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diff --git a/old/chrlm10.txt b/old/chrlm10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..51de3d4 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/chrlm10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,15891 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Charlemont, by W. Gilmore Simms + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Charlemont + +Author: W. Gilmore Simms + +Release Date: July, 2004 [EBook #6012] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on October 16, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, CHARLEMONT *** + + + + +Charles Aldarondo, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team. + + + +[Illustration: no caption, but contains the word Charlemont. Two +men are riding a horse and a woman stands nearby.] + +CHARLEMONT; + +OR, + +THE PRIDE OF THE VILLAGE + +A TALE OF KENTUCKY. + +BY W. GILMORE SIMMS, + + + + + + "Nor will I be secure. + In any confidence of mine own strength, + For such security is oft the mother + Of negligence, and that, the occasion + Of unremedy'd ruin." + + Microcosmus--THO. NABBES. + + + + + + +TO THE HON. JAMES HALL, OF CINCINNATI: + +AS ONE OF THE ABLEST OF OUR LITERARY PIONEEERS A GENUINE REPRESENTATIVE +OF THE GREAT WEST; + +WHOSE WRITINGS EQUALLY ILLUSTRATE HER HISTORY AND GENIUS: + +this story of "CHARLEMONT," and its Sequel "BEAUCHAMPE" are +respectfully inscribed by + +THEIR AUTHOR + + + + + + +ADVERTISEMENT + + + + + +The domestic legend which follows, is founded upon actual events of +comparatively recent occurrence in the state of Kentucky. However +strange the facts may appear in the sequel--however in conflict with +what are usually supposed to be the sensibilities and characteristics +of woman--they are yet unquestionably true; most of them having +been conclusively established, by the best testimony, before a +court of justice. Very terrible, indeed, was the tragedy to which +they conducted--one that startled the whole country when it took +place, and the mournful interest of which will long be remembered. +More on this subject need not be mentioned here. The narrative, +it is hoped, will satisfy all the curiosity of the reader. It has +been very carefully prepared from and according to the evidence; +the art of the romancer being held in close subjection to the +historical authorities. I have furnished only the necessary details +which would fill such blanks in the story as are of domestic +character; taking care that these should accord, in all cases, with +the despotic facts. In respect to these, I have seldom appealed to +invention. It is in the delineation and development of character, +only, that I have made free to furnish scenes, such as appeared to +me calculated to perfect the portraits, and the better to reconcile +the reader to real occurrences, which, in their original nakedness, +however unquestionably true, might incur the risk of being thought +improbabilities. + +The reflections which will be most likely to arise from the +perusal of such a history, lead us to a consideration of the social +characteristics of the time and region, and to a consideration of +the facility with which access to society is afforded by the manners +and habits of our forest population. It is in all newly-settled +countries, as among the rustic population of most nations, that the +absence of the compensative resources of wealth leads to a singular +and unreserved freedom among the people. In this way, society +endeavors to find equivalents for those means of enjoyment which +a wealthy people may procure from travel, from luxury, from the +arts, and the thousand comforts of a well-provided homestead. The +population of a frontier country, lacking such resources, scattered +over a large territory, and meeting infrequently, feel the lack of +social intercourse; and this lack tends to break down most of the +barriers which a strict convention usually establishes for the +protection, not only of sex and caste, but of its own tastes and +prejudices. Lacking the resources of superior wealth, population, +and civilization, the frontier people are naturally required to +throw the doors open as widely as possible, in order to obtain that +intercourse with their fellows which is, perhaps, the first great +craving of humanity. As a matter of necessity, there is little +discrimination exercised in the admission of their guests. A specious +outside, agreeable manners, cleverness and good humor, will soon +make their way into confidence, without requiring other guaranties +for the moral of the stranger. The people are naturally frank and +hospitable; for the simple reason that these qualities of character +are essential for procuring them that intercourse which they crave. +The habits are accessible, the restraints few, the sympathies are +genial, active, easily aroused, and very confiding. It follows, +naturally, that they are frequently wronged and outraged, and just +as naturally that their resentments are keen, eager, and vindictive. +The self-esteem, if not watchful, is revengeful; and society sanctions +promptly the fierce redress--that wild justice of revenge--which +punishes without appeal to law, with its own right hand, the +treacherous guest who has abused the unsuspecting confidence which +welcomed him to a seat upon the sacred hearth. In this brief portrait +of the morale of society, upon our frontiers, you will find the +materiel from which this story has been drawn, and its justification, +as a correct delineation of border life in one of its more settled +phases in the new states. The social description of Charlemont +exhibits, perhaps, a THIRD advance in our forest civilization, from +the original settlement. + +It is not less the characteristic of these regions to exhibit +the passions and the talents of the people in equal and wonderful +saliency. We are accordingly struck with two classes of social +facts, which do not often arrest the attention in old communities. +We see, for example, the most singular combination of simplicity and +sagacity in the same person; simplicity in conventional respects, +and sagacity in all that affects the absolute and real in life, +nature and the human sensibilities. The rude man, easily imposed +upon, in his faith, fierce as an outlaw in his conflicts with men, +will be yet exquisitely alive to the nicest consciousness of woman; +will as delicately appreciate her instincts and sensibilities, as +if love and poetry had been his only tutors from the first, and +had mainly addressed their labors to this one object of the higher +heart, education; and in due degree with the tenderness with +which he will regard the sex, will be the vindictive ferocity with +which--even though no kinsman--he will pursue the offender who has +dared to outrage them in the case of any individual. In due degree +as his faith is easy will his revenges be extreme. In due degree as +he is slow to suspect the wrong-doer, will be the tenacity of his +pursuit when the offender requires punishment. He seems to throw +wide his heart and habitation, but you must beware how you trespass +upon the securities of either. + +The other is a mental characteristic which leads to frequent +surprises among strangers from the distant cities. It consists in +the wonderful inequality between his mental and social development. +The same person who will be regarded as a boor in good society, will +yet exhibit a rapidity and profundity of thought and intelligence--a +depth and soundness of judgment--an acuteness in discrimination--a +logical accuracy, and critical analysis, such as mere good society +rarely shows, and such as books almost as rarely teach. There will +be a deficiency of refinement, taste, art--all that the polished +world values so highly--and which it seems to cherish and encourage +to the partial repudiation of the more essential properties of +intellect. However surprising this characteristic may appear, it +may yet be easily accounted for by the very simplicity of a training +which results in great directness and force of character--a frank +heartiness of aim and object--a truthfulness of object which +suffers the thoughts to turn neither to the right hand nor to the +left, but to press forward decisively to the one object--a determined +will, and a restless instinct--which, conscious of the deficiencies +of wealth and position, is yet perpetually seeking to supply them +from the resources within its reach. These characteristics will +be found illustrated in the present legend, an object which it +somewhat contemplates, apart from the mere story with which they +are interwoven. + +A few words more in respect to our heroine, Margaret Cooper. It +is our hope and belief, that she will be found a real character by +most of our readers. She is drawn from the life, and with a severe +regard to the absolute features of the original. In these days of +"strong-minded women," even more certainly than when the portrait +was first taken, the identity of the sketch with its original will +be sure of recognition. Her character and career will illustrate +most of the mistakes which are made by that ambitious class, among +the gentler sex, who are now seeking so earnestly to pass out from +that province of humiliation to which the sex has been circumscribed +from the first moment of recorded history. What she will gain by +the motion, if successful, might very well be left to time, were +it not that the proposed change in her condition threatens fatally +some of her own and the best securities of humanity. We may admit, +and cheerfully do so, that she might, with propriety, be allowed +some additional legal privileges of a domestic sort. But the great +object of attainment, which is the more serious need of the sex--her +own more full development as a responsible being--seems mainly +to depend upon herself, and upon self-education. The great first +duty of woman is in her becoming the mother of men; and this duty +implies her proper capacity for the education and training of the +young. To fit her properly for this duty, her education should become +more elevated, and more severe in degree with its elevation. But +the argument is one of too grave, too intricate, and excursive +a character, to be attempted here. It belongs to a very different +connection. It is enough, in this place, to say that Margaret Cooper +possesses just the sort of endowment to make a woman anxious to +pass the guardian boundaries which hedge in her sex--her danger +corresponds with her desires. Her securities, with such endowments, +and such a nature, can only be found in a strict and appropriate +education, such as woman seldom receives anywhere, and less, perhaps, +in this country than in any other. To train fully the feminine +mind, without in any degree impairing her susceptibilities and +sensibilities, seems at once the necessity and the difficulty of +the subject. Her very influence over man lies in her sensibilities. +It will be to her a perilous fall from pride of place, and power, +when, goaded by an insane ambition, in the extreme development of +her mere intellect, she shall forfeit a single one of these securities +of her sex. + + + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE SCENE. + + + + + +The stormy and rugged winds of March were overblown--the first +fresh smiling days of April had come at last--the days of sunshine +and shower, of fitful breezes, the breath of blossoms, and the +newly-awakened song of birds. Spring was there in all the green +and glory of her youth, and the bosom of Kentucky heaved with the +prolific burden of the season. She had come, and her messengers +were everywhere, and everywhere busy. The birds bore her gladsome +tidings to + + "Alley green, + Dingle or bushy dell of each wild wood, + And every bosky bourn from side to side--" + +nor were the lately-trodden and seared grasses of the forests left +unnoted; and the humbled flower of the wayside sprang up at her +summons. Like some loyal and devoted people, gathered to hail the +approach of a long-exiled and well-beloved sovereign, they crowded +upon the path over which she came, and yielded themselves with +gladness at her feet. The mingled songs and sounds of their rejoicing +might be heard, and far-off murmurs of gratulation, rising from the +distant hollows, or coming faintly over the hill-tops, in accents +not the lees pleasing because they were the less distinct. That +lovely presence which makes every land blossom, and every living +thing rejoice, met, in the happy region in which we meet her now, +a double tribute of honor and rejoicing. + +The "dark and bloody ground," by which mournful epithets Kentucky +was originally known to the Anglo-American, was dark and bloody +no longer. The savage had disappeared from its green forests for +ever, and no longer profaned with slaughter, and his unholy whoop +of death, its broad and beautiful abodes. A newer race had succeeded; +and the wilderness, fulfilling the better destinies of earth, had +begun to blossom like the rose. Conquest had fenced in its sterile +borders with a wall of fearless men, and peace slept everywhere in +security among its green recesses. Stirring industry--the perpetual +conqueror--made the woods resound with the echoes of his biting +axe and ringing hammer. Smiling villages rose in cheerful white, +in place of the crumbling and smoky cabins of the hunter. High +and becoming purposes of social life and thoughtful enterprise +superseded that eating and painful decay, which has terminated in +the annihilation of the red man; and which, among every people, +must always result from their refusal to exercise, according to +the decree of experience, no less than Providence, their limbs and +sinews in tasks of well-directed and continual labor. + +A great nation urging on a sleepless war against sloth and feebleness, +is one of the noblest of human spectacles. This warfare was rapidly +and hourly changing the monotony and dreary aspects of rock and +forest. Under the creative hands of art, temples of magnificence +rose where the pines had fallen. Long and lovely vistas were opened +through the dark and hitherto impervious thickets. The city sprang +up beside the river, while hamlets, filled with active hope and +cheerful industry, crowded upon the verdant hill-side, and clustered +among innumerable valleys Grace began to seek out the homes of +toil, and taste supplied their decorations. A purer form of religion +hallowed the forest-homes of the red-man, while expelling for ever +the rude divinities of his worship; and throughout the land, an +advent of moral loveliness seemed approaching, not less grateful +to the affections and the mind, than was the beauty of the infant +April, to the eye and the heart of the wanderer. + +But something was still wanting to complete the harmonies of nature, +in the scene upon which we are about to enter. Though the savage +had for ever departed from its limits, the blessings of a perfect +civilization were not yet secured to the new and flourishing regions +of Kentucky. Its morals were still in that fermenting condition +which invariably distinguishes the settlement of every new country +by a various and foreign people. At the distant period of which we +write, the population of Kentucky had not yet become sufficiently +stationary to have made their domestic gods secure, or to have +fixed the proper lines and limits regulating social intercourse +and attaching precise standards to human conduct. The habits and +passions of the first settlers--those fearless pioneers who had +struggled foot to foot with the Indian, and lived in a kindred +state of barbarity with him, had not yet ceased to have influence +over the numerous race which followed them. That moral amalgam +which we call society, and which recognises a mutual and perfectly +equal condition of dependence, and a common necessity, as the great +cementing principles of the human family, had not yet taken place; +and it was still too much the custom, in that otherwise lovely +region, for the wild man to revenge his own wrong, and the strong +man to commit a greater with impunity. The repose of social order +was not yet secured to the great mass, covering with its wing, +as with a sky that never knew a cloud, the sweet homes and secure +possessions of the unwarlike. The fierce robber sometimes smote +the peaceful traveler upon the highway, and the wily assassin of +reputation, within the limits of the city barrier, not unfrequently +plucked the sweetest rose that ever adorned the virgin bosom +of innocence, and triumphed, without censure, in the unhallowed +spoliation. + +But sometimes there came an avenger;--and the highway robber fell +before the unexpected patriot; and the virgin was avenged by the +yet beardless hero, for the wrong of her cruel seducer. The story +which we have to tell, is of times and of actions such as these. +It is a melancholy narrative--the more melancholy as it is most +certainly true. It will not be told in vain, if the crime which +it describes in proper colors, and the vengeance by which it was +followed, and which it equally records, shall secure the innocent +from harm, and discourage the incipient wrongdoer from his base +designs. + + + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE TRAVELLERS. + + + + + +Let the traveller stand with us on the top of this rugged eminence, +and look down upon the scene below. Around us, the hills gather +in groups on every side, a family cluster, each of which wears the +same general likeness to that on which we stand, yet there is no +monotony in their aspect. The axe has not yet deprived them of a +single tree, and they rise up, covered with the honored growth of +a thousand summers. But they seem not half so venerable. They wear, +in this invigorating season, all the green, fresh features of youth +and spring. The leaves cover the rugged Limbs which sustain them, +with so much ease and grace, as if for the first time they were +so green and glossy, and as if the impression should be made more +certain and complete, the gusty wind of March has scattered abroad +and borne afar, all the yellow garments of the vanished winter. +The wild flowers begin to flaunt their blue and crimson draperies +about us, as if conscious that they are borne upon the bosom +of undecaying beauty; and the spot so marked and hallowed by each +charming variety of bud and blossom, would seem to have been a +selected dwelling for the queenly Spring herself. + +Man, mindful of those tastes and sensibilities which in great part +constitute his claim to superiority over the brute, has not been +indifferent to the beauties of the place. In the winding hollows +of these hills, beginning at our feet, you see the first signs of +as lovely a little hamlet as ever promised peace to the weary and +the discontent. This is the village of Charlemont. + +A dozen snug and smiling cottages seem to have been dropped in +this natural cup, as if by a spell of magic. They appear, each of +them, to fill a fitted place--not equally distant from, but equally +near each other. Though distinguished, each by an individual feature, +there is yet no great dissimilarity among them. All are small, and +none of them distinguished by architectural pretension. They are +now quite as flourishing as when first built, and their number has +had no increase since the village was first settled. Speculation +has not made it populous and prosperous, by destroying its repose, +stifling its charities, and abridging the sedate habits and comforts +of its people. The houses, though constructed after the fashion +of the country, of heavy and ill-squared logs, roughly hewn, and +hastily thrown together, perhaps by unpractised hands, are yet made +cheerful by that tidy industry which is always sure to make them +comfortable also. Trim hedges that run beside slender white palings, +surround and separate them from each other. Sometimes, as you see, +festoons of graceful flowers, and waving blossoms, distinguish +one dwelling from the rest, declaring its possession of some fair +tenant, whose hand and fancy have kept equal progress with habitual +industry; at the same time, some of them appear entirely without +the little garden of flowers and vegetables, which glimmers and +glitters in the rear or front of the greater number. + +Such was Charlemont, at the date of our narrative. But the traveller +would vainly look, now, to find the place as we describe it. The +garden is no longer green with fruits and flowers--the festoons +no longer grace the lowly portals--the white palings are down and +blackening in the gloomy mould--the roofs have fallen, and silence +dwells lonely among the ruins,--the only inhabitant of the place. +It has no longer a human occupant. + +"Something ails it now--the spot is cursed." + +Why this fate has fallen upon so sweet an abiding place--why the +villagers should have deserted a spot, so quiet and so beautiful--it +does not fall within our present purpose to inquire. It was most +probably abandoned--not because of the unfruitfulness of the soil, +or the unhealthiness of the climate--for but few places on the bosom +of the earth, may be found either more fertile, more beautiful, or +more healthful--but in compliance with that feverish restlessness +of mood--that sleepless discontent of temper, which, perhaps, more +than any other quality, is the moral failing in the character of the +Anglo-American. The roving desires of his ancestor, which brought +him across the waters, have been transmitted without diminution--nay, +with large increase--to the son. The creatures of a new condition +of things, and new necessities, our people will follow out their +destiny. The restless energies which distinguish them, are, perhaps, +the contemplated characteristics which Providence has assigned +them, in order that they may the more effectually and soon, bring +into the use and occupation of a yet mightier people, the wilderness +of that new world in which their fortunes have been cast. Generation +is but the pioneer of generation, and the children of millions, more +gigantic and powerful than ourselves, shall yet smile to behold, +how feeble was the stroke made by our axe upon the towering trees +of their inheritance. + +It was probably because of this characteristic of our people, that +Charlemont came in time to be deserted. The inhabitants were one +day surprised with tidings of more attractive regions in yet deeper +forests, and grew dissatisfied with their beautiful and secluded +valley. Such is the ready access to the American mind, in its +excitable state, of novelty and sudden impulse, that there needs but +few suggestions to persuade the forester to draw stakes, and remove +his tents, where the signs seem to be more numerous of sweeter +waters and more prolific fields. For a time, change has the power +which nature does not often exercise; and under its freshness, +the waters DO seem sweeter, and the stores of the wilderness, the +wild-honey and the locust, DO seem more abundant to the lip and +eye. + +Where our cottagers went, and under what delusion, are utterly +unknown to us; nor is it important to our narrative that we should +inquire. Our knowledge of them is only desirable, while they were +in the flourishing condition in which they have been seen. It is +our trust that the novelty which seduced them from their homes, did +not fail them in its promises--that they may never have found, in +all their wanderings, a less lovely abiding-place, than that which +they abandoned. But change has its bitter, as well as its sweet, +and the fear is strong that the cottagers of Charlemont, in the +weary hours, when life's winter is approaching, will still and +vainly sigh after the once-despised enjoyments of their deserted +hamlet. + +It was toward the close of one of those bright, tearful days in +April, of which we have briefly spoken, when a couple of travellers +on horseback, ascended the last hill looking down upon Charlemont. +One of these travellers had passed the middle period of life; the +other was, perhaps, just about to enter upon its heavy responsibilities, +and more active duties. The first wore the countenance of one +who had borne many sorrows, and borne them with that resignation, +which, while it proves the wisdom of the sufferer, is at the same +time, calculated to increase his benevolence. The expression of his +eye, was full of kindness and benignity, while that of his mouth, +with equal force, was indicative of a melancholy, as constant as +it was gentle and unobtrusive. A feeble smile played over his lips +while he spoke, that increased the sadness which it softened; as +the faint glimmer of the evening sunlight, upon the yellow leaves +of autumn, heightens the solemn tones in the rich coloring of the +still decaying forest. + +The face of his companion, in many of its features, was in direct +contrast with his own. It was well formed, and, to the casual +glance, seemed no less handsome than intellectual. There was much +in it to win the regard of the young and superficial. An eye that +sparkled with fire, a mouth that glowed with animation--cheeks +warmly colored, and a contour full of vivacity, seemed to denote +properties of mind and heart equally valuable and attractive. Still, +a keen observer would have found something sinister, in the upward +glancing of the eye, at intervals, from the half-closed lids; and, +at such moments, there was a curling contempt upon the lips, which +seemed to denote a cynical and sarcastic turn of mind. A restless +movement of the same features seemed equally significant of caprice +of character, and a flexibility of moral; while the chin narrowed +too suddenly and became too sharp at the extremity, to persuade a +thorough physiognomist, that the owner could be either very noble +in his aims, or very generous in his sentiments. But as these +outward tokens can not well be considered authority in the work +of judgment, let events, which speak for themselves, determine the +true character of our travellers. + +They had reached the table land of the heights which looked down +upon Charlemont, at a moment when the beauty of the scene could +scarcely fail to impress itself upon the most indifferent observer. +The elder of the travellers, who happened to be in advance, was +immediately arrested by it; and, staying the progress of his horse, +with hand lifted above his eye, looked around him with a delight +which expressed itself in an abrupt ejaculation, and brought his +companion to his side. The sun had just reached that point in his +descent, which enabled him to level a shaft of rosy light from +the pinnacle of the opposite hill, into the valley below, where it +rested among the roofs of two of the cottages, which arose directly +in its path. The occupants of these two cottages had come forth, +as it were, in answer to the summons; and old and young, to the +number of ten or a dozen persons, had met, in the winding pathway +between, which led through the valley, and in front of every cottage +which it contained. The elder of the cottagers sat upon the huge +trunk of a tree, which had been felled beside the road, for the +greater convenience of the traveller; and with eyes turned in the +direction of the hill on which the sunlight had sunk and appeared +to slumber, seemed to enjoy the vision with no less pleasure than +our senior traveller. Two tall damsels of sixteen, accompanied by +a young man something older, were strolling off in the direction +of the woods; while five or six chubby girls and boys were making +the echoes leap and dance along the hills, in the clamorous delight +which they felt in their innocent but stirring exercises. The whole +scene was warmed with the equal brightness of the natural and the +human sun. Beauty was in the sky, and its semblance, at least, was +on the earth. God was in the heavens, and in his presence could +there be other than peace and harmony among men! + +"How beautiful!" exclaimed the elder of our travellers--"could +anything be more so! How pure, how peaceful! See, Warham, how +soft, how spirit-like, that light lies along the hill-side, and +how distinct, yet how delicate, is the train which glides from it +down the valley, even to the white dwellings at its bottom, from which +it seems to shrink and tremble as if half conscious of intrusion. +And yet the picture below is kindred with it. That, now, is a scene +that I delight in--it is a constant picture in my mind. There is +peace in that valley, if there be peace anywhere on earth. The old +men sit before the door, and contemplate with mingled feelings of +pride and pleasure, the vigorous growth of their children. They +behold in them their own immortality, even upon earth. The young +will preserve their memories, and transmit their names to other +children yet unborn; and how must such a reflection reconcile them +to their own time of departure, not unfitly shown in the last smiles +of that sunlight, which they are so soon about to lose. Like him, +they look with benevolence and love upon the world from which they +will soon depart." + +"Take my word for it, uncle, they will postpone their departure +to the last possible moment, and, so far from looking with smiles +upon what they are about to leave for ever, they will leave it with +very great reluctance, and in monstrous bad humor. As for regarding +their children with any such notions as those you dwell upon with +such poetical raptures, they will infinitely prefer transmitting +for themselves their names and qualities to the very end of the +chapter. Ask any one of them the question now, and he will tell you +that an immortality, each, in his own wig-wam, and with his weight +of years and infirmity upon him, would satisfy all his expectations. +If they look at the vigor of their young, it is to recollect that +they themselves once were so, and to repine at the recollection. +Take my word for it, there is not a dad among them, that does not +envy his own son the excellence of his limbs, and the long time of +exercise and enjoyment which they seemingly assure him." + +"Impossible!" exclaimed the elder of the two travellers. "Impossible! +I should be sorry to think as you do. But you, Warham, can not +understand these things. You are an habitual unbeliever--the most +unfortunate of all mankind." + +"The most fortunate, rather. I have but few burdens of credulity +to carry. The stars be blessed, my articles of faith are neither +very many nor very cumbrous. I should be sorry if my clients were +so few." + +"I should be sorry, Warham, if I had so little feeling as yourself." + +"And I should be still more sorry, uncle, if I had half so much. +Why, sir, yours is in such excess, that you continually mistake the +joys and sorrows of other people for your own. You laugh and weep +with them alternately; and, until all's done and over, you never +seem to discover that the business was none of yours;--that you +had none of the pleasure which made you laugh, and might have been +spared all the unnecessary suffering which moved your tears. 'Pon +my soul, sir, you pass a most unprofitable life." + +"You mistake, Warham, I have shared both; and my profits have been +equally great from both sources. My susceptibility has been an +exceeding great gain to me, and has quickened all my senses. There +is a joy of grief, you know, according to Ossian." + +"Nay, if you quote Ossian, uncle. I give you up. I don't believe +in Ossian, and his raving stuff always sickens me." + +"I sometimes think, Warham," said the uncle, good naturedly, "that +Providence has denied you some of the more human faculties. Nay, +I fear that you are partially deficient in some of the senses. Do +you see that sunlight to which I point--there, on the hill-side, +a sort of rosy haze, which seems to me eminently beautiful?" + +"Yes, sir; and, if you will suffer me, I will get out of its reach +as quickly as possible. I have been half blinded by it ever since +you found it so beautiful. Sunlight is, I think, of very little +importance to professional men, unless as a substitute for candles, +and then it should come over the left shoulder, if you would not +have it endanger the sight. Nay, I will go farther, and confess that +it is better than candlelight, and certainly far less expensive. +Shall we go forward, sir?" + +"Warham," said the uncle, with increasing gravity, "I should be +sorry to believe that a habit of speech so irreverential, springs +from anything but an ambition for saying smart things, and strange +things, which are not always smart. It would give me great pain +to think that you were devoid of any of those sensibilities which +soften the hearts of other men, and lead them to generous impulses." + +"Nay, be not harsh, uncle. You should know me better. I trust my +sensibilities, and senses too, may be sufficient for all proper +purposes, when the proper time comes for their employment; but +I can't flame up at every sunbeam, and grow enthusiastic in the +contemplation of Bill Johnson's cottage, and Richard Higgins's +hedgerow. A turnip-patch never yet could waken my enthusiasm, +and I do believe, sir--I confess it with some shame and a slight +misgiving, lest my admissions should give you pain--that my fancy +has never been half so greatly enkindled by Carthula, of the bending +spear, or Morven of the winds, as by the sedate and homely aspect +of an ordinary dish of eggs and bacon, hot from the flaming frying-pan +of some worthy housewife." + +The uncle simply looked upon the speaker, but without answering. +He was probably quite too much accustomed to his modes of thought +and speech to be so much surprised as annoyed by what he said. +Perhaps, too, his own benevolence of spirit interfered to save the +nephew from that harsher rebuke which his judgment might yet have +very well disposed him to bestow. + +Following the course of the latter in silence, he descended into +the valley, and soon made his way among the sweet little cottages +at its foot. An interchange of courtsies between the travellers and +the villagers whose presence had given occasion to some portion of +the previous dialogue, in which the manner of the younger traveller +was civil, and that of the elder kind; and the two continued on +their journey, though not without being compelled to refuse sundry +invitations, given with true patriarchal hospitality, to remain +among the quiet abodes through which they passed. + +As cottage after cottage unfolded itself to their eyes, along the +winding avenue, the proprietors appeared at door and window, and, +with the simple freedoms of rural life, welcomed the strangers with +a smile, a nod, and sometimes, when sufficiently nigh, a friendly +word of salutation, but without having the effect of arresting +their onward progress. Yet many a backward glance was sent by the +elder of the travellers, whose eyes, beaming with satisfaction, +sufficiently declared the delight which he received from the +contemplation of so many of the mingled graces of physical and +moral nature. His loitering steps drew from his young companion an +occasional remark, which, to ears less benevolent and unsuspecting +than than those of the senior, might have been deemed a sarcasm; and +more than once the lips of the nephew had curled with contemptuous +smiles, as he watched the yearning glances of his uncle on each +side of the avenue, as they wended slowly through it. + +At the end of the village, and at the foot of the opposite hills, +they encountered a group of young people of both sexes, whose bursts +of merriment were suddenly restrained as they emerged unexpectedly +into sight. The girls had been sitting upon the grassy mead, with +the young men before them; but they started to their feet at the +sound of strange steps, and the look of strange faces. Charlemont, +it must be remembered, was not in the thoroughfare of common travel. +If visited at all by strangers, it was most usually by those only +who came with a single purpose. Nothing, therefore could have been +more calculated to surprise a community so insulated, than that they +should attract, but not arrest the traveller. The natural surprise +which the young people felt, when unexpectedly encountered in their +rustic sports, was naturally increased by this unusual circumstance, +and they looked after the departing forms of the wayfarers with a +wonder and curiosity that kept them for some time silent. The elder +of the two, meanwhile--one of whose habits of mind was always to give +instantaneous utterance to the feeling which was upper-most--dilated, +without heeding the sneers of his nephew, upon the apparent happiness +which they witnessed. + +"Here, you see, Warham, is a pleasure which the great city never +knows:--the free intercourse of the sexes in all those natural +exercises which give health to the body, grace to the movement, +and vivacity to the manners." + +"The health will do well enough," replied the skeptic, "but save +me from the grace of Hob and Hinney; and as for their manners--did +I hear you correctly, uncle, when you spoke of their manners?" + +"Surely, you did. I have always regarded the natural manners which +belong to the life of the forester, as being infinitely more noble, +as well as more graceful, than those of the citizen. Where did you +ever see a tradesman whose bearing was not mean compared with that +of the hunter?" + +"Ay, but these are no hunters, and scarcely foresters. I see not a +single Nimrod among the lads; and as for the lasses, even your eyes, +indulgent as they usually are, will scarcely venture to insist that +I shall behold one nymph among them worthy to tie the shoe-latchets +of Diana. The manners of the hunter are those of an elastic savage; +but these lads shear sheep, raise hogs for the slaughter-pen, and +seldom perform a nobler feat than felling a bullock. They have none +of the elasticity which, coupled with strength, makes the grace of +the man; and they walk as if perpetually in the faith that their +corn-rows and potatoe-hills were between their legs." + +"Did you note the young woman in the crimson body Warham? Was she +not majestically made?" + +"It struck me she would weigh against any two of the company." + +"She is rather heavy, I grant you, but her carriage, Warham!" + +"Would carry weight--nothing more." + +"There was one little girl, just rising into womanhood:--you must +admit that she had a very lovely face, and her form--" + +"My dear uncle, what is it that you will not desire me to believe? +You are sadly given to proselytism, and take infinite pains to +compel me to see with eyes that never do their owner so much wrong, +as when they reject the aid of spectacles. How much would Charlemont +and its inhabitants differ to your sight, were you only to take +your green spectacles from the shagreen case in which they do no +duty. But if you are resolved, in order to seem youthful, to let +your age go unprovided with the means of seeing as youth would see, +at least suffer me to enjoy the natural privileges of twenty-five. +When, like you, my hairs whiten, and my eyes grow feeble, ten to +one, I shall think with you that every third woodman is an Apollo, +and every other peasant-girl is a Venus, whom--" + +The words of the speaker ceased--cut short by the sudden appearance +of a form and face, the beauty and dignity of which silenced the +skeptic, and made him doubtful, for the moment, whether he had not +in reality reached that period of confused and confounding vision, +which, as he alleged to be the case with his uncle, loses all +power of discrimination. A maiden stood before him--tall, erect, +majestic--beautiful after no ordinary standard of beauty. She was +a brunette, with large dark eyes, which, though bright, seemed dark +with excess of bright--and had a depth of expression which thrilled +instantly through the bosom of the spectator. A single glance did +she bestow upon the travellers, while she acknowledged, by a slight +courtesy, the respectful bow which they made her. They drew up +their horses as with mutual instinct, but she passed them quickly, +courtesying a second time as she did so, and, in another moment a +turn of the road concealed her from the eyes of the travellers. + +"What say you to that, Warham?" demanded the senior exultingly. + +"A Diana, in truth; but, uncle, we find her not among the rest. +SHE is none of your cottagers. SHE is of another world and element. +She is no Charlemonter." + +And, as he spoke, the younger traveller looked back with straining +eyes to catch another glanco of the vanished object, but in vain. + +"You deserve never to see a lovely woman again, Warham, for your +skepticism." + +"But I will have a second look at her, uncle, though the skies +fall," answered the young man, as, wheeling his horse round, he +deliberately galloped back to the bend in the avenue, by which she +had been hidden from his view. + +He had scarcely reached the desired point, when he suddenly recoiled +to find the object of his pursuit standing motionless just beyond, +with eyes averted to the backward path--her glance consequently +encountering his own, the very moment when he discovered her. A deep +crimson, visible even where he stood, suffused her cheeks when she +beheld him; and without acknowledging the second bow which the +traveller made, she somewhat haughtily averted her head with a +suddenness which shook her long and raven tresses entirely free of +the net-work which confined them. + +"A proud gipsy!" muttered the youth as he rode back to his uncle--"just +such a spirit as I should like to tame." He took especial care, +however, that this sentiment did not reach the ears of his senior. + +"Well?" said the latter, inquiringly, at his approach. + +"I am right after all, uncle:--the wench is no better than the +rest. A heavy bulk that seemed dignified only because she is too +fat for levity. She walks like a blind plough-horse in a broken +pasture, up and down, over and over; with a gait as rigid and +deliberate as if she trod among the hot cinders, and had corns on +all her toes. She took us so by surprise that if we had not thought +her beautiful we must have thought her ugly, and the chances are +equal, that, on a second meeting, we shall both think her so. I +shall, I'm certain, and you must, provided you give your eyes the +benefit, and your nose the burden of your green specs." + +"Impossible! I can scarce believe it, Warham," replied the senior. +"I thought her very beautiful." + +"I shall never rely on your judgment again;--nay, uncle, I am almost +inclined to suspect your taste." + +"Well, let them be beautiful or ugly, still I should think the same +of the beauty of this village." + +"While the sun shines it may be tolerable; but, uncle, in wet bad +weather--it must become a mere pond, it lies so completely in the +hollow of the hills." + +"There is reason in that, Warham." + +"And yet, even as a pond, it would have its advantages--it would +be famous for duck-raising." + +"Pshaw! you are worse than a Mahometan." + +"Something of a just comparison, uncle, though scarcely aimed," +said the other; "like Mahomet, you know, I doubt the possession of +souls by women." + +"Yet if these of Charlemont have not souls, they have no small +share of happiness on earth. I never heard more happy laughter from +human lips than from theirs. They must be happy." + +"I doubt that also," was the reply. "See you not, uncle, that to +nine or ten women there are but three lads? Where the disproportion +is so great among the sexes, and where it is so unfavorable to the +weaker, women never can be happy. Their whole lives will be lives +of turmoil, jealousy, and pulling of caps. Nay, eyes shall not +be secure under such circumstances; and Nan's fingers shall be in +Doll's hair, and Doll's claws in Nanny's cheeks, whenever it shall +so happen, that Tom Jenkins shall incline to Nan, or John Dobbins +to Doll. Such a disparity between the sexes is one of the most +fruitful causes of domestic war." + +"Warham, where do you think to go when you die?" + +"Where there shall be no great inequality in the population. Believe +me, uncle, though I am sometimes disposed to think with Mahomet, +and deny the possession of souls to the sex, I also incline to +believe, with other more charitable teachers--however difficult +it may be to reconcile the two philosophies--that there will be no +lack of them in either world." + +"Hush, hush, Warham," was the mild rebuke of the senior; "you go +too far--you are irreverent. As for this maiden, I still think her +very beautiful--of a high and noble kind of beauty. My eyes may be +bad;--indeed I am willing to admit they are none of the best; but +I feel certain that they cannot so far deceive me, when we consider +how nigh we were to her." + +"The matter deserves inquiry, uncle, if it were only to satisfy +your faith;--suppose we ride back, both of us, and see for +ourselves--closely, and with the aid of the green spectacles? Not +that I care to see farther--not that I have any doubts--but I wish +you to be convinced in this case, if only to make you sensible of +the frequent injustice to which your indulgence of judgment, subjects +the critical fastidiousness of mine. What say you; shall we wheel +about?" + +"Why, you are mad, surely. It is now sunset, and we have a good +eight miles before we get to Holme's Station." + +"But we can sleep in Charlemont to-night. A night in this earthly +Eden--" + +"And run the risk of losing our company? Oh, no, most worthy nephew. +They will start at dawn to-morrow." + +"We can soon come up with 'em." + +"Perhaps not, and the risk is considerable. Travelling to the +Mississippi is no such small matter at any time, and, in these times +it is only with a multitude, that there is safety. The murder of +old Whiteford, is a sufficient warning not to go alone with more +gold than lead in one's pocket. We are two, it is true, but better +ten than two. You are a brave fellow enough, Warham, I doubt not; +but a shot will dispose of you, and after that I should be an easy +victim. I could wink and hold out my iron as well as the best of +you, but I prefer to escape the necessity. Let us mend our pace. +We are burning daylight." + +The nephew, with an air of some impatience, which, however, +escaped the eyes of the senior, sent his horse forward by a sharp +application of his spur, though looking back the while, with a +glance of reluctance, which strongly disagreed with the sentiments +which he expressed. Indeed, with both the travellers, the impression +made by the little village of Charlemont was such that the subject +seemed nowise displeasing to either, and furnished the chief staple +of conversation between them, as they rode the remaining eight miles +of their journey. The old man's heart had been subdued and won by +the sweet air of peace which seemed to overspread and hallow the +soft landscape, and the smiling cottages which made it human. The +laughing maidens with their bright eyes and cheering accents, gave +vivacity to its milder charms. We have heard from the lips of the +younger traveller, that these attractions had failed to captivate +his fancy. We may believe of this as we please. It is very probable +that he had, in considerable part, spoken nothing but the truth. +He was too much of a mocker;--one of those worldlings who derive +their pleasures from circumstances of higher conventional attraction. +He had no feeling for natural romance. His PENCHANT, was decidedly +for the artificial existence of city life; and the sneers which he +had been heard to express at the humble joys of rustic life, its +tastes, and characteristics, were, in truth, only such as he really +felt. But, even in his case, there was an evident disposition to +know something more of Charlemont. He was really willing to return. +He renewed the same subject of conversation, when it happened to +flag, with obvious eagerness; and, though his language was still +studiedly disparaging, a more deeply penetrating judgment than that +of his uncle, would have seen that the little village, slightly as +he professed to esteem it, was yet an object of thought and interest +in his eyes. Of the sources of this new interest time must inform +us. + +"Well, well, Warham," at length exclaimed the uncle, in a tone that +seemed meant to close the discussion of a topic which his nephew now +appeared mischievously bent to thrust upon him, "you will return +to Kentucky in the fall. Take Charlemont in your route. Stop a +week there. It will do you no harm. Possibly you may procure some +clients--may, indeed, include it in your tour of practice--at all +events, you will not be unprofitably employed if you come to see +the village and the people with MY eyes, which, I doubt not, you +will in time." + +"In time, perhaps, I may. It is well that you do not insist upon +any hurried convictions. Were I at your years uncle mine," continued +the other irreverently, "I should no doubt see with your eyes, and +possibly feel with your desires. Then, no doubt, I shall acquire +a taste for warmingpans and nightcaps--shall look for landscapes +rather than lands--shall see nothing but innocence among the young, +and resignation and religion among the old; and fancy, in every +aged pair of bumpkins that I see, a Darby and Joan, with perpetual +peace at their fireside, though they may both happen to lie there +drunk on apple-brandy. Between caudle-cups and 'John Anderson, +my Jo-John,' it is my hope to pass the evening of my days with a +tolerable grace, and leave behind me some comely representatives, +who shall take up the burden of the ditty where I leave off. +On this head be sure you shall have no cause to complain of me. I +shall be no Malthusian, as you certainly have shown yourself. It +is the strangest thing to me, uncle, that, with all your SPOKEN +rapture for the sex, you should never have thought of securing for +yourself at least one among the crowd which you so indiscriminately +admire. Surely, a gentleman of your personal attractions--attractions +which seem resolute to cling to you to the last--could not have found +much difficulty in procuring the damsel he desired! And when, too, +your enthusiasm for the sex is known, one would think it only +necessary that you should fling your handkerchief, to have it +greedily grappled by the fairest of the herd. How is it, uncle--how +have you escaped from them--from yourself?" + +"Pshaw, Warham, you are a fool!" exclaimed the senior, riding forward +with increasing speed. The words were spoken good naturedly, but +the youth had touched a spot, scarcely yet thoroughly scarred over, +in the old man's bosom; and memories, not less painful because +they had been bidden so long, were instantly wakened into fresh +and cruel activity. + +It will not diminish the offence of the nephew in the mind of the +reader, when he is told that the youth was not ignorant of the +particular tenderness of his relative in this respect. The gentle +nature of the latter, alone, rescued him from the well-merited reproach +of suffering his habitual levity of mood to prevail in reference +to one whom even he himself was disposed to honor. But few words +passed between the two, ere they reached the place of appointment. +The careless reference of the youth had made the thoughts of the +senior active at the expense of his observation. His eyes were +now turned inward; and the landscape, and the evening sun, which +streamed over and hallowed it with a tender beauty to the last, was +as completely hidden from his vision, as if a veil had been drawn +above his sight. The retrospect, indeed, is ever the old man's +landscape; and perhaps, even had he not been so unkindly driven back +to its survey, our aged traveller would have been reminded of the +past in the momently-deepening shadows which the evening gathered +around his path. Twilight is the cherished season for sad memories, +even as the midnight is supposed to be that of guilty ghosts; and +nothing, surely, can be more fitting than that the shadows of former +hopes should revisit us in those hours when the face of nature +itself seems darkening into gloom. + +It was night before the wayfarers reached the appointed baiting +place. There they found their company--a sort of little caravan, +such as is frequent in the history of western emigration--already +assembled, and the supper awaiting them. Let us leave them to its +enjoyment, and return once more to the village of Charlemont. + + + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. + + + + + +The young maiden last met by our travellers, and whose appearance +had so favorably impressed them, had not been altogether uninfluenced +by the encounter. Her spirit was of a musing and perhaps somewhat +moody character, and the little adventure related in our last +chapter, had awakened in her mind a train of vague and purposeless +thought, from which she did not strive to disengage herself. She +ceased to pursue the direct path back to Charlemont, the moment she +had persuaded herself that the strangers had continued on their way; +and turning from the beaten track, she strolled aside, following the +route of a brooklet, the windings of which, as it led her forward, +were completely hidden from the intrusive glance of any casual +wayfarer. The prattle of the little stream as it wound upon its +sleepless journey, contributed still more to strengthen the musings +of those vagrant fancies that filled the maiden's thoughts. + +She sat down upon the prostrate trunk of a tree, and surrendered +herself for a while to their control. Her thoughts were probably of +a kind which, to a certain extent, are commended to every maiden. +Among them, perpetually rose an image of the bold and handsome +stranger, whose impudence, in turning back in pursuit of her, +was somewhat qualified by the complimentary curiosity which such +conduct manifested. Predominant even over this image, however, was +the conviction of isolation which she felt where she was, and the +still more painful conviction, that the future was without promise. +Such thoughts and apprehensions may be natural enough to all young +persons of active, earnest nature, not permitted to perform; but +in the bosom of Margaret Cooper they were particularly so. Her mind +was of a masculine and commanding character, and was ill-satisfied +with her position and prospect in Charlemont. A quiet, obscure +village, such as that we have described, held forth no promise for +a spirit so proud, impatient, and ambitious as hers. She knew the +whole extent of knowledge which it contained, and all its acquisitions +and resources--she had sounded its depths, and traced all its +shallows. The young women kept no pace with her own progress--they +were good, silly girls enough--a chattering, playful set, whom +small sports could easily satisfy, and who seemed to have no care, +and scarce a hope, beyond the hilly limits of their homestead; and +as for the young men--they were only suited to the girls, such as +they were, and could never meet the demand of such an intellect as +hers. + +This lofty self-estimate, which was in some sense just, necessarily +gave a tone to her language and a coloring to all her thoughts, +such as good sense and amiability should equally strive to suppress +and conceal--unless, as in the case of Margaret Cooper, the individual +herself was without due consciousness of their presence. It had the +effect of discouraging and driving from her side many a good-natured +damsel, who would have loved to condole with her, and might have +been a pleasant companion. The young women regarded her with some +dislike in consequence of her self-imposed isolation--and the +young men with some apprehension. Her very knowledge of books, +which infinitely surpassed that of all her sex within the limits +of Charlemont, was also an object of some alarm. It had been her +fortune, whether well or ill may be a question, to inherit from +her father a collection, not well chosen, upon which her mind had +preyed with an appetite as insatiate as it was undiscriminating. +They had taught her many things, but among these neither wisdom nor +patience was included;--and one of the worst lessons which she had +learned, and which they had contributed in some respects to teach, +was discontent with her condition--a discontent which saddened, if +it did not embitter, her present life, while it left the aspects +of the future painfully doubtful, even to her own eye. + +She was fatherless, and had been already taught some of those rude +lessons which painfully teach dependence; but such lessons, which +to most others would have brought submission, only provoked her to +resistance. Her natural impetuosity of disposition, strengthened +by her mother's idolatrous indulgence, increased the haughtiness +of her character; and when, to these influences, we add that +her surviving parent was poor, and suffered from privations which +were unfelt by many of their neighbors, it may be easily conceived +that a temper and mind such as we have described those of Margaret +Cooper--ardent, commanding, and impatient, hourly found occasion, +even in the secluded village where she dwelt, for the exercise of +moods equally adverse to propriety and happiness. Isolated from the +world by circumstances, she doubly exiled herself from its social +indulgences, by the tyrannical sway of a superior will, strengthened +and stimulated by an excitable and ever feverish blood; and, as +we find her now, wandering sad and sternly by the brookside, afar +from the sports and humbler sources of happiness, which gentler +moods left open to the rest, so might she customarily be found, at +all hours, when it was not absolutely due to appearances that she +should be seen among the crowds. + +We will not now seek to pursue her musings and trace them out to +their conclusions, nor will it be necessary that we should do more +than indicate their character. That they were sad and solemn as +usual--perhaps humbling--may be gathered from the fact that a big +tear might have been seen, long gathering in her eye;--the next +moment she brushed off the intruder with an impatience of gesture, +that plainly showed how much her proud spirit resented any such +intrusion. The tear dispersed the images which had filled her +contemplative mood, and rising from her sylvan seat, she prepared +to move forward, when a voice calling at some little distance, +drew her attention. Giving a hasty glance in the direction of the +sound, she beheld a young man making his way through the woods, and +approaching her with rapid footsteps. His evident desire to reach +her, did not, however, prompt her to any pause in her own progress; +but, as if satisfied with the single glance which she gave him, and +indifferent utterly to his object, she continued on her way, nor +stopped for an instant, nor again looked back, until his salutation, +immediately behind her, compelled her attention and answer. + +"Margaret--Miss Cooper!" said the speaker, who was a young rustic, +probably twenty or twenty-one years of age, of tall, good person, +a handsome face, which was smooth, though of dark complexion, and +lightened by an eye of more than ordinary size and intelligence. His +tones were those of one whose sensibilities were fine and active, +and it would not have called for much keen observation to have +seen that his manner, in approaching and addressing the maiden, +was marked with some little trepidation. She, on the contrary, +seemed too familiar with his homage, or too well satisfied of his +inferiority, to deign much attention to his advances. She answered +his salutation coldly, and was preparing to move forward, when his +words again called for her reluctant notice. + +"I have looked for you, Margaret, full an hour. Mother sent me +after you to beg that you will come there this evening. Old Jenks +has come up from the river, and brought a store of fine things--there's +a fiddle for Ned, and Jason Lightner has a flute, and I--I have a +small lot of books, Margaret, that I think will please you." + +"I thank you, William Hinkley, and thank your mother, but I can +not come this evening." + +"But why not, Margaret?--your mother's coming--she promised for you +too, but I thought you might not get home soon enough to see her, +and so I came out to seek you." + +"I am very sorry you took so much trouble, William, for I cannot +come this evening." + +"But why not, Margaret? You have no other promise to go elsewhere +have you?" + +"None," was the indifferent reply. + +"Then--but, perhaps, you are not well, Margaret?" + +"I am quite well, I thank you, William Hinkley, but I don't feel +like going out this evening. I am not in the humor." + +Already, in the little village of Charlemont, Margaret Cooper +was one of the few who were permitted to indulge in humors, and +William Hinkley learned the reason assigned for her refusal, with +an expression of regret and disappointment, if not of reproach. +An estoppel, which would have been so conclusive in the case of +a city courtier, was not sufficient, however, to satisfy the more +frank and direct rustic, and he proceeded with some new suggestions, +in the hope to change her determination. + +"But you'll be so lonesome at home, Margaret, when your mother's +with us. She'll be gone before you can get back, and--" + +"I'm never lonesome, William, at least I'm never so well content +or so happy as when I'm alone," was the self-satisfactory reply. + +"But that's so strange, Margaret. It's so strange that you should +be different from everybody else. I often wonder at it, Margaret; +for I know none of the other girls but love to be where there's a +fiddle, and where there's pleasant company. It's so pleasant to be +where everybody's pleased; and then, Margaret, where one can talk +so well as you, and of so many subjects, it's a greater wonder +still that you should not like to be among the rest." + +"I do not, however, William," was the answer in more softened +tones. There was something in this speech of her lover, that found +its way through the only accessible avenues of her nature. It was +a truth, which she often repeated to herself with congratulatory +pride, that she had few feelings or desires in common with the +crowd. + +"It is my misfortune," she continued, "to care very little for +the pastimes you speak of; and as for the company, I've no doubt +it will be very pleasant for those who go, but to me it will +afford very little pleasure. Your mother must therefore excuse me, +William:--I should be a very dull person among the rest." + +"She will be so very sorry, Margaret--and Ned, whose new fiddle +has just come, and Jason Lightner, with his flute. They all spoke +of you and look for you above all, to hear them this evening. They +will be so disappointed." + +William Hinkley spoke nothing of his own disappointment, but it was +visible enough in his blank countenance, and sufficiently audible +in the undisguised faltering of his accents. + +"I do not think they will be so much disappointed, William Hinkley. +They have no reason to be, as they have no right to look for me +in particular. I have very little acquaintance with the young men +you speak of." + +"Why, Margaret, they live alongside of you--and I'm sure you've met +them a thousand times in company," was the response of the youth, +uttered in tones more earnest than any he had yet employed in the +dialogue, and with something of surprise in his accents. + +"Perhaps so; but that makes them no intimates of mine, William +Hinkley. They may be very good young men, and, indeed, so far as +I know, they really are; but that makes no difference. We find our +acquaintances and our intimates among those who are congenial, who +somewhat resemble us in spirit, feeling, and understanding." + +"Ah, Margaret!" said her rustic companion with a sigh, which amply +testified to the humility of his own self-estimate, and of the +decline of his hope which came with it--"ah, Margaret, if that +be the rule, where are you going to find friends and intimates in +Charlemont?" + +"Where!" was the single word spoken by the haughty maiden, as her +eye wandered off to the cold tops of the distant hills along which +the latest rays of falling sunlight, faint and failing, as they fell, +imparted a hue, which though bright, still as it failed to warm, +left an expression of October sadness to the scene, that fitly +harmonized with the chilling mood under which she had spoken +throughout the interview. + +"I don't think, Margaret," continued the lover, finding courage as +he continued, "that such a rule is a good one. I know it can't be +a good one for happiness. There's many a person that never will meet +his or her match in this world, in learning and understanding--and +if they won't look on other persons with kindness, because they +are not altogether equal to them, why there's a chance that they'll +always be solitary and sad. It's a real blessing, I believe, to have +great sense, but I don't see, that because one has great sense, +that one should not think well and kindly of those who have little, +provided they be good, and are willing to be friendly. Now, a good +heart seems to be the very best thing that nature can give us; +and I know, Margaret, that there's no two better hearts in all +Charlemont--perhaps in all the world, though I won't say that--than +cousin Ned Hinkley, and Jason Lightner, and--" + +"I don't deny their merits and their virtues, and their goodness +of heart, William Hinkley," was the answer of the maiden--"I only +say that the possession of these qualities gives them no right to +claim my sympathies or affection. These claims are only founded upon +congeniality of character and mind, and without this congeniality, +there can be no proper, no lasting intimacy between persons. They +no doubt, will find friends between whom and themselves, this +congeniality exists. I, on the other hand, must be permitted to find +mine, after my own ideas, and as I best can. But if I do not--the +want of them gives me no great concern. I find company enough, and +friends enough, even in these woods, to satisfy the desires of my +heart at present; I am not anxious to extend my acquaintance or +increase the number of my intimates." + +William Hinkley, who had become somewhat warmed by the argument, +could have pursued the discussion somewhat further; but the tones +and manner of his companion, to say nothing of her words, counselled +him to forbear. Still, he was not disposed altogether to give up +his attempts to secure her presence for the evening party. + +"But if you don't come for the company, Margaret, recollect the +music. Even if Ned Hinkley was a perfect fool, which he is not, +and Jason Lightner were no better,--nobody can say that they are +not good musicians. Old Squire Bee says there's not in all Kentucky +a better violinist than Ned, and Jason's flute is the sweetest +sound that ear ever listened to along these hills. If you don't care +anything for the players, Margaret, I'm sure you can't be indifferent +to their music; and I know they are anything but indifferent to +what you may think about it. They will play ten times as well if +you are there; and I'm sure, Margaret, I shall be the last"--here +the tone of the speaker's voice audibly faltered--"I shall be the +very last to think it sweet if you are not there." + +But the words and faltering accents of the lover equally failed in +subduing the inflexible, perverse mood of the haughty maiden. Her +cold denial was repeated; and with looks that did not fail to speak +the disappointment of William Hinkley, he attended her back to the +village. Their progress was marked by coldness on the one hand, and +decided sadness on the other. The conversation was carried on in +monosyllables only, on the part of Margaret, while timidity and +a painful hesitancy marked the language of her attendant. But a +single passage may be remembered of all that was said between the +two, ere they separated at the door of the widow Cooper. + +"Did you see the two strangers, Margaret, that passed through +Charlemont this afternoon?" + +The cheeks of the maiden became instantly flushed, and the rapid +utterance of her reply in the affirmative, denoted an emotion which +the jealous instincts of the lover readily perceived. A cold chill, +on the instant, pervaded the veins of the youth; and that night +he did not hear, any more than Margaret Cooper, the music of his +friends. He was present all the time and he answered their inquiries +as usual; but his thoughts were very far distant, and somehow or +other, they perpetually mingled up the image of the young traveller, +whom he too had seen, with that of the proud woman, whom he was +not yet sure that he unprofitably worshipped. + + + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +SIMPLICITY AND THE SERPENT. + + + + + +The mirth and music of Charlemont were enjoyed by others, but not +by Margaret Cooper. The resolution not to share in the pleasures +of the young around her, which she showed to her rustic lover, was +a resolution firmly persevered in throughout the long summer which +followed. Her wayward mood shut out from her contemplation the only +sunshine of the place; and her heart, brooding over the remote, +if not the impossible, denied itself those joys which were equally +available and nigh. Her lonesome walks became longer in the forests, +and later each evening grew the hour of her return to the village. +Her solitude daily increased, as the youth, who really loved her +with all the ardency of a first passion, and who regarded her at +the same time with no little veneration for those superior gifts +of mind and education which, it was the general conviction in +Charlemont, that she possessed, became, at length, discouraged in a +pursuit which hitherto had found nothing but coldness and repulse. +Not that he ceased to love--nay, he did not cease entirely +to hope. What lover ever did? He fondly ascribed to the object of +his affections a waywardness of humor, which he fancied would pass +away after a season, and leave her mind to the influence of a more +sober and wholesome judgment. Perhaps, too, like many other youth +in like circumstances, he did not always see or feel the caprice +of which he was the victim. But for this fortunate blindness, many +a fair damsel would lose her conquest quite as suddenly as it was +made. + +But the summer passed away, and the forest put on the sere and +sombre robes of autumn, and yet no visible change--none at least +more favorable to the wishes of William Hinkley--took place in the +character and conduct of the maiden. Her mind, on the contrary, +seemed to take something of its hue from the cold sad tones of the +forest. The serious depth of expression in her dark eyes seemed +to deepen yet more, and become yet more concentrated--their glance +acquired a yet keener intentness--an inflexibility of direction--which +suffered them seldom to turn aside from those moody contemplations, +which had made her, for a long time, infinitely prefer to gaze upon +the rocks, and woods, and waters, than upon the warm and wooing +features of humanity. + +At distance the youth watched and sometimes followed her, and +when, with occasional boldness, he would draw nigh to her secret +wanderings, a cold fear filled his heart, and he shrunk back with +all the doubt and dread of some guilty trespasser. But his doubt, +and we may add, his dread also, was soon to cease entirely, in the +complete conviction of his hopelessness. The day and the fate were +approaching, in the person of one, to whom a natural instinct had +already taught him to look with apprehension, and whose very first +appearance had inspired him with antipathy. + +What a strange prescience, in some respects, has the devoted and +watchful heart that loves! William Hinkley, had seen but for a +single instant, the face of that young traveller, who has already +been introduced to us, and that instant was enough to awaken his +dislike--nay, more, his hostility. Yet no villager in Charlemont +but would have told you, that, of all the village, William Hinkley +was the most gentle, the most generous--the very last to be moved +by bad passions, by jealousy or hate. + +The youth whom we have seen going down with his uncle to the great +valley of the Mississippi, was now upon his return. He was now +unaccompanied by the benignant senior with whom we first made his +acquaintance. He had simply attended the old bachelor, from whom +he had considerable expectations, to his plantation, in requital +of the spring visit which the latter had paid to his relatives in +Kentucky; and having spent the summer in the southwest, was about +to resume his residence, and the profession of the law, in that +state. We have seen that, however he might have succeeded in +disguising his true feelings from his uncle, he was not unmoved by +the encounter with Margaret Cooper, on the edge of the village. He +now remembered the casual suggestion of the senior, which concluded +their discussion on the subject of her beauty; and he resolved to +go aside from his direct path, and take Charlemont in the route of +his return. Not that he himself needed a second glance to convince +him of that loveliness which, in his wilfulness, he yet denied. +He was free to acknowledge to himself that Margaret Cooper was one +of the noblest and most impressive beauties he had ever seen. The +very scorn that spoke in all her features, the imperious fires that +kindled in her eyes, were better calculated than any more gentle +expressions, to impose upon one who was apt to be skeptical on the +subject of ordinary beauties. The confidence and consciousness of +superiority, which too plainly spoke out in the features of Margaret, +seemed to deny to his mind the privilege of doubting or discussing +her charms--a privilege upon which no one could have been more apt +to insist than himself. This seeming denial, while it suggested to +him ideas of novelty, provoked his curiosity and kindled his pride. +The haughty glance with which she encountered his second approach, +aroused his vanity, and a latent desire arose in his heart, to +overcome one who had shown herself so premature in her defiance. +We will not venture to assert that the young traveller had formed +any very deliberate designs of conquest, but, it may be said, as well +here as elsewhere, that his self-esteem was great; and accustomed +to easy conquests among the sex, in the region where he dwelt, it +was only necessary to inflame his vanity, to stimulate him to the +exercise of all his arts. + +It was about noon, on one of those bright, balmy days, early in +October, when "the bridal of the earth and sky," in the language of +the good old Herbert, is going on--when, the summer heats subdued, +there is yet nothing either cold, or repulsive in the atmosphere; +and the soft breathing from the southwest has just power enough to +stir the flowers and disperse their scents; that our young traveller +was joined in his progress towards Charlemont, by a person mounted +like himself and pursuing a similar direction. + +At the first glance the youth distinguished him as one of the +homely forest preachers of the methodist persuasion, who are the +chief agents and pioneers of religion in most of the western woods. +His plain, unstudied garments all of black, rigid and unfashionable; +his pale, demure features, and the general humility of his air and +gesture, left our young skeptic little reason to doubt of this; +and when the other expressed his satisfaction at meeting with +a companion at last, after a long and weary ride without one, the +tone of his expressions, the use of biblical phraseology, and the +monotonous solemnity of his tones, reduced the doubts of the youth +to absolute certainty. At first, with the habitual levity of the +young and skeptical, he congratulated himself upon an encounter +which promised to afford him a good subject for quizzing; but a +moment's reflection counselled him to a more worldly policy, and he +restrained his natural impulse in order that he might first sound +the depths of the preacher, and learn in what respect he might be +made subservient to his own purposes. He had already learned from +the latter that he was on his way to Charlemont, of which place +he seemed to have some knowledge; and the youth, in an instant, +conceived the possibility of making him useful in procuring for +himself a favorable introduction to the place. With this thought, +he assumed the grave aspect and deliberate enunciation of his +companion, expressed himself equally gratified to meet with a person +who, if he did not much mistake, was a divine, and concluded his +address by the utterance of one of those pious commonplaces which +are of sufficiently easy acquisition, and which at once secured +him the unscrupulous confidence of his companion. + +"Truly, it gladdens me, sir," said the holy man in reply, "to meet +with one, as a fellow-traveller in these lonesome ways, who hath a +knowledge of God's grace and the blessings which he daily sheddeth, +even as the falling of the dews, upon a benighted land. It is my +lot, and I repine not that such it is, to be for ever a wayfarer, +in the desert where there are but few fountains to refresh the +spirit. When I say desert, young gentleman, I speak not in the +literal language of the world, for truly it were a most sinful +denial of God's bounty were I to say, looking round upon the mighty +forests through which I pass, and upon the rich soil over which +I travel, that my way lies not through a country covered, thrice +covered, with the best worldly bounties of the Lord. But it is +a moral desert which my speech would signify. The soul of man is +here lacking the blessed fountains of the truth--the mind of man +here lacketh the holy and joy-shedding lights of the spirit; and +it rejoiceth me, therefore, when I meet with one, like thyself, +in whose language I find a proof that thou hast neither heard the +word with idle ears, nor treasured it in thy memory with unapplying +mind. May I ask of thee, my young friend, who thou art, and by +what name I shall call thee?