hued cumulus
+masses sailed solemnly along the eastern horizon--atmospheric ships
+freighted in the tropics with crystal showers for thirsty fields and
+parched meadows--with snow crowns for Icelandic mountain brows, and
+shrouds of sleet for mouldering masts, tossed high and helpless on
+desolate Arctic cliffs. Restless gulls flashed their spotless wings, as
+they circled and dipped in the shining waves; and in the magic light of
+evening, the swelling canvas of a distant sloop glittered like
+plate-glass smitten with sunshine. A strong, steady, southern breeze
+curled and crested the beautiful, bounding billows, over which a
+fishing-smack danced like a gilded bubble; and as the aged willows
+bowed their heads, it whispered messages from citron, palm, and orange
+groves, gleaming far, far away under the white fire of the Southern
+Crown. Strange tidings these "winged winds" waft over sea and land; and
+to-day, listening to low tones that traveled to her from Le Bocage,
+Edna looked out over the ever-changing, wrinkled face of the ocean, and
+fell into a reverie.
+
+Silence reigned in the sitting-room; Hattie fitted a new tarlatan dress
+on her doll, and Felix was dreaming of Prestonpans.
+
+The breeze swept over the cluster of Tuscan jasmine and the tall, snowy
+phlox nodding in the green vase on the table, and shook the muslin
+curtains till light and shadow chased each other like waves over the
+noble Longhi engraving of Raphael's "Vision of Ezekiel," which hung
+just above the piano. After a while Felix took his chin from the
+windowsill, and his eyes from the sparkling, tossing water, and his
+gaze sought the beloved countenance of his governess.
+
+"The mouth with steady sweetness set, And eyes conveying unaware The
+distant hint of some regret That harbored there."
+
+Her dress was of white mull, with lace gathered around the neck and
+wristbands; a delicate fringy fern leaf was caught by the cameo that
+pinned the lace collar, and around the heavy coil of hair at the back
+of her head, Hattie had twined a spray of scarlet tecoma.
+
+Save the faint red on her thin, flexible lips, her face was as
+stainless as that of the Hebrew Mary, in a carved ivory "Descent from
+the Cross," which hung over the mantelpiece.
+
+As the boy watched her he thought the beautiful eyes were larger and
+deeper, and burned more brilliantly than ever before and the violet
+shadows beneath them seemed to widen day by day, telling of hard study
+and continued vigils. Pale and peaceful, patiently sad, without a trace
+of bitterness or harshness, her countenance might have served as a
+model for some which Ary Scheffer dimly saw in his rapt musings over
+"Wilhelm Meister."
+
+"Oh! yonder comes mamma and--Uncle Grey! No; that is not my uncle Grey.
+Who can it be? It is--Sir Roger!"
+
+Hattie ran out to meet her mother, who had been to New York; and Felix
+frowned, took up his crutches, and put on his hat.
+
+Edna turned and went to her own room, and in a few moments Hattie
+brought her a package of letters, and a message from Mrs. Andrews,
+desiring her to come back to the sitting-room.
+
+Glancing over the directions the governess saw that all the letters
+were from strangers, except one from Mrs. Murray, which she eagerly
+opened. The contents were melancholy and unexpected. Mr. Hammond had
+been very ill for weeks, was not now in immediate danger, but was
+confined to his room; and the physicians thought that he would never be
+well again. He had requested Mrs. Murray to write, and beg Edna to come
+to him, and remain in his house. Mrs. Powell was in Europe with
+Gertrude and Gordon, and the old man was alone in his home, Mrs. Murray
+and her son having taken care of him thus far. At the bottom of the
+page Mr. Hammond had scrawled almost illegibly: "My dear child, I need
+you. Come to me at once."
+
+Mrs. Murray had added a postscript to tell her that if she would
+telegraph them upon what day she could arrange to start, Mr. Murray
+would come to New York for her.
+
+Edna put the letter out of sight, and girded herself for a desperate
+battle with her famishing heart, which bounded wildly at the tempting
+joys spread almost within react. The yearning to go back to the dear
+old parsonage, to the revered teacher, to cheer and brighten his
+declining days, and, above all, to see Mr. Murray's face, to hear his
+voice once more, oh! the temptation was strong indeed, and the cost of
+resistance bitter beyond precedent. Having heard incidentally of the
+reconciliation that had taken place, she knew why Mr. Hammond so
+earnestly desired her presence in a house where Mr. Murray now spent
+much of his time; she knew all the arguments, all the pleadings to
+which she must listen, and she dared not trust her heart.
+
+"Enter not into temptation!" was the warning which she uttered again
+and again to her own soul; and though she feared the pastor would be
+pained, she felt that he would not consider her ungrateful--knew that
+his warm, tender heart would understand hers.
+
+Though she had always studiously endeavored to expel Mr. Murray from
+her thoughts, there came hours when his image conquered; when the
+longing, the intense wish to see him was overmastering; when she felt
+that she would give ten years of her life for one long look into his
+face, or for a picture of him.
+
+Now, when she had only to say, "Come!" and he would be with her, she
+sternly denied her starving heart, and instead of bread gave it stones
+and serpents.
+
+She took her pen to answer the letter, but a pang which she had learned
+to understand told her that she was not now strong enough; and,
+swallowing some medicine which Dr. Howell had prescribed, she snatched
+up a crimson scarf and went down to the beach.
+
+The serenity of her countenance had broken up in a fearful tempest, and
+her face writhed as she hurried along to overtake Felix. Just now she
+dreaded to be alone, and yet the only companionship she could endure
+was that of the feeble cripple, whom she had learned to love, as woman
+can love only when all her early idols are in the dust.
+
+"Wait for me, Felix!"
+
+The boy stopped, turned, and limped back to meet her, for there was a
+strange, pleading intonation in her mournfully sweet voice.
+
+"What is the matter, Miss Earl? You look troubled."
+
+"I only want to walk with you, for I feel lonely this evening."
+
+"Miss Earl, have you seen Sir Roger Percival?"
+
+"No, no; why should I see him? Felix, my darling, my little brother! do
+not call me Miss Earl any longer. Call me Edna. Ah, child! I am utterly
+alone; I must have somebody to love me. My heart turns to you."
+
+She passed her arm around the boy's shoulders and leaned against him,
+while he rested on his crutches and looked up at her with fond pride.
+
+"Edna! I have wanted to call you so since the day I first saw you. You
+know very well that I love you better than every thing else in the
+world. If there is any good in me, I shall have to thank you for it; if
+ever I am useful, it will be your work. I am wicked still; but I never
+look at you without trying to be a better boy. You do not need me--you
+who are so great and gifted; whose writings everybody reads and
+admires; whose name is already famous. Oh! you can not need any one,
+and, least of all, a poor little helpless cripple! who can only worship
+you, and love the sound of your voice better than all the music that
+ever was played! If I thought that you, Miss Earl--whose book all the
+world is talking about--if I thought you really cared for me--Oh, Edna!
+Edna! I believe my heart would be too big for my poor little body!"
+
+"Felix, we need each other. Do you suppose I would have followed you
+out here, if I did not prefer your society to that of others?"
+
+"Something has happened since you sang the 'Three Fishers' and sat
+looking out of the window an hour ago. Your face has changed. What is
+it, Edna? Can't you trust me?"
+
+"Yes. I received a letter which troubles me. It announces the feeble
+health of a dear and noble friend, who writes begging me to come to
+him, and nurse and remain with him as long as he lives. You need not
+start and shiver so--I am not going. I shall not leave you; but it
+distresses me to know that he has asked an impossible thing. Now you
+can understand why I did not wish to be alone."
+
+She leaned her cheek down on the boy's head, and both stood silent,
+looking over the wide heaving waste of immemorial waters.
+
+A glowing orange sky overarched an orange ocean, which slowly became in
+turn ruby, and rose, and violet, and pearly gray, powdered with a few
+dim stars. As the rising waves broke along the beach, the stiffening
+breeze bent the spray till it streamed like silvery plumes; and the low
+musical murmur swelled to a monotonous moan, that seemed to come over
+the darkening waters like wails of the lost from some far, far "isles
+of the sea."
+
+Awed by the mysterious solemnity which ever broods over the ocean,
+Felix slowly repeated that dirge of Tennyson's, "Break, break, break!"
+and when he commenced the last verse, Edna's voice, low and quivering,
+joined his.
+
+Out of the eastern sea, up through gauzy cloud-bars, rose the moon,
+round, radiant, almost full, shaking off the mists, burnishing the
+waves with a ghostly lustre.
+
+The wind rose and fluttered Edna's scarlet scarf like a pirate's
+pennon, and the low moan became a deep, sullen, ominous mutter.
+
+"There will be a gale before daylight; it is brewing down yonder at the
+southwest. The wind has veered since we came out. There! did you notice
+what a savage snort there was in that last gust?"
+
+Felix pointed to the distant water-line, where now and then a bluish
+flash of lightning showed the teeth of the storm raging far away under
+southern constellations, extinguishing for a time the golden flame of
+Canopus.
+
+"Yes, you must go in, Felix. I ought not to have kept you out so long."
+
+Reluctantly she turned from the beach, and they had proceeded but a few
+yards in the direction of the house when they met Mrs. Andrews and her
+guest.
+
+"Felix, my son! Too late, too late for you! Come in with me. Miss Earl,
+as you are so fond of the beach, I hope you will show Sir Roger all its
+beauties. I commit him to your care."
+
+She went toward the house with her boy, and as Sir Roger took Edna's
+hand and bent forward, looking eagerly into her face, she saw a pained
+and startled expression cross his own.
+
+"Miss Earl, did you receive a letter from me written immediately after
+the perusal of your book?"
+
+"Yes, Sir Roger, and your cordial congratulations and flattering
+opinion were, I assure you, exceedingly gratifying, especially as you
+were among the first who found anything in it to praise."
+
+"You have no idea with what intense interest I have watched its
+reception at the hands of the press, and I think the shallow, flippant
+criticisms were almost as nauseous to me as they must have been to you.
+Your book has had a fierce struggle with these self-consecrated,
+red-handed, high-priests of the literary Yama; but its success is now
+established, and I bring you news of its advent in England, where it
+has been republished. You can well afford to exclaim with Drayton:
+
+  'We that calumnious critic may aschew,
+    That blasteth all things with his poisoned breath.
+   Detracting what laboriously we do
+    Only with that which he but idly saith.'
+
+The numerous assaults made upon you reminded me constantly of the
+remarks of Blackwood a year or two since: 'Formerly critics were as
+scarce and formidable, and consequently as well known as mastiffs in a
+country parish; but now no luckless traveller can show his face in a
+village without finding a whole pack yelping at his heels.'
+Fortunately, Miss Earl, though they show their teeth, and are evidently
+anxious to mangle, they are not strong enough to do much harm. Have you
+answered any of these attacks?"
+
+"No, sir. Had I ever commenced filling the sieve of the Danaides, I
+should have time for nothing else. If you will not regard me as
+exceedingly presumptuous, and utterly ridiculous by the comparison, I
+will add that, with reference to unfavorable criticism, I have followed
+the illustrious example of Buffon, who said, when critics opened their
+batteries, 'Je n'ai jamais repondu a aucune critique, et je garderai le
+meme silence sur celle-ci.'"
+
+"But, my dear Miss Earl, I see that you have been accused of
+plagiarizing. Have you not refuted this statement?"
+
+"Again I find Buffon's words rising to answer for me, as they did for
+himself under similar circumstances, 'Il vaut mieux laisser ces
+mauvaises gens dans l'incertitude!' Moreover, sir, I have no right to
+complain, for if it is necessary in well-regulated municipalities to
+have inspectors of all other commodities, why not of books also! I do
+not object to the rigid balancing--I wish to pass for no more than I
+weigh; but I do feel inclined to protest sometimes, when I see myself
+denounced simply because the scales are too small to hold what is
+ambitiously piled upon them, and my book is either thrown out
+pettishly, or whittled and scraped down to fit the scales. The storm,
+Sir Roger, was very severe at first--nay, it is not yet ended; but I
+hope, I believe I shall weather it safely. If my literary bark had
+proved unworthy and sprung a leak and foundered, it would only have
+shown that it did not deserve to live; that it was better it should go
+down alone and early, than when attempting to pilot others on the rough
+unknown sea of letters. I can not agree with you in thinking that
+critics are more abundant now than formerly. More books are written,
+and consequently more are tabooed; but the history of literature proves
+that, from the days of Congreve,
+
+  'Critics to plays for the same end resort
+   That surgeons wait on trials in a court;
+   For innocence condemned they've no respect
+   Provided they've a body to dissect.'
+
+After all, it cannot be denied that some of the best portions of
+Byron's and Pope's writings were scourged out of them by the scorpion
+thongs of adverse criticism; and the virulence of the Xenien Sturm
+waged by Schiller and Goethe against the army of critics who assaulted
+them, attests the fact that even appreciative Germany sometimes nods in
+her critical councils. Certainly I have had my share of scourging; for
+my critics have most religiously observed the warning of 'Spare the rod
+and spoil the child'; and henceforth if my writings are not model,
+well-behaved, puritanical literary children, my censors must be
+exonerated from all blame, and I will give testimony in favor of the
+zeal and punctuality of these self-elected officials of the public
+whipping-post. The canons have not varied one iota for ages; if authors
+merely reflect the ordinary normal aspect of society, without
+melodramatic exaggeration or ludicrous caricature, they are voted
+trite, humdrum, commonplace, and live no longer than their
+contemporaries. If they venture a step in advance, and attempt to lead,
+to lift up the masses, or to elevate the standard of thought and extend
+its range, they are scoffed at as pedants, and die unhonored prophets;
+and just as the tomb is sealed above them, people peer more closely
+into their books, and whisper, 'There is something here after all;
+great men have been among us.' The next generation chants paeans, and
+casts chaplets on the graves, and so the world rings with the names of
+ghosts, and fame pours generous libations to appease the manes of
+genius slaughtered on the altar of criticism. Once Schiller said,
+'Against public stupidity the gods themselves are powerless.' Since
+then, that same public lifted him to the pedestal of a demi-god; now
+all Germany proudly claims him; and who shall tell us where sleep his
+long-forgotten critics? Such has been the history of the race since
+Homer groped through vine-clad Chios, and poor Dante was hunted from
+city to city. If the great hierarchs of literature are sometimes
+stabbed while ministering at the shrine, what can we humble acolytes
+expect but to be scourged entirely out of the temple? We all get our
+dues at last; for yonder, among the stars, Astraea laughs at man's
+valuations, and shakes her infallible balance and re-weighs us."
+
+She had crossed her arms on the low stone wall that enclosed the lawn,
+and bending forward, the moon shone full on her face, and her eyes and
+her thoughts went out to sea. Her companion stood watching her
+countenance, and some strange expression there recalled to his mind
+that vivid description:
+
+  "And then she raised her head, and upward cast
+   Wild looks from HOMELESS EYES, whose liquid light
+   Gleamed out between the folds of blue-black hair,
+   As gleam twin lakes between the purple peaks
+   Of deep Parnassus, at the mournful moon."
+
+After a short silence, Sir Roger said:
+
+"Miss Earl, I can find no triumph written on your features, and I doubt
+whether you realize how very proud your friends are of your success."
+
+"As yet, sir, it is not assured. My next book will determine my status
+in literature; and I have too much to accomplish--I have achieved too
+little, to pause and look back, and pat my own shoulder, and cry, Io
+triumphe! I am not so indifferent as you seem to imagine. Praise
+gratifies, and censure pains me; but I value both as mere gauges of my
+work, indexing the amount of good I may or may not hope to effect. I
+wish to be popular--that is natural, and, surely, pardonable; but I
+desire it not as an end, but as a means to an end--usefulness to my
+fellow-creatures;
+
+  'And whether crowned or crownless, when I fall,
+   It matters not, so as God's work is done.'
+
+I love my race, I honor my race; I believe that human nature,
+sublimated by Christianity, is capable of attaining nobler heights than
+pagan philosophers and infidel seers ever dreamed of. And because my
+heart yearns toward my fellow-creatures, I want to clasp one hand in
+the warm throbbing palm of sinful humanity, and with the other hold up
+the lamp that God gave me to carry through this world, and so struggle
+onward, heavenward, with this generation of men and women. I claim no
+clear Uriel vision, now and then I stumble and grope; but at least I
+try to keep my little lamp trimmed, and I am not so blind as some, who
+reel and stagger in the Maremme of crime and fashionable vice. As a
+pilgrim toiling through a world of sinful temptation, and the night of
+time where the stars are often shrouded, I cry to those beyond and
+above me, 'Hold high your lights, that I may see my way!' and to those
+behind and below me, 'Brothers! sisters! come on, come up!' Ah! these
+steeps of human life are hard enough to climb when each shares his
+light and divides his neighbor's grievous burden. God help us all to
+help one another! Mecca pilgrims stop in the Valley of Muna to stone
+the Devil; sometimes I fear that in the Muna of life we only stone each
+other and martyr Stephen. Last week I read a lecture on architecture,
+and since then I find myself repeating one of the passages: 'And
+therefore, lastly and chiefly, you must love the creatures to whom you
+minister, your fellow-men; for if you do not love them, not only will
+you be little interested in the passing events of life, but in all your
+gazing at humanity, you will be apt to be struck only by outside form,
+and not by expression. It is only kindness and tenderness which will
+ever enable you to see what beauty there is in the dark eyes that are
+sunk with weeping, and in the paleness of those fixed faces which the
+earth's adversity has compassed about, till they shine in their
+patience like dying watch-fires through twilight.' In some sort I think
+we are all mechanics--moral architects, designing as apprentices on the
+sands of time that which, as master builders, we shall surely erect on
+the jasper pavements of eternity. So let us all heed the noble words."
+
+She seemed talking rather to herself, or to the surging sea where her
+eyes rested, than to Sir Roger; and as he noticed the passionless
+pallor of her face, he sighed, and put his hands on hers.
+
+"Come, walk with me on the beach, and let me tell you why I came back
+to New York, instead of sailing from Canada, as I once intended."
+
+A half hour elapsed, and Mrs. Andrews, who was sitting alone on the
+piazza, saw the governess coming slowly up the walk. As she ascended
+the steps, the lady of the house exclaimed:
+
+"Where is Sir Roger?"
+
+"He has gone."
+
+"Well, my dear! Pardon me for anticipating you, but as I happen to know
+all about the affair, accept my congratulations. You are the luckiest
+woman in America."
+
+Mrs. Andrews put her arm around Edna's waist, but something in the
+countenance astonished and disappointed her.
+
+"Mrs. Andrews, Sir Roger sails to-morrow for England. He desired me to
+beg that you would excuse him for not coming to bid you good-bye."
+
+"Sails to-morrow! When does he return to America?"
+
+"Probably never."
+
+"Edna Earl, you are an idiot! You may have any amount of genius, but
+certainly not one grain of common sense! I have no patience with you! I
+had set my heart on seeing you his wife."
+
+"But, unfortunately for me, I could not set my heart on him. I am very
+sorry. I wish we had never met, for indeed I like Sir Roger. But it is
+useless to discuss what is past and irremediable. Where are the
+children?"
+
+"Asleep, I suppose. After all, show me 'a gifted woman, a genius,' and
+I will show you a fool."
+
+Mrs. Andrews bit her lip, and walked off; and Edna went upstairs to
+Felix's room.
+
+The boy was sitting by the open window, watching gray clouds trailing
+across the moon, checkering the face of the mighty deep, now with
+shadow, now with sheen. So absorbed was he in his communing with the
+mysterious spirit of the sea, that he did not notice the entrance of
+the governess until he felt her hand on his shoulder.
+
+"Ah! have you come at last? Edna, I was wishing for you a little while
+ago, for as I sat looking over the waves, a pretty thought came into my
+mind, and I want to tell you about it. Last week, you remember, we were
+reading about Antony and Cleopatra; and just now, while I was watching
+a large star yonder making a shining track across the sea, a ragged,
+hungry-looking cloud crept up, and nibbled at the edge of the star, and
+swallowed it! And I called the cloud Cleopatra swallowing her pearl!"
+
+Edna looked wonderingly into the boy's bright eyes, and drew his head
+to her shoulder.
+
+"My dear Felix, are you sure you never heard that same thought read or
+quoted? It is beautiful, but this is not the first time I have heard
+it. Think, my dear little boy; try to remember where you saw it
+written."
+
+"Indeed, Edna, I never saw it anywhere. I am sure I never heard it
+either; for it seemed quite new when it bounced into my mind just now.
+Who else ever thought of it?"
+
+"Mr. Stanyan Bigg, an English poet, whose writings are comparatively
+unknown in this country. His works I have never seen, but I read a
+review of them in an English book, which contained many extracts; and
+that pretty metaphor which you used just now, was among them."
+
+"Is that review in our library?"
+
+"No, I am sure it is not; but you may have seen the lines quoted
+somewhere else."
+
+"Edna, I am very certain I never heard it before. Do you recollect how
+it is written in the Englishman's poem? If you can repeat it, I shall
+know instantly, because my memory is very good."
+
+"I think I can give you one stanza, for I read it when I was in great
+sorrow, and it made an impression upon me:
+
+  'The clouds, like grim black faces, come and go;
+    One tall tree stretches up against the sky;
+   It lets the rain through, like a trembling hand
+    Pressing thin fingers on a watery eye.
+   The moon came, but shrank back, like a young girl
+    Who has burst in upon funereal sadness;
+   One star came--Cleopatra-like, the Night
+    Swallowed this one pearl in a fit of madness!'
+
+"Well, Felix, you are a truthful boy, and I can trust you!"
+
+"I never heard the poetry before, and I tell you, Edna, the idea is
+just as much mine as it is Mr. Biggs's!"
+
+"I believe you. Such coincidences are rare, and people are very loath
+to admit the possibility; but that they do occasionally occur, I have
+no doubt. Perhaps some day when you write a noble poem, and become a
+shining light in literature, you may tell this circumstance to the
+world; and bid it beware how it idly throws the charge of plagiarism
+against the set teeth of earnest, honest workers."
+
+"Edna, I look at my twisted feet sometimes, and I feel thankful that it
+is my body, not my mind, that is deformed. If I am ever able to tell
+the world anything, it will be how much I owe you; for I trace all holy
+thoughts and pretty ideas to you and your music and your writings."
+
+They sat there awhile in silence, watching heavy masses of cloud darken
+the sea and sky; and then Felix lifted his face from Edna's shoulder,
+and asked timidly:
+
+"Did you send Sir Roger away?"
+
+"He goes to Europe to-morrow, I believe."
+
+"Poor Sir Roger! I am sorry for him. I told mamma you never thought of
+him; that you loved nothing but books and flowers and music."
+
+"How do you know that?"
+
+"I have watched you, and when he was with you I never saw that great
+shining light in your eyes, or that strange moving of your lower lip,
+that always shows me when you are really glad; as you were that Sunday
+when the music was so grand; or that rainy morning when we saw the
+pictures of the 'Two Marys at the Sepulchre.' I almost hated poor Sir
+Roger, because I was afraid he might take you to England, and then,
+what would have become of me? Oh! the world seems so different, so
+beautiful, so peaceful, as long as I have you with me. Everybody
+praises you, and is proud of you, but nobody loves you, as I do."
+
+He took her hand, passed it over his cheek and forehead, and kissed it
+tenderly.
+
+"Felix, do you feel at all sleepy?"
+
+"Not at all. Tell me something more about the animalcula that cause the
+phosphorescence yonder--making the top of each wave look like a fringe
+of fire. It is true that they are little round things that look like
+jelly--so small that it takes one hundred and seventy, all in a row, to
+make an inch; and that a wineglass can hold millions of them?"
+
+"I do not feel well enough to-night to talk about animalcula. I am
+afraid I shall have one of those terrible attacks I had last winter.
+Felix, please don't go to bed for a while at least; and if you hear me
+call, come to me quickly. I must write a letter before I sleep. Sit
+here, will you, till I come back?"
+
+For the first time in her life she shrank from the thought of suffering
+alone, and felt the need of a human presence.
