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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4553.txt b/4553.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b46dcf4 --- /dev/null +++ b/4553.txt @@ -0,0 +1,20324 @@ +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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ST. 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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 ish, 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. 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 s 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, fever 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 + + + + +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 Etext of St. Elmo +by Augusta J. Evans + diff --git a/old/stelm10.zip b/old/stelm10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..934c254 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/stelm10.zip |