--not for the satisfaction of an idle +curiosity, to know either thy profession or thy private concerns, +but that I may the better speak to thee in our conference +hereafter, Thou hast rightly conjectured as to my calling--and my +own name, which is one unknown to most even in these forests, is +John Cross--I come of a family in North Carolina, which still abide +in that state, by the waters of the river Haw. Perhaps, if thou +hast ever travelled in those parts, thou hast happened upon some +of my kindred, which are very numerous." + +"I have never, reverend sir, travelled in those parts," said the +youth, with commendable gravity, "but I have heard of the Cross +family, which I believe, as you say, to be very numerous--both male +and female." + +"Yea, I have brothers and sisters an equal number; I have aunts and +uncles a store, and it has been the blessing of God so to multiply +and increase every member thereof, that each of my brothers, in +turn, hath a goodly flock, in testimony of his favors. I, alone, +of all my kindred, have neither wife nor child, and I seem as one +set apart for other ties, and other purposes." + +"Ah, sir," returned the other, quickly, and with a slyness of +expression which escaped the direct and unsuspecting mind of the +preacher, "but if you are denied the blessings which are theirs, +you have your part in the great family of the world. If you have +neither wife nor child of your own loins, yet, I trust, you have +an abiding interest in the wives and children of all other men." + +"I were but an unworthy teacher of the blessed word, had I not," +was the simple answer. "Verily, all that I teach are my children; +there is not one crying to me for help, to whom I do not hasten +with the speed of a father flying to bring succor to his young. I +trust in God, that I have not made a difference between them; that +I heed not one to the forfeit or suffering of the other; and for +this impartial spirit toward the flock intrusted to my charge, +do I pray, as well as for the needful strength of body and soul, +through which my duties are to be done. But thou hast not yet spoken +thy name, or my ears have failed to receive it." + +There was some little hesitation on the part of the youth before +he answered this second application; and a less unheeding observer +than his fellow-traveller, might have noticed an increasing warmth +of hue upon his cheek, while he was uttering his reply:-- + +"I am called Alfred Stevens," he replied at length, the color +increasing upon his cheek even after the words were spoken. But +they were spoken. The falsehood was registered against him beyond +recall, though, of course, without startling the doubts or suspicions +of his companion. + +"Alfred Stevens; there are many Stevenses: I have known several +and sundry. There is a worthy family of that name by the waters of +the Dan." + +"You will find them, I suspect, from Dan to Beersheba," responded +the youth with a resumption of his former levity. + +"Truly, it may be so. The name is of good repute. But what is thy +calling, Alfred Stevens? Methinks at thy age thou shouldst have +one." + +"So I have, reverend sir," replied the other; "my calling heretofore +has been that of the law. But it likes me not, and I think soon to +give it up." + +"Thou wilt take to some other then. What other hast thou chosen; or +art thou like those unhappy youths, by far too many in our blessed +country, whom fortune hath hurt by her gifts, and beguiled into +idleness and sloth?" + +"Nay, not so, reverend sir; the gifts of fortune have been somewhat +sparing in my case, and I am even now conferring with my own thoughts +whether or not to take to school-keeping. Nay, perhaps, I should +incline to something better, if I could succeed in persuading myself +of my own worthiness in a vocation which, more than all others, +demands a pure mind with a becoming zeal. The law consorts not +with my desires--it teaches selfishness, rather than self-denial; +and I have already found that some of its duties demand the blindness +and the silence of that best teacher from within, the watchful and +unsleeping conscience." + +"Thou hast said rightly, Alfred Stevens; I have long thought that +the profession of the law hardeneth the heart, and blindeth the +conscience. Thou wilt do well to leave it, as a craft that leads +to sin, and makes the exercise of sin a duty; and if, as I rightly +understand thee, thou lookest to the gospel as that higher vocation +for which thy spirit yearneth, then would I say to thee, arise, +and gird up thy loins; advance and falter not;--the field is open, +and though the victory brings thee no worldly profit, and but +little worldly honor, yet the reward is eternal, and the interest +thereof, unlike the money which thou puttest out to usury in the +hands of men, never fails to be paid, at the very hour of its due, +from the unfailing treasury of Heaven. Verily, I rejoice, Alfred +Stevens, that I have met with thee to-day. I had feared that the +day had been lost to that goodly labor, to which all my days have +been given for seventeen years, come the first sabbath in the next +November. But what thou hast said, awakens hope in my soul that such +will not be the case. Let not my counsels fail thee, Alfred;--let +thy zeal warm; let thy spirit work within thee, and thy words +kindle, in the service of the Lord. How it will rejoice me to +see thee taking up the scrip and the staff and setting forth for +the wildernesses of the Mississippi, of Arkansas, and Texas, far +beyond;--bringing the wild man of the frontier, and the red savage, +into the blessed fold and constant company of the Lord Jesus, to +whom all praise!" + +"It were indeed a glorious service," responded the young stranger--whom +we shall proceed, hereafter, to designate by the name by which he +has called himself. He spoke musingly, and with a gravity that was +singularly inflexible--"it were indeed a glorious service. Let me +see, there were thousands of miles to traverse before one might reach +the lower Arkansas; and I reckon, Mr. Cross, the roads are mighty +bad after you pass the Mississippi--nay, even in the Mississippi, +through a part of which territory I have gone only this last summer, +there is a sad want of causeways, and the bridges are exceedingly +out of repair. There is one section of near a hundred miles, +which lies between the bluffs of Ashibiloxi, and the far creek of +Catahoula, that was a shame and reproach to the country and the +people thereof. What, then, must be the condition of the Texas +territory, beyond? and, if I err not, the Cumanchees are a race +rather given to destroy than to build up. The chance is that the +traveller in their country might have to swim his horse over most +of the watercourses, and where he found a bridge, it were perhaps +a perilous risk to cross it. Even then he might ride fifty miles +a day, before he should see the smokes which would be a sign of +supper that night." + +"The greater the glory--the greater the glory, Alfred Stevens. The +toil and the peril, the pain and the privation, in a, good cause, +increase the merit of the performance in the eyes of the Lord. +What matters the roads and the bridges, the length of the way, or +the sometimes lack of those comforts of the flesh, which are craved +only at the expense of the spirit, and to the great delay of our +day of conquest. These wants are the infirmities of the human, +which dissipate and disappear, the more few they become, and the +less pressing in their complaint. Shake thyself loose from them, +Alfred Stevens, and thy way henceforth is perfect freedom." + +"Alas! this is my very weakness, Mr. Cross:--it was because of these +very infirmities, that I had doubt of my own worthiness to take up +the better vocation which is yet my desire. I am sadly given to +hunger and thirst toward noon and evening; and the travel of a long +day makes me so weary at night, that I should say but a hurried +grace before meal, and make an even more hurried supper after it. +Nay, I have not yet been able to divest myself of a habit which I +acquired in my boyhood; and I need at times, throughout the day, +a mouthful of something stronger than mere animal food, to sustain +the fainting and feeble flesh and keep my frame from utter exhaustion. +I dare not go upon the road, even for the brief journey of a single +day, without providing myself beforehand with a supply of a certain +beverage, such as is even now contained within this vessel, and +which is infallible against sinking of the the spirits, faintings +of the frame, disordered nerves, and even against flatulence and +indigestion. If, at any time, thou shouldst suffer from one or the +other of these infirmities, Mr. Cross, be sure there is no better +medicine for their cure than this." + +The speaker drew from his bosom a little flask, such as is sufficiently +well known to most western travellers, which he held on high, and +which, to the unsuspecting eyes of the preacher, contained a couple +of gills or more of a liquid of very innocent complexion. + +"Verily, Alfred Stevens, I do myself suffer from some of the +weaknesses of which thou hast spoken. The sinking of the spirits, +and the faintness of the frame, are but too often the enemies that +keep me back from the plough when I would thereto set my hand; and +that same flatulence--" + +"A most frequent disorder in a region where greens and collards +form the largest dishes on the tables of the people," interrupted +Stevens, but without changing a muscle of his countenance. + +"I do believe as thou say'st, Alfred Stevens, that the disorder comes +in great part from that cause, though, still, I have my doubts if +it be not a sort of wind-melancholy, to which people, who preach aloud +are greatly subject. It is in my case almost always associated with +a sort of hoarseness, and the nerves of my frame twitch grievously +at the same periods. If this medicine of thine be sovereign against +so cruel an affliction, I would crave of thee such knowledge as +would enable me to get a large supply of it, that I may overcome +a weakness, which, as I tell thee, oftentimes impairs my ministry, +and sometimes makes me wholly incapable of fervent preaching. Let +me smell of it, I pray thee." + +"Nay, taste of it, sir--it is just about the time when I find it +beneficial to partake of it, as a medicine for my own weakness, +and I doubt not, it will have a powerful effect also upon you. A +single draught has been found to relieve the worst case of flatulence +and colic." + +"From colic too, I am also a great sufferer," said the preacher as +he took the flask in his hand, and proceeded to draw the stopper. + +"That is also the child of collards," said Stevens, as he watched +with a quiet and unmoved countenance the proceedings of his +simple companion, who finding some difficulty in drawing the cork, +handed it back to the youth. The latter, more practised, was more +successful, and now returned the open bottle to the preacher. + +"Take from it first, the dose which relieves thee, Alfred Stevens, +that I may know how much will avail in my own case;" and he watched +curiously, while Stevens, applying the flask to his lips, drew from +it a draught, which, in western experience of benefits, would have +been accounted a very moderate potion. This done, he handed it back +to his companion, who, about to follow his example, asked him:-- + +"And by what name, Alfred Stevens, do they call this medicine, the +goodly effect of which thou holdst to be so great?" + +Stevens did not immediately reply--not until the preacher had applied +the bottle to his mouth, and he could see by the distension of his +throat, that he had imbibed a taste, at least, of the highly-lauded +medicine. The utterance then, of the single word--"Brandy"--was +productive of an effect no less ludicrous in the sight of the youth, +than it was distressing to the mind of his worthy companion. The +descending liquor was ejected with desperate effort from the throat +which it had fairly entered--the flask flung from his hands--and +with choking and gurgling accents, startling eyes, and reddening +visage, John Cross turned full upon his fellow-traveller, vainly +trying to repeat, with the accompanying horror of expression which +he felt, the single spellword, which had produced an effect so +powerful. + +"Bran--bran--brandy!--Alfred Stevens!--thou hast given me poison--the +soul's poison--the devil's liquor--liquor distilled in the vessels +of eternal sin. Wherefore hast thou done this? Dost thou not know"-- + +"Know--know what, Mr. Cross?" replied Stevens, with all the +astonishment which he could possibly throw into his air, as he +descended from his horse with all haste to recover his flask, and +save its remaining contents from loss. + +"Call me not mister--call me plain John Cross," replied the +preacher--in the midst of a second fit of choking, the result of +his vain effort to disgorge that portion of the pernicious liquid +which had irretrievably descended into his bowels. With a surprise +admirably affected, Stevens approached him. + +"My dear sir--what troubles you?--what can be the matter? What have +I done? What is it you fear?" + +"That infernal draught--that liquor--I have swallowed of it a mouthful. +I feel it in me. The sin be upon thy head, Alfred Stevens--why did +you not tell me, before I drank, that it was the soul's poison?--the +poison that slays more than the sword or the pestilence;--the +liquor of the devil, distilled in the vessels of sin--and sent among +men for the destruction of the soul! I feel it now within me, and +it burns--it burns like the fires of damnation. Is there no water +nigh that I may quench my thirst?--Show me, Alfred Stevens, show me +where the cool waters lie, that I may put out these raging flames." + +"There is a branch, if I mistake not, just above us on the road--I +think I see it glistening among the leaves. Let us ride toward it, +sir, and it will relieve you." + +"Ah, Alfred Stevens, why have you served me thus? Why did you not +tell me?" + +Repeated groans accompanied this apostrophe, and marked every step +in the progress of the preacher to the little rivulet which trickled +across the road. John Cross, descended with the rapidity of one +whose hope hangs upon a minute, and dreads its loss, as equal to +the loss of life. He straddled the stream and thrust his lips into +the water, drawing up a quantity sufficient, in the estimation of +Stevens, to have effectually neutralized the entire contents of +his flask. + +"Blessed water! Blessed water! Holiest beverage! Thou art the +creation of the Lord, and, next to the waters of eternal life, +his best gift to undiscerning man. I drink of thee, and I am faint +no longer. I rise up, strong and refreshed! Ah, my young friend, +Alfred Stevens, I trust thou didst not mean me harm in giving me +that poisonous liquor?" + +"Far from it, sir, I rather thought to do you a great benefit." + +"How couldst thou think to do me benefit by proffering such poison +to my lips? nay, wherefore dost thou thyself carry it with thee, +and why dost thou drink of it, as if it were something not hurtful +as well to the body as the soul? Take my counsel, I pray thee, +Alfred Stevens, and cast it behind thee for ever. Look not after +it when thou dost so, with an eye of regret lest thou forfeit +the merit of thy self-denial. If thou wouldst pursue the higher +vocation of the brethren, thou must seek for the needful strength +from a better and purer spirit. But what unhappy teacher could +have persuaded thee to an indulgence which the good men of all the +churches agree to regard as so deadly?" + +"Nay, Mr. Cross--" + +"John Cross, I pray thee; do I not call thee Alfred Stevens?--Mr. +is a speech of worldly fashion, and becomes not one who should put +the world and its fashions behind him." + +Stevens found it more difficult to comply with this one requisition +of the preacher, than to pursue a long game of artful and complex +scheming. He evaded the difficulty by dropping the name entirely. + +"You are too severe upon brandy, and upon those who use it. Nay, I +am not sure, but you do injustice to those who make it. So far from +its manufacturers being such as you call them, we have unquestionable +proof that they are very worthy people of a distant but a Christian +country; and surely you will not deny that we should find a medicine +for our hurts, and a remedy for our complaints, in a liquor which, +perhaps, it might be sinful to use as an ordinary beverage. Doctors, +who have the care of human life, and whose business and desire it +is to preserve it, nevertheless do sometimes administer poisons to +their patients, which poisons, though deadly at other times, will, +in certain diseases and certain conditions of disease, prove of +only and great good." + +"Impossible! I believe it not! I believe not in the good of brandy. +It is hurtful--it is deadly. It has slain its thousands and its tens +of thousands--it is worse than the sword and the summer pestilence. +Many a man have I known to perish from strong drink. In my own +parts, upon the river Haw, in North Carolina state, I have known +many. Nay, wherefore should I spare the truth, Alfred Stevens? +--the very father of my own life, Ezekiel Cross, perished miserably +from this burning water of sin. I will not hear thee speak of it +again; and if thou wouldst have me think of thee with favor, as one +hopeful of the service of the brethren, cast the accursed beverage +of Satan from thy hands." + +The youth, without a word, deliberately emptied tho contents of +his vessel upon the sands, and the garrulous lips of the preacher +poured forth as great a flood of speech in congratulation, as he had +hitherto bestowed in homily. The good, unsuspecting man, did not +perceive that the liquor thus thrown away, was very small in quantity, +and that his companion, when the flask was emptied, quietly restored +it to his bosom. John Cross had obtained a seeming victory, and +did not care to examine its details. + + + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE SERPENT IN THE GARDEN. + + + + + +The concession made by Stevens, and which had produced an effect so +gratifying upon his companion, was one that involved no sacrifices. +The animal appetite of the young lawyer was, in truth, comparatively +speaking, indifferent to the commodity which he discarded; and even +had it been otherwise, still he was one of those selfish, cool and +calculating persons, who seem by nature to be perfectly able to +subdue the claims of the blood, with great ease, whenever any human +or social policy would appear to render it advisable. The greatest +concession which he made in the transaction, was in his so readily +subscribing to that false logic of the day, which reasons against +the use of the gifts of Providence, because a diseased moral, and +a failing education, among men, sometimes result in their abuse. + +The imperfections of a mode of reasoning so utterly illogical, were +as obvious to the mind of the young lawyer as to anybody else; and +the compliance which he exhibited to a requisition which his own +sense readily assured him was as foolish as it was presumptuous, +was as degrading to his moral character from the hypocrisy which it +declared, as it was happy in reference to the small policy by which +he had been governed. The unsuspecting preacher did not perceive +the scornful sneer which curled his lips and flashed his eyes, +by which his own vanity still asserted itself through the whole +proceeding; or he would not have been so sure that the mantle +of grace which he deemed to have surely fallen upon the shoulders +of his companion, was sufficiently large and sound, to cover +the multitude of sins which it yet enabled the wearer, so far, to +conceal. Regarding him with all the favor which one is apt to feel +for the person whom he has plucked as a brand from the burning, the +soul of John Cross warmed to the young sinner; and it required no +great effort of the wily Stevens to win from him the history, not +only of all its own secrets and secret hopes--for these were of but +small value in the eyes of the worldling--but of all those matters +which belonged to the little village to which they were trending, +and the unwritten lives of every dweller in that happy community. + +With all the adroit and circumspect art of the lawyer, sifting the +testimony of the unconscious witness, and worming from his custody +those minor details which seem to the uninitiated so perfectly +unimportant to the great matter immediately in hand--Stevens +now propounded his direct inquiry, and now dropped his seemingly +unconsidered insinuation, by which he drew from the preacher as +much as he cared to know of the rustic lads and lasses of Charlemont. +It does not concern our narrative to render the details thus unfolded +to the stranger. And we will content ourselves, as did the younger +of the travellers, who placed himself with hearty good will at the +disposal of the holy man. + +"You shall find for me a place of lodging, Mr. Cross, while it +shall suit me to stay in Charlemont. You have a knowledge of the +people, and of the world, which I possess not; and it will be better +that I should give myself up to your guidance. I know that you will +not bring me to the dwelling of persons not in good repute; and, +perhaps, I need not remind you that my worldly means are small--I +must be at little charge wherever I stop." + +"Ah, Brother Stevens, worldly goods and worldly wealth are no more +needed in Charlemont, than they are necessary to the service of the +blessed Redeemer. With an empty scrip is thy service blest;--God +sees the pure heart through the threadbare garment. I have friends +in Charlemont who will be too happy to receive thee in the name of +the Lord, without money and without price." + +The pride of Stevens, which had not shrunk from hypocrisy and +falsehood, yet recoiled at a suggestion which involved the idea of +his pecuniary dependence upon strangers, and he replied accordingly; +though he still disguised his objections under the precious appearance +of a becoming moral scruple. + +"It will not become me, Mr. Cross, to burden the brethren of the +church for that hospitality which is only due to brethren." + +"But thou art in the way of grace--the light is shining upon thee--the +door is open, and already the voice of the Bridegroom is calling +from within. Thou wilt become a burning and a shining light--and +the brethren of the church will rejoice to hail thee among its +chosen. Shall they hold back their hand when thou art even on the +threshold?" + +"But, Mr. Cross--" + +"Call me not Mr., I pray thee. Call me plain John Cross, if it please +thee not yet to apply to me that sweeter term of loving kindness +which the flock of God are happy to use in speech one to another. +If thou wilt call me Brother Cross, my heart shall acknowledge the +bonds between us, and my tongue shall make answer to thine, in like +fashion. Oh, Alfred Stevens, may the light shine soon upon thine +eyes, that thou may'st know for a truth how pleasant it is for +brethren to dwell together in the peace of of the Lord, and according +to his law. I will, with God's grace, bring thee to this perfect +knowledge, for I see the way clear because of the humility which +thou hast already shown, and thy yielding to the counsels of the +teacher. As for what thou sayest about charges to the brethren, +let that give thee no concern. Thou shalt lodge with old Brother +Hinkley, who is the pattern of good things and of, holiness in +Charlemont. His house is more like unto the tent of the patriarch +pitched upon the plain, than the house of the dweller among the +cities. No lock fastens its doors against the stranger; and the +heart of the aged man is even more open than the doorway of his +dwelling. He standeth in the entrance like one looking out for +him that cometh, and his first word to the messenger of God, is +'welcome!' Thou shalt soon see the truth of what I say to thee, +for even now do we look down upon his house in the very midst of +the village." + +If the scruples of Stevens still continued to urge him against +accepting the hospitality of the old patriarch of whom he had +received a description at once just and agreeable, the recollection +of the village-maiden whom he had gone aside from his direct path +of travel, and made some even greater departures from the truth, +to see, determined him at length to waive them; particularly when +he ascertained from his fellow-traveller that he knew of nobody in +Charlemont who accommodated strangers for money. + +Stevens was one of those persons who watch the progress of events, +and he resolved, with a mental reservation--that seems strange +enough in the case of one who had shown so little reluctance to say +and do the thing which he could not maintain or defend--to avail +himself of some means for requiting, to the uttermost farthing, +the landlord, to whose hospitality he might be indebted during his +stay in Charlemont. + +Such are the contradictions of character which hourly detect and +describe the mere worldling--the man lacking in all principle, but +that which is subservient to his selfish policy. To accept money +or money's worth from a stranger, seemed mean and humbling to one, +who did not hesitate, in the promotion of a scheme, which, had +treachery for its object, to clothe himself in the garments of +deception, and to make his appearance with a lie festering upon +his lips. That evening, Alfred Stevens became, with his worthier +companion, an inmate of the happy dwelling of William Hinkley, the +elder--a venerable, white-headed father, whose whole life had made +him worthy of a far higher eulogium than that which John Cross had +pronounced upon him. + +The delight of the family to see their reverend teacher was heartfelt +and unreserved. A vigorous gripe of the hand, by the elder dragged +him into the house, and a sentence of unusual length, from his +better half, assured him of that welcome which the blunter action +of her venerable husband had already sufficiently declared. Nor +was the young adventurer who accompanied the preacher, suffered +to remain long unconsidered. When John Cross had told them who he +was, or rather when he had declared his spiritual hopes in him--which +he did with wonderful unction, in a breath--the reception of old +Hinkley, which had been hospitable enough before, became warm and +benignant; and Brother Stevens already became the word of salutation, +whenever the old people desired to distinguish their younger guest. + +Brother Stevens, it may be said here, found no difficulty in +maintaining the character he had assumed. He had, in high degree, +the great art of the selfish man, and could, when his game required +it, subdue with little effort, those emotions and impulses, which +the frank and ardent spirit must speak out or die. He went into the +house of the hospitable old man, and into the village of Charlemont, +as if he had gone into the camp of an enemy. He was, indeed, a +spy, seeking to discover, not the poverty, but the richness of the +land. His mind, therefore, was like one who has clothed himself +in armor, placed himself in waiting for the foe, and set all his +sentinels on the watch. His caution measured every word ere it was +spoken, every look ere it was shown, every movement ere he suffered +his limbs to make it. The muscles of his face, were each put under +curb and chain--the smiles of the lip and the glances of the eyes, +were all subdued to precision, and permitted to go forth, only +under special guard and restriction. In tone, look, and manner, he +strove as nearly as he might to resemble the worthy but simple-minded +man, who had so readily found a worthy adherent and pupil in him; +and his efforts at deception might be held to be sufficiently +successful, if the frank confiding faith of the aged heads of the +Hinkley family be the fitting test of his experiment. + +With them he was soon perfectly at home--his own carriage seemed +to them wondrously becoming, and the approbation of John Cross was +of itself conclusive. The preacher was the oracle of the family, +all of whom were only too happy of his favor not to make large +efforts to be pleased with those he brought; and in a little while, +sitting about the friendly fireside, the whole party had become as +sociable as if they had been "hail fellow! well met," a thousand +years. Two young girls, children of a relative, and nieces of the +venerable elder, had already perched themselves upon the knee of +the stranger, and strove at moments over his neck and shoulder, +without heeding the occasional sugary reproof of Dame Hinkley, +which bade them "let Brother Stevens be;" and, already had Brother +Stevens himself, ventured upon the use of sundry grave saws from +the holy volume, the fruit of early reading and a retentive memory, +which not a little helped to maintain his novel pretensions in the +mind of the brethren, and the worthy teacher, John Cross himself. +All things promised a long duration to a friendship suddenly begun; +when William Hinkley, the younger, a youth already introduced to +the reader, made his appearance within the happy circle. He wore a +different aspect from all the rest as he recognised in the person +of Brother Stevens, the handsome stranger, his antipathy to whom, +at a first glance, months before, seemed almost to have the character +of a warning instinct. A nearer glance did not serve to lessen his +hostility. + +Our traveller was to the eye of a lover, one, indeed, who promised +dangerous rivalship, and an intrepid air of confidence which, even +his assumed character could not enable him to disguise from the +searching eyes of jealousy, contributed to strengthen the dislike +of the youth for a person who seemed so perfectly sure of his +ground. Still, William Hinkley behaved as a civil and well-bred +youth might be expected to behave. He did not suffer his antipathy +to put on the aspect of rudeness; he was grave and cold, but +respectful; and though he did not "be-brother" the stranger, he yet +studiously subdued his tones to mildness, when it became necessary, +in the course of the evening meal, that he should address him. +Few words, however, were exchanged between the parties. If Hinkley +beheld an enemy to his heart's hopes in Stevens, the latter was +sufficiently well-read in the human heart to discover quite as +soon, that the rustic was prepared to see in himself any character +but that of a friend. The unwillingness with which Hinkley heard his +suggestions--the absence of all freedom and ease in his deportment, +toward himself, so different from the manner of the youth when +speaking or listening to all other persons; the occasional gleam +of jealous inquiry and doubt within his eye, and the utter lack +of all enthusiasm and warmth in his tones while he spoke to him, +satisfied Stevens, that he, of all the household of his hospitable +entertainers, if not actually suspicious of his true character, +was the one whose suspicions were those most easily to be awakened, +and who of all others, needed most to be guarded against. It will +not increase our estimate of the wisdom of the stranger, to learn +that, with this conviction, he should yet arrogate to himself a +tone of superiority, while speaking in hearing of the youth. + +This was shown in a manner that was particularly galling to a +high-spirited youth, and one whose prejudices were already awakened +against the speaker. It was that of a paternal and patronizing +senior, whose very gentleness and benignity of look and accent, +seem to arise from a full conviction of the vast difference which +exists between himself and his hearer. An indignity like this, which +can not be resented, is one which the young mind feels always most +anxious to resent. The very difficulties in the way of doing so, +stimulates the desire. Such was the feeling of William Hinkley. +With such a feeling it may be conjectured that opportunity was +not long wanting, or might soon be made, for giving utterance to +the suppressed fires of anger which were struggling in his heart. +Days and weeks may elapse, but the antipathy will declare itself +at last. It would be easier to lock up the mountain torrent after +the breath of the tornado has torn away its rocky seals, than to +stifle in the heart that hates, because of its love, the fierce +fury which these united passions enkindle within it. + +In the first hour of their first interview, William Hinkley and +Alfred Stevens felt that they were mutual foes. In that little space +of time, the former had but one thought, which, though it changed +its aspect with each progressive moment, never for an instant changed +its character. He panted with the hope of redressing himself for +wrongs which he could not name; for injuries and indignities which +he knew not how to describe. Stevens had neither done nor said +anything which might be construed into an offence. And yet, nobody +knew better than Stevens that he had been offensive. The worthy +John Cross, in the simplicity of his nature, never dreamed of this, +but, on the contrary, when our adventurer dilated in the fatherly +manner already adverted to, be looked upon himself as particularly +favored of Heaven, in falling upon a youth, as a pupil, of such +unctuous moral delivery. + +"Surely," he mused internally, "this is a becoming instrument which +I have found, for the prosecution of the good work. He will bear +the word like one sent forth to conquer. He will bind and loose +with a strong hand. He will work wondrous things!" + +Not unlike these were the calculations of old Hinkley, as he +hearkened to the reverend reasonings and the solemn commonplaces +of the stranger. Stevens, like most recent converts, was the most +uncompromising enemy of those sins from which he professed to have +achieved with difficulty his own narrow escape; and finding, from +the attentive ear of his audience, that he had made a favorable +impression, he proceeded to manufacture for them his religious +experience; an art which his general information, and knowledge of +the world enabled him to perform without much difficulty. + +But the puritan declamation which pleased all the rest, disgusted +young Hinkley, and increased his dislike for the declaimer. There +was too much of the worldling in the looks, dress, air, and manner +of Stevens, to satisfy the rustic of his sincerity. Something of +his doubts had their source, without question, in the antipathy +which he had formed against him; but William Hinkley was not without +keen, quick, observing, and justly discriminating faculties, and much +of his conclusions were the due consequence of a correct estimate +of the peculiarities which we have named. Stevens, he perceived, +declared his experiences of religion, with the air of one who +expects the congratulations of his audience. The humility which +thinks only of the acquisition itself, as the very perfection of +human conquest, was wanting equally to his language and deportment. +The very details which he gave, were ostentatious; and the gracious +smiles which covered his lips as he concluded, were those of the +self-complacent person, who feels that he has just been saying +those good things, which, of necessity, must command the applause +of his hearers. + +A decent pause of half an hour after the supper was finished, which +was spent by the jealous youth in utter silence, and he then rose +abruptly and hurried from the apartment, leaving the field entirely +to his opponent. He proceeded to the house of his neighbor and +cousin, Ned Hinkley, but without any hope of receiving comfort +from his communion. Ned was a lively, thoughtless, light-hearted +son of the soil, who was very slow to understand sorrows of any +kind; and least of all, those which lie in the fancy of a dreaming +and a doubtful lover. At this moment, when the possession of a new +violin absorbed all his thoughts, his mind was particularly obtuse +on the subject of sentimental grievances, and the almost voluptuous +delight which filled his eyes when William entered his chamber, +entirely prevented him from seeing the heavy shadow which overhung +the brows of the latter. + +"What, back again, William? Why, you're as changeable as the last +suit of a green lizard. When I asked you to stop, and hear me play +'Cross-possum,' and 'Criss-cross,' off you went without giving me +a civil answer. I've a mind now to put up the fiddle and send your +ears to bed supperless. How would you like that, old fellow? but +I'll be good-natured. You shall have it, though you don't deserve +it; she's in prime tune, and the tones--only hear that, Bill--there. +Isn't she delicious?" + +And as the inconsiderate cousin poured out his warmest eulogy of the +favorite instrument, his right hand flourished the bow in air, in +a style that would have cheered the heart of Jean Crapaud himself, +and then brought it over the cat-gut in a grand crash, that sounded +as harshly in the ears of his morbid visitor, as if the two worlds +had suddenly come together with steam-engine velocity. He clapped +his hands upon the invaded organs, and with something like horror +in his voice, cried out his expostulations. + +"For heaven's sake, Ned, don't stun a body with your noise." + +"Noise! Did you say noise, Bill Hinkley--noise?" + +"Yes. noise," answered the other with some peevishness in his accents. +The violinist looked at him incredulously, while he suffered the +point of the fiddle-bow to sink on a line with the floor; then, +after a moment's pause, he approached his companion, wearing in his +face the while, an appearance of the most grave inquiry, and when +sufficiently nigh, he suddenly brought the bow over the strings +of the instrument, immediately in William's ears, with a sharp and +emphatic movement, producing an effect to which the former annoying +crash, might well have been thought a very gentle effusion. This +was followed by an uncontrollable burst of laughter from the merry +lips of the musician. + +"There--that's what I call a noise, Bill. Sweet Sall CAN make a +noise when I worry her into it; she's just like other women in that +respect; she'll be sure to squall out if you don't touch her just +in the right quarter. But the first time she did NOT go amiss, and +as for stunning you--but what's the matter? Where's the wind now?" + +"Nothing--only I don't want to be deafened with such a clatter." + +"Something's wrong, Bill, I know it. You look now for all the +world like a bottle of sour son, with the cork out, and ready to +boil over. As for Sall making a noise the first time, that's all +a notion, and a very strange one. She was as sweet-spoken then as +she was when you left me before supper. The last time, I confess, +I made her squall out on purpose. But what of that? you are not +the man to get angry with a little fun!" + +"No, I'm not angry with you, Ned--I am not angry with anybody; but +just now, I would rather not hear the fiddle. Put it up." + +"There!" said the other good-naturedly, as he placed the favorite +instrument in its immemorial case in the corner. "There; and now +Bill, untie the pack, and let's see the sort of wolf-cubs you've +got to carry; for there's no two horns to a wild bull, if something +hasn't gored you to-night." + +"You're mistaken, Ned--quite mistaken--quite!" + +"Deuse a bit! I know you too well, Bill Hinkley, so it's no use +to hush up now. Out with it, and don't be sparing, and if there's +any harm to come, I'm here, just as ready to risk a cracked crown +for you, as if the trouble was my own. I'd rather fiddle than fight, +it's true; but when there's any need for it, you know I can do one +just as well as the other; and can go to it with just as much good +humor. So show us the quarrel." + +"There's no quarrel. Ned," said the other, softened by the frank +and ready feeling which his companion showed; "but I'm very foolish +in some things, and don't know how it is. I'm not apt to take +dislikes, but there's a man come to our house with John Cross, this +evening, that I somehow dislike very much." + +"A man! What's he like? Anything like Joe Richards? That was a +fellow that I hated mightily. I never longed to lick any man but Joe +Richards, and him I longed to lick three times, though you know I +never got at him more than twice. It's a great pity he got drowned, +for I owe him a third licking, and don't feel altogether right, +since I know no sort of way to pay it. But if this man's anything +like Joe, it may be just the same if I give it to HIM. Now--" + +"He's nothing like Richards," said the other. "He's a taller and +better-looking man." + +"If he's nothing like Joe, what do you want to lick him for?" said +the single-minded musician, with a surprise in his manner, which +was mingled with something like rebuke. + +"I have expressed no such wish, Ned; you are too hasty; and if +I did wish to whip him, I don't think I should trouble you or any +man to help me. If I could not do it myself, I should give it up +as a bad job, without calling in assistants." + +"Oh, you're a spunky follow--a real colt for hard riding," retorted +the other with a good-natured mock in his tones and looks; "but if +you don't want to lick the fellow, how comes it you dislike him? +It seems to me if a chap behaved so as to make me dislike him, it +wouldn't be an easy matter to keep my hands off him. I'd teach him +how to put me into a bad humor, or I'd never touch violin again." + +"This man's a parson, I believe." + +"A parson--that's a difficulty. It is not altogether right to lick +parsons, because they're not counted fighting people. But there's +a mighty many on 'em that licking would help. No wonder you dislike +the fellow, though if he comes with John Cross, he shouldn't +be altogether so bad. Now, John Cross IS a good man. He's good, +and he's good-humored. He don't try to set people's teeth on edge +against all the pleasant things of this world, and he can laugh, +and talk, and sing, like other people. Many's the time he's asked +me, of his own mouth, to play the violin; and I've seen his little +eyes caper again, when sweet Sall talked out her funniest. If it +was not so late, I'd go over now and give him a reel or two, and +then I could take a look at this strange chap, that's set your +grinders against each other." + +The fiddler looked earnestly at the instrument in the corner, his +features plainly denoting his anxiety to resume the occupation +which his friends coming had so inopportunely interrupted. William +Hinkley saw the looks of his cousin, and divined the cause. + +"You shall play for me, Ned," he remarked; "you shall give me that +old highland-reel that you learned from Scotch Geordie. It will +put me out of my bad humor, I think, and we can go to bed quietly. +I've come to sleep with you to-night." + +"You're a good fellow, Bill; I knew that you couldn't stand it +long, if Sweet Sall kept a still tongue in her head. That reel's +the very thing to drive away bad humors, though there's another +that I learnt from John Blodget, the boat-man, that sounds to me +the merriest and comicalest thing in the world. It goes--," and here +the fiddle was put in requisition to produce the required sounds: +and having got carte blanche, our enthusiastic performer, without +weariness, went through his whole collection, without once perceiving +that his comical and merry tunes had entirely failed to change the +grave, and even gloomy expression which still mantled the face of +his companion. It was only when in his exhaustion he set down the +instrument, that he became conscious of William Hinkley's continued +discomposure. + +"Why, Bill, the trouble has given you a bigger bite than I thought +for. What words did you have with the preacher?" + +"None: I don't know that he is a preacher. He speaks only as if he +was trying to become one." + +"What, you hadn't any difference--no quarrel?" + +"None." + +"And it's only to-night that you've seen him for the first time?" + +A flush passed over the grave features of William Hinkley as he heard +this question, and it was with a hesitating manner and faltering +accents, that he contrived to tell his cousin of the brief glimpse +which he had of the same stranger several months before, on that +occasion, when, in the emotion of Margaret Cooper, replying to +a similar question, he first felt the incipient seed of jealousy +planted within his bosom. But this latter incident he forbore to +reveal to the inquirer; and Ned Hinkley, though certainly endowed +by nature with sufficient skill to draw forth the very soul of music +from the instrument on which he played, had no similar power upon +the secret soul of the person whom he partially examined. + +"But 'tis very strange how you should take offence at a man you've +seen so little; though I have heard before this of people taking +dislikes at other people the first moment they set eyes on 'em. +Now, I'm not a person of that sort, unless it was in the case of +Joe Richards; and him I took a sort of grudge at from the first +beginning. But even then there was a sort of reason for it; for, +at the beginning, when Joe came down upon us here in Charlemont, +he was for riding over people's necks, without so much as asking, +'by your leave.' He had a way about him that vexed me, though we +did not change a word." + +"And it's that very way that this person has that I don't like," +said William Hinkley. "He talks as if he made you, and when you +talk, he smiles as if he thought you were the very worst work that +ever went out of his hands. Then, if he has to say anything, be +it ever so trifling, he says it just as if he was telling you that +the world was to come to an end the day after to-morrow." + +"Just the same with Joe Richards. I never could get at him but +twice; though I give him then a mighty smart hammering; and if he +hadn't got under the broadhorn and got drowned;--but this fellow?" + +"You'll see him at church to-morrow. I shouldn't wonder if he +preaches; for John Cross was at him about it before I came away. +What's worse, the old man's been asking him to live with us." + +"What, here in Charlemont?" + +"Yes." + +"I'll be sure to lick him then, if he's anything like Joe Richards. +But what's to make him live in Charlemont? Is he to be a preacher +for us?" + +"Perhaps so, but I couldn't understand all, for I came in while +they were at it, and left home before they were done. I'm sure if +he stays there I shall not. I shall leave home, for I really dislike +to meet him." + +"You shall stay with me, Bill, and we'll have Sall at all hours," +was the hearty speech of the cousin, as he threw his arms around +the neck of his morose companion, and dragged him gently toward +the adjoining apartment, which formed his chamber. "To-morrow," he +continued, "as you say, we'll see this chap, and if he's anything +like Joe Richards--" The doubled fist of the speaker, and his +threatening visage, completed the sentence with which this present +conference and chapter may very well conclude. + + + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE TOAD ON THE ALTAR. + + + + + +The next day was the sabbath. John Cross had timed his arrival at +the village with a due reference to his duties, and after a minute +calculation of days and distances, so that his spiritual manna might +be distributed in equal proportions among his hungering flock. His +arrival made itself felt accordingly, not simply in Charlemont, +but throughout the surrounding country for a circuit of ten miles +or more. There was a large and hopeful gathering of all sorts +and sexes, white and black, old and young. Charlemont had a very +pretty little church of its own; but one, and that, with more true +Christianity than is found commonly in this world of pretence and +little tolerance, was open to preachers of all denominations. The +word of God, among these simple folks, was quite too important to +make them scruple at receiving it from the lips of either Geneva, +Rome, or Canterbury. The church stood out among the hills at a +little distance from, but in sight of the village; a small, neat +Grecian-like temple, glimmering white and saintlike through solemn +visaged groves, and gaudy green foliage. The old trees about it +were all kept neatly trimmed, the brush pruned away and cleared up, +and a smooth sweet sward, lawnlike, surrounded it, such as children +love to skip and scramble over, and older children rest at length +upon, in pairs, talking over their sweet silly affections. + +Surrounded by an admiring crowd, each of whom had his respectful +salutation, we see our friend John Cross toward noon approaching +the sacred dwelling. Truly he was the most simple, fraternal of +all God's creatures. He had a good word for this, an affectionate +inquiry for that, a benevolent smile, and a kind pressure of the +hand for all. He was a man to do good, for everybody saw that he +thought for others before himself, and sincerity and earnestness +constitute, with the necessary degree of talent, the grand secrets +for making successful teachers in every department. + +Though a simple, unsophisticated, unsuspecting creature, John Cross +was a man of very excellent natural endowments. He chose for his +text a passage of the Scriptures which admitted of a direct practical +application to the concerns of the people, their daily wants, their +pressing interests, moral, human, and social. He was thus enabled +to preach a discourse which sent home many of his congregation much +wiser than they came, if only in reference to their homely duties +of farmstead and family. John Cross was none of those sorry and +self-constituted representatives of our eternal interests, who +deluge us with a vain, worthless declamation, proving that virtue +is a very good thing, religion a very commendable virtue, and a +liberal contribution to the church-box at the close of the sermon one +of the most decided proofs that we have this virtue in perfection. +Nay, it is somewhat doubtful, indeed, if he ever once alluded to the +state of his own scrip and the treasury of the church. His faith, +sincere, spontaneous, ardent, left him in very little doubt that +the Lord will provide, for is he not called "Jehovah-Jireh?"--and +his faith was strengthened and confirmed by the experience of his +whole life. But then John Cross had few wants--few, almost none! +In this respect he resembled the first apostles. The necessities +of life once cared for, never was mortal man more thoroughly +independent of the world. He was not one of those fine preachers +who, dealing out counsels of self-denial, in grave saws and solemn +maxims, with wondrous grim visage and a most slow, lugubrious +shaking of the head--are yet always religiously careful to secure +the warmest seat by the fireside, and the best buttered bun +on table. He taught no doctrine which he did not practise; and as +for consideration--that test at once of the religionist and the +gentleman--he was as humbly solicitous of the claims and feelings +of others, as the lovely and lowly child to whom reverence has +been well taught as the true beginning, equally of politeness and +religion. + +Before going into church he urged his protege, Stevens, to consent +to share in the ceremonies of the service as a layman; but there was +still some saving virtue in the young man, which made him resolute +in refusing to do so. Perhaps, his refusal was dictated by a policy +like that which had governed him so far already; which made him +reluctant to commit himself to a degree which might increase very +much the hazards of detection. He feared, indeed, the restraints +which the unequivocal adoption of the profession would impose +upon him, fettering somewhat the freedom of his intercourse with +the young of both sexes, and, consequently, opposing an almost +insurmountable barrier to the prevailing object which had brought +him to the village. Whatever may have been the feelings or motives +which governed him, they, at least, saved him from an act which +would have grievously aggravated his already large offence against +truth and propriety. He declined, in language of the old hypocrisy. +He did not feel justified in taking up the cross--he felt that he +was not yet worthy; and, among the members of a church, which takes +largely into account the momentary impulses and impressions of the +professor, the plea was considered a sufficiently legitimate one. + +But though Stevens forbore to commit himself openly in the cause +which he professed a desire to espouse, he was yet sufficiently +heedful to maintain all those externals of devotion which a serious +believer would be apt to exhibit. He could be a good actor of a +part, and in this lay his best talent. He had that saving wisdom +of the worldling, which is too often estimated beyond its worth, +called cunning; and the frequent successes of which produces that +worst of all the diseases that ever impaired the value of true +greatness--conceit. Alfred Stevens fancied that he could do everything, +and this fancy produced in him the appearance of a courage which +his moral nature never possessed. He had the audacity which results +from presumption, not the wholesome strength which comes from +the conscious possession of a right purpose. But a truce to our +metaphysics. + +Never did saint wear the aspect of such supernatural devotion. He +knelt with the first, groaned audibly at intervals, and when his +face became visible, his eyes were strained in upward glances, so +that the spectator could behold little more in their orbs than a +sea of white. + +"Oh! what a blessed young man!" said Mrs. Quackenbosh. + +"How I wish it was he that was to preach for us to-day," responded +that gem from the antique, Miss Polly Entwistle, who had joined +every church in Kentucky in turn, without having been made a spouse +in either. + +"How handsome he is!" simpered Miss Julia Evergreen--a damsel of +seventeen, upon whom the bilious eyes of Miss Entwistle were cast +with such an expression as the devil is said to put on when suddenly +soused in holy water. + +"Handsome is that handsome does!" was the commentary of a venerable +cormorant to whom Brother Cross had always appeared the special +and accepted agent of heaven. + +"I wish Brother Cross would get him to pray only. I wonder if +he believes in the new-light doctrine?" purred one of the ancient +tabbies of the conventicle. + +"The new light is but the old darkness, Sister Widgeon," responded +an old farmer of sixty four, who had divided his time so equally +between the plough and the prayer-book, that his body had grown +as crooked as the one, while his mind was bewildered with as many +doctrines as ever worried all sense out of the other. + +We shall not suffer these to divert us, any more than Stevens +permitted their speculations upon his person and religion to affect +his devotion. He looked neither to the right nor to the left while +entering the church, or engaging in the ceremonies. No errant +glances were permitted to betray to the audience a mind wandering +from the obvious duties before it; and yet Alfred Stevens knew just +as well that every eye in the congregation was fixed upon him, as +that he was himself there; and among those eyes, his own keen glance +had already discovered those of that one for whorn all these labors +of hypocrisy were undertaken. + +Margaret Cooper sat on the opposite side of the church, but the +line of vision was uninterrupted between them, and when--though very +unfrequently--Stevens suffered his gaze to rest upon her form, it +was with a sudden look of pleased abstraction, as if, in spite of +himself, his mind was irresistibly drawn away from all recollection, +of its immediate duties. + +If a word is sufficient for the wise, a look answers an equal purpose +with the vain. Margaret Cooper left the church that morning with +a pleased conviction that the handsome stranger had already paid +his devotion to her charms. There was yet another passion to be +gratified. The restless ambition of her foolish heart whispered to +her momently, that if her person had done so much, what might she +not hope to achieve when the treasures of her mind were known. She +had long since made the comparison of her own intellect with that +of every other maiden in the village, and she flattered herself +that before many days, the young stranger should make it too. Her +vain heart was rapidly preparing to smooth the path of the enemy +and make his conquests easy. + +But it was not the women only, by whom the deportment of Alfred +Stevens was so closely watched. The eyes of suspicion and jealousy were +upon him. The two young men whose interview formed the conclusion +of our last chapter, scanned his conduct and carriage with sufficient +keenness of scrutiny. + +"I'll tell you what, Bill Hinkley," said his cousin, "this fellow, +to my thinking, is a very great rascal." + +"What makes you think so?" demanded the former, with slow, dissatisfied +accents; "he seems to pray very earnestly." + +"That's the very reason I think him a rascal. His praying seems +to me very unnatural. Here, he's a perfect stranger in the place, +yet he never shows any curiosity to see the people. He never once +looks around him. He walks to the church with his eye cast upon +the ground, and sometimes he squints to this side and sometimes +to that, but he seems to do it slyly, and seems to take pains that +nobody should see him doing, it. All this might answer for an old +man, who--believes that everything is vanity--as, indeed, everything +must seem to old people; but to a young fellow, full of blood, +who eats well, drinks well, sleeps well, and should naturally have +a hankering after a young girl, all this is against nature. Now, +what's against nature is wrong, and there's wrong at the bottom of +it. Youth is the time to laugh, dance, sing, play on the violin, +and always have a sweetheart when it can find one. If you can't get +a beauty take a brown; and if Mary won't smile, Susan will. But +always have a sweetheart; always be ready for fun and frolic; that's +the way for the young, and when they don't take these ways, it's +unnatural--there's something wrong about it, and I'm suspicious of +THAT person. Now, I just have this notion of the young stranger. +He's after no good. I reckon he's like a hundred others; too +lazy to go to work, he goes to preaching, and learns in the first +sermon to beg hard for the missionaries. I'll lick him, Bill, to +a certainty, if he gives me the littlest end of an opportunity." + +"Pshaw, Ned, don't think of such a thing. You are quite too fond +of licking people." + +"Deuse a bit. It does 'em good. Look you, this chap is monstrous +like Joe Richards. I'll have to lick him on that account." + +"You're mad, Ned; talk of whipping a preacher." + +"He's no preacher yet," said the other, "but if I lick him he may +become one." + +"No matter, he's never offended you." + +"Ay, but he will. I see it in the fellow's looks. I never was +mistaken in a fellow's looks in all my life." + +"Wait till he does offend you then." + +"Well, I'm willing to do that, for I know the time will come. I'm +always sure, when I first see a man, to know whether I'll have to +flog him or not. There's a something that tells me so. Isn't that +very singular, Bill?" + +"No! you form a prejudice against a man, fancy that you ought to +whip him, and then never rest till you've done so. You'll find your +match some day." + +"What! you think some other chap will fancy he ought to whip me? +Well--maybe so. But this ain't the fellow to do that." + +"He's a stout man, and I reckon strong. Besides, Ned, he's very +handsome." + +"Handsome! Lord, Bill, what a taste you have? How can a man be +called handsome that never altogether opens his eyes, except when +he turns up the whites until you'd think he'd never be able to get +the balls back to their proper place? Then, what a chin he has--as +sharp as a pitchfork, and who but a girl child would fancy a man +with his hair combed sleek like a woman's on each side of his ears, +with big whiskers at the same time that looks for all the world +like the brush of a seven years running fox, Handsome! If my pup +'Dragon' was only half so much like a beast, I'd plump him into +the horsepond!" + +It is probable that Ned Hinkley did not altogether think of the +stranger as he expressed himself. But he saw how deep a hold his +appearance had taken, in an adverse way, upon the mind and feelings +of his relative and friend, and his rude, but well-meant endeavors +were intended to console his companion, after his own fashion, by +the exhibition of a certain degree of sympathy. + +His efforts, however well intended, did not produce any serious +effect. William Hinkley, though he forbore the subject, and every +expression which might indicate either soreness or apprehension, +was still the victim of that presentiment which had touched him on +the very first appearance of the stranger. He felt more than ever +apprehensive on the score of his misplaced affections. While his +cousin had been watching the stranger, HIS eyes had been fixed +upon those of Margaret Cooper, and his fears were increased and +strengthened, as he perceived that she was quite too much absorbed +in other thoughts and objects to behold for an instant the close +espionage which he maintained upon her person. His heart sunk within +him, as he beheld how bold was her look, and how undisguised the +admiration which it expressed for the handsome stranger. + +"You will go home with me, William?" said the cousin, The other +hesitated. + +"I think," said he, after a moment's pause, "I should rather go +to my own home. It is a sort of weakness to let a stranger drive +a man off from his own family, and though I somehow dislike this +person's looks, and am very sorry that John Cross brought him to +our house, yet I shouldn't let a prejudice which seems to have no +good foundation take such possession of my mind. I will go home, +Ned, and see--perhaps I may come to like the stranger more when I +know him better." + +"You'll never like him. I see it in the fellow's eye; but just as +you please about going nome. You're right in one thing--never to +give up your own dunghill, so long as you can get room on it for a +fair fling with your enemy. Besides, you can see better, by going +home, what the chap's after. I don't see why he should come here +to learn to preach. We can't support a preacher. We don't want +one. He could just as well have learned his business, where he came +from." + +With these words the cousins separated. + +"Now," said Ned Hinkley as he took his own way homeward, in a deeper +fit of abstraction than was altogether usual with him, "now will +Bill Hinkley beat about the bush without bouncing through it, until +it's too late to do anything. He's mealy-mouthed with the woman, +and mealy-mouthed with the man, and mealy-mouthed with everybody. +--quite too soft-hearted and too easy to get on. Here's a stranger +nobody knows, just like some crow from another corn-field, that'll +pick up his provisions from under his very nose, and he doing +nothing to hinder until there's no use in trying. If I don't push +in and help him, he'll not help himself. As for Margaret Cooper, +dang it, I'll court her for him myself. If he's afraid to pop the +question, I ain't; though I'll have to be mighty careful about +the words I use, or she'll be thinking I come on my own hook; and +that would be a mighty scary sort of business all round the house. +Then this stranger. If anybody can look through a stranger here in +Charlemont, I reckon I'm that man. I suspect him already. I think +he's after no good with his great religioning; and I'll tie such +a pair of eyes to his heels, that his understanding will never be +entirely out of my sight. I'll find him out if anybody can. But +I won't lick him till I do. That wouldn't be altogether right, +considering he's to be a parson, though I doubt he'll never make +one." + +And thus, with a head filled with cares of a fashion altogether +new, the sturdy young Kentuckian moved homeward with a degree of +abstraction in his countenance which was not among the smallest +wonders of the day and place in the estimation of his friends and +neighbors. + +Meanwhile, the work of mischief was in full progress. Everybody +knows the degree of familiarity which exists among all classes in a +country-village, particularly when the parties are brought together +under the social and stimulating influences of religion. It was +natural that the pastor, long known and well beloved, should be +surrounded by his flock as he descended from the pulpit. The old +ladies always have a saving interest in his presence, and they pave +the way for the young ones. Alfred Stevens, as the protege of John +Cross, naturally attended his footsteps, and was introduced by him +to the little congregation, which had mostly remained to do honor +to the preacher. Of these, not last, nor least, was the widow +Cooper; and, unreluctant by her side, though in silence, and not +without a degree of emotion, which she yet was able to conceal, +stood her fair but proud-hearted daughter. + +Margaret, alas! Margaret stood there with a heart more proud, +yet more humble, than ever. Proud in the consciousness of a new +conquest--humble in the feeling that this conquest had not been +made, but at the expense of some portion of her own independence. +Hitherto, her suitors had awakened no other feeling in her heart +but vanity. Now, she felt no longer able to sail on, "imperial +arbitress," smiling at woes which she could inflict, but never share. +That instinct, which, in the heart of young Hinkley had produced +fear, if not antipathy, had been as active in her case, though with +a very different result. The first glimpse which she had of the +handsome stranger, months before, had impressed her with a singular +emotion; and now that he was returned, she could not divest herself +of the thought that his return was a consequence of that one glimpse. + +With a keener judgment than belonged to her neighbors, she too had +some suspicions that religion was scarcely the prevailing motive +which had brought the youth back to their little village; for how +could she reconcile with his present demure gravity and devout +profession, the daring which he had shown in riding back to behold +her a second time? That such had been his motive she divined by her +own feeling of curiosity, and the instincts of vanity were prompt +enough to believe that this was motive sufficient to bring him +back once more, and under the guise of a character, which would +the readiest secure an easy entrance to society. Pleased with the +fancy that she herself was the object sought, she did not perceive +how enormous was the sort of deception which the stranger had +employed to attain the end desired. With all her intellect she had +not the wisdom to suspect that he who could so readily practise so +bold an hypocrisy, was capable of the worst performances; and when +their names were mentioned, and his eyes were permitted to meet +and mingle their glances with hers, she was conscious of nothing +farther than a fluttering sentiment of pleasure, which was amply +declared to the stranger, in the flash of animation which spoke +openly in her countenance; eye speaking to lip and cheek, and +these, in turn, responding with a kindred sentiment to the already +tell-tale eye. + +William Hinkley, from a little distance, beheld this meeting. He +had lingered with the curiosity which belongs to the natural +apprehension of the lover. He saw them approach--nay, fancied +he beheld the mutual expression of their sympathizing eyes, and +he turned away, and hurried homeward, with the feeling of a heart +already overborne, and defrauded in all its hopes and expectations. +The flowers were threatened with blight in his Eden: but he did +not conjecture, poor fellow, that a serpent had indeed entered it! + + + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE GOOD YOUNG MAN IN MEDITATION. + + + + + +Perhaps, it may be assumed, with tolerable safety, that no first +villany is ever entirely deliberate. There is something in events +to give it direction--something to egg it on--to point out time, +place, and opportunity. Of course, it is to be understood that the +actor is one, in the first place, wanting in the moral sense. What +we simply mean to affirm is, that the particular, single act, is, +in few instances, deliberately meditated from the beginning. We +very much incline to think that some one event, which we ordinarily +refer to the chapter of accidents, has first set the mind to work +upon schemes, which would otherwise, perhaps, never be thought of +at all. Thus, we find persons who continue very good people, as +the world goes, until middle age, or even seniority; then, suddenly +breaking out into some enormous offence against decency and society, +which startles the whole pious neighborhood. Folks start up, with +outstretched hands and staring eyes, and cry aloud:-- + +"Lord bless us, who would have thought so good a man could be so +bad!" + +He, poor devil, never fancied it himself, till he became so, +and it was quite too late to alter his arrangements. Perhaps his +neighbors may have had some share in making him so. Pious persons +are very frequently reduced to these straits by having the temptation +forced too much upon them. Flesh and blood can not always withstand +the provocation of earthly delicacies, even where the spirit is a +tolerably stout one; and of the inadequacy of the mind, always to +contend with the inclinations of the flesh, have we not a caution in +that injunction of Holy Book which warns us to fly from temptation? +But lame people can not fly, and he is most certainly lame who halts +upon mere feet of circumstances. Such people are always in danger. + +Now, Alfred Stevens, properly brought up, from the beginning, at some +theological seminary, would have been--though in moral respects +pretty much the same person--yet in the eye of the world a far +less criminal man. Not that his desires would have been a jot more +innocent, but they would have taken a different direction. Instead +of the recklessness of course, such as seems to have distinguished +the conduct of our present subject--instead of his loose indulgences--his +smart, licentious speeches--the sheep's-eye glances, right and +left, which he was but too prone to bestow, without prudence or +precaution, whenever he walked among the fair sisters--he, the said +Alfred, would have taken counsel of a more worldly policy, which +is yet popularly considered a more pious one. He would have kept +his eyes from wandering to and fro; he would have held his blood +in subjection. Patient as a fox on a long scent in autumn, he would +have kept himself lean and circumspect, until, through the help +of lugubrious prayer and lantern visage, he could have beguiled +into matrimony some one feminine member of the flock--not always +fair--whose worldly goods would have sufficed in full atonement +for all those circumspect, self-imposed restraints, which we find +asually so well rewarded. But Alfred Stevens was not a man of this +pious temper. It is evident, from his present course, that he had +some inkling of the MODUS OPERANDI; but all his knowledge fell +short of that saving wisdom which would have defrauded the social +world of one of its moral earthquakes, and possibly deprived the +survivors of the present moral story--for moral it is, though our +hero is not exactly so. + +It would be doing our subject and our theory equal injustice if we +were to suppose that he had any fixed purpose, known to himself, +when he borrowed the professional garment, and began to talk with +the worthy John Cross in the language of theology, and with the +tongue of a hypocrite. He designed to visit Charlemont--that was +all--as he had really been impressed by the commanding figure and +noble expression of beauty of that young damsel whom he had encountered +by the roadside. Even this impression, however, would have been +suffered to escape from his mind, had it not been so perfectly +convenient to revisit the spot, on his return to his usual place of +residence. During the summer, Charlemont and its rustic attractions +had been the frequent subject of a conversation, running into +discussion, between himself and the amiable old man, his uncle. The +latter repeatedly urged upon his nephew to make the visit; fondly +conceiving that a nearer acquaintance with the pleasant spot which +had so won upon his own affections, would be productive of a like +effect upon his nephew. Alas, how little did he know the mischief +he was doing! + +In the very idleness of mood--with just that degree of curiosity +which prompts one to turn about and look a second time--Alfred +Stevens resumed the route which included Charlemont. But the devil +had, by this time, found his way into the meditations of the youth, +and lay lurking, unknown to himself, perhaps, at the bottom of +this same curiosity. The look of pride and defiance which Margaret +Cooper had betrayed, when the bold youth rode back to steal a second +glance at her matchless person, was equivalent to an equally bold +challenge; and his vanity hastily picked up the gauntlet which hers +had thrown down. He wished to see the damsel again--to see if she +WAS so beautiful--if she did, indeed, possess that intellectual +strength and vivacity which flashed out so suddenly and with so +much splendor from beneath her long, dark eye-lashes! + +In this mood he met with John Cross; and the simplicity of that +worthy creature offered another challenge, not less provoking than +the former, to the levity and love of mischief which also actively +predominated in the bosom of the youth. Fond of a malicious sort +of fun, and ever on the look-out for subjects of quizzing, it was +in compliance with a purely habitual movement of his mind that he +conjured up that false, glozing story of his religious inclinations, +which had so easily imposed upon the unsuspecting preacher. Never +was proceeding less premeditated, or so completely the result of an +after-thought, than this; and now that it had proved so perfectly +successful--now that he found himself admitted into the very heart +of the little village, and into the bosoms of the people--he began, +for the first time, to feel the awkwardness of the situation in which +he had placed himself, and the responsibilities, if not dangers, +to which it subjected him. To play the part of a mere preacher--to +talk glibly, and with proper unction, in the stereotype phraseology +of the profession--was no difficult matter to a clever young lawyer +of the West, having a due share of the gift of gab, and almost as +profoundly familiar with scripture quotation as Henry Clay himself. +But there was something awkward in the idea of detection, and he +was not unaware of those summary dangers which are likely to follow, +in those wild frontier regions, from the discovery of so doubtful +a personage as "Bro' Wolf" in the clothing of a more innocent +animal. Chief-Justice Lynch is a sacred authority in those parts; +and, in such a case as his, Alfred Stevsns did not doubt that the +church itself would feel it only becoming to provide another sort +of garment for the offender, which, whether pleasant or not, would +at least be likely to stick more closely, and prove less comfortably +warm. + +But, once in, there was no help but to play out the game as it had +been begun. Villagers are seldom very sagacious people, and elegant +strangers are quite too much esteemed among them to make them very +particular in knowing tho whys and wherefores about them--whence +they come, what they do, and whither they propose to go. Stevens +had only to preserve his countenance and a due degree of caution, +and the rest was easy. He had no reason to suppose himself an object +of suspicion to anybody; and should he become so, nothing was more +easy than to take his departure with sufficient promptness, and +without unnecessarily soliciting the prayers of the church in behalf +of the hurried traveller! At all events, he could lose nothing by +the visit: perhaps something might be gained. + +What was that something? Behold him in his chamber, preparing to +ask and to answer this question for himself. The sabbath-day is +finally over. He has been almost the lion of the day. We say almost, +for the worthy John Cross could not easily be deprived, by any +rivalry, of the loyal regards of his old parishioners. But, though +the latter had most friends, the stranger, Alfred Stevens, had +had most followers. All were anxious to know him--the young, in +particular, maidens and men; and the grave old dames would have +given their last remaining teeth, bone or waxen, to have heard him +discourse. There was so much sense and solemnity in his profound, +devout looks! he has been made known to them all; he has shaken +hands with many. But he has exchanged the speech of sympathy and +feeling with but one only--and that one!-- + +Of her he thinks in his chamber--his quiet, snug, little chamber--a +mere closet, looking out upon a long garden-slip, in which he +sees, without much heeding them, long lanes of culinary cabbage, +and tracts of other growing and decaying vegetation, in which his +interest is quite too small to make it needful that he should even +ask its separate names. His chin rests upon his hands with an air +of meditation; and gradually his thoughts rise up in soliloquy, +which is suffered to invade no ear but ours:-- + +"Well! who'd have thought it? a parson!--devilish good indeed! How +it will tell at Murkey's! What a metamorphose! if it don't stagger +'em, nothing will! It's the best thing I've done yet! I shall have +to do it over a hundred times, and must get up a sermon or two +beforehand, and swear that I preached them--and, egad! I may have +to do it yet before I'm done--ha! ha! ha!" + +The laughter was a quiet chuckle, not to be heard by vulgar ears; +it subsided in the gorges of his throat. The idea of really getting +up a sermon tickled him. He muttered over texts, all that he could +remember; and proceeded to turn over the phrases for an introduction, +such as, unctuous with good things in high degree, he fancied would +be particularly commendable to his unsuspecting hearers. Alfred +Stevens had no small talent for imitation, he derived a quiet sort +of pleasure, on the present occasion, from its indulgence. + +"I should have made a famous parson, and, if all trades fail, may +yet. But, now that I am here, what's to come of it? It's not so +hard to put on a long face, and prose in scripture dialect; but, +cui bono? Let me see--hem! The girl is pretty, devilish pretty--with +such an eye, and looks so! There's soul in the wench--life--and +a passion that speaks out in every glance and movement. A very +Cressid, with a cross of Corinne! Should she be like her of Troy? +At all events, it can do no harm to see what she's made of! + +"But I must manage warily. I have something to lose in the business. +Frankfort is but fifty miles from Charlemont--fifty miles--and +there's Ellisland, but fourteen. Fourteen!--an easy afternoon ride. +That way it must be done. Ellisland shall be my post-town. I can +gallop there in an afternoon, drop and receive my letters, and be +back by a round-about which shall effectually baffle inquiry. A +week or two will be enough. I shall see, by that time, what can be +done with her; though still, cautiously, Parson Stevens!