+
+"Edna, let me call mamma. I saw this afternoon that you were not well."
+
+"No, it may pass off; and I want nobody about me but you."
+
+Only a narrow passage divided her room from his; and leaving the door
+open, she sat down before her desk to answer Mr. Hammond's appeal.
+
+As the night wore on, the wind became a gale; the fitful, bluish glare
+of the lightning showed fearful ranks of ravenous waves scowling over
+each others' shoulders; a roar as of universal thunder shook the shore,
+and in the coral-columned cathedral of the great deep, wrathful ocean
+played a wild and weird fugue.
+
+Felix waited patiently, listening amid the dead diapason of wind and
+wave, for the voice of his governess. But no sound came from the
+opposite room; and at last, alarmed by the omnious silence, he took up
+his crutches and crossed the passage.
+
+The muslin curtains, blown from their ribbon fastenings, streamed like
+signals of distress on the breath of the tempest, and the lamplight
+flickered and leaped to the top of its glass chimney.
+
+On the desk lay two letters addressed respectively to Mr. Hammond and
+Mrs. Murray, and beside them were scattered half a dozen notes from
+unknown correspondents, asking for the autograph and photograph of the
+young author.
+
+Edna knelt on the floor, hiding her face in the arms which were crossed
+on the lid of the desk.
+
+The cripple came close to her and hesitated a moment, then touched her
+lightly:
+
+"Edna, are you ill, or are you only praying?"
+
+She lifted her head instantly, and the blanched, weary face reminded
+the boy of a picture of Gethsemane, which, having once seen, he could
+never recall without a shudder.
+
+"Forgive me, Felix! I forgot that you were waiting--forgot that I asked
+you to sit up."
+
+She rose, took the thin little form in her arms, and whispered:
+
+"I am sorry I kept you up so long. The pain has passed away. I think
+the danger is over now. Go back to your room, and go to sleep as soon
+as possible. Good-night, my darling."
+
+They kissed each other and separated; but the fury of the tempest
+forbade all idea of sleep, and thinking of the "Fisher Folk" exposed to
+its wrath, governess and pupil committed them to Him who calmed the
+Galilean gale.
+
+  "The sea was all a boiling, seething froth,
+   And God Almighty's guns were going off,
+   And the land trembled."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+
+The Greek myth concerning Demophoon embodies a valuable truth, which
+the literary career of Edna Earl was destined to exemplify. Harsh
+critics, like disguised Ceres, plunged the young author into the
+flames; and fortunately for her, as no short-sighted, loving Metanira
+snatched her from the fiery ordeal, she ultimately obtained the boon of
+immortality. Her regular contributions to the magazine enhanced her
+reputation, and broadened the sphere of her influence.
+
+Profoundly impressed by the conviction that she held her talent in
+trust, she worked steadily, looking neither to the right nor left, but
+keeping her eyes fixed upon that day when she should be called to
+render an account to Him who would demand His own with interest.
+Instead of becoming flushed with success, she grew daily more cautious,
+more timid, lest inadvertence or haste should betray her into errors.
+Consequently as the months rolled away, each magazine article seemed an
+improvement on the last, and lifted her higher in public favor. The
+blacksmith's grandchild had become a power in society.
+
+Feeling that a recluse life would give her only partial glimpses of
+that humanity which she wished to study, she moved in the circle of
+cultivated friends who now eagerly stretched out their arms to receive
+her; and "keeping herself unspotted from the world," she earnestly
+scrutinized social leprosy, and calmly watched the tendency of American
+thought and feeling.
+
+Among philosophic minds she saw an inclination to ignore the principles
+of such systems as Sir William Hamilton's, and to embrace the modified
+and subtle materialism of Buckle and Mill, or the gross atheism of
+Buchner and Moleschott. Positivism in philosophy and pre-Raphaelitism
+in art, confronted her in the ranks of the literary,--lofty idealism
+seemed trodden down--pawed over by Carlyle's "Monster Utilitaria."
+
+When she turned to the next social stratum she found altars of
+mammon-groves of Baal, shining Schoe Dagonset up by business men and
+women of fashion. Society appeared intent only upon reviving the
+offering to propitiate evil spirits; and sometimes it seemed thickly
+sprinkled with very thinly disguised refugee Yezidees, who, in the
+East, openly worshipped the Devil.
+
+Statesmen were almost extinct in America--a mere corporal's guard
+remained, battling desperately to save the stabbed constitution from
+howling demagogues and fanatics, who raved and ranted where Washington,
+Webster, and Calhoun had once swayed a free and happy people. The old
+venerated barriers and well-guarded outposts, which decorum and true
+womanly modesty had erected on the frontiers of propriety, were swept
+away in the crevasse of sans souci manners that threatened to inundate
+the entire land; and latitudinarianism in dress and conversation was
+rapidly reducing the sexes to an equality, dangerous to morals and
+subversive of all chivalric respect for woman.
+
+A double-faced idol, fashion and flirtation, engrossed the homage of
+the majority of females, while a few misguided ones, weary of the
+inanity of the mass of womanhood and desiring to effect a reform,
+mistook the sources of the evil, and, rushing to the opposite extreme,
+demanded power, which as a privilege they already possessed, but as a
+right could not extort.
+
+A casual glance at the surface of society seemed to justify Burke's
+conclusion, that "this earth is the bedlam of our system"; but Edna
+looked deeper, and found much that encouraged her, much that warmed and
+bound her sympathies to her fellow-creatures. Instead of following the
+beaten track she struck out a new path, and tried the plan of
+denouncing the offence, not the offender; of attacking the sin while
+she pitied the sinner.
+
+Ruthlessly she assaulted the darling follies, the pet, velvet-masked
+vices that society had adopted, and called the reading world to a
+friendly parley; demanding that men and women should pause and reflect
+in their mad career. Because she was earnest and not bitter, because
+the white banner of Christian charity floated over the conference
+ground, because she showed so clearly that she loved the race whose
+recklessness grieved her, because her rebukes were free from scorn, and
+written rather in tears than gall, people turned their heads and
+stopped to listen.
+
+So it came to pass that finally, after toiling over many obstacles, she
+reached the vine-clad valley of Eshcol.
+
+Each day brought her noble fruitage, as letters came from all regions
+of the country, asking for advice and assistance in little trials of
+which the world knew nothing. Over the young of her own sex she held a
+singular sway; and orphan girls of all ranks and ages wrote of their
+respective sorrows and difficulties, and requested her kind counsel. To
+these her womanly heart turned yearningly; and she accepted their
+affectionate confidence as an indication of her proper circle of useful
+labor.
+
+Believing that the intelligent, refined, modest Christian women of the
+United States were the real custodians of national purity, and the sole
+agents who could successfully arrest the tide of demoralization
+breaking over the land, she addressed herself to the wives, mothers,
+and daughters of America; calling upon them to smite their false gods,
+and purify the shrines at which they worshipped. Jealously she
+contended for every woman's right which God and nature had decreed the
+sex. The right to be learned, wise, noble, useful, in woman's divinely
+limited sphere; the right to influence and exalt the circle in which
+she moved; the right to mount the sanctified bema of her own quiet
+hearthstone; the right to modify and direct her husband's opinions, if
+he considered her worthy and competent to guide him; the right to make
+her children ornaments to their nation, and a crown of glory to their
+race; the right to advise, to plead, to pray; the right to make her
+desk a Delphi, if God so permitted; the right to be all that the phrase
+"noble, Christian woman" means. But not the right to vote; to harangue
+from the hustings; to trail her heaven-born purity through the dust and
+mire of political strife; to ascend the rosta of statesmen, whither she
+may send a worthy husband, son, or brother, but whither she can never
+go, without disgracing all womanhood.
+
+Edna was conscious of the influence she exerted, and ceaselessly she
+prayed that she might wield it aright. While aware of the prejudice
+that exists against literary women, she endeavored to avoid the outre
+idiosyncrasies that justly render so many of that class unpopular and
+ridiculous.
+
+She felt that she was a target at which observers aimed random shafts;
+and while devoting herself to study, she endeavored to give due
+attention to the rules of etiquette, and the harmonious laws of the
+toilette.
+
+The friendship between Mr. Manning and herself strengthened, as each
+learned more fully the character of the other; and an affectionate,
+confiding frankness marked their intercourse. As her popularity
+increased she turned to him more frequently for advice, for success
+only rendered her cautious; and day by day she weighed more carefully
+all that fell from her pen, dreading lest some error should creep into
+her writings and lead others astray.
+
+In her publisher--an honorable, kind-hearted, and generous
+gentleman--she found a valued friend; and as her book sold extensively,
+the hope of a competency was realized, and she was soon relieved from
+the necessity of teaching. She was a pet with the reading public; it
+became fashionable to lionize her; her pictures and autographs were
+eagerly sought after; and the little, barefooted Tennessee child had
+grown up to celebrity.
+
+Sometimes, when a basket of flowers, or a handsome book, or a letter of
+thanks and cordial praise was received from an unknown reader, the
+young author was so overwhelmed with grateful appreciation of these
+little tokens of kindness and affection, that she wept over them, or
+prayed tremulously that she might make herself more worthy of the good
+opinion entertained of her by strangers.
+
+Mr. Manning, whose cold, searching eye was ever upon her, could detect
+no exultation in her manner. She was earnestly grateful for every kind
+word uttered by her friends and admirers, for every favorable sentence
+penned about her writings; but she seemed only gravely glad, and was as
+little changed by praise as she had been by severe animadversion. The
+sweet, patient expression still rested on her face, and her beautiful
+eyes beamed with the steady light of resignation rather than the starry
+sparkle of extravagant joy.
+
+Sometimes when the editor missed her at the literary reunions, where
+her presence always contributed largely to the enjoyment of the
+evening, and sought her in the schoolroom, he was often surprised to
+find her seated beside Felix, reading to him or listening to his
+conversation with a degree of interest which she did not always offer
+to the celebrities who visited her.
+
+Her power over the cripple was boundless. His character was as clay in
+her hands, and she was faithfully striving to model a noble, hallowed
+life; for she believed that he was destined to achieve distinction, and
+fondly hoped to stamp upon his mind principles and aims that would
+fructify abundantly when she was silent in the grave.
+
+Mrs. Andrews often told her that she was the only person who had ever
+controlled or influenced the boy--that she could make him just what she
+pleased; and she devoted herself to him, resolved to spare no toil in
+her efforts to correct the evil tendencies of his strong, obstinate,
+stormy nature.
+
+His fondness for history, and for all that involved theories of
+government, led his governess to hope that at some future day he might
+recruit the depleted ranks of statesmen--that he might reflect lustre
+upon his country; and with this trust spurring her ever one, she became
+more and more absorbed in her schemes for developing his intellect and
+sanctifying his heart. People wondered how the lovely woman, whom
+society flattered and feted, could voluntarily shut herself up in a
+schoolroom, and few understood the sympathy which bound her so firmly
+to the broad-browed, sallow little cripple.
+
+One December day, several months after their return from the seaside,
+Edna and Felix sat in the library. The boy had just completed
+Prescott's "Philip II.," and the governess had promised to read to him
+Schiller's "Don Carlos" and Goethe's "Egmont," in order to impress upon
+his memory the great actors of the Netherland revolution. She took up
+the copy of "Don Carlos," and crossing his arms on the top of his
+crutches, as was his habit, the pupil fixed his eyes on her face.
+
+The reading had continued probably a half-hour, when Felix heard a
+whisper at the door, and, looking over his shoulder, saw a stranger
+standing on the threshold. He rose; the movement attracted the
+attention of the governess, and, as she looked up, a cry of joy rang
+through the room. She dropped the book and sprang forward with open
+arms.
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Murray! dear friend!"
+
+For some moments they stood locked in a warm embrace, and as Felix
+limped out of the room he heard his governess sobbing.
+
+Mrs. Murray held the girl at arm's length, and as she looked at the
+wan, thin face, she exclaimed:
+
+"My poor Edna! my dear little girl! why did not you tell me you were
+ill? You are a mere ghost of your former self. My child, why did you
+not come home long ago? I should have been here a month earlier, but
+was detained by Estelle's marriage."
+
+Edna looked vacantly at her benefactress, and her lips whitened as she
+asked:
+
+"Did you say Estelle--was married?"
+
+"Yes, my dear. She is now in New York with her husband. They are going
+to Paris--"
+
+"She married your--" The head fell forward on Mrs. Murray's bosom, and
+as in a dream she heard the answer:
+
+"Estelle married that young Frenchman, Victor De Sanssure, whom she met
+in Europe. Edna, what is the matter? My child!"
+
+She found that she could not rouse her, and in great alarm called for
+assistance.
+
+Mrs. Andrews promptly resorted to the remedies advised by Dr. Howell;
+but it was long before Edna fully recovered, and then she lay with her
+eyes closed, and her hands clasped across her forehead.
+
+Mrs. Murray sat beside the sofa weeping silently, while Mrs. Andrews
+briefly acquainted her with the circumstances attending former attacks.
+When the latter was summoned from the room and all was quiet, Edna
+looked up at Mrs. Murray, and tears rolled over her cheeks as she said:
+
+"I was so glad to see you, the great joy and the surprise overcame me.
+I am not as strong as I used to be in the old happy days at Le Bocage,
+but after a little I shall be myself. It is only occasionally that I
+have these attacks of faintness. Put your hand on my forehead, as you
+did years ago, and let me think that I am a little child again. Oh, the
+unspeakable happiness of being with you once more!"
+
+"Hush! do not talk now, you are not strong enough!"
+
+Mrs. Murray kissed her, and tenderly smoothed the hair back from her
+blue-veined temples, where the blood still fluttered irregularly.
+
+For some minutes the girl's eyes wandered eagerly over her companion's
+countenance, tracing there the outlines of another and far dearer face,
+and finding a resemblance between mother and son which she had never
+noticed before. Then she closed her eyes again, and a half smile curved
+her trembling mouth, for the voice and the touch of the hand seemed
+indeed Mr. Murray's.
+
+"Edna, I shall never forgive you for not writing to me, telling me
+frankly of your failing health."
+
+"Oh! scold me as much as you please. It is a luxury to hear your voice
+even in reproof."
+
+"I knew mischief would come of this separation from me. You belong to
+me, and I mean to have my own, and take proper care of you in future.
+The idea of your working yourself to a skeleton for the amusement of
+those who care nothing about you is simply preposterous, and I intend
+to put an end to such nonsense."
+
+"Mrs. Murray, why have you not mentioned Mr. Hammond? I almost dread to
+ask about him."
+
+"Because you do not deserve to hear from him. A grateful and
+affectionate pupil you have proved, to be sure. Oh, Edna! what has come
+over you, child? Are you so intoxicated with your triumphs that you
+utterly forget your old friends, who loved you when you were unknown to
+the world? At first I thought so. I believed that you were heartless,
+like all of your class, and completely wrapped up in ambitious schemes.
+But, my little darling, I see I wronged you. Your poor white face
+reproaches me for my injustice, and I feel that success has not spoiled
+you; that you are still my little Edna--my sweet child--my daughter. Be
+quiet now, and listen to me, and try to keep that flutter out of your
+lips. Mr. Hammond is no worse than he has been for many months, but he
+is very feeble, and can not live much longer. You know very well that
+he loves you tenderly, and he says he can not die in peace without
+seeing you once more. Every day, when I go over to the parsonage, his
+first question is, 'Ellen, is she coming?--have you heard from her?' I
+wish you could have seen him when St. Elmo was reading your book to
+him. It was the copy you sent; and when we read aloud the joint
+dedication to him and to myself, the old man wept, and asked for his
+glasses, and tried to read it, but could not. He--"
+
+Edna put out her hand with a mute gesture, which her friend well
+understood, and she paused and was silent; while the governess turned
+her face to the wall and wept softly, trying to compose herself.
+
+Ten minutes passed, and she said: "Please go on now, Mrs. Murray, and
+tell me all he said. You can have no idea how I have longed to know
+what you all at home thought of my little book. Oh! I have been so
+hungry for home praise! I sent the very earliest copies to you and to
+Mr. Hammond, and I thought it so hard that you never mentioned them at
+all."
+
+"My dear, it was my fault, and I confess it freely. Mr. Hammond, of
+course, could not write, but he trusted to me to thank you in his name
+for the book and the dedication. I was really angry with you for not
+coming home when I wrote for you; and I was jealous of your book, and
+would not praise it, because I knew you expected it. But because I was
+silent, do you suppose I was not proud of my little girl? If you could
+have seen the tears I shed over some of the eulogies pronounced upon
+you, and heard all the ugly words I could not avoid uttering against
+some of your critics, you could not doubt my thorough appreciation of
+your success. My dear, it is impossible to describe Mr. Hammond's
+delight, as we read your novel to him. Often he would say: 'St. Elmo,
+read that passage again. I knew she was a gifted child, but I did not
+expect that she would ever write such a book as this.' When we read the
+last chapter he was completely overcome, and said, repeatedly, 'God
+bless my little Edna! It is a noble book, it will do good--much good!'
+To me it seems almost incredible that the popular author is the same
+little lame, crushed orphan, whom I lifted from the grass at the
+railroad track, seven years ago."
+
+Edna had risen, and was sitting on the edge of the sofa, with one hand
+supporting her cheek, and a tender, glad smile shining over her
+features, as she listened to the commendation of those dearer than all
+the world beside. Mrs. Murray watched her anxiously, and sighed, as she
+continued:
+
+"If ever a woman had a worshipper, you certainly possess one in Huldah
+Reed. It would be amusing, if it were not touching, to see her bending
+in ecstasy over everything you write; over every notice of you that
+meets her eye. She regards you as her model in all respects. You would
+be surprised at the rapidity with which she acquires knowledge. She is
+a pet of St. Elmo's, and repays his care and kindness with a devotion
+that makes people stare; for you know my son is regarded as an ogre,
+and the child's affection for him seems incomprehensible to those who
+only see the rough surface of his character. She never saw a frown on
+his face or heard a harsh word from him, for he is strangely tender in
+his treatment of the little thing. Sometimes it makes me start when I
+hear her merry laugh ringing through the house, for the sound carries
+me far back into the past, when my own children romped and shouted at
+Le Bocage. You were always a quiet, demure, and rather solemn child;
+but this Huldah is a gay little sprite. St. Elmo is so astonishingly
+patient with her, that Estelle accuses him of being in his dotage. Oh,
+Edna! it would make you glad to see my son and that orphan child
+sitting together reading the Bible. Last week I found them in the
+library; she was fast asleep with her head on his knee, and he sat with
+his open Bible in his hand. He is so changed in his manner that you
+would scarcely know him, and oh! I am so happy and so grateful, I can
+never thank God sufficiently for the blessing!"
+
+Mrs. Murray sobbed, and Edna bent her own head lower in her palms.
+
+For some seconds both were silent. Mrs. Murray seated herself close to
+the governess, and clasped her arms around her.
+
+"Edna, why did you not tell me all? Why did you leave me to find out by
+accident that which should have been confided to me?"
+
+The girl trembled, and a fiery spot burned on her cheeks as she pressed
+her forehead against Mrs. Murray's bosom, and said hastily:
+
+"To what do you allude?"
+
+"Why did you not tell me that my son loved you, and wished to make you
+his wife? I never knew what passed between you until about a month ago,
+and then I learned it from Mr. Hammond. Although I wondered why St.
+Elmo went as far as Chattanooga with you on your way North, I did not
+suspect any special interest, for his manner betrayed none when, after
+his return, he merely said that he found no one on the train to whose
+care he could commit you. Now I know all--know why you left Le Bocage;
+and I know, too, that in God's hands you have been the instrument of
+bringing St. Elmo back to his duty--to his old noble self! Oh! Edna, my
+child! if you could know how I love and thank you! How I long to fold
+you in my arms--so! and call you my daughter! Edna Murray--St. Elmo's
+wife! Ah! how proud I shall be of my own daughter! When I took a little
+bruised, moaning, homespun-clad girl into my house, how little I
+dreamed that I was sheltering unawares the angel who was to bring back
+happiness to my son's heart, and peace to my own!"
+
+She lifted the burning face, and kissed the quivering lips repeatedly.
+
+"Edna, my brave darling! how could you resist St. Elmo's pleading? How
+could you tear yourself away from him? Was it because you feared that I
+would not willingly receive you as a daughter? Do not shiver so--answer
+me."
+
+"Oh! do not ask me! Mrs. Murray, spare me! This is a subject which I
+cannot discuss with you."
+
+"Why not, my child? Can you not trust the mother of the man you love?"
+
+Edna unwound the arms that clasped her, and rising, walked away to the
+mantelpiece. Leaning heavily against it, she stood for some time with
+her face averted, and beneath the veil of long, floating hair Mrs.
+Murray saw the slight figure sway to and fro, like a reed shaken by the
+breeze.
+
+"Edna, I must talk to you about a matter which alone brought me to New
+York. My son's happiness is dearer to me than my life, and I have come
+to plead with you, for his sake, if not for your own, at least to--"
+
+"It is useless! Do not mention his name again! Oh, Mrs. Murray! I am
+feeble to-day; spare me! Have mercy on my weakness!"
+
+She put out her hand appealingly, but in vain.
+
+"One thing you must tell me. Why did you reject him?"
+
+"Because I could not respect his character. Oh! forgive me! You force
+me to say it--because I knew that he was unworthy of any woman's
+confidence and affection."
+
+The mother's face flushed angrily, and she rose and threw her head back
+with the haughty defiance peculiar to her family.
+
+"Edna Earl, how dare you speak to me in such terms of my own son? There
+is not a woman on the face of the broad earth who ought not to feel
+honored by his preference--who might not be proud of his hand. What
+right have you to pronounce him unworthy of trust? Answer me!"
+
+"The right to judge him from his own account of his past life. The
+history which he gave me condemns him. His crimes make me shrink from
+him."
+
+"Crimes? take care, Edna! You must be beside yourself! My son is no
+criminal! He was unfortunate and rash, but his impetuosity was
+certainly pardonable under the circumstances."
+
+"All things are susceptible of palliation in a mother's partial eyes,"
+answered the governess.
+
+"St. Elmo fought a duel, and afterward carried on several flirtations
+with women who were weak enough to allow themselves to be trifled with;
+moreover, I shall not deny that at one period of his life he was
+lamentably dissipated; but all that happened long ago, before you knew
+him. How many young gentlemen indulge in the same things, and are never
+even reprimanded by society, much less denounced as criminals? The
+world sanctions duelling and flirting, and you have no right to set
+your extremely rigid notions of propriety above the verdict of modern
+society. Custom justifies many things which you seem to hold in utter
+abhorrence. Take care that you do not find yourself playing the
+Pharisee on the street corners."
+
+Mrs. Murray walked up and down the room twice, then came to the hearth.
+
+"Well, Edna, I am waiting to hear you."
+
+"There is nothing that I can say which would not wound or displease
+you; therefore, dear Mrs. Murray, I must be silent."
+
+"Retract the hasty words you uttered just now; they express more than
+you intended."
+
+"I cannot! I mean all I said. Offences against God's law, which you
+consider pardonable--and which the world winks at and permits, and even
+defends--I regard as grievous sins. I believe that every man who kills
+another in a duel deserves the curse of Cain, and should be shunned as
+a murderer. My conscience assures me that a man who can deliberately
+seek to gain a woman's heart merely to gratify his vanity, or to wreak
+his hate by holding her up to scorn, or trifling with the love which he
+has won, is unprincipled, and should be ostracized by every true woman.
+Were you the mother of Murray and Annie Hammond, do you think you could
+so easily forgive this murderer?"
+
+"Their father forgives and trusts my son, and you have no right to sit
+in judgment upon him. Do you suppose that you are holier than that
+white-haired saint whose crown of glory is waiting for him in heaven??
+Are you so much purer than Allan Hammond that you fear contamination
+from one to whom he clings?"
+
+"No--no--no! You wrong me! If you could know how humble is my estimate
+of myself, you would not taunt me so cruelly; you would only--pity me!"