--cautiously." + +The farther cogitations of Stevens were subordinate to these, but +of the same family complexion. They were such as to keep him wakeful. +The Bible which had been placed upon his table, by the considerate +providence of his hostess, lay there unopened; though, more than +once, he lifted the cover of the sacred volume, letting it fall again +suddenly, as if with a shrinking consciousness that such thoughts +as at that moment filled his mind were scarcely consistent with +the employment, in any degree, of such a companion. Finally, he +undressed and went to bed. The hour had become very late. + +"Good young man," muttered worthy Mrs. Hinkley to her drowsy +spouse, in the apartment below, as she heard the movements of her +guest-"good young man, he's just now going to bed. He's been studying +all this while. I reckon Brother Cross has been sound this hour." + +The light from Stevens's window glimmered out over the cabbage-garden, +and was seen by many an ancient dame as she prepared for her own +slumbers. + +"Good young man," said they all with one accord. "I reckon he's +at the Bible now. Oh! he'll be a blessed laborer in the vineyard, +I promise you, when Brother Cross is taken." + +"If it were not for the cursed bore of keeping up the farce beyond +the possibility of keeping up the fun, such a rig as this would +be incomparably pleasant; but"--yawning--"that's the devil! I get +monstrous tired of a joke that needs dry nursing!" + +Such were the last muttered words of Parson Stevens before he +yielded himself up to his slumbers. Good young man--charitable old +ladies--gullible enough, if not charitable! But the professions +need such people, and we must not quarrel with them! + + + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +PAROCHIAL PERFORMANCES. + + + + + +The poor, conceited blackguards of this ungracious earth have +a fancy that there must be huge confusion and a mighty bobbery in +nature, corresponding with that which is for ever going on in their +own little spheres. If we have a toothache, we look for a change +of weather; our rheumatism is a sure sign that God has made his +arrangements to give us a slapping rain; and, should the white +bull or the brown heifer die, look out for hail, or thunderstorm, +at least, as a forerunner of the event. Nothing less can possibly +console or satisfy us for such a most unaccountable, not to +say unnatural and unwarrantable, a dispensation. The poets have +ministered largely to this vanity on the part of mankind. Shakspere +is constantly at it, and Ben Jonson, and all the dramatists. Not +a butcher, in the whole long line of the butchering Caesars, from +Augustus down, but, according to them, died in a sort of gloom +glory, resulting from the explosion of innumerable stars and rockets, +and the apparitions of as many comets! "Gorgons, and hydras, and +chimeras dire," invariably announce the coming stroke of fate; and +five or seven moons of a night have suddenly arisen to warn some +miserable sublunarian that orders had been issued that there should +be no moon for him that quarter, or, in military and more precise +phrase, that he should have no "quarters" during that moon. Even our +venerable and stern old puritan saint, Milton--he who was blessed +with the blindness of his earthly eye, that he should be more +perfectly enabled to contemplate the Deity within--has given way to +this superstition when he subjects universal nature to an earthquake +because Adam's wife followed the counsels of the snake. + +A pretty condition of things it would be, if stars, suns, and +systems, were to shoot madly from their spheres on such occasions! +Well might the devil laugh if such were the case! How he would chuckle +to behold globes and seas, and empires, fall into such irreverend +antics because some poor earthling, be he kingling or common sodling, +goes into desuetude, either by the operation of natural laws, or +the sharp application of steel or shot! Verily, it makes precious +little difference to the Great Reaper, by what process we finally +become harvested. He is sure of us, though no graves gape, no stars +fall, no comets rush out, like young colts from their stables, +flinging their tails into the faces of the more sober and pacific +brotherhood of lights. But, denied the satisfaction of chuckling +at such sights as these, his satanic majesty chuckles not the less +at the human vanity which looks for them. Nay, he himself is very +likely to suggest this vanity. It is one of his forms of temptation +--one of his manoeuvres; and we take leave, by way of warning, to +hint to those worthy people, who judge of to-morrow's providence +by the corns of their great toe, or their periodical lumbago, or +the shooting of their warts, or the pricking of their palms, that +it is in truth the devil which is at the bottom of all this, and +that the Deity has nothing to do in the business. It is the devil +instilling his vanities into the human heart, in that form which +he thinks least likely to prove offensive, or rouse suspicion. The +devil is most active in your affairs, Mrs. Thompson, the moment +you imagine that there must be a revolution on your account in the +universal laws of nature. At such a moment your best policy will be +to have blood let, take physic, and go with all diligence to your +prayers. + +There was no sort of warning on the part of the natural to the +moral world, on the day when Alfred Stevens set forth with the +worthy John Cross, to visit the flock of the latter. There was +not a lovelier morning in the whole calendar. The sun was alone +in heaven, without a cloud; and on earth, the people in and about +Charlemont, having been to church only the day before, necessarily +made their appearance everywhere with petticoats and pantaloons +tolerably clean and unrumpled. Cabbages had not yet been +frost-bitten. Autumn had dressed up her children in the garments +of beauty, preparatory to their funeral. There was a good crop of +grain that year, and hogs were brisk, and cattle lively, and all +"looking-up," in the language of the prices current. This was long +before the time when Mr. M---- made his famous gammon speeches; but +the people had a presentiment of what was coming, and to crown the +eventful anticipations of the season, there was quite a freshet in +Salt river. The signs were all and everywhere favorable. Speculation +was beginning to chink his money-bags; three hundred new banks, as +many railways, were about to be established; old things were about +to fleet and disappear; all things were becoming new; and the serpent +entered Charlemont, and made his way among the people thereof, +without any signs of combustion, or overthrow, or earthquake. + +Everybody has some tolerable idea of what the visitation of a +parson is, to the members of his flock. In the big cities he comes +one day, and the quarterly collector the next. He sits down with +the "gude wife" in a corner to themselves, and he speaks to her in +precisely the same low tones which cunning lovers are apt to use. +If he knows any one art better than another, it is that of finding +his way to the affections of the female part of his flock. A subdued +tone of voice betrays a certain deference for the party addressed. +The lady is pleased with such a preliminary. She is flattered again +by the pains he takes in behalf of her eternal interests; she is +pretty sure he takes no such pains with any of her neighbors. It +is a sign that he thinks her soul the most becoming little soul in +the flock, and when he goes away, she looks after him and sighs, +and thinks him the most blessed soul of a parson. The next week +she is the first to get up a subscription which she heads with her +own name in connection with a sum realized by stinting her son of +his gingerbread money, in order to make this excellent parson a +life-member of the "Zion African Bible and Missionary Society, for +disseminating the Word among the Heathen." The same fifty dollars +so appropriated, would have provided fuel for a month to the starving +poor of her own parish. + +But Brother Cross gets no such windfalls. It is probable that he never +heard of such a thing, and that if he did, he would unhesitatingly +cry out, "Humbug," at the first intimation of it. Besides, his voice +was not capable of that modulation which a young lover, or a city +parson can give it. Accustomed to cry aloud and spare not, he +usually spoke as if there were some marrow in his bones, and some +vigor in his wind-bags. When he came to see the good wife of his +congregation, he gave her a hearty shake of the hand, congratulated +her as he found her at her spinning-wheel; spoke with a hearty +approbation, if he saw that her children were civil and cleanly; +if otherwise, he blazed out with proper boldness, by telling her +that all her praying and groaning, would avail nothing for her +soul's safety, so long as Jackey's breeches were unclean; and that +the mother of a rude and dirty child, was as sure of damnation, as +if she never prayed at all. He had no scruples about speaking the +truth. He never looked about him for the gentle, easy phrases, by +which to distinguish the conduct which he was compelled to condemn. +He knew not only that the truth must be spoken, and be spoken by +him, if by anybody, but that there is no language too strong--perhaps +none quite strong enough--for the utterance of the truth. But it must +not be supposed, that John Cross was in any respect an intolerant, +or sour man. He was no hypocrite, and did not, therefore, need to +clothe his features in the vinegar costume of that numerous class. +His limbs were put into no such rigid fetters as too often denote +the unnatural restraints which such persons have imposed upon their +inner minds. He could laugh and sing with the merriest, and though +he did not absolutely shake a leg himself, yet none rejoiced more +than he, when Ned Hinkley's fiddle summoned the village to this +primitive exercise. + +"Now, Alfred Stevens," said he, the breakfast being over, "what +say'st thou to a visit with me among my people. Some of them know +thee already; they will all be rejoiced to see thee. I will show +thee how they live, and if thou shouldst continue to feel within +thee, the growing of that good seed whose quickening thou hast +declared to me, it will be well that thou shouldst begin early to +practise the calling which may so shortly become thine own. Here +mightest thou live a space, toiling in thy spiritual studies, until +the brethren should deem thee ripe for thy office; meanwhile, thy +knowledge of the people with whom thou livest, and their knowledge +of thee, would be matter of equal comfort and consolation, I trust, +to thee as to them." + +Alfred Stevens expressed himself pleased with the arrangement. +Indeed, he desired nothing else. + +"But shall we see all of them?" he demanded. The arch-hypocrite +began to fear that his curiosity would be compelled to pay a heavy +penalty to dullness. + +"The flock is small," said John Cross. "A day will suffice, but I +shall remain three days in Charlemont, and some I will see to-day, +and some to-morrow, and some on the day after, which is Wednesday." + +"Taken in moderate doses," murmured Stevens to himself, "one may +stand it." + +He declared himself in readiness, and the twain set forth. The +outward behavior of Stevens was very exemplary. He had that morning +contrived to alter his costume in some respects to suit the situation +of affairs. For example, he had adopted that slavish affectation +which seems to insist that a preacher of God should always wear +a white cravat, so constructed and worn as to hide the tips of +his shirt collar. If they wore none, they would look infinitely +more noble, and we may add, never suffer from bronchitis. In his +deportment, Stevens was quite as sanctified as heart could wish. +He spoke always deliberately, and with great unction. If he had to +say "cheese and mousetrap," he would look very solemn, shake his +head with great gravity and slowness, and then deliberately and +equally emphasizing every syllable, would roll forth the enormous +sentence with all the conscious dignity of an ancient oracle. That +"cheese and mousetrap," so spoken, acquired in the ears of the hearer, +a degree of importance and signification, which it confounded them +to think they had never perceived before in the same felicitous +collocation of syllables. John Cross was not without his vanities. +Who is? Vanity is quite as natural as any other of our endowments. +It is a guaranty for amiability. A vain man is always a conciliatory +one. He is kind to others, because the approbation of others is a +strong desire in his mind. Accordingly, even vanity is not wholly +evil. It has its uses. + +John Cross had his share, and Alfred Stevens soon discovered that +he ministered to it in no small degree. The good old preacher took +to himself the credit of having effected his conversion, so far as +it had gone. It was his hand that had plucked the brand from the +burning. He spoke freely of his protege, as well before his face as +behind his back. In his presence he dwelt upon the holy importance of +his calling; to others he dilated upon the importance of securing +for the church a young man of so much talent, yet of so much devotion: +qualities not always united, it would seem, among the churchlings +of modern times. + +Alfred Stevens seemed to promise great honor to his teacher. That +cunning which is the wisdom of the worldling, and which he possessed +in a very surprising degree, enabled him to adopt a course of +conduct, look, and remark, which amply satisfied the exactions of +the scrupulous, and secured the unhesitating confidence of those +who were of a more yielding nature. He soon caught the phraseology +of his companion, and avoiding his intensity, was less likely to +offend his hearers. His manner was better subdued to the social +tone of ordinary life, his voice lacked the sharp twang of the +backwoods man; and, unlike John Cross, he was able to modulate it +to those undertones, which, as we have before intimated, are so +agreeable from the lips of young lovers and fashionable preachers. +At all events, John Cross himself, was something more than satisfied +with his pupil, and took considerable pains to show him off. He was +a sort of living and speaking monument of the good man's religious +prowess. + +It does not need that we should follow the two into all the abodes +which they were compelled to visit. The reader would scarcely +conceal his yawns though Stevens did. Enough, that a very unctuous +business was made of it that morning. Many an old lady was refreshed +with the spiritual beverage bestowed in sufficient quantity to +last for another quarter; while many a young one rejoiced in the +countenance of so promising a shepherd as appeared under the name +of Alfred Stevens. But the latter thought of the one damsel only. +He said many pleasant things to those whom he did see; but his mind +ran only upon one. He began to apprehend that she might be among +the flock who were destined to wait for the second or last day's +visitation; when, to his great relief, John Cross called his +attention to the dwelling of the widow Cooper, to whom they were +fast approaching. + +Stevens remarked that the dwelling had very much the appearance of +poverty--he did not fail to perceive that it lacked the flower-garden +in front which distinguished the greater number of the cottages in +Charlemont; and there was an appearance of coldness and loneliness +about its externals which impressed itself very strongly upon his +thoughts, and seemed to speak unfavorably for the taste of the +inmates. One is apt to associate the love of flowers with sweetness +and gentleness of disposition, and such a passion would seem +as natural, as it certainly would be becoming, to a young lady of +taste and sensibility. But the sign is a very doubtful one. Taste +and gentleness may satisfy themselves with other objects. A passion +for books is very apt to exclude a very active passion for flowers, +and it will be found, I suspect, that these persons who are most +remarkable for the cultivation of flowers are least sensible to the +charms of letters. It seems monstrous, indeed, that a human being +should expend hours and days in the nursing and tendance of such +stupid beauties as plants and flowers, when earth is filled with +so many lovelier objects that come to us commended by the superior +sympathies which belong to humanity. Our cities are filled with +the sweetest orphans--flowers destined to be immortal; angels in +form, that might be angels in spirit--that must be, whether for +good or evil--whom we never cultivate--whom we suffer to escape our +tendance, and leave to the most pitiable ignorance, and the most +wretched emergencies of want. The life that is wasted upon dahlias, +must, prima facie, be the life of one heartless and insensible, +and most probably, brutish in a high degree. + +But Alfred Stevens had very little time for further reflection. +They were at the door of the cottage. Never did the widow Cooper +receive her parson in more tidy trim, and with an expression of +less qualified delight. She brought forth the best chair, brushed +the deerskin-seat with her apron, and having adjusted the old man +to her own satisfaction as well as his, she prepared to do a like +office for the young one. Having seated them fairly, and smoothed +her apron, and gone through the usual preliminaries, and placed +herself a little aloof, on a third seat, and rubbed her hands, and +struggled into a brief pause in her brisk action, she allowed her +tongue to do the office for which her whole soul was impatient. + +"Oh, Brother Cross, what a searching sermon you gave us yesterday. +You stirred the hearts of everybody, I warrant you, as you stirred +up mine. We've been a needing it for a precious long time, I +tell you; and there's no knowing what more's a wanting to make us +sensible to the evil that's in us. I know from myself what it is, +and I guess from the doings of others. We're none of us perfect, +that's certain; but it's no harm to say that some's more and some's +not so perfect as others. There's a difference in sin, Brother +Cross, I'm a thinking, and I'd like you to explain why, and what's +the difference. One won't have so much, and one will have more; one +will take a longer spell of preaching, and half the quantity will +be a dose to work another out clean, entire. I'm not boastful for +myself, Brother Cross, but I do say, I'd give up in despair if I +thought it took half so much to do me, as it would take for a person +like that Mrs. Thackeray." + +"Sister Cooper," said brother Cross, rebukingly, "beware of the +temptation to vain-glory. Be not like the Pharisee, disdainful +of the publican. To be too well pleased with one's self is to be +displeasing to the Lord." + +"Oh, Brother Cross, don't be thinking that I'm over and above +satisfied with the goodness that's in me. I know I'm not so good. +I have a great deal of evil; but then it seems to me there's a +difference in good and a difference in evil. One has most of one +and one has most of another. None of us have much good, and all of +us have a great deal of sin. God help me, for I need his help--I +have my own share; but as for that Mrs. Thackeray, she's as full +of wickedness as an an egg's full of meat." + +"It is not the part of Christianity, Sister Cooper," said John Cross +mildly, "to look into our neighbors' accounts and make comparisons +between their doings and our own. We can only do so at great risk +of making a false reckoning. Besides, Sister Cooper, it is business +enough on our hands, if we see to our own short-comings. As for Mrs. +Thackeray, I have no doubt she's no better than the rest of us, and +we are all, as you said before, children of suffering, and prone +to sin as certain as that the sparks fly upward. We must only watch +and pray without ceasing, particularly that we may not deceive +ourselves with the most dangerous sin of being too sure of our own +works. The good deeds that we boast of so much in our earthly day +will shrivel and shrink up at the last account to so small a size +that the best of us, through shame and confusion, will be only too +ready to call upon the rocks and hills to cover us. We are very +weak and foolish all, Sister Cooper. We can't believe ourselves +too weak, or too mean, or too sinful. To believe this with all our +hearts, and to try to be better with all our strength, is the true +labor of religion. God send it to us, in all its sweetness and +perfection, so that we may fight the good fight without ceasing." + +"But if you could only hear of the doings of Mrs. Thackeray, +Brother Cross, you'd see how needful it would be to put forth all +your strength to bring her back to the right path." + +"The Lord will know. None of us can hide our evil from the eyes +of the Lord. I will strive with our sister, when I seek her, which +will be this very noon, but it is of yourself, Sister Cooper, and +your daughter Margaret, that I would speak. Where is she that I +see her not?" + +This was the question that made our quasi hierophant look up with +a far greater degree of interest than he had felt in the long and +random twattle to which he had been compelled to listen. Where was +she--that fair daughter? He was impatient for the answer. But he +was not long detained in suspense. Next to her neighbors there was +no subject of whom the mother so loved to speak as the daughter, +and the daughter's excellences. + +"Ah! she is up-stairs, at her books, as usual. She does so love +them books, Brother Cross, I'm afraid it'll do harm to her health. +She cares for nothing half so well. Morning, noon, and night, all +the same, you find her poring over them; and even when she goes out +to ramble, she must have a book, and she wants no other company. +For my part I can't see what she finds in them to love so; for +except to put a body to sleep I never could see the use they were +to any person yet." + +"Books are of two kinds," said Brother Cross gravely. "They are +useful or hurtful. The useful kinds are good, the hurtful kinds +are bad. The Holy Bible is the first book, and the only book, as +I reckon it will be the book that'll live longest. The 'Life of +Whitefield' is a good book, and I can recommend the sermons of that +good man, Brother Peter Cummins, that preached when I was a lad, +all along through the back parts of North Carolina, into South +Carolina and Georgia. I can't say that he came as far back into +the west as these parts; but he was a most faithful shepherd. There +was a book of his sermons printed for the benefit of his widow and +children. He died, like that blessed man, John Rogers, that we see +in the primer-books, leaving a wife with eleven children and one +at the breast. His sermons are very precious reading. One of them +in particular, on the Grace of God, is a very falling of manna in +the wilderness. It freshens the soul, and throws light upon the +dark places in the wilderness. Ah! if only such books are printed, +what a precious world for poor souls it would be. But they print +a great many bad books now-a-days." + +The natural love of mischief which prevailed in the bosom of Alfred +Stevens now prompted him to take part in the conversation at this +happy moment. The opportunity was a tempting one. + +"The printers," said he, "are generally very bad men. They call +themselves devils, and take young lads and bring them up to their +business under that name!" + +The old lady threw up her hands, and John Cross, to whom this +intelligence was wholly new, inquired with a sort of awe-struck +gravity-- + +"Can this be true, Alfred Stevens? Is this possible?" + +"The fact, sir. They go by no other name among themselves; and +you may suppose, if they are not ashamed of the name, they are not +unwilling to perform the doings of the devil. Indeed, they are busy +doing his business from morning to night--and night to morning. +They don't stop for the sabbath. They work on Sunday the same as +any other day, and if they take any rest at all it is on Saturday, +which would show them to be a kind of Jews." + +"Good Lord deliver us!" ejaculated the widow. + +"Where, O! where?" exclaimed the Brother Cross with similar earnestness. +The game was too pleasant for Alfred Stevens. He pursued it. + +"In such cities," he continued, "as New York and Philadelphia, +thousands of these persons are kept in constant employ sending +forth those books of falsehood and folly which fill the hearts of +the young with vain imaginings, and mislead the footsteps of the +unwary. In one of these establishments, four persons preside, who +are considered brothers; but they are brothers in sin only, and +are by some supposed to be no other. They have called themselves +after the names of saints and holy men; even the names of the +thrice blessed apostles, John and James, have been in this fashion +abused; but if it be true that the spirits of evil may even in +our day as of old embody themselves in mortal shape for the better +enthralling and destruction of mankind, then should I prefer to +believe that these persons were no other than the evil demons who +ruled in Ashdod and Assyria. Such is their perseverance in evil--such +their busy industry, which keeps a thousand authors (which is but +another name for priests and prophets) constantly at work to frame +cunning falsehoods and curious devices, and winning fancies, which +when printed and made into books, turn the heads of the young and +unwary, and blind the soul to the wrath which is to come." + +The uplifted hands of the widow Cooper still attested her wonder. + +"Lord save us!" she exclaimed, "I should not think it strange +if Sister Thackeray had some of these very books. Do ask, Brother +Cross, when you go to see her. She speaks much of books, and I see +her reading them whenever I look in at the back window." + +John Cross did not seem to give any heed to the remark of the old +woman. There was a theological point involved in one of the remarks of +Alfred Stevens which he evidently regarded as of the first importance. + +"What you say, Alfred Stevens, is very new and very strange to me, +and I should think from what I already know of the evil which is +sometimes put in printed books, that there was indeed a spirit of +malice at work in this way, to help the progress and the conquests +of Satan among our blind and feeble race. But I am not prepared to +believe that God has left it to Satan to devise so fearful a scheme +for prosecuting his evil designs as that of making the demons +of Ashdod and Assyria take the names of mortal men, while teeming +to follow mortal occupations. It would be fearful tidings for our +poor race were this so. But if so, is it not seen that there is +a difference in the shapes of these persons. If either of these +brothers who blasphemously call themselves John and James, after +the manner of the apostles, shall be in very truth and certainty +that Dagon of the Philistines whom Jehovah smote before his altar, +will he not be made fishlike from the waist downward, and will +this not be seen by his followers and some of the thousands whom +he daily perverts to his evil purposes and so leads to eternal +destruction?" + +"It may be that it is permitted to such a demon to put on what +shape he thinks proper," replied Stevens; "but even if it is not, +yet this would not be the subject of any difference--it would +scarcely prevent the prosecution of this evil purpose. You are to +remember, Mr. Cross--" + +"John Cross--plain John Cross, Alfred Stevens," was the interruption +of the preacher. + +"You are to remember," Stevens resumed, "that when the heart is full +of sin, the eyes are full of blindness. The people who believe in +these evil beings are incapable of seeing their deformities." + +"That is true--a sad truth." + +"And, again," continued Stevens, "there are devices of mere mortal +art, by which the deformities and defects of an individual may be +concealed. One of these brothers, I am told, is never to be seen +except seated in one position at the same desk, and this desk is +so constructed, as to hide his lower limbs in great part, while +still enabling him to prosecute his nefarious work." + +"It's clear enough, Brother Cross," exclaimed the widow Cooper, +now thoroughly convinced--"it's clear enough that there's something +that he wants to hide. Lord help us! but these things are terrible." + +"To the weak and the wicked, Sister Cooper, they are, as you say, +terrible, and hence the need that we should have our lamps trimmed +and lighted, for the same light which brings us to the sight of +the Holy of Holies, shows us the shape of hatefuless, the black +and crouching form of Satan, with nothing to conceal his deformity. +Brother Stevens has well said that when the heart is full of sin, +the eyes are full of blindness; and so we may say that when the +heart is full of godliness, the eyes are full of seeing. You can +not blind them with devilish arts. You can not delude them as to +the true forms of Satan, let him take any shape The eye of godliness +sees clean through the mask of sin, as the light of the sun pierces +the thickest cloud, and brings day after the darkest night." + +"Oh! what a blessed thing to hear you say so." + +"More blessed to believe, Sister Cooper, and believing, to pray +with all your heart for this same eye of godliness. But we should +not only pray but work. Working for God is the best sort of prayer. +We must do something in his behalf: and this reminds me, Sister +Cooper, that if there is so much evil spread abroad in these books, +we should look heedfully into the character of such as fall into +the hands of the young and the unmindful of our flock." + +"That is very true; that is just what I was thinking of, Brother +Cross. You can not look too close, I'm thinking into such books as +you'll find at the house of Widow Thackeray. I can give a pretty +'cute guess where she gets all that sort of talk, that seems so +natural at the end of her tongue." + +"Verily, I will speak with Sister Thackeray on this subject," +responded the pastor--"but your own books, Sister Cooper, and those +of your daughter Margaret--if it is convenient, I should prefer to +examine them now while I am here." + +"What! Margaret's books! examine Margaret's books!" + +"Even so, while I am present and while Brother Stevens is here, +also, to give me his helping counsel in the way of judgment." + +"Why, bless us, Brother Cross, you don't suppose that my daughter +Margaret would keep any but the properest books? she's too sensible, +I can tell you, for that. She's no books but the best; none, I'll +warrant you, like them you'll find at Widow Thackeray's. She's not +to be put off with bad books. She goes through 'em with a glance +of the eye. Ah! she's too smart to be caught by the contrivances +of those devils, though in place of four brothers there was four +thousand of 'em. No, no! let her alone for that--she's a match for +the best of 'em." + +"But as Brother Stevens said," continued John Cross, "where sin +gets into the heart, the eye is blinded to the truth. Now--" + +"Her eye's not blinded, Brother Cross, I can tell you. They can't +cheat her with their books. She has none but the very best. I'll +answer for them. None of them ever did me any harm; and I reckon +none of them'll ever hurt her. But I'm mistaken, if you don't have +a real burning when you get to Mrs. Thackeray's." + +"But, Sister Cooper--" commenced the preacher. + +"Yes, Brother Cross," replied the dame. + +"Books, as I said before, are of two kinds." + +"Yes, I know--good and bad--I only wonder there's no indifferent +ones among 'em," replied the lady. + +"They should be examined for the benefit of the young and ignorant." + +"Oh, yes, and for more besides, for Mrs. Thackeray's not young, +that's clear enough; and I know there's a good many things that +she's not ignorant of. She's precious knowing about many things +that don't do her much good; and if the books could unlearn her, +I'd say for one let her keep 'em. But as for looking at Margaret's +books--why, Brother Cross, you surely know Margaret?" + +The preacher answered meekly, but negatively. + +"Ain't she about the smartest girl you ever met with?" continued +the mother. + +"God has certainly blessed her with many gifts," was the reply, +"but where the trust is great, the responsibility is great also." + +"Don't she know it?" + +"I trust she does, Sister Cooper." + +"You may trust every bit of it. She's got the smartness, the same +as it is in books--" + +"But the gift of talents, Sister Cooper, is a dangerous gift." + +"I don't see, Brother Cross, how good things that come from God +can be dangerous things." + +"If I could see the books, Sister Cooper;--I say not that they are +evil--" + +John Cross began in tones that denoted something like despair; +certainly dissatisfaction was in them, when Alfred Stevens, who +had long since tired of what was going on, heard a light footfall +behind him. He turned his eyes and beheld the fair maiden, herself, +the propriety of whose reading was under discussion, standing in the +doorway. It appeared that she had gathered from what had reached +her ears, some knowledge of what was going on, for a smile of +ineffable scorn curled her classic and nobly-chiselled mouth, while +her brow was the index to a very haughty volume. In turning, Alfred +Stevens betrayed to her the playful smile upon his own lips--their +eyes met, and that single glance established a certain understanding +between them. + +Her coming did not avail to stifle the subject of discussion. John +Cross was too resolute in the prosecution of his supposed duty, to +give up the cause he had once undertaken. He had all the inveteracy +of the stout old puritan. The usual introduction over and he resumed, +though he now addressed himself to the daughter rather than the +mother. She scarcely heard him to the end. + +"The books were my father's, Mr. Cross; they are valuable to me +on that account. They are dear to me on their own. They are almost +my only companions, and though I believe you would find nothing in +them which might be held detrimental, yet I must confess, if there +were, I should be sorry to be made acquainted with the fact. I +have not yet discovered it myself, and should be loath to have it +shown by another." + +"But you will let me see them, Margaret?" + +"Yes, sir, whenever you please. I can have no objection to that, +but if by seeing them you only desire an opportunity to say what I +shall read and what not, I can only tell you that your labor will +be taken in vain. Indeed, the evil is already done. I have not a +volume which I have not read repeatedly." + +It is needless to add that Brother Cross was compelled to forego his +book examination at the widow Cooper's, though strongly recommended +there to press it at Widow Thackeray's. Alfred Stevens was a mute +observer during the interview, which did not last very long after +the appearance of Margaret. He was confirmed in all his previous +impressions of her beauty, nor did the brevity of the conference +prevent him from perceiving her intense self-esteem, which under +certain influences of temperament is only another name for vanity. +Besides they had exchanged glances which were volumes, rendering +unnecessary much future explanation. She had seen that he was +secretly laughing at the simple preacher, and that was a source +of sympathy between them. She was very much in the habit of doing +the same thing. He, on the other hand, was very well satisfied +that the daughter of such a mother must be perverse and vain; and +he was moralist enough to know that there is no heart so accessible to +the tempter as the proud and wilful heart. But few words had passed +between them, but those were expressive, and they both parted, with +the firm conviction that they must necessarily meet again. + + + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +HOW THE TOAD GRINS UPON THE ALTAR. + + + + + +Shall we go the rounds with our pastor? Shall we look in upon him +at Mrs. Thackeray's, while, obeying the suggestion of the widow +Cooper, he purges her library of twenty volumes, casting out the +devils and setting up the true gods? It is scarcely necessary. +Enough to know that, under his expurgatorial finger, our beloved +and bosom friend, William Shakspere, was the first to suffer. +Plays! The one word was enough. Some lying histories were permitted +to escape. The name of history saved them! Robinson Crusoe was +preserved as a true narrative; and Swift's Tale of a Tub escaped, +as it was assumed (there being no time to read any of the books, +and in this respect John Cross showed himself much more of a +professional critic than he conjectured) to be a treatise on one +branch of the cooperage business, and so, important to domestic +mechanics in a new country. The reader will remember the manner in +which the library of the knight of La Mancha was disposed of. He +would err, however, if he supposed that John Cross dismissed +the books from the window, or did anything farther than simply to +open the eyes of Mrs. Thackeray to the bad quality of some of the +company she kept. That sagacious lady did not think it worth while +to dispute the ipse dixit of a teacher so single-minded, if not +sagacious. She bowed respectfully to all his suggestions, promised +no longer to bestow her smiles on the undeserving--a promise of no +small importance when it is remembered that, at thirty-three, Mrs. +Thackeray was for the first time a widow--and that night she might +have been seen laughing heartily with Mesdames Ford and Quickly at +the amorous pertinacity of the baffled knight of Eastcheap. + +Under the paternal wing of John Cross, Alfred Stevens obtained +the desired entree into the bosom of the flock. He was everywhere +admitted with gladness--everywhere welcomed as to a home; and the +unsophisticated old teacher by whose agency this was effected, +congratulated his congregation and himself, on leaving the village, +that he had left in it a person so full of grace, and one who, +with the blessing of God, was so likely to bring about the birth +of grace in others. The good old man bestowed long and repeated +counsels upon his neophyte. The course of study which he prescribed +was very simple. The Bible was the Alpha and the Omega--it was +the essential whole. It would be well to read other books if they +could be had--Clarke and Wesley were, of course, spoken of--but +they could be done without. The word of God was in the one volume, +and it needed no help from commentators to win its way and suffice +the hungering and thirsting soul. + +"If you could lay hands upon the book of sermons written by Brother +Peter Cummins, which his wife had printed, I'm thinking it would +serve, next to God's own blessed word, to put you in the right way. +It's been a great helping to me, Alfred Stevens, that same book of +sermons; and, I reckon it's because it's so good a book that it's +not printed now. I don't see it much about. But I'll get you one +if I can, and bring or send it to you, soon enough to help you to +the wisdom that you're a seeking after. If it only wakes the spirit +in you as it did in me--if it only stirs you up with the spirit of +divine love--you'll find it easy enough to understand the teachings +of the holy volume. All things become clear in that blessed light. +By its help you read, and by its working you inwardly digest all +the needful learning. The Lord be with you, Alfred Stevens, and +bring to perfect ripening your present undertaking." + +"Amen!" was the solemn response of the hypocrite, but we need not +say what an irreverent and unholy thought lay at the bottom of his +mind in making this ejaculation. + +Before the departure of John Cross, the latter had made terms with +Squire Hinkley for the board and lodging of Brother Stevens and +his horse. Hinkley would have preferred taking nothing, considering +the praiseworthy purpose of the supposed theological student; but +Stevens shrunk from receiving such an obligation with a feeling +of pride, which yet had no scruples at practising so wretched an +imposture. He insisted upon making compensation, or upon leaving +the house; and, not to incur this risk, Hinkley consented to receive +a weekly sum in payment; but the charge was considerably smaller, +as we may suppose, than it would have been had the lodger simply +appeared as an inoffensive traveller, practising no fraud and making +no professions of religion. + +Having effected all these arrangements, to his own satisfaction and +seemingly that of all others, John Cross departed once more into +the wilderness on his single-hearted ministry of love. A sturdy +and an honest worker was he in the tabernacle, with a right mind +if not a very wise one; and doing more good in his generation, and +after the fashion of his strength, than is often permitted to the +stall-fed doctors of his vocation. + +The reader will suppose that the old man has been already gone some +seven days. Meanwhile, the young student has fairly made himself +at home in Charlemont. He has a snug room, entirely to himself, at +Squire Hinkley's, and, by the excellent care of the worthy dame, it +is provided with the best bedding and the finest furniture. Her +own hands sweep it clean, morning and night, for the incipient +parson; she makes up the bed, and, in customary phrase, puts it in +all respects to rights. His wants are anticipated, his slightest +suggestion met with the most prompt consideration; and John Cross +himself, humble and unexacting as he was, might have felt some +little twinges of mortal envy could he have known that his protege +promised to become a much greater favorite than himself. + +This, indeed, seemed very likely to be the case. A good young +man in the sight of the ladies is always a more attractive person +than a good old man. Dame Hinkley, though no longer young herself, +remembered that she had been so, and preserved all her sympathies, +in consequence, for young people. She thought Alfred Stevens so +handsome, and he smiled so sweetly, and he spoke so genty, and, +in short, so great had been his progress in the affections of his +hostess in the brief space of a single week, that we are constrained +to confess ourselves rejoiced that she herself was an old woman, +as well on her own account as on that of her worthy spouse. + +Her good man was very well satisfied, whether from confidence or +indifference, that such should be the case. Her attentions to the +young stranger probably diverted them from himself. But not so with +William Hinkley--the son. We have already had some glimpses of the +character of this young man. We may now add that the short week's +residence of Stevens in Charlemont had increased the soreness at +his heart. In that week he had seen fairly established that intimacy +between his rival and the lady of his love which seemed to give +the death-blow to any pretensions of his. He had seen them meet; +had seen them go forth together; beheld their mutual eyes, and, +turning his own inward, saw how deeply his heart was concerned +in the probable sympathies of theirs. Then, to turn to his own +habitation, and to behold THAT, mother and all, devoted to the same +absolute stranger; to pass unheeded in the presence of those whom +he best loved--over whom natural ties gave him inalienable rights; +to feel himself put aside for one only known of yesterday; to look +with yearning, and meet eyes only of disregard and indifference! +Such being the suggestions of his jealous and suffering nature, it +is surely no matter of wonder that the youth grew melancholy and +abstracted. + +Our adventurer was snugly seated in the little but select chamber +which had been given him in the house of Squire Hinkley. A table, +neatly spread with a cotton cover, stood before him: a travelling-portfolio +was opened beneath his hand, with a broad sheet of paper, already +well written over, and waiting nothing but his signature, and perhaps +the postscript. He was absorbed unusually in his cogitations, and +nibbled into bits the feathery end of the gray goosequill of which he +had been making such excellent use. While he meditates, unseeing, +we will use the liberty of an old acquaintance to scan the letter--for +such it is--which he has been writing. Perhaps we shall gather from +it some matters which it may concern us yet to know:-- + +"Dear Barnabas: The strangest adventure--positively the very +strangest--that ever happened to a son of Murkey's, will keep me +from the embraces of the brethren a few weeks longer. I am benighted, +bewildered, taken with art-magic, transmuted, TRANSMOGRIFIED, not +myself nor yet another, but, as they say in Mississippi, 'a sort +of betweenity.' Fancy me suddenly become a convert to the bluest +presbyterianism, as our late excellent brother Woodford became, +when he found that he could not get Moll Parkinson on any other +terms--and your guess will not be very far from the true one. I +am suddenly touched with conviction. I have seen a light on my way +from Tarsus. The scales have fallen from my eyes. I have seen the +wickedness of my ways, and yours too, you dog; and, having resolved +on my own repentance, I am taking lessons which shall enable me to +effect yours. Precious deal of salt will it need for that! Salt river +will fall, while its value rises. But the glory of the thing--think +of that, my boy! What a triumph it will be to revolutionize +Murkey's!--to turnout the drinkers and smokers, and money-changers; +to say, 'Hem! my brethren, let us pay no more taxes to sin in this +place!' There shall be no more cakes and ale. Ginger shall have no +heat i' the mouth there; and, in place of smoking meats and tobacco, +give you nothing but smoking methodism! Won't that be a sight and +a triumph which shall stir the dry bones in our valley--ay, and +bones not so dry? There shall be a quaking of the flesh in sundry +places. Flam will perish in the first fit of consternation; and if +Joe Burke's sides do not run into sop and jelly, through the mere +humor of the thing, then prophecy is out of its element quite. + +"Seriously, you dog, I have become a theological student! Don't you +see proofs of my progress in my unctuous phraseology. I was taken +suddenly upon the highway--a brand plucked from the burning--and to +be stuck up on high, still lighted, however, as a sort of lantern +and lighthouse to other wayfarers--wandering rogues like yourself, +who need some better lights than your own if it only be to show you +how to sin decently. I am professedly a convert to the true faith, +though which that is, I think, has not well been determined among +you at Murkey's, or, indeed, anywhere else. I believe the vox +populi, vox Dei, still comprises the only wholesome decision which +has yet been made on the subject. The popular vote here declares it +to be methodism; with you it is baptism or presbytenanism--which? +I am a flexible student, however, and when I meet you again at +Murkey's, shall be prepared to concur with the majority. + +"But, in sober fact, I am a professor--actually recognised by +my neighbors as one of the elect--set apart to be and do mighty +things. How I came so, will call for a long story, which I defer +to another occasion. Enough to tell you that an accidental rencontre +with a silly old preacher (whose gullet I filled with raw brandy, +which I recommended to him, under another name, as a sovereign +remedy against flatulence, and which nearly strangled him he took +such a premeditated swallow), brought me into one of the loveliest +little villages in all this western country, and there I saw many +things--among others--a woman!-- + +"A woman!--that one word, you dog, will explain the mystery--will +show you why I am thus transmuted, TRANSMOGRIFIED, and in 'a state +of betweenity.' Nothing less, I assure you, could make me disguise +myself after the present fashion; wear the sanctimonious and sour +phiz which the common law of modern religion prescribes, and keep +me much longer from the pleasanter communion of such glorious +imps, as I suppose, are, even now, beginning to gather in the dingy +smoke-room of our sovereign Murkey. But this woman, you will ask. +Ay, ay, but you shall have no answer yet. It shall be enough for +you that she is a queen of Sheba, after her own fashion. A proud, +imperious, passionate creature--tall, really beautiful--and so +majestic! You should see the flashing of her eyes to know what sort +of a thing is moral lightning. Her face kindles up in an instant. +She is an intensifier, and like most such, cursedly smart. Young +too--scarce eighteen, I think; queer too--almost tyrannical at +times--but full of blood, of unregulated passions, moody, capricious, +and, of course, easy game, if the sportsman knows anything of +the habits of the bird. She is a country-girl, but no hoyden. Her +intensity of character, her pride and great self-esteem, have made +her a solitary. Unsophisticated in some respects, she is yet not +to be surprised. In solitude, and a taste for it, she has acquired +a sort of moral composure which makes her secure against surprise. +I am really taken with the girl, and COULD love her, I tell you--nay, +do love her--so long as love can keep himself--out of a state of +bondage! I do not think, at this moment, that I shall violate any +of the laws of the conventicle, like small-witted Brother Woodford; +though, so far as the woman is concerned, I should leave it without +argument to the free vote of all the Lads of Fancy that ever gather +round Murkey's round table, if my justification for turning traitor, +would not prove immeasurably more complete than his. + +"So! so! There are bones enough for you to crunch, you professional +bandog. I had not meant to tell you half so much. There is some +danger that one may lose his game altogether, if he suffers his +nose to point unnecessarily to the cover where it lies. I know what +keen scents are in the club, some of which would be on my track +in no time if they knew where to find me; but I shall baffle you, +you villains. My post-town is fifty miles from the place where I pursue +my theological studies; you are too wise to attempt a wild-goose +chase. You may smack your chaps, Barney, with envy; bite them +too if you please, and it will only whet my own sense of pleasure +to fancy your confusion, and your hopeless denunciations in the +club. I shall be back in time for term--meanwhile get the papers +in readiness. Write to me at the post-town of Ellisland, and remember +to address me as Alfred Stevens--nay, perhaps, you may even say, +'Rev. Alfred Stevens,' it will grace the externals of the document +with a more unctuous aspect, and secure the recipient a more wholesome +degree of respect. Send all my letters to this town under envelope +with this direction. I wrote you twice from Somerville. Did I tell +you that old Hunks has been deused liberal? I can laugh at the +small terms, yet go to Murkey's and shine through the smoke with +the best of you. I solicit the prayers of the Round Table. + +"Faithfully, yours, &c." + +So far our profligate had written to his brother profligate, when +a tap was heard at the entrance of his chamber. Thrusting the +written papers into his portfolio, he rose, and opening the door +discovered his hostess at the entrance. + +"I came, Brother Stevens," said the old lady, "if you not too busy +in your studies, to have a little talk with you, and to get your +counsel upon a subject that a little distresses me. But you look +as if you were busy now--" + +"Not too busy, Mrs. Hinkley, to oblige you in this or in any other +respect," replied the guest with suitable suavity of expression--"shall +I attend you down stairs." + +"Oh! no! it won't need," said she. "I'll take a seat with you +awhile. We shall be less liable to interruption here." + +Stevens scarcely repressed his smile, but the seniority of the old +lady made her proceedings very innocent, however much they might +have been adverse to the rules. He threw wide the door, and without +more hesitation she followed him at once into the chamber. + + + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE MOTHER'S GRIEFS. + + + + + +The business upon which Mrs. Hinkley sought the chamber of her +guest was a very simple one, and easily expressed. Not that she +expressed it in few words. That is scarcely possible at any time +with an ancient lady. But the long story which she told, when +compressed into intelligible form, related to her son William. +She had some maternal fears on his account. The lad was a decided +melancholic. His appetite was bad; his looks were thin and unhappy; he +lacked the usual spirit of youth; he lacked his own usual spirit. +What was the cause of the change which had come over him so suddenly, +she could not divine. Her anxiety was for the remedy. She had +consulted Brother Cross on the subject before he departed; but +that good man, after a brief examination of the patient, had freely +admitted his inability to say what was the matter with him, and what +was proper for his cure. To the object of this solicitude himself, +he had given much good counsel, concluding finally with a recommendation +to read devoutly certain chapters in Job and Isaiah. It appears +that William Hinkley submitted to all this scrutiny with exemplary +fortitude, but gave no satisfactory answers to any of the questions +asked him. He had no complaints, he denied any suffering; and +expressed himself annoyed at the inquisition into his thoughts +and feelings. This annoyance had been expressed, however, with the +subdued tones and language of one habitually gentle and modest. +Whenever he was approached on the subject, as the good old lady +assured her guest, he shook off his questioners with no little +haste, and took to the woods for the rest of the day. "That day," +said she, "you needn't look for William Hinkley to his dinner." + +Stevens had been struck with the deportment of this youth, which +had seemed to him haughty and repulsive; and, as he fancied, +characterized by some sentiment of hostility for himself. He was +surprised therefore to learn from the old lady that the lad was +remarkable for his gentleness. + +"How long has he been in this way, Mrs. Hinkley?" he asked with +some curiosity. + +"Well now, Brother Stevens, I can't tell you. It's been growing on +him for some time. I reckon it's a matter of more than four months +since I first seen it; but it's only been a few weeks that I have +spoken to him. Brother Cross spoke to him only Monday of last week. +My old man don't seem to see so much of it; but I know there's a +great change in him now from what there used to be. A mother's eye +sees a great way farther into the hearts of her children, Brother +Stevens, than any other persons; and I can see plainly that William +is no more the same boy--no! nor nothing like it--that he once was. +Why, once, he was all life, and good humor; could dance and sing +with the merriest among them; and was always so good and kind, and +loved to do whatever would please a body; and was always with somebody, +or other, making merry, and planning the prettiest sports. Now, he +don't sing, nor dance, nor play; when you see him, you 'most always +see him alone. He goes by himself into the woods, and he'll be +going over the hills all day, nobody with him, and never seeming +to care about his food, and what's more strange, never looking at +the books that he used to be so fond of." + +"He has been fond of books, then--had he many?" + +"Oh, yes, a whole drawer of them, and he used to get them besides +from the schoolmaster, Mr. Calvert, a very good man that lives +about half a mile from the village, and has a world of books. But +now he neither gets books from other people nor reads what he's +got. I'm dubious, Brother Stevens, that he's read too much for his +own good. Something's not right here, I'm a thinking." + +The good old lady touched her head with her finger and in this +manner indicated her conjecture as to the seat of her son's disease. +Stevens answered her encouragingly. + +"I scarcely think, Mrs. Hinkley, that it can be anything so bad. +The young man is at that age when a change naturally takes place +in the mind and habits. He wants to go into the world, I suspect. +He's probably tired of doing nothing. What is to be his business? +It's high time that such a youth should have made a choice." + +"That's true, Brother Stevens, but he's been the apple to our eyes, +and we haven't been willing that he should take up any business +that would--carry him away from us. He's done a little farming +about the country, but that took him away, and latterly he's kept +pretty much at home, going over his books and studying, now one +and now another, just as Mr. Calvert gave them to him." + +"What studies did he pursue?" + +"Well, I can't tell you. He was a good time at Latin, and then he +wants to be a lawyer;--" + +"A lawyer!" + +"Yes, he had a great notion to be a lawyer and was at his books +pretty hard for a good year, constant, day by day, until, as I +said before, about four months ago, when I saw that he was growing +thin, and that he had put down the books altogether, and had the +change come over him just as I told you. You see how thin he is +now. You'd scarce believe him to be the same person if you'd seen +him then. Why his cheeks were as full and as red as roses, and +his eye was always shining and laughing, and he had the liveliest +step, and between him and Ned Hinkley, his cousin, what with flute +and fiddle, they kept the house in a constant uproar, and we were +all so happy. Now, it isn't once a month that we hear the sound of +the fiddle in the house. He never sings, and he never dances, and +he never plays, and what little he lets us see of him, is always +so sad and so spiritless that I feel heartsick whenever I look +upon him. Oh! Brother Stevens, if you could only find out what's +the matter, and tell us what to do, it would be the most blessed +kindness, and I'd never forget it, or forget you, to my dying day." + +"Whatever I can do, Mrs. Hinkley, shall surely be done. I will see +and speak with your son." + +"Oh! do--that's a dear good sir. I'm sure if you only talk to him +and advise him it will do him good." + +"Without being so sure, ma'am, I will certainly try to please +you. Though I think you see the matter with too serious eyes. Such +changes are natural enough to young people, and to old ones too. +But what may be your son's age." + +"Nineteen last April." + +"Quite a man for his years, Mrs. Hinkley." + +"Isn't he?" + +"He will do you credit yet." + +"Ah! if I could believe so. But you'll speak to him, Brother Stevens? +You'll try and bring all to rights?" + +"Rely upon me to do what I can;--to do my best." + +"Well, that's as much as any man can do, and I'm sure I'll be so +happy--we shall all be so much indebted to you." + +"Do not speak of it, my dear madam," said Stevens, bowing with +profound deference as the old lady took her departure. She went +off with light heart, having great faith in the powers of the holy +man, and an equal faith in his sincerity. + +"What a bore!" he muttered as he closed the door behind her. +"This is one of the penalties, I suppose, which I must pay for my +privileges. I shall be called upon to reform the morals and manners, +and look into the petty cares of every chuckle-headed boor and +boor's brat for ten miles round. See why boys reject their mush, +and why the girls dislike to listen to the exhortations of a mamma, +who requires them to leave undone what she has done herself--and +with sufficient reason too, if her own experience be not wholly +profitless. Well, I must submit. There are advantages, however; I +shall have other pupils to tutor, and it shall go hard with me if +all the grapes prove sour where the vines are so various." + +The student of divinity, after these conclusions, prepared to make +his toilet. Very few of these students, in their extreme solicitude for +the well being of the inner man, show themselves wholly regardless +of their externals. Even mourning, it appears, requires to be +disposed by a fashionable costumer. Though the garments to which +the necessities of travel limited Brother Stevens were not various, +they were yet select. The good young man had an affection for his +person, which was such certainly as to deserve his care. On this +occasion he was more than usually particular. He did not scruple +to discard the white cravat. For this he substituted a handkerchief +which had the prettiest sprig of lilac, on a ground of the most +delicato lemon color. He consulted complexions, and his mirror +determined him in favor of this pattern. Brother Stevens would not +have worn it had he been summoned, in his new vocation, to preach +or pray at the conventicle; nor would he have dreamed of anything +but a black stock had his business been to address the democracy +from the top of a cider-barrel. His habits, under such necessities, +would have been made to correspond with the principles (Qu?) which +such a situation more distinctly called for. + +But the thoughts of our worthy brother ran upon other objects. He +was thinking of Margaret Cooper. He was about to pay that damsel +a visit. His progress, we may suppose, had not been inconsiderable +when we are told that his present visit was one of previous +arrangement. They were about to go forth on a ramble together--the +woods were so wild and lovely--the rocks surrounding Charlemont +were so very picturesque;--there was the quietest tarn, a sort of +basin in the bosom of the hills at a little distance, which she was +to show him; and there was the sweetest stream in the world, that +meandered in the neighborhood; and Brother Stevens so loved the +picturesque--lakes embosomed in hills, and streams stealing through +unbroken forests, and all so much the more devotedly, when he had +such a companion as Margaret Cooper. + +And Margaret Cooper!--she the wild, the impassioned. A dreamer--a +muse--filled with ambitious thoughts--proud, vain, aspiring +after the vague, the unfathomable! What was her joy, now that she +could speak her whole soul, with all its passionate fullness, to +understanding ears! Stevens and herself had already spoken together. +Her books had been his books. The glowing passages which she loved +to repeat, were also the favorite passages in his memory. Over the +burning and thrilling strains of Byron, the tender and spiritual +of Shelley, the graceful and soft of Campbell, she loved to linger. +They filled her thoughts. They made her thoughts. She felt that +her true utterance lay in their language; and this language, until +now, had fallen dead and without fruit upon the dull ears of her +companions in Charlemont. What was their fiddling and festivity to +her! What their tedious recreations by hillside or stream, when she +had to depress her speech to the base levels of their unimaginative +souls! The loveliness of nature itself, unrepresented by the glowing +hues of poetry, grew tame, if not offensive; and when challenged +to its contemplation by those to whom the muse was nothing, the +fancy of the true observer grew chilled and heavy, and the scenes +of beauty seemed prostituted in their glance. + +We have all felt this. Nothing can more annoy the soul of taste or +sensibility than to behold its favorite scene and subject fail in +awakening others to that emotion which it has inspired in ourselves. +We turn away in haste, lest the object of our worship should become +degraded by a longer survey. Enthusiasm recoils at a denial of +sympathy; and all the worth of our companion, in a thousand other +respects, fails to reconcile us to his coldness and indifference. + +That Alfred Stevens had taste and talent--that he was well read +in the volumes which had been her favorite study, Margaret Cooper +needed no long time to discover. She soon ascribed to him qualities +and tastes which were beyond his nature. Deceived by his tact, she +believed in his enthusiasm. He soon discovered HER tastes; and she +found equally soon that HIS were like her own. After this discovery, +she gave him credit for other and more important possessions; and +little dreamed that, while he responded to her glowing sentiments +with others equally glowing--avowed the same love for the same +authors, and concurred with her in the preference of the same +passages--his feelings were as little susceptible of sympathy with +hers as would have been those of the cold demon Mephistopheles! +While her eye was flashing, her cheek flushed, her breast heaving +with the burning thoughts and strains of the master to whom her +beautiful lips were giving utterance, he was simply sensible to HER +beauty--to its strange, wild charms--and meditating thoughts from +which the soul of true poetry recoils with the last feelings of +aversion. Even the passion which he felt while he surveyed her, +foreign as it was to those legitimate emotions which her ambition +and her genius would equally have tended to inspire in any +justly-minded nature, might well be considered frigid--regarded as +the result of deliberate artifice--the true offspring of an habitual +and base indulgence. + +It was to meet this unsophisticated, impassioned, and confiding +girl, that Alfred Stevens bestowed such particular pains on his +costume. He felt its deficiencies, and, accordingly, the necessity +of making the most of it; for, though he perfectly well knew that +such a woman as Margaret Cooper would have been the very last to +regard the mere garment in which a congenial nature is arrayed, +yet he also well knew that the costume is not less indicative of +the tastes than the wealth of the wearer. You will see thousands +of persons, men and women, richly dressed, and but one will be WELL +dressed: that one, most generally, will be the individual who is +perhaps of all others possessed of the least resources for dress, +other than those which dwell in the well-arranged mind, the +well-disposing taste, and the happy, crowning fancy. + +His tasks of the toilet were at length ended, and he was preparing +to go forth. He was about to leave the chamber, had already placed +his hand upon the latch of the door, when he heard the voice of his +hostess, on the stairway, in seeming expostulation with her son. +He was about to forbear his purpose of departure as the parties had +retired, when, remembering the solicitude of the lady, and thinking +it would show that zest in her service which he really could not +entertain, he determined at once to to join the young man, and +begin with him that certain degree of intimacy without which it +could scarcely be supposed that he could broach the subject of his +personal affairs. He felt somewhat the awkwardness of this assumed +duty, but then he recollected his vocation; he knew the paramount +influence of the clergy upon all classes of persons in the West, +and, with the conscious superiority derived from greater years +and better education, he felt himself fortified in undertaking the +paternal office which the fond, foolish mother had confided to his +hands. Accordingly, descending the stairs briskly, he joined the +two at the entrance of the dwelling. The son was already on the +outside; the mother stood in the doorway: and, as Stevens appeared +and drew nigh, William Hinkley bowed, and turned away as if to +withdraw. + +"If you have no objections, Mr. Hinkley," said Stevens, "I will +join you. You seem to be about to go my way." + +The young man paused with an air of reluctance, muttered something +which was not altogether intelligible, but which Stevens construed +into assent, and the two set forth together--the good old matron +giving a glance of gratitude to the benevolent young student which +her son did not fail to note, while, at the same time, a sentence +which evidently conveyed some motherly rebuke, was addressed to +his already-irritated ears. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +WRESTLING. + + + + + +Alfred Stevens, as he walked behind his young companion, observed +him with a more deliberate survey than he had yet taken. Hitherto, +the young man had challenged but little of his scrutiny. He had +simply noted him for a tall youth, yet in the green, who appeared +of a sulky, retiring nature, and whose looks had seemed to him +on one or more occasions to manifest something like distaste for +himself. The complacency of Stevens, however, was too well grounded +to be much disturbed by such an exhibition. Perhaps, indeed, he +would have derived a malicious sort of satisfaction in making a +presumptuous lad feel his inferiority. He had just that smallness +of spirit which would find its triumph in the success of such a +performance. + +He now observed that the youth was well formed, tall, not ungraceful--with +features of singular intelligence, though subdued to the verge of +sadness. His face was pale and thin, his eyes were a little sunken, +and his air, expression, and general outside, denoted a youth of +keen sensibilities, who had suffered some disappointment. + +In making this examination, Alfred Stevens was not awakened to +any generous purposes. He designed, in reality, nothing more than +to acquit himself of the duty he had undertaken with the smallest +possible exertion. His own mind was one of that mediocre character +which the heart never informs. His scrutiny, therefore, though it +enabled him to perceive that the young man had qualities of worth, +was not such as to prompt any real curiosity to examine further. +A really superior mind would have been moved to look into these +resources; and, without other motive than that of bringing a young, +laboring, and ardent soul out of the meshes of a new and bewildering +thought or situation, would have addressed himself to the task with +that degree of solicitous earnestness which disarms prejudice and +invites and wins confidence. But, with his first impression, that +the whole business was a "bore," our benevolent young teacher +determined on getting through with it with the least possible effort. +He saw that the youth carried a book under his arm, the externals +of which, so uniform and discouraging as they appear in every legal +library, could not well be questioned as belonging to some such +venerable receptacle of barbarous phrase and rigid authority. The +circumstance afforded him an occasion to begin a conversation, +the opening of which, with all his coolness, was a subject of some +awkwardness. + +"You seem a student like myself, Mr. Hinkley, and, if I mistake not +from the appearance of your book, you are taking up the profession +which I am about to lay down." + +"This is a law-book, sir," said Hinkley, in accents which were +rather meek than cold; "it is Blackstone." + +"Ah! I thought as much. Have you been long a student?" + +"I may scarcely consider myself one yet. I have read, sir, rather +than studied." + +"A good distinction, not often made. But, do you incline to law +seriously?" + +"Yes, sir--I know no occupation to which I so much incline." + +"The law is a very arduous profession. It requires a rare union of +industry, talent, and knowledge of mankind to be a good lawyer." + +"I should think so, sir." + +"Few succeed where thousands fail. Young men are very apt to mistake +inclination for ability; and to be a poor lawyer--" + +"Is to be worse than poor--is to be despicable!" replied Hinkley +with a half-sfnile, as he interrupted a speech which might have +been construed into a very contemptuous commentary on his own +pretensions. It would seem that the young man had so understood +it. He continued thus:-- + +"It may be so with me, sir. It is not improbable that I deceive +myself, and confound inclination with ability." + +"Oh, pardon me, my dear young friend," said Stevens patronizingly; +"but I do not say so. I utter a mere generality. Of course, I can +know nothing on the subject of your abilities. I should be glad +to know. I should like to converse with you. But the law is very +arduous, very exacting. It requires a good mind, and it requires +the whole of it. There is no such thing as being a good lawyer +from merely reading law. You can't bolt it as we do food in this +country. We must chew upon it. It must be well digested. You seem +to have the right notion on this subject. I should judge so from two +things: the distinction which you made between the reader and the +student; and the fact that your appearance is that of the student. I +am afraid, my young friend, that you overwork yourself. You look +thin, and pale, and unhappy. You should be careful that your passion +for study is not indulged in at the peril of your health." + +The frame of the young man seemed to be suddenly agitated. His face +was flushed, and a keen, quick, flash of anger seemed to lighten +in his eyes as he looked up to the paternal counsellor and replied:-- + +"I thank you, sir, for your interest, but it is premature. I am +not conscious that my health suffers from this or any other cause." + +"Nay, my young friend, do not deceive yourself. You perhaps underrate +your own industry. It is very difficult matter to decide how much +we can do and how much we ought to do, in the way of study. No mere +thinking can determine this matter for us. It can only be decided +by being able to see what others do and can endure. In a little +country village like this, one can not easily determine; and the +difficulty may be increased somewhat by one's own conviction, of +the immense deal that one has to learn. If you were to spend a year +in some tolerably large community. Perhaps you meditate some such +plan?". + +"I do not, sir," was the cold reply. + +"Indeed; and have you no desire that way?" + +"None!" + +"Very strange! at your time of life the natural desire is to go +into the great world. Even the student fancies he can learn better +there than he can anywhere else--and so he can." + +"Indeed, sir: if I may be so bold to ask, why, with this opinion, +have you left the great city to bury yourself in a miserable village +like Charlemont?" + +The question was so quickly put, and with so much apparent keenness, +that Stevens found the tables suddenly reversed. But he was in +nowise discomposed. He answered promptly. + +"You forget," he said, "that I was speaking of very young men, of +an ambitious temper, who were seeking to become lawyers. The student +of divinity may very well be supposed to be one who would withdraw +himself from the scene of ambition, strifes, vanities, and tumultuous +passions." + +"You speak, sir, as if there were a material difference in our +years?" said Hinkley inquiringly. + +"Perhaps it is less than in our experience, my young friend," was +the answer of the other, betraying that quiet sense of superiority +which would have been felt more gallingly by Hinkley had he been +of a less modest nature. Still, it had the effect of arousing some +of the animal in his blood, and he responded in a sentence which was +not entirely without its sneer, though it probably passed without +penetrating such a buff of self-esteem as guarded the sensibilities +of our adventurer. + +"You are fortunate sir, if, at your time of life, you have succeeded +in withdrawing your thoughts and feelings, with your person, from +such scenes of ambition as you speak of. But I fancy the passions +dwell with us in the country as well as with the wiser people in +the town; and I am not sure that there is any pursuit much more +free from their intrusion than that of the law." + +"Your remark exhibits penetration, Mr. Hinkley. I should not be +surprised if you have chosen your profession properly. Still, I +should counsel you not to overwork yourself. Bear with me, sir; I +feel an interest in your behalf, and I must think you do so. Allow +me to be something of a judge in this matter. You are aware, sir, +that I too have been a lawyer." + +The youth bowed stiffly. + +"If I can lend you any assistance in your studies, I will do so. +Let me arrange them for you, and portion out your time. I know +something about that, and will save you from injuring your health. +On this point you evidently need instruction. You are doing yourself +hurt. Your appearance is matter of distress and apprehension to +your parents." + +"To my parents, sir?" + +"Your mother, I mean! She spoke to me about you this very morning. +She is distressed at some unaccountable changes which have taken +place in your manners, your health, your personal appearance. Of +course I can say nothing on the subject of the past, or of these +changes; but I may be permitted to say that your present looks do +not betoken health, and I have supposed this to be on account of +your studies. I promised your good mother to confer with you. and +counsel you, and if I can be of any help--"' + +"You are very good, sir!" + +The young man spoke bitterly. His gorge was rising. It was not +easy to suppress his vexation with his mother, and the indignation +which he felt at the supercilious approaches of the agent whom she +had employed. Besides, his mind, not less than his feelings, was +rising in vigor in due degree with the pressure put upon it. + +"You are very good, sir, and I am very much obliged to you. I +could have wished, however, that my mother had not given you this +trouble, sir. She certainly must have been thinking of Mr. John +Cross. She could scarcely have hoped that any good could have +resulted to me, from the counsel of one who is so little older than +myself." + +This speech made our adventurer elevate his eyebrows. He absolutely +stopped short to look upon the speaker. William Hinkley stopped +short also. His eye encountered that of Stevens with an expression +as full of defiance as firmness. His cheeks glowed with the generous +indignation which filled his veins. + +"This fellow has something in him after all," was the involuntary +reflection that rose to the other's mind. The effect was, however, +not very beneficial to his own manner. Instead of having the effect +of impressing upon Stevens the necessity of working cautiously, +the show of defiance which he saw tended to provoke and annoy him. +The youth had displayed so much propriety in his anger, had been +so moderate as well as firm, and had uttered his answer with so +much dignity and correctness, that he felt himself rebuked. To be +encountered by an unsophisticated boy, and foiled, though but for +an instant--slightly estimated, though but by a youth, and him +too, a mere rustic--was mortifying to the self-esteem that rather +precipitately hurried to resent it." + +"You take it seriously, Mr. Hinkley. But surely an offer of service +need not be mistaken. As for the trifling difference which may be +in our years, that is perhaps nothing to the difference which may +be in our experience, our knowledge of the world, our opportunities +and studies." + +"Surely, sir; all thece MAY be, but at all events we are not bound +to assume their existence until it is shown." + +"Oh, you are likely to prove an adept in the law, Mr. Hinkley." + +"I trust, sir, that your progress may be as great in the church." + +"Ha!--do I understand you? There is war between us then?" said +Stevens, watching the animated and speaking countenance of William +Hinkley with increasing curiosity. + +"Ay, sir--there is!" was the spirited reply of the youth. "Let it +be war; I am the better pleased, sir, that you are the first to +proclaim it." + +"Very good," said Stevens, "be it so, if you will. At all events +you can have no objection to say why it should be so." + +"Do you ask, sir?" + +"Surely; for I can not guess." + +"You are less sagacious, then, than I had fancied you. You, scarce +older than myself--a stranger among us--come to me in the language +of a father, or a master, and without asking what I have of feeling, +or what I lack of sense, undertake deliberately to wound the one, +while insolently presuming to inform the other." + +"At the request of your own mother!" + +"Pshaw! what man of sense or honesty would urge such a plea. Years, +and long intimacy, and wisdom admitted to be superior, could alone +justify the presumption." + +The cheeks of Stevens became scalding hot. + +"Young man!" he exclaimed, "there is something more than this!" + +"What! would it need more were our positions reversed?" demanded +Hinkley with a promptness that surprised himself. + +"Perhaps not! would you provoke me to personal violence?" + +"Ha! might I hope for that? surely you forget that you are a +churchman?" + +Stevens paused awhile before he answered. His eyes looked vacantly +around him. By this time they had left the more thickly-settled parts +of the village considerably behind them. But a few more dwellings +lay along the path on which they were approaching. On the left, +a gorge opened in the hills by which the valley was dotted, which +seemed a pathway, and did indeed lead to one or more dwellings which +were out of sight in the opposite valley. The region to which this +pathway led was very secluded, and the eye of Stevens surveyed it +for a few moments in silence. The words of Hinkley unquestionably +conveyed a challenge. According to the practice of the country, +AS A LAWYER, he would have been bound to have taken it as such. A +moment was required for reflection. His former and present position +caused a conflict in his mind. The last sentence of Hinkley, and +a sudden glimpse which he just then caught of the residence of +Margaret Cooper, determined his answer. + +"I thank you, young man, for reminding me of my duties. You had +nearly provoked the old passions and old practices into revival. +I forgive you--you misunderstand me clearly. I know not how I have +offended you, for my, only purpose was to serve your mother and +yourself. I may have done this unwisely. I will not attempt to +prove that I have not. At all events, assured of my own motives, I +leave you to yourself. You will probably ere long feel the injustice +you have done me!" + +He continued on his way, leaving William Hinkley almost rooted to +the spot. The poor youth was actually stunned, not by what was said +to him, but by the sudden consciousness of his own vehemence. He +had expressed himself with a boldness and an energy of which neither +himself nor his friend, until now, would have thought him capable. +A moment's pause in the provocation, and the feelings which had +goaded him on were taken with a revulsion quite as sudden. As he +knew not well what he had said, so he fancied he had said everything +precisely as the passionate thought had suggested it in his own +mind. Already he began to blame himself--to feel that he had done +wrong--that there had been nothing in the conduct or manner of +Stevens, however unpleasant, to justify his own violence; and that +the true secret of his anger was to be found in that instinctive +hostility which he had felt for his rival from the first. The more +he mused, the more he became humbled by his thoughts; and when he +recollected the avowed profession of Stevens his shame increased. +He felt how shocking it was to intimate to a sworn non-combatant +the idea of a personal conflict. To what point of self-abasement his +thoughts would have carried him, may only be conjectured; he might +have hurried forward to overtake his antagonist with the distinct +purpose of making the most ample apology; nay, more, such was the +distinct thought which was now pressing upon his mind, when he was +saved from this humiliation by perceiving that Stevens had already +reached, and was about to enter the dwelling of Margaret Cooper. +With this sight, every thought and feeling gave place to that of +baffled love, and disappointed affection. With a bitter groan he +turned up the gorge, and soon shut himself from sight of the now +hateful habitation. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE MASTER AND HIS PUPILS. + + + + + +The course of the young rustic was pursued for half a mile further +till he came to a little cottage of which the eye could take no +cognizance from any part of the village. It was embowelled in a +glen of its own--a mere cup of the slightly-rising hills, and so +encircled by foliage that it needed a very near approach of the +stranger before he became aware of its existence. The structure was +very small, a sort of square box with a cap upon it, and consisted +of two rooms only on a ground floor, with a little lean-to or +shed-room in the rear, intended for a kitchen. As you drew nigh +and passed through the thick fringe of wood by which its approach +was guarded, the space opened before you, and you found yourself +in a sort of amphitheatre, of which the cottage was the centre. A +few trees dotted this area, large and massive trees, and seemingly +preserved for purposes of shade only. It was the quietest spot in +the world, and inspired just that sort of feeling in the contemplative +stranger which would be awakened by a ramble among the roofless +ruins of the ancient abbey. It was a home for contemplation--in +which one might easily forget the busy world without, and deliver +himself up, without an effort, to the sweetly sad musings of the +anchorite. + +The place was occupied, however. A human heart beat within the +humble shed, and there was a spirit, sheltered by its quiet, that +mused many high thoughts, and dreamed in equal congratulation and +self-reproach, of that busy world from which it was an exile. The +visit of William Hinkley was not paid to the solitude. A venerable +man, of large frame, and benignant aspect, sat beneath an aged +tree, paternal in its appearance like himself. This person might be +between fifty and sixty years of age. His hair, though very thick +and vigorous, was as white as driven snow. But there were few wrinkles +on his face, and his complexion was the clear red and white of a +healthy and sanguine temperament. His brow was large and lofty. It +had many more wrinkles than his face. There were two large horizontal +seams upon it that denoted the exercise of a very busy thought. +But the expression of his eye was that of the most unembarrassed +benevolence and peace. It was subdued and sometimes sad, but then +it had the sweetest, playfullest twinkle in the world. His mouth, +which was small and beautifully formed, wore a similar expression. +In short he was what we would call a handsome old gentleman, whose +appearance did not offend taste, and whose kind looks invited +confidence. Nor would we mistake his character. + +This person was the Mr. Calvert, the schoolmaster of the village, +of whom Mrs. Hinkley spoke to Alfred Stevens in discussing +the condition of her son. His tasks were over for the day. The +light-hearted rabble whom he taught, released from his dominion which +was not severe, were, by this time, scampering over the hills, as +far from their usual place of restraint as the moderate strength of +their legs could carry them. Though let loose, boys are not apt to +feel their liberty in its prime and freshness, immediately in the +neighborhood of the schoolhouse. The old gentleman left to himself, +sat out in the open air, beneath a massive oak, the paternal stretching +of whose venerable arms not unfrequently led to the employment of +the shade below for carrying on the operations of the schoolhouse. +There, squat on their haunches, the sturdy boys--germs of the finest +peasantry in the world--surrounded their teacher in a group quite +as pleasing as picturesque. The sway of the old man was paternal. +His rod was rather a figurative than a real existence; and when +driven to the use of the birch, the good man, consulting more +tastes than one, employed the switch from the peach or some other +odorous tree or shrub, in order to reconcile the lad, as well as +he could, to the extraordinary application. He was one of those +considerate persons, who disguise pills in gold-leaf, and if compelled, +as a judge, to hang a gentleman, would decree that a rope of silk +should carry out the painful requisitions of the laws. + +Seated beneath his tree, in nearly the same spot and position in +which he had dismissed his pupils, William Calvert pored over the +pages of a volume as huge of size as it was musty of appearance. +It was that pleasant book--quite as much romance as history--the +"Knights of Malta," by our venerable father, Monsieur L'Abbe +Vertot. Its dull, dim, yellow-looking pages--how yellow, dim, and +dull-looking in comparison with more youthful works--had yet a +life and soul which it is not easy to find in many of these latter. +Its high wrought and elaborate pictures of strife, and toil, and +bloodshed, grew vividly before the old man's eyes; and then, to help +the illusion, were there not the portraits--mark me--the veritable +portraits, engraved on copper, with all their titles, badges, and +insignia, done to the life, of all those brave, grand, and famous +masters of the order, by whom the deeds were enacted which he +read, and who stared out upon his eyes, at every epoch, in full +confirmation of the veracious narrative? No wonder that the old +man became heedless of external objects. No wonder he forgot the +noise of the retiring urchins, and the toils of the day, as, for +the twentieth time, he glowed in the brave recital of the famous +siege--the baffled fury of the Turk--the unshaken constancy and +unremitted valor of the few but fearless defenders. The blood in +his cheek might be seen hastening to and fro in accordance with the +events of which he read. His eye was glowing--his pulse beating, +and he half started from his seat, as, hearing a slight footstep, +he turned to encounter the respectful homage of his former pupil, +still his friend, our young acquaintance, William Hinkley. + +The old man laid down his book upon the grass, extended his hand +to his visiter, and leaning back against the tree, surrendered +himself to a quiet chuckle in which there was the hesitancy of a +little shame. + +"You surprised me, William," he said; "when I read old Vertot, +and such books, I feel myself a boy again. You must have seen my +emotion. I really had got so warm, that I was about to start up and +look for the weapons of war; and had you but come a moment later, +you might have suffered an assault. As it was, I took you for +a Turk--Solyman himself--and was beginning to ask myself whether +I should attack you tooth and nail, having no other weapons, or +propose terms of peace. Considering the severe losses which you--I +mean his Turkish highness--had sustained, I fancied that you would +not be disinclined to an arrangement just at this moment. But +this very notion, at the same time, led me to the conclusion that +I might end the struggle for ever by another blow. A moment later, +my boy, and you might have been compelled to endure it for the +Turk." + +The youth smiled sadly as he replied: "I must borrow that book +from you, sir, some of these days. I have often thought to do so, +but I am afraid." + +"Afraid of what, William?" + +"That it will turn my head, sir, and make me dislike more difficult +studies." + +"It is a reasonable fear, my son; but there is no danger of this +sort, if we will only take heed of one rule, and that is, to take +such books as we take sweetmeats--in very small quantities at a +time, and never to interfere with the main repast. I suspect that +light reading--or reading which we usually call light, but which, +as it concerns the fate of man in his most serious relations, his +hopes, his affections, his heart, nay, his very people and nation--is +scarcely less important than any other. I suspect that this sort +of reading would be of great service to the student, by relieving +the solemnity of more tedious and exacting studies, if taken sparingly +and at allotted hours. The student usually finds a recreation of +some kind. I would make books of this description his recreation. +Many a thick-headed and sour parent has forced his son into +a beer-shop, into the tastes for tobacco and consequently brandy, +simply from denying him amusements which equally warm the blood +and elevate the imagination. Studies which merely inform the head +are very apt to endanger the heart. This is the reproach usually +urged against the class of persons whom we call thorough lawyers. +Their intense devotion to that narrow sphere of law which leaves +out jury-pleading, is very apt to endanger the existence of feeling +and imagination. The mere analysis of external principles begets a +degree of moral indifference to all things else, which really impairs +the intellect by depriving it of its highest sources of stimulus. +Mathematicians suffer in the same way--become mere machines, and +forfeit, in their concern for figures, all the social and most +of the human characteristics. The mind is always enfeebled by any +pursuit so single and absorbing in its aims as to leave out of +exercise any of the moral faculties. That course of study is the +only one to make a truly great man, which compels the mind to do +all things of which it is capable." + +"But how do you reconcile this, sir, with the opinion, so generally +entertained, that no one man can serve two masters? Law, like the +muse, is a jealous mistress. She is said to suffer no lachesse to +escape with impunity." + +"You mistake me. While I counsel one to go out of his profession +for relief and recreation, I still counsel but the one pursuit. Men +fail in their professions, not because they daily assign an hour +to amusement, but because they halt in a perpetual struggle between +some two leading objects. For example, nothing is more frequent in +our country than to combine law and politics. Nothing is more apt +to ruin the lawyer." + +"Very true, sir. I now understand you. But I should think the great +difficulty would be, in resorting to such pleasant books as this +of Vertot for relief and recreation, that you could not cast him +off when you please. The intoxication would continue even after +the draught has been swallowed, and would thus interfere with the +hours devoted to other employments." + +"There is reason in that, William, and that, indeed, is the grand +difficulty. But to show that a good scheme has its difficulties is +not an argument for abandoning it." + +"By no means, sir." + +"The same individual whom Vertot might intoxicate, would most +probably be intoxicated by more dangerous stimulants. Everything, +however, depends upon the habits of self-control which a man has +acquired in his boyhood. The habit of self-control is the only +habit which makes mental power truly effective. The man who can not +compel himself to do or to forbear, can never be much of a student. +Students, if you observe, are generally dogged men--inflexible, +plodding, persevering--among lawyers, those men whom you always +find at their offices, and seldom see anywhere else. They own +that mental habit which we call self-control, which supplies the +deficiency in numerous instances of real talent. It is a power, +and a mighty power, particularly in this country, where children +are seldom taught it, and consequently grow up to be a sort of moral +vanes that move with every change of wind, and never fix until they +do so with their own rust. He who learns this power in boyhood will +be very sure to master all his companions." + +The darker expression of sadness passed over the countenance of +the ingenuous youth. + +"I am afraid," said he, "that I shall never acquire this habit." + +"Why so? In your very fear I see a hope." + +"Alas! sir, I feel my own instability of character. I feel myself +the victim of a thousand plans and purposes, which change as soon +and as often as they are made. I am afraid, sir, I shall be nothing!" + +"Do not despond, my son," said the old man sympathizingly. "Your +fear is natural to your age and temperament. Most young men at +your time of life feel numerous yearnings--the struggle of various +qualities of mind, each striving in newly-born activity, and +striving adversely. Your unhappiness arises from the refusal of +these qualities to act together. When they learn to co-operate, all +will be easy. Your strifes will be subdued; there will be a calm +like that upon the sea when the storms subside." + +"Ah! but when will that be? A long time yet. It seems to me that +the storm rather increases than subsides." + +"It may seem so to you now, and yet, when the strife is greatest, +the favorable change is at hand. It needs but one thing to make +all the conflicting qualities of one's mind cooperate." + +"What is that one thing, sir?" + +"An object! As yet, you have none." + +"None, sir!" + +"None--or rather many--which is pretty much the same thing as having +none." + +"I am not sure, sir--but it seems to me, sir, that I have an object." + +"Indeed, William! are you sure?" + +"I think so, sir." + +"Well, name it," + +"I have ambition, sir." + +"Ah! that is a passion, not an object. Does your ambition point in +one direction? Unless it does, it is objectless." + +The youth was silent. The old man proceeded:-- + +"I am disposed to be severe with you, my son. There is no surer +sign of feebleness than in the constant beginnings and the never +performings of a mind. Know thyself, is the first lesson to learn. +Is it not very childish to talk of having ambition, without knowing +what to do with it? If we have ambition, it is given to us to work +with. You come to me, and declare this ambition! We confer together. +Your ambition seeks for utterance. You ask, 'What sort of utterance +will suit an ambition such as mine?' To answer this question, +we ask, 'What are your qualities?' Did you think, William, that I +disparaged yours when I recommended the law to you as a profession?" + +"No, sir! oh, no! Perhaps you overrated them. I am afraid so--I +think so." + +"No, William, unfortunately, you do not think about it. If you +would suffer yourself to think, you would speak a different language." + +"I can not think--I am too miserable to think!" exclaimed the youth +in a burst of passion. The old man looked surprised. He gazed with +a serious anxiety into the youth's face, and then addressed him:-- + +"Where have you been, William, for the last three weeks? In all +that time I have not seen you." + +A warm blush suffused the cheeks of the pupil. He did not immediately +answer. + +"Ask ME!" exclaimed a voice from behind them, which they both +instantly recognised as that of Ned Hinkley, the cousin of William. +He had approached them, in the earnestness of their interview, +without having disturbed them. The bold youth was habited in a +rough woodman's dress. He wore a round jacket of homespun, and in +his hand he carried a couple of fishing-rods, which, with certain +other implements, betiayed sufficiently the object of his present +pursuit. + +"Ask me!" said he. "I can tell you what he's been about better than +anybody else." + +"Well, Ned," said the old man, "what has it been? I am afraid it +is your fiddle that keeps him from his Blackstone." + +"My fiddle, indeed! If he would listen to my fiddle when she speaks +out, he'd be wiser and better for it. Look at him, Mr. Calvert, and +say whether it's book or fiddle that's likely to make him as lean +as a March pickerel in the short space of three months. Only look +at him, I say." + +"Truly, William, I had not observed it before, but, as Ned says, +you do look thin, and you tell me you are unhappy. Hard study might +make you thin, but can not make you unhappy. What is it?" + +The more volatile and freespoken cousin answered for him. + +"He's been shot, gran'pa, since you saw him last." + +"Shot?" + +"Yes, shot!--He THINKS mortally. I think not. A flesh wound to my +thinking, that a few months more will cure." + +"You have some joke at bottom, Edward," said the old man gravely. + +"Joke, sir! It's a tough joke that cudgels a plump lad into a lean +one in a single season." + +"What do you mean?" + +"I mean to use your own language, gran'pa. Among the lessons +I got from you when you undertook to fill our heads with wisdom +by applications of smartness to a very different place--among the +books we sometimes read from was one of Master Ovid." + +"Ha! ha! I see what you're after. I understand the shooting. So +you think that the blind boy has hit William, eh?" + +"A flesh wound as I tell you; but he thinks the bolt is in his +heart. I'm sure it can and will be plucked out, and no death will +follow." + +"Well! who's the maiden from whose eyes the arrow was barbed?" + +"Margaret Cooper." + +"Ah! indeed!" said the old man gravely. + +"Do not heed him," exclaimed William Hinkley; but the blush upon +his cheeks, still increasing, spoke a different language. + +"I would rather not heed him, William. The passions of persons so +young as yourself are seldom of a permanent character. The attractions +which win the boy seldom compensate the man. There is time enough +for this, ten years hence, and love then will be far more rational." + +"Ah, lud!--wait ten years at twenty. I can believe a great deal +in the doctrine of young men's folly, but I can't go that. I'm in +love myself." + +"You!" + +"Yes! I!--I'm hit too--and if you don't like it, why did you teach +us Ovid and the rest? As for rational love, that's a new sort of +thing that we never heard about before. Love was never expected +to be rational. He's known the contrary. I've heard so ever since +I was knee-high to the great picture of your Cupid that you showed +us in your famous Dutch edition of Apuleius. The young unmarried +men feel that it's irrational; the old married people tell us so +in a grunt that proves the truth of what they say. But that don't +alter the case. It's a sort of natural madness that makes one attack +in every person's lifetime. I don't believe in repeated attacks. +Some are bit worse than others; and some think themselves bit, +and are mistaken. That's the case with William, and it's that that +keeps him from your law-books and my fiddle. That makes him thin. +He has a notion of Margaret Cooper, and she has none of him; and +love that's all of one side is neither real nor rational. I don't +believe it." + +William Hinkley muttered something angrily in the ears of the +speaker. + +"Well, well!" said the impetuous cousin, "I don't want to make you +vexed, and still less do I come here to talk such politics with +you. What do you say to tickling a trout this afternoon? That's +what I come for." + +"It's too cool," said the old man. + +"Not a bit. There's a wind from the south, and a cast of cloud +is constantly growing between us and the sun. I think we shall do +something--something better than talking about love, and law, where +nobody's agreed. You, gran'pa, won't take the love; Bill Hinkley +can't stomach the law, and the trout alone can bring about a +reconciliation. Come, gran'pa, I'm resolved on getting your supper +to-night, and you must go and see me do it." + +"On one condition only, Ned." + +"What's that, gran'pa?" + +"That you both sup with me." + +"Done for myself. What say you, Bill?" + +The youth gave a sad assent, and the rattling youth proceeded:-- + +"The best cure of grief is eating. Love is a sort of pleasant grief. +Many a case of affliction have I seen mended by a beefsteak. Fish +is better. Get a lover to eat, rouse up his appetites, and, to the +same extent, you lessen his affections. Hot suppers keep down the +sensibilities; and, gran'pa, after ours, to-night, you shall have +the fiddle. If I don't make her speak to you to-night, my name's +Brag, and you need never again believe me." + +And the good-humored youth, gathering up his canes, led the way to +the hills, slowly followed by his two less elastic companions. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE HISTORY OF A FAILURE. + + + + + +The route, which conducted them--over a range of gently-ascending +hills, through groves tolerably thick, an uncleared woodland tract +comprising every variety of pleasant foliage, at length brought them +to a lonely tarn or lake, about a mile in circumference, nestled +and crouching in the hollow of the hills, which, in some places +sloped gently down to its margin, at others hung abruptly over its +deep and pensive waters. A thick fringe of shrubs, water-grasses, +and wild flowers, girdled its edges, and gave a dark and mysterious +expression to its face. There were many beaten tracks, narrow paths +for individual wayfarers on foot, which conducted down to favorite +fishing-spots. These were found chiefly on those sides of the lake +where the rocks were precipitous. Perched on a jutting eminence, and +half shrouded in the bushes which clothed it, the silent fisherman +took his place, while his fly was made to kiss the water in capricious +evolutions, such as the experienced angler knows how to employ to +beguile the wary victim from close cove, or gloomy hollow, or from +beneath those decaying trunks of overthrown trees which have given +his brood a shelter from immemorial time. + +To one of these selected spots, Ned Hinkley proceeded, leaving his +companions above, where, in shade themselves, and lying at ease +upon the smooth turf, they could watch his successes, and at the +same time enjoy the coup d'oeil, which was singularly beautiful, +afforded by the whole surrounding expanse. The tarn, like the dark +mysterious dwelling of an Undine, was spread out before them with +the smoothness of glass, though untransparent, and shining beneath +their eyes like a vast basin of the richest jet. A thousand pretty +changes along the upland slopes, or abrupt hills which hemmed it +in, gave it a singular aspect of variety which is seldom afforded +by any scene very remarkable for its stillness and seclusion. +Opposite to the rock on which Ned Hinkley was already crouching, +the hill-slope to the lake was singularly unbroken, and so gradual +was the ascent from the margin, that one was scarcely conscious +of his upward movement, until looking behind him, he saw how far +below lay the waters which he had lately left. + +The pathway, which had been often trodden, was very distinctly +marked to the eyes of our two friends on the opposite elevation, +and they could also perceive where the same footpath extended on +either hand a few yards from the lake, so as to enable the wanderer +to prolong his rambles, on either side, until reaching the foot of +the abrupt masses of rock which distinguished the opposite margin +of the basin. To ascend these, on that side, was a work of toil, +which none but the lover of the picturesque is often found willing +to encounter. Above, even to the eyes of our friends, though +they occupied an eminence, the skies seemed circumscribed to the +circumference of the lake and the hills by which it was surrounded; +and the appearance of the whole region, therefore, was that of +a complete amphitheatre, the lake being the floor, the hills the +mighty pillars, and the roof, the blue, bright, fretted canopy of +heaven. + +"I have missed you, my son, for some time past, and the beauty of +the picture reminds me of what your seeming neglect has made me +lose. When I was a young man I would have preferred to visit such +a spot as this alone. But the sense of desolation presses heavily +upon an old man under any circumstances; and he seeks for the +company of the young, as if to freshen, with sympathy and memory, +the cheerlessness and decay which attends all his own thoughts +and fancies. To come alone into the woods, even though the scene +I look on be as fair as this, makes me moody and awakens gloomy +imaginations; and since you have been so long absent, I have taken +to my books again, and given up the woods. Ah! books, alone, never +desert us; never prove unfaithful; never chide us; never mock us, +as even these woods do, with the memory of baffled hopes, and dreams +of youth, gone, never to return again. + +"I trust, my dear sir, you do not think me ungrateful. I have not +wilfully neglected you. More than once I set out to visit you; but +my heart was so full--I was so very unhappy--that I had not the +spirit for it. I felt that I should not be any company for you, +and feared that I would only affect you with some of my own dullness." + +"Nay, that should be no fear with you, my dear boy, for you should +know that the very sorrows of youth, as they awaken the sympathies +of age, provide it with the means of excitement. It is the misfortune +of age that its interest is slow to kindle. Whatever excites the +pulse, if not violently, is beneficial to the heart of the old man. +But these sorrows of yours, my son--do you not call them by too +strong a name? I suspect they are nothing more than the discontents, +the vague yearnings of the young and ardent nature, such as prompt +enterprise and lead to nobleness. If you had them not, you would +think of little else than how to squat with your cousin there, +seeking to entrap your dinner; nay, not so much--you would think +only of the modes of cooking and the delight of eating the fish, +and shrink from the toil of taking it. Do not deceive yourself. +This sorrow which distresses you is possibly a beneficial sorrow. +It is the hope which is in you to be something--to DO something--for +this DOING is after all, and before all, the great object of +living. The hope of the heart is always a discontent--most generally +a wholesome discontent--sometimes a noble discontent leading to +nobleness. It is to be satisfied rather than nursed. You must do +what it requires." + +"I know not what it requires." + +"Your DOING then must be confined at present to finding out what +that is." + +"Alas! sir, it seems to me as if I could no more THINK than I can +DO" + +"Very likely;--that is the case at present; and there are several +reasons for this feebleness. The energies which have not yet been +tasked, do not know well how to begin. You have been a favored boy. +Your wants have been well provided for. Your parents have loved +you only too much." + +"Too much! Why, even now, I am met with cold looks and reproachful +words, on account of this stranger, of whom nobody knows anything." + +"Even so: suppose that to be the case, my son; still it does not +alter the truth of what I say. You can not imagine that your parents +prefer this stranger to yourself, unless you imagine them to have +undergone a very sudden change of character. They have always +treated you tenderly--too tenderly." + +"Too tenderly, sir?" + +"Yes, William, too tenderly. Their tenderness has enfeebled you, and +that is the reason you know not in what way to begin to dissipate +your doubts, and apply your energies. If they reproach you, that is +because they have some interest in you, and a right in you, which +constitutes their interest. If they treat the stranger civilly, it +is because he is a stranger." + +"Ay, sir, but what if they give this stranger authority to question +and to counsel me? Is not this a cruel indignity?" + +"Softly, William, softly! There is something at the bottom of +this which I do not see, and which perhaps you do not see. If your +parents employ a stranger to counsel you, it proves that something +in your conduct leads them to think that you need counsel." + +"That may be, sir; but why not give it themselves? why employ a +person of whom nobody knows anything?" + +"I infer from your tone, my son, rather than your words, that you +have some dislike to this stranger. + +"No, sir--"was the beginning of the young man's reply, but he +stopped short with a guilty consciousness. A warm blush overspread +his cheek, and he remained silent. The old man, without seeming to +perceive the momentary interruption, or the confusion which followed +it, proceeded in his commentary. + +"There should be nothing, surely, to anger you in good counsel, +spoken even by a stranger, my son; and even where the counsel be +not good, if the motive be so, it requires our gratitude though it +may not receive our adoption." + +"I don't know, sir, but it seems to me very strange, and is very +humiliating, that I should be required to submit to the instructions +of one of whom we know nothing, and who is scarcely older than +myself." + +"It may be mortifying to your self-esteem, my son, but self-esteem, +when too active, is compelled constantly to suffer this sort of +mortification. It may be that one man shall not be older in actual +years than another, yet be able to teach that other. Merely living, +days and weeks and months, constitutes no right to wisdom: it is +the crowding events and experience--the indefatigable industry--the +living actively and well--that supply us with the materials for +knowing and teaching. In comparison with millions of your own age, +who have lived among men, and shared in their strifes and troubles, +you would find yourself as feeble a child as ever yet needed the +helping hand of counsel and guardianship; and this brings me back +to what I said before. Your parents have treated you too tenderly. +They have done everything for you. You have done nothing for +yourself. They provide for your wants, hearken to your complaints, +nurture you in sickness, with a diseasing fondness, and so render +you incapable. Hence it is, that, in the toils of manhood, you do +not know how to begin. You lack courage and perseverance." + +"Courage and perseverance!" was the surprised exclamation of the +youth. + +"Precisely, and lest I should offend you, my son, I must acknowledge +to you beforehand, that this very deficiency was my own." + +"Yours, sir? I can not think it. What! lack courage?" + +"Exactly so!" + +"Why, sir--did I not see you myself, when everybody else looked +on with trembling and with terror, throw yourself in the way of +Drummond's horses and save the poor boy from being dashed to pieces? +There was surely no lack of courage there!" + +"No! in that sense, my son, I labor under no deficiency. But +this sort of courage is of the meanest kind. It is the courage of +impulse, not of steadfastness. Hear me, William. You have more than +once allowed the expression of a wonder to escape you, why a man, +having such a passion for books and study, and with the appearance +of mental resources, such as I am supposed to possess, should be +content, retiring from the great city, to set up his habitation in +this remote and obscure region. My chosen profession was the law; +I was no unfaithful student. True, I had no parents to lament my +wanderings and failures; but I did not wander. I studied closely, +with a degree of diligence which seemed to surprise all my companions. +I was ambitious--intensely ambitious. My head ran upon the strifes +of the forum, its exciting contests of mind and soul--its troubles, +its triumphs. This was my leading thought--it was my only passion. +The boy-frenzies for women, which are prompted less by sentiment +or judgment, than by feverish blood, troubled me little. Law was my +mistress--took up all my time--absorbed all my devotion. I believe +that I was a good lawyer--no pettifogger--the merely drilled +creature who toils for his license, and toils for ever after solely +for his petty gains, in the miserably petty arts of making gains +for others, and eluding the snares set for his own feet by kindred +spirits. As far as the teaching of this country could afford me +the means and opportunity, I endeavored to procure a knowledge of +universal law--its sources--its true objects--its just principles--its +legitimate dicta. Mere authorities never satisfied me, unless, +passing behind the black gowns, I could follow up the reasoning +to the first fountains--the small original truths, the nicely +discriminated requisitions of immutable justice--the clearly-defined +and inevitable wants of a superior and prosperous society. Everything +that could illustrate law as well as fortify it; every collateral +aid, in the shape of history or moral truth, I gathered together, +even as the dragoon whose chief agent is his sabre, yet takes care +to provide himself with pistols, that may finish what the other +weapon has begun. Nor did I content myself with the mere acquisition +of the necessary knowledge. Knowing how much depends upon voice, +manner and fluency, in obtaining success before a jury, I addressed +myself to these particulars with equal industry. My voice, even +now, has a compass which your unexercised lungs, though quite as +good originally as mine, would fail entirely to contend with. I +do not deceive myself, as I certainly do not seek to deceive you, +when I say, that I acquired the happiest mastery over my person." + +"Ah! sir--we see that now--that must have been the case!" said the +youth interrupting him. The other continued, sadly smiling as he +heard the eulogy which the youth meant to speak, the utterance of +which was obviously from the heart. + +"My voice was taught by various exercises to be slow or rapid, soft +or strong, harsh or musical, by the most sudden, yet unnoticeable +transitions. I practised all the arts, which are recommended by +elocutionists for this purpose, I rumbled my eloquence standing on +the seashore, up to my middle in the breakers. I ran, roaring up +steep hills--I stretched myself at length by the side of meandering +brooks, or in slumberous forests of pine, and sought, by the merest +whispers, to express myself with distinctness and melody. But there +was something yet more requisite than these, and this was language. +My labors to obtain all the arts of utterance did not seem less +successful. I could dilate with singular fluency, with classical +propriety, and great natural vigor of expression. I studied directness +of expression by a frequent intercourse with men of business, and +examined, with the nicest urgency, the particular characteristics +of those of my own profession who were most remarkable for their +plain, forcible speaking. I say nothing of my studies of such great +masters in discourse and philosophy, as Milton, Sliakspere, Homer, +Lord Bacon, and the great English divines. As a model of pure English +the Bible was a daily study of two hours; and from this noble well +of vernacular eloquence, I gathered--so I fancied--no small portion +of its quaint expressive vigor, its stern emphasis, its golden and +choice phrases of illustration. Never did a young lawyer go into +the forum more thoroughly clad in proof, or with a better armory +as well for defence as attack." + +"You did not fail, sir?" exclaimed the youth with a painful expression +of eager anxiety upon his countenance. + +"I did fail--fail altogether! In the first effort to speak, I +fainted, and was carried lifeless from the court-room." + +The old man covered his face with his hands, for a few moments, +to conceal the expression of pain and mortification which memory +continued to renew in utter despite of time. The young man's hand +rested affectionately on his shoulder. A few moments sufficed to +enable the former to renew his narrative. + +"I was stunned but not crushed by this event. I knew my own resources. +I recollected a similar anecdote of Sheridan; of his first attempt +and wretched failure. I, too, felt that 'I had it in me,' and though +I did not express, I made the same resolution, that 'I would bring +it out.' But Sheridan and myself failed from different causes, +though I did not understand this at that time. He had a degree of +hardihood which I had not; and he utterly lacked my sensibilities. +The very intenseness of my ambition; the extent of my expectation; +the elevated estimate which I had made of my own profession; of +its exactions; and, again, of what was expected from me; were all +so many obstacles to my success. I did not so esteem them, then; and +after renewing my studies in private, my exercises of expression and +manner, and going through a harder course of drilling, I repeated +the attempt to suffer a repetition of the failure. I did not +again faint, but I was speechless. I not only lost the power of +utterance, but I lost the corresponding faculty of sight. My eyes +were completely dazed and confounded. The objects of sight around +me were as crowded and confused as the far, dim ranges of figures, +tribes upon tribes, and legions upon legions, which struggle +in obscurity and distance, in any one of the begrimed and blurred +pictures of Martin's Pandemonium. My second failure was a more +enfeebling disaster than the first. The first procured me the +sympathy of my audience, the last exposed me to its ridicule." + +Again the old man paused. By this time, the youth had got one of +his arms about the neck of the speaker, and had taken one of his +hands within his grasp. + +"Yours is a generous nature, William," said Mr. Calvert, "and I have +not said to you, until to-day, how grateful your boyish sympathies +have been to me from the first day when you became my pupil. It +is my knowledge of these sympathies, and a desire to reward them, +that prompts me to tell a story which still brings its pains to +memory, and which would be given to no other ears than your own. +I see that you are eager for the rest--for the wretched sequel." + +"Oh, no! sir--do not tell me any more of it if it brings you pain. +I confess I should like to know all, but--" + +"You shall have it all, my son. My purpose would not be answered +unless I finished the narrative. You will gather from it, very +possibly, the moral which I could not. You will comprehend something +better, the woful distinction between courage of the blood and courage +of the brain; between the mere recklessness of brute impulse, and +the steady valor of the soul--that valor, which, though it trembles, +marches forward to the attack--recovers from its fainting, to +retrieve its defeat; and glows with self-indignation because it has +suffered the moment of victory to pass, without employing itself +to secure the boon!-- + +"Shame, and a natural desire to retrieve myself, operated to make +me renew my efforts. I need not go through the processes by which +I endeavored to acquire the necessary degree of hardihood. In vain +did I recall the fact that my competitors were notoriously persons +far inferior to me in knowledge of the topics; far inferior in the +capacity to analyze them; rude and coarse in expression; unfamiliar +with the language--mere delvers and diggers in a science in which +I secretly felt that I should be a master. In vain did I recall to +mind the fact that I knew the community before which I was likely +to speak; I knew its deficiencies; knew the inferiority of its +idols, and could and should have no sort of fear of its criticism. +But it was myself that I feared. I had mistaken the true censor. +It was my own standards of judgment that distressed and made me +tremble. It was what I expected of myself--what I thought should +be expected of me--that made my weak soul recoil in terror from +the conviction that I must fail in its endeavor to reach the point +which my ambitious soul strove to attain. The fear, in such cases, +produced the very disaster, from the anticipated dread of which +it had arisen. I again failed--failed egregiously--failed utterly +and for ever! I never again attempted the fearful trial. I gave +up the contest, yielded the field to my inferiors, better-nerved, +though inferior, and, with all my learning, all my eloquence, my +voice, my manner; my resources of study, thought, and utterance, +fled from sight--fled here--to bury myself in the wilderness, +and descend to the less ambitious, but less dangerous vocation of +schooling--I trust, to better uses--the minds of others. I had done +nothing with my own." + +"Oh, sir, do not say so. Though you may have failed in one department +of human performance, you have succeeded in others. You have lost +none of the knowledge which you then acquired. You possess all the +gifts of eloquence, of manner, of voice, of education, of thought." + +"But of what use, my son? Remember, we do not toil for these +possessions to lock them up--to content ourselves, as the miserable +miser, with the consciousness that we possess a treasure known to +ourselves only--useless to all others as to ourselves! Learning, +like love, like money, derives its true value from its circulation." + +"And you circulate yours, my dear sir. What do we not owe you in +Charlemont? What do I not owe you, over all?" + +"Love, my son--love only. Pay me that. Do not desert me in my old +age. Do not leave me utterly alone!" + +"I will not, sir--I never thought to do so." + +"But," said the old man, "to resume. Why did I fail is still the +question. Because I had not been taught those lessons of steady +endurance in my youth which would have strengthened me against failure, +and enable me finally to triumph. There is a rich significance in +what we hear of the Spartan boy, who never betrayed his uneasiness +or agony though the fox was tearing out his bowels. There is a +sort of moral roughening which boys should be made to endure from +the beginning, if the hope is ever entertained, to mature their +minds to intellectual manhood. Our American Indians prescribe the +same laws, and in their practice, very much resemble the ancient +Spartans. To bear fatigue, and starvation, and injury--exposure, +wet, privation, blows--but never to complain. Nothing betrays so +decidedly the lack of moral courage as the voice of complaint. It +is properly the language of woman. It must not be your language. +Do you understand me, William?" + +"In part, sir, but I do not see how I could have helped being what +I am." + +"Perhaps not, because few have control of their own education. +Your parents have been too tender of you. They have not lessoned +you in that proper hardihood which leads to performance. That task +is before yourself, and you have shrunk from the first lessons." + +"How, sir?" + +"Instead of clinging to your Blackstone, you have allowed yourself +to be seduced from its pages, by such attractions as usually delude +boys. The eye and lip of a pretty woman--a bright eye and a rosy +cheek, have diverted you from your duties." + +"But do our duties deny us the indulgence of proper sensibilities?" + +"Certainly not--PROPER sensibilities, on the contrary, prescribe +our duties." + +"But love, sir--is not love a proper sensibility?" + +"In its place, it is. But you are a boy only. Do you suppose that +it was ever intended that you should entertain this passion before +you had learned the art of providing your own food? Not so; and the +proof of this is to be found in the fact that the loves of boyhood +are never of a permanent character. No such passion can promote +happiness if it is indulged before the character of the parties is +formed. I now tell you that in five years from this time you will +probably forget Miss Cooper." + +"Never! never!" + +"Well, well--I go farther in my prophecy. Allow me to suppose you +successful in your suit, which I fancy can never be the case--" + +"Why, sir, why?" + +"Because she is not the girl for you; or rather, she does not think +you the man for her!" + +"But why do you think so, sir?" + +"Because I know you both. There are circumstances of discrepancy +between you which will prevent it, and even were you to be successful +in your suit, which I am very sure will never be the case, you +would be the most miserably-matched couple under the sun." + +"Oh, sir, do not say so--do not. I can not think so, sir." + +"You WILL not think so, I am certain. I am equally certain from +what I know of you both, that you are secure from any such danger. +It is not my object to pursue this reference, but let me ask you, +William, looking at things in the most favorable light, has Margaret +Cooper ever given you any encouragement?" + +"I can not say that she has, sir, but--" + +"Nay, has she not positively discouraged you? Does she not avoid +you--treat you coldly when you meet--say little, and that little +of a kind to denote--I will not say dislike--but pride, rather than +love?" + +The young man said nothing. The old one proceeded:-- + +"You are silent, and I am answered. I have long watched your +intercourse with this damsel, and loving you as my own son, I have +watched it with pain. She is not for you, William. She loves you +not. I am sure of it. I can not mistake the signs. She seeks other +qualities than such as you possess. She seeks meretricious qualities, +and yours are substantial. She seeks the pomps of mind, rather +than its subdued performances. She sees not, and can not see, your +worth; and whenever you propose to her, your suit will be rejected. +You have not done so yet?" + +"No, sir--but I had hoped--" + +"I am no enemy, believe me, William, when I implore you to discard +your hope in that quarter. It will do you no hurt. Your heart +will suffer no detriment, but be as whole and vigorous a few years +hence--perhaps months--as if it had never suffered any disappointment." + +"I wish I could think so, sir." + +"And you would not wish that you could think so, if you were not +already persuaded that your first wish is hopeless." + +"But I am not hopeless, sir." + +"Your cause is. But, promise me that you will not press your suit +at present." + +The young man was silent. + +"You hesitate." + +"I dare not promise." + +"Ah, you are a foolish boy. Do you not see the rock on which you are +about to split. You have never learned how to submit. This lesson +of submission was that which made the Spartan boy famous. Here, +you persist in your purpose, though your own secret convictions, +as well as your friend's counsel, tell you that you strive against +hope. You could not patiently submit to the counsel of this stranger, +though he came directly from your parents, armed with authority to +examine and to counsel." + +"Submit to him! I would sooner perish!" exclaimed the indignant +youth. + +"You will perish unless you learn this one lesson. But where now +is your ambition, and what does it aim at?" + +The youth was silent. + +"The idea of an ambitious youth, at twenty, giving up book and +candle, leaving his studies, and abandoning himself to despair, +because his sweetheart won't be his sweetheart any longer, gives us +a very queer idea of the sort of ambition which works in his breast." + +"Don't, sir, don't, I pray you, speak any more in this manner." + +"Nay, but, William, ask yourself. Is it not a queer idea?" + +"Spare me, sir, if you love me." + +"I do love you, and to show you that I do, I now recommend to you +to propose to Margaret Cooper." + +"What, sir, you do not think it utterly hopeless then?" + +"Yes, I do." + +"And you would have me expose myself to rejection?" + +"Exactly so!" + +"Really, sir, I do not understand you." + +"Well, I will explain. Nothing short of rejection will possibly +cure you of this malady; and it is of the last importance to your +future career, that you should be freed as soon as possible from +this sickly condition of thought and feeling--a condition in which +your mind will do nothing, and in which your best days will be +wasted. Blackstone can only hope to be taken up when you have done +with her." + +"Stay, sir--that is she below." + +"Who?" + +"Margaret----" + +"Who is with her?" + +"The stranger--this man, Stevens." + +"Ha! your counsellor, that would be? Ah! William, you did not tell +me all." + + + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE ENTHUSIAST. + + + + + +The cheeks of the youth glowed. He felt how much he had suppressed +in his conference with his venerable counsellor. Mr. Calvert did +not press the topic, and the two remained silent, looking down, +from the shaded spot where they lay, upon the progress of Margaret +Cooper and her present attendant, Stevens. The eminence on which +they rested was sufficiently lofty, as we have seen, to enable +them, though themselves almost concealed from sight, to take in +the entire scene, not only below but around them; and the old man, +sharing now in the interest of his young companion, surveyed the +progress of the new-comers with a keen sense of curiosity which, for +a time, kept him silent. The emotions of William Hinkley were such +as to deprive him of all desire for speech; and each, accordingly, +found sufficient employment in brooding over his own awakened fancies. +Even had they spoken in the ordinary tone of their voices, the +sounds could not have reached the persons approaching on the opposite +side. They drew nigh, evidently unconscious that the scene was +occupied by any other than themselves. Ned Hinkley was half-shrouded +in the shrubbery that environed the jutting crag upon which his +form was crouched, and they were not yet sufficiently nigh to the +tarn to perceive his projecting rod, and the gaudy fly which he +kept skipping about upon the surface. The walk which they pursued +was an ancient Indian footpath, which had without doubt conducted +the red warriors, a thousand times before, to a spot of seclusion +and refreshment after their long day's conflict on the "DARK AND +BLOODY GROUND." It was narrow and very winding, and had been made so +in order to lessen the fatigue of an ascent which, though gradual +enough, was yet considerable, and would have produced great weariness, +finally, had the pathway been more direct. + +The circuitousness of this route, which lay clear enough before +the eyes of our two friends upon the eminence--crawling, as it did, +up the woodland slopes with the sinuous course of a serpent--was +yet visible to Ned Hinkley, on his lowlier perch, only at its +starting-point, upon the very margin of the lake. He, accordingly, +saw as little of the approaching persons as they had seen of him. +They advanced slowly, and seemed to be mutually interested in +their subject of conversation. The action of Stevens was animated; +The air and attitude of Margaret Cooper was that of interest and +attention. It was with something little short of agony that William +Hinkley beheld them pause upon occasion, and confront each other +as if the topic was of a nature to arrest the feet and demand the +whole fixed attention of the hearer. + +It will be conjectured that Alfred Stevens had pressed his opportunities +with no little industry. Enough has been shown to account for the +readiness of that reception which Margaret Cooper was prepared to +give him. Her intelligence was keen, quick, and penetrating. She +discovered at a glance, not his hypocrisy, but that his religious +enthusiasm was not of a sort to become very tyrannical. The air of +mischief which was expressed upon his face when the venerable John +Cross proposed to purge her library of its obnoxious contents, +commended him to her as a sort of ally; and the sympathy with +herself, which such a conjecture promised, made her forgetful of +the disingenuousness of his conduct if her suspicions were true. +But there were some other particulars which, in her mind, tended to +dissipate the distance between them. She recognised the individual. +She remembered the bold, dashing youth, who, a few months before, +had encountered her on the edge of the village, and, after they +had parted, had ridden back to the spot where she still loitered, +for a second look. To that very spot had she conducted him on their +ramble that afternoon. + +"Do you know this place, Mr. Stevens?" she demanded with an arch +smile, sufficiently good-humored to convince the adventurer that, +if she had any suspicions, they were not of a nature to endanger +his hopes. + +"Do I not!" he said, with an air of EMPRESSMENT which caused her +to look down. + +"I thought I recollected you," she said, a moment after. + +"Ah! may I hope that I did not then offend you with my impertinence? +But the truth is, I was so struck--pardon me if I say it--with +the singular and striking difference between the group of damsels +I had seen and THE ONE--the surprise was so great--the pleasure so +unlooked for--that--" + +The eye of Margaret Cooper brightened, her cheek glowed, and her +form rose somewhat proudly. The arch-hypocrite paused judiciously, +and she spoke:-- + +"Nay, nay, Mr. Stevens, these fine speeches do not pass current. +You would make the same upon occasion to any one of the said group +of damsels, were you to be her escort." + +"But I would scarcely ride back for a second look," he responded, +in a subdued tone of voice, while looking with sad expressiveness +into her eyes. These were cast down upon the instant, and the color +upon her cheeks was heightened. + +"Come," said she, making an effort, "there is nothing here to +interest us." + +"Except memory," he replied; "I shall never forget the spot." + +She hurried forward, and he joined her. She had received the impression +which he intended to convey, without declaring as much--namely, +that his return to Charlemont had been prompted by that one glimpse +which he had then had of her person. Still, that nothing should +be left in doubt, he proceeded to confirm the impression by other +suggestions:-- + +"You promise to show me a scene of strange beauty, but your whole +village is beautiful, Miss Cooper. I remember how forcibly it struck +me as I gained the ascent of the opposite hills coming in from the +east. It was late in the day, the sun was almost setting, and his +faintest but loveliest beams fell upon the cottages in the valley, +and lay with a strange, quiet beauty among the grass-plats, and +the flower-ranges, and upon the neat, white palings." + +"It is beautiful," she said with a sigh, "but its beauty does not +content me. It is too much beauty; it is too soft; for, though it +has its rocks and huge trees, yet it lacks wildness and sublimity. +The rocks are not sufficiently abrupt, the steeps not sufficiently +great; there are no chasms, no waterfalls--only purling brooks and +quiet walks." + +"I have felt this already," he replied; "but there is yet a deficiency +which you have not expressed, Miss Cooper." + +"What is that?" she demanded. + +"It is the moral want. You have no life here; and that which +would least content me would be this very repose--the absence of +provocation--the strife--the triumph! These, I take it, are the +deficiencies which you really feel when you speak of the want of +crag, and chasm, and waterfall." + +"You, too, are ambitious, then!" she said quickly; "but how do you +reconcile this feeling with your profession?" + +She looked up, and caught his eye tenderly fixed upon her. + +"Ah!" said he, "Miss Cooper, there are some situations in which we +find it easy to reconcile all discrepancies." + +If the language lacked explicitness, the look did not. He proceeded:-- + +"If I mistake not, Miss Cooper, you will be the last one to blame +me for not having stifled my ambition, even at the calls of duty +and profession." + +"Blame you, sir? Far from it. I should think you very unfortunate +indeed, if you could succeed in stifling ambition at any calls, +nor do I exactly see how duty should require it." + +"If I pursue the profession of the divine?" he answered hesitatingly. + +"Yes--perhaps--but that is not certain?" There was some timidity +in the utterance of this inquiry. He evaded it. + +"I know not yet what I shall be," he replied with an air of +self-reproach; "I fear I have too much of this fiery ardor which +we call ambition to settle down into the passive character of the +preacher." + +"Oh, do not, do not!" she exclaimed impetuously; then, as if +conscious of the impropriety, she stopped short in the sentence, +while increasing her forward pace. + +"What!" said he, "you think that would effectually stifle it?" + +"Would it not--does it not in most men?" + +"Perhaps; but this depends upon the individual. Churchmen have a +great power--the greatest in any country." + +"Over babes and sucklings!" she said scornfully. + +"And, through these; over the hearts of men and women." + +"But these, too, are babes and sucklings--people to be scared by +shadows--the victims of their own miserable fears and superstitions!" + +"Nevertheless, these confer power. Where there is power, there is +room for ambition. You recollect that churchmen have put their feet +upon the necks of princes." + +"Yes, but that was when there was one church only in Christendom. +It was a monopoly, and consequently a tyranny. Now there are +a thousand, always in conflict, and serving very happily to keep +each other from mischief. They no longer put their feet on princes' +necks, though I believe that the princes are no better off for this +forbearance--there are others who do. But only fancy that this time +was again, and think of the comical figure our worthy brother John +Cross would make, mounting from such a noble horse-block!" + +The idea was sufficiently pleasant to make Stevens laugh. + +"I am afraid I shall have greater trouble in converting you, Miss +Cooper, than any other of the flock in Charlemont. I doubt that +your heart is stubborn--that you are an insensible!" + +"I insensible!" she exclaimed, and with such a look! The expression +of sarcasm had passed, as with the rapidity of a lightning-flash, +from her beautiful lips; and a silent tear rose, tremulous +and large, with the same instantaneous emotion, beneath her long, +dark eyelashes. She said nothing more, but, with eyes cast down, +went forward. Stevens was startled with the suddenness of these +transitions. They proved, at least, how completely her mind was at +the control of her blood. Hitherto, he had never met with a creature +so liberally endowed by nature, who was, at the same time, so +perfectly unsophisticated. The subject was gratifying as a study +alone, even if it conferred no pleasure, and awakened no hopes. + +"Do not mistake me," he exclaimed, hurrying after, "I had no purpose +to impute to you any other insensibility except to that of the holy +truths of religion." + +She looked up and smiled archly. There was another transition from +cloud to sunlight. + +"What! are you so doubtful of your own ministry?" + +"In your case, I am." + +"Why?" + +"You will force me to betake myself to studies more severe than +any I have yet attempted." + +She was flattered but she uttered a natural disclaimer. + +"No, no! I am presumptuous. I trust you will teach me. Begin--do +not hesitate--I will listen." + +"To move you I must not come in the garments of methodism. That +faith will never be yours." + +"What faith shall it be?" + +"That of Catholicism. I must come armed with authority. I must +carry the sword and keys of St. Peter. I must be sustained by all +the pomps of that church of pomps and triumphs. My divine mission +must speak through signs and symbols, through stately stole, +pontifical ornaments, the tiara of religious state on the day of +its most solemn ceremonial; and with these I must bring the word +of power, born equally of intellect and soul, and my utterance must +be in the language of divinest poesy!" + +"Ah! you mistake! That last will be enough. Speak to me in poesy--let +me hear that--and you will subdue me, I believe, to any faith that +you teach. For I can not but believe the faith that is endowed with +the faculty of poetic utterance." + +"In truth it is a divine utterance--perhaps the only divine utterance. +Would I had it for your sake." + +"Oh! you must have it. I fancy I see it in some things that you +have said. You read poetry, I am sure--I am sure you love it." + +"I do! I know not anything that I love half so well." + +"Then you write it?" she asked eagerly. + +"No! the gift has been denied me." + +She looked at him with eyes of regret. + +"How unfortunate," she said. + +"Doubly so, as the deficiency seems to disappoint you." + +She did not seem to heed the flattery of this remark, nor did she +appear to note the expression of face with which it was accompanied. +Her feelings took the ascendency. She spoke out her uncommissioned +thoughts and fancies musingly, as if without the knowledge of her +will. + +"I fancy that I could kneel down and worship the poet, and feel +no shame, no humility. It is the only voice that enchants me--that +leads me out from myself; that carries me where it pleases and finds +for me companions in the solitude; songs in the storm; affections in +the barren desert! Even here, it brings me friends and fellowships. +How voiceless would be all these woods to me had it no voice speaking +to, and in, my soul. Hoping nothing, and performing nothing here, +it is my only consolation. It reconciles me to this wretched spot. +It makes endurance tolerable. If it were not for this companionship--if +I heard not this voice in my sorrows, soothing my desolation, +I could freely die!--die here, beside this rock, without making a +struggle to go forward, even to reach the stream that flows quietly +beyond!" + +She had stopped in her progress while this stream of enthusiasm +poured from her lips. Her action was suited to her utterance. +Unaccustomed to restraint--nay, accustomed only to pour herself +forth to woods, and trees, and waters, she was scarcely conscious +of the presence of any other companion, yet she looked even while +she spoke, in the eyes of Stevens. He gazed on her with glances of +unconcealed admiration. The unsophisticated nature which led her +to express that enthusiasm which a state of conventional existence +prompts us, through fear of ridicule, industriously to conceal, +struck him with the sense of a new pleasure. The novelty alone +had its charm; but there were other sources of delight. The natural +grace and dignity of the enthusiastic girl, adapting to such +words the appropriate action, gave to her beauty, which was now in +its first bloom, all the glow which is derived from intellectual +inspiration. Her whole person spoke. All was vital, spiritual, +expressive, animated; and when the last word lingered on her lips, +Stevens could scarcely repress the impulse which prompted him to +clasp her in his embrace. + +"Margaret!" he exclaimed--"Miss Cooper!--you are yourself a poet!" + +"No, no!" she murmured, rather than spoke;--"would I were!--a +dreamer only--a self-deluded dreamer." + +"You can not deceive me!" he continued, "I see it in your eyes, +your action; I hear it in your words. I can not be deceived. You +are a poet--you will, and must be one!" + +"And if I were!" she said mournfully, "of what avail would it be +here? What heart in this wilderness would be touched by song of +mine? Whose ear could I soothe in this cold and sterile hamlet? +Where would be the temple--who the worshippers--even were the +priestess all that her vanity would believe, or her prayers and +toils might make her? No, no! I am no poet; and if I were, better +that the flame should go out--vanish altogether in the smoke of its +own delusions--than burn with a feeble light, unseen, untrimmed, +unhonored--perhaps, beheld with the scornful eye of vulgar and +unappreciating ignorance!" + +"Such is not your destiny, Margaret Cooper," replied Stevens, using +the freedom of address, perhaps unconsciously, which the familiarity +of country life is sometimes found to tolerate. "Such is not your +destiny, Margaret. The flame will not go out--it will be loved and +worshipped!" + +"Ah! never! what is here to justify such a hope--such a dream?" + +"Nothing HERE; but it was not of Charlemont I spoke. The destiny which +has endowed you with genius will not leave it to be extinguished +here. There will come a worshipper, Margaret. There will come +one, equally capable to honor the priestess and to conduct her to +befitting altars. This is not your home, though it may have been +your place of trial and novitiate. Here, without the restraint +of cold, oppressive, social forms, your genius has ripened--your +enthusiasm has been kindled into proper glow--your heart, and +mind, and imagination, have kept equal pace to an equal maturity! +Perhaps this was fortunate. Had you grown up in more polished and +worldly circles, you would have been compelled to subdue the feelings +and fancies which now make your ordinary language the language of +a muse." + +"Oh! speak not so, I implore you. I am afraid you mock me." + +"No! on my soul, I do not. I think all that I say. More than that, +I feel it, Margaret. Trust to me--confide in me--make me your +friend! Believe me, I am not altogether what I seem." + +An arch smile once more possessed her eyes. + +"Ah!" I could guess that! But sit you here. Here is a flower--a +beautiful, small flower, with a dark blue eye. See it--how humbly +it hides amid the grass. It is the last flower if the season. I +know not its name. I am no botanist; but it is beautiful without +a name, and it is the last flower of the season. Sit down on this +rock, and I will sing you Moore's beautiful song, ''Tis the last +of its kindred.'" + +"Nay, sing me something of your own, Margaret." + +"No, no! Don't speak of me, and mine, in the same breath with +Moore. You will make me repent of having seen you. Sit down and be +content with Moore, or go without your song altogether." + +He obeyed her, and the romantic and enthusiastic girl, seating +herself upon a fragment of rock beside the path, sang the delicate +and sweet verses of the Irish poet, with a natural felicity of +execution, which amply compensated for the absence of those Italian +arts, which so frequently elevate the music at the expense of the +sentiment. Stevens looked and listened, and half forgot himself in +the breathlessness of his attention--his eye fastened with a gaze +of absolute devotion on her features, until, having finished her +song, she detected the expression of his face, and started, with +blushing cheeks, to her feet. + +"Oh! sweet!" he murmured as he offered to take her hand, but she +darted forward, and following her, he found himself a few moments +after, standing by her side, and looking down upon one of the +loveliest lakes that ever slept in the embrace of jealous hills. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +A CATASTROPHE. + + + + + +"You disparage these scenes," said Stevens, after several moments +had been given to the survey of that before him, "and yet you have +drawn your inspiration from them--the fresh food which stimulates poetry +and strengthens enthusiasm. Here you learned to be contemplative; +and here, in solitude, was your genius nursed. Do not be ungrateful, +Margaret--you owe to these very scenes all that you are, and all +that you may become." + +"Stay! before I answer. Do you see yon bird?" + +"Where?" + +"In the west--there!" she pointed with her fingers, catching his +wrist unconsciously, at the same time, with the other hand, as if +more certainly to direct his gaze. + +"I see it--what bird is it?" + +"An eagle! See how it soars and swings; effortless, as if supported +by some external power!" + +"Indeed--it seems small for an eagle." + +"It is one nevertheless! There are thousands of them that roost +among the hills in that quarter. I know the place thoroughly. The +heights are the greatest that we have in the surrounding country. +The distance from this spot is about five miles. He, no doubt, +has some fish, or bird now within his talons, with which to feed +his young. He will feed them, and they will grow strong, and will +finally use their own wings. Shall he continue to feed them after +that? Must they never seek their own food?" + +"Surely they must." + +"If these solitudes have nursed me, must they continue to nurse me +always? Must I never use the wings to which they have given vigor? +Must I never employ the sight to which they have imparted vigilance? +Must I never go forth, and strive and soar, and make air, and earth, +and sea, tributary to my wing and eye? Alas! I am a woman!--and +her name is weakness! You tell me of what I am, and of what I may +become. But what am I? I mock myself too often with this question +to believe all your fine speeches. And what may I become? Alas! who +can tell me that? I know my strength, but I also know my weakness. +I feel the burning thoughts of my brain; I feel the yearning impulses +in my heart; but they bring nothing--they promise nothing--I feel +the pang of constant denial. I feel that I can be nothing!" + +"Say not so, Margaret--think not so, I beseech you. With your +genius, your enthusiasm--your powers of expression--there is nothing, +becoming in your sex, and worthy of it, which you may not be." + +"You can not deceive me! It might be so, if this were Italy; there, +where the very peasant burns with passion, and breathes his feeblest +and meanest thoughts and desires in song. But here, they already +call me mad! They look on me as one doomed to Bedlam. They avoid +me with sentiments and looks of distrust, if not of fear; and when +I am looking into the cloud, striving to pierce, with dilating eye +its wild yellow flashing centres, they draw their flaxen-headed +infants to their breasts, and mutter their thanks to God, that he +has not, in a fit of wrath, made them to resemble me! If, forgetful +of earth, and trees, and the human stocks around me, I pour forth +the language of the great song-masters, they grin at my insanity--they +hold me incapable of reason, and declare their ideas of what that +is, by asking who knows most of the dairy, the cabbage-patch, +the spinning-wheel, the darning-needle--who can best wash Polly's +or Patty's face and comb its head--can chop up sausage-meat the +finest--make the lightest paste, and more economically dispense +the sugar in serving up the tea! and these are what is expected +of woman! These duties of the meanest slave! From her mind nothing +is expected. Her enthusiasm terrifies, her energy offends, and if +her taste is ever challenged, it is to the figures upon a quilt or +in a flower-garden, where the passion seems to be to make flowers +grow in stars, and hearts, and crescents. What has woman to expect +where such are the laws; where such are the expectations from her? +What am I to hope? I, who seem to be set apart--to feel nothing +like the rest--to live in a different world--to dream of foreign +things--to burn with a hope which to them is frenzy, and speak +a language which they neither understand nor like! What can I be, +in such a world? Nothing, nothing! I do not deceive myself. I can +never hope to be anything." + +Her enthusiasm hurried her forward. In spite of himself, Stevens was +impressed. He ceased to think of his evil purposes in the superior +thoughts which her wild, unregulated energy inspired. He scarcely +wondered, indeed--if it were true--that her neighbors fancied +her insane. The indignation of a powerful mind denied--denied +justice--baffled in its aims--conscious of the importance of all +its struggles against binding and blinding circumstances--is akin +to insanity!--is apt to express itself in the defiant tones of a +fierce and feverish frenzy. + +"Margaret," said he, as she paused and waited for him, "you are not +right in everything. You forget that your lonely little village of +Charlemont, is not only not the world, but that it is not even an +American world. America is not Italy, I grant you, nor likely soon +to become so; but if you fancy there are not cities even in our +country, where genius such as yours would be felt and worshipped, +you are mistaken." + +"Do you believe there are such?" she demanded incredulously. + +"I KNOW there are!" + +"No! no! I know better. You can not deceive me. It can not be so. +I know the sort of genius which is popular in those cities. It is +the gentleman and lady genius. Look at their verses for example. +I can show you thousands of such things that come to us here, from +all quarters of the Union--verses written by nice people--people +of small tastes and petty invention, who would not venture upon the +utterance of a noble feeling, or a bold sentiment of originality, +for fear of startling the fashionable nerves with the strong words +which such a novelty would require. Consider, in the first place, +how conclusive it is of the feeblest sort of genius that these +people should employ themselves, from morning to night, in spinning +their small strains, scraps of verse, song, and sonnet, and invariably +on such subjects of commonplace, as can not admit of originality, +and do not therefore task reflection. Not an infant dies or is +born, but is made the subject of verse; nay, its smiles and tears +are put on record; its hobby-horse, and its infant ideas as they +begin to bud and breathe aloud. Then comes the eternal strain about +summer blooms and spring flowers; autumn's melancholy and winter's +storms, until one sickens of the intolerable monotony. Such are +the things that your great cities demand. Such things content them. +Speak the fearless and always strange language of originality and +strength, and you confound and terrify them." + +"But, Margaret, these things are held at precisely the same value +in the big cities as they are held by you here in Charlemont. The +intelligent people smile--they do not applaud. If they encourage +at all it is by silence." + +"No! no! that you might say, if, unhappily, public opinion did not +express itself. The same magazines which bring us the verses bring +us the criticism." + +"That is to say, the editor puffs his contributors, and disparages +those who are not. Look at the rival journal and you will find +these denounced and another set praised and beplastered." + +"Ah! and what would be my hope, my safety, in communities which +tolerate these things; in which the number of just and sensible +people is so small that they dare not speak, or can not influence +those who have better courage? Where would be my triumphs? I, who +would no more subscribe to the petty tyranny of conventional law, +than to that baser despotism which is wielded by a mercenary editor, +in the absence of a stern justice in the popular mind. Here I may +pine to death--there, my heart would burst with its own convulsions." + +"No! Margaret, no! It is because they have not the genius, +that such small birds are let to sing. Let them but hear the true +minstrel--let them but know that there is a muse, and how soon +would the senseless twitter which they now tolerate be hushed +in undisturbing silence. In the absence of better birds they bear +with what they have. In the absence of the true muse they build no +temple--they throng not to hear. Nay, even now, already, they look +to the west for the minstrel and the muse--to these very woods. +There is a tacit and universal feeling in the Atlantic country, +that leads them to look with expectation to the Great West, for the +genius whose song is to give us fame. 'When?' is the difficult--the +only question. Ah! might I but say to them--'now'--the muse is +already here!" + +He took her hand--she did not withhold it; but her look was subdued--the +fires had left her eyes--her whole frame trembled with the recoil +of those feelings--the relaxation of those nerves--the tension +of which we have endeavored feebly to display. Her cheek was no +longer flushed but pale; her lips trembled--her voice was low and +faint--only a broken and imperfect murmur; and her glance was cast +upon the ground. + +"You!" she exclaimed. + +"Yes, I! Have I not said I am not altogether what I seem? Ah! +I may not yet say more. But I am not without power, Margaret, in +other and more powerful regions. I too have had my triumphs; I too +can boast that the minds of other men hang for judgment upon the +utterance of mine." + +She looked upward to his glance with a stranger expression of +timidity than her features had before exhibited. The form of Stevens +had insensibly risen in seeming elevation as he spoke, and the +expression of his face was that of a more human pride. He continued:-- + +"My voice is one of authority in circles where yours would be one +of equal attraction and command. I can not promise you an Italian +devotion, Margaret; our people, though sufficiently enthusiastic, +are too sensible to ridicule to let the heart and blood speak out +with such freedom as they use in the warmer regions of the South: +but the homage will be more intellectual, more steady, and the fame +more enduring. You must let your song be heard--you must give me +the sweet privilege of making it known to ears whose very listening +is fame." + +"Ah!" she said, "what you say makes me feel how foolishly I have +spoken. What is my song? what have I done? what am I? what have I +to hope? I have done nothing--I am nothing! I have suffered, like +a child, a miserable vanity to delude me, and I have poured into +the ears of a stranger those ravings which I have hitherto uttered +to the hills and forests. You laugh at me now--you must." + +The paleness on her cheek was succeeded by the deepest flush of +crimson. She withdrew her hand from his grasp. + +"Laugh at you, Margaret! You have awakened my wonder. Struck with +you when we first met--" + +"Nay, no more of that, but let us follow these windings; they lead +us to the tarn. It is the prettiest Indian path, and my favorite +spot. Here I ramble morning and eve, and try to forget those vain +imaginings and foolish strivings of thought which I have just +inflicted upon you. The habit proved too much for my prudence, and +I spoke as if you were not present. Possibly, had you not spoken +in reply, I should have continued until now." + +"Why did I speak?" + +"Ah! it is better. I wish you had spoken sooner. But follow me +quickly. The sunlight is now falling in a particular line which +gives us the loveliest effect, shooting its rays through certain +fissures of the rock, and making a perfect arrow-path along the +water. You would fancy that Apollo had just dismissed a golden +shaft from his quiver, so direct is the levelled light along the +surface of the lake." + +Speaking thus, they came in sight of the party on the opposite +hills, as we have already shown--without, however, perceiving +them in turn. It will be conjectured without difficulty that, with +a nature so full of impulse, so excitable, as that of Margaret +Cooper--particularly in the company of an adroit man like Stevens, +whose purpose was to encourage her in that language and feeling of +egotism which, while it was the most grateful exercise to herself, +was that which most effectually served to blind her to his designs--her +action was always animated, expressively adapting itself, not only +to the words she uttered, but, even when she did not speak, to the +feelings by which she was governed. It was the art of Stevens to +say little except by suggestives. A single word, or brief sentence, +from his lips, judiciously applied to her sentiments or situation, +readily excited her to speech; and this utterance necessarily brought +with it the secret of her soul, the desire of her heart, nay, the +very shape of the delusion which possessed it. The wily libertine, +deliberate as the demon to which we have likened him, could provoke +the warmth which he did not share--could stimulate the eloquence +which he would not feel--could coldly, like some Mephistopheles +of science, subject the golden-winged bird or butterfly to the +torturous process of examination, with a pin thrust through its +vitals, and gravely dilate on its properties, its rich plumage, and +elaborate finish of detail, without giving heed to those writhings +which declared its agonies. It is not meant to be understood that +Stevens found no pleasure himself in the display of that wild, +unschooled imagination which was the prevailing quality in the mind +of Margaret Cooper. He was a man of education and taste. He could +be pleased as an amateur; but he wanted the moral to be touched, +and to sympathize with a being so gifted and so feeble--so high +aiming, yet so liable to fall. + +The ardor of Margaret Cooper, and the profound devotion which +it was the policy of Stevens to display, necessarily established +their acquaintance, in a very short time, on the closest footing +of familiarity. With a nature such as hers, all that is wanted is +sympathy--all that she craves is sympathy--and, to win this, no +toil is too great, no sufferance too severe; alas, how frequently +do we see that no penalty is too discouraging! But the confiding +spirit never looks for penalties, and seldom dreams of deceit. + +What, then, were the emotions of William Hinkley as he beheld the +cordiality which distinguished the manner of Margaret Cooper as she +approached the edge of the lake with her companion? In the space +of a single week, this stranger had made greater progress in her +acquaintance than HE had been able to make in a period of years. +The problem which distressed him was beyond his power to solve. +His heart was very full; the moisture was already in his eyes; and +when he beheld the animated gestures of the maid--when he saw her +turn to her companion, and meet his gaze without shrinking, while +her own was fixed in gratified contemplation--he scarcely restrained +himself from jumping to his feet. The old man saw his emotion. + +"William," he said, "did I understand you that this young stranger +was a preacher?" + +"No, sir, but he seeks to be one. He is studying for the ministry, +under Brother Cross." + +"Brother Cross is a good man, and is scarcely likely to have anything +to do with any other than good men. I suppose he knows everything +about the stranger?" + +William Hinkley narrated all that was known on the subject in the +village. In the innocence of his heart, Brother Cross had described +Alfred Stevens as a monument of his own powers of conversion. Under +God, he had been a blessed instrument for plucking this brand from +the burning. A modified account of the brandy-flask accompanied the +narrative. Whether it was that Mr. Calvert, who had been a man of +the world, saw something in the story itself, and in the ludicrousness of +the event, which awakened his suspicions, or whether the carriage +of Alfred Stevens, as he walked with Margaret Cooper, was rather that +of a young gallant than a young student in theology, may admit of +question; but it was very certain that the suspicions of the old +gentleman were somewhat awakened. + +Believing himself to be alone with his fair companion, Alfred +Stevens was not as scrupulous of the rigidity of manner which, +if not actually prescribed to persons occupying his professional +position, is certainly expected from them; and, by a thousand +little acts of gallantry, he proved himself much more at home as +a courtier and a ladies' man than as one filled with the overflow +of divine grace, and thoughtful of nothing less than the serious +earnest of his own soul. His hand was promptly extended to assist +the progress of his fair companion--a service which was singularly +unnecessary in the case of one to whom daily rambles, over hill +and through forest, had imparted a most unfeminine degree of vigor. +Now he broke the branch away from before her path; and now, stooping +suddenly, he gathered for her the pale flower of autumn. + +These little acts of courtesy, so natural to the gentleman, were +anything but natural to one suddenly impressed with the ascetical +temper of methodism. Highly becoming in both instances, they were +yet strangely at variance with the straight-laced practices of the +thoroughgoing Wesleyan, who sometimes fancies that the condition +of souls is so desperate as to leave no time for good manners. Mr. +Calvert had no fault to find with Stevens's civility, but there was +certainly an inconsistency between his deportment now, and those +characteristics which were to be predicated of the manner and mode +of his very recent conversion. Besides, there was the story of +the brandy-flask, in which Calvert saw much less of honor either +to John Cross or his neophyte. But the old man did not express his +doubts to his young friend, and they sat together, watching, in a +silence only occasionalry broken by a monosyllable, the progress +of the unconscious couple below. + +Meanwhile, our fisherman, occupying his lonely perch just above the +stream, had been plying his vocation with all the silent diligence +of one to the manner born. Once busy with his angle, and his world +equally of thought and observation became confined to the stream +before his eyes, and the victim before his imagination. Scarcely +seen by his companions on the heights above, he had succeeded in +taking several very fine fish; and had his liberality been limited +to the supper-table of his venerable friend Calvert, he would long +before have given himself respite, and temporary immunity to the +rest of the finny tribe remaining in the tarn. But Ned Hinkley +thought of all his neighbors, not omitting the two rival widows, +Mesdames Cooper and Thackeray. + +Something too, there was in the sport, which, on the present +occasion, beguiled him rather longer than his wont. More than once +had his eye detected, from the advantageous and jutting rock where +he lay concealed, just above the water, the dark outlines of a +fish, one of the largest he had ever seen in the lake, whose brown +sides, and occasionally flashing fins, excited his imagination and +offered a challenge to his skill, which provoked him into something +like a feeling of personal hostility. + +The fish moved slowly to and fro, not often in sight, but at such +regularly-recurring periods as to keep up the exciting desire which +his very first appearance had awakened in the mind of his enemy. + +To Ned Hinkley he was the beau-ideal of the trout genius. He was +certainly the hermit-trout of the tarn. Such coolness, such strength, +such size, such an outline, and then such sagacity. That trout was +a triton among his brethren. A sort of Dr. Johnson among fishes. +Ned Hinkley could imagine--for on such subjects his imagination +kindled--how like an oracle must be the words of such a trout, +to his brethren, gathering in council in their deep-down hole--or +driven by a shower under the cypress log--or in any other situation +in which an oracle would be apt to say, looking around him with +fierceness mingled with contempt, "Let no dog bark." Ned Hinkley +could also fancy the contemplations of such a trout as he witnessed +the efforts made to beguile him out of the water. + +"Not to be caught by a fly like that, my lad!" and precisely as if +the trout had spoken what was certainly whispered in his own mind, +the fisherman silently changed his gilded, glittering figure on his +hook for one of browner plumage--one of the autumn tribe of flies +which stoop to the water from the overhanging trees, and glide off +for twenty paces in the stream, to dart up again to the trees, in +as many seconds, if not swallowed by some watchful fisher-trout, +like the one then before the eyes of our companion. + +Though his fancy had become excited, Ned Hinkley was not impatient. +With a cautious hand he conducted the fly down the stream with +the flickering, fidgety motion which the real insect would have +employed. The keen-nosed trout turned with the movements of the +fly, but philosophically kept aloof. Now he might be seen to sink, +now to rise, now he glided close under the rock where the angler +reclined, and, even in the very deep waters which were there, which +were consequently very dark, so great was the size of the animal, +that its brown outline was yet to be seen, with its slightly-waving +tail, and at moments the flash of its glittering eye, as, inclining +on its side, it glanced cunningly upward through the water. + +Again did Ned Hinldey consult his resources. Fly after fly was taken +from his box, and suffered to glide upon the stream. The wary fish +did not fail to bestow some degree of attention upon each, but his +regards were too deliberate for the success of the angler, and he +had almost began to despair, when he observed a slight quivering +movement in the object of pursuit which usually prepares the good +sportsman to expect his prey. The fins were laid aback. The motion +of the fish became steady; a slight vibration of the tail only was +visible; and in another moment he darted, and was hooked. + +Then came the struggle. Ned Hinkley had never met with a more +formidable prey. The reel was freely given, but the strain was +great upon shaft and line. There was no such thing as contending. +The trout had his way, and went down and off, though it might have +been observed that the fisherman took good care to baffle his efforts +to retreat in the direction of the old log which had harbored him, +and the tangling alders, which might have been his safest places +of retreat. The fish carried a long stretch of line, but the hook +was still in his jaws, and this little annoyance soon led him upon +other courses. The line became relaxed, and with this sign, Ned +Hinkley began to amuse himself in tiring his victim. + +This required skill and promptness rather than strength. The +hermit-trout was led to and fro by a judicious turn of wrist or +elbow. His efforts had subsided to a few spasmodic struggles--an +occasional struggle ending with a shiver, and then he was brought +to the surface. This was followed by a last great convulsive effort, +when his tail churned the water into a little circle of foam, which +disappeared the moment his struggles were over. But a few seconds +more were necessary to lift the prey into sight of all the parties +near to the lake. They had seen some of the struggle, and had +imagined the rest. Neither Margaret Cooper nor Stevens had suspected +the presence of the fisherman until drawn to the spot by this trial +of strength. + +"What a prodigious fish!" exclaimed Stevens; "can we go to the +spot?" + +"Oh! easily--up the rocks on the left there is a path. I know it +well. I have traversed it often. Will you go? The view is very fine +from that quarter." + +"Surely: but who is the fisherman?" + +"Ned Hinkley, the nephew of the gentleman with whom you stay. He +is a hunter, fisherman, musician--everything. A lively, simple, but +well-meaning young person. It is something strange that his cousin +William Hinkley is not with him. They are usually inseparable." + +And with these words she led the way for her companion following +the edge of the lake until reaching the point where the rocks seemed +to form barriers to their further progress, but which her agility +and energy had long since enabled her to overcome. + +"A bold damsel!" said Calvert, as he viewed her progress. "She +certainly does not intend to clamber over that range of precipices. +She will peril her life." + +"No!" said William Hinkley; "she has done it often to my great +terror. I have been with her more than once over the spot myself. +She seems to me to have no fear, and to delight in the most dangerous +places." + +"But her companion! If he's not a more active man than he seems he +will hardly succeed so well." + +William was silent, his eye watching with the keenest interest the +progress of the two. In a few moments he started to his feet with +some appearance of surprise. + +"What's the matter?" demanded Calvert. + +"She does not seem as if she wished to ascend the rocks, but she's +aiming to keep along the ledges that overhang the stream, so as +to get where Ned is. That can hardly be done by the surest-footed, +and most active. Many of the rocks are loose. The ledge is very +narrow, and even where there is room for the feet there are such +projections above as leave no room for the body. I will halloo to +her, and tell her of the danger." + +"If you halloo, you will increase the danger--you will alarm her," +said the old man. + +"It will be best to stop her now, in season, when she can go back. +Stay for me, sir, I can run along on the heights so as to overlook +them, and can then warn without alarming." + +"Do so, my son, and hasten, for she seems bent on going forward. +The preacher follows but slowly, and she stops for him. Away!" + +The youth darted along the hill, pursuing something of a table-line +which belonged to the equal elevation of the range of rock on which +he stood. The rock was formed of successive and shelving ledges, +at such intervals, however, as to make it no easy task--certainly +no safe one--to drop from one to the other. The perch of Ned Hinkley, +was a projection from the lowest of these ledges, running brokenly +along the margin of the basin until lost in the forest slope over +which Margaret Cooper had led her companion. + +If it was a task to try the best vigor and agility--to say nothing +of courage--of the ablest mountaineer, to ascend the abrupt ledges +from below, aiming at the highest point of elevation. The attempt +was still more startling to follow the lower ledges, some of which +hung, loosened and tottering, just above the deepest parts of the +lake. Yet, with that intrepidity which marked her character, this +was the very task which Margaret Cooper had proposed to herself. +William Hinkley had justly said that she did not seem to know fear; +and when Stevens with the natural sense of caution which belongs +to one to whom such performances are unusual, suggested to her that +such a pathway seemed very dangerous-- + +"Dangerous!" she exclaimed, standing upon the merest pinnacle of +a loosened fragment which rested on the very margin of the stream. + +"Did you never perceive that there was a loveliness in danger +which you scarcely felt to be half so great in any other object or +situation. I love the dangerous. It seems to lift my soul, to make +my heart bound with joy and the wildest delight. I know nothing so +delightful as storm and thunder. I look, and see the tall trees +shivering and going down with a roar, and feel that I could sing--sing +aloud--and believe that there are voices, like mine, then singing +through all the tempest. But there is no danger here. I have clambered +up these ledges repeatedly--up to the very top. Here, you see, we +have an even pathway along the edge. We have nothing to do but to +set the foot down firmly." + +But Stevens was not so sure, and his opinion on the beauties of the +dangerous did not chime exactly with hers. Still, he did not lack +for courage, and his pride did not suffer him to yield in a contest +with a female. He gazed on her with increasing wonder. If he saw +no loveliness in danger--he saw no little loveliness just then in +her; and she might be said to personify danger to his eyes. Her +tall, symmetrical, and commanding figure, perched on the trembling +pinnacle of rock which sustained her, was as firm and erect as if +she stood on the securest spot of land. + +Nor was her position that of simple security and firmness. The grace +of her attitude, her extended and gently waving arm as she spoke, +denoted a confidence which could only have arisen from a perfect +unconsciousness of danger. Her swan-like neck, with the face slightly +turned back to him; the bright flashing eyes, and the smile of equal +pride and dignity on her exquisitely-chiselled mouth;--all formed +a picture for the artist's study, which almost served to divert +the thoughts of Stevens from the feeling of danger which he expressed. + +While he gazed, he heard a voice calling in tones of warning from +above; and, at the sound, he perceived a change in the expression +of Margaret Cooper's face, from confidence and pride, to scorn and +contempt. At the same time she darted forward from rock to rock, +with a sort of defying haste, which made him tremble for her +safety, and left him incapable to follow. The call was repeated; +and Stevens looked up, and recognised the person of the youth whom +he had counselled that morning with such bad success. + +If the progress of Margaret Cooper appeared dangerous in his sight, +that of the young man was evidently more so. He was leaping, with +the cool indifference of one who valued his life not a pin's fee, +from ledge to ledge, down the long steppes which separated the +several reaches of the rock formation. The space between was very +considerable, the descent abrupt; the youth had no steadying pole +to assist him, but flying rather than leaping, was now beheld in +air, and in the next moment stood balancing himself with difficulty, +but with success, and without seeming apprehension, on the pinnacle +of rock below him. In this way he was approaching the lower ledge +along which Margaret Cooper was hurrying as rapidly as fearlessly, +and calling to her as he came, implored her to forbear a progress +which was so full of danger. + +Stevens fancied he had no reason to love the youth, but he could +not help admiring and envying his equal boldness and agility; the +muscular ease with which he flung himself from point to point, and +his sure-footed descent upon the crags and fragments which trembled +and tottered beneath the sudden and unaccustomed burden. Charitably +wishing that, amid all his agility he might yet make a false step, +and find an unexpected and rather cold bath in the lake below, +Stevens now turned his eyes upon Margaret Cooper. + +She did not answer the counsels of William Hinkley--certainly did +not heed them: and, but for the increased impatience of her manner +might be supposed not to have heard them. The space between herself +and Stevens had increased meanwhile, and looking back, she waited +for his approach. She stood on a heavy mass which jutted above +the lake, and not six feet from the water. Her right foot was upon +the stone, sustaining the whole weight of her person. Her left was +advanced and lifted to another fragment which lay beyond. As she +looked back she met the eyes of Stevens. Just then he saw the large +fragment yield beneath her feet. She seemed suddenly conscious of +it in the same moment, and sprung rapidly on that to which her left +foot was already advanced. The impetus of this movement, sent the +rock over which she had left. This disturbed the balance of that +to which she had risen, and while the breath of the stranger hung +suspended in the utterance of the meditated warning, the catastrophe +had taken place. The stone shrank from beneath her, and, sinking +with it, in another moment, she was hidden from sight in the still, +deep waters of the lake. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +SOUSING A GURNET. + + + + + +The disappearance of Margaret Cooper was succeeded by a shriek +from above--a single shriek--a cry of terror and despair; and in +the same instant the form of William Hinkley might have been seen +cleaving the air, with the boldness of a bird, secure always of +his wing, and descending into the lake as nearly as it was possible +for him to come, to the spot where she had sunk. Our cooler fisherman +looked up to the abrupt eminence, just above his own head, from +which his devoted cousin had sprung. + +"By gemini!" he exclaimed with an air of serious apprehension, "if +William Hinkley hasn't knocked his life out by that plunge he's +more lucky than I think him. It's well the lake's deep enough in +this quarter else he'd have tried the strength of hard head against +harder rock below. But there's no time for such nice calculations! +We can all swim--that's a comfort." + +Thus speaking, he followed the example of his cousin, though more +quietly, plunging off from his lowlier perch, and cleaving the +water, headforemost, with as little commotion as a sullen stone would +make sent directly downward to the deep. By this time, however, +our former companion, Stevens, had done the same thing. Stevens +was no coward, but he had no enthusiasm. He obeyed few impulses. +His proceedings were all the result of calculation. He could swim +as well as his neighbors. He had no apprehensions on that score; +but he disliked cold water; and there was an involuntary shrug of +the shoulder and shiver of the limbs before he committed himself +to the water, which he did with all the deliberation of the cat, +who, longing for fish, is yet unwilling to wet her own feet. His +deliberation, and the nearness of his position to Margaret Cooper, +were so far favorable to his design that he succeeded in finding +her first. It must be understood that the events, which we have +taken so much time to tell, occupied but a few seconds in the +performance. Stevens was in the water quite as quickly as Ned +Hinkley, and only not so soon as his more devoted and desperate +cousin. If it was an advantage to him to come first in contact +with the form of Margaret Cooper, it had nearly proved fatal to +him also. In the moment when he encountered her, her outstretched +and grasping arms, encircled his neck. They rose together, but he +was nearly strangled, and but for the timely interposition of the +two cousins, they must probably have both perished. + +It was the fortune of our fisherman to relieve the maiden, whom +he bore to the opposite shore with a coolness, a skill and spirit, +which enabled him to save himself from her desperate but unconscious +struggles, while supporting her with a degree of ease and strength +which had been acquired while teaching some dozen of the village +urchins how to practise an art in which he himself was reckoned a +great proficient. + +It was fortunate for Stevens that the charities of William Hinkley +were more active and indulgent than his own, since, without the +timely succor and aid which he afforded, that devout young gentleman +would have been made to discontinue his studies very suddenly and +have furnished a summary conclusion to this veracious narrative--a +consummation which, if it be as devoutly wished by the reader +as by the writer, will be a much greater source of annoyance to +our publisher than it has proved already. Never had poor mortal +been compelled to drink, at one time, a greater quantity of that +celestial beverage, which the Reverend Mr. Pierpont insists is the +only liquor drunk at the hotels of heaven. We should be sorry to +misrepresent that very gentle gentleman, but we believe that this +is substantially his idea. It was unfortunate for Stevens that, +previously to this, he had never been accustomed to drink much of +this beverage in its original strength anywhere. He had been too +much in the habit of diluting it; and being very temperate always +in his enjoyment of the creature comforts, he had never taken it, +even when thus diluted, except in very moderate quantities. + +In consequence of his former abstemiousness, the quantity which +he now swallowed nearly strangled him. He was about to take his +last draught with many wry faces, when the timely arms of the two +cousins, by no very sparing application of force withdrew him from +the grasp of the damsel; and without very well understanding the +process, or any particulars of his extrication, he found himself +stretched upon the banks over which he had lately wandered, never +dreaming of any such catastrophe; discharging from his stomach by +no effort of his own, a large quantity of foreign ingredients--the +ordinary effect, we are given to understand, of every inordinate +indulgence in strong waters. + +Our excellent old friend, Mr. Calvert, was soon upon the spot, and +while Ned Hinkley was despatched to the village for assistance, +he took himself the charge of recovering the unconscious maiden. +Half-forgetting his hostility, William Hinkley undertook the same +good service to Stevens, who really seemed to need succor much more +than his fair companion. While William Hinkley busied himself by +rolling, friction, fanning, and other practices, employed in such +cases, to bring his patient back to life, he could not forbear an +occasional glance to the spot where, at a little distance, lay the +object of his affections. + +Her face was toward him, as she lay upon her side. Her head was +supported on the lap of the old man. Her long hair hung dishevelled, +of a more glossy black now when filled with water. Her eyes were +shut, and the dark fringes of their lids lay like a pencil-streak +across the pale, prominent orbs which they served to bind together. +The glow of indignant pride with which she was wont to receive +his approaches had all disappeared in the mortal struggle for life +through which she had lately gone; and pure, as seemingly free +from every passion, her pale beauties appeared to his doating eye +the very perfection of human loveliness. Her breast now heaved +convulsively--deep sighs poured their way through her parted lips. +Her eyes alternately opened upon but shut against the light, and, +finally, the exertions of the old man were rewarded as the golden +gleam of expression began to relight and reillumine those features +which seemed never to be without it. + +She recovered her consciousness, started up, made an effort to +rise, but, reeling with inability, sunk down again into the paternal +grasp of the old man. + +"Mr. Calvert!" she murmured. + +"You are safe, my daughter," said the old man. + +"But how did it happen?--where am I?" + +"By the lake." + +"Ah! I remember. I was drowning. I felt it all--the choking--the +struggle--the water in my ears and eyes! It was a dreadful feeling. +How did I come here? Who saved me?" + +"Ned Hinkley brought you to land, but he was helped by his cousin +William, who assisted the stranger." + +"The stranger? ah! yes, I remember: but where is he?" + +She looked around wildly and anxiously, and beholding William +Hinkley at a little distance, busy with the still unconscious form +of Stevens, a quick, fearful shudder passed over her frame. She +almost crouched into the old man's arms as she asked, in husky +accents-- + +"He is not dead--he lives?" + +"I hope so. He breathes." + +She waited for no more, but, starting to her feet, she staggered to +the spot where Stevens lay. The old man would have prevented her. + +"You are feeble; you will do yourself harm. Better, if you are able +to walk, hurry homeward with me, when you can change your clothes." + +"Would you have me ungrateful?" she exclaimed; "shall I neglect +him when he risked his life for me?" + +There was a consciousness in her mind that it was not all gratitude +which moved her, for the deathly paleness of her cheek was now +succeeded by a warm blush which denoted a yet stronger and warmer +emotion. The keen eyes of William Hinkley understood the meaning of +this significant but unsyllabling mode of utterance, and his eyes +spoke the reproach to hers which his lips left unsaid:-- + +"Ah! did I not risk my life too, to prevent--to save? When would +she feel such an interest in me? when would she look thus were my +life at stake?" + +"He will not be neglected," said the old man, gently endeavoring +to restrain her. Perhaps she would not have given much heed to +the interruption, for hers was the strength of an unfettered will, +one accustomed to have way, but that, at this moment, the eyes of +Stevens unclosed and met her own. His consciousness had returned, +and, under the increasing expression in his looks, she sunk back, +and permitted the old man to lead her along the homeward path. More +than once she looked back, but, with the assurance of Mr. Calvert +that there was no more danger to be apprehended, she continued to +advance; the worthy old man, as they went, seeking to divert her +mind, by pleasant and choice anecdotes of which his memory had +abundant stores, from dwelling upon the unpleasant and exciting +event which had just taken place. + +Margaret Cooper, whose habits previously had kept her from much +intimacy with the village sage, was insensibly taken by his gentleness, +the purity of his taste, the choiceness of his expression, the +extent of his resources. She wondered how a mind so full should have +remained unknown to her so long--committing the error, very common +to persons of strong will and determined self-esteem, of assuming +that she should, as a matter of inevitable necessity, have known +everything and everybody of which the knowledge is at all desirable. + +In pleasant discourse he beguiled her progress, until Ned Hinkley +was met returning with horses--the pathway did not admit of a vehicle, +and the village had none less cumbrous than cart and wagon--on +one of which she mounted, refusing all support or assistance; and +when, Mr. Calvert insisted upon walking beside her, she grasped +the bough of a tree, broke off a switch, and, giving an arch but +good-natured smile and nod to the old man, laid it smartly over +the horse's flank, and in a few moments was out of sight. + +"The girl is smart," said Calvert, as he followed her retreating +form with his eye--"too smart! She speaks well--has evidently read. +No wonder that William loves her; but she will never do for him. +She has no humility. Pride is the demon in her heart. Pride will +overthrow her. These woods spoil her. Solitude is the natural nurse +of self-esteem, particularly where it is strong at first, and is +coupled with anything like talent. Better for such a one if sickness, +and strife, and suffering, had taken her at the cradle, and nursed +her with the milk of self-denial, which is the only humility worth +having. And yet, why should I speak of her, when the sting remains +in my own soul--when I yet feel the pang of my feebleness and +self-reproach? Alas! I should school none. The voice speaks to me +ever, 'Old man, to thy prayers! Thy own knees are yet stubborn as +thy neck!'" + +Leaving him to the becoming abasement of that delusive self-comfort +which ministers to our vain-glory, and which this good old man had +so happily succeeded in rebuking, we will return to the spot where +we left our other parties. Ned Hinkley had already joined them. +With his horse he had providently brought a suit of his own clothes +for the stranger, which, though made of homespun, and not of the +most modern fashion, were yet warm and comfortable, and as Stevens +was compelled to think, infinitely preferable to the chilly and +dripping garments which he wore. A few moments, in the cover of +the woods, sufficed the neophyte to make the alteration; while the +two cousins, to whom the exigencies of forester and fisherman life +were more familiar prepared to walk the water out of their own +habits, by giving rapid circulation to their blood and limbs. While +their preparations were in progress, however, Ned Hinkley could not +deny himself the pleasure of discoursing at length on the subject +of the late disaster. + +"Stranger," he said, "I must tell you that you've had a souse in +as fine a fishing-pond as you'll meet with from here to Salt river. +I reckon, now, that while you were in, you never thought for a +moment of the noble trout that inhabit it." + +"I certainly did not," said the other. + +"There, now! I could have sworn it. That a man should go with his +eyes open into a country without ever asking what sort of folks +lived there! Isn't it monstrous?" + +"It certainly seems like a neglect of the first duty of a traveller," +said Stevens good-humoredly; "let me not show myself heedless of +another. Let me thank you, gentlemen, for saving my life. I believe +I owe it to one or both of you." + +"To him, not to me," said Ned Hinkley, pointing to his cousin. +William was at a little distance, looking sullenly upon the two +with eyes which, if dark and moody, seemed to denote a thought +which was anywhere else but in the scene around him. + +"He saved you, and I saved the woman. I wouldn't have a woman +drowned in this lake for all the houses in Charlemont." + +"Ah! why?" + +"'Twould spoil it for fishing for ever." + +"Why would a woman do this more than a man?" + +"For a very good reason, my friend. Because the ghost of a woman +talks, and a man's don't, they say. The ghost of a man says what +it wants to say with its eyes; a woman's with her tongue. You know +there's nothing scares fish so much as one's talking." + +"I have heard so. But is it so clear that there is such a difference +between ghosts? How is it known that the female does all the +talking?" + +"Oh, that's beyond dispute. There's a case that we all know +about--all here in Charlemont--the case of Joe Barney's millpond. +Barney lost one of his children and one of his negroes in the +pond--drowned as a judgment, they say, for fishing a Sunday. That +didn't make any difference with the fish: you could catch them there +just the same as before. But when old Mrs. Prey fell in, crossing +the dam, the case was altered. You might sit there for hours and +days, night and day, and bob till you were weary; devil a bite after +that! Now, what could make the difference but the tongue? Mother +Frey had a tongue of her own, I tell you. 'Twas going when she +fell in, and I reckon's been going ever since. She was a sulphury, +spiteful body, to be sure, and some said she poisoned the fish if +she didn't scare them. To my thinking, 'twas the tongue." + +Stevens had been something seduced from his gravity by the blunt +humor and unexpected manner of Ned Hinkley; besides, having been +served, if not saved, by his hands, something, perhaps, of attention +was due to what he had to say; but he recollected the assumed +character which he had to maintain--something doubtful, too, if +he had not already impaired it in the sight and hearing of those +who had come so opportunely but so unexpectedly to his relief, He +recovered his composure and dignity; forbore to smile at the story +which might otherwise have provoked not only smile but corresponding +answer; and, by the sudden coolness of his manner, tended to confirm +in Ned Hinkley's bosom the half-formed hostility which the cause +of his cousin had originally taught him to feel. + +"I'll lick the conceit out of him yet!" he muttered, as Stevens, +turning away, ascended to the spot where William Hinkley stood. + +"I owe you thanks, Mr. Hinkley," he began. + +The young man interrupted him. + +"You owe me nothing, sir," he answered hastily, and prepared to +turn away. + +"You have saved my life, sir." + +"I should have saved your dog's life, sir, in the same situation. +I have done but an act of duty." + +"But, Mr. Hinkley--" + +"Your horse is ready for you, sir," said the young man, turning +off abruptly, and darting up the sides of the hill, remote from +the pathway, and burying himself in the contiguous forests. + +"Strange!" exclaimed the neophyte--"this is very strange!" + +"Not so strange, stranger, as that I should stand your groom, without +being brought up to such a business for any man. Here's your nag, +sir." + +"I thank you--I would not willingly trespass," he replied, as he +relieved our angler from his grasp upon the bridle. + +"You're welcome without the thanks, stranger. I reckon you know +the route you come. Up hill, follow the track to the top, take the +left turn to the valley, then you'll see the houses, and can follow +your own nose or your nag's. Either's straight enough to carry you +to his rack. You'll find your clothes at your boarding-house about +the time that you'll get there." + +"Nay, sir, I already owe you much. Let them not trouble you. I will +take them myself." + +"No, no, stranger!" was the reply of our fisherman, as he stooped +down and busied himself in making the garments into a compact bundle; +"I'm not the man to leave off without doing the thing I begin to +do. I sometimes do more than I bargain for--sometimes lick a man +soundly when I set out only to tweak his nose; but I make it a +sort of Christian law never to do less. You may reckon to find your +clothes home by the time you get there. There's your road." + +"A regular pair of cubs!" muttered the horseman, as he ascended +the hill. + +"To purse up his mouth as if I was giving him root-drink, when I +was telling him about Mother Frey's spoiling the fish! Let him take +care--he may get the vinegar next time, and not the fish!" + +And, with these characteristic commentaries, the parties separated +for the time. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +PHILOSOPHY OP FIGHTING. + + + + + +"You're not a fighter, Bill Hinkley, and that's about the worst +fault that I can find against you." + +Such was the beginning of a dialogue between the cousins some +three days after the affair which was narrated in our last chapter. +The two young men were at the house of the speaker, or rather at +his mother's house; where, a favorite and only son, he had almost +supreme dominion. He was putting his violin in tune, and the +sentences were spoken at intervals with the discordant scraps of +sound which were necessarily elicited by this unavoidable musical +operation. These sounds might be said to form a running accompaniment +for the dialogue, and, considering the sombre mood of the person +addressed, they were, perhaps, far more congenial than any more +euphonious strains would have been. + +"Not a fighter!" said the other; "why, what do you mean?" + +"Why, just what I say--you are not a fighter. You love reading, and +fiddling, and fishing sometimes, and sometimes dancing, and hunting, +and swimming; but I'm pretty certain you don't love fighting. You +needn't contradict, Bill--I've been thinking the matter over; and +I'm sure of it. I recollect every battle or scrape you ever were +in, from the time we went to old Chandler's, and I tell you, you're +not a fighter--you don't love fighting!" + +This was concluded with a tremendous scrape over the strings, +which seemed to say as well as scrape could speak--"There can be +no mistake on the subject--I've said it." + +"If I knew exactly what you were driving at," said the other, "perhaps +I might answer you. I never pretended to be a fighter; and as for +loving it, as I love eating, drinking, books, fiddling, and dancing, +why that needs no answer. Of course I do not, and I don't know who +does." + +"There it is. I told you. I knew it. You'd sooner do almost anything +than fight." + +"If you mean that I would submit to insult," said the more peaceable +cousin, with some displeasure in his tones and countenance, "sooner +than resent it, you are very much mistaken. It wouldn't be advisable +even for you to try the experiment." + +"Poh, poh, Bill, you know for that matter that it wouldn't take +much trying. I'd lick you as easily now as I did when we were boys +together." + +"We are boys no longer," said the other gravely. + +"I'm as much a boy as ever, so far as the licking capacity calls +for boyhood. I've pretty much the same spirit now that I had then, +and ten times the same strength and activity. But don't look so +blue. I'm not going to try my strength and spirit and activity on +you. And don't suppose, Bill Hinkley, that I mean to say you're +anything of a coward, or that you'd submit to any open insult; but +still I do say, you're not only not fond of fighting, but you're +just not as much inclined that way as you should be." + +"Indeed! what more would you have? Do you not say that I would not +submit to insult?--that I show the proper degree of courage in such +cases?" + +"Not the PROPER degree. That's the very question. You're not quick +enough. You wait for the first blow. You don't step out to meet +the enemy. You look for him to come to you." + +"Surely! I look upon fighting as brutal--to be waited for, not +sought--to be resorted to only in compliance with necessity--to be +avoided to the last!" + +"No such thing--all a mistake. Fighting and the desire to get on +the shoulders of our neighbors is a natural passion. We see that +every day. The biggest boy licks the one just below him, he whips +the next, and so down, and there's not one that don't lick somebody +and don't stand licked himself--for the master licks the biggest. +The desire to fight and flog is natural, and this being the case, +it stands to reason that we must lick our neighbor or he'll be sure +to lick us." + +"Pshaw! you speak like a boy yet. This is schoolhouse philosophy." + +"And very good philosophy too. I'm thinking the schoolhouse and +the play-ground is pretty much a sort of world to itself. It's no +bad show of what the world without is; and one of its first lessons +and that which I think the truest, is the necessity of having a +trial of strength with every new-comer; until we learn where he's +to stand in the ranks, number one or number nothing. You see there +just the same passions, though, perhaps, on a small scale, that +we afterward find to act upon the big world of manhood. There, we +fight for gingerbread, for marbles, top and ball; not unfrequently +because we venture to look at our neighbor's sweetheart; and +sometimes, quite as often, for the love of the thing and to know +where the spirit and the sinew are. Well, isn't that just what the +big world does after us? As men, we fight for bigger playthings, for +pounds, where before we fought for pence--for gold where before we +fought for coppers--for command of a country instead of a schoolyard; +for our wives instead of sweethearts, and through sheer deviltry +and the love of the thing, when there's nothing else to fight about, +just the same as we did in boyhood." + +"But even were you to prove, and I to admit, that it is so, just +as you say, that would not prove the practice to be a jot more +proper, or a jot less brutal." + +"Begging your pardon, Bill, it proves it to be right and proper, +and accordingly, if brutal, a becoming brutality. If this is +the natural disposition of boys and men, don't you see that this +schoolboy licking and fighting is a necessary part of one's moral +education? It learns one to use his strength, his limbs and sinews, +as he may be compelled to use them, in self-defence, in every future +day of his life. You know very well what follows a boy at school +who doesn't show himself ready to bung up his neighbor's eye the +moment he sees it at a cross-twinkle. He gets his own bunged up. +Well, it's just the same thing when he gets to be a man. If you have +a dispute with your enemy, I don't say that you shouldn't reason +with him, but I do say that your reasoning will have very little +effect upon him unless he sees that you are able and willing +to write it in black and blue upon his sheepskin. And what better +way could you find to show him THAT, unless by giving him word and +blow, the blow first, as being the most impressive argument?" + +"You must have been dreaming of these subjects last night." said +the grave cousin--"you seem to have them unusually well cut and +dried." + +"I haven't been dreaming about it, Bill, but I confess I've been +thinking about it very seriously all night, and considering all +the arguments that I thought you would make use of against it. +I haven't quite done with my discussion, which I took up entirely +for your benefit." + +"Indeed! you are quite philanthropic before breakfast; but let us +hear you?" + +"You talk of the brutality of fighting--now in what does that +brutality consist? Is it not in breaking noses, kicking shins, +bunging up eyes, and making one's neighbor feel uncomfortable in +thigh, and back, and arms, and face, and skin, and indeed, everywhere, +where a big fist or a cowhide shoe may plant a buffet or a bruise?" + +"Quite a definition, Ned." + +"I'm glad you think so: for if it's brutal in the boy to do so to +his schoolmate, is it less so for the schoolmaster to do the same +thing to the boy that's under his charge? He bruises my skin, makes +my thighs, and arms, and back, and legs, and face, and hands, ache, +and if my definition be a correct one, he is quite as brutal as +the boys who do the same thing to one another." + +"He does it because the boys deserve it, and in order to make them +obedient and active." + +"And when did a boy not deserve a flogging when he gets licked by +his companion?" demanded the other triumphantly--"and don't the +licking make him obedient, and don't the kicking make him active? +By gemini, I've seen more activity from one chap's legs under the +quick application of another's feet, than I think anything else +could produce, unless it were feet made expressly for such a purpose +and worked by a steam-engine. That might make them move something +faster, but I reckon there would be no need in such a case of any +such improvement." + +"What are you driving at, Ned Hinkley? This is by far the longest +argument, I think, that you've ever undertaken. You must be moved +by some very serious considerations." + +"I am, and you'll see what I'm driving at after a little while. +I'm not fond of arguing, you know, but I look upon the fighting +principle as a matter to be known and believed in, and I wish to +make clear to you my reasons for believing in it myself. You don't +suppose I'd put down the fiddle for a talk at any time if the +subject was not a serious one?" + +"Give way--you have the line." + +"About the brutality of fighting then, there's another thing to +be said. Fighting produces good feeling--that is to say supposing +one party fairly to have licked another." + +"Indeed--that's new." + +"And true too, Bill Hinkley. It cures the sulks. It lets off steam. +It's like a thunderstorm that comes once in a while, and drives +away the clouds, and clears the skies until all's blue again." + +"Black and blue." + +"No! what was black becomes blue. Chaps that have been growling at +each other for weeks and months lose their bad blood--" + +"From the nostrils!" + +"Yes, from the nostrils. It's a sort of natural channel, and runs +freely from that quarter. The one crows and the other runs and there's +an end of the scrape and the sulks. The weaker chap, feeling his +weakness, ceases to be impudent; the stronger, having his power +acknowledged, becomes the protector of the weak. Each party falls +into his place, and so far from the licking producing bad feeling +it produces good feeling and good humor; and I conclude that one +half of the trouble in the world, the squabbles between man and +man, woman and woman, boy and boy--nay, between rival nations--is +simply because your false and foolish notions of brutality and +philanthropy keep them from coming to the scratch as soon as they +should. They hang off, growling and grumbling, and blackguarding, +and blaspheming, when, if they would only take hold, and come to +an earnest grapple, the odds would soon show themselves--broken +heads and noses would follow--the bad blood would run, and as soon +as each party found his level, the one being finally on his back, +peace would ensue, and there would be good humor for ever after, +or at least until the blood thickened again. I think there's reason +in my notion. I was thinking it over half the night. I've thought +of it oftentimes before. I've never yet seen the argument that's +strong enough to tumble it." + +"Your views are certainly novel, Ned, if not sound. You will excuse +me if I do not undertake to dispute them this morning. I give in, +therefore, and you may congratulate yourself upon having gained a +triumph if not a convert?" + +"Stop, stop, William Hinkley: you don't suppose I've done all this +talking only to make a convert or to gain a triumph?" + +"Why, that's your object in fighting, why not in arguing?" + +"Well, that's the object of most persons when they dispute, I know; +but it is not mine. I wish to make a practical application of my +doctrine." + +"Indeed! who do you mean to fight now?" + +"It's not for me to fight, it's for you." + +"Me!" + +"Yes; you have the preference by rights, though if you don't--and +I'm rather sorry to think, as I told you at the start, that the +only fault I had to find with you is that you're not a fighter--I +must take your place and settle the difference." + +William Hinkley turned upon the speaker. The latter had laid down +the violin, having, in the course of the argument, broken all its +strings; and he stood now, unjacketed, and still in the chamber, +where the two young men had been sleeping, almost in the attitude +of one about to grapple with an antagonist. The serious face of him +whose voice had been for war--his startling position--the unwonted +eagerness of his eye, and the ludicrous importance which he attached +to the strange principle which he had been asserting--conquered for +a moment the graver mood of his love-sick companion, and he laughed +outright at his pugnacious cousin. The latter seemed a little +offended. + +"It's well you can laugh at such things, Bill Hinkley, but I can't. +There was a time when every mother's son in Kentucky was a man, +and could stand up to his rack with the best. If he couldn't keep +the top place, he went a peg lower; but he made out to keep the +place for which he was intended. Then, if a man disliked his neighbor +he crossed over to him and said so, and they went at it like men, +and as soon as the pout was over they shook hands, and stood side +by side, and shoulder to shoulder, like true friends, in every +danger, and never did fellows fight better against Indians and +British than the same two men, that had lapped muscles, and rolled +in the grain together till you couldn't say whose was whose, and +which was which, till the best man jumped up, and shook himself, +and gave the word to crow. After that it was all peace and good +humor, and they drank and danced together, and it didn't lessen +a man in his sweetheart's eyes, though he was licked, if he could +say he had stood up like a man, and was downed after a good hug, +because he couldn't help it. Now, there's precious little of that. +The chap that dislikes his fellow, hasn't the soul to say it out, +but he goes aside and sneers and snickers, and he whispers things +that breed slanders, and scandals, and bad blood, until there's no +trusting anybody; and everything is full of hate and enmity--but +then it's so peaceful! Peaceful, indeed! as if there was any peace +where there is no confidence, and no love, and no good feeling +either for one thing or another." + +"Really, Ned, it seems to me you're indignant without any occasion. +I am tempted to laugh at you again." + +"No, don't. You'd better not." + +"Ha! ha! ha! I can not help it, Ned; so don't buffet me. You forced +me into many a fight when I was a boy, for which I had no stomach; +I trust you will not pummel me yourself because the world has grown +so hatefully pacific. Tell me, in plain terms, who I am to fight +now." + +"Who! who but Stevens?--this fellow Stevens. He's your enemy, you +say--comes between you and your sweetheart--between you and your +own mother--seems to look down upon you--speaks to you as if he +was wiser, and better, and superior in every way--makes you sad +and sulky to your best friends--you growl and grumble at him--you +hate him--you fear him--" + +"Fear him!" + +"Yes, yes, I say fear him, for it's a sort of fear to skulk off +from your mother's house to avoid seeing him--" + +"What, Ned, do you tell me that--do you begrudge me a place with +you here, my bed, my breakfast?" + +"Begrudge! dang it, William Hinkley, don't tell me that, unless you +want me to lay heavy hand on your shoulder!"--and the tears gushed +into the rough fellow's eyes as he spoke these words, and he turned +off to conceal them. + +"I don't mean to vex you, Ned, but why tell me that I skulk--that +I fear this man?" + +"Begrudge!" muttered the other. + +"Nay, forgive me; I didn't mean it. I was hasty when I said so; +but you also said things to provoke me. Do you suppose that I fear +this man Stevens?" + +"Why don't you lick him then, or let him lick you, and bring the +matter to an ending? Find out who's the best man, and put an end +to the growling and the groaning. As it now stands you're not the +same person--you're not fit company for any man. You scarcely talk, +you listen to nobody. You won't fish, you won't hunt: you're sulky +yourself and you make other people so!" + +"I'm afraid, Ned, it wouldn't much help the matter even if I were +to chastise the stranger." + +"It would cure him of his impudence. It would make him know how to +treat you; and if the rest of your grievance comes from Margaret +Cooper, there's a way to end that too." + +"How! you wouldn't have me fight her?" said William Hinkley, with +an effort to smile. + +"Why, we may call it fighting," said the advocate for such wholesale +pugnacity, "since it calls for quite as much courage sometimes to +face one woman as it does to face three men. But what I mean that +you should do with her is to up and at her. Put the downright +question like a man 'will you?' or 'won't you?' and no more beating +about the bush. If she says 'no!' there's no more to be said, +and if I was you after that, I'd let Stevens have her or the d--l +himself, since I'm of the notion that no woman is fit for me if +she thinks me not fit for her. Such a woman can't be worth having, +and after that I wouldn't take her as a gracious gift were she to +be made twice as beautiful. The track's before you, William Hinkley. +Bring the stranger to the hug, and Margaret Cooper too, if she'll +let you. But, at all events, get over the grunting and the growling, +the sulky looks, and the sour moods. They don't become a man who's +got a man's heart, and the sinews of a man." + +William Hinkley leaned against the fireplace with his head resting +upon his hand. The other approached him. + +"I don't mean to say anything, Bill, or even to look anything, +that'll do you hurt. I'm for bringing your trouble to a short cut. +I've told you what I think right and reasonable, and for no other +man in Kentucky would I have taken the pains to think out this +matter as I have done. But you or I must lick Stevens." + +"You forget, Ned. Your eagerness carries you astray. Would you beat +a man who offers no resistance?" + +"Surely not." + +"Stevens is a non-combatant. If you were to slap John Cross on one +cheek he'd turn you the other. He'd never strike you back." + +"John Cross and Stevens are two persons. I tell you the stranger +WILL fight. I'm sure of it. I've seen it in his looks and actions." + +"Do you think so?" + +"I do; I'm sure of it. But you must recollect besides, that +John Cross is a preacher, already sworn in, as I may say. Stevens +is only a beginner. Besides, John Cross is an old man; Stevens, a +young one. John Cross don't care a straw about all the pretty girls +in the country. He works in the business of souls, not beauties, +and it's very clear that Stevens not only loves a pretty girl, but +that he's over head and heels in love with your Margaret--" + +"Say no more. If he will fight, Ned Hinkley, he shall fight!" + +"Bravo, Bill--that's all that I was arguing for--that's all that +I want. But you must make at Margaret Cooper also." + +"Ah! Ned, there I confess my fears." + +"Why, what are you afraid of?" + +"Rejection!" + +"Is that worse than this suspense--this anxiety--this looking +out from morning till night for the sunshine, and this constant +apprehension of the clouds--this knowing not what to be about--this +sulking--this sadding--this growling--this grunting--this muling--this +moping--this eternal vinegar-face and ditchwater-spirit?" + +"I don't know, Ned, but I confess my weakness--my want of courage +in this respect!" + +"Psho! the bark's worse always than the bite. The fear worse than +the danger! Suspense is the very d--l! Did you ever hear of the +Scotch parson's charity? He prayed that God might suspend Napoleon +over the very jaws of hell--but 'Oh, Lord!' said he, 'dinna let +him fa' in!' To my mind, mortal lips never uttered a more malignant +prayer!" + + + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +TRAILING THE FOX. + + + + + +This dialogue was broken by a summons to the breakfast-table. We +have already intimated that while the hateful person of Stevens was +an inmate of his own house, William Hinkley remained, the better +portion of his time, at that of his cousin. It was not merely that +Stevens was hateful to his sight, but such was the devotion of his +father and mother to that adventurer, that the young man passed +with little notice from either, or if he incurred their attention +at all, it was only to receive their rebuke. He had not been able +to disguise from them his dislike to Stevens. This dislike showed +itself in many ways--in coldness, distance, silence--a reluctance +to accord the necessary civilities, and in very unequivocal glances +of hostility from the eyes of the jealous young villager. + +Such offences against good-breeding were considered by them as so +many offences against God himself, shown to one who was about to +profess his ministry; and being prepared to see in Brother Stevens +an object of worth and veneration only, they lacked necessarily all +that keenness of discrimination which might have helped somewhat +to qualify the improprieties of which they believed their son to be +guilty. Of his causes of jealousy they had no suspicion, and they +shared none of his antipathies. He was subject to the daily lecture +from the old man, and the nightly exhortation and expostulation +of the old woman Tho latter did her spiriting gently. The former +roared and thundered. The mother implored and kissed--the father +denounced and threatened. The one, amidst the faults of her you +which she reproved, could see his virtues; she could also see that +he was suffering--she knew not why--as well as sinning; the other +could only see an insolent, disobedient boy who was taking airs upon +himself, flying in the face of his parents, and doomed to perish +like the sons of Eli, unless by proving himself a better manager +than Eli, he addressed himself in time to the breaking in of the +unruly spirit whose offences promised to be so heinous. It was +not merely from the hateful sight of his rival, or the monotonous +expostulation of his mother, that the poor youth fled; it was sometimes +to escape the heavily chastening hand of his bigoted father. + +These things worked keenly and constantly in the mind of William +Hinkley. They acquired additional powers of ferment from the +coldness of Margaret Cooper, and from the goadings of his cousin. +Naturally one of the gentlest of creatures, the young man was +not deficient in spirit. What seemed to his more rude and elastic +relative a token of imbecility, was nothing more than the softening +influence of his reflective and mental over his physical powers. +These, under the excitement of his blood were necessarily made +subject to his animal impulses, and when he left the house that +morning, with his Blackstone under his arm, on his way to the +peaceful cottage of old Calvert, where he pursued his studies, his +mind was in a perfect state of chaos. Of the chapter which he had +striven to compass the previous night, in which the rights of persons +are discussed with the usual clearness of style, but the usual +one-sidedness of judgment of that smooth old monarchist, William +Hinkley scarcely remembered a solitary syllable. He had read only +with his eyes. His mind had kept no pace with his proceedings, and +though he strove as he went along to recall the heads of topics, +the points and principles of what he had been reading, his efforts +at reflection, by insensible but sudden transitions, invariably +concluded with some image of strife and commotion, in which he +was one of the parties and Alfred Stevens another; the beautiful, +proud face of Margaret Cooper being always unaccountably present, +and seeming to countenance, with its scornful smiles, the spirit +of strife which operated upon the combatants. + +This mood had the most decided effect upon his appearance; and +the good old man, Calvert, whose attention had been already drawn +to the condition of distress and suffering which he manifested, +was now more than ever struck with the seemingly sudden increase +of this expression upon his face. It was Saturday--the saturnalia +of schoolboys--and a day of rest to the venerable teacher. He was +seated before his door, under the shadows of his paternal oak, +once more forgetting the baffled aims and profitless toils of his +own youthful ambition, in the fascinating pages of that historical +romancer the stout Abbe Vertot. But a glance at the youth soon +withdrew his mind from this contemplation, and the sombre pages of +the present opened upon his eye, and the doubtful ones of the future +became, on the instant, those which he most desired to peruse. + +The study of the young is always a study of the past with the +old. They seem, in such a contemplation, to live over the records +of memory. They feel as one just returning from a long and weary +journey, who encounters another, freshly starting to traverse the +same weary but inviting track. Something in the character of William +Hinkley, which seemed to resemble his own, made this feeling yet +more active in the mind of Mr. Calvert; and his earnest desire was +to help the youth forward on the path which, he soon perceived, it +was destined that the other should finally take. He was not satisfied +with the indecision of character which the youth displayed. But +how could he blame it harshly? It was in this very respect that his +own character had failed, and though he felt that all his counsels +were to be addressed to this point, yet he knew not where; or in +what manner, to begin. The volume of Blackstone which the youth +carried suggested to him a course, however. He bade the young man +bring out a chair, and taking the book in his hand, he proceeded +to examine him upon parts of the volume which he professed to have +been reading. + +This examination, as it had the effect of compelling the mind +of the student to contract itself to a single subject of thought, +necessarily had the further effect of clearing it somewhat from +the chaos of clouds which had been brooding over it, obscuring +the light, and defeating the warmth of the intellectual sun behind +them; and if the examination proved the youth to have been very +little of a student, or one who had been reading with a vacant +mind, it also proved that the original powers of his intellect +were vigorous and various--that he had an analytical capacity of +considerable compass; was bold in opinion, ingenious in solution, +and with a tendency to metaphysical speculation, which, modified by +the active wants and duties of a large city-practice, would have +made him a subtle lawyer, and a very logical debater. But the blush +kept heightening on the youth's cheeks as the examination proceeded. +He had answered, but he felt all the while how much his answer had +sprung from his own conjectures and how little from his authorities. +The examination convinced him that the book had been so much +waste-paper under his thumb. When it was ended the old man closed +the volume, laid it on the sward beside him, and looked, with +a mingled expression of interest and commiseration, on his face. +William Hinkley noted this expression, and spoke, with a degree +of mortification in look and accent, which he did not attempt to +hide:-- + +"I am afraid, sir, you will make nothing of me. I can make nothing +of myself. I am almost inclined to give up in despair. I will be +nothing--I can be nothing. I feared as much from the beginning, +sir. You only waste your time on me." + +"You speak too fast, William--you let your blood mingle too much +with your thoughts. Let me ask you one question. How long will +you be content to live as you do now--seeking nothing--performing +nothing--being nothing?" + +The youth was silent. + +"I, you see, am nothing," continued the old man--"nay, do not +interrupt me. You will tell me, as you have already told me, that +I am much, and have done much, here in Charlemont. But, for all that +I am, and have done here, I need not have gone beyond my accidence. +My time has been wasted; my labors, considered as means to ends, +were unnecessary; I have toiled without the expected profits of +toil; I have drawn water in a sieve. It is not pleasant for me to +recall these things, much less to speak of them; but it is for your +good that I told you my story. You have, as I had, certain defects +of character--not the same exactly, but of the same family complexion. +To be something, you must be resolved. You must devote yourself, +heart and mind, with all your soul and with all your strength, to +the business you have undertaken. Shut your windows against the +sunshine, your ears to the song of birds, your heart against the +fascinations of beauty; and if you never think of the last until +you are thirty, you will be then a better judge of beauty, a truer +lover, a better husband, a more certain candidate for happiness. +Let me assure you that, of the hundred men that take wives before +they are thirty, there is scarcely one who, in his secret soul, does +not repent it--scarcely one who does not look back with yearning +to the days when he was free." + +There was a pause. The young man became very much agitated. He rose +from his chair, walked apart for a few moments, and then, returning, +resumed his seat by the old man. + +"I believe you are right, sir--nay, I know you are; but I can not +be at once--I can not promise--to be all that you wish. If Margaret +Cooper would consent, I would marry her to-morrow." + +The old man shook his head, but remained silent. The young one +proceeded:-- + +"One thing I will say, however: I will take to my studies after +this week, whatever befalls, with the hearty resolution which you +recommend. I will try to shut out the sunshine and the song. I +will endeavor to devote soul and strength, and heart and mind, +to the task before me. I KNOW that I can master these studies--I +think I can"--he continued, more modestly, modifying the positive +assertion--"and I know that it is equally my interest and duty to +do so. I thank you sir, very much for what you have told me. Believe +me, it has not fallen upon heedless or disrespectful ears." + +The old man pressed his hand. + +"I know THAT, my son, and I rejoice to think that, having given me +these assurances, you will strive hard to make them good." + +"I will, sir!" replied William, taking up his cap to depart. + +"But whither are you going now?" + +The youth blushed as he replied frankly:-- + +"To the widow Cooper's. I'm going to see Margaret." + +"Well, well!" said the old man, as the youth disappeared, "if it must +be done, the sooner it's over the better. But there's another moth +to the flame. Fortunately, he will be singed only; but she!--what +is left for her--so proud, yet so confiding--so confident of strength, +yet so artless? But it is useless to look beyond, and very dismal." + +And the speaker once more took up Vertot, and was soon lost amid +the glories of the knights of St. John. His studies were interrupted +by the sudden and boisterous salutation of Ned Hinkley:-- + +"Well, gran'pa, hard at the big book as usual? No end to the fun +of fighting, eh? I confess, if ever I get to love reading, it'll be +in some such book as that. But reading's not natural to me, though +you made me do enough of it while you had me. Bill was the boy for +the books, and I for the hooks. By-the-way, talking of hooks, how +did those trout eat? Fine, eh? I haven't seen you since the day of +our ducking." + +"No, Ned, and I've been looking for you. Where have you been?" + +"Working, working! Everything's been going wrong. Lines snapped, +fiddle-strings cracked, hooks missing, gun rusty, and Bill Hinkley +so sulky, that his frown made a shadow on the wall as large and +ugly as a buffalo's. But where is he? I carne to find him here." + +While he was speaking, the lively youth squatted down, and deliberately +took his seat on the favorite volume which Mr. Calvert had laid +upon the sward at his approach. + +"Take the chair, Ned," said the old man, with a smaller degree of +kindness in his tone than was habitual with him. "Take the chair. +Books are sacred things--to be worshipped and studied, not employed +as footstools." + +"Why, what's the hurt, gran'pa?" demanded the young man, though +he rose and did as he was bidden. "If 'twas a fiddle, now, there +would be some danger of a crash, but a big book like that seems +naturally made to sit upon." + +The old man answered him mildly:-- + +"I have learned to venerate books, Ned, and can no more bear to see +them abused than I could bear to be abused myself. It seems to me +like treating their writers and their subjects with scorn. If you +were to contemplate the venerable heads of the old knights with +my eyes and feelings, you would see why I wish to guard them from +everything like disrespect." + +"Well, I beg their pardon--a thousand pardons! I meant no offence, +gran'pa--and can't help thinking that it's all a notion of yours, +your reverencing such old Turks and Spaniards that have been +dead a thousand years. They were very good people, no doubt, but +I'm thinking they've served their turn; and I see no more harm in +squatting upon their histories than in walking over their graves, +which, if I were in their country of Jericho--that was where they +lived, gran'pa, wa'n't it?--I should be very apt to do without +asking leave, I tell you." + +Ned Hinkley purposely perverted his geography and history. There was +a spice of mischief in his composition, and he grinned good-naturedly +as he watched the increasing gravity upon the old man's face. + +"Come, come, gran'pa, don't be angry. You know my fun is a sort of +fizz--there's nothing but a flash--nothing to hurt--no shotting. +But where's Bill Hinkley, gran'pa?" + +"Gone to the widow Cooper's, to see Margaret." + +"Ah! well, I'm glad he's made a beginning. But I'd much rather he'd +have seen the other first." + +"What other do you mean?" demanded the old man; but the speaker, +though sufficiently random and reckless in what he said, saw the +impolicy of allowing the purpose of his cousin in regard to Stevens +to be understood. He contrived to throw the inquirer off. + +"Gran'pa, do you know there's something in this fellow Stevens that +don't altogether please me? I'm not satisfied with him." + +"Ah, indeed! what do you see to find fault with?" + +"Well, you see, he comes here pretending to study. Now, in the +first place, why should he come here to study? why didn't he stay +at home with his friends and parents?" + +"Perhaps he had neither. Perhaps he had no home. You might as well +ask me why I came here, and settled down, where I was not born--where +I had neither friends nor parents." + +"Oh, no, but you told us why," said the other. "You gave us a reason +for what you did." + +"And why may not the stranger give a reason too?" + +"He don't, though." + +"Perhaps he will when you get intimate with him. I see nothing in +this to be dissatisfied with. I had not thought you so suspicious, +Ned Hinkley--so little charitable." + +"Charity begins at home, gran'pa. But there's more in this matter. +This man comes here to study to be a parson. How does he study? +Can you guess?" + +"I really can not." + +"By dressing spruce as a buck--curling his hair backward over his +ears something like a girl's, and going out, morning, noon, and +night, to see Margaret Cooper." + +"As there is no good reason to suppose that a student of divinity +is entirely without the affections of humanity, I still see nothing +inconsistent with his profession in this conduct." + +"But how can he study?" + +"Ah! it may be inconsistent with his studies though not with his +profession. It is human without being altogether proper. You see +that your cousin neglects his studies in the same manner. I presume +that the stranger also loves Miss Cooper." + +"But he has no such right as Bill Hinkley." + +"Why not?" + +"Why not? Why, Bill is a native here, has been loving her for the +last year or more. His right certainly ought to be much greater +than that of a man whom nobody knows--who may be the man in the +moon for anything we know to the contrary--just dropped in upon +us, nobody knows how, to do nobody knows what." + +"All that may be very true, Ned, and yet his right to seek Miss +Cooper may be just as good as that of yourself or mine. You forget +that it all depends upon the young lady herself whether either of +them is to have a right at all in her concerns." + +"Well, that's a subject we needn't dispute about, gran'pa, when +there's other things. Now, isn't it strange that this stranger +should ride off once a week with his valise on his saddle, just as +if he was starting on a journey--should be gone half a day--then +come back with his nag all in a foam, and after that you should +see him in some new cravat, or waistcoat, or pantaloons, just as +if he had gone home and got a change?" + +"And does he do that?" inquired Mr. Calvert, with some show of +curiosity. + +"That he does, and he always takes the same direction; and it +seems--so Aunt Sarah herself says, though she thinks him a small +sort of divinity on earth--that the day before, he's busy writing +letters, and, according to her account, pretty long letters too. +Well, nobody sees that he ever gets any letters in return. He +never asks at the post-office, so Jacob Zandts himself tells me, +and that's strange enough, too, if so be he has any friends or +relations anywhere else." + +Mr. Calvert listened with interest to these and other particulars +which his young companion had gathered respecting the habits of the +stranger; and he concurred with his informant in the opinion that +there was something in his proceedings which was curious and perhaps +mysterious. Still, he did not think it advisable to encourage the +prying and suspicious disposition of the youth, and spoke to this +effect in the reply which finally dismissed the subject. Ned Hinkley +was silenced not satisfied. + +"There's something wrong about it," he muttered to himself on +leaving the old man, "and, by dickens! I'll get to the bottom of +it, or there's no taste in Salt-river. The fellow's a rascal; I +feel it if I don't know it, and if Bill Hinkley don't pay him off, +I must. One or t'other must do it, that's certain." + +With these reflections, which seemed to him to be no less moral than +social, the young man took his way back to the village, laboring +with all the incoherence of unaccustomed thought, to strike out +some process by which to find a solution for those mysteries which +were supposed to characterize the conduct of the stranger. He had +just turned out of the gorge leading from Calvert's house into the +settlement, when he encountered the person to whom his meditations +were given, on horseback; and going at a moderate gallop along +the high-road to the country. Stevens bowed to him and drew up for +speech as he drew nigh. At first Ned Hinkley appeared disposed to +avoid him, but moved by a sudden notion, he stopped and suffered +himself to speak with something more of civility than he had hitherto +shown to the same suspected personage. + +"Why, you're not going to travel, Parson Stevens," said he--"you're +not going to leave us, are you?" + +"No, sir--I only wish to give myself and horse a stretch of a few +miles for the sake of health. Too much stable, they say, makes a +saucy nag." + +"So it does, and I may say, a saucy man too. But seeing you with +your valise, I thought you were off for good." + +Stevens said something about his being so accustomed to ride with +the valise that he carried it without thinking. + +"I scarcely knew I had it on!" + +"That's a lie all round," said Ned Hinkley to himself as the other +rode off. "Now, if I was mounted, I'd ride after him and see where +he goes and what he's after. What's to hinder? It's but a step to +the stable, and but five minutes to the saddle. Dang it, but I'll +take trail this time if I never did before." + + + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +THE DOOM. + + + + + +With this determination our suspicious youth made rapid progress in +getting out his horse. A few minutes saw him mounted, and putting +some of his resolution into his heels, he sent the animal forward +at a killing start, under the keen infliction of the spur. He had +marked with his eye the general course which Stevens had taken +up the hills, and having a nag of equal speed and bottom, did not +scruple, in the great desire which he felt, to ascertain the secret +of the stranger, to make him display the qualities of both from +the very jump. Stevens had been riding with a free rein, but in +consequence of these energetic measures on the part of Hinkley, +the latter soon succeeded in overhauling him. Still he had already +gone a space of five miles, and this, too, in one direction. +He looked back when he found himself pursued, and his countenance +very clearly expressed the chagrin which he felt. This he strove, +but with very indifferent success, to hide from the keen searching +eyes of his pursuer. He drew up to wait his coming, and there was +a dash of bitterness in his tones as he expressed his "gratification +at finding a companion where he least expected one." + +"And perhaps, parson, when you didn't altogether wish for one," +was the reply of the reckless fellow. "The truth is, I know I'm +not the sort of company that a wise, sensible, learned, and pious +young gentleman would like to keep, out the truth is what you said +about taking a stretch, man and beast, seemed to me to be just +about as wise a thing for me and my beast also. We've been lying +by so long that I was getting a little stiff in my joints, and +Flipflap, my nag here, was getting stiff in his neck, as they say +was the case with the Jews in old times, so I took your idea and +put after you, thinking that you'd agree with me that bad company's +far better than none." + +There was a mixture of simplicity and archness in the manner of +the speaker that put Stevens somewhat at fault; but he saw that it +wouldn't do to show the dudgeon which he really felt; and smoothing +his quills with as little obvious effort as possible, he expressed +his pleasure at the coming of his companion. While doing so, he +wheeled his horse about, and signified a determination to return. + +"What! so soon? Why, Lord bless you, Flipflap has scarcely got in +motion yet. If such a stir will do for your nag 'twont do for him." + +But Stevens doggedly kept his horse's head along the back track, +though the animal himself exhibited no small restiffness and a +disposition to go forward. + +"Well, really, Parson Stevens, I take it as unkind that you turn +back almost the very moment I join you. I seem to have scared ride +out of you if not out of your creature; but do as you please. I'll +ride on, now I'm out. I don't want to force myself on any man for +company." + +Stevens disclaimed any feeling of this sort, but declared he had +ridden quite as far as he intended; and while he hesitated, Hinkley +cut the matter short by putting spurs to his steed, and going out +of sight in a moment. + +"What can the cur mean?" demanded Stevens of himself, the moment +after they had separated. "Can he have any suspicions? Ha! I must +be watchful! At all events, there's no going forward to-day. I +must put it off for next week; and meanwhile have all my eyes about +me. The fellow seems to have as much cunning as simplicity. He is +disposed too, to be insolent I marked his manner at the lake, as +well as that of his bull-headed cousin; but that sousing put anger +out of me, and then, again, 'twill scarcely do in these good days +for such holy men as myself to take up cudgels. I must bear it for +awhile as quietly as possible. It will not be long. She at least is +suspicionless. Never did creature so happily delude herself. Yet +what a judgment in some things! What keen discrimination! What +a wild, governless imagination! She would be a prize, if it were +only to exhibit. How she would startle the dull, insipid, tea-table +simperers on our Helicon--nay, with what scorn she would traverse +the Helicon itself. The devil is that she would have a will in +spite of her keeper. Such an animal is never tamed. There could be +no prescribing to her the time when she should roar--no teaching +her to fawn and fondle, and not to rend. Soul, and eye, and tongue, +would speak under the one impulse, in the exciting moment; and when +Mrs. Singalongohnay was squeaking out her eternal requiems--her new +versions of the Psalms and Scriptures--her blank verse elegiacs--oh! +how blank!--beginning, 'Night was upon the hills,'--or 'The evening +veil hung low,' or, 'It slept,'--or after some other equally +threatening form and fashion--I can fancy how the bright eye of +Margaret would gleam with scorn; and while the Pollies and Dollies, +the Patties and Jennies, the Corydons and Jemmy Jesamies, all +round were throwing up hands and eyes in a sort of rapture, how +she would look, with what equal surprise and contempt, doubting +her own ears, and sickening at the stuff and the strange sycophancy +which induced it. And should good old Singalongohnay, with a natural +and patronizing visage, approach, and venture to talk to her about +poetry, with that assured smile of self-excellence which such a +venerable authority naturally employs, how she would turn upon the +dame and exclaim--'What! do you call that poetry?' What a concussion +would follow. How the simperers would sheer off; the tea that night +might as well be made of aqua-fortis. Ha! ha! I can fancy the scene +before me. Nothing could be more rich. I must give her a glimpse of +such a scene. It will be a very good mode of operation. Her pride +and vanity will do the rest. I have only to intimate the future +sway--the exclusive sovereignty which would follow--the overthrow +of the ancient idols, and the setting up of a true divinity in +herself. But shall it be so, Master Stevens? Verily, that will +be seen hereafter. Enough, if the delusion takes. If I can delude +the woman through the muse, I am satisfied. The muse after that +may dispose of the woman as she pleases." + +Such was a portion of the soliloquy of the libertine as he rode +slowly back to Charlemont. His further musings we need not pursue +at present. It is enough to say that they were of the same family +character. He returned to his room as soon as he reached his +lodging-house, and drawing from his pocket a bundle of letters +which he had intended putting in the postoffice at Ellisland, he +carefully locked them up in his portable writing-desk which he kept +at the bottom of his valise. When the devout Mrs. Hinkley tapped at +his door to summon him to dinner, the meritorious young man was to +be seen, seated at his table, with the massive Bible of the family +conspicuously open before him. Good young man! never did he invoke +a blessing on the meats with more holy unction than on that very +day. + +Meanwhile, let us resume our progress with William Hinkley, and +inquire in what manner his wooing sped with the woman whom he so +unwisely loved. We have seen him leaving the cottage of Mr. Calvert +with the avowed purpose of seeking a final answer. A purpose from +which the old man did not seek to dissuade him, though he readily +conceived its fruitlessness. It was with no composed spirit that +the young rustic felt himself approaching the house of Mrs. Cooper. +More than once he hesitated and even halted. But a feeling of shame, +and the efforts of returning manliness re-resolved him, and he +hurried with an unwonted rapidity of movement toward the dwelling, +as if he distrusted his own power, unless he did so, to conclude +the labor he had begun. + +He gathered some courage when he found that Margaret was from home. +She had gone on her usual rambles. Mrs. Cooper pointed out the +course which she had taken, and the young man set off in pursuit. +The walks of the maiden were of course well known to a lover so +devoted. He had sought and followed her a thousand times, and the +general direction which she had gone, once known, his progress was +as direct as his discoveries were certain. The heart of the youth, +dilated with better hopes as he felt himself traversing the old +familiar paths. It seemed to him that the fates could scarcely be +adverse in a region which had always been so friendly. Often had +he escorted her along this very route, when their spirits better +harmonized--when, more of the girl struggling into womanhood, the +mind of Margaret Cooper, ignorant of its own resources and unconscious +of its maturer desires, was more gentle, and could rejoice in that +companionship for which she now betrayed so little desire. The +sheltered paths and well-known trees, even the little clumps +of shrubbery that filled up the intervals, were too pleasant and +familiar to his eye not to seem favorable to his progress, and with +a hope that had no foundation, save in the warm and descriptive +colors of a young heart's fancy, William Hinkley pursued the route +which led him to one of the most lovely and love-haunted glades in +all Kentucky. + +So sweet a hush never hallowed the sabbath rest of any forest. The +very murmur of a drowsy zephyr among the leaves was of slumberous +tendency; and silence prevailed, with the least possible exertion +of her authority, over the long narrow dell through which the maiden +had gone wandering. At the foot of a long slope, to which his eye +was conducted by a natural and lovely vista, the youth beheld the +object of his search, sitting, motionless, with her back toward +him. The reach of light was bounded by her figure which was seated +on the decaying trunk of a fallen tree. She was deeply wrapped in +thought, for she did not observe his approach, and when his voice +reached her ears, and she started and looked round, her eyes were +full of tears. These she hastily brushed away, and met the young +man with a degree of composure which well might have put the blush +upon his cheek, for the want of it. + +"In tears!