+
+The despairing agony in the orphan's voice touched Mrs. Murray's proud
+heart, and tears softened the indignant expression of her eyes, as she
+looked at the feeble form before her.
+
+"Edna, my poor child, you must trust me. One thing I must know--I have
+a right to ask--do you not love my son? You need not blush to
+acknowledge it to me."
+
+She waited awhile, but there was no reply, and softly her arm stole
+around the girl's waist.
+
+"My daughter, you need not be ashamed of your affection for St. Elmo."
+
+Edna lifted her face from the mantel, and clasping her hands across her
+head, exclaimed:
+
+"Do I love him? Oh! none but God can ever know how entirely my heart is
+his! I have struggled against his fascination--oh! indeed I have
+wrestled and prayed against it! But to-day--I do not deceive myself--I
+feel that I love him as I can never love any other human being. You are
+his mother, and you will pity me when I tell you that I fall asleep
+praying for him--that in my dreams I am with him once more--that the
+first thought on waking is still of him. What do you suppose it cost me
+to give him up? Oh! is it hard, think you, to live in the same world
+and yet never look on his face, never hear his voice? God only knows
+how hard! If he were dead, I could bear it better. But, ah! to live
+with this great sea of silence between us--a dreary, cold, mocking sea,
+crossed by no word, no whisper, filled only with slowly, sadly sailing
+ghosts of precious memories! Yes, yes! despite all his
+unworthiness--despite the verdict of my judgment, and the upbraiding of
+my conscience--I love him! I love him! You can sympathize with me. Do
+not reproach me; pity me, oh! pity me in my feebleness!"
+
+She put out her arms like a weary child and dropped her face on Mrs.
+Murray's shoulder.
+
+"My child, if you had seen him the night before I left home, you could
+not have resisted any longer the promptings of your own heart. He told
+me all that had ever passed between you; how he had watched and tempted
+you; how devotedly he loved you; how he reverenced your purity of
+character; how your influence, your example, had first called him back
+to his early faith; and then he covered his face and said, 'Mother!
+mother! if God would only give her to me, I could, I would be a better
+man!' Edna, I feel as if my son's soul rested in your hands! If you
+throw him off utterly, he may grow desperate, and go back to his old
+habits of reckless dissipation and blasphemy; and if he should! oh! if
+he is lost at last, I will hold you accountable, and charge you before
+God with his destruction! Edna, beware! You have a strange power over
+him; you can make him almost what you will. If you will not listen to
+your own suffering heart, or to his love, hear me! Hear a mother
+pleading for her son's eternal safety!"
+
+The haughty woman fell on her knees before the orphan and wept, and
+Edna instantly knelt beside her and clung to her.
+
+"I pray for him continually. My latest breath shall be a prayer for his
+salvation. His eternal welfare is almost as precious to me as my own;
+for if I get to heaven at last, do you suppose I could be happy even
+there without him? But, Mrs. Murray, I can not be his wife. If he is
+indeed conscientiously striving to atone for his past life, he will be
+saved without my influence; and if his remorseful convictions of duty
+do not reform him, his affection for me would not accomplish it. Oh! of
+all mournful lots in life, I think mine is the saddest! To find it
+impossible to tear my heart from a man whom I distrust, whom I can not
+honor, whose fascination I dread. I know my duty in this matter--my
+conscience leaves me no room to doubt--and from the resolution which I
+made in sight of Annie's grave, I must not swerve. I have confessed to
+you how completely my love belongs to him, how fruitless are my efforts
+to forget him. I have told you what bitter suffering our separation
+costs me, that you may know how useless it is for you to urge me. Ah!
+if I can withstand the wailing of my own lonely, aching heart, there is
+nothing else that can draw me from the path of duty; no, no! not even
+your entreaties, dear Mrs. Murray, much as I love and owe you. God, who
+alone sees all, will help me to bear my loneliness. He only can comfort
+and sustain me; and in His own good time He will save Mr. Murray, and
+send peace into his troubled soul. Until then, let us pray patiently."
+
+Flush and tremor had passed away, the features were locked in rigid
+whiteness; and the unhappy mother saw that further entreaty would
+indeed be fruitless.
+
+She rose and paced the floor for some moments. At last Edna said:
+
+"How long will you remain in New York?"
+
+"Two days. Edna, I came here against my son's advice, in opposition to
+his wishes, to intercede in his behalf and to prevail on you to go home
+with me. He knew you better it seems than I did; for he predicted the
+result, and desired to save me from mortification; but I obstinately
+clung to the belief that you cherish some feeling of affectionate
+gratitude toward me. You have undeceived me. Mr. Hammond is eagerly
+expecting you, and it will be a keen disappointment to the old man if I
+return without you. Is it useless to tell you that you ought to go and
+see him? You need not hesitate on St. Elmo's account; for unless you
+wish to meet him, you will certainly not see him. My son is too proud
+to thrust himself into the presence of any one, much less into yours,
+Edna Earl."
+
+"I will go with you, Mrs. Murray, and remain at the parsonage--at least
+for a few weeks."
+
+"I scarcely think Mr. Hammond will live until spring; and it will make
+him very happy to have you in his home."
+
+Mrs. Murray wrapped her shawl around her and put on her gloves.
+
+"I shall be engaged with Estelle while I am here, and shall not call
+again; but of course you will come to the hotel to see her, and we will
+start homeward day after to-morrow evening."
+
+She turned toward the door, but Edna caught her dress.
+
+"Mrs. Murray, kiss me before you go, and tell me you forgive the sorrow
+I am obliged to cause you to-day. My burden is heavy enough without the
+weight of your displeasure."
+
+But the proud face did not relax; the mother shook her head, disengaged
+her dress, and left the room.
+
+An hour after Felix came in, and approaching the sofa where his
+governess rested, said vehemently:
+
+"Is it true, Edna? Are you going South with Mrs. Murray?"
+
+"Yes; I am going to see a dear friend who is probably dying."
+
+"Oh, Edna! what will become of me?"
+
+"I shall be absent only a few weeks--"
+
+"I have a horrible dread that if you go you will never come back! Don't
+leave me! Nobody needs you half as much as I do. Edna, you said once
+you would never forsake me. Remember your promise!"
+
+"My dear little boy, I am not forsaking you; I shall only be separated
+from you for a month or two; and it is my duty to go to my sick friend.
+Do not look so wretched! for just so surely as I live, I shall come
+back to you."
+
+"You think so now; but your old friends will persuade you to stay, and
+you will forget me, and--and--"
+
+He turned around and hid his face on the back of his chair.
+
+It was in vain that she endeavored, by promises and caresses, to
+reconcile him to her temporary absence. He would not be comforted; and
+his tear-stained, woe-begone, sallow face, as she saw it on the evening
+of her departure, pursued her on her journey South.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+
+The mocking-bird sang as of old in the myrtle-boughs that shaded the
+study-window, and within the parsonage reigned the peaceful repose
+which seemed ever to rest like a benediction upon it. A ray of sunshine
+stealing through the myrtle-leaves made golden ripples on the wall; a
+bright wood-fire blazed in the wide, deep, old-fashioned chimney; the
+white cat slept on the rug, with her pink paws turned toward the
+crackling flames; and blue and white hyacinths hung their fragrant
+bells over the gilded edge of the vases on the mantelpiece. Huldah sat
+on one side of the hearth peeling a red apple; and, snugly wrapped in
+his palm-leaf cashmere dressing-gown, Mr. Hammond rested in his
+cushioned easy-chair, with his head thrown far back, and his fingers
+clasping a large bunch of his favorite violets, His snowy hair drifted
+away from a face thin and pale, but serene and happy, and in his bright
+blue eyes there was a humorous twinkle, and on his lips a
+half-smothered smile, as he listened to the witticisms of his Scotch
+countrymen in "Noctes Ambrosianae."
+
+Close to his chair sat Edna, reading aloud from the quaint and
+inimitable book he loved so well, and pausing now and then to explain
+some word which Huldah did not understand, or to watch for symptoms of
+weariness in the countenance of the invalid.
+
+The three faces contrasted vividly in the ruddy glow of the fire. That
+of the little girl, round, rosy, red-lipped, dimpled, merry-eyed; the
+aged pastor's wrinkled cheeks and furrowed brow and streaming silver
+beard; and the carved-ivory features of the governess, borrowing no
+color from the soft folds of her rich merino dress. As daylight ebbed,
+the ripple danced up to the ceiling and vanished, like the pricked
+bubble of a human hope; the mocking-bird hushed his vesper-hymn; and
+Edna closed the book and replaced it on the shelf.
+
+Huldah tied on her scarlet-lined hood, kissed her friends good-bye, and
+went back to Le Bocage; and the old man and the orphan sat looking at
+the grotesque flicker of the flames on the burnished andirons.
+
+"Edna, are you tired, or can you sing some for me?"
+
+"Reading aloud rarely fatigues me. What shall I sing?"
+
+"That solemn, weird thing in the 'Prophet,' which suits your voice so
+well."
+
+She sang 'Ah, mon fils!' and then, without waiting for the request
+which she knew would follow, gave him some of his favorite Scotch songs.
+
+As the last sweet strains of "Mary of Argyle" echoed through the study,
+the pastor shut his eyes, and memory flew back to the early years when
+his own wife Mary had sung those words in that room, and his dead
+darlings clustered eagerly around the piano to listen to their mother's
+music. Five fair-browed, innocent young faces circling about the
+idolized wife, and baby Annie nestling in her cradle beside the hearth,
+playing with her waxen fingers and crowing softly. Death had stolen his
+household jewels; but recollection robbed the grave, and music's magic
+touch unsealed "memory's golden urn."
+
+  "Oh! death in life, the days that are no more!"
+
+Edna thought he had fallen asleep, he was so still, his face was so
+placid; and she came softly back to her chair and looked at the ruby
+temples and towers, the glittering domes and ash-gray ruined arcades
+built by the oak coals.
+
+A month had elapsed since her arrival at the parsonage, and during that
+short period Mr. Hammond had rallied and recovered his strength so
+unexpectedly that hopes were entertained of his entire restoration; and
+he spoke confidently of being able to reenter his pulpit on Easter
+Sunday.
+
+The society of his favorite pupil seemed to render him completely
+happy, and his countenance shone in the blessed light that gladdened
+his heart. After a long, dark, stormy day, the sun of his life was
+preparing to set in cloudless peace and glory.
+
+Into all of Edna's literary schemes he entered eagerly. She read to him
+the MS. of her new book as far as it was written, and was gratified by
+his perfect satisfaction with the style, plot, and aim.
+
+Mrs. Murray came every day to the parsonage, but Edna had not visited
+Le Bocage; and though Mr. Murray spent two mornings of each week with
+Mr. Hammond, he called at stated hours, and she had not yet met him.
+Twice she had heard his voice in earnest conversation, and several
+times she had seen his tall figure coming up the walk, but of his
+features she caught not even a glimpse. St. Elmo's name had never been
+mentioned in her presence by either his mother or the pastor, but
+Huldah talked ceaselessly of his kindness to her. Knowing the days on
+which he came to the parsonage, Edna always absented herself from the
+invalid's room until the visit was over.
+
+One afternoon she went to the church to play on the organ; and after an
+hour of mournful enjoyment in the gallery so fraught with precious
+reminiscences, she left the church and found Tamerlane tied to the iron
+gate, but his master was not visible. She knew that he was somewhere in
+the building or yard, and denied herself the pleasure of going there a
+second time.
+
+Neither glance nor word had been exchanged since they parted at the
+railroad station, eighteen months before. She longed to know his
+opinion of her book, for many passages had been written with special
+reference to his perusal; but she would not ask; and it was a sore
+trial to sit in one room, hearing the low, indistinct murmur of his
+voice in the next, and yet never to see him.
+
+Few women could have withstood the temptation; but the orphan dreaded
+his singular power over her heart, and dared not trust herself in his
+presence.
+
+This evening, as she sat with the firelight shining on her face,
+thinking of the past, she could not realize that only two years had
+elapsed since she came daily to this quiet room to recite her lessons;
+for during that time she had suffered so keenly in mind and body that
+it seemed as if weary ages had gone over her young head. Involuntarily
+she sighed, and passed her hand across her forehead. A low tap at the
+door diverted her thoughts, and a servant entered and gave her a
+package of letters from New York. Every mail brought one from Felix;
+and now opening his first, a tender smile parted her lips as she read
+his passionate, importunate appeal for her speedy return, and saw that
+the closing lines were blotted with tears. The remaining eight letters
+were from persons unknown to her, and contained requests for autographs
+and photographs, for short sketches for papers in different sections of
+the country, and also various inquiries concerning the time when her
+new book would probably be ready for press. All were kind, friendly,
+gratifying, and one was eloquent with thanks for the good effect
+produced by a magazine article on a dissipated, irreligious husband and
+father, who, after its perusal, had resolved to reform, and wished her
+to know the beneficial influence which she exerted. At the foot of the
+page was a line penned by the rejoicing wife, invoking heaven's
+choicest blessings on the author's head.
+
+"Is not the laborer worthy of his hire?" Edna felt that her wages were
+munificent indeed; that her coffers were filling, and though the "Thank
+God!" was not audible, the great joy in her uplifted eyes attracted the
+attention of the pastor, who had been silently watching her, and he
+laid his hand on hers.
+
+"What is it, my dear?"
+
+"The reward God has given me!"
+
+She read aloud the contents of the letter, and there was a brief
+silence, broken at last by Mr. Hammond.
+
+"Edna, my child, are you really happy?"
+
+"So happy that I believe the wealth of California could not buy this
+sheet of paper, which assures me that I have been instrumental in
+bringing sunshine to a darkened household; in calling the head of a
+family from haunts of vice and midnight orgies back to his wife and
+children; back to the shrine of prayer at his own hearthstone! I have
+not lived in vain, for through my work a human soul has been brought to
+Jesus, and I thank God that I am accounted worthy to labor in my Lord's
+vineyard! Oh! I will wear that happy wife's blessing in my inmost
+heart, and like those old bells in Cambridgeshire, inscribed, 'Pestem
+fungo! Sabbata pango!' it shall ring a silvery chime, exorcising all
+gloom, and loneliness, and sorrow."
+
+The old man's eyes filled as he noted the radiance of the woman's
+lovely face.
+
+"You have indeed cause for gratitude and great joy, as you realize all
+the good you are destined to accomplish, and I know the rapture of
+saving souls, for, through God's grace, I believe I have snatched some
+from the brink of ruin. But, Edna, can the triumph of your genius, the
+applause of the world, the approval of conscience, even the assurance
+that you are laboring successfully for the cause of Christ--can all
+these things satisfy your womanly heart--your loving, tender heart? My
+child, there is a dreary look sometimes in your eyes, that reveals
+loneliness, almost weariness of life. I have studied your countenance
+closely when it was in repose; I read it I think without errors; and as
+often as I hear your writings praised, I recall those lines, written by
+one of the noblest of your own sex:
+
+          'To have our books
+   Appraised by love, associated with love,
+   While we sit loveless! is it hard, you think?
+   At least, 'tis mournful.'
+
+Edna, are you perfectly contented with your lot?"
+
+A shadow drifted slowly over the marble face, and though it settled on
+no feature, the whole countenance was changed.
+
+"I can not say that I am perfectly content, and yet I would not
+exchange places with any woman I know."
+
+"Do you never regret a step which you took one evening, yonder in my
+church?"
+
+"No, sir, I do not regret it. I often thank God that I was able to obey
+my conscience and take that step."
+
+"Suppose that in struggling up the steep path of duty one soul needs
+the encouragement, the cheering companionship which only one other
+human being can give? Will the latter be guiltless if the aid is
+obstinately withheld?"
+
+"Suppose the latter feels that in joining hands both would stumble?"
+
+"You would not, oh, Edna! you would lift each other to noble heights!
+Each life would be perfect, complete. My child, will you let me tell
+you some things that ought to--"
+
+She threw up her hand, with that old, childish gesture which he
+remembered so well, and shook her head.
+
+"No, sir; no, sir! Please tell me nothing that will rouse a sorrow I am
+striving to drug. Spare me, for as St. Chrysostom once said of Olympias
+the deaconess, I 'live in perpetual fellowship with pain.'"
+
+"My dear little Edna, as I look at you and think of your future, I am
+troubled about you. I wish I could confidently say to you, what that
+same St. Chrysostom wrote to Pentadia: 'For I know your great and lofty
+soul, which can sail as with a fair wind through many tempests, AND IN
+THE MIDST OF THE WAVES ENJOY A WHITE CALM.'"
+
+She turned and took the minister's hand in hers, while an indescribable
+peace settled on her countenance, and stilled the trembling of her low,
+sweet voice:
+
+"Across the gray stormy billows of life, that 'white calm' of eternity
+is rimming the water-line, coming to meet me. Already the black
+pilot-boat heaves in sight; I hear the signal, and Death will soon take
+the helm and steer my little bark safely into the shining rest, into
+God's 'white calm.'"
+
+She went to the piano and sang, as a solo, "Night's Shade no Longer,"
+from Moses in Egypt.
+
+While the pastor listened, he murmured to himself:
+
+  "Sublime is the faith of a lonely soul,
+    In pain and trouble cherished;
+   Sublime is the spirit of hope that lives
+    When earthly hope has perished."
+
+She turned over the sheets of music, hunting for a German hymn of which
+Mr. Hammond was very fond, but he called her back to the fireplace.
+
+"My dear, do you recollect that beautiful passage in Faber's 'Sights
+and Thoughts in Foreign Churches'? 'There is seldom a line of glory
+written upon the earth's face but a line of suffering runs parallel
+with it; and they that read the lustrous syllables of the one, and
+stoop not to decipher the spotted and worn inscription of the other,
+get the least half of the lesson earth has to give.'"
+
+"No, sir; I never read the book. Something in that passage brings to my
+mind those words of Martin Luther's, which explain so many of the
+'spotted inscriptions' of this earth: 'Our Lord God doth like a
+printer, who setteth the letters backward. We see and feel well His
+setting, but we shall read the print yonder, in the life to come!' Mr.
+Hammond, it is said that, in the Alexandrian MS, in the British Museum,
+there is a word which has been subjected to microscopic examination, to
+determine whether it is oe, who, or thC--which is the abbreviation of
+theoz, God Sometimes I think that so ought we to turn the lens of faith
+on many dim, perplexing inscriptions traced in human history, and
+perhaps we might oftener find God."
+
+"Yes, I have frequently thought that the MS of every human life was
+like a Peruvian Quippo, a mass of many colored cords or threads, tied
+and knotted by unseen, and, possibly, angel hands. Here, my dear, put
+these violets in water, they are withering. By the way, Edna, I am glad
+to find that in your writings you attach so much importance to the
+ministry of flowers, and that you call the attention of your readers to
+the beautiful arguments which they furnish in favor of the Christian
+philosophy of a divine design in nature. Truly,
+
+  'Your voiceless lips, O flowers' are living preachers,
+    Each cup a pulpit, and each leaf a book,
+   Supplying to my fancy numerous teachers
+    From lowliest nook'"
+
+At this moment the door-bell rang, and soon after the servant brought
+in a telegraphic dispatch, addressed to Mr. Hammond.
+
+It was from Gordon Leigh, announcing his arrival in New York, and
+stating that he and Gertrude would reach the parsonage some time during
+the ensuing week.
+
+Edna went into the kitchen to superintend the preparation of the
+minister's supper; and when she returned and placed the waiter on the
+table near his chair, she told him that she must go back to New York
+immediately after the arrival of Gordon and Gertrude, as her services
+would no longer be required at the parsonage and her pupils needed her.
+
+Two days passed without any further allusion to a subject which was
+evidently uppermost in Mr. Hammond's mind.
+
+On the morning of the third, Mrs. Murray said, as she rose to conclude
+her visit, "You are so much better, sir, that I must claim Edna for a
+day at least. She has not yet been to Le Bocage; and as she goes away
+so soon, I want to take her home with me this morning. Clara Inge
+promised me that she would stay with you until evening. Edna, get your
+bonnet. I shall be entirely alone to-day, for St. Elmo has carried
+Huldah to the plantation, and they will not get home until late. So, my
+dear, we shall have the house all to ourselves."
+
+The orphan could not deny herself the happiness offered she knew that
+she ought not to go, but for once her strength failed her, she yielded
+to the temptation.
+
+During the drive Mrs. Murray talked cheerfully of various things, and
+for the first time laid aside entirely the haughty constraint which had
+distinguished her manner since they travelled south from New York.
+
+They entered the avenue, and Edna gave herself up to the rushing
+recollections which were so mournfully sweet. As they went into the
+house, and the servants hurried forward to welcome her, she could not
+repress her tears. She felt that this was her home, her heart's home;
+and as numerous familiar objects met her eyes, Mrs. Murray saw that she
+was almost overpowered by her emotions.
+
+"I wonder if there is any other place on earth half so beautiful!"
+murmured the governess several hours later, as they sat looking out
+over the lawn, where the deer and sheep were browsing.
+
+"Certainly not to our partial eyes. And yet without you, my child, it
+does not seem like home. It is the only home where you will ever be
+happy."
+
+"Yes, I know it; but it cannot be mine. Mrs. Murray, I want to see my
+own little room."
+
+"Certainly; you know the way. I will join you there presently. Nobody
+has occupied it since you left, for I feel toward your room as I once
+felt toward the empty cradle of my dead child."
+
+Edna went up-stairs alone and closed the door of the apartment she had
+so long called hers, and looked with childish pleasure and affection at
+the rosewood furniture.
+
+Turning to the desk where she had written much that the world now
+praised and loved, she saw a vase containing a superb bouquet, with a
+card attached by a strip of ribbon. The hothouse flowers were arranged
+with exquisite taste, and the orphan's cheeks glowed suddenly as she
+recognized Mr. Murray's handwriting on the card: "For Edna Earl." When
+she took up the bouquet a small envelope similarly addressed, dropped
+out.
+
+For some minutes she stood irresolute, fearing to trust herself with
+the contents; then she drew a chair to the desk, sat down, and broke
+the seal:
+
+"My DARLING: Will you not permit me to see you before you leave the
+parsonage? Knowing the peculiar circumstances that brought you back, I
+cannot take advantage of them and thrust myself into your presence
+without your consent. I have left home to-day, because I felt assured
+that, much as you might desire to see 'Le Bocage,' you would never come
+here while there was a possibility of meeting me. You, who know
+something of my wayward, sinful, impatient temper, can perhaps imagine
+what I suffer, when I am told that your health is wretched, that you
+are in the next room, and yet, that I must not, shall not see you--my
+own Edna! Do you wonder that I almost grow desperate at the thought
+that only a wall--a door--separates me from you, whom I love better
+than my life? Oh, my darling! Allow me one more interview! Do not make
+my punishment heavier than I can bear. It is hard--it is bitter enough
+to know that you can not, or will not trust me; at least let me see
+your dear face again. Grant me one hour--it may be the last we shall
+ever spend together in this world. "Your own, ST. ELMO."
+
+"Ah, my God! pity me! Why--oh! why is it that I am tantalized with
+glimpses of a great joy never to be mine in this life! Why, in
+struggling to do my duty, am I brought continually to the very gate of
+the only Eden I am ever to find in this world, and yet can never
+surprise the watching Angel of Wrath, and have to stand shivering
+outside, and see my Eden only by the flashing of the sword that bars my
+entrance?"
+
+Looking at the handwriting so different from any other which she had
+ever examined, her thoughts were irresistibly carried back to that
+morning when, at the shop, she saw this handwriting for the first time
+on the blank leaf of the Dante; and she recalled the shuddering
+aversion with which her grandfather had glanced at it, and advised her
+to commit it to the flames of the forge.
+
+How many such notes as this had been penned to Annie and Gertrude, and
+to that wretched woman shut up in an Italian convent, and to others of
+whose names she was ignorant?
+
+Mrs. Murray opened the door, looked in, and said:
+
+"Come, I want to show you something really beautiful."
+
+Edna put the note in her pocket, took the bouquet, and followed her
+friend down-stairs, through the rotunda, to the door of Mr. Murray's
+sitting-room.