--weeping, Margaret?" was the first address of the lover +who necessarily felt shocked at what he saw. + +"They were secret tears, sir--not meant for other eyes," was the +reproachful reply. + +"Ah, Margaret! but why should you have secret tears, when you +might have sympathy--why should you have tears at all? You have no +sorrows." + +"Sympathy!" was the exclamation of the maiden, while a scornful +smile gleamed from her eyes; "whose sympathy, I pray?" + +The young man hesitated to answer. The expression of her eye +discouraged him. He dreaded lest, in offering his sympathies, he +should extort from her lips a more direct intimation of that scorn +which he feared. He chose a middle course. + +"But that you should have sorrows, Margaret, seems very strange +to me. You are young and hearty; endowed beyond most of your sex, +and with a beauty which can not be too much admired. Your mother is +hearty and happy, and for years you have had no loss of relations +to deplore. I see not why you should have sorrows." + +"It is very likely, William Hinkley, that you do not see. The +ordinary sorrows of mankind arise from the loss of wives and cattle, +children and property. There are sorrows of another kind; sorrows +of the soul; the consciousness of denial; of strife--strife to be +continued--strife without victory--baffled hopes--defeated aims +and energies. These are sorrows which are not often computed in the +general account. It is highly probable that none of them afflict +you. You have your parents, and very good people they are. You +yourself are no doubt a very good young man--so everybody says--and +you have health and strength. Besides, you have property, much +more, I am told, than falls to the lot ordinarily of young people +in this country. These are reasons why you should not feel any +sorrow; but were all these mine and a great deal more, I'm afraid +it would not make me any more contented. You, perhaps, will +not understand this, William Hinkley, but I assure you that such, +nevertheless is my perfect conviction." + +"Yes, I can, and do understand it, Margaret," said the young man, +with flushed cheek and a very tremulous voice, as he listened to +language which, though not intended to be contemptuous, was yet +distinctly colored by that scornful estimate which the maiden had +long since made of the young man's abilities. In this respect she +had done injustice to his mind, which had been kept in subjection +and deprived of its ordinary strength and courage, by the enfeebling +fondness of his heart. + +"Yes, Margaret," he continued, "I can and do understand it, and I +too have my sorrows of this very sort. Do not smile, Margaret, but +hear me patiently, and believe, that, whatever may be the error +which I commit, I have no purpose to offend you in what I say or do. +Perhaps, we are both of us quite too young to speak of the sorrows +which arise from defeated hopes, or baffled energies, or denial +of our rights and claims. The yearnings and apprehensions which we +are apt to feel of this sort are not to be counted as sorrows, or +confounded with them. I had a conversation on this very subject +only a few days ago, with old Mr. Calvert, and this was his very +opinion." + +The frankness with which William Hinkley declared the source +of his opinions, though creditable to his sincerity, was scarcely +politic--it served to confirm Margaret Cooper in the humble estimate +which she had formed of the speaker. + +"Mr. Calvert," said she, "is a very sensible old man, but neither +he nor you can enter into the heart of another and say what shall, +or what shall not be its source of trouble. It is enough, William +Hinkley, that I have my cares--at least I fancy that I have them--and +though I am very grateful for your sympathies, I do not know that +they can do me any good, and, though I thank you, I must yet decline +them." + +"Oh, do not say so, Margaret--dear Margaret--it is to proffer them +that I seek you now. You know how long I have sought you, and loved +you: you can not know how dear you are to my eyes, how necessary +to my happiness! Do not repulse me--do not speak quickly. What I +am, and what I have, is yours. We have grown up together; I have +known no other hope, no other love, but that for you. Look not upon +me with that scornful glance--hear me--I implore you--on my knee, +dear Margaret. I implore you as for life--for something more dear +than life--that which will make life precious--which may make it +valuable. Be mine, dear Margaret--" + +"Rise, William Hinkley, and do not forget yourself!" was the stern, +almost deliberate answer of the maiden. + +"Do not, I pray you, do not speak in those tones, dear Margaret--do +not look on me with those eyes. Remember before you speak, that +the dearest hope of a devoted heart hangs upon your lips." + +"And what have you seen in me, or what does your vain conceit behold +in yourself, William Hinkley, to make you entertain a hope?" + +"The meanest creature has it." + +"Aye, but only of creatures like itself." + +"Margaret!" exclaimed the lover starting to his feet. + +"Ay, sir, I say it. If the meanest creature has its hope, it relates +to a creature like itself--endowed with its own nature and fed with +like sympathies. But you--what should make you hope of me? Have +I not long avoided you, discouraged you? I would have spared you +the pain of this moment by escaping it myself. You haunt my steps +--you pursue me--you annoy me with attentions which I dare not +receive for fear of encouraging you, and in spite of all this, +which everybody in the village must have seen but yourself, you +still press yourself upon me." + +"Margaret Cooper, be not so proud!" + +"I am what I am! I know that I am proud--vain, perhaps, and having +little to justify either pride or vanity; but to you, William +Hinkley, as an act of justice, I must speak what I feel--what is +the truth. I am sorry, from my very soul, that you love me, for I +can have no feeling for you in return. I do not dislike you, but +you have so oppressed me that I would prefer not to see you. We have +no feelings in common. You can give me no sympathies. My soul, my +heart, my hope--every desire of my mind, every impulse of my heart, +leads me away from you--from all that you can give--from all that +you can relish. To you it would suffice, if all your life could +be spent here in Charlemont--to me it would be death to think that +any such doom hung over me. From this one sentiment judge of the +rest, and know, for good and all, that I can never feel for you +other than I feel now. I can not love you, nor can the knowledge +that you love me, give me any but a feeling of pain and mortification." + +William Hinkley had risen to his feet. His form had put on an +unusual erectness. His eye had gradually become composed; and now +it wore an expression of firmness almost amounting to defiance. He +heard her with only an occasional quiver of the muscles about his +mouth. The flush of shame and pride was still red upon his cheek +When she had finisned, he spoke to her in tones of more dignity +than had hitherto marked his speech. + +"Margaret Cooper, you have at least chosen the plainest language +to declare a cruel truth." + +The cheek of the girl became suddenly flushed. + +"Do you suppose," she said, "that I found pleasure in giving you +pain? No! William Hinkley, I am sorry for you! But this truth, which +you call cruel, was shown to you repeatedly before. Any man but +yourself would have seen it, and saved me the pain of its frequent +repetition. You alone refused to understand, until it was rendered +cruel. It was only by the plainest language that you could be made +to believe a truth that you either would not or could not otherwise be +persuaded to hear. If cold looks, reserved answers, and a determined +rejection of all familiarity could have availed, you would never +have heard from my lips a solitary word which could have brought +you mortification. You would have seen my feelings in my conduct, +and would have spared your own that pain, which I religiously strove +to save them." + +"I have, indeed, been blind and deaf," said the young man; "but you +have opened my eyes and ears, Margaret, so that I am fully cured of +these infirmities. If your purpose, in this plain mode of speech, +be such as you have declared it, then I must thank you; though it +is very much as one would thank the dagger that puts him out of +his pain by putting him out of life." + +There was so much of subdued feeling in this address--the more +intense in its effect, from the obvious restraint put upon it, that +the heart of the maiden was touched. The dignified bearing of the +young man, also--so different from that which marked his deportment +hitherto--was not without its effect. + +"I assure you, William Hinkley, that such alone was my motive for +what else would seem a most wanton harshness. I would not be harsh +to you or to anybody; and with my firm rejection of your proffer, +I give you my regrets that you ever made it. It gives me no pleasure +that you should make it. If I am vain, my vanity is not flattered +or quickened by a tribute which I can not accept; and if you never +had my sympathy before, William Hinkley, I freely give it now. Once +more I tell you, I am sorry, from the bottom of my heart, that you +ever felt for me a passion which I can not requite, and that you +did not stifle it from the beginning; as, Heaven knows, my bearing +toward you, for a whole year, seemed to me to convey sufficient +warning." + +"It should have done so! I can now very easily understand it, +Margaret. Indeed, Mr. Calvert and others told me the same thing. +But as I have said, I was blind and deaf. Once more, I thank you, +Margaret--it is a bitter medicine which you have given me, but I +trust a wholesome one." + +He caught her hand and pressed it in his own. She did not resist +or withdraw it, and, after the retention of an instant only, he +released it, and was about to turn away. A big tear was gathering +in his eye, and he strove to conceal it. Margaret averted her head, +and was about to move forward in an opposite direction, when the +voice of the young man arrested her:-- + +"Stay, but a few moments more, Margaret. Perhaps we shall never +meet again--certainly not in a conference like this. I may have no +other opportunity to say that which, in justice to you, should be +spoken. Will you listen to me, patiently?" + +"Speak boldly, William Hinkley. It was the subject of which you +spoke heretofore which I shrunk from rather than the speaker." + +"I know not," said he, "whether the subject of which I propose to +speak now will be any more agreeable than that of which we have +spoken. At all events, my purpose is your good, and I shall speak +unreservedly. You have refused the prayer of one heart, Margaret, +which, if unworthy of yours, was yet honestly and fervently devoted +to it. Let me warn you to look well when you do choose, lest you fall +into the snares of one, who with more talent may be less devoted, +and with more claims to admiration, may be far less honest in his +purpose." + +"What mean you, sir?" she demanded hurriedly, with an increasing +glow upon her face. + +"This stranger--this man, Stevens!" + +"What of him? What do you know of the stranger that you should give +me this warning?" + +"What does anybody know of him? Whence does he come--whither would +he go? What brings him here to this lonely village?--" + +A proud smile which curled the lips of Margaret Cooper arrested the +speech of the youth. It seemed to say, very distinctly, that she, +at least, could very well conjecture what brought the stranger so +far from the travelled haunts. + +"Ha! do you then know, Margaret?" + +"And if I did not, William Hinkley, these base insinuations +against the man, of whom, knowing nothing, you would still convey +the worst imputations, would never move my mind a hair's breadth +from its proper balance. Go, sir--you have your answer. I need not +your counsel. I should be sorry to receive it from such a source. +Failing in your own attempt, you would seek to fill my mind with +calumnious impressions in order to prejudice the prospects of +another. For shame! for shame, William Hinkley. I had not thought +this of you. But go! go! go, at once, lest I learn to loathe as +well as despise you. I thought you simple and foolish, but honorable +and generous. I was mistaken even in this. Go, sir, your slanderous +insinuations have no effect upon me, and as for Alfred Stevens, +you are as far below him in nobleness and honest purpose, as you +are in every quality of taste and intellect." + +Her face was the very breathing image of idealized scorn and beauty +as she uttered these stinging words. Her nostrils were dilated, +her eyes flashing fire, her lips slightly protruded and parted, her +hand waving him off. The young man gazed upon her with wild looks +equally expressive of anger and agony. His form fairly writhed +beneath his emotions; but he found strength enough gaspingly to +exclaim:-- + +"And even this I forgive you, Margaret." + +"Go! go!" she answered; "you know not what you say, or what you +are. Go! go!" + +And turning away, she moved slowly up the long avenue before her, +till, by a sudden turn of the path she was hidden from the sight. +Then, when his eye could no longer follow her form, the agony of +his soul burst forth in a single groan, and staggering, he fell +forward upon the sward, hopeless, reckless, in a wretched condition +of self-abandonment and despair. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +BLOWS--A CRISIS. + + + + + +But this mood lasted not long. Youth, pride, anger, asserted +themselves before the lapse of many minutes. Darker feelings got +possession of his mind. He rose to his feet. If love was baffled, +was there not revenge? Then came the recollection of his cousin's +counsel. Should this artful stranger triumph in everything? Margaret +Cooper had scarcely disguised the interest which she felt in him. +Nay, had not that exulting glance of the eye declared that she, at +least, knew what was the purpose of Stevens in seeking the secluded +village? His own wrongs were also present to his mind. This usurper +had possessed himself of the affections of all he loved--of all of +whose love he had till then felt himself secure--all but the good +old schoolmaster, and the sturdy schoolmate and cousin. And how +soon might he deprive him even of these? That was a new fear! So +rapid had been the stranger's progress--so adroitly had he insinuated +himself into this Eden of the wilderness--bringing discontent and +suffering in his train--that the now thoroughly-miserable youth +began to fancy that nothing could be safe from his influence. In +a short time his garden would all be overrun, and his loveliest +plants would wither. + +Was there no remedy for this? There was! and traversing the solemn +recesses of that wood, he meditated the various modes by which the +redress of wrong, and slight and indignity, were to be sought. He +brooded over images of strife, and dark and savage ideas of power +rioting over its victim, with entirely new feelings--feelings new +at least to him. We have not succeeded in doing him justice, nor +in our own design, if we have failed to show that he was naturally +gentle of heart, rigidly conscientious, a lover of justice for its +own sake, and solicitously sensitive on the subject of another's +feelings. But the sense of suffering will blind the best judgment, +and the feeling of injury will arouse and irritate the gentlest +nature. Besides, William Hinkley, though meek and conscientious, +had not passed through his youth, in the beautiful but wild border +country in which he lived, without having been informed, and somewhat +influenced, by those characteristic ideas of the modes and manner +in which personal wrongs were to be redressed. + +Perhaps, had his cousin said nothing to him on this subject, his +feelings would have had very much the same tendency and general +direction which they were taking now. A dark and somewhat pleasurable +anxiety to be in conflict with his rival--a deadly conflict--a +close, hard death-struggle--was now the predominant feeling in his +mind;--but the feeling was not ALTOGETHER a pleasurable one. It had +its pains and humiliations, also. Not that he had any fears--any +dread of the issue. Of the issue he never thought. But it disturbed +the long and peaceful order of his life. It conflicted with the +subdued tastes of the student. It was at war with that gentle calm +of atmosphere, which letters diffuse around the bower of the muse. + +In the conflict of his thoughts and feelings, the judgment of the +youth was impaired. He forgot his prudence. In fact, he knew not +what he did. He entered the dwelling of his father, and passed into +the dining-room, at that solemn moment when the grace before meat +was yet in course of utterance by our worthy Brother Stevens. +Hitherto, old Mr. Hinkley had religiously exacted that, whenever +any of the household failed to be present in season, this ceremony +should never be disturbed. They were required, hat in hand, to +remain at the entrance, until the benediction had been implored; +and, only after the audible utterance of the word "Amen," to approach +the cloth. + +We have shown little of old Hinkley. It has not been necessary. The +reader has seen enough, however, to understand that, in religious +matters--at least in the forms and externals of religion--he was +a rigid disciplinarian. Upon grace before and after meat he always +insisted. His own prayers of this sort might have been unctuous, +but they were never short; and the meats were very apt to grow cold, +while the impatience of his hearers grew warm, before he finished. +But through respect to the profession, he waived his own peculiar +privilege in behalf of Brother Stevens; and this holy brother was +in the middle of his entreaty, when William Hinkley appeared at the +door. He paused for an instant without taking off his hat. Perhaps +had his father been engaged in his office, William would have +forborne, as usual, however long the grace, and have patiently waited +without, hat off, until it had reached the legitimate conclusion. +But he had no such veneration for Stevens; and without scruple he +dashed, rather hastily, into the apartment, and flinging his hat +upon a chair, strode at once to the table. + +The old man did not once raise his eyes until the prayer was over. +He would not have done so had the house been on fire. But at the +close, he looked up at his son with a brow of thunder. The cloud +was of serious and very unusual blackness. He had for some time been +dissatisfied with his son. He had seen that the youth entertained +some aversion for his guest. Besides, he had learned from his +worthy consort, that, in an endeavor of Brother Stevens to bestow +good counsel upon the youth, he had been repulsed with as little +respect as ceremony. There was one thing that the stern old man had +not seen, and could not see; and that was the altered appearance +of the lad. As he knew of no reason why he should be unhappy, so he +failed to perceive in his appearance any of the signs of unhappiness. +He saw nothing but the violation of his laws, and that sort of +self-esteem which produces fanaticism, is always the most rigid +in the enforcement of its own ordinances. Already he regarded the +youth as in a state of rebellion and for such an offence his feeling +was very much that of the ancient puritan. No one more insists +upon duty, than he who has attained authority by flinging off the +fetters of obedience. Your toughest sinner usually makes the sourest +saint. + +"And is this the way, William Hinkley, that you show respect to +God? Do you despise the blessing which Brother Stevens asks upon +the food which sustains us?" + +"I presume, sir, that God has already blessed all the food which +he bestows upon man. I do not think that any prayer of Brother +Stevens can render it more blessed." + +"Ha! you do not, do you? Please to rise from this table." + +"Nay, sir--" began Stevens. + +"Rise, sir," continued the old man, laying down knife and fork, +and confronting the offender with that dogged look of determination +which in a coarse nature is the sure sign of moral inflexibility. + +"Forgive him, sir, this time," said Stevens; "I entreat you to +forgive him. The young man knows not what he does." + +"I will make him know," continued the other. + +"Plead not for me, sir," said William Hinkley, glaring upon Stevens +with something of that expression which in western parlance is +called wolfish, "I scorn and spurn your interference." + +"William, William, my dear son, do not speak so--do not make your +father angry." + +"Will you leave the table, sir, or not?" demanded the father, his +words being spoken very slowly, through his teeth, and with the +effort of one who seeks to conceal the growing agitation. The eyes +of the mother fell upon the youth full of tears and entreaty. His +fine countenance betrayed the conflicting emotions of his soul. +There was grief, and anger, despair and defiance; the consciousness +of being wrong, and the more painful consciousness of suffering +wrong. He half started from his chair, again resumed it, and gazing +upon Stevens with the hate and agony which he felt, seemed to be +entirely forgetful of the words and presence of the father. The +old man deliberately rose from the table and left the room. The +mother now started up in an agony of fear. + +"Run, my son--leave the room before your father comes back. Speak +to him, Brother Stevens, and tell him of the danger." + +"Do not call upon him, mother, if you would not have me defy you +also. If YOUR words will not avail with me, be sure that his can +not." + +"What mean you, my son? You surely have no cause to be angry with +Brother Stevens." + +"No cause! no cause!--but it matters not! BROTHER Stevens knows +that I have cause. He has heard my defiance--he knows my scorn and +hate, and he shall feel them!" + +"William, my son, how--" + +The steps of the father, approaching through the passageway, diverted +her mind to a new terror. She knew the vindictive and harsh nature +of the old man; and apprehensions for her son superseded the feeling +of anger which his language had provoked. + +"Oh, my son, be submissive, or fly. Jump out of the window, and +leave Brother Stevens and me to pacify him. We will do all we can." + +The unlucky allusion to Brother Stevens only increased the young +man's obstinacy. + +"I ask you not, mother. I wish you to do nothing, and to say nothing. +Here I will remain. I will not fly. It will be for my father and +mother to say whether they will expel their only son from their +home, to make room for a stranger." + +"It shall not be said that I have been the cause of this," said +Stevens, rising with dignity from his chair; "I will leave your +house, Mrs. Hinkley, only regretting that I should be the innocent +cause of any misunderstanding or discontent among its members. I +know not exactly what can be the meaning of your son's conduct. +I have never offended him; but, as my presence does offend him, I +will withdraw myself--" + +"You shall not!" exclaimed old Hinkley, who re-entered the room +at this moment, and had heard the last words of the speaker. "You +shall not leave the house. Had I fifty sons, and they were all to +behave in the manner of this viper, they should all leave it before +you should stir from the threshold." + +The old man brought with him a cowskin; and the maternal apprehensions +of his wife, who knew his severe and determined disposition, were +now awakened to such a degree as to overcome the feeling of deference, +if not fear, with which the authority of her liege lord had always +inspired her. + +"Mr. Hinkley, you won't strike William with that whip--you must +not--you shall not!" and, speaking thus, she started up and threw +herself in the old man's way. He put her aside with no measured +movement of his arm, and approached the side of the table where +the young man sat. + +"Run, William, run, if you love me!" cried the terrified mother. + +"I will not run!" was the answer of the youth, who rose from his +seat, however, at the same moment and confronted his father. + +"Do not strike me, father! I warn you--do not strike me. I may be +wrong, but I have suffered wrong. I did not mean, and do not mean, +to offend you. Let that content you, but do not strike me." + +The answer was a blow. The whip descended once, and but once, upon +the shoulders of the young man. His whole frame was in a convulsion. +His eyes dilated with the anguish of his soul; his features worked +spasmodically. There was a moment's hesitation. The arm that smote +him was again uplifted--the cruel and degrading instrument of +punishment a second time about to descend; when, with the strength +of youth, and the determination of manhood, the son grasped the +arm of the father, and without any more than the degree of violence +necessary to effect his object, he tore the weapon from the uplifted +hand. + +"I can not strike YOU.'" he exclaimed, addressing the old man. "That +blow has lost you your son--for ever! The shame and the dishonor +shall rest on other shoulders. They are better deserved here, and +here I place them!" + +With these words, he smote Stevens over the shoulders, once, twice, +thrice, before the latter could close with him, or the father +interfere to arrest the attempt. Stevens sprang upon him, but the +more athletic countryman flung him off, and still maintained his +weapon. The father added his efforts to those of Stevens; but he +shook himself free from both, and, by this time, the mother had +contrived to place herself between the parties. William Hinkley +then flung the whip from the window, and moved toward the door. +In passing Stevens, he muttered a few words:-- + +"If there is any skin beneath the cloak of the parson, I trust I +have reached it." + +"Enough!" said the other, in the same low tone. "You shall have +your wish." + +The youth looked back once, with tearful eyes, upon his mother; and +making no other answer but a glance more full of sorrow than anger +to the furious flood of denunciation which the old man continued to +pour forth, he proceeded slowly from the apartment and the dwelling. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +CHALLENGE. + + + + + +The whole scene passed in very few minutes. No time was given for +reflection, and each of the parties obeyed his natural or habitual +impulses. Old Hinkley, except when at prayers, was a man of few +words. He was much more prompt at deeds than words--a proof of which +has already been shown; but the good mother was not so patient, and +made a freer use of the feminine weapon than we have been willing +to inflict upon our readers. Though she heartily disapproved of her +son's conduct toward Stevens, and regarded it as one of the most +unaccountable wonders, the offender was still her son. She never +once forgot, or could forget, that. But the rage of the old man +was unappeasable. The indignity to his guest, and that guest of +a calling so sacred, was past all forgiveness, as it was past all +his powers of language fitly to describe. He swore to pursue the +offender with his wrath to the end of the world, to cut him off +equally from his fortune and forgiveness; and when Brother Stevens, +endeavoring to maintain the pacific and forgiving character which +his profession required, uttered some commonplace pleading in the +youth's behalf, he silenced him by saying that, "were he on the bed +of death, and were the offender then to present himself, the last +prayer that he should make to Heaven would be for sufficient strength +to rise up and complete the punishment which he had then begun." + +As for Stevens, though he professed a more charitable spirit, his +feelings were quite as hostile, and much more deadly. He was not +without that conventional courage which makes one, in certain states +of society, prompt enough to place himself in the fields of the +duello. To this condition of preparedness it has hitherto been the +training of the West that every man, at all solicitous of public +life, must eventually come. As a student of divinity, it was +not a necessity with Alfred Stevens. Nay, it was essential to the +character which he professed that he should eschew such a mode of +arbitrament. But he reasoned on this subject, as well with reference +to past habits as to future responsibilities. His present profession +being simply a ruse d'amour (and, as he already began to perceive, +a harmless one in the eyes of the beauty whom he sought, and whose +intense feelings and unregulated mind did not suffer her to perceive +the serious defects of a character which should attempt so impious +a fraud), he was beginning to be somewhat indifferent to its +preservation; and, with the decline of his caution in this respect, +arose the natural inquiry as to what would be expected of him in +his former relations to society. Should it ever be known hereafter, +at a time when he stood before the people as a candidate for some +high political trust, that he had tamely submitted to the infliction +of a cowskin, the revelation would be fatal to all his hopes of +ambition, and conclusive against all his social pretensions. In +short, so far as society was concerned, it would be his social +death. + +These considerations were felt in their fullest force. Indeed, their +force can not well be conceived by the citizen of any community +where the sense of individual responsibility is less rigid and +exacting. They naturally outweighed all others in the mind of +Alfred Stevens; and, though no fire-eater, he not only resolved +on fighting with Hinkley, but, smarting under the strokes of +the cowskin--heavily laid on as they had been--his resolution was +equally firm that, in the conflict, they should not separate until +blood was drawn. Of course, there were some difficulties to be +overcome in bringing about the meeting, but, where the parties are +willing, most difficulties are surmounted with tolerable ease. This +being the case at present, it followed that both minds were busy +at the same moment in devising the when, the how, and the where, +of the encounter. + +William Hinkley went from the house of his father to that of his +cousin; but the latter had not yet returned from that ride which +he had taken in order to discover the course usually pursued by +Stevens. Here he sat down to dinner, but the sister of Ned Hinkley +observed that he ate little, and fancied he was sick. That he should +come to dine with his cousin was too frequent a matter to occasion +question or surprise. This lady was older than her brother by some +seven years. She was a widow, with an only child, a girl. The child +was a prattling, smiling, good-natured thing, about seven years +old, who was never so happy as when on Cousin William's knee. Poor +William, indeed, was quite a favorite at every house in the village +except that of Margaret Cooper, and, as he sometimes used bitterly +to add, his own. On this occasion, however, the child was rendered +unhappy by the seeming indifference of Cousin William. The heart +of the young man was too full of grief, and his mind of anxiety, +to suffer him to bestow the usual caresses upon her; and when, +putting her down, he passed into the chamber of Ned Hinkley, the +little thing went off to her mother, to complain of the neglect +she had undergone. + +"Cousin William don't love Susan any more, mamma," was the burden +of her complaint. + +"Why do you say so, Susan?" + +"He don't kiss me, mamma; he don't keep me in his lap. He don't say +good things to me, and call me his little sweetheart. I'm afraid +Cousin William's got some other sweetheart. He don't love Susan." + +It was while the little prattler was pouring forth her infantile +sorrows in her mother's ear, that the voice of William Hinkley was +heard, calling her name from the chamber. + +"There, he's calling you now, Susan. Run to him and kiss him, and +see what he wants. I'm sure he loves you just as much as ever. He's +got no other sweetheart." + +"I'll run, mamma--that I will. I'm so glad! I hope he loves me!" +and the little innocent scampered away to the chamber. Her artless +tongue, as she approached, enabled him to perceive what had been +her grievances. + +"Do you call me to love me, and to kiss me, Cousin William, and to +make me your sweetheart again?" + +"Yes, Susan, you shall be my only sweetheart. I will kiss nobody +but you." + +"You'll forget--you will--you'll put me out of your lap, and go +away shaking your head, and looking so!--" and here the observant +little creature attempted a childish imitation of the sad action +and the strange, moody gestures with which he had put her down when +he was retiring from the room--gestures and looks which the less +quick eyes of her mother had failed utterly to perceive. + +"No, no!" said he, with a sad smile; "no, Susan. I'll keep you in +my lap for an hour whenever I come, and you shall be my sweetheart +always." + +"Your LITTLE sweetheart, your LITTLE Susan, Cousin William." + +"Yes, my dear little Susan, my dearest little sweetheart Susan." + +And he kissed the child fondly while he spoke, and patted her rosy +cheeks with a degree of tenderness which his sad and wandering +thoughts did not materially diminish. + +"But now, Susan," said he, "if I am to be your sweetheart, and to +love you always, you must do all that I bid you. You must go where +I send you." + +"Don't I, Cousin William? When you send me to Gran'pa Calvert, +don't I go and bring you books, and didn't I always run, and come +back soon, and never play by the way?" + +"You're a dear Susan," said he; "and I want you to carry a paper +for me now. Do you see this little paper? What is it?" + +"A note--don't I know?" + +"Well, you must carry this note for me to uncle's, but you mustn't +give it to uncle, nor to aunty, nor to anybody but the young man +that lives there--young Mr. Stevens." + +"Parson Stevens," said the little thing, correcting him. + +"Ay, ay, Parson Stevens, if you please. You must give it to him, +and him only; and he will give you a paper to bring back to me. +Will you go now, Susan?" + +"Yes, I'll go: but, Cousin William, are you going to shoot the +little guns? Don't shoot them till I come back, will you?" + +The child pointed to a pair of pistols which lay upon the table +where William Hinkley had penned the billet. A flush of consciousness +passed over the young man's cheek. It seemed to him as if the +little innocent's inquiry had taken the aspect of an accusation. +He promised and dismissed her, and, when she had disappeared, +proceeded to put the pistols in some condition for use. In that +time and region, duels were not often fought with those costly and +powerful weapons, the pistols of rifle bore and sight. The rifle, +or the ordinary horseman's pistol, answered the purposes of hate. +The former instrument, in the hands of the Kentuckian, was a +deadly weapon always; and, in the grasp of a firm hand, and under +the direction of a practised eye, the latter, at ten paces, was +scarcely less so. This being the case, but few refinements were +necessary to bring about the most fatal issues of enmity; and +the instruments which William Hinkley was preparing for the field +were such as would produce a smile on the lips of more civilized +combatants. They were of the coarsest kind of holster-piotols, +and had probably seen service in the Revolution. The stocks were +rickety, the barrels thin, the bore almost large enough for grape, +and really such as would receive and disgorge a three-ounce bullet +with little straining or reluctance. They had been the property +of his own grandfather, and their value for use was perhaps rather +heightened than diminished by the degree of veneration which, in +the family, was attached to their history. + +William Hinkley soon put them in the most efficient order. He was +not a practised hand, but an American forester is a good shot almost +by instinct; he naturally cleaves to a gun, and without instruction +learns its use. William, however, did not think much of what he +could hit, at what distance, and under what circumstances. Nothing, +perhaps, could better show the confidence in himself and weapon than +the inattention which the native-born woodman usually exhibits to +these points. Let his weapon be such as he can rely upon, and his +cause of quarrel such as can justify his anger, and the rest seems +easy, and gives him little annoyance. This was now the case with +our rustic. He never, for a moment, thought of practising. He had +shot repeatedly, and knew what he could do. His simple object was +to bring his enemy to the field, and to meet him there. Accordingly, +when he had loaded both pistols, which he did with equal care, and +with a liberal allowance of lead and powder, he carefully put them +away without offering to test his own skill or their capacities. +On this subject, his indifference would have appeared, to a regular +duellist, the very extreme of obtuseness. + +His little courier conveyed his billet to Stevens in due season. +As she had been instructed, she gave it into the hands of Stevens +only; but, when she delivered it, old Hinkley was present, and she +named the person by whom it was sent. + +"My son! what does he say?" demanded the old man, half-suspecting +the purport of the billet. + +"Ah!" exclaimed Stevens, with the readiness of a practised actor, +"there is some hope, I am glad to tell you, Mr. Hinkley, of his +coming to his senses. He declares his wish to atone, and invites me +to see him. I have no doubt that he wishes me to mediate for him." + +"I will never forgive him while I have breath!" cried the old man, +leaving the room. "Tell him that!" + +"Wait a moment, my pretty one," said Stevens, as he was about +retiring to his chamber, "till I can write an answer." + +The billet of Hinkley he again read. We may do so likewise. It was +to the following effect:-- + +"Sir: If I understood your last assurance on leaving you this day, +I am to believe that the stroke of my whip has made its proper +impression on your soul--that you are willing to use the ordinary +means of ordinary persons, to avenge an indignity which was not +CONFINED TO YOUR CLOTH. If so, meet me at the lake with whatever +weapons you choose to bring. I will be there, provided with pistols +for both, at any hour from three to six. I shall proceed to the +spot as soon as I receive your answer. "W. H." + +"Short and sharp!" exclaimed Stevens as he read the billet. "'Who +would have thought that the YOUNG man had so much blood in him!' +Well, we will not balk your desire, Master Hinkley. We will meet +you, in verity, though it may compel me to throw up my present hand +and call for other cards. N'importe: there is no other course." + +While soliloquizing, he penned his answer, which was brief and to +the purpose:-- + +"I will meet you as soon as I can steal off without provoking +suspicion. I have pistols which I will bring with me. "A. S." + +"There, my little damsel," said he, re-entering the dining-room, +and putting the sealed paper into the hands of the child, "carry +that to Mr. Hinkley, and tell him I will come and speak with him +as he begs me. But the note will tell him." + +"Yes, sir." + +"So----" + +Mrs. Hinkley entered tho room at this moment. Her husband had +apprized her of the communication which her son had made, and the +disposition to atonement and repentance which he had expressed. +She was anxious to confirm this good disposition, to have her son +brought back within the fold, restored to her own affections and +the favor of his father. The latter, it is true, had signified his +determined hostility, even while conveying his intelligence; but +the mother was sanguine--when was a mother otherwise?--that all +things would come right which related to her only child. She now +came to implore the efforts of Stevens; to entreat, that, like a +good Christian, he would not suffer the shocking stripes which her +son, in his madness, had inflicted upon him to outweigh his charity, +to get the better of his blessed principles, and make him war upon +the atoning spirit which had so lately, and so suddenly wakened +up in the bosom of the unruly boy. She did not endeavor to qualify +the offence of which her son had been guilty. She was far from +underrating the indignity to which Stevens had been subjected; but +the offender was her son--her only son--in spite of all his faults, +follies, and imperfections, the apple of her eye--the only being +for whom she cared to live! + +Ah! the love of a mother!--what a holy thing! sadly wanting +in judgment--frequently misleading, perverting, nay, dooming the +object which it loves; but, nevertheless, most pure; least selfish; +truest; most devoted! + +And the tears gushed from the old woman's eyes as she caught the +hand of Stevens in her own, and kissed it--kissed HIS hand--could +William Hinkley have seen THAT, how it would have rankled, how he +would have writhed! She kissed the hands of that wily hypocrite, +bedewing them with her tears, as if he were some benign and blessing +saint; and not because he had shown any merits or practised any +virtues, but simply because of certain professions which he had +made, and in which she had perfect faith because of the professions, +and not because of any previous knowledge which she had of the +professor. Truly, it behooves a rogue monstrous much to know what +garment it is best to wear; the question is equally important to +rogue and dandy. + +Stevens made a thousand assurances in the most Christian spirit--we +can not say that he gave her tear for tear--promised to do his best +to bring back the prodigal son to her embrace, and the better to +effect this object, put his pistols under his belt! Within the hour +he was on his way to the place of meeting. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +FOOT TO FOOT. + + + + + +William Hinkley was all impatience until, his little messenger +returned, which she did with a speed which might deserve commendation +in the case of our professional Mercuries--stage-drivers and mail +contractors, hight! He did not withhold it from the little maid, +but taking her in his arms, and kissing her fondly, he despatched +her to her mother, while he wrapped up his pistols and concealing +them in the folds of his coat, hurried from the house with the anxious +haste of one who is going to seek his prey. He felt somewhat like +that broad-winged eagle which broods on the projecting pinnacle of +yonder rocky peak in waiting for the sea-hawk who is stooping far +below him, watching when the sun's rays shall glisten from the +uprising fins of his favorite fish. But it was not a selfish desire +to secure the prey which the terror of the other might cause him +to drop. It was simply to punish the prowler. Poor William could +not exactly tell indeed why he wished to shoot Alfred Stevens; but +his cause of hostility was not less cogent because it had no name. +The thousand little details which induce our prejudices in regard +to persons, are, singly, worth no one's thought, and would possibly +provoke the contempt of all; but like the myriad threads which +secured the huge frame of Gulliver in his descent upon Lilliput, +they are, when united, able to bind the biggest giant of us all. + +The prejudices of William Hinkley, though very natural in such a +case as his, seemed to him very much like instincts. It seemed to +him, if he once reasoned on the matter, that, as he had good cause +to hate the intruder, so there must be justification for shooting +him. Were this not so, the policy of hating would be very questionable, +and surely very unprofitable. It would be a great waste of a very +laudable quantity of feeling--something like omitting one's bullet +in discharging one's piece--a profligacy only justifiable in a +feu de joie after victory, where the bullets have already done all +necessary mischief, and will warrant a small subsequent waste of +the more harmless material. + +Without designing any such child's play, our rustic hero, properly +equipped with his antique pistols, well charged, close rammed, +three-ounce bullets, or nearabouts, in each, stood, breathing fire +but without cooling, on the edge of the lake, perched on an eminence +and looking out for the coming enemy. He was playing an unwonted +character, but he felt as if it were quite familiar to him. He +had none of that nice feeling which, without impugning courage, is +natural enough to inexperience in such cases. The muzzles of the +pistols did not appear to him particularly large. He never once thought +of his own ribs being traversed by his three-ounce messengers. He +had no misgivings on the subject of his future digestion. He only +thought of that blow from his father's hand--that keen shaft from +the lips of Margaret Cooper--that desolation which had fallen upon +his soul from the scorn of both; and the vengeance which it was in +his power to inflict upon the fortunate interloper to whose arts +he ascribed all his misfortunes! and with these thoughts his fury +and impatience increased, and he ascended the highest hill to look +out for his foe; descended, in the next moment, to the edge of the +lake, the better to prepare for the meeting. + +In this state of excitement the meekness had departed from his +countenance; an entire change of expression had taken place: he +stood up, erect, bold, eagle-eyed, with the look of one newly made +a man by the form of indomitable will, and feeling, for the first +time, man's terrible commission to destroy. In a moment, with the +acquisition of new moods, he had acquired a new aspect. Hitherto, +he had been tame, seemingly devoid of spirit--you have not forgotten +the reproaches of his cousin, which actually conveyed an imputation +against his manliness?--shrinking, with a feeling of shyness akin +to mauvaise honte, and almost submitting to injustice, to avoid +the charge of ill-nature. The change that we have described in his +soul, had made itself singularly apparent in his looks. They were +full of a grim determination. Had he gazed upon his features, in +the glassy surface of the lake beside him, he had probably recoiled +from their expression. + +We have seen Mrs. Hinkley sending Stevens forth for the purpose +of recalling her son to his senses, receiving his repentance, and +bringing him once more home into the bosom of his flock. We have +not forgotten the brace of arguments with which he provided himself +in order to bring about this charitable determination. Stevens was +a shot. He could snuff his candle at ten paces, sever his bamboo, +divide the fingers of the hand with separate bullets without grazing +the skin--nay, more, as was said in the euphuistic phraseology of +his admirers, send his ball between soul and body without impairing +the integrity of either. + +But men may do much shooting at candle or bamboo, who would do +precious little while another is about to shoot at them. There is +a world of difference between looking in a bull's-eye, and looking in +the eye of man. A pistol, too, looks far less innocent, regarded +through the medium of a yawning muzzle, than the rounded and +neatly-polished butt. The huge mouth seems to dilate as you look +upon it. You already begin to fancy you behold the leaden mass--the +three-ounce bullet--issuing from its stronghold, like a relentless +baron of the middle ages, going forth under his grim archway, +seeking only whom he may devour. The sight is apt to diminish the +influence of skill. Nerves are necessary to such sportsmen, and +nerves become singularly untrue when frowned upon through such a +medium. + +Under this view of the case, we are not so sure that the excellence +of aim for which Alfred Stevens has been so much lauded, will make +the difference very material between the parties; and now that he +is fairly roused, there is a look of the human devil about William +Hinkley, that makes him promise to be dangerous. Nay, the very pistols +that he wields, those clumsy, rusty, big-mouthed ante-revolutionary +machines, which his stout grandsire carried at Camden and Eutaw, +have a look of service about them--a grim, veteran-like aspect, +that makes them quite as perilous to face as to handle. If they +burst they will blow on all sides. There will be fragments enough +for friend and foe; and even though Stevens may not apprehend so +much from the aim of his antagonist, something of deference is due +to the possibility of such a concussion, as will make up all his +deficiencies of skill. + +But they have not yet met, though Stevens, with praiseworthy +Christianity, is on his way to keep his engagements, as well to mother +as to son. He has his own pistols--not made for this purpose--but +a substantial pair of traveller's babes--big of mouth, long of +throat, thick of jaw, keen of sight, quick of speech, strong of +wind, and weighty of argument. They are rifled bores also, and, +in the hands of the owner, have done clever things at bottle and +sapling. Stevens would prefer to have the legitimate things, but +these babes are trustworthy; and he has no reason to suppose that +the young rustic whom he goes to meet can produce anything more +efficient. He had no idea of those ancient bull-pups, those solemn +ante-revolutionary barkers, which our grandsire used upon harder +heads than his, at Camden and the Eutaws. He is scarcely so confident +in his own weapons when his eye rests on the rusty tools of his +enemy. + +But it was not destined that this fight should take place without +witnesses. In spite of all the precautions of the parties, and they +were honest in taking them, our little village had its inklings +of what was going on. There were certain signs of commotion and +explosion which made themselves understood. Our little maid, Susan +Hinkley, was the first, very innocently, to furnish a clue to the +mystery. She had complained to her mother that Cousin William had +not shot the little guns for her according to his promise. + +"But, perhaps, he didn't want to shoot them, Susan." + +"Yes, mamma, he put them in his pockets. He's carried them to shoot; +and he promised to shoot them for me as soon as I carried the note." + +"And to whom did you carry the note, Susan?" asked the mother. + +"To the young parson, at Uncle William's." + +The mother had not been unobservant of the degree of hostility which +her brother, as well as cousin, entertained for Stevens. They had +both very freely expressed their dislike in her presence. Some +of their conferences had been overheard and were now recalled, in +which this expression of dislike had taken the form of threats, +vague and purposeless, seemingly, at the time; but which now, taken +in connection with what she gathered from the lips of the child, +seemed of portentous interest. Then, when she understood that +Stevens had sent a note in reply--and that both notes were sealed, +the quick, feminine mind instantly jumped to the right conclusion. + +"They are surely going to fight. Get my bonnet, Susan, I must run +to Uncle William's, and tell him while there's time. Which way did +Cousin William go?" + +The child could tell her nothing but that he had taken to the hills. + +"That brother Ned shouldn't be here now! Though I don't see the good +of his being here. He'd only make matters worse. Run, Susan--run +over to Gran'pa Calvert, and tell him to come and stop them from +fighting, while I hurry to Uncle William's. Lord save us!--and let +me get there in time." + +The widow had a great deal more to say, but this was quite enough +to bewilder the little girl. Nevertheless, she get forth to convey +the mysterious message to Grand'pa Calvert, though the good mother +never once reflected that this message was of the sort which assumes +the party addressed to be already in possession of the principal +facts. While she took one route the mother pursued another, and +the two arrived at their respective places at about the same time. +Stevens had already left old Hinkley's when the widow got there, +and the consternation of Mrs. Hinkley was complete. The old man +was sent for to the fields, and came in only to declare that some +such persuasion had filled his own mind when first the billet of +his son had been received. But the suspicion of the father was of +a much harsher sort than that of the widow Hinkley. In her sight +it was a duel only--bad enough as a duel--but still only a duel, +where the parties incurring equal risks, had equal rights. But the +conception of the affair, as it occurred to old Hinkley, was very +different. + +"Base serpent!" he exclaimed--"he has sent for the good young man +only to murder him. He implores him to come to him, in an artful +writing, pretending to be sorely sorrowful and full of repentance; +and he prepares the weapon of murder to slay him when he comes. Was +there ever creature so base!--but I will hunt him out. God give me +strength, and grant that I may find him in season." + +Thus saying, the old man seized his crab-stick, a knotty club, +that had been seasoned in a thousand smokes, and toughened by the +use of twenty years. His wife caught up her bonnet and hurried with +the widow Hinkley in his train. Meanwhile, by cross-examining the +child, Mr. Calvert formed some plausible conjectures of what was +on foot, and by the time that the formidable procession had reached +his neighborhood he was prepared to join it. Events thickened with +the increasing numbers. New facts came in to the aid of old ones +partially understood. The widow Thackeray, looking from her window, +as young and handsome widows are very much in the habit of doing, +had seen William Hinkley going by toward the hill, with a very rapid +stride and a countenance very much agitated; and an hour afterward +she had seen Brother Stevens following on the same route--good +young man!--with the most heavenly and benignant smile upon his +countenance--the very personification of the cherub and the seraph, +commissioned to subdue the fiend. + +"Here is some of your treachery, Mr. Calvert. You have spoiled +this boy of mine; turning his head with law studies; and making +him disobedient--giving him counsel and encouragement against +his father--and filling his mind with evil things. It is all your +doing, and your books. And now he's turned out a bloody murderer, +a papist murderer, with your Roman catholic doctrines." + +"I am no Roman catholic, Mr. Hinkley," was the mild reply--"and as +for William becoming a murderer, I think that improbable. I have +a better opinion of your son than you have." + +"He's an ungrateful cub--a varmint of the wilderness--to strike the +good young man in my own presence--to strike him with a cowskin--what +do you think of that, sir? answer me that, if you please." + +"Did William Hinkley do this?" demanded the old teacher earnestly. + +"Ay, that he did, did he!" + +"I can hardly understand it. There must have been some grievous +provocation?" + +"Yes; it was a grievous provocation, indeed, to have to wait for +grace before meat." + +"Was that all? can it be possible!" + +The mother of the offender supplied the hiatus in the story--and +Calvert was somewhat relieved. Though he did not pretend to justify +the assault of the youth, he readily saw how he had been maddened by +the treatment of his father. He saw that the latter was in a high +pitch of religious fury--his prodigious self-esteem taking part +with it, naturally enough, against a son, who, until this instance, +had never risen in defiance against either. Expostulation and +argument were equally vain with him; and ceasing the attempt at +persuasion, Calvert hurried on with the rest, being equally anxious +to arrest the meditated violence, whether that contemplated the +murderous assassination which the father declared, or the less +heinous proceeding of the duel which he suspected. + +There was one thing which made him tremble for his own confidence +in William Hinkley's propriety of course. It was the difficulty +which he had with the rest, in believing that the young student of +divinity would fight a duel. This doubt, he felt, must be that, of +his pupil also: whether the latter had any reason to suppose that +Stevens would depart from the principles of his profession, and +waive the securities which it afforded, he had of course, no means +for conjecturing; but his confidence in William induced him to +believe that some such impression upon his mind had led him to the +measure of sending a challenge, which, otherwise, addressed to a +theologian, would have been a shameless mockery. + +There was a long running fire, by way of conversation and commentary, +which was of course maintained by these toiling pedestrians, cheering +the way as they went; but though it made old Hinkley peccant and +wrathy, and exercised the vernacular of the rest to very liberal +extent, we do not care to distress the reader with it. It may have +been very fine or not. It is enough to say that the general tenor +of opinion run heavily against our unhappy rustic, and in favor of +the good young man, Stevens. Mrs. Thackeray, the widow, to whom +Stevens had paid two visits or more since he had been in the village, +and who had her own reasons for doubting that Margaret Cooper had +really obtained any advantages in the general struggle to find favor +in the sight of this handsome man of God--was loud in her eulogy +upon the latter, and equally unsparing in her denunciations of the +village lad who meditated so foul a crime as the extinguishing so +blessed a light. Her denunciations at length aroused all the mother +in Mrs. Hinkley's breast, and the two dames had it, hot and heavy, +until, as the parties approached the lake, old Hinkley, with a +manner all his own, enjoined the most profound silence, and hushed, +without settling the dispute. + +Meanwhile, the combatants had met. William Hinkley, haviug ascended +the tallest perch among the hills, beheld his enemy approaching +at a natural pace and at a short distance. He descended rapidly to +meet him and the parties joined at the foot of the woodland path +leading down to the lake, where, but a few days before, we beheld +Stevens and Margaret Cooper. Stevens was somewhat surprised to note +the singular and imposing change which a day, almost an hour, had +wrought in the looks and bearing of the young rustic. His good, and +rather elevated command of language, had struck him previously as +very remarkable, but this had been explained by his introduction +to Mr. Calvert, who, as his teacher, he soon found was very well +able to make him what he was. It was the high bearing, the courteous +defiance, the superior consciousness of strength and character, which +now spoke in the tone and manner of the youth. A choice military +school, for years, could scarcely have brought about a more decided +expression of that subdued heroism, which makes mere manliness a +matter of chivalry, and dignifies brute anger and blind hostility +into something like a sentiment. Under the prompting of a good +head, a generous temper, and the goodness of a highly-roused, but +legitimate state of feeling, William Hinkley wore the very appearance +of that nobleness, pride, ease, firmness, and courtesy, which, +in the conventional world, it is so difficult, yet held to be so +important, to impress upon the champion when ready for the field. +A genuine son of thunder would have rejoiced in his deportment, and +though a sneering, jealous and disparaging temper, Alfred Stevens +could not conceal from himself the conviction that there was +stuff in the young man which it needed nothing but trial and rough +attrition to bring out. + +William Hinkley bowed at his approach, and pointed to a close +footpath leading to the rocks on the opposite shore. + +"There, sir, we shall be more secret. There is a narrow grove above, +just suited to our purpose. Will it please you to proceed thither?" + +"As YOU please, Mr. Hinkley," was the reply; "I have no disposition +to balk your particular desires. But the sight of this lake reminds +me that I owe you my life?" + +"I had thought, sir, that the indignity which I put upon you, would +cancel all such memories," was the stern reply. + +The cheek of Stevens became crimson--his eye flashed--he felt the +sarcasm--but something was due to his position, and he was cool +enough to make a concession to circumstances. He answered with +tolerable calmness, though not without considerable effort. + +"It has cancelled the OBLIGATION, sir, if not the memory! I certainly +can owe you nothing for a life which you have attempted to disgrace--" + +"Which I have disgraced!" said the other, interrupting him. + +"You are right, sir. How far, however, you have shown your manhood +in putting an indignity upon one whose profession implies peace, +and denounces war, you are as well prepared to answer as myself." + +"The cloth seems to be of precious thickness!" was the answer of +Hinkley, with a smile of bitter and scornful sarcasm. + +"If you mean to convoy the idea that I do not feel the shame of the +blow, and am not determined on avenging it, young man, you are in +error. You will find that I am not less determined because I am +most cool. I have come out deliberately for the purpose of meeting +you. My purpose in reminding you of my profession was simply to +undeceive you. It appears to me not impossible that the knowledge +of it has made you somewhat bolder than you otherwise might have +been." + +"What mean you?" was the stern demand of Hinkley, uttered in very +startling accents. + +"To tell you that I have not always been a non-combatant, that I am +scarcely one now, and that, in the other schools, in which I have +been taught, the use of the pistol was an early lesson. You have +probably fancied that such was not the case, and that my profession--" + +"Come, sir--will you follow this path?" said Hinkley, interrupting +him impatiently. + +"All in good time, sir, when you have heard me out," was the cool +reply. "Now, sir," he continued, "were you to have known that it +would be no hard task for me to mark any button on your vest, at +any distance--that I have often notched a smaller mark, and that +I am prepared to do so again, it might be that your prudence would +have tempered your courage--" + +"I regret for your sake," said Hinkley, again interrupting him with +a sarcasm, "that I have not brought with me the weapon with which +MY marks are made. You seem to have forgotten that I too have some +skill in my poor way. One would think, sir, that the memory would +not fail of retaining what I suspect will be impressed upon the +skin for some time longer." + +"You are evidently bent on fighting, Mr. Hinkley, and I must gratify +you!" + +"If you please, sir." + +"But, before doing so, I should like to know in what way I have +provoked such a feeling of hostility in your mind? I have not sought +to do so. I have on the contrary, striven to show you my friendship, +in part requital of the kindness shown me by your parents." + +"Do not speak of them, if you please." + +"Ay, but I must. It was at the instance of your worthy mother that +I sought you and strove to confer with you on, the cause of your +evident unhappiness." + +"You were the cause." + +"I?" + +"Yes--you! Did I not tell you then that I hated you; and did you +not accept my defiance?" + +"Yes; but when you saved my life!--" + +"It was to spurn you--to put stripes upon you. I tell you, Alfred +Stevens, I loathe you with the loathing one feels for a reptile, +whose cunning is as detestable as his sting is deadly. I loathe +you from instinct. I felt this dislike and distrust for you from +the first moment that I saw you. I know not how, or why, or in what +manner, you are a villain, but I feel you to be one! I am convinced +of it as thoroughly as if I knew it. You have wormed yourself into +the bosom of my family. You have expelled me from the affections +of my parents; and not content with this, you have stolen to the +heart of the woman to whom my life was devoted, to have me driven +thence also. Can I do less than hate you? Can I desire less than +your destruction? Say, having heard so much, whether you will make +it necessary that I should again lay my whip over your shoulders." + +The face of Stevens became livid as he listened to this fierce and +bitter speech. His eye watched that of the speaker with the glare +of the tiger, as if noteful only of the moment when to spring. His +frame trembled. His lip quivered with the struggling rage. All his +feeling of self-superiority vanished when he listened to language +of so unequivocal a character--language which so truly denounced, +without defining, his villany. He felt, that if the instinct of the +other was indeed so keen and quick, then was the combat necessary, +and the death of the rustic essential, perhaps, to his own safety. +William Hinkley met his glance with a like fire. There was no +shrinking of his heart or muscles. Nay, unlike his enemy, he felt +a strange thrill of pleasure in his veins as he saw the effect +which his language had produced on the other. + +"Lead the way!" said Stevens; "the sooner you are satisfied the +better." + +"You are very courteous, and I thank you," replied Hinkley, with +a subdued but sarcastic smile, "you will pardon me for the seeming +slight, in taking precedence of one so superior; but the case +requires it. You will please to follow. I will show you my back no +longer than it seems necessary." + +"Lead on, sir--lead on." + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +UNEXPECTED ISSUES. + + + + + +William Hinkley ascended the narrow path leading to the hills +with an alacrity of heart which somewhat surprised himself. The +apprehensions of danger, if he felt any, were not of a kind to +distress or annoy him, and were more than balanced by the conviction +that he had brought his enemy within his level. That feeling of +power is indeed a very consolatory one. It satisfies the ambitious +heart, though death preys upon his household, one by one; though +suffering fevers his sleep; though the hopes of his affection wither; +though the loves and ties of his youth decay and vanish. It makes +him careless of the sunshine, and heedless of the storm. It deadens +his ear to the song of birds, it blinds his eye to the seduction +of flowers. It makes him fly from friendship and rush on hate. It +compensates for all sorts of loneliness, and it produces them. It +is a princely despotism; which, while it robs its slave of freedom, +covers him with other gifts which he learns to value more; which, +binding him in fetters, makes him believe that they are sceptres +and symbols before which all things become what he desires them. +His speech is changed, his very nature perverted, but he acquires +an "open sesame" by their loss, and the loss seems to his imagination an +exceeding gain. We will not say that William Hinkley was altogether +satisfied with HIS bargain, but in the moment when he stood +confronting his enemy on the bald rock, with a deadly weapon in +each hand--when he felt that he stood foot to foot in equal conflict +with his foe, one whom he had dragged down from his pride of place, +and had compelled to the fearful issue which made his arrogance +quail--in that moment, if he did not forget, he did not so much +feel, that he had lost family and friends, parents and love; and +if he felt, it was only to induce that keener feeling of revenge +in which even the affections are apt to be swallowed up. + +Stevens looked in the eye of the young man and saw that he was +dangerous. He looked upon the ante-revolutionary pistols, and saw +that they were dangerous too, in a double sense. + +"Here are pistols," he said, "better suited to our purpose. You +can sound them and take your choice." + +"These," said Hinkley, doggedly, "are as well suited as any. If +you will, you can take your choice of mine; but if you think yours +superior, use them. These are good enough for me." + +"But this is out of all usage," said Stevens. + +"What matters it, Mr. Stevens? If you are satisfied that yours are +the best, the advantage is with you. If you doubt that mine can +kill, try them. I have a faith in these pistols which will content +me; but we will take one of each, if that will please you better, +and use which we think proper." + +Stevens expressed himself better pleased to keep his own. + +"Suit yourself as to distance," said Hinkley, with all the coolness +of an unmixed salamander. His opponent stepped off ten paces with +great deliberation, and William Hinkley, moving toward a fragment +of the rock upon which he had placed his "revolutions" for the better +inspection of his opponent, possessed himself of the veterans and +prepared to take the station which had been assigned him. + +"Who shall give the word?" demanded Stevens. + +"You may!" was the cool rejoinder. + +"If I do, I kill you," said the other. + +"I have no fear, Mr. Stevens," answered William Hinkley with a +degree of phlegm which almost led Stevens to fancy he had to deal +with a regular Trojan--"I have no fear," he continued, "and if you +fancy you can frighten me by this sort of bragging you have very +much mistaken your man. Shoot when you please, word or no word." + +William Hinkley stood with his back to the woods, his face toward +the lake which spread itself, smooth and calm at a little distance. +He did not perceive that his position was a disadvantageous one. +The tree behind, and that beside him, rendered his body a most +conspicuous mark; while his opponent, standing with his back to +the uncovered rocks ranged with no other objects of any prominence. +Had he even been sufficiently practised in the arts of the duello, he +would most probably have been utterly regardless of these things. +They would not have influenced his firmness in the slightest +degree. His course was quite as much the result of desperation as +philosophy. He felt himself an outcast as well from home as from +love, and it mattered to him very little, in the morbid excitement +of his present mind, whether he fell by the hand of his rival, or +lived to pine out a wearisome existence, lonely and uninspired, a +gloomy exile in the bitter world. He waited, it may be said, with +some impatience for the fire of his antagonist. Once he saw the +pistol of Stevens uplifted. He had one in each hand. His own hung +beside him. He waited for the shot of the enemy as a signal when to +lift and use his own weapon. But instead of this he was surprised +to see him drop the muzzle of his weapon, and with some celerity +and no small degree of slight of hand, thrust the two pistols +under his coat-skirts. A buz reached his ears a moment after--the +hum of voices--some rustling in the bushes, which signified confusion +in the approach of strangers. He did not wish to look round as he +preferred keeping his eye on his antagonist. + +"Shoot!" he exclaimed--"quickly, before we are interrupted." + +Before he could receive any answer there was a rush behind +him--he heard his father's voice, sudden, and in a high degree of +fury, mingled with that of his mother and Mr. Calvert, as if in +expostulation. From the latter the words distinctly reached his +ears, warning him to beware. Such, also, was the purport of his +mother's cry. Before he could turn and guard against the unseen +danger, he received a blow upon his head, the only thing of which +he was conscious for some time. He staggered and fell forward. He +felt himself stunned, fancied he was shot, and sunk to the ground +in an utter state of insensibility. + +The blow came from his father's crab-stick. It was so utterly +unexpected by the parties who had attended old Hinkley to the place +of meeting, that no efforts were made to prevent it. But the mother +of the victim rushed in in time to defeat the second blow, which +the father prepared to inflict, in the moment when his son was +falling from the effects of the first. Grasping the coat skirts +of her spouse, she pulled him back with no scrupulous hand, and +effectually baffled his designs by bringing him down, though in an +opposite direction, to the same level with the youth. Old Hinkley +did not bite the dust, but the latter part of his skull most +effectually butted it; and had not his head been quite as tough as +his crab-stick, the hurt might have been quite as severe as that +which the latter had inflicted on the son. + +The latter lay as perfectly quiet as if all had been over with him. +So much so, that the impression became very general that such was +the case. Under this impression the heart of the mother spoke out +in mingled screams of lamentation and reproach. She threw herself +down by the side of the youth and vainly attempted to stop the blood +which was streaming from a deep gash on his skull. While engaged +in this work, her apron and handkerchief being both employed for +this purpose, she poured forth a torrent of wrath and denunciation +against her spouse. She now forgot all the offences of the boy, and +even Alfred Stevens came in for his share of the anger with which +she visited the offence and the offender. + +"Shame! shame! you bloody-minded man," she cried, "to slaughter +your own son--your only son--to come behind him and knock him down +with a club as if he had been an inhuman ox! You are no husband +of mine. He sha'n't own you for a father. If I had the pick, I'd +choose a thousand fathers for him, from here to Massassippi, sooner +than you. He's only too good and too handsome to be son of yours. +And for what should you strike him? For a stranger--a man we never +saw before. Shame on you! You are a brute, a monster, William +Hinkley, and I'm done with you for ever. + +"My poor, poor boy! Look up, my son. Look up, William. Open your +eyes. It's your own dear mother that speaks to you. O my God! you've +killed him--he will not open his eyes. He's dead, he's dead, he's +dead!" + +And truly it seemed so, for the youth gave no sign of consciousness. +She threw herself in a screaming agony upon his body, and gave +herself up to the unmeasured despair, which, if a weakness, is +at least a sacred one in the case of a mother mourning her only +son. Old Hinkley was not without his alarms--nay, not altogether +without his compunctions. But he was one of that round head genus +whose self-esteem is too much at all times for fear, or shame, or +sensibility. Without seeking to assist the lad, and ascertain what +was his real condition, he sought only to justify himself for what +he had done by repeating the real and supposed offences of the +youth. He addressed himself in this labor chiefly to Mr. Calvert, +who, with quite as much suffering as any of the rest, had more +consideration, and was now busied in the endeavor to stanch the +blood and cleanse the wound of the victim. + +"He's only got what he deserved," exclaimed the sullen, stubborn +father. + +"Do not speak so, Mr. Hinkley," replied Calvert, with a sternness +which was unusual with him; "your son may have got his death." + +"And he deserves it!" responded the other doggedly. + +"And if he has," continued Calvert, "you are a murderer--a cold-blooded +murderer--and as such will merit and will meet the halter." + +The face of the old man grew livid--his lips whitened with rage; +and he approached Calvert, his whole frame quivering with fury, +and, shaking his hand threateningly, exclaimed:-- + +"Do you dare to speak to me in this manner, you miserable, white-headed +pedagogue--do you dare?" + +"Dare!" retorted Calvert, rising to his feet with a look of majesty +which, in an instant, awed the insolence of the offender. Never +had he been faced by such defiance, so fearlessly and nobly expressed. + +"Dare!--Look on me, and ask yourself whether I dare or not. +Approach me but a step nigher, and even my love for your unfortunate +and much-abused but well-minded son will not protect you. I would +chastise you, with all my years upon me, in spite of my white +head. Yours, if this boy should die, will never become white, +or will become so suddenly, as your soul will wither, with its +own self-torture, within you. Begone!--keep back--do not approach +me, and, above all, do not approach me with uplifted hand, or, by +Heaven, I will fell you to the earth as surely as you felled this +boy! You have roused a feeling within me, William Hinkley, which +has slept for years. Do not provoke it too far. Beware in season. +You have acted the brute and the coward to your son--you could do +so with impunity to him--to me you can not." + +There was something in this speech, from one whom old Hinkley was +accustomed to look upon as a dreaming bookworm, which goaded the +tyrannical father into irrepressible fury; and, grinding his teeth, +without a moment's hesitation he advanced, and was actually about +to lay the crab-stick over the shoulders of the speaker: but +the latter was as prompt as he was fearless. Before Hinkley could +conceive his intention, he had leaped over the still unconscious +person of William, and, flinging the old man round with a sudden +jerk, had grasped and wrested the stick from his hands with a degree +of activity and strength which confounded all the bystanders, and +the subject of his sudden exercise of manhood no less than the +rest. + +"Were you treated justly," said Calvert, regarding him with a look +of the loftiest indignation, "you should yourself receive a taste +of the cudgel you are so free to use on others. Let your feebleness, +old man, be a warning to your arrogance." + +With these words, he flung the crab-stick into the lake, old Hinkley +regarding him with looks in which it was difficult to say whether +mortification or fury had preponderance. + +"Go," he continued--"your son lives; but it is God's mercy, and +none of yours, which has spared his life. You will live, I hope, +to repent of your cruelty and injustice to him; to repent of having +shown a preference to a stranger, so blind as that which has moved +you to attempt the life of one of the most gentle lads in the whole +country." + +"And did he not come here to murder the stranger? did we not find +him even now with pistol ready to murder Brother Stevens? See the +pistols now in his hands--my father's pistols. We came not a minute +too soon. But for my blow, he had been a murderer." + +Such was the justification which old Hinkley now offered for what +he had done. + +"I am no advocate for duelling," said Calvert, "but I believe that +your son came with the stranger for this purpose, and not to murder +him." + +"No, no! do you not see that Brother Stevens has no pistols? Did +we not see him trying to escape--walking off--walking almost over +the rocks to get out of the way?" + +Calvert comprehended the matter much more clearly. + +"Speak, sir!" he said to Stevens, "did you not come prepared to +defend yourself?" + +"You see me as I am," said Stevens, showing his empty hands. + +Calvert looked at him with searching eye. + +"I understand you, sir," he said, with an expression not to be +mistaken; "I'understand you now. THIS LAD I KNOW. HE COULD NOT BE +A MURDERER. HE COULD NOT TAKE ANY MAN AT ADVANTAGE. If you do not +know the fact, Mr. Stevens, I can assure you that your life was +perfectly secure from his weapon, so long as his remained equally +unendangered. The sight of that lake, from which he rescued you +but a few days ago, should sufficiently have persuaded you of this." + +Stevens muttered something, the purport of which was, that "he did +not believe the young man intended to murder him." + +"Did he not send you a challenge?" + +"No!" said old Hinkley; "he sent him a begging note, promising +atonement and repentance." + +"Will you let me see that note?" said Calvert, addressing Stevens. + +"I have it not--I destroyed it," said Stevens with some haste. +Calvert said no more, but he looked plainly enough his suspicions. +He now gave his attention to William Hinkley, whose mother, while +this scene was in progress, had been occupied, as Calvert had +begun, in stanching the blood, and trimming with her scissors, which +were fortunately at her girdle, the hair from the wound. The son, +meanwhile, had wakened to consciousness. He had been stunned but +not severely injured by the blow, and, with the promptitude of a +border-dame, Mrs. Hinkley, hurrying to a pine-tree, had gathered +enough of its resin, which, spread upon a fragment of her cotton +apron, and applied to the hurt, proved a very fair substitute for +adhesive plaster. The youth rose to his feet, still retaining the +pistols in his grasp. His looks were heavy from the stupor which +still continued, but kindled into instant intelligence when he +caught sight of Stevens and his father. + +"Go home, sir!" said the latter, waving his hand in the prescribed +direction. + +"Never!" was the reply of the young man, firmly expressed; "never, +sir, if I never have a home!" + +"You shall always have a home, William, while I have one," said +Mr. Calvert. + +"What! you encourage my son in rebellion? you teach him to fly in +the face of his father?" shouted the old man. + +"No, sir; I only offer him a shelter from tyranny, a place of refuge +from persecution. When you learn the duties and the feelings of +a father, it will be time enough to assert the rights of one. I +do not think him safe in your house against your vindictiveness +and brutality. He is, however, of full age, and can determine for +himself." + +"He is not of age, and will not be till July." + +"It matters not. He is more near the years of discretion than his +father; and, judging him to be in some danger in your house, as a +man and as a magistrate I offer him the protection of mine. Come +home with me, William." + +"Let him go, if he pleases--go to the d--l! He who honors not +his father, says the Scriptures--what says the passage, Brother +Stevens--does it not say that he who honors not his father is in +danger of hell-fire?" + +"Not exactly, I believe," said the other. + +"Matters not, matters not!--the meaning is very much the same." + +"Oh, my son," said the mother, clinging to his neck, "will you, +indeed, desert me? can you leave me in my old age? I have none, +none but you! You know how I have loved--you know I will always +love you." + +"And I love you, mother--and love him too, though he treats me as +an outcast--I will always love you, but I will never more enter +my father's dwelling. He has degraded me with his whip--he has +attempted my life with his bludgeon. I forgive him, but will never +expose myself again to his cruelties or indignities. You will always +find me a son, and a dutiful one, in all other respects." + +He turned away with Mr. Calvert, and slowly proceeded down the +pathway by which he had approached the eminence. He gave Stevens +a significant look as he passed him, and lifted one of the pistols +which he still carried in his hands, in a manner to make evident +his meaning. The other smiled and turned off with the group, who +proceeded by the route along the hills, but the last words of the +mother, subdued by sobs, still came to the ears of the youth:-- + +"Oh, my son, come home! come home!" + +"No! no! I have no home--no home, mother!" muttered the young man, +as if he thought the half-stifled response could reach the ears of +the complaining woman. + +"No home! no hope!" he continued--"I am desolate." + +"Not so, my son. God is our home; God is our companion; our +strength, our preserver! Living and loving, manfully striving and +working out our toils for deliverance, we are neither homeless, +nor hopeless; neither strengthless, nor fatherless; wanting neither +in substance nor companion. This is a sharp lesson, perhaps, but +a necessary one. It will give you that courage, of the great value +of which I spoke to you but a few days ago. Come with me to my +home; it shall be yours until you can find a better." + +"I thank you--oh! how much I thank you. It may be all as you pay, +but I feel very, very miserable." + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +EXILE. + + + + + +The artist in the moral world must be very careful not to suffer +his nice sense of retributive justice, to get so much the better +of his judgment, as an artist, as to make him forgetful of human +probabilities, and the superior duty of preparing the mind of the +young reader by sterling examples of patience and protracted reward, +to bear up manfully against injustice, and not to despond because +his rewards are slow. It would be very easy for an author to make +everybody good, or, if any were bad, to dismiss them, out of hand, +to purgatory and places even worse. But it would be a thankless +toil to read the writings of such an author. His characters would +fail in vraisemblance, and his incidents would lack in interest. +The world is a sort of vast moral lazar-house, in which most have +sores, either of greater or less degree of virulence. Some are +nurses, and doctors, and guardians; and these are necessarily free +from the diseases to which they minister. Some, though not many, +are entirely incurable; many labor for years in pain, and when +dismissed, still hobble along feebly, bearing the proofs of their +trials in ugly seams and blotches, contracted limbs, and pale, +haggard features. Others get off with a shorter and less severe +probation. None are free from taint, and those who are the most +free, are not always the greatest favorites with fortune. + +We are speaking of the moral world, good reader. We simply borrow +an illustration from the physical. Our interest in one another is +very much derived from our knowledge of each other's infirmities; +and it may be remarked, passingly, that this interest is productive +of very excellent philosophical temper, since it enables us to bear +the worst misfortunes of our best friends with the most amazing +fortitude. It is a frequent error with the reader of a book--losing +sight of these facts--to expect that justice will always be done +on the instant. He will suffer no delay in the book, though he +sees that this delay of justice is one of the most decided of all +the moral certainties whether in life or law. He does not wish to +see the person in whom the author makes him interested, perish in +youth--die of broken heart or more rapid disaster; and if he could +be permitted to interfere, the bullet or the knife of the assassin +would be arrested at the proper moment and always turned against +the bosom of the wrong-doer. + +This is a very commendable state of feeling, and whenever it occurs, +it clearly shows that the author is going right in his vocation. +It proves him to be a HUMAN author, which is something better than +being a mere, dry, moral one. But he would neither be a human nor +a moral author were he to comply with the desires of such gentle +readers, and, to satisfy their sympathies, arrest the progress +of events. The fates must have their way, in the book as in the +lazar-house; and the persons of his drama must endure their sores +and sufferings with what philosophy they may, until, under the +hands of that great physician, fortune, they receive an honorable +discharge or otherwise. + +Were it with him, our young friend, William Hinkley, who is +really a clever fellow, should not only be received to favor with +all parties, but such should never have fallen from favor in the +minds of any. His father should become soon repentant, and having +convicted Stevens of his falsehood and hypocrisy, he should be rewarded +with the hand of the woman to whom his young heart is so devoted. +Such, perhaps, would be the universal wish with our readers; but +would this be fortunate for William Hinkley? Our venerable friend +and his, Mr. Calvert, has a very different opinion. He says:-- + +"This young man is not only a worthy young man, but he is one, +naturally of very vigorous intellect. He is of earnest, impassioned +temperament, full of enthusiasm and imagination; fitted for work--great +work--public work--head work--the noblest kind of work. He will be +a great lawyer--perhaps a great statesman--if he addresses himself +at once, manfully, to his tasks; but he will not address himself to +these tasks while he pursues the rusting and mind-destroying life +of a country village. Give him the object of his present desire +and you deprive him of all motive for exertion. Give him the woman +he seeks and you probably deprive him even of the degree of quiet +which the country village affords. He would forfeit happiness without +finding strength. Force him to the use of his tools and he builds +himself fame and fortune." + +Calvert was really not sorry that William Hinkley's treatment had +been so harsh. He sympathized, it is true, in his sufferings, but +he was not blind to their probable advantages; and he positively +rejoiced in his rejection by Margaret Cooper. + +It was some four or five days after the events with which our last +chapter was closed, that the old man and his young friend were to +be seen sitting together, under the shade of the venerable tree +where we have met them before. They had conferred together seriously, +and finally with agreeing minds, on the several topics which have +been adverted to in the preceding paragraph. William Hinkley had +become convinced that it was equally the policy of his mind and +heart to leave Charlemont. He was not so well satisfied, however, as +was the case with Mr. Calvert, that the loss of Margaret Cooper was +his exceeding gain. When did young lover come to such a conclusion? +Not, certainly, while he was young. But when was young lover wise? +Though a discontent, William Hinkley was not, however, soured +nor despairing from the denial of his hopes. He had resources of +thought and spirit never tested before, of the possession of which +he, himself, knew nothing. They were to be brought into use and +made valuable only by these very denials; by the baffling of his +hope; by the provocation of his strength. + +His resolution grew rapidly in consequence of his disappointments. +He was now prepared to meet the wishes of his venerable and wise +preceptor--to grapple stoutly with the masters of the law; and, +keeping his heart in restraint, if not absolute abeyance, to do that +justice to his head, which, according to the opinion of Mr. Calvert, +it well-deserved if hitherto it had not demanded it. But to pursue +his studies as well as his practice, he was to leave Charlemont. How +was this to be done--where was he to go--by what means? A horse, +saddle, and bridle--a few books and the ante-revolutionary pistols of +his grandsire, which recent circumstances seemed to have endeared +to him, were all his available property. His poverty was an +estoppel, at the outset, to his own reflections; and thinking of +this difficulty he turned with a blank visage to his friend. + +The old man seemed to enter into and imagine his thoughts. He did +not wait to be reminded, by the halting speech of the youth, of +the one subject from which the latter shrunk to speak. + +"The next thing, my son," said he, "is the necessary means. Happily, +in the case of one so prudent and temperate as yourself, you will +not need much. Food and clothing, and a small sum, annually, for +contingencies, will be your chief expense; and this, I am fortunately +able to provide. I am not a rich man, my son; but economy and +temperance, with industry, have given me enough, and to spare. It +is long since I had resolved that all I have should be yours; and +I had laid aside small sums from time to time, intending them for +an occasion like the present, which I felt sure would at length +arrive. I am rejoiced that my foresight should have begun in time, +since it enables me to meet the necessity promptly, and to interpose +myself at the moment when you most need counsel and assistance." + +"Oh, my friend, my kind generous friend, how it shames me for my +own father to hear you speak thus!" + +The youth caught the hands of his benefactor, and the hot tears +fell from his eyes upon them, while he fervently bent to kiss them. + +"Your father is a good but rough man, William, who will come to +his senses in good time. Men of his education--governed as he is by +the mistake which so commonly confounds God with his self-constituted +representative, religion with its professor--will err, and can not +be reasoned out of their errors. It is the unceasing operation of +time which can alone teach them a knowledge of the truth. You must +not think too hardly of your father, who does not love you the less +because he fancies you are his particular property, with whom he +may do what he pleases. As for what I have done, and am disposed +to do for you, let that not become burdensome to your gratitude. +In some respects you have been a son to me, and I send you from +me with the same reluctance which a father would feel in the like +circumstances. You have been my companion, you have helped to cheer +my solitude; and I have learned to look on the progress of your +mind with the interest of the philosopher who pursues a favorite +experiment. In educating you, I have attempted an experiment which +I should be sorry to see fail. I do not think now that it will +fail. I think you will do yourself and me ample justice. If I have +had my doubts, they were of your courage, not your talent. If you +have a weakness, it is because of a deficiency of self-esteem--a +tendency to self-disparagement. A little more actual struggle with +the world, and an utter withdrawal from those helps and hands which +in a youth's own home are very apt to be constantly employed to +keep him from falling, and to save him from the consequences of +his fall, and I do not despair of seeing you acquire that necessary +moral hardihood which will enable you to think freely, and to make +your mind give a fair utterance to the properties which are in +it. When this is done, I have every hope of you. You will rise to +eminence in your profession. I know, my son, that you will do me +honor." + +"Ah, sir, I am afraid you overrate my abilities. I have no +consciousness of any such resources as you suppose me to possess." + +"It is here that your deficiency speaks out. Be bold, my son--be +bold, bolder, boldest. I would not have you presumptuous, but there +is a courage, short of presumption, which is only a just confidence +in one's energies and moral determination. This you will soon +form, if, looking around you and into the performances of others, +you see how easy they are, and how far inferior they are to your +own ideas of what excellence should be. Do not look into yourself +for your standards. I have perhaps erred in making these too high. +Look out from yourself--look into others--analyze the properties +of others; and, in attempting, seek only to meet the exigencies of +the occasion, without asking what a great mind might effect beyond +it. Your heart will fail you always if your beau ideal is for ever +present to your mind." + +"I will try, sir. My tasks are before me, and I know it is full time +that I should discard my boyhood. I will go to work with industry, +and will endeavor not to disappoint your confidence; but I must +confess, sir, I have very little in myself." + +"If you will work seriously, William, my faith is in this very +humility. A man knowing his own weakness, and working to be strong, +can not fail. He must achieve something more than he strives for." + +"You make me strong as I hear you, sir. But I have one request to +make, sir. I have a favor to ask, sir, which will make me almost +happy if you grant it--which will at least reconcile me to receive +your favors, and to feel them less oppressively." + +"What is that, William? You know, my son, there are few things +which I could refuse you." + +"It is that _I_ MAY BE YOUR SON; that I may call you father, and +bear henceforward your name. If you adopt me, rear me, teach me, +provide me with the means of education and life, and do for me +what a father should have done, you are substantially more than +my father to me. Let me bear, your name. I shall be proud of it, +sir. I will not disgrace it--nay, more, it will strengthen me in +my desire to do it and myself honor. When I hear it spoken, it will +remind me of my equal obligations to you and to myself." + +"But this, my son, is a wrong done to your own father." + +"Alas! he will not feel it such." + +The old man shook his head. + +"You speak now with a feeling of anger, William. The treatment of +your fether rankles in your mind." + +"No, sir, no! I freely forgive him. I have no reference to him in +the prayer I make. My purpose is simply what I declare. Your name +will remind me of your counsels, will increase my obligation to +pursue them, will strengthen me in my determination, will be to +me a fond monitor in your place. Oh, sir, do not deny me! You have +shown me the affections of a father--let me, I entreat you, bear +the name of your son!" + +The youth flung his arms about the old man's neck, and wept with +a gush of fondness which the venerable sire could not withstand. +He was deeply touched: his lips quivered; his eyes thrilled and +throbbed. In vain did he strive to resist the impulse. He gave him +tear for tear. + +"My son, you have unmanned me." + +"Ah, my father, I can not regret, since, in doing so, I have +strengthened my own manhood." + +"If it have this effect, William, I shall not regret my own +weakness. There is a bird, you are aware, of which it is fabled +that it nourishes its young by the blood of its own bosom, which +it wounds for this purpose. Believe me, my dear boy, I am not +unwilling to be this bird for your sake. If to feel for you as the +fondest of fathers can give me the rights of one, then are you most +certainly my son--my son!" + +Long, and fond, and sweet, was their embrace. For a full hour, +but few words, and those of a mournful tenderness, were exchanged +between the parties. But the scene and the struggle were drawing +nigh their close. This was the day when they were to separate. It +had been arranged that William Hinkley, or as he now calls himself, +William Calvert, was to go into the world. The old man had recalled +for his sake, many of the memories and associations of his youth. +He had revived that period--in his case one of equal bitterness +and pleasure--when, a youth like him he was about to send forth, +he had been the ardent student in a profession whose honors he had +so sadly failed to reap. In this profession he was then fortunate +in having many sterling friends. Some of these were still so. In +withdrawing from society, he had not withdrawn from all commerce +with a select and sacred few; and to the friendly counsel and +protection of these he now deputed the paternal trusts which had +been just so solemnly surrendered to himself. There were long and +earnest appeals written to many noble associates--men who had won +great names by dint of honorable struggle in those fields into which +the feebler temper of Mr. Calvert did not permit him to penetrate. +Some of these letters bore for their superscriptions such names as +the Clays, the Crittendens, and the Metcalfs--the strong men, not +merely of Kentucky, but of the Union. The good old man sighed as +he read them over, separately, to his young companion. + +"Once I stood with them, and like them--not the meanest among +them--nay, beloved by them as an associate, and recognised as a +competitor. But they are here--strong, high, glorious, in the eye +of the nation--and I am nothing--a poor white-headed pedagogue in +the obscurest regions of Kentucky. Oh, my son, remember this, and +be strong! Beware of that weakness, the offspring of a miserable +vanity, which, claiming too much for itself, can bestow nothing +upon others. Strive only to meet the exigency, and you will do +more--you will pass beyond it. Ask not what your fame requires--the +poor fame of a solitary man struggling like an atom in the bosom +of the great struggling world--ask only what is due to the task +which you have assumed, and labor to do that. This is the simple, +small secret, but be sure it is the one which is of more importance +than all beside." + +The departure of William Hinkley from his native village was kept +a profound secret from all persons except his adopted father and +his bosom friend and cousin, Fisherman Ned. We have lost sight of +this young man for several pages, and, in justice equally to the +reader and himself, it is necessary that we should hurriedly retrace +our progress, at least so far as concerns his. We left him, if we +rememoer, having driven Alfred Stevens from his purpose, riding +on alone, really with no other aim than to give circulation to his +limbs and fancies. His ride, if we are to believe his random but +significant words, and his very knowing looks, was not without +its results. He had certainly made some discoveries--at least he +thought and said so; but, in truth, we believe these amounted to +nothing more than some plausible conjectures as to the route which +Alfred Stevens was in the habit of pursuing, on those excursions, +in which the neighbors were disposed to think that there was something +very mysterious. He certainly had jumped to the conclusion that, on +such occasions, the journey of Stevens was prolonged to Ellisland; +and, as such a ride was too long for one of mere pleasure and +exercise, the next conclusion was, that such a journey had always +some business in it. + +Now, a business that calls for so much secrecy, in a young student +of theology, was certainly one that could have very little relation +to the church. So far as Ned Hinkley knew anything of the Decalogue +it could not well relate to that. There was nothing in St. Paul +that required him to travel post to Ellisland; though a voyage to +Tarsus might be justified by the authority of that apostle; and +the whole proceeding, therefore, appeared to be a mystery in which +gospelling had very little to do. Very naturally, having arrived +at this conclusion, Ned Hinkley jumped to another. If the saints +have nothing to do with this journey of Alfred Stevens, the sinners +must have. It meant mischief--it was a device of Satan; and the +matter seemed so clearly made out to his own mind, that he returned +home with the further conviction, which was equally natural and +far more easily arrived at, that he was now bound by religion, as +he had previously been impelled by instinct, to give Stevens "a +regular licking the very first chance that offered." Still, though +determined on this measure, he was not unmindful of the necessity +of making other discoveries; and he returned to Charlemont with a +countenance big with importance and almost black with mystery. + +But the events which had taken place in his absence, and which we +have already related, almost put his own peculiar purposes out of +his mind. That William Hinkley should have cowskinned Stevens would +have been much more gratifying to him could he have been present; +and he was almost disposed to join with the rest in their outcry +against this sacrilegious proceeding, for the simple reason, that +it somewhat anticipated his own rigorous intentions to the same +effect. He was not less dissatisfied with the next attempt for two +reasons. + +"You might have known, Bill, that a parson won't fight with pistols. +You might have persuaded him to fist or cudgel, to a fair up and +down, hand over, fight! That's not so criminal, they think. I +heard once of Brother John Cross, himself trying a cudgel bout with +another parson down in Mississippi, because he took the same text +out of his mouth, and preached it over the very same day, with +contrary reason. Everybody said that John Cross served him right, +and nobody blamed either. But they would have done so if pistols +had been used. You can't expect parsons or students of religion to +fight with firearms. Swords, now, they think justifiable, for St. +Peter used them; but we read nowhere in Old or New Testament of +their using guns, pistols, or rifles." + +"But he consented to fight, and brought his own pistols, Ned?" + +"Why, then, didn't you fight? That's the next thing I blame you +for--that, when you were both ready, and had the puppies in your +hands, you should have stood looking at each other without taking +a crack. By jingo, had there been fifty fathers and mothers in +the bush, I'd have had a crack at him. No, I blame you, William--I +can't help it. You didn't do right. Oh! if you had only waited for +me, and let me have fixed it, how finely we would have managed. +What then, if your father had burst in, it was only shifting the +barkers from your hands to mine. I'd have banged at him, though +John Cross himself, and all his flock, stood by and kneed it to +prevent me. They might have prayed to all eternity without stopping +me, I tell you." + +William Hinkley muttered something about the more impressive sort +of procedure which his father had resorted to, and a little soreness +about the parietal bones just at that moment giving a quick impatient +air to his manner, had the effect of putting an end to all further +discussion of this topic. Fisherman Ned concluded with a brief +assurance, meant as consolation, that, when he took up the cudgels, +his cousin need make himself perfectly easy with the conviction that +he would balance both accounts very effectually. He had previously +exhorted William to renew the attempt, though with different weapons, +to bring his enemy into the field; but against this attempt Mr. +Calvert had already impressively enjoined him; exacting from him +a promise that he would not seek Stevens, and would simply abide +any call for satisfaction which the latter might make. The worthy +old man was well assured that in Stevens's situation there was very +little likelihood of a summons to the field from him. + +Still, William Hinkley did not deem it becoming in him to leave the +ground for several days, even after his preparations for departure +were complete. He loitered in the neighborhood, showed himself +frequently to his enemy, and, on some of these occasions, was +subjected to the mortification of beholding the latter on his way +to the house of Margaret Cooper, with whom, a few moments after, he +might be seen in lonely rambles by the lake-side and in the wood. +William had conquered his hopes from this quarter, but he vainly +endeavored to suppress his pangs. + +At length the morning came for his departure. He had seen his mother +for the last time the night before. They had met at the house of +the widow Hinkley, between which and that of Calvert, his time had +been chiefly spent, since the day of his affair with Stevens. His +determination to depart was carefully concealed from his mother. +He dreaded to hear her entreaties, and he doubted his own strength +to endure them. His deportment, however, was sufficiently fond and +tender, full of pain and passion, to have convinced her, had she +been at all suspicious of the truth, of the design he meditated. +But, as it was, it simply satisfied her affections; and the fond +"good night" with which he addressed her ears at parting, was +followed by a gush of tears which shocked the more sturdy courage +of his cousin, and aroused the suspicions of the widow. + +"William Hinkley," she said after the mother had gone home--"you +must be thinking to leave Charlemont. I'm sure of it--I know it." + +"If you do, say nothing, dear cousin; it will do no good--it can +not prevent me now, and will only make our parting more painful." + +"Oh, don't fear me," said the widow--"I shan't speak of it, till +it's known to everybody, for I think you right to go and do just +as Gran'pa Calvert tells you; but you needn't have made it such a +secret with me. I've always been too much of your friend to say a +word." + +"Alas!" said the youth mournfully, "until lately, dear cousin, +I fancied that I had no friends--do not blame me, therefore, if I +still sometimes act as if I had none." + +"You have many friends, William, already--I'm sure you will find +many more wherever you go; abler friends if not fonder ones, than +you leave behind you." + +The youth threw his arms round the widow's neck and kissed her +tenderly. Her words sounded in his ears like some melodious prophecy. + +"Say no more, cousin," he exclaimed with sudden enthusiasm; "I am +so well pleased to believe what you promise me of the future, that +I am willing to believe all. God bless you. I will never forget +you." + +The parting with Calvert was more touching in reality, but with +fewer of the external signs of feeling. A few words, a single +embrace and squeeze of the hand, and they separated; the old man +hiding himself and his feelings in the dimness of his secluded +abode, while his adopted son, with whom Ned Hinkley rode a brief +distance on his way, struck spurs into his steed, as if to lose, in +the rapid motion of the animal, the slow, sad feelings which were +pressing heavily upon his heart. He had left Charlemont for ever. +He had left it under circumstances of doubt, and despondency--stung +by injustice, and baffled in the first ardent hopes of his youthful +mind. "The world was all before him, where to choose." Let us not +doubt that the benignant Providence is still his guide. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +CONQUEST. + + + + + +The progress of events and our story necessarily brings as back +to Charlemont. We shall lose sight of William Hinkley, henceforth +Calvert, for some time; and here, par parenthese, let us say to +our readers that this story being drawn from veritable life, will +lack some of that compactness and close fitness of parts which +make our novels too much resemble the course of a common law case. +Instead of having our characters always at hand, at the proper +moment, to do the business of the artist, like so many puppets, +each working on a convenient wire, and waiting to be whistled in +upon the scene, we shall find them sometimes absent, as we do in +real life when their presence is most seriously desired, and when +the reader would perhaps prefer that they should come in, to meet +or make emergencies. Some are gone whom we should rather see; some +present, whose absence, in the language of the Irishman, would be +the best company they could give us; and some, not forthcoming, +like the spirits of Owen Glendower, even when most stoutly called +for. The vast deeps of human progress do not release their tenants +at the beck and call of ordinary magicians, and we, who endeavor +to describe events as we find them, must be content to take them +and persons, too, only when they are willing. Were we writing the +dramatic romance, we should be required to keep William Hinkley +always at hand, as a convenient foil to Alfred Stevens. He should +watch his progress; pursue his sinuosities of course; trace him +out in all his ill-favored purposes, and be ready, at the first +act--having, like the falcon, by frequent and constantly-ascending +gyrations, reached the point of command--to pounce down upon the +fated quarry, and end the story and the strife together. But ours +is a social narrative, where people come and go without much regard +to the unities, and without asking leave of the manager. William +Hinkley, too, is a mere man and no hero. He has no time to spare, +and he is conscious that he has already wasted too much. He has +work to do and is gone to do it. Let it console the reader, in his +absence, to know that he WILL do it--that his promise is a good +one--and that we have already been shown, in the dim perspective +of the future, glimpses of his course which compensate him for his +mishaps, and gladden the heart of his adopted father, by confirming +its prophecies and hopes. + +The same fates which deny that he should realize the first fancies +of his boyhood, are, in the end, perhaps, not a jot kinder to others +whom they now rather seem to favor. His absence did not stop the +social machine of Charlemont from travelling on very much as before. +There was a shadow over his mother's heart, and his disappearance +rather aroused some misgiving and self-reproachful sensations in +that of his father. Mr. Calvert, too, had his touch of hypochondria +in consequence of his increased loneliness, and Ned Hinkley's +fighting monomania underwent startling increase; but, with the rest, +the wheel went on without much sensible difference. The truth is, +that, however mortifying the truth may be, the best of us makes but +a very small sensation in his absence. Death is a longer absence, +in which our friends either forget us, or recollect our vices. Our +virtues are best acknowledged when we are standing nigh and ready +to enforce them. Like the argumentative eloquence of the Eighth +Harry, they are never effectual until the halberdiers clinch their +rivets forcibly. + +It does not necessarily impugn the benevolence or wisdom of Providence +to show that crime is successful for a season in its purposes. Vice +may prevail, and victims perish, without necessarily disparaging the +career, or impeding the progress of virtue. To show that innocence +may fall, is sometimes to strengthen innocence, so that it may +stand against all assailants. To show vice, even in its moments of +success, is not necessarily to show that such success is desirable. +Far from it! As none of us can look very deeply into the future, +so it happens that the boon for which we pray sometimes turns out +to be our bane; while the hardship and suffering, whose approach +we deprecate in sackcloth and ashes, may come with healing on their +wings, and afford us a dearer blessing than any ever yet depicted +in the loom of a sanguine and brilliant imagination. + +We are, after all, humbling as this fact may be to our clamorous +vanity, only so many agents and instruments, blind, and scuffling +vainly in our blindness, in the perpetual law of progress. As a +soul never dies, so it is never useless or unemployed. The Deity +is no more profligate in the matter of souls than he is in that +of seeds. They pass, by periodical transitions, from body to body; +perhaps from sphere to sphere; and as the performance of their trusts +have been praiseworthy or censurable, so will be the character of +their trusts in future. He who has shown himself worthy of confidence +in one state, will probably acquire a corresponding increase of +responsibility in another. He who has betrayed his trusts or impaired +them, will share less of the privileges of the great moral credit +system. + +In all these transitions, however, work is to be done. The fact that +there is a trust, implies duty and performance; and the practice +of virtue is nothing more than the performance of this work to the +best of our abilities. Well, we do not do our work. We fail in our +trusts. We abuse tuem. Such a man as Alfred Stevens abuses them. +Such a woman as Margaret Cooper fails in them. What then? Do we +destroy the slave who fails in his duty, or chasten him, and give +him inferior trusts? Do you suppose that the Deity is more profligate +in souls than in seeds--that he creates and sends forth millions +of new souls, annually, in place of those which have gone astray? +Hardly so! He is too good an economist for that. We learn this from +all the analogies. As a soul can not perish, so it never remains +unemployed. It still works, though its labors may be confined to +a treadmill. + +The mere novel-reader may regard all this as so much unnecessary +digression. But let him not deceive himself. It would be the most +humiliating and painful thought, indeed, could we believe that the +genius which informs and delights us--which guides the bark of state +through a thousand storms and dangers to its port of safety--which +conquers and commands--which sings in melodies that make melodies +in human hearts for thousands of succeeding years--is suddenly to +be suspended--to have no more employment--to do no more work--guide +no more states--make no more melodies! Nay, the pang would be scarcely +less to believe that a fair intellect like that of Alfred Stevens, +or a wild, irregular genius, like that of Margaret Cooper--because +of its erring, either through perversity or blindness, is wholly +to become defunct, so far as employment is concerned--that they +are to be deprived of all privilege of working up to the lost +places--regaining the squandered talents--atoning, by industry and +humble desire, the errors and deficiencies of the past! We rather +believe that heaven is a world where the labors are more elevated, +the necessities less degrading; that it is no more permanent than +what we esteem present life; nay, that it is destined to other +transitions; that we may still ascend, on and on, and that each +heaven has its higher heaven yet. We believe that our immortality +is from the beginning; that time is only a periodical step in +eternity----that transition is the true meaning of life--and death +nothing more than a sign of progress. It may be an upward or a +downward progress, but it is not a toilsome march to a mere sleep. +Lavish as is the bounty of God, and boundless as are his resources, +there is nothing of him that we do know which can justify the idea +of such utter profligacy of material. + +We transgress. Our business is with the present doings of our +dramatis persons and not with the future employment of their souls. +Still, we believe, the doctrine which we teach not only to be more +rational, but absolutely more moral than the conjectures on this +subject which are in ordinary use. More rational as relates to +the characteristics of the Deity, and more moral as it affects the +conduct and the purposes of man himself. There is something grand +beyond all things else, in the conception of this eternal progress +of the individual nature; its passage from condition to condition; +sphere to sphere; life to life; always busy, working for the mighty +Master; falling and sinking to mere menial toils, or achieving and +rising to more noble trusts; but, at all events, still working in +some way in the great world-plantation, and under the direct eye +of the sovereign World-Planter. The torture of souls on the one +hand, and the singing of psalms on the other, may be doctrines +infinitely more orthodox; but, to our mind, they seem immeasurably +inferior in grandeur, in propriety, in noble conception of the +appointments of the creature, and the wondrous and lovely designs +of the benignant Father. + +The defeat of such a soul as that of Margaret Cooper can surely be +a temporary defeat only. It will regain strength, it must rise in +the future, it must recover the lost ground, and reassert the empire +whose sway it has unwillingly abandoned; for it is not through +will, wholly, by which we lose the moral eminence. Something is +due to human weaknesses; to the blindness in which a noble spirit +is sometimes suffered to grow into stature; disproportioned +stature--that, reaching to heaven, is yet shaken down and overthrown +by the merest breath of storm that sweeps suddenly beneath its +skies. The very hopelessness of Margaret Cooper's ambition, which +led her to misanthropy, was the source of an ever-fertile and +upspringing confidence. Thus it was that the favoring opinions which +Alfred Stevens expressed--a favoring opinion expressed by one whom +she soon discovered was well able to form one--accompanied by an +assurance that the dream of fame which her wild imagination had +formed should certainly be realized, gave him a large power over +her confidence. Her passion was sway--the sway of mind over mind--of +genius over sympathy--of the syren Genius over the subject Love. +It was this passion which had made her proud, which had filled her +mind with visions, and yielded to her a world by itself, and like +no other, filled with all forms of worship and attraction; chivalrous +faith, unflagging zeal, generous confidence, pure spirits, and the +most unquestioning loyalty! Ignorant of the world which she had not +seen, and of those movements of human passion which she had really +never felt, she naturally regarded Alfred Stevens as one of the +noble representatives of that imaginary empire which her genius +continually brought before her eyes. She saw in him the embodiment +of that faith in her intellect which it was the first and last hope +of her intellect to inspire; and seeing thus, it will be easy to +believe that her full heart, which, hitherto, had poured itself +forth on rocks, and trees, and solitary places, forgetful of all +prudence--a lesson which she had never learned--and rejoicing in +the sympathy of a being like herself, now gushed forth with all the +volume of its impatient fullness. The adroit art of her companion +led her for ever into herself; she was continually summoned to pour +forth the treasures of her mind and soul; and, toiling in the same +sort of egoisme in which her life heretofore had been consumed, +she was necessarily diverted from all doubts or apprehensions of +the occult purposes of him who had thus beguiled her over the long +frequented paths. As the great secret of success with the mere +worldling, is to pry into the secret of his neighbor while carefully +concealing his own, so it is the great misfortune of enthusiasm to +be soon blinded to a purpose which its own ardent nature neither +allows it to suspect nor penetrate. Enthusiasm is a thing of utter +confidence; it has no suspicion; it sets no watch on other hearts; +it is too constantly employed in pouring forth the treasures of its +own. It is easy, therefore, to deceive and betray it, to beguile +it into confidence, and turn all its revelations against itself. +How far the frequency of this usage in the world makes it honorable, +is a question which we need not discuss on this occasion. + +Alfred Stevens had now been for some weeks in the village +of Charlemont, where, in the meantime, he had become an object +of constantly-increasing interest. The men shrank from him with a +feeling of inferiority; the women--the young ones being understood--shrank +from him also, but with that natural art of the sex which invites +pursuit, and strives to conquer even in flight. But it was soon +evident enough that Stevens bestowed his best regards solely upon +Margaret Cooper. If he sought the rest, it was simply in compliance +with those seeming duties of his ostensible profession which were +necessary to maintain appearances. Whether he loved Margaret Cooper +or not, he soon found a pleasure in her society which he sought +for in no other quarter of the village. The days, in spite of the +strife with William Hinkley, flew by with equal pleasantness and +rapidity to both. The unsophisticated mind of Margaret Cooper left +her sensible to few restraints upon their ordinary intercourse; +and, indeed, if she did know or regard them for an instant, it was +only to consider them as necessary restraints for the protection +of the ignorant and feeble of her sex--a class in which she never +once thought to include herself. Her attachment to Alfred Stevens, +though it first arose from the pleasure which her mind derived +from its intercourse with his, and not from any of those nice and +curious sympathies of temperament and taste which are supposed to +constitute the essence and comprise the secret of love, was yet +sufficient to blind her judgment to the risks of feeling, if nothing +more, which were likely to arise from their hourly-increasing +intimacy; and she wandered with him into the devious woods, and +they walked by moonlight among the solemn-shaded hills, and the +unconscious girl had no sort of apprehension that the spells of an +enslaving passion were rapidly passing over her soul. + +How should she apprehend such spells? how break them? For the first +time in her life had she found intellectual sympathy--the only +moral response which her heart longed to hear. For the first time +had she encountered a mind which could do justice to, and correspond +on anything like equal terms with, her own. How could she think +that evil would ensue from an acquisition which yielded her the +only communion which she had ever craved Her confidence in herself, +in her own strength, and her ignorance of her own passions, were +sufficient to render her feelings secure; and then she was too well +satisfied of the superiority and nobleness of his. But, in truth, +she never thought upon the subject. Her mind dwelt only on the +divine forms and images of poetry. The ideal world had superseded, +not only the dangers, but the very aspect, of the real. Under the +magic action of her fancy, she had come to dwell + + "With those gay creatures of the element + That in the colors of the rainbow live, + And play i' the plighted clouds"-- + +she had come to speak only in the one language, and of the one +topic; and, believing now that she had an auditor equally able to +comprehend and willing to sympathize with her cravings, she gave +free scope to the utterance of her fancies, and to the headlong +impulse of that imagination which had never felt the curb. + +The young heart, not yet chilled by the world's denials, will readily +comprehend the beguiling influence of the dreaming and enthusiastic +nature of some dear spirit, in whose faith it has full confidence, +and whose tastes are kindred with its own. How sweet the luxury +of moonlight in commerce with such a congenial spirit! how heavenly +the occasional breath of the sweet southwest! how gentle and soothing +fond the whispers of night--the twiring progress of sad-shining +stars--the gentle sway of winds among the tree-tops--the plaintive +moan of billows, as they gather and disperse themselves along the +shores! To speak of these delights; to walk hand-in-hand along the +gray sands by the seaside, and whisper in murmuring tones, that seem +to gather sympathies from those of ocean; to guide the eye of the +beloved associate to the sudden object; to challenge the kindred +fancy which comments upon our own; to remember together, and repeat, +the happy verse of inspired poets, speaking of the scene, and to +the awakened heart which feels it; and, more, to pour forth one's +own inspirations in the language of tenderness and song, and awaken +in the heart of our companion the rapture to which our own has +given speech--these, which are subjects of mock and scorn to the +worldling, are substantial though not enduring joys to the young +and ardent nature. + +In this communion, with all her pride, strength, and confidence, +Margaret Cooper was the merest child. Without a feeling of guile, +she was dreaming of the greatness which her ambition craved, +and telling her dreams, with all the artless freedom of the child +who has some golden fancy of the future, which it seeks to have +confirmed by the lips of experience. The wily Stevens led her on, +gave stimulus to her enthusiasm, made her dreams become reasonable +in her eyes, and laughed at them in his secret heart. She sung at +his suggestion, and sang her own verses with all that natural tremor +which even the most self-assured poet feels on such an occasion. + +"Beautiful!" the arch-hypocrite would exclaim, as if unconscious +of utterance; "beautiful!" and his hand would possess itself of +the trembling fingers of hers. "But beautiful as it is, Margaret, +I am sure that it is nothing to what you could do under more +auspicious circumstances." + +"Ah! if there were ears to hear, if there were hearts to feel, and +eyes to weep, I feel, I know, what might be done. No, no! this is +nothing. This is the work of a child." + +"Nay, Margaret, if the work of a child, it is that of a child of +genius." + +"Ah! do not flatter me, Alfred Stevens, do not deceive me. I am too +willing to believe you, for it is so dear a feeling to think that +I too am a poet. Yet, at the first, I had not the smallest notion +of this kind: I neither knew what poetry was, nor felt the desire +to be a poet. Yet I yearned with strange feelings, which uttered +themselves in that form ere I had seen books or read the verses +of others. It was an instinct that led me as it would. I sometimes +fear that I have been foolish in obeying it; for oh, what has it +brought me? What am I? what are my joys? I am lonely even with my +companions. I share not the sports and feel not the things which +delight my sex. Their dances and frolics give me no pleasure. I +have no sympathy with them or their cares. I go apart--I am here +on the hills, or deep in the forests--sad, lonely, scarcely knowing +what I am, and what I desire." + +"You are not alone, nor are your pleasures less acute than theirs. +If they laugh, their laughter ends in sleep. If you are sad, you lose +not the slightest faculty of perception or sensibility, but rather +gain them in consequence. Laughter and tears are signs neither +of happiness nor grief, and as frequently result from absolute +indifference as from any active emotion. If you are absent from them, +you have better company. You can summon spirits to your communion, +Margaret; noble thoughts attend you; eyes that cheer, lips that +assure you, and whispers, from unknown attendants, that bid you be +of good heart, for the good time is coming. Ah! Margaret, believe +me when I tell you that time is at hand. Such a genius as yours, +such a spirit, can not always be buried in these woods." + +It was in such artful language as this that the arch-hypocrite +flattered and beguiled her. They were wandering along the edge of +the streamlet to which we have more than once conducted the footsteps +of the reader. The sun was about setting. The autumn air was mild +with a gentle breathing from the south. The woods were still and +meek as the slumbers of an infant. The quiet of the scene harmonized +with the temper of their thoughts and feelings. They sat upon +a fragment of the rock. Margaret was silent, but her eyes were +glistening bright--not with hope only, but with that first glimmering +consciousness of a warmer feeling, which gives a purple light to +hope, and makes the heart tremble, for the first time, with its +own expectations. It did not escape Alfred Stevens that, for the +first time, her eye sank beneath his glance; for the first time +there was a slight flush upon her cheek. He was careful not to +startle and alarm the consciousness which these signs indicated. +The first feeling which the young heart has of its dependence upon +another is one little short of terror; it is a feeling which wakens +up suspicion, and puts all the senses upon the watch. To appear +to perceive this emotion is to make it circumspect; to disarm it, +one must wear the aspect of unconsciousness. The wily Stevens, +practised in the game, and master of the nature of the unsuspecting +girl, betrayed in his looks none of the intelligence which he felt. +If he uttered himself in the language of admiration, it was that +admiration which would be natural to a profound adorer of literature +and all its professors. His words were those of the amateur:-- + +"I can not understand, Margaret, how you have studied--how you have +learned so much--your books are few--you have had no masters. I +never met in my life with so remarkable an instance of unassisted +endeavor." + +"My books were hero in the woods--among these old rocks. My teacher +was solitude. Ah! there is no teacher like one's own heart. My +instinct made me feel my deficiencies--my deficiencies taught me +contemplation--and from contemplation came thoughts and cravings, +and you know, when the consciousness of our lack is greatest, then, +even the dumb man finds a voice. I found my voice in consequence +of my wants. My language you see is that of complaint only." + +"And a sweet and noble language it is, Margaret; but it is not in +poetry alone that your utterance is so distinct and beautiful--you +sing too with a taste as well as power which would prove that +contemplation was as happy in bringing about perfection in the one +as in the other art. Do sing me, Margaret, that little ditty which +you sang here the other night?" + +His hand gently detained and pressed hers as he urged the request. + +"I would rather not sing to-night," she replied, "I do not feel +as if I could, and I trust altogether to feeling. I will sing for +you some other time when you do not ask, and, perhaps would prefer +not to hear me." + +"To hear you at all, Margaret, is music to my ears." + +She was silent, and her fingers made a slight movement to detach +themselves from his. + +"No, Margaret, do not withdraw them! Let me detain them +thus--longer--for ever! My admiration of you has been too deeply +felt not to have been too clearly shown, Your genius is too dear +to me now to suffer me to lose it. Margaret--dear Margaret!" + +She spoke not--her breathing became quick and hard. + +"You do not speak, let me hope that you are not angry with me?" + +"No, no!" she whispered faintly. He continued with more boldness, +and while he spoke, his arm encircled her waist. + +"A blessed chance brought me to your village. I saw you and returned. +I chose a disguise in which I might study you, and see how far the +treasures of your mind confirmed the noble promise of your face. +They have done more. Like him who finds the precious ore among the +mountains, I can not part with you so found. I must tear you from +the soil. I must bear you with me. You must be mine, Margaret--you +must go with me where the world will see, and envy me my prize." + +He pressed her to his bosom. She struggled slightly. + +"Do not, do not, Alfred Stevens, do not press me--do not keep +me. You think too much of me. I am no treasure--alas! this is all +deception. You can not--can not desire it?" + +"Do I not! Ah! Margaret, what else do I desire now? Do you think +me only what I appear in Charlemont?" + +"No! no!" + +"I have the power of a name, Margaret, in my profession--among a +numerous people--and that power is growing into wealth and sway. I +am feared and honored, loved by some, almost worshipped by others; +and what has led me from this sway, to linger among these hills--to +waste hours so precious to ambition--to risk the influence which I +had already secured--what, but a higher impulse--a dearer prospect--a +treasure, Margaret, of equal beauty and genius." + +Her face was hidden upon his bosom. He felt the beating of her +heart against his hand. + +"If you have a genius for song, Margaret Cooper, I, too, am not +without my boast. In my profession, men speak of my eloquence as +that of a genius which has few equals, and no superior." + +"I know it--it must be so!" + +"Move me not to boast, dear Margaret; it is in your ears only that +I do so--and only to assure you that, in listening to my love, you +do not yield to one utterly obscure, and wanting in claims, which, +as yours must be finally, are already held to be established and +worthy of the best admiration of the intelligent and wise. Do you +hear me, Margaret?" + +"I do, I do! It must be as you say. But of love I have thought +nothing. No, no! I know not, Alfred Stevens, if I love or not--if +I can love." + +"You mistake, Margaret. It is in the heart that the head finds its +inspiration. Mere intellect makes not genius. All the intellect in +the world would fail of this divine consummation. It is from the +fountains of feeling that poetry drinks her inspiration. It is at +the altars of love that the genius of song first bends in adoration. +You have loved, Margaret, from the first moment when you sung. +It did not alter the case that there was no object of sight. The +image was in your mind--in your hope. One sometimes goes through +life without ever meeting the human counterpart of this ideal; and +the language of such a heart will be that of chagrin--distaste of +life--misanthropy, and a general scorn of his own nature. Such, +I trust, is not your destiny. No, Margaret, that is impossible. I +take your doubt as my answer, and unless your own lips undeceive +me, dearest Margaret, I will believe that your love is willing to +requite my own." + +She was actually sobbing on his breast. With an effort she struggled +into utterance. + +"My heart is so full, my feelings are so strange--oh! Alfred Stevens, +I never fancied I could be so weak." + +"So weak--to love! surely, Margaret, you mistake the word. It is in +loving only that the heart finds its strength. Love is the heart's +sole business; and not to exercise it in its duties is to impair its +faculties, and deprive it equally of its pleasures and its tasks. +Oh, I will teach you of the uses of this little heart of yours, +dear Margaret--ay, till it grow big with its own capacity to teach. +We will inform each other, every hour, of some new impulses and +objects. Our dreams, our hopes, our fears, and our desires, ah! +Margaret--what a study of love will these afford us. Nor to love +only. Ah! dearest, when your muse shall have its audience, its +numerous watching eyes and eager ears, then shall you discover how +much richer will be the strain from your lips once informed by the +gushing fullness of this throbbing heart." + +She murmured fondly in his embrace, "Ah! I ask no other eyes and +ears than yours." + +In the glow of a new and overpowering emotion, such indeed was her +feeling. He gathered her up closer in his arms. He pressed his lips +upon the rich ripe beauties of hers, as some hungering bee, darting +upon the yet unrifled flower which it first finds in the shadows +of the forest, clings to, and riots on, the luscious loveliness, +as if appetite could only be sated in its exhaustion. She struggled +and freed herself from his embrace: but, returning home that +evening her eye was cast upon the ground; her step was set down +hesitatingly; there was a tremor in her heart; a timid expression +in her face and manner! These were proofs of the discovery which +she then seems to have made for the first time, that there is a +power stronger than mere human will--a power that controls genius; +that mocks at fame; feels not the lack of fortune, and is independent +of the loss of friends! She now first knew her weakness. She had +felt the strength of love! Ah! the best of us may quail, whatever +his hardihood, in the day when love asserts HIS strength and goes +forth to victory. + +Margaret Cooper sought her chamber, threw herself on the bed, and +turned her face in the pillow to hide the burning blushes which, +with every movement of thought and memory, seemed to increase upon +her cheek. Yet, while she blushed and even wept, her heart throbbed +and trembled with the birth of a new emotion of joy. Ah! how sweet +is our first secret pleasure--shared by one other only--sweet to +that other as to ourself--so precious to him also. To be carried +into our chamber--to be set up ostentatiously--there, where none +but ourselves may see--to be an object of our constant tendance, +careful idolatry, keen suspicion, delighted worship! + +Ah! but if the other makes it no idol--his toy only--what shall +follow this desecration of the sacred thing! What but shame, remorse, +humiliation, perhaps death!--alas! for Margaret Cooper, the love +which had so suddenly grown into a precious divinity with her, was +no divinity with him. He is no believer. He has no faith in such +things, but like the trader in religion, he can preach deftly the +good doctrines which he can not feel and is slow to practise. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +FALL. + + + + + +We should speak unprofitably and with little prospect of being +understood, did our readers require to be told, that there is a +certain impatient and gnawing restlessness in the heart of love, +which keeps it for ever feverish and anxious. Where this passion +is associated with a warm, enthusiastic genius, owning the poetic +temperament, the anxiety is proportionatly greater. The ideal of +the mind is a sort of classical image of perfect loveliness, chaste, +sweet, commanding, but, how cold! But love gives life to this +image, even as the warm rays of the sun falling upon the sullen +lips of the Memnon, compel its utterance in music. It not only looks +beauty--it breathes it. It is not only the aspect of the Apollo, it +is the god himself; his full lyre strung, his golden bow quivering +at his back with the majesty of his motion; and his lips parting +with the song which shall make the ravished spheres stoop, and +gather round to listen. + +Hitherto Margaret Cooper had been a girl of strong will; will +nursed in solitude, and by the wrong-headed indulgence of a vain +and foolish mother. She was conscious of that bounding, bursting +soul of genius which possessed her bosom; that strange, moody, and +capricious god; pent-up, denied, crying evermore for utterance, +with a breath more painful to endure, because of the suppression. +This consciousness, with the feeling of denial which attended it, +had cast a gloomy intensity over her features not less than her +mind. The belief that she was possessed of treasures which were +unvalued--that she had powers which were never to be exercised--that +with a song such as might startle an empire, she was yet doomed +to a silent and senseless auditory of rocks and trees; this belief +had brought with it a moody arrogance of temper which had made +itself felt by all around her. In one hour this mood had departed. +Ambition and love became united for a common purpose; for the object +of the latter, was also the profound admirer of the former. + +The anxious restlessness which her newly-acquired sensations +occasioned in her bosom, was not diminished by a renewal of those +tender interviews with her lover, which we have endeavored, though +so faultily, already to describe. Evening after evening found them +together; the wily hypocrite still stimulating, by his glozing +artifices, the ruling passion for fame, which, in her bosom, was +only temporarily subservient to love, while he drank his precious +reward from her warm, lovely, and still-blushing lips and cheeks. +The very isolation in which she had previously dwelt in Charlemont, +rendered the society of Stevens still more dear to her heart. She +was no longer alone--no longer unknown--not now unappreciated in +that respect in which hitherto she felt her great denial. "Here is +one--himself a genius--who can do justice to mine." + +The young poet who finds an auditor, where he has never had one +before, may be likened to a blind man suddenly put in possession +of his sight. He sees sun and moon and stars, the forms of beauty, +the images of grace; and his soul grows intoxicated with the +wonders of its new empire. What does he owe to him who puts him in +possession of these treasures? who has given him his sight? Love, +devotion, all that his full heart has to pay of homage and affection. + +Such was very much the relation which Margaret Cooper bore to +Alfred Stevens; and when, by his professions of love, he left the +shows of his admiration no longer doubtful, she was at once and +entirely his. She was no longer the self-willed, imperious damsel, +full of defiance, dreaming of admiration only, scornful of the +inferior, and challenging the regards of equals. She was now a timid, +trembling girl--a dependant, such as the devoted heart must ever +be, waiting for the sign to speak, looking eagerly for the smile +to reward her sweetest utterance. If now she walked with Stevens, +she no longer led the way; she hung a little backward, though she +grasped his arm--nay, even when her hand was covered with a gentle +pressure in the folds of his. If she sung, she did not venture to +meet his eyes, which she FELT must be upon hers, and now it was no +longer her desire that the village damsels should behold them as +they went forth together on their rambles. She no longer met their +cunning and significant smiles with confidence and pride, but with +faltering looks, and with cheeks covered with blushes. Great, indeed, +was the change which had come over that once proud spirit--change +surprising to all, but as natural as any other of the thousand changes +which are produced in the progress of moments by the arch-magician, +Love. Heretofore, her song had disdained the ordinary topics +of the youthful ballad-monger. She had uttered her apostrophes to +the eagle, soaring through the black, billowy masses of the coming +thunder-storm; to the lonely but lofty rock, lonely in its loftiness, +which no foot travelled but her own; to the silent glooms of the +forest--to the majesty of white-bearded and majestic trees. The +dove and the zephyr now shared her song, and a deep sigh commonly +closed it. She was changed from what she was. The affections had +suddenly bounded into being, trampling the petty vanities underfoot; +and those first lessons of humility which are taught by love, had +subdued a spirit which, hitherto, had never known control. + +Alfred Stevens soon perceived how complete was his victory. He +soon saw the extent of that sudden change which had come over +her character. Hitherto, she had been the orator. When they stood +together by the lake-side, or upon the rock, it was her finger +which had pointed out the objects for contemplation; it was her +voice whose eloquence had charmed the ear, dilating upon the beauties +or the wonders which they surveyed. She was now no longer eloquent +in words. But she looked a deeper eloquence by far than any words +could embody. He was now the speaker; and regarding him through the +favoring media of kindled affections, it seemed to her ear, that +there was no eloquence so sweet as his. He spoke briefly of the +natural beauties by which they were surrounded. + +"Trees, rocks, the valley and the hill, all realms of solitude +and shade, inspire enthusiasm and ardor in the imaginative spirit. +They are beneficial for this purpose. For the training of a great +poet they are necessary. They have the effect of lifting the mind +to the contemplation of vastness, depth, height, profundity. This +produces an intensity of mood--the natural result of any association +between our own feelings and such objects as are lofty and noble in +the external world. The feelings and passions as they are influenced +by the petty play of society, which diffuses their power and breaks +their lights into little, become concentrated on the noble and the +grand. Serious earnestness of nature becomes habitual--the heart +flings itself into all the subjects of its interest--it trifles +with none--all its labors become sacred in its eyes, and the latest +object of study and analysis is that which is always most important. +The effect of this training in youth on the poetic mind, is to +the last degree beneficial; since, without a degree of seriousness +amounting to intensity--without a hearty faith in the importance +of what is to be done--without a passionate fullness of soul which +drives one to his task--there will be no truthfulness, no eloquence, +no concentrated thought and permanent achievement. With, you, dear +Margaret, such has already been the effect. You shrink from the +ordinary enjoyments of society. Their bald chat distresses you, as +the chatter of so many jays. You prefer the solitude which feeds +the serious mood which you love, and enables your imagination, +unrepressed by the presence of shallow witlings, to evoke its +agents from storm and shadow--from deep forest and lonesome lake--to +minister to the cravings of an excited heart, and a soaring and +ambitious fancy." + +"Oh, how truly, Alfred, do you speak it," she murmured as he closed. + +"So far, so good; but, dear Margaret--there are other subjects +of study which are equally necessary for the great poet. The wild +aspects of nature are such as are of use in the first years of his +probation. To grow up in the woods and among the rocks, so that a +hearty simplicity, an earnest directness, with a constant habit of +contemplation should be permanently formed, is a first and necessary +object. But it is in this training as in every other. There are +successive steps. There is a law of progressive advance. You must +not stop there. The greatest moral study for the poet must follow. +This is the study of man in society--in the great world--where he +puts on a thousand various aspects--far other than those which are +seen in the country--in correspondence with the thousand shapes of +fortune, necessity, or caprice, which attend him there. Indeed, it +may safely be said, that he never knows one half of the responsibility +of his tasks who toils without the presence of those for whom he +toils. It is in the neighborhood of man that we feel his and our +importance. It is while we are watching his strifes and struggles +that we see the awful importance of his destiny; and the great trusts +of self, and truth, and the future, which have been delivered to +his hands. Here you do not see man. You see certain shapes, which +are employed in raising hay, turnips, and potatoes; which eat and +drink very much as man does; but which, as they suffer to sleep +and rest most of those latent faculties, the exercise of which +can alone establish the superiority of the intellectual over the +animal nature, so they have no more right to the name of man than +any other of those animals who eat as industriously, and sleep +as profoundly, as themselves. The contemplation of the superior +being, engaged in superior toils, awakens superior faculties in the +observer. He who sees nothing but the gathering of turnips will +think of nothing but turnips. As we enlarge the sphere of our +observation, the faculty of thought becomes expanded. You will +discover this wonderful change when you go into the world. Hitherto, +your inspirers have been these groves, these rocks, lakes, trees, +and silent places. But, when you sit amid crowds of bright-eyed, +full-minded, and admiring people; when you see the eyes of thousands +looking for the light to shine from yours; hanging, with a delight +that still hungers, on the words of truth and beauty which fall +from your lips--then, then only, dearest Margaret, will you discover +the true sources of inspiration and of fame." + +"Ah!" she murmured despondingly--"you daunt me when you speak of +these crowds--crowds of the intellectual and the wise. What should +I be--how would I appear among them?" + +"As you appear to me, Margaret--their queen, their idol, their +divinity, not less a beauty than a muse?" + +The raptures which Stevens expressed seemed to justify the embrace +which followed it; and it was some moments before she again spoke. +When she did the same subject was running in her mind. + +"Ah! Alfred, still I fear!" + +"Fear nothing, Margaret. It will be as I tell you--as I promise! +If I deceive you, I deceive myself. Is it not for the wife of my +bosom that I expect this homage?" + +Her murmurs were unheard. They strolled on--still deeper into +the mazes of the forest, and the broad disk of the moon, suddenly +gleaming, yellow, through the tops of the trees, sirprised them in +their wanderings. + +"How beautiful!" he exclaimed. "Let us sit here, dearest Margaret. +The rock here is smooth and covered with the softest lichen. A +perfect carpet of it is at our feet, and the brooklet makes the +sweetest murmuring as it glides onward through the grove, telling +all the while, like some silly schoolgirl, where you may look for +it. See the little drops of moonlight falling here--and there in +the small openings of the forest, and lying upon the greensward +like so many scattered bits of silver. One might take it for fairy +coin. And, do you note the soft breeze that seems to rise with the +moon as from some Cytherean isle, breathing of love, love only--love +never perishing!" + +"Ah! were it so, Alfred!" + +"Is it not, Margaret? If I could fancy that you would cease to love +me or I you--could I think that these dear joys were to end--but +no! no! let us not think of it. It is too sweet to believe, and +the distrust seems as unholy as it is unwholesome. That bright soft +planet seems to persuade to confidence as it inspires love. Do you +not feel your heart soften in the moonlight, Margaret? your eye +glistens, dearest--and your heart, I know, must be touched. It +is--I feel its beating! What a tumult, dear Margaret, is here!" + +"Do not, do not!" she murmured, gently striving to disengage herself +from his grasp. + +"No! no!--move not, dearest," he replied in a subdued tone--a +murmur most like hers. "Are we not happy? Is there anything, dear +Margaret, which we could wish for?" + +"Nothing! nothing!" + +"Ah! what a blessed chance it was that brought me to these hills. +I never lived till now. I had my joys, Margaret--my triumphs! I +freely yield them to the past! I care for them no more! They are +no longer joys or triumphs! Yes, Margaret you have changed my heart +within me. Even fame which I so much worshipped is forgotten." + +"Say not that; oh, say not that!" she exclaimed, but still in +subdued accents. + +"I must--it is too far true. I could give up the shout of applause--the +honor of popular favor--the voice of a people's approbation--the +shining display and the golden honor--all, dear Margaret, sooner +than part with you." + +"But you need not give them up, Alfred." + +"Ah, dearest, but I have no soul for them now. You are alone my +soul, my saint--the one dear object, desire, and pride, and conquest." + +"Alas! and have you not conquered, Alfred?" + +"Sweet! do I not say that I am content to forfeit all honors, +triumphs, applauses--all that was so dear to me before--and only +in the fond faith that I had conquered? You are mine--you tell me +so with your dear lips--I have you in my fond embrace--ah! do not +talk to me again of fame." + +"I were untrue to you as to myself, dear Alfred, did I not. No! +with your talents, to forego their uses--to deliver yourself up to +love wholly, were as criminal as it would be unwise." + +"You shall be my inspiration then, dear Margaret. These lips shall +send me to the forum--these eyes shall reward me with smiles when +I return. Your applause shall be to me a dearer triumph than all +the clamors of the populace." + +"Let us return home--it is late." + +"Not so!--and why should we go? What is sleep to us but loss? What +the dull hours, spent after the ordinary fashion, among ordinary +people. Could any scene be more beautiful than this--ah! can any +feeling be more sweet? Is it not so to you, dearest? tell me--nay, +do not tell me--if you love as I do, you can not leave me--not +now--not thus--while such is the beauty of earth and heaven--while +such are the rich joys clustering in our hearts. Nay, while, in +that hallowing moonlight, I gaze upon thy dark eyes, and streaming +hair, thy fair, beautiful cheeks, and those dear rosy lips!" + +"Oh! Alfred, do not speak so--do not clasp me thus. Let us go. It +is late--very late, and what will they say?" + +"Let them say! Are we not blessed? Can all their words take from +us these blessings--these sacred, sweet, moments--such joys, such +delights? Let them dream of such, with their dull souls if they +can. No! no! Margaret--we are one! and thus one, our world is as +free from their control as it is superior to their dreams and hopes. +Here is our heaven, Margaret--ah! how long shall it be ours! at +what moment may we lose it, by death, by storm, by what various +mischance! What profligacy to fly before the time! No! no! but a +little while longer--but a little while!" + +And there they lingered! He, fond, artful, persuasive; she, trembling +with the dangerous sweetness of wild, unbidden emotions. Ah! why +did she not go? Why was the strength withheld which would have +carried out her safer purpose? The moon rose until she hung in +the zenith, seeming to linger there in a sad, sweet watch, like +themselves--the rivulet ran along, still prattling through the +groves; the breeze, which had been a soft murmur among the trees +at the first rising of the moon, now blew a shrill whistle among +the craggy hills; but they no longer heard the prattle of the +rivulet--even the louder strains of the breeze were unnoticed, +and it was only when they were about to depart, that poor Margaret +discovered that the moon had all the while been looking down upon +them. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +THE BIRTH OF THE AGONY. + + + + + +It was now generally understood in Charlemont that Margaret Cooper +had made a conquest of the handsome stranger. We have omitted--as +a matter not congenial to our taste--the small by-play which had +been carried on by the other damsels of the village to effect the +same object. There had been setting of caps, without number, ay, +and pulling them too, an the truth were known among the fair Stellas +and Clarissas, the Daphnes and Dorises, of Charlemont, but, though +Stevens was sufficiently considerate of the claims of each, so far +as politeness demanded it, and contrived to say pleasant things, +pour passer le temps, with all of them, it was very soon apparent +to the most sanguine, that the imperial beauties and imperious mind +of Margaret Cooper had secured the conquest for herself. + +As a matter of course, the personal and intellectual attractions +of Stevens underwent no little disparagement as soon as this fact +was known. It was now universally understood that he was no such +great things, after all; and our fair friend the widow Thackeray, +who was not without her pretensions to wit and beauty, was bold +enough to say that Mr. Stevens was certainly too fat in the face, +and she rather thought him stupid. Such an opinion gave courage +to the rest, and pert Miss Bella Tompkins, a romp of first-rate +excellence, had the audacity to say that he squinted!--and this +opinion was very natural, since neither of his eyes had ever rested +with satisfaction on her pouting charms. + +It may be supposed that the discontent of the fair bevy, and its +unfavorable judgment of himself, did not reach the ears of Alfred +Stevens, and would scarcely have disturbed them if it did. Margaret +Cooper was more fortunate than himself in this respect. She could +not altogether be insensible to the random remarks which sour envy +and dark-eyed jealousy continued to let fall in her hearing; but +her scorn for the speakers, and her satisfaction with herself, +secured her from all annoyance from this cause. Such, at least, +had been the case in the first days of her conquest. Such was not +exactly the case now. She had no more scorn of others. She was no +longer proud, no longer strong. Her eyes no longer flashed with +haughty defiance on the train which, though envious, were yet +compelled to follow. She could no longer speak in those superior +tones, the language equally of a proud intellect, and a spirit +whose sensibilities had neither been touched by love nor enfeebled +by anxiety and apprehension. A sad change had come over her heart +and all her features in the progress of a few days. Her courage had +departed. Her step was no longer firm; her eye no longer uplifted +like that of the mountain-eagle, to which, in the first darings +of her youthful muse, she had boldly likened herself. Her look was +downcast, her voice subdued; she was now not less timid than the +feeblest damsel of the village in that doubtful period of life +when, passing from childhood to girlhood, the virgin falters, as +it were, with bashful thoughts, upon the threshold of a new and +perilous condition. The intercourse of Margaret Cooper with her +lover had had the most serious effect upon her manners and her +looks. But the change upon her spirit was no less striking to all. + +"I'm sure if I did love any man," was the opinion of one of the +damsels, "I'd die sooner than show it to him, as she shows it to +Alfred Stevens. It's a guess what he must think of it." + +"And no hard guess neither," said another; "I reckon there's no +reason why he should pick out Margaret Cooper except that he saw +that it was no such easy matter any where else." + +"Well! there can be no mistake about it with them; for now they're +always together--and Betty, her own maid, thinks--but it's better +not to say!" + +And the prudent antique pursed up her mouth in a language that said +everything. + +"What!