+
+"My son locked this door and carried the key with him; but after some
+search, I have found another that will open it. Come in, Edna. Now look
+at that large painting hanging over the sarcophagus. It is a copy of
+Titian's 'Christ Crowned with Thorns,' the original of which is in a
+Milan church, I believe. While St. Elmo was last abroad, he was in
+Genoa one afternoon when a boat was capsized. Being a fine swimmer, he
+sprang into the water where several persons were struggling, and saved
+the lives of two little children of an English gentleman, who had his
+hands quite full in rescuing his wife. Two of the party were drowned,
+but the father was so grateful to my son that he has written him
+several letters, and last year he sent him this picture, which, though
+of course much smaller than the original, is considered a very fine
+copy. I begged to have it hung in the parlor, but fearing, I suppose,
+that its history might possibly be discovered (you know how he despises
+anything like a parade of good deeds), St. Elmo insisted on bringing it
+here to this Egyptian Museum, where, unfortunately, people can not see
+it."
+
+For some time they stood admiring it, and then Edna's eyes wandered
+away to the Taj Mahal, to the cabinets and book-cases. Her lip began to
+quiver as every article of furniture babbled of the By-Gone--of the
+happy evenings spent here--of that hour when the idea of authorship
+first seized her mind and determined her future.
+
+Mrs. Murray walked up to the arch, over which the curtains fell
+touching the floor, and laying her hand on the folds of silk, said
+hesitatingly:
+
+"I am going to show you something that my son would not easily forgive
+me for betraying; for it is a secret he guards most jealously--"
+
+"No, I would rather not see it. I wish to learn nothing which Mr.
+Murray is not willing that I should know."
+
+"You will scarcely betray me to my son when you see what it is; and
+beside, I am determined you shall have no room to doubt the truth of
+some things he has told you. There is no reason why you should not look
+at it. Do you recognize that face yonder, over the mantelpiece?"
+
+She held the curtains back, and despite her reluctance to glancing into
+the inner room, Edna raised her eyes timidly, and saw, in a
+richly-carved oval frame, hanging on the opposite wall, a life-size
+portrait of herself.
+
+"We learned from the newspapers that some fine photographs had been
+taken in New York, and I sent on and bought two. St. Elmo took one of
+them to an artist in Charleston, and superintended the painting of that
+portrait. When he returned, just before I went North, he brought the
+picture with him, and with his own hands hung it yonder. I have noticed
+that since that day he always keeps the curtains down over the arch,
+and never leaves the house without locking his rooms."
+
+Edna had dropped her crimsoned face in her hands, but Mrs. Murray
+raised it forcibly and kissed her.
+
+"I want you to know how well he loves you--how necessary you are to his
+happiness. Now I must leave you, for I see Mrs. Montgomery's carriage
+at the door. You have a note to answer; there are writing materials on
+the table yonder."
+
+She went out, closing the door softly, and Edna was alone with
+surroundings that pleaded piteously for the absent master. Oxalis and
+heliotrope peeped at her over the top of the lotos vases; one of a pair
+of gauntlets had fallen on the carpet near the cameo cabinet; two or
+three newspapers and a meerschaum lay upon a chair; several theological
+works were scattered on the sofa, and the air was heavy with lingering
+cigar-smoke.
+
+Just in front of the Taj Mahal was a handsome copy of Edna's novel, and
+a beautiful morocco-bound volume containing a collection of all her
+magazine sketches.
+
+She sat down in the crimson-cushioned armchair that was drawn close to
+the circular table, where pen and paper told that the owner had
+recently been writing, and near the ink-stand was a handkerchief with
+German initials, S. E. M.
+
+Upon a mass of loose papers stood a quaint bronze paper-weight,
+representing Cartaphilds, the Wandering Jew; and on the base was
+inscribed Mr. Murray's favorite Arabian maxim: "Ed dunya djifetun ve
+talibeha kilabi": "THE WORLD IS AN ABOMINATION, AND THOSE WHO TOIL
+ABOUT IT ARE DOGS."
+
+There, too, was her own little Bible; and as she took it up it opened
+at the fourteenth chapter of St. John, where she found, as a book-mark,
+the photograph of herself from which the portrait had been painted. An
+unwithered geranium sprig lying among the leaves whispered that the
+pages had been read that morning.
+
+Out on the lawn birds swung in the elm-twigs, singing cheerily, lambs
+bleated and ran races, and the little silver bell on Huldah's pet fawn,
+"Edna," tinkled ceaselessly.
+
+"Help me, O my God! in this the last hour of my trial."
+
+The prayer went up meaningly, and Edna took a pen and turned to write.
+Her arm struck a portfolio lying on the edge of the table, and in
+falling loose sheets of paper fluttered out on the carpet. One caught
+her eye; she picked it up and found a sketch of the ivied ruins of
+Phyle. Underneath the drawing, and dated fifteen years before, were
+traced, in St. Elmo's writing, those lines which Henry Soame is said to
+have penned on the blank leaf of a copy of the "Pleasures of Memory":
+
+  "Memory makes her influence known
+   By sighs, and tears, and grief alone.
+   I greet her as the fiend, to whom belong
+   The vulture's ravening beak, the raven's funereal song!
+   She tells of time misspent, of comfort lost,
+   Of fair occasions gone forever by;
+   Of hopes too fondly nursed, too rudely crossed,
+   Of many a cause to wish, yet fear to die;
+   For what, except the instinctive fear
+   Lest she survive, detains me here,
+   When all the 'Life of Life' is fled?"
+
+The lonely woman looked upward, appealingly, and there upon the wall
+she met--not as formerly, the gleaming, augurous, inexorable eyes of
+the Cimbrian Prophetess--but the pitying God's gaze of Titian's Jesus.
+
+When Mrs. Murray returned to the room, Edna sat as still as one of the
+mummies in the sarcophagus, with her head thrown back, and the long,
+black eyelashes sweeping her colorless cheeks.
+
+One hand was pressed over her heart, the other held a note directed to
+St. Elmo Murray; and the cold, fixed features were so like those of an
+Angel of Death sometimes sculptured on cenotaphs, that Mrs. Murray
+uttered a cry of alarm.
+
+As she bent over her, Edna opened her arms and said in a feeble, spent
+tone:
+
+"Take me back to the parsonage. I ought not to have come here; I might
+have known I was not strong enough."
+
+"You have had one of those attacks. Why did you not call me? I will
+bring you some wine."
+
+"No; only let me go away as soon as possible. Oh! I am ashamed of my
+weakness."
+
+She rose, and her pale lips writhed as her sad eyes wandered in a
+farewell glance around the room.
+
+She put the unsealed note in Mrs. Murray's hand, and turned toward the
+door.
+
+"Edna! My daughter! you have not refused St. Elmo's request?"
+
+"My mother! Pity me! I could not grant it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+
+"They have come. I hear Gertrude's birdish voice."
+
+The words had scarcely passed Mr. Hammond's lips ere his niece bounded
+into the room, followed by her husband.
+
+Edna was sitting on the chintz-covered lounge, mending a basketful of
+the old man's clothes that needed numerous stitches and buttons, and,
+throwing aside her sewing materials, she rose to meet the travellers.
+
+At sight of her Gordon Leigh stopped suddenly and his face grew
+instantly as bloodless as her own.
+
+"Edna! Oh! how changed! What a wreck!"
+
+He grasped her outstretched hand, folded it in his, which trembled
+violently, and a look of anguish mastered his features, as his eyes
+searched her calm countenance.
+
+"I did not think it would come so soon. Passing away in the early
+morning of your life! Oh, my pure, broken lily!"
+
+He did not seem to heed his wife's presence, until she threw her arms
+around Edna, exclaiming:
+
+"Get away, Gordon! I want her all to myself. Why, you pale darling!
+What a starved ghost you are! Not half as substantial as my shadow, is
+she, Gordon? Oh, Edna! how I have longed to see you, to tell you how I
+enjoyed your dear, delightful, grand, noble book! To tell you what a
+great woman I think you are; and how proud of you I am. A gentleman who
+came over in the steamer with us, asked me how much you paid me per
+annum to puff you. He was a miserable old cynic of a bachelor,
+ridiculed all women unmercifully, and at last I told him I would bet
+both my ears that the reason he was so bearish and hateful, was because
+some pretty girl had flirted with him outrageously. He turned up his
+ugly nose especially at 'blue stockings'; said all literary women were
+'hopeless pedants and slatterns,' and quoted that abominable Horace
+Walpole's account of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's 'dirt and vivacity.' I
+really thought Gordon would throw him overboard. I wonder what he would
+say if he could see you darning Uncle Allan's socks. Oh, Edna, dearie!
+I am sorry to find you looking so pale."
+
+All this was uttered interjectionally between vigorous hugs and warm,
+tender kisses, and as Gertrude threw her bonnet and wrappings on the
+lounge, she continued:
+
+"I wished for you just exactly ten thousand times while I was abroad,
+there were so many things that you could have described so beautifully.
+Gordon, don't Edna's eyes remind you very much of that divine picture
+of the Madonna at Dresden?"
+
+She looked round for an answer, but her husband had left the room, and,
+recollecting a parcel that had been stowed away in the pocket of the
+carriage, she ran out to get it.
+
+Presently she reappeared at the door, with a goblet in her hand.
+
+"Uncle Allan, who carries the keys now?"
+
+"Edna. What will you have, my dear?"
+
+"I want some brandy. Gordon looks very pale, and complains of not
+feeling well, so I intend to make him a mint-julep. Ah, Edna! These
+husbands are such troublesome creatures."
+
+She left the room jingling the bunch of keys, and a few moments after
+they heard her humming an air from "Rigoletto," as she bent over the
+mint-bed, under the study window.
+
+Mr. Hammond, who had observed all that passed, and saw the earnest
+distress clouding the orphan's brow, said gravely:
+
+"She has not changed an iota; she never will be anything more than a
+beautiful, merry child, and is a mere pretty pet, not a companion in
+the true sense of the word. She is not quick-witted, or she would
+discern a melancholy truth that might overshadow all her life. Unless
+Gordon learns more self-control, he will ere long betray himself. I
+expostulated with him before his marriage, but for once he threw my
+warning to the winds. I am an old man, and have seen many phases of
+human nature, and watched the development of many characters; and I
+have found that these pique marriages are always mournful--always
+disastrous. In such instances I would with more pleasure officiate at
+the grave than at the altar. Once Estelle and Agnes persuaded me that
+St. Elmo was about to wreck himself on this rock of ruin, and even his
+mother's manner led me to believe that he would marry his cousin; but,
+thank God! he was wiser than I feared."
+
+"Mr. Hammond, are you sure that Gertrude loves Mr. Leigh?"
+
+"Oh! yes, my dear! Of that fact there can be no doubt. Why do you
+question it?"
+
+"She told me once that Mr. Murray had won her heart."
+
+It was the first time Edna had mentioned his name since her return, and
+it brought a faint flush to her cheeks.
+
+"That was a childish whim which she has utterly forgotten. A woman of
+her temperament never remains attached to a man from whom she is long
+separated. I do not suppose that she remembered St. Elmo a month after
+she ceased to meet him. I feel assured that she loves Gordon as well as
+she can love any one. She is a remarkably sweet-tempered, unselfish,
+gladsome woman, but is not capable of very deep, lasting feeling."
+
+"I will go away at once. This is Saturday, and I will start to New York
+early Monday morning. Mr. Leigh is weaker than I ever imagined he could
+be."
+
+The outline of her mouth hardened, and into her eyes crept an
+expression of scorn, that very rarely found a harbor there.
+
+"Yes, my dear; although it grieves me to part with you, I know it is
+best that you should not be here, at least for the present. Agnes is
+visiting friends at the North and when she returns, Gordon and Gertrude
+will remove to their new house. Then, Edna, if I feel that I need you,
+if I write for you, will you not come back to me? Dear child, I want
+your face to be the last I look upon in this world."
+
+She drew the pastor's shrunken hand to her lips, and shook her head.
+
+"Do not ask me to do that which my strength will not permit. There are
+many reasons why I ought not to come here again; and, moreover, my work
+calls me hence, to a distant field. My physical strength seems to be
+ebbing fast, and my vines are not all purple with mellow fruit. Some
+clusters, thank God! are fragrant, ripe, and ready for the wine-press,
+when the Angel of the Vintage comes to gather them in; but my work is
+only half done. Not until my fingers clasp white flowers under a pall,
+shall it be said of me, 'Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little
+folding of the hands to sleep.' In coelo quies! The German idea of
+death is to me peculiarly comforting and touching, 'Heimgang'--GOING
+HOME. Ah, sir! humanity ought to be homesick; and in thinking of that
+mansion beyond the star-paved pathway of the sky, whither Jesus has
+gone to prepare our places, we children of earth should, like the
+Swiss, never lose our home-sickness. Our bodies are of the dust--dusty,
+and bend dustward; but our souls floated down from the sardonyx walls
+of the Everlasting City, and brought with them a yearning maladie du
+pays, which should help them to struggle back. Sometimes I am tempted
+to believe that the joys of this world are the true lotos, devouring
+which, mankind glory in exile, and forget the Heimgang. Oh! indeed,
+'here we have no continuing city, but seek one to come.' Heimgang!
+Thank God! going home for ever!"
+
+The splendor of the large eyes seemed almost unearthly as she looked
+out over the fields, where in summers past the shout of the merry
+reapers rose like the songs of Greek harvesters to Demeter! Nay, nay,
+as a hymn of gratitude and praise to Him who "feedeth the fowls of the
+air," and maketh the universe a vast Sarepta, in which the cruse never
+faileth the prophets of God. Edna sat silent for some time, with her
+slender hands folded on her lap, and the pastor heard her softly
+repeating, as if to her own soul, those lines on "Life":
+
+  "A cry between the silences,
+   A shadow-birth of clouds at strife
+   With sunshine on the hills of life;
+   Between the cradle and the shroud,
+   A meteor's flight from cloud to cloud!"
+
+Several hours later, when Mr. Leigh returned to the study, he found
+Edna singing some of the minister's favorite Scotch ballads; while
+Gertrude rested on the lounge, half propped on her elbow, and leaning
+forward to dangle the cord and tassel of her robe de chambre within
+reach of an energetic little blue-eyed kitten, which, with its paws in
+the air, rolled on the carpet, catching at the silken toy. The
+governess left the piano, and resumed her mending of the contents of
+the clothes-basket.
+
+In answer to some inquiries of Mr. Hammond, Mr. Leigh gave a brief
+account of his travels in Southern Europe; but his manner was
+constrained, his thoughts evidently preoccupied. Once his eyes wandered
+to the round, rosy, dimpling face of his beautiful child-wife, and he
+frowned, bit his lip, and sighed; while his gaze, earnest and
+mournfully anxious, returned and dwelt upon the weary but serene
+countenance of the orphan.
+
+In the conversation, which had turned accidentally upon philology and
+the MSS. of the Vatican, Gertrude took no part; now and then glancing
+up at the speakers, she continued her romp with the kitten. At length,
+tired of her frolicsome pet, she rose with a half-suppressed yawn, and
+sauntered up to her husband's chair. Softly and lovingly her pretty
+little pink palms were passed over her husband's darkened brow, and her
+fingers drew his hair now on one side, now on the other, while she
+peeped over his shoulder to watch the effect of the arrangement.
+
+The caresses were inopportune, her touch annoyed him. He shook it off,
+and, stretching out his arm, put her gently but firmly away, saying,
+coldly:
+
+"There is a chair, Gertrude."
+
+Edna's eyes looked steadily into his, with an expression of grave,
+sorrowful reproof--of expostulation; and the flush deepened on his face
+as his eyes fell before her rebuking gaze.
+
+Perhaps the young wife had become accustomed to such rebuffs; at all
+events she evinced neither mortification nor surprise, but twirled her
+silk tassel vigorously around her finger, and exclaimed:
+
+"Oh, Gordon! have you not forgotten to give Edna that letter, written
+by the gentleman we met at Palermo? Edna, he paid your book some
+splendid compliments. I fairly clapped my hands at his praises--didn't
+I, Gordon?"
+
+Mr. Leigh drew a letter from the inside pocket of his coat, and, as he
+gave it to the orphan, said with a touch of bitterness in his tone:
+
+"Pardon my negligence; probably you will find little news in it, as he
+is one of your old victims, and you can guess its contents."
+
+The letter was from Sir Roger; and while he expressed great grief at
+hearing, through Mr. Manning's notes, that her health was seriously
+impaired, he renewed the offer of his hand, and asked permission to
+come and plead his suit in person.
+
+As Edna hurriedly glanced over the pages, and put them in her pocket,
+Gertrude said gayly, "Shame on you, Gordon! Do you mean to say, or,
+rather to insinuate, that all who read Edna's book are victimized?"
+
+He looked at her from under thickening eyebrows, and replied with
+undisguised impatience:
+
+"No; your common sense ought to teach you that such was not my meaning
+or intention. Edna places no such interpretation on my words."
+
+"Common sense! Oh, Gordon, dearie! how unreasonable you are! Why, you
+have told me a thousand times that I had not a particle of common
+sense, except on the subject of juleps; and how, then, in the name of
+wonder, can you expect me to show any? I never pretended to be a great
+shining genius like Edna, whose writings all the world is talking
+about. I only want to be wise enough to understand you, dearie, and
+make you happy. Gordon, don't you feel any better? What makes your face
+so red?"
+
+She went back to his chair, and leaned her lovely head close to his,
+while an anxious expression filled her large blue eyes.
+
+Gordon Leigh realized that his marriage was a terrible mistake, which
+only death could rectify; but even in his wretchedness he was just,
+blaming only himself--exonerating his wife. Had he not wooed the love
+of which, already, he was weary? Having deceived her at the altar, was
+there justification for his dropping the mask at the hearthstone? Nay,
+the skeleton must be no rattling of skull and crossbones to freeze the
+blood in the sweet laughing face of the trusting bird.
+
+Now her clinging tenderness, her affectionate humility, upbraided him
+as no harsh words could possibly have done. With a smothered sigh he
+passed his arm around her, and drew her closer to his side.
+
+"At least my little wife is wise enough to teach her husband to be
+ashamed of his petulance."
+
+"And quite wise enough, dear Gertrude, to make him very proud and
+happy; for you ought to be able to say with the sweetest singer in all
+merry England:
+
+  'But I look up and he looks down,
+    And thus our married eyes can meet;
+   Unclouded his, and clear of frown,
+    And gravely sweet.'"
+
+As Edna glanced at the young wife and uttered these words, a mist
+gathered in her own eyes, and collecting her sewing utensils she went
+to her room to pack her trunk.
+
+During her stay at the parsonage she had not attended service in the
+church, because Mr. Hammond was lonely, and her Sabbaths were spent in
+reading to him. But her old associates in the choir insisted that,
+before she returned to New York, she should sing with them once more.
+
+Thus far she had declined all invitations; but on the morning of the
+last day of her visit, the organist called to say that a distinguished
+divine, from a distant State, would fill Mr. Hammond's pulpit; and as
+the best and leading soprano in the choir was disabled by severe cold,
+and could not be present, he begged that Edna would take her place, and
+sing a certain solo in the music which he had selected for an opening
+piece. Mr. Hammond, who was pardonably proud of his choir, was anxious
+that the stranger should be greeted and inspired by fine music, and
+urged Edna's compliance with the request.
+
+Reluctantly she consented, and for the first time Duty and Love seemed
+to signal a truce, to shake hands over the preliminaries of a treaty
+for peace.
+
+As she passed through the churchyard and walked up the steps, where a
+group of Sabbath-school children sat talking, her eyes involuntarily
+sought the dull brown spot on the marble.
+
+Over it little Herbert Inge had spread his white handkerchief, and
+piled thereon his Testament and catechism, laying on the last one of
+those gilt-bordered and handsome pictorial cards, containing a verse
+from the Scriptures, which are frequently distributed by Sabbath-school
+teachers.
+
+Edna stooped and looked at the picture covering the blood-stain. It
+represented our Saviour on the Mount, delivering the sermon, and in
+golden letters were printed his words:
+
+"Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye
+shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to
+you again."
+
+The eyes of the Divine Preacher seemed to look into hers, and the
+outstretched hand to point directly at her.
+
+She trembled, and hastily kissing the sweet red lips which little
+Herbert held up to her, she went in, and up to the gallery.
+
+The congregation assembled slowly, and as almost all the faces were
+familiar to Edna, each arrival revived something of the past. Here the
+flashing silk flounces of a young belle brushed the straight black
+folds of widow's weeds; on the back of one seat was stretched the rough
+brown hand of a poor laboring man; on the next lay the dainty fingers
+of a matron of wealth and fashion, who had entirely forgotten to draw a
+glove over her sparkling diamonds.
+
+In all the splendor of velvet, feathers, and sea-green moire, Mrs.
+Montgomery sailed proudly into her pew, convoying her daughter Maud,
+who was smiling and whispering to her escort; and just behind them came
+a plainly-clad but happy young mechanic, a carpenter, clasping to his
+warm, honest heart the arm of his sweet-faced, gentle wife, and holding
+the hand of his rosy-cheeked, bright-eyed, three-year old boy, who
+toddled along, staring at the brilliant pictures on the windows.
+
+When Mr. Leigh and Gertrude entered there was a general stir, a lifting
+of heads and twisting of necks, in order to ascertain what new styles
+of bonnet, lace, and mantle prevailed in Paris.
+
+A moment after Mrs. Murray walked slowly down the aisle, and Edna's
+heart seemed to stand still as she saw Mr. Murray's powerful form. He
+stepped forward, and while he opened the door of the pew, and waited
+for his mother to seat herself, his face was visible; then he sat down,
+closing the door.
+
+The minister entered, and, as he ascended the pulpit, the organ began
+to breathe its solemn welcome. When the choir rose and commenced their
+chorus, Edna stood silent, with her book in her hand, and her eyes
+fixed on the Murrays' pew.
+
+The strains of triumph ceased, the organ only sobbed its sympathy to
+the thorn-crowned Christ, struggling along the Via Dolorosa, and the
+orphan's quivering lips parted, and she sang her solo.
+
+As her magnificent voice rose and rolled to the arched roof, people
+forgot propriety, and turned to look at the singer. She saw Mrs. Murray
+start and glance eagerly up at her, and for an instant the grand, pure
+voice faltered slightly, as Edna noticed that the mother whispered
+something to the son. But he did not turn his proud head, he only
+leaned his elbow on the side of the pew next to the aisle, and rested
+his temple on his hand.
+
+When the preliminary services ended, and the minister stood up in the
+shining pulpit and commenced his discourse, Edna felt that St. Elmo had
+at last enlisted angels in his behalf; for the text was contained in
+the warning, whose gilded letters hid the blood-spot, "Judge not, that
+ye be not judged."
+
+As far as two among his auditory were concerned, the preacher might as
+well have addressed his sermon to the mossy slabs, visible through the
+windows. Both listened to the text, and neither heard any more. Edna
+sat looking down at Mr. Murray's massive, finely-poised head, and she
+could see the profile contour of features, regular and dark, as if
+carved and bronzed.
+
+During the next half-hour her vivid imagination sketched and painted a
+vision of enchantment--of what might have been, if that motionless man
+below, there in the crimson-cushioned pew, had only kept his soul from
+grievous sins. A vision of a happy, proud, young wife reigning at Le
+Bocage, shedding the warm, rosy light of her love over the lonely life
+of its master; adding to his strong, clear intellect and ripe
+experience, the silver flame of her genius; borrowing from him broader
+and more profound views of her race, on which to base her ideal
+aesthetic structures; softening, refining his nature, strengthening her
+own; helping him to help humanity; loving all good, being good, doing
+good; serving and worshipping God together; walking hand and hand with
+her husband through earth's wide valley of Baca, with peaceful faces
+full of faith, looking heavenward.
+
+  "God pity them both! and pity us all,
+   Who vainly the dreams of youth recall.
+   For of all sad words of tongue or pen
+   The saddest are these, 'It might have been!'"
+
+At last, with a faint moan, which reached no ear but that of Him who
+never slumbers, Edna withdrew her eyes from the spot where Mr. Murray
+sat, and raised them toward the pale Christ, whose wan lips seemed to
+murmur:
+
+"Be of good cheer! He that overcometh shall inherit all things. What I
+do, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter."
+
+The minister, standing beneath the picture of the Master whom he
+served, closed the Bible and ended his discourse by hurling his text as
+a thunderbolt at those whose upturned faces watched him:
+
+"Finally, brethren, remember under all circumstances the awful
+admonition of Jesus, 'Judge not, that ye be not judged!'"
+
+The organ peals and the doxology were concluded; the benediction fell
+like God's dew, alike on sinner and on saint, and amid the solemn
+moaning of the gilded pipes, the congregation turned to quit the church.
+
+With both hands pressed over her heart, Edna leaned heavily against the
+railing.
+
+"To-morrow I go away for ever. I shall never see his face again in this
+world. Oh! I want to look at it once more."
+
+As he stepped into the aisle, Mr. Murray threw his head back slightly,
+and his eyes swept up to the gallery and met hers. It was a long,
+eager, heart-searching gaze. She saw a countenance more fascinating
+than of old; for the sardonic glare had gone, the bitterness, "the
+dare-man, dare-brute, dare-devil" expression had given place to a stern
+mournfulness, and the softening shadow of deep contrition and manly
+sorrow hovered over features where scoffing cynicism had so long
+scowled.
+
+The magnetism of St. Elmo's eyes was never more marvellous than when
+they rested on the beautiful white face of the woman he loved so well,
+whose calm, holy eyes shone like those of an angel, as they looked
+sadly down at his. In the mystic violet light with which the rich
+stained glass flooded the church, that pallid, suffering face, sublime
+in its meekness and resignation, hung above him like one of Perugino's
+saints over kneeling mediaeval worshippers. As the moving congregation
+bore him nearer to the door, she leaned farther over the mahogany
+balustrade, and a snowy crocus which she wore at her throat, snapped
+its brittle stem and floated down till it touched his shoulder. He laid
+one hand over it, holding it there, and while a prayer burned in his
+splendid eyes, hers smiled a melancholy farewell. The crowd swept the
+tall form forward, under the arches, beyond the fluted columns of the
+gallery, and the long gaze ended.
+
+  "Ah! well for us all some sweet hope lies
+   Deeply buried from human eyes;
+   And in the hereafter, angels may
+   Roll the stone from its grave away."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+
+"I am truly thankful that you have returned! I am quite worn out trying
+to humor Felix's whims, and take your place. He has actually lost ten
+pounds; and if you had staid away a month longer I think it would have
+finished my poor boy, who has set you up as an idol in his heart. He
+almost had a spasm last week, when his father told him he had better
+reconcile himself to your absence, as he believed that you would never
+come back to the drudgery of the schoolroom. I am very anxious about
+him; his health is more feeble than it has been since he was five years
+old. My dear, you have no idea how you have been missed! Your admirers
+call by scores to ascertain when you may be expected home; and I do not
+exaggerate in the least when I say that there is a champagne basketful
+of periodicals and letters upstairs, that have arrived recently. You
+will find them piled on the table and desk in your room."
+
+"Where are the children?" asked Edna, glancing around the sitting-room
+into which Mrs. Andrews had drawn her.
+
+"Hattie is spending the day with Lila Manning, who is just recovering
+from a severe attack of scarlet fever, and Felix is in the library
+trying to sleep. He has one of his nervous headaches to-day. Poor
+fellow! he tries so hard to overcome his irritable temper and to grow
+patient, that I am growing fonder of him every day. How travel-spent
+and ghastly you are! Sit down, and I will order some refreshments. Take
+this wine, my dear, and presently you shall have a cup of chocolate."
+
+"Thank you, not any wine. I only want to see Felix."
+
+She went to the library, cautiously opened the door, and crept softly
+across the floor to the end of the sofa.
+
+The boy lay looking through the window, and up beyond the walls and
+chimneys, at the sapphire pavement, where rolled the sun. Casual
+observers thought the cripple's face ugly and disagreeable; but the
+tender, loving smile that lighted the countenance of the governess as
+she leaned forward, told that some charm lingered in the sharpened
+features overcast with sickly sallowness. In his large, deep-set eyes,
+over which the heavy brows arched like a roof, she saw now a strange
+expression that frightened her. Was it the awful shadow of the Three
+Singing Spinners, whom Catullus painted at the wedding of Peleus? As
+the child looked into the blue sky, did he catch a glimpse of their
+trailing white robes, purple-edged--of their floating rose-colored
+veils? Above all, did he hear the unearthly chorus which they chanted
+as they spun?
+
+"Currite ducentes, subteinina currite fusi!"
+
+The governess was seized by a vague apprehension as she watched her
+pupil, and bending down, she said, fondly:
+
+"Felix, my darling, I have come back! Never again while I live will I
+leave you."
+
+The almost bewildering joy that flashed into his countenance mutely but
+eloquently welcomed her, as kneeling beside the sofa she wound her arms
+around him, and drew his head to her shoulder.
+
+"Edna, is Mr. Hammond dead?"
+
+"No, he is almost well again, and needs me no more."
+
+"I need you more than anybody else ever did. Oh, Edna! I thought
+sometimes you would stay at the South that you love so well, and I
+should see you no more; and then all the light seemed to die out of the
+world, and the flowers were not sweet, and the stars were not bright,
+and oh! I was glad I had not long to live."
+
+"Hush! you must not talk so. How do you know that you may not live as
+long as Ahasuerus, the 'Everlasting Jew'? My dear little boy, in all
+this wide earth, you are the only one whom I have to love and cling to,
+and we will be happy together. Darling, your head aches to-day?"
+
+She pressed her lips twice to his hot forehead.
+
+"Yes; but the heartache was much the hardest to bear until you came.
+Mamma has been very good and kind, and staid at home and read to me;
+but I wanted you, Edna. I do not believe I have been wicked since you
+left; for I prayed all the while that God would bring you back to me. I
+have tried hard to be patient."
+
+With her cheek nestled against his, Edna told him many things that had
+occurred during their separation, and noticed that his eyes brightened
+suddenly and strangely.
+
+"Edna, I have a secret to tell you; something that even mamma is not to
+know just now. You must not laugh at me. While you were gone I wrote a
+little MS., and it is dedicated to you! and some day I hope it will be
+printed. Are you glad, Edna? My beautiful, pale Edna!"
+
+"Felix, I am very glad you love me sufficiently to dedicate your little
+MS. to me; but, my dear boy, I must see it before I can say I am glad
+you wrote it."
+
+"If you had been here, it would not have been written, because then I
+should merely have talked out all the ideas to you; but you were far
+away, and so I talked to my paper. After all, it was only a dream. One
+night I was feverish, and mamma read aloud those passages that you
+marked in that great book, Maury's Physical Geography of the Sea, that
+you admire and quote so often; and of which I remember you said once,
+in talking to Mr. Manning, that 'it rolled its warm, beautiful,
+sparkling waves of thought across the cold, gray sea of science, just
+like the Gulf Stream it treated of.' Two of the descriptions which
+mamma read were so splendid that they rang in my ears like the music of
+the Swiss Bell-Ringers. One was the account of the atmosphere, by Dr.
+Buist of Bombay, and the other was the description of the Indian Ocean,
+which was quoted from Schleiden's Lecture. My fever was high, and when
+at last I went to sleep, I had a queer dream about madrepores and
+medusae, and I wrote it down as well as I could, and called it 'Algae
+Adventures, in a Voyage Round the World.' Edna, I have stolen something
+from you, and as you will be sure to find it out when you read my
+little story, where there is a long, hard word missing in the MS., I
+will tell you about it now. Do you recollect talking to me one evening,
+when we were walking on the beach at The Willows, about some shell-clad
+animalcula, which you said were so very small that Professor Schultze,
+of Bonn, found no less than a million and a half of their minute shells
+in an ounce of pulverized quartz, from the shore of Mo la di Gaeta?
+Well, I put all you told me in my little MS.; but, for my life, I could
+not think of the name of the class to which they belong. Do you
+recollect it?"
+
+"Let me think a moment. Was it not Foraminifera?"
+
+"That's the identical word--'Foraminifera!' No wonder I could not think
+of it! Six syllables tied up in a scientific knot. Phew! it makes my
+head ache worse to try to recollect it. How stoop-shouldered your
+memory must be from carrying such heavy loads! It is a regular camel."
+
+"Yes; it is a meek, faithful beast of burden, and will very willingly
+bear the weight of that scientific name until you want to use it; so do
+not tax your mind now. You said you stole it from me, but my dear,
+ambitious authorling, my little round-jacket scribbler, I wish you to
+understand distinctly that I do not consider that I have been robbed.
+The fact was discovered by Professor Schultze, and bequeathed by him to
+the world. From that instant it became universal, common property,
+which any man, woman, or child may use at pleasure, provided a tribute
+of gratitude is paid to the donor. Every individual is in some sort an
+intellectual bank, issuing bills of ideas (very often specious, but not
+always convertible into gold or silver); and now, my precious little
+boy, recollect that just as long as I have any capital left, you can
+borrow; and some day I will turn Shylock, and make you pay me with
+usury."
+
+"Edna, I should like above all things to write a book of stories for
+poor, sick children; little tales that would make them forget their
+suffering and deformity. If I could even reconcile one lame boy to
+being shut up indoors, while others are shouting and skating in the
+sunshine, I should not feel as if I were so altogether useless in the
+world. Edna, do you think that I shall ever be able to do so?"
+
+"Perhaps so, dear Felix; certainly, if God wills it. When you are
+stronger we will study and write together, but to-day you must compose
+yourself and be silent. Your fever is rising."
+
+"The doctor left some medicine yonder in that goblet, but mamma has
+forgotten to give it to me. I will take a spoonful now, if you please."
+
+His face was much flushed; and as she kissed him and turned away, he
+exclaimed:
+
+"Oh! where are you going?"
+
+"To my room, to take off my hat."
+
+"Do not be gone long. I am so happy now that you are here again. But I
+don't want you to get out of my sight. Come back soon, and bathe my
+head."
+
+On the following day, when Mr. Manning called to welcome her home, he
+displayed an earnestness and depth of feeling which surprised the
+governess. Putting his hand on her arm, he said in a tone that had lost
+its metallic ring:
+
+"How fearfully changed since I saw you last! I knew you were not strong
+enough to endure the trial; and if I had had a right to interfere, you
+should never have gone."
+
+"Mr. Manning, I do not quite understand your meaning."
+
+"Edna, to see you dying by inches is bitter indeed! I believed that you
+would marry Murray--at least I knew any other woman would--and I felt
+that to refuse his affection would be a terrible trial, through which
+you could not pass with impunity. Why you rejected him I have no right
+to inquire, but I have a right to ask you to let me save your life. I
+am well aware that you do not love me, but at least you can esteem and
+entirely trust me; and once more I hold out my hand to you and say,
+give me the wreck of your life! oh! give me the ruins of your heart! I
+will guard you tenderly; we will go to Europe--to the East; and rest of
+mind, and easy travelling, and change of scene will restore you. I
+never realized, never dreamed how much my happiness depended upon you,
+until you left the city. I have always relied so entirely upon myself,
+feeling the need of no other human being; but now, separated from you I
+am restless, am conscious of a vague discontent. If you spend the next
+year as you have spent the last, you will not survive it. I have
+conferred with your physician. He reluctantly told me your alarming
+condition, and I have come to plead with you for the last time not to
+continue your suicidal course, not to destroy the life which, if
+worthless to you, is inexpressibly precious to a man who prays to be
+allowed to take care of it. A man who realizes that it is necessary to
+the usefulness and peace of his own lonely life; who wishes no other
+reward on earth but the privilege of looking into your approving eyes,
+when his daily work is ended, and he sits down at his fireside. Edna! I
+do not ask for your love, but I beg for your hand, your confidence,
+your society--for the right to save you from toil. Will you go to the
+Old World with me?"
+
+Looking suddenly up at him, she was astonished to find tears in his
+searching and usually cold eyes.
+
+Scandinavian tradition reports that seven parishes were once
+overwhelmed, and still lie buried under snow and ice, and yet
+occasionally those church-bells are heard ringing clearly under the
+glaciers of the Folge Fond.
+
+So, in the frozen, crystal depths of this man's nature, his long
+silent, smothered affections began to chime.
+
+A proud smile trembled over Edna's face, as she saw how entirely she
+possessed the heart of one, whom above all other men she most admired.
+
+"Mr. Manning, the assertion that you regard your life as imperfect,
+incomplete, without the feeble complement of mine--that you find your
+greatest happiness in my society, is the most flattering, the most
+gratifying tribute which ever has been, or ever can be paid to my
+intellect. It is a triumph indeed; and, because unsought, surely it is
+a pardonable pride that makes my heart throb. This assurance of your
+high regard is the brightest earthly crown I shall ever wear. But, sir,
+you err egregiously in supposing that you would be happy wedded to a
+woman who did not love you. You think now that if we were only married,
+my constant presence in your home, my implicit confidence in your
+character, would fully content you; but here you fail to understand
+your own heart, and I know that the consciousness that my affection was
+not yours would make you wretched. No, no! my dear, noble friend! God
+never intended us for each other. I can not go to the Old World with
+you. I know how peculiarly precarious is my tenure of life, and how
+apparently limited is my time for work in this world, but I am content.
+I try to labor faithfully, listening for the summons of Him who notices
+even the death of sparrows. God will not call me hence, so long as He
+has any work for me to do on earth; and when I become useless, and can
+no longer serve Him here, I do not wish to live. Through Christ I am
+told, 'Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.' Mr.
+Manning, I am not ignorant of, nor indifferent to, my physical
+condition; but, thank God! I can say truly, I am not troubled, neither
+am I afraid, and my faith is--
+
+  'All as God wills, who wisely heeds,
+   To give or to withhold,
+  And knoweth more of all my needs
+   Than all my prayers have told.'"
+
+The editor took off his glasses and wiped them, but the dimness was in
+his eyes; and after a minute, during which he recovered his old
+calmness, and hushed the holy chime, muffling the Folge Fond Bells, he
+said gayly and quietly:
+
+"Edna, one favor, at least, you will grant me. The death of a relative
+in Louisiana has placed me in possession of an ample fortune, and I
+wish you to take my little Lila and travel for several years. You are
+the only woman I ever knew to whom I would entrust her and her
+education, and it would gratify me beyond expression to feel that I had
+afforded you the pleasure which can not fail to result from such a
+tour. Do not be too proud to accept a little happiness from my hands."
+
+"Thank you, my generous, noble friend! I gratefully accept a great deal
+of happiness at this instant, but your kind offer I must decline. I can
+not leave Felix."
+
+He sighed, took his hat, and his eyes ran over the face and figure of
+the governess.
+
+"Edna Earl, your stubborn will makes you nearly akin to those gigantic
+fuci which are said to grow and flourish as submarine forests in the
+stormy channel of Terra del Fuego, where they shake their heads
+defiantly, always trembling, always triumphing, in the fierce lashing
+of waves that wear away rocks. You belong to a very rare order of human
+algae, rocked and reared in the midst of tempests that would either bow
+down, or snap asunder, or beat out most natures. As you will not grant
+my petition, try to forget it; we will bury the subject. Good-bye! I
+shall call to-morrow afternoon to take you to drive."
+
+With renewed zest Edna devoted every moment stolen from Felix, to the
+completion of her new book. Her first had been a "bounteous
+promise"--at least so said criticdom--and she felt that the second
+would determine her literary position, would either place her
+reputation as an author beyond all cavil, or utterly crush her ambition.
+
+Sometimes as she bent over her MS., and paused to reread some passage
+just penned, which she had laboriously composed, and thought
+particularly good as an illustration of the idea she was striving to
+embody perspicuously, a smile would flit across her countenance while
+she asked herself:
+
+"Will my readers see it as I see it? Will they thank me for my high
+opinion of their culture, in assuming that it will be quite as plain to
+them as to me? If there should accidentally be an allusion to classical
+or scientific literature, which they do not understand at the first
+hasty, careless, novel-reading glance, will they inform themselves, and
+then appreciate my reason for employing it, and thank me for the hint;
+or will they attempt to ridicule my pedantry? When will they begin to
+suspect that what they may imagine sounds 'learned' in my writings,
+merely appears so to them because they have not climbed high enough to
+see how vast, how infinite is the sphere of human learning? No, no,
+dear reader, shivering with learning-phobia, I am not learned. You are
+only a little, a very little more ignorant. Doubtless you know many
+things which I should be glad to learn; come, let us barter. Let us all
+study the life of Giovanni Pico Mirandola, and then we shall begin to
+understand the meaning of the word 'learned.'"
+
+Edna unintentionally and continually judged her readers according to
+her own standard, and so eager, so unquenchable was her thirst for
+knowledge, that she could not understand how the utterance of some new
+fact, or the redressing and presentation of some forgotten idea, could
+possibly be regarded as an insult by the person thus benefited. Her
+first book taught her what was termed her "surplus paraded erudition,"
+had wounded the amour propre of the public; but she was conscientiously
+experimenting on public taste, and though some of her indolent,
+luxurious readers, who wished even their thinking done by proxy,
+shuddered at the "spring-water pumped upon their nerves," she
+good-naturedly overlooked their grimances and groans, and continued the
+hydropathic treatment even in her second book, hoping some good effects
+from the shock. Of one intensely gratifying fact she could not fail to
+be thoroughly informed, by the avalanche of letters which almost daily
+covered her desk; she had at least ensconced herself securely in a
+citadel, whence she could smilingly defy all assaults--in the warm
+hearts of her noble countrywomen. Safely sheltered in their sincere and
+devoted love, she cared little for the shafts that rattled and broke
+against the rocky ramparts, and, recoiling, dropped out of sight in the
+moat below.
+
+So with many misgivings, and much hope, and great patience, she worked
+on assiduously, and early in summer her book was finished and placed in
+the publisher's hands.
+
+In the midst of her anxiety concerning its reception, a new and
+terrible apprehension took possession of her, for it became painfully
+evident that Felix, whose health had never been good, was slowly but
+steadily declining.
+
+Mrs. Andrews and Edna took him to Sharon, to Saratoga, and to various
+other favorite resorts for invalids, but with no visible results that
+were at all encouraging, and at last they came home almost
+disheartened. Dr. Howell finally prescribed a sea-voyage, and a sojourn
+of some weeks at Eaux Bonne in the Pyrennes, as those waters had
+effected some remarkable cures.
+
+As the doctor quitted the parlor, where he held a conference with Mr.
+and Mrs. Andrews, the latter turned to her husband, saying:
+
+"It is useless to start anywhere with Felix unless Miss Earl can go
+with us; for he would fret himself to death in a week. Really, Louis,
+it is astonishing to see how devoted they are to each other. Feeble as
+that woman is, she will always sit up whenever there is any medicine to
+be given during the night; and while he was ill at Sharon, she did not
+close her eyes for a week. I can't help feeling jealous of his
+affection for her, and I spoke to her about it. He was asleep at the
+time, with his hand grasping one of hers; and when I told her how
+trying it was for a mother to see her child's whole heart given to a
+stranger, to hear morning, noon, and night, 'Edna,' always 'Edna,'
+never once 'mamma,' I wish you could have seen the strange, suffering
+expression that came into her pale face. Her lips trembled so that she
+could scarcely speak, but she said meekly, 'Oh! forgive me if I have
+won your child's heart; but I love him. You have your husband and
+daughter, your brother and sister; but I--oh! I have only Felix! I have
+nothing else to cling to in all this world!' Then she kissed his poor
+little fingers, and wept as if her heart would break, and wrung her
+hands, and begged me again and again to forgive her if he loved her
+best. She is the strangest woman I ever knew; sometimes, when she is
+sitting by me in church, I watch her calm, cold, white face, and she
+makes me think of a snow statue; but if Felix says anything to arouse
+her feelings and call out her affection, she is a volcano. It is very
+rarely that one finds a beautiful woman, distinguished by her genius,
+admired and courted by the reading public, devoting herself as she does
+to our dear little crippled darling. While I confess I am jealous of
+her, her kindness to my child makes me love her more than I can
+express. Louis, she must go with us. Poor thing! she seems to be
+failing almost as fast as Felix; and I verily believe if he should die,
+it would kill her. Did you notice how she paced the floor while the
+doctors were consulting in Felix's room? She loves nothing but my
+precious lame boy."
+
+"Certainly, Kate, she must go with you. I quite agree with you, my
+dear, that Felix is dependent upon her, and would not derive half the
+benefit from the trip if she remained at home. I confess she has cured
+me to a great extent of my horror of literary characters. She is the
+only one I ever saw who was really lovable, and not a walking parody on
+her own writings. You would be surprised at the questions constantly
+asked me about her habits and temper. People seem so curious to learn
+all the routine of her daily life. Last week a member of our club
+quoted something from her writings, and said that she was one of the
+few authors of the day whose books, without having first examined, he
+would put into the hands of his daughters. He remarked: 'I can trust my
+girls' characters to her training, for she is a true woman; and if she
+errs at all in any direction, it is the right one, only a little too
+rigidly followed.' I am frequently asked how she is related to me, for
+people can not believe that she is merely the governess of our
+children. Kate, will you tell her that it is my desire that she should
+accompany you? Speak to her at once, that I may know how many
+staterooms I shall engage on the steamer."
+
+"Come with me, Louis, and speak to her yourself."
+
+They went upstairs together, and paused on the threshold of Felix's
+room to observe what was passing within.
+
+The boy was propped by pillows into an upright position on the sofa,
+and was looking curiously into a small basket which Edna held on her
+lap.
+
+She was reading to him a touching little letter just received from an
+invalid child, who had never walked, who was confined always to the
+house, and wrote to thank her, in sweet, childish style, for a story
+which she had read in the Magazine, and which made her very happy.
+
+The invalid stated that her chief amusement consisted in tending a few
+flowers that grew in pots in her windows; and in token of her
+gratitude, she had made a nosegay of mignonette, pansies, and geranium
+leaves, which she sent with her scrawling letter.
+
+In conclusion, the child asked that the woman whom, without having
+seen, she yet loved, would be so kind as to give her a list of such
+books as a little girl ought to study, and to write her "just a few
+lines" that she could keep under her pillow, to look at now and then.
+As Edna finished reading the note, Felix took it, to examine the small,
+indistinct characters, and said:
+
+"Dear little thing! Don't you wish we knew her? 'Louie Lawrence.' Of
+course, you will answer it, Edna?"
+
+"Yes, immediately, and tell her how grateful I am for her generosity in
+sparing me a portion of her pet flowers. Each word in her sweet little
+letter is as precious as a pearl, for it came from the very depths of
+her pure heart."
+
+"Oh! what a blessed thing it is to feel that you are doing some good in
+the world! That little Louie says she prays for you every night before
+she goes to sleep! What a comfort such letters must be to you! Edna,
+how happy you look! But there are tears shining in your eyes, they
+always come when you are glad. What books will you tell her to study?"
+
+"I will think about the subject, and let you read my answer. Give me
+the 'notelet'; I want to put it away securely among my treasures. How
+deliciously fragrant the flowers are! Only smell them, Felix! Here, my
+darling, I will give them to you, and write to the little Louie how
+happy she made two people."
+
+She lifted the delicate bouquet so daintily fashioned by fairy
+child-fingers, inhaled the perfume, and, as she put it in the thin
+fingers of the cripple, she bent forward and kissed his fever-parched
+lips. At this instant Felix saw his parents standing at the door, and
+held up the flowers triumphantly.
+
+"Oh, mamma! come smell this mignonette. Why can't we grow some in boxes
+in our window?"
+
+Mr. Andrews leaned over his son's pillows, softly put his hand on the
+boy's forehead, and said:
+
+"My son, Miss Earl professes to love you very much, but I doubt whether
+she really means all she says; and I am determined to satisfy myself
+fully. Just now I can not leave my business, but mamma, intends to take
+you to Europe next week, and I want to know whether Miss Earl will
+leave all her admirers here, and go with you and help mamma to nurse
+you. Do you think she will?"
+
+Mrs. Andrews stood with her hand resting on the shoulder of the
+governess, watching the varying expression of her child's countenance.
+
+"I think, papa--I hope she will; I believe she--"
+
+He paused, and, struggling up from his pillows, he stretched out his
+poor little arms, and exclaimed:
+
+"Oh, Edna! you will go with me? You promised you would never forsake
+me! Tell papa you will go."
+
+His head was on her shoulder, his arms were clasped tightly around her
+neck. She laid her face on his, and was silent.
+
+Mr. Andrews placed his hand on the orphan's bowed head.
+
+"Miss Earl, you must let me tell you that I look upon you as a member
+of my family; that my wife and I love you almost as well as if you were
+one of our children; and I hope you will not refuse to accompany Kate
+on the tour she contemplates. Let me take your own father's place; and
+I shall regard it as a great favor to me and mine if you will consent
+to go, and allow me to treat you always as I do my Hattie. I have no
+doubt you will derive as much benefit from travelling, as I certainly
+hope for Felix."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Andrews, I appreciate your generosity, and I prize the
+affection and confidence which you and your wife have shown me. I came,
+an utter stranger, into your house, and you kindly made me one of the
+family circle. I am alone in the world, and have become strongly
+attached to your children. Felix is not merely my dear pupil, he is my
+brother, my companion, my little darling! I can not be separated from
+him. Next to his mother he belongs to me. Oh! I will travel with him
+anywhere that you and Mrs. Andrews think it best he should go. I will
+never, never leave him."
+
+She disengaged the boy's arms, laid him back on his pillows, and went
+to her own room.
+
+In the midst of prompt preparations for departure Edna's new novel
+appeared. She had christened it "SHINING THORNS ON THE HEARTH," and
+dedicated it "To my countrywomen, the Queens who reign thereon."
+
+The aim of the book was to discover the only true and allowable and
+womanly sphere of feminine work, and, though the theme was threadbare,
+she fearlessly picked up the frayed woof and rewove it.
+
+The tendency of the age was to equality and communism, and this, she
+contended, was undermining the golden thrones shining in the blessed
+and hallowed light of the hearth, whence every true woman ruled the
+realm of her own family. Regarding every pseudo "reform" which struck
+down the social and political distinction of the sexes, as a blow that
+crushed one of the pillars of woman's throne, she earnestly warned the
+Crowned Heads of the danger to be apprehended from the unfortunate and
+deluded female malcontents, who, dethroned in their own realm, and
+despised by their quondam subjects, roamed as pitiable, royal exiles,
+threatening to usurp man's kingdom; and to proud, happy mothers,
+guarded by Praetorian bands of children, she reiterated the assurance
+that
+
+  "Those who rock the cradle rule the world."
+
+Most carefully she sifted the records of history, tracing in every
+epoch the sovereigns of the hearth-throne who had reigned wisely and
+contentedly, ennobling and refining humanity; and she proved by
+illustrious examples that the borders of the feminine realm could not
+be enlarged, without rendering the throne unsteady, and subverting
+God's law of order. Woman reigned by divine right only at home. If
+married, in the hearts of husband and children, and not in the gilded,
+bedizened palace of fashion, where thinly veiled vice and frivolity
+hold carnival, and social upas and social asps wave and trail. If
+single, in the affections of brothers and sisters and friends, as the
+golden sceptre in the hands of parents. If orphaned, she should find
+sympathy and gratitude and usefulness among the poor and the afflicted.
+
+Consulting the statistics of single women, and familiarizing herself
+with the arguments advanced by the advocates of that "progress," which
+would indiscriminately throw open all professions to women, she
+entreated the poor of her own sex, if ambitious, to become sculptors,
+painters, writers, teachers in schools or families; or else to remain
+mantau-makers, milliners, spinners, dairymaids; but on the peril of all
+womanhood not to meddle with scalpel or red tape, and to shun rostra of
+all description, remembering St. Paul's injunction, that "IT IS NOT
+PERMITTED UNTO WOMEN TO SPEAK"; and even that "IT IS A SHAME FOR WOMEN
+TO SPEAK IN THE CHURCH."
+
+To married women who thirsted for a draught of the turbid waters of
+politics, she said: "If you really desire to serve the government under
+which you live, recollect that it was neither the speeches thundered
+from the forum, nor the prayers of priests and augurs, nor the iron
+tramp of glittering legions, but the ever triumphant, maternal
+influence, the potent, the pleading 'My son!' of Volumnia, the mother
+of Coriolanus, that saved Rome."
+
+To discontented spinsters, who travelled like Pandora over the land,
+haranguing audiences that secretly laughed at and despised them, to
+these unfortunate women, clamoring for power and influence in the
+national councils, she pointed out that quiet, happy home at "Barley
+Wood," whence immortal Hannah More sent forth those writings which did
+more to tranquilize England, and bar the hearts of its yeomanry against
+the temptations of red republicanism than all the eloquence of Burke,
+and the cautious measures of Parliament.
+
+Some errors of style, which had been pointed out by critics as marring
+her earlier writings, Edna had endeavored to avoid in this book, which
+she humbly offered to her countrywomen as the best of which she was
+capable.
+
+From the day of its appearance it was a success; and she had the
+gratification of hearing that some of the seed she had sown broadcast
+in the land fell upon good ground, and promised an abundant harvest.
+
+Many who called to bid her good-bye on the day before the steamer
+sailed, found it impossible to disguise their apprehensions that she
+would never return; and some who looked tearfully into her face and
+whispered "God-speed!" thought they saw the dread signet of death set
+on her white brow.
+
+To Edna it was inexpressibly painful to cross the Atlantic while Mr.
+Hammond's health was so feeble; and over the long farewell letter which
+she sent him, with a copy of her new book, the old man wept. Mrs.
+Murray had seemed entirely estranged since that last day spent at Le
+Bocage, and had not written a line since the orphan's return to New
+York. But when she received the new novel, and the affectionate,
+mournful, meek note that accompanied it, Mrs. Murray laid her head on
+her son's bosom and sobbed aloud.
+
+Dr. Howell and Mr. Manning went with Edna aboard the steamer, and both
+laughed heartily at her efforts to disengage herself from a
+pertinacious young book-vender, who, with his arms full of copies of
+her own book, stopped her on deck, and volubly extolled its merits,
+insisting that she should buy one to while away the tedium of the
+voyage.
+
+Dr. Howell gave final directions concerning the treatment of Felix, and
+then came to speak to the governess.
+
+"Even now, sadly as you have abused your constitution, I shall have
+some hope of seeing gray hairs about your temples, if you will give
+yourself unreservedly to relaxation of mind. You have already
+accomplished so much that you can certainly afford to rest for some
+months at least. Read nothing, write nothing (except long letters to
+me), study nothing but the aspects of nature in European scenery, and
+you will come back improved to the country that is so justly proud of
+you. Disobey my injunctions, and I shall soon be called to mourn over
+the announcement that you have found an early grave, far from your
+native land, and among total strangers. God bless you, dear child! and
+bring you safely back to us."
+
+As he turned away, Mr. Manning took her hand and said:
+
+"I hope to meet you in Rome early in February; but something might
+occur to veto my programme. If I should never see you again in this
+world, is there anything that you wish to say to me now?"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Manning. If I should die in Europe, have my body brought back
+to America and carried to the South--my own dear South, that I love so
+well--and bury me close to Grandpa, where I can sleep quietly in the
+cool shadow of old Lookout; and be sure, please be sure, to have my
+name carved just below Grandpa's, on his monument. I want that one
+marble to stand for us both."
+
+"I will. Is there nothing else?"
+
+"Thank you, my dear, good, kind friend. Nothing else."
+
+"Edna, promise me that you will take care of your precious life."
+
+"I will try, Mr. Manning."
+
+He looked down into her worn, weary face and sighed, then for the first
+time he took both her hands, kissed them and left her.
+
+Swiftly the steamer took its way seaward; through the Narrows, past the
+lighthouse; and the wind sang through the rigging, and the purple hills
+of Jersey faded from view, proving Neversink a misnomer.
+
+One by one the passengers went below and Edna and Felix were left on
+deck, with stars burning above, and blue waves bounding beneath them.
+
+As the cripple sat looking over the solemn, moaning ocean, awed by its
+brooding gloom, did he catch in the silvery starlight a second glimpse
+of the rose-colored veils, and snowy vittae, and purple-edged robes of
+the Parcae, spinning and singing as they followed the ship across the
+sobbing sea? He shivered, and clasping tightly the hand of his
+governess, said:
+
+"Edna, we shall never see the Neversink again."
+
+"God only knows, dear Felix. His will be done."
+
+  "How silvery the echoes run--
+   Thy will be done--Thy will be done."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+
+"Worthy? No, no! Unworthy! most unworthy! But was Thomas worthy to tend
+the wandering sheep of Him, whom face to face he doubted? Was Peter
+worthy to preach the Gospel of Him, whom he had thrice indignantly
+denied? Was Paul worthy to become the Apostle of the Gentiles, teaching
+the doctrine of Him whose disciples he had persecuted and slaughtered?
+If the repentance of Peter and Paul availed to purify their hands and
+hearts, and sanctify them to the service of Christ, ah! God knows my
+contrition has been bitter and lasting enough to fit me for future
+usefulness. Eight months ago, when the desire to become a minister
+seized me so tenaciously, I wrestled with it, tried to crush it;
+arguing that the knowledge of my past life of sinfulness would prevent
+the world from trusting my professions. But those who even slightly
+understand my character, must know that I have always been too utterly
+indifferent to, too unfortunately contemptuous of public opinion, to
+stoop to any deception in order to conciliate it. Moreover, the world
+will realize that in a mere worldly point of view, I can possibly hope
+to gain nothing by this step. If I were poor, I might be accused of
+wanting the loaves and fishes of the profession; if unknown and
+ambitious, of seeking eminence and popularity. But when a man of my
+wealth and social position, after spending half of his life in
+luxurious ease and sinful indulgence, voluntarily subjects himself to
+the rigid abstemiousness and self-sacrificing requirements of a
+ministerial career, he can not be suspected of hypocrisy. After all,
+sir, I care not for the discussion, of nine days' gossip and wonder,
+the gibes and comments my course may occasion. I am hearkening to the
+counsel of my conscience; I am obeying the dictates of my heart.
+Feeling that my God accepts me, it matters little that men may reject
+me. My remorse, my repentance, has been inexpressibly bitter; but the
+darkness has passed away, and to-day, thank God! I can pray with all
+the fervor and faith of my boyhood, when I knew that I was at peace
+with my Maker. Oblivion of the past I do not expect, and perhaps should
+not desire. I shall always wear my melancholy memories of sin, as
+Musselmen wear their turban or pall--as a continual memento of death.
+Because I have proved so fully the inadequacy of earthly enjoyments to
+satisfy the demands of a soul; because I tried the alluring pleasures
+of sin, and was satiated, ah! utterly sickened, I turned with panting
+eagerness to the cool, quiet peace which reigns over the life of a true
+Christian pastor. I want neither fame nor popularity, but peace! peace
+I must have! I have hunted the world over and over; I have sought it
+everywhere else, and now, thank God! I feel that it is descending
+slowly, slowly, but surely, upon my lonely, long-tortured heart. Thank
+God! I have found peace after much strife and great weariness--"
+
+Mr. Murray could no longer control his voice; and as he stood leaning
+against the mantelpiece at the parsonage, he dropped his head on his
+hand.
+
+"St. Elmo, the purity of your motives will never be questioned, for
+none who knows you could believe you capable of dissembling in this
+matter; and my heart can scarcely contain its joy when I look forward
+to your future, so bright with promise, so full of usefulness. The
+marked change in your manner during the past two years has prepared
+this community for the important step you are to take to-day, and your
+influence with young men will be incalculable. Once your stern
+bitterness rendered you an object of dread; now I find that you are
+respected, and people here watch your conduct with interest, and even
+with anxiety. Ah, St. Elmo, I never imagined earth held as much pure
+happiness as is my portion to-day. To see you one of God's anointed! To
+see you ministering in the temple! Oh! to know that when I am gone to
+rest you will take my place, guard my flock, do your own work and poor
+Murray's, and finish mine! This, this is indeed the crowning blessing
+of my old age."
+
+For some minutes, Mr. Hammond sobbed; and lifting his face, Mr. Murray
+answered:
+
+"As I think of the coming years consecrated to Christ, passed
+peacefully in endeavoring to atone for the injury and suffering I have
+inflicted on my fellow-creatures; oh! as the picture of a calm, useful,
+holy future rises before me, I feel indeed that I am unworthy, most
+unworthy of my peace; but, thank God!
+
+  'Oh! I see the crescent promise of my spirit hath not set;
+   Ancient founts of inspiration well through all my fancy yet.'"
+
+It was a beautiful Sabbath morning, just one year after Edna's
+departure, and the church was crowded to its utmost capacity, for
+people had come for many miles around to witness a ceremony, the
+announcement of which had given rise to universal comment. As the hour
+approached for the ordination of St. Elmo Murray to the ministry of
+Jesus Christ, even the doors were filled with curious spectators; and
+when Mr. Hammond and St. Elmo walked down the aisle, and the old man
+seated himself in a chair within the altar, there was a general stir in
+the congregation.
+
+The officiating minister had come from a distant city to perform a
+ceremony of more than usual interest; and when he stood up in the
+pulpit, and the organ thundered through the arches, St. Elmo bowed his
+head on his hand, and sat thus during the hour that ensued.
+
+The ordination sermon was solemn and eloquent, and preached from the
+text in Romans:
+
+"For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
+But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have
+your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life."
+
+Then the minister, having finished his discourse, came down before the
+altar and commenced the services; but Mr. Murray sat motionless, with
+his countenance concealed by his hand. Mr. Hammond approached and
+touched him, and, as he rose, led him to the altar, and presented him
+as a candidate for ordination.
+
+There, before the shining marble pulpit which he had planned and built
+in the early years of his life, for the idol of his youth, stood St.
+Elmo; and the congregation, especially those of his native village,
+looked with involuntary admiration and pride at the erect, powerful
+form, clad in its suit of black--at the nobly proportioned head, where
+gray locks were visible.
+
+"But if there be any of you who knoweth any impediment or crime, for
+the which he ought not to be received into this holy ministry, let him
+come forth, in the name of God, and show what the crime or impediment
+is."
+
+The preacher paused, the echo of his words died away, and perfect
+silence reigned. Suddenly St. Elmo raised his eyes from the railing of
+the altar, and, turning his face slightly, looked through the eastern
+window at the ivy-draped vault where slept Murray and Annie. The world
+was silent, but conscience and the dead accused him. An expression of
+intolerable pain crossed his handsome features, then his hands folded
+themselves tightly together on the top of the marble balustrade, and he
+looked appealingly up to the pale Jesus staggering under his cross.
+
+At that instant a spotless white pigeon from the belfry found its way
+into the church through the open doors, circled once around the
+building, fluttered against the window, hiding momentarily the crown of
+thorns, and, frightened and confused, fell upon the fluted pillar of
+the pulpit.
+
+An electric thrill ran through the congregation; and as the minister
+resumed the services, he saw on St. Elmo's face a light, a great joy,
+such as human countenances rarely wear this side of the grave.
+
+When Mr. Murray knelt and the ordaining hands were laid upon his head,
+a sob was heard from the pew where his mother sat, and the voice of the
+preacher faltered as he delivered the Bible to the kneeling man, saying:
+
+"Take thou authority to preach the word of God, and to administer the
+holy sacraments in the congregation."
+
+There were no dry eyes in the entire assembly, save two that looked
+out, coldly blue, from the pew where Mrs. Powell sat like a statue,
+between her daughter and Gordon Leigh.
+
+Mr. Hammond tottered across the altar, and knelt down close to Mr.
+Murray; and many who knew the history of the pastor's family, wept as
+the gray head fell on the broad shoulder of St. Elmo, whose arm was
+thrown around the old man's form, and the ordaining minister, with
+tears rolling over his face, extended his hands in benediction above
+them.
+
+"The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts
+and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of His Son Jesus Christ
+our Lord; and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and
+the Holy Ghost, be among you, and remain with you alway."
+
+And all hearts and lips present whispered "Amen!" and the organ and the
+choir broke forth in a grand "Gloria in excelsis."
+
+Standing there at the chancel, purified, consecrated henceforth
+unreservedly to Christ, Mr. Murray looked so happy, so noble, so worthy
+of his high calling, that his proud, fond mother thought his face was
+fit for an archangel's wings.
+
+Many persons who had known him in his boyhood, came up with tears in
+their eyes, and wrung his hand silently. At last Huldah pointed to the
+white pigeon, that was now beating its wings against the gilded pipes
+of the organ, and said, in that singularly sweet, solemn, hesitating
+tone, with which children approach sacred things:
+
+"Oh, Mr. Murray! when it fell on the pulpit, it nearly took my breath
+away, for I almost thought it was the Holy Ghost."
+
+Tears, which till then he had bravely kept back, dripped over his face,
+as he stooped and whispered to the little orphan:
+
+"Huldah, the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, came indeed; but it was not
+visible, it is here in my heart."
+
+The congregation dispersed. Mrs. Murray and the preacher and Huldah
+went to the carriage; and, leaning on Mr. Murray's arm, Mr. Hammond
+turned to follow, but observing that the church was empty, the former
+said:
+
+"After a little I will come."
+
+The old man walked on, and Mr. Murray went back and knelt, resting his
+head against the beautiful glittering balustrade, within which he hoped
+to officiate through the remaining years of his earthly career.
+
+Once the sexton, who was waiting to lock up the church, looked in, saw
+the man praying alone there at the altar, and softly stole away.
+
+When St. Elmo came out, the churchyard seemed deserted; but as he
+crossed it, going homeward, a woman rose from one of the tombstones and
+stood before him--the yellow-haired Jezebel, with sapphire eyes and
+soft, treacherous red lips, who had goaded him to madness and blasted
+the best years of his life.
+
+At sight of her he recoiled, as if a cobra had started up in his path.
+
+"St. Elmo, my beloved! in the name of other days stop and hear me. By
+the memory of our early love, I entreat you!"
+
+She came close to him, and the alabaster face was marvelously beautiful
+in its expression of penitential sweetness.
+
+"St. Elmo, can you never forgive me for the suffering I caused you in
+my giddy girlhood?"
+
+She took his hand and attempted to raise it to her lips; but shaking
+off her touch, he stepped back, and steadily they looked in each
+other's eyes.
+
+"Agnes, I forgive you. May God pardon your sins, as He has pardoned
+mine!"
+
+He turned away, but she seized his coat-sleeve and threw herself before
+him, standing with both hands clasping his arm.
+
+"If you mean what you say, there is happiness yet in store for us. Oh,
+St. Elmo! how often have I longed to come and lay my head down on your
+bosom, and tell you all. But you were so stern and harsh I was afraid.
+To-day when I saw you melted, when the look of your boyhood came
+dancing back to your dear eyes, I was encouraged to hope that your
+heart had softened also toward one, who so long possessed it. Is there
+hope for your poor Agnes? Hope that the blind, silly girl, who,
+ignorant of the value of the treasure, slighted and spurned it, may
+indeed be pardoned, when, as a woman realizing her folly, and sensible
+at last of the nobility of a nature she once failed to appreciate, she
+comes and says--what it is so hard for a woman to say--'Take me back to
+your heart, gather me up in your arms, as in the olden days,
+because--because I love you now; because only your love can make me
+happy.' St. Elmo, we are no longer young; but believe me when I tell
+you that at last--at last--your own Agnes loves you as she never loved
+any one, even in her girlhood. Once I preferred my cousin Murray to
+you; but think how giddy I must have been, when I could marry before a
+year had settled the sod on his grave? I did not love my husband, but I
+married him for the same reason that I would have married you then. And
+yet for that there is some palliation. It was to save my father from
+disgrace that I sacrificed myself; for money entrusted to his
+keeping--money belonging to his orphan ward--had been used by him in a
+ruinous speculation, and only prompt repayment could prevent exposure.
+Remember I was so young, so vain, so thoughtless then! St. Elmo, pity
+me! love me! take me back to your heart! God is my witness that I do
+love you entirely now! Dearest, say, 'Agnes, I will forgive all, and
+trust you and love you as in the days long past.'"
+
+She tried to put her arms up around his neck and to rest her head on
+his shoulder; but he resisted and put her at arm's length from him.
+
+Holding her there, he looked at her with a cold scorn in his eyes, and
+a heavy shadow darkening the brow that five minutes before had been so
+calm, so bright.
+
+"Agnes, how dare you attempt to deceive me after all that has passed
+between us? Oh, woman! In the name of all true womanhood I could blush
+for you!"
+
+She struggled to free herself, to get closer to him, but his stern
+grasp was relentless; and as tears poured down her cheeks, she clasped
+her hands and sobbed out:
+
+"You do not believe that I really love you! Oh! do not look at me so
+harshly! I am not deceiving you; as I hope for pardon and rest for my
+soul--as I hope to see my father's face in heaven--I am not deceiving
+you! I do--I do love you! When I spoke to you about Gertrude, it cost
+me a dreadful pang; but I thought you loved her because she resembled
+me; and for my child's sake I crushed my own hopes--I wanted, if
+possible, to save her from suffering. But you only upbraided and heaped
+savage sarcasms upon me. Oh, St. Elmo! if you could indeed see my poor
+heart, you would not look so cruelly cold. You ought to know that I am
+terribly in earnest when I can stoop to beg for the ruins of a heart,
+which in its freshness I once threw away, and trampled on."
+
+He had seen her weep before, when it suited her purpose, and he only
+smiled and answered: "Yes, Agnes, you ruined and trampled it in the
+mire of sin; but I have rebuilt it, and, by the mercy of God, I hope I
+have purified it. Look you, woman! when you overturned the temple, you
+crumbled your own image that was set up there; and I long, long ago
+swept out and gave to the hungry winds the despised dust of that broken
+idol, and over my heart you can reign no more! The only queen it has
+known since that awful night twenty-three years ago, when my faith,
+hope, charity were all strangled in an instant by the velvet hand I had
+kissed in my doting fondness--the only queen my heart has acknowledged
+since then, is one who, in her purity soars like an angel above you and
+me, and her dear name is--Edna Earl."
+
+"Edna Earl!--a puritanical fanatic! Nay, a Pharisee! A cold prude, a
+heartless blue! A woman with some brain and no feeling, who loves
+nothing but her own fame, and has no sympathy with your nature. St.
+Elmo, are you insane! Did you not see that letter from Estelle to your
+mother, stating that she, Edna, would certainly be married in February
+to the celebrated Mr. Manning, who was then on his way to Rome to meet
+her? Did you see that letter?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"And discredit it? Blindness, madness, equal to my own in the days gone
+by! Edna Earl exists no longer; she was married a month ago. Here, read
+for yourself, or you will believe that I fabricate the whole."
+
+She held a newspaper before his eyes and he saw a paragraph, marked
+with a circle of ink, "Marriage in Literary Circles":
+
+"The very reliable correspondent of the New York--writes from Rome that
+the Americans now in that city are on the qui vive concerning a
+marriage announced to take place on Thursday next at the residence of
+the American Minister. The very distinguished parties are Miss Edna
+Earl, the gifted and exceedingly popular young authoress, whose works
+have given her an enviable reputation, even on this side of the
+Atlantic, and Mr. Douglass G. Manning, the well-known and able editor
+of the--Magazine. The happy pair will start, immediately after the
+ceremony, on a tour through Greece and the Holy Land."
+
+Mr. Murray opened the paper, glanced at the date, and his swarthy face
+paled as he put his hands over his eyes.
+
+Mrs. Powell came nearer, and once more touched his hand; but, with a
+gesture of disgust, he pushed her aside.
+
+"Away! Not a word--not one word more! You are not worthy to take my
+darling's name upon your lips! She may be Manning's wife--God forbid
+it!--or she may be in her grave. I have lost her, I know; but if I
+never see her dear angel face again in this world, it will be in
+consequence of my sins, and of yours; and with God's help I mean to
+live out the remainder of my days, so that at last I shall meet her in
+eternity! Leave me, Agnes! Do not make me forget the vows I have to-day
+taken upon myself, in the presence of the world and of my Maker. In
+future, keep out of my path, which will never cross yours; do not rouse
+the old hate toward you, which I am faithfully striving to overcome.
+The first time I went to the communion-table, after the lapse of all
+those dreary years of sin and desperation, I asked myself, 'Have I a
+right to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper?--can I face God and say I
+forgive Agnes Powell?' Finally, after a hard struggle, I said, from the
+depths of my heart, 'Even as I need and hope for forgiveness myself, I
+do fully forgive her.' Mark you, it was my injuries that I pardoned,
+your treachery that I forgave. But recollect there is a mournful truth
+in those words--THERE IS NO PARDON FOR DESECRATED IDEALS! Once, in the
+flush of my youth, I selected you as the beau ideal of beautiful,
+perfect womanhood; but you fell from that lofty pedestal where my
+ardent, boyish love set you for worship, and you dragged me down, down,
+almost beyond the pale of God's mercy! I forgive all my wrongs, but
+'take you back, love you?' Ah! I can never love anyone, I never, even
+in my boyhood, loved you, as I love my pure darling, my own Edna! Her
+memory is all I have to cheer me in my lonely work. I do not believe
+that she is married; no, no, but she is in her grave. For many days
+past I have been oppressed by a horrible presentiment that she has gone
+to her rest in Christ--that the next steamer will bring me tidings of
+her death. Do not touch me, Agnes! If there be any truth in what you
+have to-day asserted so solemnly (though I can not believe it, for if
+you ridiculed and disliked me in my noble youth, how can you love the
+same man in the melancholy wreck of his hopes?), if there be a shadow
+of truth in your words, you are indeed to be pitied. Ah! you and I have
+learned at a terrible price the deceitfulness of riches, the hollowness
+of this world's pleasures; and both have writhed under the poisonous
+fangs that always dart from the dregs of the cup of sin, which you and
+I have drained. Experience must have taught you, also, what I was so
+long in learning--the utter hopelessness of peace for heart and soul
+save only through that religion, which so far subdues even my sinful,
+vindictive, satanic nature, that I can say to you--you who blasted all
+my earthly happiness--I forgive you my sufferings, and hope that God
+will give you that pardon and comfort which after awful conflicts I
+have found at last. Several times you have thrust yourself into my
+presence; but if there remains any womanly delicacy in your nature you
+will avoid me henceforth when I tell you that I loath the sight of one
+whose unwomanliness stabbed my trust in womanhood, and sunk me so low
+that I lost Edna Earl. Agnes, go yonder--where I have spent so many
+hours of agony--yonder to the graves of your victims as well as mine.
+Go down on your knees yonder, and pray for yourself, and may God help
+you!"
+
+He pointed to the gray vault and the slab that covered Annie and Murray
+Hammond; and disengaging her fingers, which still clutched his sleeve,
+he turned quickly and walked away.
+
+Her mournful eyes, strained wide and full of tears, followed him till
+his form was no longer visible; and sinking down on the
+monument--whence she had risen at his approach--she shrouded her fair,
+delicate features, and rocked herself to and fro.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+
+"How lovely! Oh! I did not think there was any place half so beautiful
+this side of heaven!"
+
+With his head on his mother's bosom, Felix lay near the window of an
+upper room, looking out over the Gulf of Genoa.
+
+The crescent curve of the olive-mantled Apennines girdled the city in a
+rocky clasp, and mellowed by distance and the magic enamelling of
+evening light, each particular peak rose against the chrysoprase sky
+like a pyramid of lapis lazuli, around whose mighty base rolled soft
+waves of golden haze.
+
+Over the glassy bosom of the gulf, where glided boats filled with gay,
+pleasure-seeking Italians, floated the merry strains of a barcarole,
+with the silvery echo of "Fidulin" keeping time with the silvery gleam
+of the dipping oars.
+
+  "And the sun went into the west, and down
+   Upon the water stooped an orange cloud,
+   And the pale milky reaches flushed, as glad
+   To wear its colors; and the sultry air
+   Went out to sea, and puffed the sails of ships
+   With thymy wafts, the breath of trodden grass."
+
+
+"Lift me up, mamma! higher, higher yet. I want to see the sun. There!
+it has gone--gone down into the sea. I can't bear to see it set to-day.
+It seemed to say good-bye to me just then. Oh, mamma, mamma! I don't
+want to die. The world is so beautiful, and life is so sweet up here in
+the sunshine and the starlight, and it is so cold and dark down there
+in the grave. Oh! where is Edna? Tell her to come quick and sing
+something to me."
+
+The cripple shuddered and shut his eyes. He had wasted away, until he
+looked a mere shadow of humanity, and his governess stooped and took
+him from his mother's arms as if he were a baby.
+
+"Edna, talk to me! Oh! don't let me get afraid to die. I--"
+
+She laid her lips on his, and the touch calmed their shivering; and,
+after a moment, she began to repeat the apocalyptic vision of heaven:
+
+"And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither
+light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light; and they shall
+reign for ever and ever."
+
+"But, Edna, the light does not shine down there in the grave. If you
+could go with me--"
+
+"A better and kinder Friend will go with you, dear Felix."
+
+She sang with strange pathos "Motet," that beautiful arrangement of
+"The Lord is my Shepherd."
+
+As she reached that part where the words, "Yea, though I walk through
+the valley of the shadow of death," are repeated, the weak, quavering
+voice of the sick boy joined hers; and, when she ceased, the emaciated
+face was placid, the great dread had passed away for ever.
+
+Anxious to divert his thoughts, she put into his hand a bunch of orange
+flowers and violets, which had been sent to her that day by Mr.
+Manning; and taking a book from the bed, she resumed the reading of
+"The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain," to which the invalid had never
+wearied of listening.
+
+But she soon saw that for once he was indifferent; and, understanding
+the expression of the eyes that gazed out on the purple shadows
+shrouding the Apennines, she closed the volume, and laid the sufferer
+back on his pillow.
+
+While she was standing before a table, preparing some nourishment to be
+given to him during the night, Mrs. Andrews came close to her and
+whispered:
+
+"Do you see much change? Is he really worse, or do my fears magnify
+every bad symptom?"
+
+"He is much exhausted, but I trust the stimulants will revive him. You
+must go to bed early, and get a good sound sleep, for you look worn
+out. I will wake you if I see any decided change in him."
+
+Mrs. Andrews hung for some time over her child's pillow, caressing him,
+saying tender, soothing, motherly things; and, after a while, she and
+Hattie kissed him, and went into the adjoining room, leaving him to the
+care of one whom he loved better than all the world beside.
+
+It was late at night before the sound of laughter, song and chatter
+died away in the streets of Genoa the magnificent. While the human tide
+ebbed and flowed under the windows, Felix was restless, and his
+companion tried to interest him by telling him the history of the
+Dorias, and of the siege during which Massena won such glory. Her
+conversation drifted away, even to Ancona, and that sad, but touching
+incident, which Sismondi records, of the noble, patriotic young mother,
+who gave to a starving soldier the milk that her half-famished babe
+required, and sent him, thus refreshed and strengthened, to defend the
+walls of her beleaguered city.
+
+The boy's fondness for history showed itself even then, and he listened
+attentively to her words.
+
+At length silence reigned through the marble palaces, and Edna rose to
+place the small lamp in an alabaster vase.
+
+As she did so, something flew into her face, and fluttered to the edge
+of the vase, and as she attempted to brush it off, she started back,
+smothering a cry of horror. It was the Sphinx Atropos, the Death's Head
+Moth; and there, upon its breast, appallingly distinct, grinned the
+ghastly, gray human skull. Twice it circled rapidly round the vase,
+uttering strange, stridulous sounds, then floated up to the canopy
+overarching Felix's bed, and poised itself on the carved frame, waiting
+and flapping its wings, vulture-like. Shuddering from head to foot,
+notwithstanding the protest which reason offered against superstition,
+the governess sat down to watch the boy's slumber.
+
+His eyes were closed, and she hoped that he slept; but presently he
+feebly put out his skeleton hand and took hers.
+
+"Edna, mamma cannot hear me, can she?"
+
+"She is asleep, but I will wake her if you wish it."
+
+"No, she would only begin to cry, and that would worry me. Edna, I want
+you to promise me one thing--" He paused a few seconds and sighed
+wearily.
+
+"When you all go back home, don't leave me here; take me with you, and
+lay my poor little deformed body in the ground at 'The Willows,' where
+the sea will sing over me. We were so happy there! I always thought I
+should like my grave to be under the tallest willow, where our canary's
+cage used to hang. Edna, I don't think you will live long--I almost
+hope you won't--and I want you to promise me, too, that you will tell
+them to bury us close together; so that the very moment I rise out of
+my grave, on the day of judgment, I will see your face! Sometimes, when
+I think of the millions and millions that will be pressing up for their
+trial before God's throne, on that great, awful day, I am afraid I
+might lose or miss you in the crowd, and never find you again; but, you
+know, if our coffins touch, you can stretch out your hand to me as you
+rise, and we can go together. Oh! I want your face to be the last I see
+here, and the first--yonder."
+
+He raised his fingers slowly, and they fell back wearily on the
+coverlet.
+
+"Don't talk so, Felix. Oh, my darling' God will not take you away from
+me. Try to sleep, shut your eyes; you need rest to compose you."
+
+She knelt down, kissed him repeatedly, and laid her face close to his
+on the pillow; and he tried to turn and put his emaciated arm around
+her neck.
+
+"Edna, I have been a trouble to you for a long time, but you will miss
+me when I am gone, and you will have nothing to love. If you live long,
+marry Mr. Manning, and let him take care of you. Don't work so hard,
+dear Edna; only rest, and let him make you happy. Before I knew you I
+was always wishing to die; but now I hate to leave you all alone, my
+own dear, pale Edna."
+
+"Oh, Felix, darling! hush! Go to sleep. You wring my heart!"
+
+Her sobs distressed him, and, feebly patting her cheek, he said:
+
+"Perhaps if you will sing me something low, I may go to sleep, and I
+want to hear your voice once more. Sing me that song about the child
+and the rose-bush, that Hattie likes so much."
+
+"Not that! anything but that! It is too sad, my precious little
+darling."
+
+"But I want to hear it; please, Edna."
+
+It was a painful task that he imposed, but his wishes ruled her; and
+she tried to steady her voice as she sang, in a very low, faltering
+tone, the beautiful, but melancholy ballad. Tears rolled over her face
+as she chanted the verses; and when she concluded, he repeated very
+faintly:
+
+  "Sweetly it rests, and on dream-wings flies,
+   To play with the angels in paradise!"
+
+He nestled his lips to hers, and, after a little while, murmured:
+
+"Good-night, Edna!"
+
+"Good-night, my darling!"
+
+She gave him a stimulating potion, and arranged his head comfortably.
+Ere long his heavy breathing told her that he slept, and, stealing from
+his side, she sat down in a large chair near the head of his bed, and
+watched him.
+
+For many months he had been failing, and they had travelled from place
+to place, hoping against hope that each change would certainly be
+beneficial.
+
+Day and night Edna had nursed him, had devoted every thought, almost
+every prayer to him; and now her heart seemed centred in him. Scenery,
+music, painting, rare MSS., all were ignored; she lived only for that
+poor dependent boy, and knew not a moment of peace when separated from
+him. She had ceased to study aught but his comfort and happiness, had
+written nothing save letters to friends; and notwithstanding her
+anxiety concerning the cripple, the frequent change of air had
+surprisingly improved her own health. For six months she had escaped
+the attacks so much dreaded, and began to believe her restoration
+complete, though the long banished color obstinately refused to return
+to her face, which seemed unable to recover its rounded outline. Still,
+she was very grateful for the immunity from suffering, especially as it
+permitted more unremitting attendance upon Felix.
+
+She knew that his life was flickering out gently but surely; and now,
+as she watched the pale, pinched features, her own quivered, and she
+clasped her hands and wept, and stifled a groan.
+
+She had prayed so passionately and continually that he might be spared
+to her; but it seemed that whenever her heart-strings wrapped
+themselves around an idol, a jealous God tore them loose, and snatched
+away the dear object, and left the heart to bleed. If that boy died,
+how utterly desolate and lonely she would be; nothing left to care for
+and to cling to, nothing to claim as her own, and anoint with the
+tender love of her warm heart.
+
+She had been so intensely interested in the expansion of his mind, had
+striven so tirelessly to stimulate his brain, and soften and purify his
+heart; she had been so proud of his rapid progress, and so ambitious
+for his future, and now the mildew of death was falling on her fond
+hopes. Ah! she had borne patiently many trials, but this appeared
+unendurable. She had set all her earthly happiness on a little
+thing--the life of a helpless cripple; and as she gazed through her
+tears at that shrunken, sallow face, so dear to her, it seemed hard!
+hard! that God denied her this one blessing. What was the praise and
+admiration of all the world in comparison with the loving light in that
+child's eyes, and the tender pressure of his lips?
+
+The woman's ambition had long been fully satisfied, and even exacting
+conscience, jealously guarding its shrine, saw daily sacrifices laid
+thereon, and smiled approvingly upon her; but the woman's hungry heart
+cried out, and fought fiercely, famine-goaded, for its last vanishing
+morsel of human love and sympathy. Verily, these bread-riots of the
+heart are fearful things, and crucified consciences too often mark
+their track.
+
+The little figure on the bed was so motionless that Edna crept nearer
+and leaned down to listen to the breathing; and her tears fell on his
+thick, curling hair, and upon the orange-blossoms and violets.
+
+Standing there she threw up her clenched hands and prayed sobbingly:
+
+"My Father! spare the boy to me! I will dedicate anew my life and his
+to thy work! I will make him a minister of thy word, and he shall save
+precious souls. Oh! do not take him away! If not for a lifetime, at
+least spare him a few years! Even one more year, O my God!"
+
+She walked to the window, rested her forehead against the stone facing,
+and looked out; and the wonderful witchery of the solemn night wove its
+spell around her. Great, golden stars clustered in the clear heavens,
+and were reflected in the calm, blue pavement of the Mediterranean,
+where not a ripple shivered their shining images. A waning crescent
+moon swung high over the eastern crest of the Apennines, and threw a
+weird light along the Doria's marble palace, and down on the silver
+gray olives, on the glistening orange-groves, snow-powdered with
+fragrant bloom, and in that wan, mysterious, and most melancholy light--
+
+  "The old, miraculous mountains heaved in sight,
+   One straining past another along the shore
+   The way of grand, dull Odyssean ghosts,
+   Athirst to drink the cool, blue wine of seas,
+   And stare on voyagers."
+
+From some lofty campanile, in a distant section of the silent city,
+sounded the angelus bell; and from the deep shadow of olive, vine, and
+myrtle that clothed the amphitheatre of hills, the convent bells caught
+and reechoed it.
+
+        "Nature comes sometimes,
+   And says, 'I am ambassador for God';"
+
+and the splendor of the Italian night spoke to Edna's soul, as the
+glory of the sunset had done some years before, when she sat in the
+dust in the pine glades at Le Bocage; and she grew calm once more,
+while out of the blue depths of the starlit sea came a sacred voice,
+that said to her aching heart:
+
+"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world
+giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it
+be afraid."
+
+The cup was not passing away; but courage to drain it was given by Him
+who never calls his faithful children into the gloom of Gethsemane
+without having first stationed close at hand some strengthening angel.
+The governess went back to the bed, and there, on the pillow, rested
+the moth, which at her approach flew away with a humming sound, and
+disappeared.
+
+After another hour she saw that a change was stealing over the boy's
+countenance, and his pulse fluttered more feebly against her cold
+fingers. She sprang into the next room, shook his mother, and hastened
+back, trying to rouse the dying child, and give him some stimulants.
+But though the large, black eyes opened when she raised his head, there
+was no recognition in their fixed gaze; for the soul was preparing for
+its final flight, and was too busy to look out of its windows.
+
+In vain they resorted to the most powerful restoratives; he remained in
+the heavy stupor, with no sign of animation, save the low irregular
+breath, and the weak flutter of the thread-like pulse.
+
+Mrs. Andrews wept aloud and wrung her hands, and Hattie cried
+passionately, as she stood in her long white nightgown at the side of
+her brother's bed; but there were no tears on Edna's cold, gray face.
+She had spent them all at the foot of God's throne; and now that He had
+seen fit to deny her petition, she silently looked with dry eyes at the
+heavy rod that smote her.
+
+The night waned, the life with it; now and then the breathing seemed to
+cease, but after a few seconds a faint gasp told that the clay would
+not yet forego its hold on the soul that struggled to be free.
+
+The poor mother seemed almost beside herself, as she called on her
+child to speak to her once more.
+
+"Sing something, Edna; oh! perhaps he will hear! It might rouse him!"
+
+The orphan shook her head, and dropped her face on his.
+
+"He would not hear me; no, no! He is listening to the song of those
+whose golden harps ring in the New Jerusalem."
+
+Out of the whitening east rose the new day, radiant in bridal garments,
+wearing a star on its pearly brow; and the sky flushed, and the sea
+glowed, while silvery mists rolled up from the purple mountain gorges,
+and rested awhile on the summits of the Apennines, and sunshine
+streamed over the world once more.
+
+The first rays flashed into the room, kissing the withered flowers on
+the bosom of the cripple, and falling warm and bright on the cold
+eyelids and the pulseless temples. Edna's hand was pressed to his
+heart, and she knew that it had given its last throb; knew that Felix
+Andrews had crossed the sea of glass, and in the dawn of the Eternal
+day wore the promised morning-star, and stood in peace before the Sun
+of Righteousness.
+
+       *       *      *       *       *       *       *
+
+During the two days that succeeded the death of Felix, Edna did not
+leave her room; and without her knowledge Mrs. Andrews administered
+opiates that stupefied her. Late on the morning of the third she awoke,
+and lay for some time trying to collect her thoughts.
+
+Her mind was clouded, but gradually it cleared, and she strained her
+ears to distinguish the low words spoken in the apartment next to her
+own. She remembered, as in a feverish dream, all that passed on the
+night that Felix died; and pressing her hand over her aching forehead,
+she rose and sat on the edge of her bed.
+
+The monotonous sounds in the neighboring room swelled louder for a few
+seconds, and now she heard very distinctly the words:
+
+"And I heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me, Write, Blessed are
+the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth."
+
+She shivered, and wrapped around her shoulders a bright blue shawl that
+had been thrown over the foot of the bed.
+
+Walking across the floor, she opened the door, and looked in.
+
+The boy's body had been embalmed, and placed in a coffin which rested
+in the centre of the room; and an English clergyman, a friend of Mr.
+Manning's, stood at the head of the corpse, and read the burial service.
+
+Mrs. Andrews and Hattie were weeping in one corner and Mr. Manning
+leaned against the window, with his hand on Lila's curls. As the door
+swung open and Edna entered, he looked up.
+
+Her dressing gown of gray merino trailed on the marble floor, and her
+bare feet gleamed like ivory, as one hand caught up the soft merino
+folds sufficiently to enable her to walk. Over the blue shawl streamed
+her beautiful hair, making the wan face look even more ghastly by
+contrast with its glossy jet masses.
+
+She stood irresolute, with her calm, mournful eyes riveted on the
+coffin, and Mr. Manning saw her pale lips move as she staggered toward
+it. He sprang to meet and intercept her, and she stretched her hands in
+the direction of the corpse, and smiled strangely, murmuring like one
+in a troubled dream:
+
+"You need not be afraid, little darling, 'there is no night there.'"
+
+She reeled and put her hand to her heart, and would have fallen, but
+Mr. Manning caught and carried her back to her room.
+
+For two weeks she hovered on the borders of eternity; and often the
+anxious friends who watched her, felt that they would rather see her
+die than endure the suffering through which she was called to pass.
+
+She bore it silently, meekly, and when the danger seemed over, and she
+was able to sleep without the aid of narcotics, Mrs. Andrews could not
+bear to look at the patient white face, so hopelessly calm.
+
+No allusion was made to Felix, even after she was able to sit up and
+drive; but once, when Mr. Manning brought her some flowers, she looked
+sorrowfully at the snowy orange-blossoms, whose strong perfume made her
+turn paler, and said faintly:
+
+"I shall never love them or violets again. Take them away, Hattie, out
+of my sight; put them on your brother's grave. They smell of death."
+
+From that day she made a vigorous effort to rouse herself, and the
+boy's name never passed her lips; though she spent many hours over a
+small manuscript which she found among his books, directed to her for
+revision. "Tales for Little Cripples," was the title he had given it,
+and she was surprised at the beauty and pathos of many of the
+sentences. She carefully revised and rewrote it, adding a brief sketch
+of the young writer, and gave it to his mother.
+
+About a month after Felix's death the governess seemed to have
+recovered her physical strength, and Mrs. Andrews announced her
+intention of going to Germany. Mr. Manning had engagements that called
+him to France, and, on the last day of their stay at Genoa, he came as
+usual to spend the evening with Edna.
+
+A large budget of letters and papers had arrived from America; and when
+he gave her the package containing her share, she glanced over the
+directions, threw them unopened into a heap on the table, and continued
+the conversation in which she was engaged, concerning the architecture
+of the churches in Genoa.
+
+Mrs. Andrews had gone to the vault where the body of her son had been
+temporarily placed, and Edna was alone with the editor.
+
+"You ought to look into your papers; they contain very gratifying
+intelligence for you. Your last book has gone through ten editions, and
+your praises are chanted all over your native land. Surely, if ever a
+woman had adulation enough to render her perfectly happy and pardonably
+proud, you are the fortunate individual. Already your numerous readers
+are inquiring when you will give them another book."
+
+She leaned her head back against her chair, and the little hands
+caressed each other as they rested on her knee, while her countenance
+was eloquent with humble gratitude for the success that God had
+permitted to crown her efforts; but she was silent.
+
+"Do you intend to write a book of travels, embracing the incidents that
+have marked your tour? I see the public expect it."
+
+"No, sir. It seems now a mere matter of course that all scribblers who
+come to Europe, should afflict the reading world with an account of
+what they saw or failed to see. So many noble books have been already
+published, thoroughly describing this continent, that I have not the
+temerity, the presumption to attempt to retouch the grand old
+word-pictures. At present, I expect to write nothing. I want to study
+some subjects that greatly interest me, and I shall try to inform and
+improve myself, and keep silent until I see some phase of truth
+neglected, or some new aspect of error threatening mischief in society.
+Indeed, I have great cause for gratitude in my literary career. At the
+beginning I felt apprehensive that I was destined to sit always under
+the left hand of fortune, whom Michael Angelo designed as a lovely
+woman seated on a revolving wheel, throwing crowns and laurel wreaths
+from her right hand, while only thorns dropped in a sharp, stinging
+shower from the other; but, after a time, the wheel turned, and now I
+feel only the soft pattering of the laurel leaves. God knows I do most
+earnestly appreciate His abundant blessing upon what I have thus far
+striven to effect; but, until I see my way clearly to some subject of
+importance which a woman's hand may touch, I shall not take up my pen.
+Books seem such holy things to me, destined to plead either for or
+against their creators in the final tribunal, that I dare not lightly
+or hastily attempt to write them; and I can not help thinking that the
+author who is less earnestly and solemnly impressed with the gravity,
+and, I may almost say, the sanctity of his or her work, is unworthy of
+it, and of public confidence. I dare not, even if I could, dash off
+articles and books as the rower shakes water-drops from his oars; and I
+humbly acknowledge that what success I may have achieved is owing to
+hard, faithful work. I have received so many kind letters from
+children, that some time, if I live to be wise enough, I want to write
+a book especially for them. I am afraid to attempt it just now; for it
+requires more mature judgment and experience, and greater versatility
+of talent to write successfully for children than for grown persons. In
+the latter, one is privileged to assume native intelligence and
+cultivation; but the tender, untutored minds of the former permit no
+such margin; and this fact necessitates clearness and simplicity of
+style, and power of illustration that seem to me very rare. As yet I am
+conscious of my incapacity for the mission of preparing juvenile books;
+but perhaps, if I study closely the characteristics of young people, I
+shall learn to understand them more thoroughly. So much depends on the
+proper training of our American youth, especially in view of the great
+political questions that now agitate the country, that I confess I feel
+some anxiety on the subject."
+
+"But, Edna, you will not adhere to your resolution of keeping silent.
+The public is a merciless task-master; your own ambition will scourge
+you on; and having once put your hand to the literary plough, you will
+not be allowed to look back. Rigorously the world exacts the full quota
+of the author's arura."
+
+"Yes, sir; but 'he that plougheth should plough in hope'; and when I
+can see clearly across the wide field, and drive the gleaming share of
+truth straight and steady to the end, then, and not till then, shall I
+render my summer-day's arura. Meantime, I am resolved to plough no
+crooked, shallow furrows on the hearts of our people."
+
+At length when Mr. Manning rose to say good-night, he looked gravely at
+the governess, and asked:
+
+"Edna, can not Lila take the vacant place in your sad heart?"
+
+"It is not vacant, sir. Dear memories walk to and fro therein, weaving
+garlands of immortelles--singing sweet tunes of days and years--that
+can never die. Hereafter I shall endeavor to entertain the precious
+guests I have already, and admit no more. The past is the realm of my
+heart; the present and future the kingdom where my mind must dwell, and
+my hands labor."
+
+With a sigh he went away, and she took up the letters and began to read
+them. Many were from strangers, and they greatly cheered and encouraged
+her; but finally she opened one, whose superscription had until this
+instant escaped her cursory glance. It was from Mr. Hammond, and
+contained an account of Mr. Murray's ordination. She read and re-read
+it, with a half-bewildered expression in her countenance, for the joy
+seemed far too great for credence. She looked again at the date and
+signature, and passing her hand over her brow, wondered if there could
+be any mistake. The paper fell into her lap, and a cry of delight rang
+through the room.
+
+"Saved--purified--consecrated henceforth to God's holy work? A minister
+of Christ? O most merciful God! I thank Thee! My prayers are answered
+with a blessing I never dared to hope for, or even to dream of! Can I
+ever, ever be grateful enough? A pastor, holding up pure hands! Thank
+God! my sorrows are all ended now; there is no more grief for me. Ah!
+what a glory breaks upon the future! What though I never see his face
+in this world? I can be patient indeed; for now I know, oh! I know that
+I shall surely see it yonder!"
+
+She sank on her knees at the open window, and wept for the first time
+since Felix died. Happy, happy tears mingled with broken words of
+rejoicing, that seemed a foretaste of heaven.
+
+Her heart was so full of gratitude and exultation that she could not
+sleep, and she sat down and looked over the sea while her face was
+radiant and tremulous. The transition from patient hopelessness and
+silent struggling--this most unexpected and glorious fruition of the
+prayers of many years--was so sudden and intoxicating, that it
+completely unnerved her.
+
+She could not bear this great happiness as she had borne her sorrows,
+and now and then she smiled to find tears gushing afresh from her
+beaming eyes.
+
+Once, in an hour of sinful madness, Mr. Murray had taken a human life,
+and ultimately caused the loss of another; but the waves that were
+running high beyond the mole told her in thunder-tones that he had
+saved, had snatched two lives from their devouring rage. And the
+shining stars overhead grouped themselves into characters that said to
+her, "Judge not, that ye be not judged"; and the ancient mountains
+whispered, "Stand still, and see the salvation of God!" and the
+grateful soul of the lonely woman answered:
+
+  "That all the jarring notes of life
+   Seem blending in a psalm,
+   And all the angels of its strife
+   Slow rounding into calm."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+
+Immediately after her return to New York, Edna resumed her studies with
+renewed energy, and found her physical strength recruited and her mind
+invigorated by repose. Her fondness for Hattie induced her to remain
+with Mrs. Andrews in the capacity of governess, though her position in
+the family had long ceased to resemble in any respect that of a
+hireling. Three hours of each day were devoted to the education of the
+little girl, who, though vastly inferior in mental endowments to her
+brother, was an engaging and exceedingly affectionate child, fully
+worthy of the love which her gifted governess lavished upon her. The
+remainder of her time Edna divided between study, music, and an
+extensive correspondence, which daily increased.
+
+She visited little, having no leisure and less inclination to fritter
+away her morning in gossip and chit-chat; but she set apart one evening
+in each week for the reception of her numerous kind friends, and of all
+strangers who desired to call upon her. These reunions were brilliant
+and delightful, and it was considered a privilege to be present at
+gatherings where eminent men and graceful, refined, cultivated
+Christian women assembled to discuss ethical and aesthetic topics,
+which all educated Americans are deemed capable of comprehending.
+
+Edna's abhorrence of double entendre and of the fashionable sans souci
+style of conversation, which was tolerated by many who really disliked
+but had not nerve enough to frown it down, was not a secret to any one
+who read her writings or attended her receptions. Without obtruding her
+rigid views of true womanly delicacy and decorum upon any one, her
+deportment under all circumstances silently published her opinion of
+certain latitudinarian expressions prevalent in society.
+
+She saw that the growing tendency to free and easy manners and
+colloquial license was rapidly destroying all reverence for womanhood;
+was levelling the distinction between ladies' parlors and gentlemen's
+clubrooms; was placing the sexes on a platform of equality which was
+dangerous to feminine delicacy, that God-built bulwark of feminine
+purity and of national morality.
+
+That time-honored maxim, "Honi soit qui mal y pense," she found had
+been distorted from its original and noble significance, and was now a
+mere convenient India-rubber cloak, stretched at will to cover and
+excuse allusions which no really modest woman could tolerate.
+Consequently, when she heard it flippantly pronounced in palliation of
+some gross offense against delicacy, she looked more searchingly into
+the characters of the indiscreet talkers, and quietly intimated to them
+that their presence was not desired at her receptions. Believing that
+modesty and purity were twin sisters, and that vulgarity and vice were
+rarely if ever divorced, Edna sternly refused to associate with those
+whose laxity of manners indexed, in her estimation, a corresponding
+laxity of morals. Married belles and married beaux she shunned and
+detested, regarding them as a disgrace to their families, as a blot
+upon all noble womanhood and manhood, and as the most dangerous foes to
+the morality of the community, in which they unblushingly violated
+hearthstone statutes and the venerable maxims of social decorum.
+
+The ostracized banded in wrath, and ridiculed her antiquated prudery;
+but knowing that the pure and noble mothers, wives, and daughters,
+honored and trusted her, Edna gave no heed to raillery and envious
+malice, but resolutely obeyed the promptings of her womanly intuitions.
+
+Painful experience had taught her the imprudence, the short-sighted
+policy of working until very late at night; and in order to take due
+care of her health, she wisely resorted to a different system of study,
+which gave her more sleep, and allowed her some hours of daylight for
+her literary labors.
+
+In the industrial pursuits of her own sex she was intensely interested,
+and spared no trouble in acquainting herself with the statistics of
+those branches of employment already open to them; consequently she was
+never so happy as when the recipient of letters from the poor women of
+the land, who thanked her for the words of hope, advice, and
+encouragement which she constantly addressed to them.
+
+While the world honored her, she had the precious assurance that her
+Christian countrymen loved and trusted her. She felt the painful need
+of Mr. Manning's society, and even his frequent letters did not fully
+satisfy her; but as he had resolved to remain in Europe, at least for
+some years, she bore the irreparable loss of his counsel and sympathy,
+as she bore all other privations, bravely and quietly.
+
+Now and then alarming symptoms of the old suffering warned her of the
+uncertainty of her life; and after much deliberation, feeling that her
+time was limited, she commenced another book.
+
+Mr. Hammond wrote begging her to come to him, as he was now hopelessly
+infirm and confined to his room; but she shrank from a return to the
+village so intimately associated with events which she wished if
+possible to forget; and, though she declined the invitation, she proved
+her affection for her venerable teacher, by sending him every day a
+long, cheerful letter.
+
+Since her departure from the parsonage, Mrs. Murray had never written
+to her; but through Mr. Hammond's and Huldah's letters, Edna learned
+that Mr. Murray was the officiating minister in the church which he had
+built in his boyhood; and now and then the old pastor painted pictures
+of life at Le Bocage, that brought happy tears to the orphan's eyes.
+She heard from time to time of the good the new minister was
+accomplishing among the poor; of the beneficial influence he exerted,
+especially over the young men of the community; of the charitable
+institutions to which he was devoting a large portion of his fortune;
+of the love and respect, the golden opinions he was winning from those
+whom he had formerly estranged by his sarcastic bitterness.
+
+While Edna fervently thanked God for this most wonderful change, she
+sometimes repeated exultingly:
+
+  "Man-like is it to fall into sin,
+   Fiend-like is it to dwell therein,
+   Christ-like is it for sin to grieve,
+   God-like is it all sin to leave!"
+
+One darling rose-hued dream of her life was to establish a free-school
+and circulating library in the village of Chattanooga; and keeping this
+hope ever in view, she had denied herself all superfluous luxuries, and
+jealously hoarded her savings.
+
+She felt now that, should she become an invalid, and incapable of
+writing or teaching, the money made by her books, which Mr. Andrews had
+invested very judiciously, would at least supply her with the
+necessities of life.
+
+One evening she held her weekly reception as usual, though she had
+complained of not feeling quite well that day.
+
+A number of carriages stood before Mrs. Andrews's door and many friends
+who laughed and talked to the governess little dreamed that it was the
+last time they would spend an evening together in her society. The
+pleasant hours passed swiftly; Edna had never conversed more
+brilliantly, and the auditors thought her voice was richer and sweeter
+than ever, as she sang the last song and rose from the piano.
+
+The guests took their departure--the carriages rolled away.
+
+Mrs. Andrews ran up to her room, and Edna paused in the brilliantly
+lighted parlors to read a note, which had been handed to her during the
+evening.
+
+Standing under the blazing chandelier, the face and figure of this
+woman could not fail to excite interest in all who gazed upon her.
+
+She was dressed in plain black silk, which exactly fitted her form, and
+in her hair glowed clusters of scarlet geranium flowers. A spray of red
+fuchsia was fastened by the beautiful stone cameo that confined her
+lace collar; and, save the handsome gold bands on her wrists, she wore
+no other ornaments.
+
+Felix had given her these bracelets as a Christmas present, and after
+his death she never took them off; for inside he had his name and hers
+engraved, and between them the word "Mizpah."
+
+To-night the governess was very weary, and the fair sweet face wore its
+old childish expression of mingled hopelessness, and perfect patience,
+and indescribable repose. As she read, the tired look passed away, and
+over her pallid features, so daintily sculptured, stole a faint glow,
+such as an ivory Niobe might borrow from the fluttering crimson folds
+of silken shroudings. The peaceful lips stirred also and the low tone
+was full of pathos as she said:
+
+"How very grateful I ought to be. How much I have to make me happy, to
+encourage me to work diligently and faithfully. How comforting it is to
+feel that parents have sufficient confidence in me to be willing to
+commit their children to my care. What more can I wish? My cup is
+brimmed with blessings. Ah! why am I not entirely happy?"
+
+The note contained the signature of six wealthy gentlemen, who
+requested her acceptance of a tasteful and handsome house, on condition
+that she would consent to undertake the education of their daughters,
+and permit them to pay her a liberal salary.
+
+It was a flattering tribute to the clearness of her intellect, the
+soundness of her judgment, the extent of her acquirements, and the
+purity of her heart.
+
+While she could not accede to the proposition, she appreciated most
+gratefully the generosity and good opinion of those who made it.
+
+Twisting the note between her fingers, her eyes fell on the carpet, and
+she thought of all her past; of the sorrows, struggles, and
+heart-aches, the sleepless nights and weary, joyless days--first of
+adverse, then of favorable criticism; of toiling, hoping, dreading,
+praying; and now, in the peaceful zenith of her triumph, popularity,
+and usefulness, she realized
+
+  "That care and trial seem at last,
+   Through Memory's sunset air,
+   Like mountain ranges overpast,
+   In purple distance fair."
+
+The note fluttered to the floor, the hands folded themselves together,
+and she raised her eyes to utter an humble, fervent "Thank God!" But
+the words froze on her lips; for as she looked up, she saw Mr. Murray
+standing a few feet from her.
+
+"God has pardoned all my sins, and accepted me as a laborer worthy to
+enter His vineyard. Is Edna Earl more righteous than the Lord she
+worships?"
+
+His face was almost as pale as hers, and his voice trembled as he
+extended his arms toward her.
+
+She stood motionless, looking up at him with eyes that brightened until
+their joyful radiance seemed indeed unearthly; and the faint, delicate
+blush on her cheeks deepened and burned, as with a quivering cry of
+gladness that told volumes, she hid her face in her hands.
+
+He came nearer, and the sound of his low, mellow voice thrilled her
+heart as no other music had ever done.
+
+"Edna, have you a right to refuse me forgiveness, when the blood of
+Christ has purified me from the guilt of other years?"
+
+She trembled and said brokenly:
+
+"Mr. Murray--you never wronged me--and I have nothing to forgive."
+
+"Do you still believe me an unprincipled hypocrite?"
+
+"Oh! no, no, no!"
+
+"Do you believe that my repentance has been sincere, and acceptable to
+my insulted God? Do you believe that I am now as faithfully endeavoring
+to serve Him, as a remorseful man possibly can?"
+
+"I hope so, Mr. Murray."
+
+"Edna, can you trust me now?"
+
+Some seconds elapsed before she answered, and then the words were
+scarcely audible.
+
+"I trust you."
+
+"Thank God!"
+
+There was a brief pause, and she heard a heavily-drawn sigh escape him.
+
+"Edna, it is useless to tell you how devotedly I love you, for you have
+known that for years; and yet you have shown my love no mercy. But
+perhaps if you could realize how much I need your help in my holy work,
+how much more good I could accomplish in the world if you were with me,
+you might listen, without steeling yourself against me, as you have so
+long done. Can you, will you trust me fully? Can you be a minister's
+wife, and aid him as only you can? Oh, my darling, my darling! I never
+expect to be worthy of you! But you can make me less unworthy! My own
+darling, come to me."
+
+He stood within two feet of her, but he was--too humble? Nay, nay, too
+proud to touch her without permission.
+
+Her hands fell from her crimson cheeks, and she looked up at the
+countenance of her king.
+
+In her fond eyes he seemed noble and sanctified, and worthy of all
+confidence; and as he opened his arms once more, she glided into them
+and laid her head on his shoulder, whispering:
+
+"Oh! I trust you! I trust you fully!"
+
+Standing in the close, tender clasp of his strong arms, she listened to
+a narration of his grief and loneliness, his hopes and fears, his
+desolation and struggles and prayers during their long separation. Then
+for the first time she learned that he had come more than once to New
+York, solely to see her, having exacted a promise from Mr. Manning that
+he would not betray his presence in the city. He had followed her at a
+distance as she wandered with the children through the Park; and, once
+in the ramble, stood so close to her that he put out his hand and
+touched her dress. Mr. Manning had acquainted him with all that had
+ever passed between them on the subject of his unsuccessful suit; and
+during her sojourn in Europe, had kept him regularly advised of the
+state of her health.
+
+At last, when Mr. Murray bent his head to press his lips again to hers,
+he exclaimed in the old, pleading tone that had haunted her memory for
+years:
+
+"Edna, with all your meekness you are wilfully proud. You tell me you
+trust me, and you nestle your dear head here on my shoulder--why won't
+you say what you know so well I am longing, hungering to hear? Why
+won't you say, 'St. Elmo, I love you'?"
+
+The glowing face was only pressed closer.
+
+"My little darling!"
+
+"Oh, Mr. Murray! could I be here."
+
+"Well, my stately Miss Earl! I am waiting most respectfully to allow
+you an opportunity of expressing yourself."
+
+No answer.
+
+He laughed as she had heard him once before, when he took her in his
+arms and dared her to look into his eyes.
+
+"When I heard your books extolled; when I heard your praises from men,
+women, and children; when I could scarcely pick up a paper without
+finding some mention of your name; when I came here to-night, and paced
+the pavement, waiting for your admirers to leave the house; whenever
+and wherever I have heard your dear name uttered, I have been
+exultingly proud! For I knew that the heart of the people's pet was
+mine! I gloried in the consciousness which alone strengthened and
+comforted me, that, despite all that the public could offer you,
+despite the adulation of other men, and despite my utter unworthiness,
+my own darling was true to me! that you never loved any one but S. Elmo
+Murray! And as God reigns above us, His happy world holds no man so
+grateful, so happy, so proud as I am! No man so resolved to prove
+himself worthy of his treasure! Edna, looking back across the dark
+years that have gone so heavily over my head, and comparing you, my
+pure, precious darling, with that woman, whom in my boyhood I selected
+for my life-companion, I know not whether I am most humble, or
+grateful, or proud!
+
+  'Ah I who am I, that God hath saved
+   Me from the doom I did desire,
+   And crossed the lot myself had craved
+   To set me higher?
+   What have I done that he should bow
+   From heaven to choose a wife for me?
+   And what deserved, he should endow
+   My home with THEE?'"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As Mr. Hammond was not able to take the fatiguing journey North, and
+Edna would not permit any one else to perform her marriage ceremony,
+she sent Mr. Murray home without her, promising to come to the
+parsonage as early as possible.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Andrews were deeply pained by the intelligence of her
+approaching departure, and finally consented to accompany her on her
+journey.
+
+The last day of the orphan's sojourn in New York was spent at the quiet
+spot where Felix slept his last sleep; and it caused her keen grief to
+bid good-bye to his resting-place, which was almost as dear to her as
+the grave of her grandfather. Their affection had been so warm, so
+sacred, that she clung fondly to his memory; and it was not until she
+reached the old village depot, where carriages were waiting for the
+party, that the shadow of that day entirely left her countenance.
+
+In accordance with her own request, Edna did not see Mr. Murray again
+until the hour appointed for their marriage.
+
+It was a bright, beautiful afternoon, warm with sunshine, when she
+permitted Mrs. Murray to lead her into the study where the party had
+assembled. Mr. and Mrs. Andrews, Hattie, Huldah, and the white-haired
+pastor, were all there, and when Edna entered, Mr. Murray advanced to
+meet her, and received her hand from his mother.
+
+The orphan's eyes were bent to the floor, and never once lifted, even
+when the trembling voice of her beloved pastor pronounced her St. Elmo
+Murray's wife. The intense pallor of her face frightened Mrs. Andrews,
+who watched her with suspended breath, and once moved eagerly toward
+her. Mr. Murray felt her lean more heavily against him during the
+ceremony; and, now turning to take her in his arms, he saw that her
+eyelashes had fallen on her cheeks--she had lost all consciousness of
+what was passing.
+
+Two hours elapsed before she recovered fully from the attack; and when
+the blood showed itself again in lips that were kissed so repeatedly,
+Mr. Murray lifted her from the sofa in the study, and passing his arm
+around her, said:
+
+"To-day I snap the fetters of your literary bondage. There shall be no
+more books written! No more study, no more toil, no more anxiety, no
+more heartaches! And that dear public you love so well, must even help
+itself, and whistle for a new pet. You belong solely to me now, and I
+shall take care of the life you have nearly destroyed in your
+inordinate ambition. Come, the fresh air will revive you."
+
+They stood a moment under the honeysuckle arch over the parsonage gate,
+where the carriage was waiting to take them to Le Bocage, and Mr.
+Murray asked:
+
+"Are you strong enough to go to the church?"
+
+"Yes, sir; the pain has all passed away. I am perfectly well again."
+
+They crossed the street, and he took her in his arms and carried her up
+the steps, and into the grand, solemn church, where the soft, holy,
+violet light from the richly-tinted glass streamed over gilded
+organ-pipes and sculptured columns.
+
+Neither Edna nor St. Elmo spoke as they walked down the aisle; and in
+perfect silence both knelt before the shining altar, and only God heard
+their prayers of gratitude.
+
+After some moments Mr. Murray put out his hand, took Edna's, and
+holding it in his on the balustrade, he prayed aloud, asking God's
+blessing on their marriage, and fervently dedicating all their future
+to His work.
+
+The hectic flush of the dying day was reflected on the window high
+above the altar, and, burning through the red mantle of the Christ,
+fell down upon the marble shrine like sacred, sacrificial fire.
+
+Edna felt as if her heart could not hold all its measureless joy. It
+seemed a delightful dream to see Mr. Murray kneeling at her side; to
+hear his voice earnestly consecrating their lives to the service of
+Jesus Christ.
+
+She knew from the tremor in his tone, and the tears in his eyes, that
+his dedication was complete; and now to be his companion through all
+the remaining years of their earthly pilgrimage, to be allowed to help
+him and love him, to walk heavenward with her hand in his; this--this
+was the crowning glory and richest blessing of her life.
+
+When his prayer ended, she laid her head down on the altar-railing, and
+sobbed like a child.
+
+In the orange glow of a wintry sunset they came out and sat down on the
+steps, while a pair of spotless white pigeons perched on the
+blood-stain; and Mr. Murray put his arm around Edna, and drew her face
+to his bosom.
+
+"Darling, do you remember that once, in the dark days of my reckless
+sinfulness, I asked you one night, in the library at Le Bocage, if you
+had no faith in me? And you repeated so vehemently, 'None, Mr. Murray!'"
+
+"Oh, sir! do not think of it. Why recur to what is so painful and so
+long past? Forgive those words and forget them! Never was more implicit
+faith, more devoted affection, given to any human being than I give now
+to you, Mr. Murray; you, who are my first and my last and my only love."
+
+She felt his arm tighten around her waist, as he bowed his face to hers.
+
+"Forgive? Ah, my darling! do you recollect also that I told you then
+that the time would come when your dear lips would ask pardon for what
+they uttered that night, and that when that hour arrived I would take
+my revenge? My wife! my pure, noble, beautiful wife! give me my
+revenge, for I cry with the long-banished Roman:
+
+  'Oh! a kiss--long as my exile
+   Sweet as my revenge!'"
+
+He put his hand under her chin, drew the lips to his, and kissed them
+repeatedly.
+
+Down among the graves, in the brown grass and withered leaves, behind a
+tall shaft, around which coiled a carved marble serpent with hooded
+head-there, amid the dead, crouched a woman's figure, with a stony face
+and blue chatoyant eyes, that glared with murderous hate at the sweet
+countenance of the happy bride. When St. Elmo tenderly kissed the pure
+lips of his wife, Agnes Powell smothered a savage cry, and Nemesis was
+satisfied as the wretched woman fell forward on the grass, sweeping her
+yellow hair over her eyes, to shut out the vision that maddened her.
+
+Then and there, for the first time, as she sat enfolded by her
+husband's arm, Edna felt that she could thank him for the monument
+erected over her grandfather's grave.
+
+The light faded slowly in the west, the pigeons ceased their fluttering
+about the belfry, and as he turned to quit the church, so dear to both,
+Mr. Murray stretched his hand toward the ivy-clad vault, and said
+solemnly:
+
+"I throw all mournful years behind me; and, by the grace of God, our
+new lives, commencing this hallowed day, shall make noble amends for
+the wasted past. Loving each other, aiding each other, serving Christ,
+through whose atonement alone I have been saved from eternal ruin. To
+Thy merciful guidance, O Father! we commit our future."
+
+Edna looked reverently up at his beaming countenance, whence the
+shadows of hate and scorn had long since passed; and, as his splendid
+eyes came back to hers, reading in her beautiful, pure face all her
+love and confidence and happy hope, he drew her closer to his bosom,
+and laid his dark cheek on hers, saying fondly and proudly:
+
+  "My wife, my life. Oh! we will walk this world,
+   Yoked in all exercise of noble end,
+   And so through those dark gates across the wild
+   That no man knows. My hopes and thine are one;
+   Accomplish thou my manhood, and thyself,
+   Lay thy sweet hands in mine and trust to me."
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of St. Elmo, by Augusta J. Evans
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