--what does she say?" demanded a dozen voices. + +"Well! I won't tell you that. I won't tell you all; but she does +say, among other things, that the sooner John Cross marries them, +the better for all parties." + +"Is it possible!" + +"Can it be!" + +"Bless me! but I always thought something wrong." + +"And Betty, her own maid, told you? Well, who should know, if she +don't?" + +"And this, too, after all her airs!" + +"Her great smartness, her learning, and verse-making! I never knew +any good come from books yet." + +"And never will, Jane," said another, with an equivocal expression, +with which Jane was made content; and, after a full half-hour's +confabulation, in the primitive style, the parties separated--each, +in her way, to give as much circulation to Betty's inuendoes as +the importance of the affair deserved. + +Scandal travels along the highways, seen by all but the victim. +Days and nights passed; and in the solitude of lonely paths, by +the hillside or the rivulet, Margaret Cooper still wandered with +her lover. She heard not the poisonous breath which was already +busy with her virgin fame. She had no doubts, whatever might be +the event, that the heart of Alfred Stevens could leave her without +that aliment which, in these blissful moments, seemed to be her +very breath of life. But she felt many fears, many misgivings, she +knew not why. A doubt, a cloud of anxiety, hung brooding on the +atmosphere. In a heart which is unsophisticated, the consciousness, +however vague, that all is not right, is enough to produce this cloud; +but, with the gradual progress of that heart to the indulgence of +the more active passions, this consciousness necessarily increases +and the conflict then begins between the invading passion and the +guardian principle. We have seen enough to know what must be the +result of such a conflict with a nature such as hers, under the +education which she had received. It did not end in the expulsion +of her lover. It did not end in the discontinuance of those long +and frequent rambles amid silence, and solitude, and shadow. She +had not courage for this; and the poor, vain mother, flattered with +the idea that her son-in-law would be a preacher, beheld nothing +wrong in their nightly wanderings, and suffered her daughter, in +such saintly society, to go forth without restraint or rebuke. + +There was one person in the village who was not satisfied that +Margaret Cooper should fall a victim, either to the cunning of +another, or to her own passionate vanity. This was our old friend +Calvert. He was rather, inclined to be interested in the damsel, +in spite of the ill treatment of his protege, if it were only in +consequence of the feelings with which she had inspired him. It +has been seen that, in the affair of the duel, he was led to regard +the stranger with an eye of suspicion. This feeling had been further +heightened by the statements of Ned Hinkley, which, however loose +and inconclusive, were yet of a kind to show that there was some +mystery about Stevens--that he desired concealment in some respects--a +fact very strongly inferred from his non-employment of the village +postoffice, and the supposition--taken for true--that he employed +that of some distant town. Ned Hinkley had almost arrived at +certainty in this respect; and some small particulars which seemed +to bear on this conviction, which he had recently gathered, taken +in connection with the village scandal in reference to the parties, +determined the old man to take some steps in the matter to forewarn +the maiden, or at least her mother, of the danger of yielding too +much confidence to one of whom so little was or could be known. + +It was a pleasant afternoon, and Calvert was sitting beneath his +roof-tree, musing over this very matter, when he caught a glimpse +of the persons of whom he thought, ascending one of the distant +hills, apparently on their way to the lake. He rose up instantly, +and, seizing his staff, hurried off to see the mother of the damsel. +The matter was one of the nicest delicacy--not to be undertaken +lightly--not to be urged incautiously. Nothing, indeed, but a strong +sense of duty could have determined him upon a proceeding likely +to appear invidious, and which might be so readily construed, +by a foolish woman, into an impertinence. Though a man naturally +of quick, warm feelings, Calvert had been early taught to think +cautiously--indeed, the modern phrenologist would have said that, +in the excess of this prudent organ lay the grand weakness of his +moral nature. This delayed him in the contemplated performance much +longer than his sense of its necessity seemed to justify. Having +now resolved, however, and secure in the propriety of his object, +he did not scruple any longer. + +A few minutes sufficed to bring him to the cottage of the old +lady, and her voice in very friendly tenor commanded him to enter. +Without useless circumlocution, yet without bluntness, the old +man broached the subject; and, without urging any of the isolated +facts of which he was possessed, and by which his suspicions were +awakened, he dwelt simply upon the dangers which might result +from such a degree of confidence as was given to the stranger. The +long, lonely rambles in the woods, by night as well as day, were +commented on, justly, but in an indulgent spirit; and the risks of +a young and unsuspecting maiden, under such circumstances, were shown +with sufficient distinctness for the comprehension of the mother, +had she been disposed to hear. But never was good old man, engaged +in the thankless office of bestowing good advice, so completely +confounded as he was by the sort of acknowledgments which his +interference obtained. A keen observer might have seen the gathering +storm while he was speaking; and, at every sentence, there was a low, +running commentary, bubbling up from the throat of the opinionated +dame, somewhat like rumbling thunder, which amply denoted the rising +tempest. It was a sort of religious effort which kept the old lady +quiet till Calvert had fairly reached a conclusion. Then, rising +from her seat, she approached him, smoothed back her apron, perked +out her chin, and, fixing her keen gray eyes firmly upon his own, +with her nose elongated to such a degree as almost to suggest the +possibility of a pointed collision between that member and the +corresponding one of his own face, she demanded-- + +"Have you done--have you got through?" + +"Yes, Mrs. Cooper, this is all I came to say. It is the suggestion +of prudence--the caution of a friend--your daughter is young, very +young, and--" + +"I thank you! I thank you! My daughter is young, very young; but +she is no fool, Mr. Calvert--let me tell you that! Margaret Cooper +is no fool. If you don't know that, I do. I know her. She's able +to take care of herself as well as the best of us." + +"I am glad you think so, Mrs. Cooper, but the best of us find it a +difficult matter to steer clear of danger, and error and misfortune; +and the wisest, my dear madam, are only too apt to fall when they +place their chief reliance on their wisdom." + +"Indeed! that's a new doctrine to me, and I reckon to everybody +else. If it's true, what's the use of all your schooling, I want +to know?" + +"Precious little, Mrs. Cooper, if--" + +"Ah! precious little; and let me tell you, Mr. Calvert, I think +it's mighty strange that you should think Margaret Cooper in more +need of your advice, than Jane Colter, or Betsy Barnes, or Susan +Mason, or Rebecca Forbes, or even the widow Thackeray." + +"I should give the same advice to them under the same circumstances, +Mrs. Cooper." + +"Should you, indeed! Then I beg you will go and give it to them, +for if they are not in the same circumstances now, they'd give each +of them an eye to be so. Ay, wouldn't they! Yes! don't I know, Mr. +Calvert, that it's all owing to envy that you come here talking +about Brother Stevens." + +"But I do not speak of Mr. Stevens, Mrs. Cooper; were it any other +young man with whom your daughter had such intimacy I should speak +in the same manner." + +"Would you, indeed? Tell that to the potatoes. Don't I know better. +Don't I know that if your favorite, that you made so much of--your +adopted son, Bill Hinkley--if he could have got her to look at +him, they might have walked all night and you'd never have said +the first word. He'd have given one eye for her, and so would every +girl in the village give an eye for Brother Stevens. I'm not so +old but I know something. But it won't do. You can go to the widow +Thackeray, Mr. Calvert. It'll do her good to tell her that it's +very dangerous for her to be thinking about young men from morning +to night. It's true you can't say anything about the danger, for +precious little danger she's in; but, lord, wouldn't she jump to +it if she had a chance. Let her alone for that. You'd soon have +cause enough to give her your good advice about the danger, and +much good would come of it. She'd wish, after all was said, that +the danger was only twice as big and twice as dangerous." + +Such was the conclusion of Mr. Calvert's attempt to give good +counsel. It resulted as unprofitably in this as in most cases; but +it had not utterly fallen, like the wasted seed, in stony places. +There was something in it to impress itself upon the memory of Mrs. +Cooper; and she resolved that when her daughter came in, it should +be the occasion of an examination into her feelings and her relation +to the worthy brother, such as she had more than once before +meditated to make. + +But Margaret Cooper did not return till a comparatively late hour; +and the necessity of sitting up after her usual time of retiring, +by making the old lady irritable, had the effect of giving some +additional force to the suggestions of Mr. Calvert. When Margaret +did return, she came alone. Stevens had attended her only to the +wicket. She did not expect to find her mother still sitting up; and +started, with an appearance of disquiet, when she met her glance. +The young girl was pale and haggard. Her eye had a dilated, wild +expression. Her step faltered; her voice was scarcely distinct as +she remarked timidly-- + +"Not yet abed, mother?" + +"No! it's a pretty time for you to keep me up." + +"But why did you sit up, mother? It's not usual with you to do so." + +"No! but it's high time for me to sit up, and be on the watch too, +when here's the neighbors coming to warn me to do so--and telling +me all about your danger." + +"Ha! my danger--speak--what danger, mother?" + +"Don't you know what danger? Don't you know?" + +"Know!" The monosyllable subsided in a gasp. At that moment Margaret +Cooper could say no more. + +"Well, I suppose you don't know, and so I'll tell you. Here's been +that conceited, stupid old man, Calvert, to tell me how wrong it +is for you to go out by night walking with Brother Stevens; and +hinting to me that you don't know how to take care of yourself +with all your learning; and how nobody knows anything about Brother +Stevens; as if nobody was wise for anything but himself. But I gave +him as good as he brought, I'll warrant you. I sent him off with +a flea in his ear!" + +It was fortunate for the poor girl that the light, which was that +of a dipped candle, was burning in the corner of the chimney, and +was too dim to make her features visible. The ghastly tale which +they told could not have been utterly unread even by the obtuse +and opinionated mind of the vain mother. The hands of Margaret were +involuntarily clasped in her agony, and she felt very much like +falling upon the floor; but, with a strong effort, her nerves +were braced to the right tension, and she continued to endure, in +a speechless terror, which was little short of frenzy, the outpourings +of her mother's folly which was a frenzy of another sort. + +"I sent him off," she repeated, "with a flea in his ear. I could +see what the old fool was driving after, and I as good as told him +so. If it had been his favorite, his adopted son, Bill Hinkley, it +would have been another guess-story--I reckon. Then you might have +walked out where you pleased together, at all hours, and no harm +done, no danger; old Calvert would have thought it the properest +thing in the world. But no Bill Hinkley for me. I'm for Brother +Stevens, Margaret; only make sure of him, my child--make sure of +him." + +"No more of this, dear mother, I entreat you. Let us go to bed, +and think no more of it." + +"And why should we not think of it? I tell you, Margaret, YOU +MUST THINK OF IT! Brother Stevens soon will be a preacher, and a +fine speck he will be. There'll be no parson like him in all west +Kentucky. As for John Cross, I reckon he won't be able to hold a +candle to him. Brother Stevens is something to try for. You must +play your cards nicely, Margaret. Don't let him see too soon that +you like him. Beware of that! But don't draw off too suddenly as +if you didn't like him--that's worse still; for very few men like +to see that they ain't altogether pleasing even at first sight to +the lady that they like. There's a medium in all things, and you +must just manage it, as if you wa'n't thinking at all about him, +or love, or a husband, or anything; only take care always to turn +a quick ear to what he says, and seem to consider it always as if +'twas worth your considering. And look round when he speaks, and +smile softly sometimes; and don't be too full of learning and wisdom +in what you say, for I've found that men of sense love women best +when they seem to talk most like very young children--maybe because +they think it's a sign of innocence. But I reckon, Margaret, you +don't want much teaching. Only be sure and fix him; and don't stop +to think when he asks. Be sure to have your answer ready, and you +can't say 'yes' too quickly now-a-days, when the chances are so +very few." + +The mother paused to take breath. Her very moral and maternal +counsel had fallen upon unheeding ears. But Margaret was sensible +of the pause, and was desirous of taking advantage of it. She rose +from her chair, with the view of retiring; but the good old dame, +whose imagination had been terribly excited by the delightful +idea of having a preacher for her son-in-law who was to take such +precedence over all the leaders of the other tribes, was not willing +to abridge her eloquence. + +"Why, you're in a great hurry now, Margaret. Where was your hurry +when you were with Brother Stevens? Ah! you jade, can't I guess--don't +I know? There you were, you two, under the trees, looking at the +moon, and talking such sweet, foolish nonsense. I reckon, Margaret, +'twould puzzle you to tell what HE said, or what YOU said, I can +guess he didn't talk much religion to you, heh? Ah! I know it all. +It's the old story. It's been so with all young people, and will +bo so till the end. Love is the strangest thing, and it does listen +to the strangest nonsense. Ain't it so, Margaret? I know nothing +but love would ever dumbfounder you in this way; why, child, have +you lost your tongue? What's the matter with you?" + +"Oh, mother, let me retire now, I have such a headache." + +"Heartache, you mean." + +"Heartache it is," replied the other desperately, with an air of +complete abandonment. + +"Ah! well, it's clear that he's got the heartache quite as much +as you, for he almost lives with you now. But make him speak out, +Margaret--get him to say the word, and don't let him be too free +until he does. No squeezing of hands, no kissing, no--" + +"No more, no more, I entreat you, mother, if you would not--drive +me mad! Why do you speak to me thus--why counsel me in this manner? +Leave me alone, I pray you, let me retire--I must--I must sleep +now!" + +The mother was not unaccustomed to such passionate bursts of speech +from her daughter, and she ascribed the startling energy of her +utterance now, to an excited spirit in part, and partly to the +headache of which she complained. + +"What! do you feel so bad, my child? Well, I won't keep you up +any longer. I wouldn't have kept you up so long, if I hadn't been +vexed by that old fool, Calvert." + +"Mr. Calvert is a good man, mother." + +"Well, he may be--I don't say a word against that," replied the +mother, somewhat surprised at the mildly reproachful nature of that +response which her daughter had made, so different from her usual +custom:--"he may be very good, but I think he's very meddlesome to +come here talking about Brother Stevens." + +"He meant well, mother." + +"Well or ill, it don't matter. Do you be ready when Brother Stevens +says the word. He'll say it before long. He's mighty keen after +you, Margaret. I've seen it in his eyes; only you keep a little +off, till he begins to press and be anxious; and after that he can't +help himself. He'll be ready for any terms; and look you, when a +man's ready none of your long bargains. Settle up at once. As for +waiting till he gets permission to preach, I wouldn't think of it. +A man can be made a preacher or anything, at any time, but 'tain't +so easy in these times, for a young woman to be made a wife. It's +not every day that one can get a husband, and such a husband! Look +at Jane Colter, and Betsy Barnes, and Rebecca Forbes, and Susan +Mason; they'll be green again, I reckon, before the chance comes +to them; ay, and the widow Thackeray--though she's had her day +already. If 'twas a short one she's got no reason to complain. +She'll learn how to value it before it begins again. But, go to +bed, my child, you oughtn't to have a headache. No! no! you should +leave it to them that's not so fortunate. They'll have headaches +and heartaches enough, I warrant you, before they get such a man +as Brother Stevens." + +At last, Margaret Cooper found herself alone and in her chamber. +With unusual vigilance she locked and doublelocked the door. She +then flung herself upon the bed. Her face was buried in the clothes. +A convulsion of feeling shook her frame. But her eyes remained +dry, and her cheeks were burning. She rose at length and began to +undress, but for this she found herself unequal. She entered the +couch and sat up in it--her hands crossed upon her lap--her face +wan, wild, the very picture of hopelessness if not desperation! +The words of her weak mother had tortured her; but what was this +agony to that which was occasioned by her own thoughts. + +"Oh God!" she exclaimed at length, "can it be real? Can it be +true? Do I wake? Is it no dream? Am I, am I what I dare not name +to myself--and dread to hear from any other? Alas! it is true--too +true. That shade, that wood!--oh, Alfred Stevens! Alfred Stevens! +What have you done! To what have you beguiled me!" + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +STRENGTH AFTER FALL. + + + + + +That weary night no sleep came to the eyelids of the hapless +Margaret Cooper. The garrulous language of the mother had awakened +far other emotions in her bosom than those which she labored to inspire; +and the warning of Mr. Calvert, for the first time impressed upon +herself the terrible conviction that she was lost. In the wild +intoxicating pleasures of that new strange dream, she had been +wofully unconscious of the truth. So gradual had been the progress +of passion, that it had never alarmed or startled her. Besides, it +had come to her under a disguise afforded by the customary cravings +of her soul. Her vanity had been the medium by which her affections +had been won, by which her confidence had been beguiled, by which +the guardian watchers of her virtue had been laid to sleep. + +What a long and dreadful night was that when Margaret Cooper was +first brought to feel the awful truth in its true impressiveness +of wo. Alas! how terribly do the pleasures of sin torture us. The +worst human foe is guilt. The severest censure the consciousness +of wrong doing. Poverty may be endured--nay is--and virtue still +be secure; since the mind may be made strong to endure the heaviest +toil, yet cherish few desires; the loss of kin may call for few +regrets, if we feel that we have religiously performed our duties +toward them, and requited all their proper claims upon us. Sickness +and pain may even prove benefits and blessings, if it shall so +happen that we resign ourselves without complaint, to the scourge +of the chastener, and grow patient beneath his stripes. But that +self-rebuke of one's own spirit from which we may not fly--that +remorseful and ever-vexing presence which haunts us, and pursues with +a wing even more fleet than that of fear--which tells clamorously +of what we had, and scornfully of what we have lost--lost for +ever! that is the demon from whom there is no escape, and beyond +whom there is no torture. Vainly would we strive with this relentless +enemy. Every blow aimed at its shadowy bosom recoils upon our own. +In the crowd, it takes the place of other forms and dogs us with +suspicious glances; in the solitude, it stalks boldly to our side, +confronts us with its audacious truths and terrible denunciations--leaves +no moment secure, waking or sleeping! It is the ghost of murdered +virtue, brooding over its grave in that most dark and dismal of all +sepulchres, the human heart. And if we cry aloud, as did Margaret +Cooper, with vain prayer for the recall of a single day, with what +a yell of derisive mockery it answers to our prayer. + +The night was passed in the delusive effort of the mind to argue +itself into a state of fancied security. She endeavored to recall +those characteristics in Alfred Stevens, by which her confidence +had been beguiled. This task was not a difficult one in that early +day of her distress; before experience had yet come to confirm the +apprehensions of doubt--before the intoxicating dream of a first +passion had yet begun to stale upon her imagination. Her own elastic +mind helped her in this endeavor. Surely, she thought, where the +mind is so noble and expansive, where the feelings are so tender and +devoted, the features so lofty and impressive, the look so sweet, +the language so delicate and refined, there can be no falsehood. + +"The devotion of such a man," she erringly thought, "might well +sanction the weakness of a woman's heart--might well persuade to +the momentary error which none will seek more readily to repair +than himself. If he be true to me, what indeed should I care for +the scorn of others." + +Alas! for the credulous victim. This was the soul of her error. +This scorn of others--of the opinions of the world around her, is +the saddest error of which woman, who is the most dependant of all +beings in the moral world, can ever be guilty. But such philosophy +did not now deceive even the poor girl by whom it was uttered. +It is a melancholy truth, that, where there is no principle, the +passions can not be relied on; and the love of Alfred Stevens had +hitherto shown itself in selfishness. Margaret Cooper felt this, +but she did not dare to believe it. + +"No! no!" she muttered--"I will not doubt--I will not fear! He is +too noble, too generous, too fond! I could not be deceived." + +Her reliance was upon her previous judgment, not upon his principles. +Her self-esteem assisted to make this reference sufficient for the +purposes of consolation, and this was all that she desired in this +first moment of her doubt and apprehension. + +"And if he be true--if he keep for ever the faith that his lips and +looks declare--then will I heed nothing of the shame and the sin. +The love of such a man is sufficient recompense for the loss of all +besides. What to me is the loss of society? what should I care for +the association and opinions of these in Charlemont? And elsewhere--he +will bear me hence where none can know. Ah! I fear not: he will be +true." + +Her self-esteem was recovering considerably from its first overthrow. +Her mind was already preparing to do battle with those, the scorn +of whom she anticipated, and whose judgments she had always hitherto +despised. This was an easy task. She was yet to find that it was not +the only task. Her thoughts are those of many, in like situations, +and it is for this reason that we dwell upon them. Our purpose is, +to show the usual processes of self-deception. + +Margaret Cooper, like a large class of persons of strong natural +mind and sanguine temper, was only too apt to confound the cause +of virtue with its sometimes uncouth, harsh and self-appointed +professors. She overlooked the fact that public opinion, though +a moral object against which woman dares not often offend, is yet +no standard for her government; that principles are determinable +elsewhere; and that, whatever the world may think of them, and whatever +may be their seeming unimportance under existing circumstances, +are the only real moral securities of earth. She might fly from +Charlemont, either into a greater world, or into a more complete +solitude, but she would fly to no greater certainties than she now +possessed. Her securities were still based upon the principles of +Alfred Stevens, and of these she knew nothing. She knew that he +was a man of talent--of eloquence; alas for her! she had felt it; +of skill--she had been its victim; of rare sweetness of utterance, +of grace and beauty; and as she enumerated to herself these his +mental powers and personal charms, she felt, however numerous the +catalogue, that none of these afforded her the guaranty she sought. + +She arose the next day somewhat more composed, and with a face +which betrayed sleeplessness, but nothing worse. This she ascribed +to the headache with which she had retired. She had not slept an +instant, and she arose entirely unrefreshed. But the stimulating +thoughts which had kept her wakeful, furnished her with sufficient +strength to appear as usual in the household, and to go through +her accustomed duties. But it was with an impatience scarcely +restrainable that she waited for the approach of evening which +would bring her lover. Him she felt it now absolutely of the last +necessity that she should see; that she should once more go with +him to those secret places, the very thougnt of which inspired her +with terror, and, laying bare her soul to his eyes, demand of him +the only restitution which he could make. + +He came. Once more she descended the steps to meet him--Her mother +arrested her on the stairway. A cunning leer was in her eye, as she +looked into the woful, impassive eyes of her daughter. She grinned +with a sort of delight expressive of the conviction that the advice +she had given the night before was to be put in execution soon. + +"Fix him, Margaret; he's mighty eager for you. You've cut your +eye-tooth--be quick, and you'll have a famous parson for a husband +yet." + +The girl shrunk from the counsellor as if she had been a serpent. +The very counsel was enough to show her the humiliating attitude +in which she stood to all parties. + +"Remember," said the old woman, detaining her--"don't be too willing +at first. Let him speak fairly out. A young maiden can't be too +backward, until the man offers to make her a young wife!" + +The last words went to her soul like an arrow. + +"A young maiden!" she almost murmured aloud, as she descended the +steps--"O God! how lovely now, to my eyes, appears the loveliness +of a young maiden!" + +She joined Stevens in silence, the mother watching them with the +eyes of a maternal hawk as they went forth together. They pursued +a customary route, and, passing through one of the gorges of the +surrounding hills, they soon lost sight of the village. When the +forest-shadows had gathered thickly around them, and the silence +of the woods became felt, Stevens approached more nearly, and, +renewing a former liberty, put his arm about her waist. She gently +but firmly removed it, but neither of them spoke a word. A dense +copse appeared before them. Toward it he would have led the way. +But she resolutely turned aside, and, while a shudder passed over +her frame, exclaimed-- + +"Not there--not there!" + +Breathlessly she spoke. He well enough understood her. They pursued +an opposite direction, and, in the shade of a wood which before +they had never traversed, they at length paused. Stevens, conducting +her to the trunk of a fallen tree, seated her, and placed himself +beside her. Still they were silent. There was a visible constraint +upon both. The thoughts and feelings of both were alike active--but +very unlike in character. With him, passion, reckless passion, +was uppermost; selfish in all its phases, and resolute on its own +indulgence at every hazard. In her bosom was regret if not remorse, +mingled with doubts and hopes in pretty equal proportion. Yet had +she, even then, but little doubt of him. She accused him of no +practice. She fancied, foolish girl, that his error, like her own, +had been that of blind impulse, availing itself of a moment of +unguarded reason to take temporary possession of the citadel of +prudence. That he was calculating, cunning--that his snares had +been laid beforehand--she had not the least idea. But she was to +grow wiser in this and other respects in due season. How little +did she then conjecture the coldness and hardness of that base and +selfish heart which had so fanned the consuming flame in hers! + +Her reserve and coolness were unusual. She had been the creature, +heretofore, of the most uncalculating impulse. The feeling was spoken, +the thought uttered, as soon as conceived. Now she was silent. He +expected her to speak--nay, he expected reproaches, and was prepared +to meet them. He had his answer for any reproaches which she might +make. But for that stony silence of her lips he was not prepared. +The passive grief which her countenance betrayed--so like +despair--repelled and annoyed him. Yet, wherefore had she come, +if not to complain bitterly, and, after exhaustion, be soothed at +last? Such had been his usual experience in all such cases. But +the unsophisticated woman before him had no language for such a +situation as was hers. Her pride, her ambition--the very intensity +of all her moods--rendered the effort at speech a mockery, and left +her dumb. + +"You are sad, Margaret--silent and very cold to me," he said, at +last breaking the silence. His tones were subdued to a whisper, +and how full of entreating tenderness! She slowly raised her eyes +from the ground, and fixed them upon him. What a speech was in that +one look! There was no trace of excitement, scarcely of expression, +in her face. There was no flush upon her cheeks. She was pale as +death. She was still silent. Her eye alone had spoken; and from +its searching but stony glance his own fell in some confusion to +the ground. There was a dreary pause, which he at length broke:-- + +"You are still silent, Margaret--why do you not speak to me?" + +"It is for you to speak, Alfred," was her reply. It was full +of significance, understood but not FELT by her companion. What, +indeed, had she to say--what could she say--while he said nothing? +She was the victim. With him lay the means of rescue and preservation. +She but waited the decision of one whom, in her momentary madness, +she had made the arbiter of her destiny. Her reply confused him. +He would have preferred to listen to the ordinary language of +reproach. Had she burst forth into tears and lamentations--had she +cried, "You have wronged me--you must do me justice!"--he would +have been better pleased than with the stern, unsuggestive character +that she assumed. To all this, his old experience would have given +him an easy answer. But to be driven to condemn himself--to define +his own doings with the name due to his deserts--to declare his +crime, and proffer the sufficient atonement--was an unlooked-for +necessity. + +"You are displeased with me, Margaret." + +He dared not meet her glance while uttering this feeble and +purposeless remark. It was so short of all that he should have +said--of all that she expected--that her eyes glistened with a +sudden expression of indignation which was new to them in looking +upon him. There was a glittering sarcasm in her glance, which +showed the intensity of her feelings in the comment which they +involuntarily made on the baldness and poverty of his. Displeasure, +indeed! That such an epithet should be employed to describe the +withering pang, the vulturous, gnawing torture in her bosom--and +that fiery fang which thought, like some winged serpent, was +momentarily darting into her brain! + +"Displeased!" she exclaimed, in low, bitter tones, which she seemed +rather desirous to suppress--"no, no! sir--not displeased. I am +miserable, most miserable--anything but displeased. I am too wretched +to feel displeasure!" + +"And to me you owe this wretchedness, dear Margaret--THAT--THAT +is what you would say. Is it not, Margaret? I have wronged--I have +ruined you! From me comes this misery! You hate, you would denounce +me." + +He put his arm about her waist--he sank upon his knee beside her--his +eye, now that he had found words, could once more look courageously +into hers. + +"Wronged--ruined!" she murmured, using a part of his words, and +repeating them as if she did not altogether realize their perfect +sense. + +"Ay, you would accuse me, Margaret," he continued--"you would +reproach and denounce me--you hate me--I deserve it--I deserve it." + +She answered with some surprise:-- + +"No, Alfred Stevens, I do not accuse--I do not denounce you. I am +wretched--I am miserable. It is for you to say if I am wronged and +ruined. I am not what I was--I know THAT!--What I am--what I will +be!--" + +She paused! Her hands were clasped suddenly and violently--she +looked to heaven, and, for the first time, the tears, streamed from +her eyes like rain--a sudden, heavy shower, which was soon over. + +"Ah, Margaret, you would have me accuse myself--and I do. The crime +is mine! I have done you this wrong---" + +She interrupted him. + +"No, Alfred Stevens, _I_ have done wrong! I FEEL that I have done +wrong. That I have been feeble and criminal, _I_ KNOW. I will not +be so base as to deny what I can not but feel. As for your crime, +you know best what it is. I know mine. I know that my passions are +evil and presumptuous; and though I blush to confess their force, +it is yet due to the truth that I should do so, though I sink into +the earth with my shame. But neither your self-reproaches nor my +confession will acquit us. Is there nothing, Alfred Stevens, that +can be done? Must I fall before you, here, amidst the woods which +have witnessed my shame, and implore you to save me? I do! Behold me! +I am at your feet--my face is in fhe dust. Oh! Alfred Stevens--when +I called your eyes to watch, in the day of my pride, the strong-winged +eagle of our hills, did I look as now? Save me from this shame! +save me! For, though I have no reproaches, yet God knows, when we +looked on that eagle's flight together, my soul had no such taint +as fills it now. Whatever were my faults, my follies, my weaknesses, +Heaven knows, I felt not, feared not this! a thought--a dream of +such a passion, then--never came to my bosom. From you it came! You +put it there! You woke up the slumbering emotion--you--but no!--I +will not accuse you! I will only implore you to save me! Can it be +done? can you do it--will you--will you not?" + +"Rise, dearest Margaret--let me lift you!" She had thrown herself +upon the earth, and she clung to it. + +"No, no! your words may lift me, Alfred Stevens, when your hands +can not. If you speak a hope, a promise of safety, it will need +no other help to make me rise! If you do not!--I would not wish to +rise again. Speak! let me hear, even as I am, what my doom shall +be? The pride which has made me fall shall be reconciled to my +abasement." + +"Margaret, this despair is idle. There is no need for it. Do I not +tell you that there is no danger?" + +"Why did you speak of ruin?" she demanded. + +"I know not--the word escaped me. There is no ruin. I will save you. +I am yours--yours only. Believe me, I will do you right. I regard +you as sacredly my wife as if the rites of the church had so decreed +it." + +"I dare not disbelieve you, Alfred! I have no hope else. Your +words lift me! Oh! Alfred Stevens, you did not mean the word, but +how true it was; what a wreck, what a ruin do I feel myself now--what +a wreck have I become!" + +"A wreck, a ruin! no, Margaret, no! never were you more beautiful +than at this very moment. These large, sad eyes--these long, dark +lashes seem intended to bear the weight of tears. These cheeks are +something paler than their wont, but not less beautiful, and these +lips--" + +He would have pressed them with his own--he would have taken her +into his arms, but she repulsed him. + +"No, no! Alfred--this must not be. I am yours. Let me prove to you +that I am firm enough to protect your rights from invasion." + +"But why so coy, dearest? Do you doubt me?" + +"Heaven forbid!" + +"Ah! but you do. Why do you shrink from me--why this coldness? If +you are mine, if these charms are mine, why not yield them to me? +I fear, Margaret, that you doubt me still?" + +"I do not--dare not doubt you, Alfred Stevens. My life hangs upon +this faith." + +"Why so cold, then?" + +"I am not cold. I love you--I will be your wife; and never was +wife more faithful, more devoted, than I will be to you; but, if +you knew the dreadful agony which I have felt, since that sad moment +of my weakness, you would forbear and pity me." + +"Hear me, Margaret; to-morrow is Saturday. John Cross is to be here +in the evening. He shall marry us on Sunday. Are you willing?" + +"Oh, yes! thankful, happy! Ah! Alfred, why did I distrust you for +an instant?" + +"Why, indeed! But you distrust me no longer--you have no more +misgivings?" + +"No, none!" + +"You will be no longer cold, no longer coy, dear Margaret--here in +the sweet evening, among these pleasant shades, love, alone, has +supremacy. Here, in the words of one of your favorites:-- + + "'Where transport and security entwine, + Here is the empire of thy perfect bliss, + And here thou art a god--'" + +concluding this quotation, he would have taken her in his embrace--he +would have renewed those dangerous endearments which had already +proved so fatal; but she repulsed the offered tenderness, firmly, +but with gentleness. + +"Margaret, you still doubt me," he exclaimed reproachfully. + +"No, Alfred, I doubt you not. I believe you. I have only been too +ready and willing to believe you. Ah! have you not had sufficient +proof of this? Leave me the consciousness of virtue--the feeling +of strength still to assert it, now that my eyes are open to my +previous weakness." + +"But there is no reason to be so cold. Remember you are mine by every +tie of the heart--another day will make you wholly mine. Surely, +there is no need for this frigid bearing. No, no! you doubt--you +do not believe me, Margaret!" + +"If I did not believe you, Alfred Stevens," she answered gravely, +"my prayer would be for death, and I should find it. These woods +which have witnessed my fault should have witnessed my expiation. +The homes which have known me should know me no more." + +The solemnity of her manner rather impressed him, but having no real +regard for her, he was unwilling to be baffled in his true desires. + +"If you doubt me not--if you have faith in me, Margaret, why this +solemnity, this reserve? Prove to me, by your looks, by your actions, +by the dear glances, the sweet murmurs, and the fond embrace, what +these cold assurances do not say." + +His hand rested on her neck. She gently raised and removed it. + +"I have already proved to you my weakness. I will now prove my +strength. It is better so, Alfred. If I have won your love, let me +now command your esteem, or maintain what is left me of my own. Do +not be angry with me if I insist upon it. I am resolute now to be +worthy of you and of myself." + +"Ah! you call this love?" said he bitterly. "If you ever loved, +indeed, Margaret--" + +"If I ever loved--and have I given you no proofs?" she exclaimed +in a burst of passion; "all the proofs that a woman can give, short +of her blood; and that, Alfred Stevens--that too, I was prepared +to give, had you not promptly assured me of your faith." + +She drew a small dagger from her sleeve, and bared it beneath his +glance. + +"Think you I brought this without an object? No! Alfred Stevens--know +me better! I came here prepared to die, as well as a frail and +erring woman could be prepared. You disarmed the dagger. You subdued +the determination when you bid me live for you. In your faith, I +am willing to live. I believe you, and am resolved to make myself +worthy of your belief also. I have promised to be your wife, and +here before Heaven, I swear to be your faithful wife; but, until +then, you shall presume in no respect. Your lip shall not touch +mine; your arms shall not embrace me; you shall see, dear Alfred, +that, with my eyes once opened fully upon my own weakness, I have +acquired the most certain strength." + +"Give me the dagger," he said. + +She hesitated. + +"You doubt me still?" + +"No, no!" she exclaimed, handing him the weapon--"no, no! I do not +doubt you--I dare not. Doubt you, Alfred?--that were death, even +without the dagger!" + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +BULL-PUPS IN TRAINING. + + + + + +Alfred Stevens was sufficiently familiar with the sex to perceive +that Margaret Cooper was resolved. There was that in her look and +manner which convinced him that she was not now to be overcome. +There was no effort or constraint in either her looks or language. +The composure of assured strength was there. The discovery of +her weakness, which he had so unexpectedly made, had rendered her +vigilant. Suspecting herself--which women are not apt to do--she +became watchful, not only of the approach of her lover, but of +every emotion of her own soul; and it was with a degree of chagrin +which he could scarcely refrain from showing, that he was compelled +to forego, at least for the present, all his usual arts of seduction. + +Yet he knew not how to refrain. Never had Margaret Cooper seemed +so lovely in his eyes, so commanding, so eloquent with beauty, as +now, when remorse had touched her eyes with an unwonted shadow, +and tears and nightwatching had subdued the richer bloom upon her +cheek. Proud still, but pensive in her pride, she walked silently +beside him, still brooding over thoughts which she would not +willingly admit were doubts, and grasping every word of assurance +that fell from his lips as if it had been some additional security. + +These assurances he still suffered to escape him, with sufficient +frequency and solemnity, to confirm that feeling of confidence +which his promise of marriage had inspired in her mind. There was +a subdued fondness in his voice, and an EMPRESSMENT in his manner, +which was not all practice. The character which Margaret Cooper had +displayed in this last interview--her equal firmness and fear--the +noble elevation of soul which, admitting her own errors, disdained +to remind him of his--a course which would have been the most ready +of adoption among the weaker and less generous of the sex--had touched +him with a degree of respect akin to admiration; and so strong was +the impression made upon him of her great natural superiority of +mind to almost all the women he had ever met, that, but for her one +unhappy lapse, he had sought no other wife. Had she been strong at +first as she proved herself at last, this had been inevitable. + +When in his own chamber that night, he could not help recalling to +his memory the proud elevation of her character as it had appeared +in that interview. The recollection really gave him pain, since +along with it arose the memory also of that unfortunate frailty, +which became more prominent as a crime in connection with that +intellectual merit which, it is erroneously assumed, should have +made it sure. + +"But for that, Margaret Cooper, and this marriage were no vain +promise. But that forbids. No, no--no spousals for me: let John +Cross and the bride be ready or not, there shall be a party wanting +to that contract! And yet, what a woman to lose! what a woman to +win! No tragedy queen ever bore herself like that. Talk of Siddons, +indeed! SHE would have brought down the house in that sudden +prostration--that passionate appeal. She made even me tremble. I +could have loved her for that, if for that only. To make ME tremble! +and with such a look, such an eye, such a stern, sweet, fierce +beauty! By Heavens! I know not how to give her up. What a sensation +she would make in Frankfort! Were she my wife--but no, no! bait for +gudgeons! I am not so great a fool as that. She who is mine on my +terms, is yours, sir, or yours--is anybody's, when the humor suits +and the opportunity. I can not think of that. Yet, to lose her is +as little to be thought of. I must manage it. I must get her off +from this place. It need not be to Frankfort! Let me see--there +is--hum!--hum!--yes, a ride of a few miles--an afternoon +excursion--quite convenient, yet not too near. It must be managed; +but, at all events, I must evade this marriage--put it off for the +present--get some decent excuse. That's easy enough, and for the +rest, why, time that softens all things, except man and woman, +time will make that easy too. To-morrow for Ellisland, and the rest +after." + +Thus, resolving not to keep his vows to his unhappy victim, the +criminal was yet devising plans by which to continue his power over +her. These plans, yet immature in his own mind, at least unexpressed, +need not be analyzed here, and may be conjectured by the reader. + +That night, Stevens busied himself in preparing letters. Of these +he wrote several. It will not further our progress to look over +him as he writes; and we prefer rather, in this place, to hurry on +events which, it may be the complaint of all parties, reader not +omitted, have been too long suffered to stagnate. But we trust not. +Let us hurry Stevens through Friday night--the night of that last +interview. + +Saturday morning, we observe that his appetite is unimpaired. He +discusses the breakfast at Hinkley's as if he had never heard of +suffering. He has said an unctuous grace. Biscuits hot, of best +Ohio flour, are smoking on his plate. A golden-looking mass of best +fresh butter is made to assimilate its luscious qualities with +those of the drier and hotter substance. A copious bowl of milk, new +from the dugs of old Brindle, stands beside him, patiently waiting +to be honored by his unscrupulous but not unfastidious taste. The +grace is said, and the gravy follows. He has a religious regard for +the goods and gifts of this life. He eats heartily, and the thanks +which follow, if not from the bottom of the soul, were sufficiently +earnest to have emanated from the bottom of his stomach. + +This over, he has a chat with his hosts. He discusses with old +Hinkley the merits of the new lights. What these new lights were, +at that period, we do not pretend to remember. Among sectarians, +there are periodical new lights which singularly tend to increase +the moral darkness. From these, after a while, they passed to the +love festivals or feasts--a pleasant practice of the methodist +church, which is supposed to be very promotive of many other good +things besides love; though we are constrained to say that Brother +Stevens and Brother Hinkley--who, it may be remarked, had very long +and stubborn arguments, frequently without discovering, till they +reached the close, that they were thoroughly agreed in every respect +except in words--concurred in the opinion that there was no portion +of the church practice so highly conducive to the amalgamation of +soul with soul, and all souls with God, as this very practice of +love-feasts! + +Being agreed on this and other subjects, Mr. Hinkley invited Brother +Stevens out to look at his turnips and potatoes; and when this +delicate inquiry was over, toward ten o'clock in the day, Brother +Stevens concluded that he must take a gallop; he was dyspeptic, felt +queerish, his studies were too close, his mind too busy with the +great concerns of salvation. These are enough to give one +dyspepsia. Of course, the hot rolls and mountains of volcanic +butter--steam-ejecting--could have produced no such evil effects upon +a laborer in the vineyard. At all events, a gallop was necessary, +and the horse was brought. Brother Hinkley and our matronly sister +of the same name watched the progress of the pious youth, as, +spurring up the hills, he pursued the usual route, taking at first +the broad highway leading to the eastern country. + +There were other eyes that watched the departure of Brother +Stevens with no less interest, but of another kind, than those of +the venerable couple. Our excellent friend Calvert started up on +hearing the tread of the horse, and, looking out from his porch, +ascertained with some eagerness of glance that the rider was Alfred +Stevens. + +Now, why was the interest of Calvert so much greater on this than +on any other previous occasion? We will tell you, gentle reader. +He had been roused at an early hour that morning by a visit from +Ned Hinkley. + +"Gran'pa," was the reverent formula of our fisherman at beginning, +"to-day's the day. I'm pretty certain that Stevens will be riding +out to-day, for he missed the last Saturday. I'll take my chance +for it, therefore, and brush out ahead of him. I think I've got it +pretty straight now, the place that he goes to, and I'll see if I +can't get there soon enough to put myself in a comfortable fix, so +as to see what's a-going on and what he goes after. Now, gran'pa, +I'll tell you what I want from you--them pocket-pistols of your'n. +Bill Hinkley carried off grandad's, and there's none besides that +I can lay hold on." + +"But, Ned, I'm afraid to lend them to you." + +"What 'fraid of?" + +"That you'll use them." + +"To be sure I will, if there's any need, gran'pa. What do I get +them for?" + +"Ah, yes! but I fear you'll find a necessity where there is none. +You'll be thrusting your head into some fray in which you may lose +your ears." + +"By Jupiter, no! No, gran'pa, I'll wait for the necessity. I won't +look for it. I'm going straight ahead this time, and to one object +only. I think Stevens is a rascal, and I'm bent to find him out. +I've had no disposition to lick anybody but him, ever since he +drove Bill Hinkley off--you and him together." + +"You'll promise me, Ned?" + +"Sure as a snag in the forehead of a Mississippi steamer. Depend +upon me." + +"But there must be no quarrelling with Stevens either, Ned." + +"Look you, gran'pa, if I'm to quarrel with Stevens or anybody else, +'twouldn't be your pistols in my pocket that would make me set on, +and 'twouldn't be the want of 'em that would make me stop. When +it's my cue to fight, look you, I won't need any prompter, in the +shape of friend or pistol. Now THAT speech is from one of your +poets, pretty near, and ought to convince you that you may as well +lend the puppies and say no more about it. If you don't you'll only +compel me to carry my rifle, and that'll be something worse to an +enemy, and something heavier for me. Come, come, gran'pa, don't be +too scrupulous in your old age. YOUR HAVING them is a sufficient +excuse for MY HAVING them too. It shows that they ought to be had." + +"You're logic-chopping this morning, Ned--see that you don't get +to man-chopping in the afternoon. You shall have the pistols, but +do not use them rashly. I have kept them simply for defence against +invasion; not for the purpose of quarrel, or revenge." + +"And you've kept them mighty well, gran'pa," replied the young man, +as he contemplated with an eye of anxious admiration, the polish +of the steel barrels, the nice carving of the handles, and the +fantastic but graceful inlay of the silver-mounting and setting. +The old man regarded him with a smile. + +"Yes, Ned, I've kept them well. They have never taken life, though +they have been repeatedly tried upon bull's eye and tree-bark. If +you will promise me not to use them to-day, Ned, you shall have +them." + +"Take 'em back, gran'pa." + +"Why?" + +"Why, I'd feel the meanest in the world to have a we'pon, and not +use it when there's a need to do so; and I'm half afraid that the +temptation of having such beautiful puppies for myself--twin-puppies, +I may say--having just the same look out of the eyes, and just the +same spots and marks, and, I reckon, just the same way of giving +tongue--I'm half afraid, I say, that to get to be the owner of +them, might tempt me to stand quiet and let a chap wink at me--maybe +laugh outright--may be suck in his breath, and give a phew-phew-whistle +just while I'm passing! No! no! gran'pa, take back your words, or +take back your puppies. Won't risk to carry both. I'd sooner take +Patsy Rifle, with all her weight, and no terms at all." + +"Pshaw, Ned, you're a fool." + +"That's no news, gran'pa, to you or me. But it don't alter the +case. Put up your puppies." + +"No, Ned; you shall have them on your own terms. Take 'em as they +are. I give them to you." + +"And I may shoot anybody I please this afternoon, gran'pa?" + +"Ay, ay, Ned--; anybody--" + +Thus far the old man, when he stopped himself, changed his manner, +which was that of playful good-humor, to that of gravity, while +his tones underwent a corresponding change-- + +"But, Ned, my son, while I leave it to your discretion, I yet beg +you to proceed cautiously--seek no strife, avoid it--go not into +the crowd--keep from them where you see them drinking, and do not +use these or any weapons for any trifling provocation. Nothing but +the last necessity of self-preservation justifies the taking of +life." + +"Gran'pa--thank you--you've touched me in the very midst of my +tender-place, by this handsome present. One of these puppies I'll +name after you, and I'll notch it on the butt. The other I'll call +Bill Hinkley, and I won't notch that. Yours, I'll call my pacific +puppy, and I'll use it only for peace-making purposes. The other +I'll call my bull-pup, and him I'll use for baiting and butting, +and goring. But, as you beg, I promise you I'll keep 'em both out +of mischief as long as I can. Be certain sure that it won't be +my having the pups that'll make me get into a skrimmage a bit the +sooner; for I never was the man to ask whether my dogs were at hand +before I could say the word, 'set-on!' It's a sort of nature in a +man that don't stop to look after his weapons, but naturally expects +to find 'em any how, when his blood's up, and there's a necessity +to do." + +This long speech and strong assurance of his pacific nature and +purposes, did not prevent the speaker from making, while he spoke, +certain dextrous uses of the instrument's which were given into his +hands. Right and left were equally busy; one muzzle was addressed +to the candle upon the mantelpiece, the other pursued the ambulatory +movements of a great black spider upon the wall. The old man surveyed +him with an irrepressible smile. Suddenly interrupting himself the +youth exclaimed:-- + +"Are they loaded, gran'pa?" + +He was answered in the negative. + +"Because, if they were," said he, "and that great black spider was +Brother Stevens, I'd show you in the twinkle of a musquito, how +I'd put a finish to his morning's work. But I'd use the bull-pup, +gran'pa--see, this one--the pacific one I'd empty upon him with +powder only, as a sort of feu de joie--and then I'd set up the +song--what's it? ah! Te Deum. A black spider always puts me in mind +of a rascal." + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +THE FOX IN THE TRAP. + + + + + +The youth barely stopped to swallow his breakfast, when be set +off from the village. He managed his movements with considerable +caution; and, fetching a circuit from an opposite quarter, after +having ridden some five miles out of his way, passed into the road +which he suspected that Stevens would pursue. We do not care to +show the detailed processes by which he arrived at this conclusion. +The reader may take for granted that he had heard from some way-side +farmer, that a stranger rode by his cottage once a week, wearing +such and such breeches, and mounted upon a nag of a certain color +and with certain qualities. Enough to say, that Ned Hinkley was +tolerably certain of his route and man. + +He sped on accordingly--did not once hesitate at turns, right or +left, forks and crossroads, but keeping an inflexible course, he +placed himself at such a point on the road as to leave it no longer +doubtful, should Stevens pass, of the place which usually brought +him up. Here he dismounted, hurried his horse, out of sight +and hearing, into the woods, and choosing a position for himself, +with some nicety, along the road-side, put himself in close cover, +where, stretching his frame at length, he commenced the difficult +labor of cooling his impatience with his cogitations. + +But cogitating, with a fellow of his blood, rather whets impatience. +He was monstrous restiff. At his fishing pond, with a trout to hook, +he would have lain for hours, as patient as philosophy itself, and +as inflexible as the solid rock over which he brooded. But without +an angle at his hand, how could he keep quiet? Not by thinking, +surely; and, least of all, by thinking about that person for whom +his hostility was so active. Thinking of Stevens, by a natural +association, reminded him of the pistols which Calvert had given +him. Nothing could be more natural than to draw them from his bosom. +Again and again he examined them in fascinated contemplation. He +had already charged them, and he amused himself by thinking of the +mischief he could do, by a single touch upon the trigger, to a poor +little wood-rat, that once or twice ran along a decaying log some +five steps from his feet. But his object being secrecy, the rat +brushed his whiskers in safety. Still he amused himself by aiming +at this and other objects, until suddenly reminded of the very +important difference which he had promised Calvert to make between +the pistols in his future use of them. With this recollection he +drew out his knife, and laid the weapons before him. + +"This," said he, after a careful examination, in which he fancied +he discovered some slight difference between them in the hang of +the trigger--"this shall be my bull-pup--this my peace-maker!" + +The latter was marked accordingly with a "P," carved rudely enough +by one whose hand was much more practised in slitting the weasand +of a buck, than in cutting out, with crayon, or Italian crow-quill, +the ungainly forms of the Roman alphabet. Ned Hinkley shook his +head with some misgiving when the work was done; as he could not +but see that he had somewhat impaired the beauty of the peacemaker's +butt by the hang-dog looking initial which he had grafted upon it. +But when he recollected the subordinate uses to which this "puppy" +was to be put, and considered how unlikely, in his case, it would +be exposed to sight in comparison with its more masculine brother, +he grew partially reconciled to an evil which was now, indeed, +irreparable. + +It does not require that we should bother the reader with the +numberless thoughts and fancies which bothered our spy, in the three +mortal hours in which he kept his watch. Nothing but the hope that +he should ultimately be compensated to the utmost by a full discovery +of all that he sought to know, could possibly have sustained him +during the trying ordeal. At every new spasm of impatience which +he felt, he drew up his legs, shifted from one side to the other +and growled out some small thunder in the shape of a threat that +"it would be only so much the worse for him when the time came!" +HIM--meaning Stevens. + +At last Stevens came. He watched the progress of his enemy with +keen eyes; and, with his "bull-pup" in his hand, which a sort of +instinct made him keep in the direction of the highway, he followed +his form upon the road. When he was out of sight and hearing, the +spy jumped to his feet. The game, he felt, was secure now--in one +respect at least. + +"He's for Ellisland. That was no bad guess then. He might have been +for Fergus, or Jonesboro', or Debarre, but there's no turn now in +the clear track to Ellisland. He's there for certain." + +Ned Hinkley carefully restored his pistols to his bosom and buttoned +up. He was mounted in a few moments, and pressing slowly forward +in pursuit. He had his own plans which we will not attempt to +fathom; but we fear we shall be compelled to admit that he was not +sufficiently a gentleman to scruple at turning scout in a time of +peace (though, with him, by the way, and thus he justified, he is +in pursuit of an enemy, and consequently is at war), and dodging +about, under cover, spying out the secrets of the land, and not +very fastidious in listening to conversation that does not exactly +concern him. We fear that there is some such flaw in the character +of Ned Hinkley, though, otherwise, a good, hardy fellow--with a +rough and tumble sort of good nature, which, having bloodied your +nose, would put a knife-handle down your back, and apply a handful +of cobwebs to the nasal extremity in order to arrest the haemorrhage. +We are sorry that there is such a defect in his character; but we +did not put it there. We should prefer that he should be perfect--the +reader will believe us--but there are grave lamentations enough +over the failures of humanity to render our homilies unnecessary. +Ned Hinkley was not a gentleman, and the only thing to be said in +his behalf, is, that he was modest enough to make pretensions to +the character. As he once said in a row the company muster:-- + +"I'm blackguard enough, on this occasion, to whip e'er a gentleman +among you!" + +Without any dream of such a spectre at his heels to disturb his +imagination, Alfred Stevens was pursuing his way toward Ellisland, +at that easy travelling gait, which is the best for man and beast, +vulgarly called a "dog-trot." Some very fine and fanciful people +insist upon calling it a "jog-trot." We beg leave, in this place, +to set them right. Every trot is a jog, and so, for that matter, +is every canter. A dog-trot takes its name from the even motion of +the smaller quadruped, when it is seized with no particular mania, +and is yet disposed to go stubbornly forward. It is in more classical +dialect, the festina lente motion. It is regularly forward, and +therefore fast--it never puts the animal out of breath, and is +therefore slow. Nobody ever saw a dog practice this gait, with a +tin canister at his tail, and a huddle of schoolboys at his heels. +No! it is THE travelling motion, considering equally the health of +all parties, and the necessity of getting on. + +In this desire, Ned Hinkley pressed too closely on the heels +of Stevens. He once nearly overhauled him; and falling back, he +subdued his speed, to what, in the same semi-figurative language, +he styled "the puppy-trot." Observing these respective gaits, Brother +Stevens rode into Ellisland at a moderately late dinner-hour, and +the pursuer followed at an unspeakable, but not great, distance +behind him. We will, henceforward, after a brief glance at +Ellisland, confine ourselves more particularly to the progress of +Brother Stevens. + +Ellisland was one of those little villages to which geographers +scarcely accord a place upon the maps. It is not honored with a dot +in any map that we have ever seen of Kentucky. But, for all this, +it is a place! Some day the name will be changed into Acarnania or +Etolia, Epirus or Scandinavia, and then be sure you shall hear of +it. Already, the village lawyers--there are two of them--have been +discussing the propriety of a change to something classical; and +we do not doubt that, before long, their stupidity will become +infectious. Under these circumstances Ellisland will catch a name +that will stick. At present you would probably never hear of the +place, were it not necessary to our purposes and those of Brother +Stevens. + +It has its tavern and blacksmith shop--its church--the meanest +fabric in the village--its postoffice and public well and trough. +There is also a rack pro bono publico, but as it is in front of the +tavern, the owner of that establishment has not wholly succeeded in +convincing the people that it was put there with simple reference +to the public convenience. The tavern-keeper is, politically, a +quadrupled personage. He combines the four offices of post-master, +justice of the peace, town council, and publican; and is considered +a monstrous small person with all. The truth is, reader--this +aside--he has been democrat and whig, alternately, every second +year of his political life. His present politics, being loco-foco, +are in Ellisland considered contra bonos mores. It is hoped that +he will be dismissed from office, and a memorial to that effect +is in preparation; but the days of Harrison--"and Tyler too"--have +not yet come round, and Jerry Sunderland, who knows what his enemies +arc driving at, whirls his coat-skirts, and snaps his fingers, in +scorn of all their machinations. He has a friend at Washington, who +spoons in the back parlor of the white-house--in other words, is a +member o f the kitchen-cabinet, of which, be it said, en passant, +there never was a president of the United States yet entirely without +one--and--there never will be! So much for politics and Ellisland. + +There was some crowd in the village on the day of Brother Stevens's +arrival. Saturday is a well known day in the western and southern +country for making a village gathering; and when Brother Stevens, +having hitched his horse at the public rack, pushed his way to +the postoffice, he had no small crowd to set aside. He had just +deposited his letters, received others in return, answered some ten +or fifteen questions which Jerry Sunderland, P. M., Q. U., N. P., +M. C., publican and sinner--such were all deservedly his titles--had +thought it necessary to address to him, when he was suddenly +startled by a familiar tap upon the shoulder; such a tap as leads +the recipient to imagine that he is about to be honored with the +affectionate salutation of some John Doe or Richard Roe of the law. +Stevens turned with some feeling of annoyance, if not misgiving, +and met the arch, smiling, and very complacent visage of a tall, +slender young gentleman in black bushy whiskers and a green coat, +who seized him by the hand and shook it heartily, while a chuckling +half-suppressed laughter gurgling in his throat, for a moment, +forbade the attempt to speak. Stevens seemed disquieted and looked +around him suspiciously. + +"What! you here, Ben?" + +"Ay, you see me! You didn't expect to see me, Warham---" + +"Hush!" was the whispered word of Stevens, again looking round him +in trepidation. + +"Oh! ay!" said the other with a sly chuckle, and also in a whisper, +"Mr. Stevens--Brother Stevens--hem! I did not think. How is your +holiness to-day?" + +"Come aside," muttered Stevens; and, taking the arm of the incautious +speaker, he led him away from the crowd and took the way out of +the village. Their meeting and departure did not occasion much, if +any, sensation. The visitors in the village were all too busy in +discussing the drink and doctrines, pretty equally distributed, of +Jerry the publican. But there was one eye that noted the meeting +of the friends; that beheld the concern and confusion of Stevens: +that saw their movements, and followed their departing steps. + +"Take your horse--where is he?" demanded Stevens. + +"Here, at hand; but what do you mean to do?" + +"Nothing, but get out of hearing and sight; for your long tongue, +Ben, and significant face, would blab any secret, however deep." + +"Ah! did I not say that I would find you out? Did you get my last +letter?" + +"Ay, I did: but I'm devilish sorry, Ben, that you've come. You'll +do mischief. You have always been a mar-plot." + +"Never, never! You don't know me." + +"Don't I?--but get your horse, and let's go into the woods, while +we talk over matters." + +"Why not leave the nags here?" + +"For a very good reason. My course lies in that direction, so that +I am in my way; while yours, if your purpose be to go back to +Frankfort, will lie on the upper side. Neither of us need come back +to the village." + +"And you think to shuffle me off so soon, do you?" + +"What would you have me do?" + +"Why, give us a peep at this beauty--this Altamira of yours--at +least." + +"Impossible! Do not think of it, Ben; you'd spoil all. But, get +the horse. These billet-heads will suspect mischief if they see +us talking together, particularly whon they behold your conceited +action. This political landlord will surmise that you are a second +Aaron Burr, about to beat up recruits to conquer California. Your +big whiskers--what an atrocious pair!--with your standing collar, +will confirm the impression." + +The two were soon mounted, and rode into the adjoining woods. They +were only a stone's-throw from the village, when Stevens alighted, +followed by his companion. They hitched their horses to some swinging +branches of a sheltering tree, and, going aside a few paces beyond, +seated themselves upon the grass, as they fancied, in a place of +perfect security. + +"And now, Ben, what in truth brings you here?" demanded Stevens, +in tones of voice and with a look which betrayed anything but +satisfaction with the visit. + +"Curiosity, I tell you, and the legs of my horse." + +"Pshaw! you have some other motive." + +"No, 'pon honor. I resolved to find you out--to see what you were +driving at, and where. I could only guess a part from your letter +to Barnabas, and that costive scrawl with which you honored me. +Perhaps, too--and give my friendship credit for the attempt--I came +with some hope to save you." + +"Save me--from what?" + +"Why, wedlock--the accursed thing! The club is in terror lest you +should forget your vows. So glowing were your descriptions of your +Cleopatra, that we knew not what to make. We feared everything." + +"Why, Barnabas might have opened your eyes: he knew better." + +"You're not married, then?" + +"Pshaw! no." + +"Nor engaged?" + +The other laughed as he replied:-- + +"Why, on that head, the least said the better. The roving commission +permits you to run up any flag that the occasion requires." + +"Ah, you sly dog!--and what success?" + +"Come, come, Ben, you must not be so inquisitive. The game's my +own, you know; and the rules of the club give me immunity from a +fellow-member." + +"By Gad, I'll resign! I must see this forest beauty." + +"Impossible!" + +"Where's she? How will you prevent?" + +"By a very easy process. Do you know the bird that shrieks farthest +from her young ones when the fowler is at hand? I'll follow her +example." + +"I'll follow you to the uttermost ends of the earth, Warham!" + +"Hush! you forget! Am I not Brother Stevens? Ha! ha! ha! You are +not sufficiently reverent, brother. See you no divinity in my look +and bearing? Hark you, Ben, I've been a sort of small divinity in +the eyes of a whole flock for a month past!" + +"You pray?" + +"And preach!" + +"Ha! ha! ha!--devilish good; but I must see you in order to believe. +I must, indeed, Brother Stevens. Why, man, think of it--success in +this enterprise will make you head of the fraternity--you will be +declared pope: but you must have witnesses!" + +"So I think; and hark ye, Ben"--laying a finger on the arm of the +other--"I am successful!" + +"What! you don't say so! This queen, this princess of Egypt, +Cleopatra, Altamira--eh?" + +"Is mine--soul and body--she is mine!" + +"And is what you say? Come, come, you don't mean that such a splendid +woman as you describe--such a genius, poet, painter, musician--beauty +too!--you don't mean to say that--" + +"I do, every bit of it." + +"'Gad! what a fellow!--what a lucky dog! But you must let me see +her, Warham!" + +"What! to spoil all--to blurt out the truth?--for, with every +disposition to fib, you lack the ability. No, no, Ben: when the +game's up--when I'm tired of the sport, and feel the necessity of +looking out fresh viands--you shall then know all; I'll give the +clue into your own hands, and you may follow it to your heart's +content. But not now!" + +"But how will you get rid of me, mon ami, if my curiosity is +stubborn?" + +"Do as the kill-deer does--travel from the nest--go home with you, +rather than you should succeed in your impertinence, and have you +expelled from the club for thrusting your spoon into the dish of +a brother-member." + +"You're a Turk, with no bowels of compassion. But, at all events, +you promise me the dish when you're done with it? you give me the +preference?" + +"I do!" + +"Swear by Beelzebub and Mohammed; by Jupiter Ammon and Johannes +Secundus; by the ghost of Cardinal Bembo, and the gridiron of the +fraternity!" + +"Ay, and by the virginity of Queen Elizabeth!" + +"Simulacrum! no! no! no such oath for me! That's swearing by +the thing that is not, was not--could not be! You shall swear by +the oaths of the club--you must be bound on the gridiron of the +fraternity, before I believe you. Swear!" + +"You are as tenacious as the ghost of buried Denmark But you shall +be satisfied. I swear by the mystic gridiron of the fraternity, and +by the legs thereof, of which the images are Beelzebub, Mohammed, +Johannes Secundus, and so forth--nay, by that memorable volume, so +revered in the eyes of the club, the new edition of 'The Basiad,' +of which who among us has been the true exponent?--that profound +mystery of sweets, fathomed hourly, yet unfathomable still--for +which the commentators, already legions, are hourly becoming legions +more;--by these, and by the mysteries of the mirror that reflects +not our own, but the image we desire;--by these things--by all +things that among the brotherhood are held potent--I swear to--" + +"Give me the preference in the favor of this princess; the clue to +find her when you have left her; and the assurance that you will +get a surfeit as soon as possible: swear!" + +"Nay, nay! I swear not to that last! I shall hold on while appetite +holds, and make all efforts not to grow dyspeptic in a hurry. I'll +keep my stomach for a dainty, be sure, as long as I can. I were no +brother, worthy of our order, if I did not." + +"Well, well--to the rest! Swear to the rest, and I am satisfied." + +"You go back, then, instanter?" + +"What! this very day?" + +"This hour!" + +"The d---l! you don't mean THAT, Warham?" returned the other in +some consternation. + +"Ay, this very hour! You must swear to that. Your oath must precede +mine." + +"Ah! man, remember I only got here last night--long ride--hard-trotting +horse. We have not seen each other for months. I have a cursed sight +to tell you about the boys--girls too--love, law, logic, politics. +Do you know they talk of running you for the house?" + +"All in good season, Ben; not now. No, no! you shall see me when +you least look for me, and there will be time enough for all these +matters then. They'll keep. For the present, let me say to you +that we must part now within the hour. You must swear not to dog +my steps, and I will swear to give you carte blanche, and the first +privileges at my princess, when I leave her. This is my bargain. +I make no other." + +"I've a great mind not to leave you," said the other doggedly. + +"And what will that resolution bring you, do you fancy? Do you +suppose I am to be tracked in such a manner? No, Ben! The effect +will be to make me set off for the east instantly, whether you go +with me or not; and an equally certain effect will be to make us +cut loose for ever." + +"You're a d---d hard colt to manage," said the other moodily. + +"I sha'n't let myself be straddled by every horse-boy, I assure +you." + +"Come, come, old fellow, that's too much like horse-play. Don't be +angry with me. I'll accept your conditions." + +"Very good," said Stevens; "if you did not, Ben, it would be no +better for you; for, otherwise, you should never even see my beauty!" + +"Is she so very beautiful, old boy?" + +"A queen, I tell you! a proud, high-spirited, wild beauty of the +mountains--a thing of fire and majesty--a glorious woman, full +of song and sentiment and ambition--a genius, I tell you--who can +improvise like Corinne, and, by the way, continually reminds one +of that glorious creature. In Italy, she would have been greater +than Corinne." + +"And you've won her--and she loves you?" + +"Ay--to doting! I found her a sort of eagle--soaring, striving--always +with an eye upon the hills, and fighting with the sunbeams. I have +subdued her. She is now like a timid fawn that trembles at the +very falling of a leaf in the forests. She pants with hope to see +me, and pants with tremulous delight when I come. Still, she shows +every now and then, a glimmering of that eagle spirit which she +had at first. She flashes up suddenly, but soon sinks again. Fancy +a creature, an idolater of fame before, suddenly made captive by +love, and you have a vain, partial image of my forest-princess." + +"What a lucky dog! You'll marry her yet, old boy, in spite of all!" + +"Pshaw! You are green to talk so." + +"You'll be devilish loath to give her up; I'm afraid I'll have to +wait a cursed long time." + +"No, not long! Do not despair. Easy won, easy valued." + +"And was she easily won?" + +"Very! the game was a short one. She is a mere country-girl, you +know, but eighteen or thereabouts--suspecting nobody, and never +dreaming that she had a heart or passions at all. She thought only +of her poetry and her books. It was only necessary to work upon +heart and passions while talking of poetry and books, and they +carried her out of her depth before she could recover. She's wiser +now, Ben, I can assure you, and will require more dexterity to keep +than to conquer." + +"And she has no brother to worry a body--no d---d ugly Hobnail, +who has a fancy for her, and may make a window between the ribs of +a gallant, such as nature never intended, with the ounce-bullet of +some d---d old-fashioned seven-foot rifle--eh?" + +"There was a silly chap, one Hinkley, who tried it on me--actually +challenged me, though I was playing parson, and there might have +been work for me but for his own bull-headed father, who came to my +rescue, beat the boy and drove him from the place. There is nobody +else to give me any annoyance, unless it be a sort of half-witted +chap, a cousin of the former--a sleepy dog that is never, I believe, +entirely awake unless when he's trout-fishing. He has squinted at +me, as if he could quarrel if he dared, but the lad is dull--too +dull to be very troublesome. You might kiss his grandmother under +his nose, and he would probably regard it only as a compliment to +her superior virtues, and would thank you accordingly--" + +A voice a little to the left interrupted the speaker. + +"So he does, my brave parson, for his grandmother's sake and his +own," were the words of the speaker. They turned in sudden amaze +to the spot whence the sounds issued. The bushes opening in this +quarter, presented to the astonished eyes of Brother Stevens, +the perfect image of the dull lad of whom he had been speaking. +There was Ned Hinkley in proper person--perfectly awake, yet not +trout-fishing! A sarcastic grin was upon his visage, and rolling +his eyes with a malicious leer, he repeated the words which had +first interrupted the progress of the dialogue between the friends. + +"I thank you, Brother Stevens, for the compliment to my grandmother's +virtues. I thank you, on her account as well as my own. I'm very +grateful, I assure you, very grateful, very!" + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +"ABSQUATULATING." + + + + + +Had a bolt suddenly flashed and thundered at the feet of the two +friends, falling from a clear sky in April, they could not have +been more astounded. They started, as with one impulse, in the same +moment to their feet. + +"Keep quiet," said the intruder; "don't let me interrupt you in so +pleasant a conversation. I'd like to hear you out. I'm refreshed +by it. What you say is so very holy and sermon-like, that I'm like +a new man when I hear it. Sit down, Brother Stevens, and begin +again; sit down, Ben, my good fellow, and don't look so scary! You +look as if you had a window in your ribs already!" + +The intruder had not moved, though he had startled the conspirators. +He did not seem to share in their excitement. He was very coolly +seated, with his legs deliberately crossed, while his two hands +parted the bushes before him in order to display his visage--perhaps +with the modest design of showing to the stranger that his friend had +grievously misrepresented its expression. Certainly, no one could +say that, at this moment, it lacked anything of spirit or intelligence. +Never were eyes more keen--never were lips more emphatically made +to denote sarcasm and hostility. The whole face was alive with +scorn, and hate, and bitterness; and there was defiance enough in +the glance to have put wings to fifty bullets. + +His coolness, the composure which his position and words manifested, +awakened the anger of Brother Stevens as soon as the first feeling +of surprise had passed away. He felt, in a moment, that the game +was up with him--that he could no longer play the hypocrite in +Charlemont. He must either keep his pledges to Margaret Cooper, +without delay or excuse, or he must abandon all other designs +which his profligate heart may have suggested in its cruel purposes +against her peace. + +"Scoundrel!" he exclaimed; "how came you here? What have you heard?" + +"Good words, Brother Stevens. You forget, you are a parson." + +"Brain the rascal!" exclaimed the whiskered stranger, looking +more fierce than ever. The same idea seemed to prompt the actions +of Stevens. Both of them, at the same moment, advanced upon the +intruder, with their whips uplifted; but still Ned Hinkley did not +rise. With his legs still crossed, he kept his position, simply +lifting from the sward beside him, where they had been placed +conveniently, his two "puppies." One of these he grasped in his +right hand and presented as his enemies approached. + +"This, gentlemen," said he, "is my peace-maker. It says, 'Keep your +distance.' This is my bull-pup, or peace-breaker; it says, 'Come +on.' Listen to which you please. It's all the same to me. Both are +ready to answer you, and I can hardly keep 'em from giving tongue. +The bull-pup longs to say something to you, Brother Stevens--the +pacificator is disposed to trim your whiskers, Brother Ben; and I +say, for 'em both, come on, you black-hearted rascals, if you want +to know whether a girl of Charlemont can find a man of Charlemont +to fight her battles. I'm man enough, by the Eternal, for both of +you!" + +The effect of Hinkley's speech was equally great upon himself and +the enemy. He sprang to his feet, ere the last sentence was concluded, +and they recoiled in something like indecent haste. The language +of determination was even more strongly expressed by the looks of +the rustic than by his language and action. They backed hurriedly +at his approach. + +"What! won't you stand?--won't you answer to your villanies?--won't +you fight? Pull out your barkers and blaze away, you small-souled +scamps; I long to have a crack at you--here and there--both at a +time! Aint you willing? I'm the sleepy trout-fisherman! Don't you +know me? You've waked me up, my lads, and I sha'n't sleep again in +a hurry! As for you, Alfred Stevens--you were ready to fight Bill +Ilinkley--here's another of the breed--won't you fight him?" + +"Yes--give me one of your pistols, if you dare, and take your +stand," said Stevens boldly. + +"You're a cunning chap--give you one of my puppies--a stick for +my own head--while this bush-whiskered chap cudgels me over from +behind. No! no! none of that! Besides, these pistols were a gift +from a good man, they sha'n't be disgraced by the handling of a +bad one. Get your own weapons, Brother Stevens, and every man to +his tree." + +"They are in Charlemont!" + +"Well!--you'll meet me there then?" + +"Yes!" was the somewhat eager answer of Stevens, "I will meet you +there--to-morrow morning--" + +"Sunday--no! no!" + +"Monday, then; this evening, if we get home in season." + +"It's a bargain then," replied Hinkley, "though I can hardly keep +from giving you the teeth of the bull! As for big-whiskered Ben, +there, I'd like to let him taste my pacificator. I'd just like to +brush up his whiskers with gun-powder--they look to have been done +up with bear's grease before, and have a mighty fine curl; but if +I wouldn't frizzle them better than ever a speckled hen had her +feathers frizzled, then I don't know the virtues of gun-powder. +On Monday morning, Brother Stevens!" + +"Ay, ay! on Monday morning!" + +Had Ned Hinkley been more a man of the world--had he not been a +simple backwoodsman, he would have seen, in the eagerness of Stevens +to make this arrangement, something, which would have rendered +him suspicious of his truth. The instantaneous thought of the +arch-hypocrite, convinced him that he could never return to Charlemont +if this discovery was once made there. His first impulse was to +put it out of the power of Ned Hinkley to convey the tidings. We +do not say that he would have deliberately murdered him; but, under +such an impulse of rage and disappointment as governed him in the +first moments of detection, murder has been often done. He would +probably have beaten him into incapacity with his whip--which had +a heavy handle--had not the rustic been sufficiently prepared. The +pistols of Stevens were in his valise, but he had no purpose of +fighting, on equal terms, with a man who spoke with the confidence +of one who knew how to use his tools; and when the simple fellow, +assuming that he would return to Charlemont for his chattels, +offered him the meeting there, he eagerly caught at the suggestion +as affording himself and friend the means of final escape. + +It was not merely the pistols of Hinkley of which he had a fear. But +he well knew how extreme would be the danger, should the rustic +gather together the people of Ellisland, with the story of his fraud, +and the cruel consequences to the beauty of Charlemont, by which +the deception had been followed. But the simple youth, ignorant +of the language of libertinism, had never once suspected the fatal +lapse from virtue of which Margaret Cooper had been guilty. He was +too unfamiliar with the annals and practices of such criminals, to +gather this fact from the equivocal words, and half-spoken sentences, +and sly looks of the confederates. Had he dreamed this--had it, +for a moment, entered into his conjecturings--that such had been +the case, he would probably have shot down the seducer without a +word of warning. But that the crime was other than prospective, he +had not the smallest fancy; and this may have been another reason +why he took the chances of Stevens's return to Charlemont, and let +him off at the moment. + +"Even should he not return," such may have been his reflection--"I +have prevented mischief at least. He will be able to do no harm. +Margaret Cooper shall be warned of her escape, and become humbler +at least, if not wiser in consequence. At all events, the eyes +of Uncle Hinkley will be opened, and poor Bill be restored to us +again!" + +"And now mount, you scamps," said Hinkley, pressing upon the two +with presented pistols. "I'm eager to send big-whiskered Ben home +to his mother; and to see you, Brother Stevens, on your way back +to Charlemont. I can hardly keep hands off you till then; and +it's only to do so, that I hurry you. If you stay, looking black, +mouthing together, I can't stand it. I will have a crack at you. My +peace-maker longs to brush up them whiskers. My bull-pup is eager +to take you, Brother Stevens, by the muzzle! Mount you, as quick +as you can, before I do mischief." + +Backing toward their horses, they yielded to the advancing muzzles, +which the instinct of fear made them loath to turn their backs +upon. Never were two hopeful projectors so suddenly abased--so +completely baffled. Hinkley, advancing with moderate pace, now +thrust forward one, and now the other pistol, accompanying the +action with a specific sentence corresponding to each, in manner +and form as follows:-- + +"Back, parson--back, whiskers! Better turn, and look out for the +roots, as you go forward. There's no seeing your way along the road +by looking down the throats of my puppies. If you want to be sure +that they'll follow till you're mounted, you have my word for it. +No mistake, I tell you. They're too eager on scent, to lose sight +of you in a hurry, and they're ready to give tongue at a moment's +warning. Take care not to stumble, whiskers, or the pacificator +'ll be into your brush." + +"I'll pay you for this!" exclaimed Stevens, with a rage which was +not less really felt than judiciously expressed. "Wait till we +meet!" + +"Ay, ay! I'll wait; but be in a hurry. Turn now, your nags are at +your backs. Turn and mount!" + +In this way they reached the tree where their steeds were fastened. +Thus, with the muzzle of a pistol bearing close upon the body of +each--the click of the cock they had heard--the finger close to the +trigger they saw--they were made to mount--in momentary apprehension +that the backwoodsman, whose determined character was sufficiently +seen in his face, might yet change his resolve, and with wanton +hand, riddle their bodies with his bullets. It was only when they +were mounted, that they drew a breath of partial confidence. + +"Now," said Hinkley, "my lads, let there be few last words between +you. The sooner you're off the better. As for you, Alfred Stevens, +the sooner you're back in Charlemont the more daylight we'll have +to go upon. I'll be waiting you, I reckon, when you come." + +"Ay, and you may wait," said Stsvens, as the speaker turned off +and proceeded to the spot where his own horse was fastened. + +"You won't return, of course?" said his companion. + +"No! I must now return with you, thanks to your interference. By +Heavens, Ben, I knew, at your coming, that you would do mischief; +you have been a marplot ever; and after this, I am half-resolved +to forswear your society for ever." + +"Nay, nay! do not say so, Warham. It was unfortunate, I grant you; +but how the devil should either of us guess that such a Turk as +that was in the bush?" + +"Enough for the present," said the other. 'It is not now whether +I wish to ride with you or not. There is no choice. There is no +return to Charlemont." + +"And that's the name of the place, is it?" + +"Yes! yes! Much good may the knowledge of it do you." + +"How fortunate that this silly fellow concluded to let you off on +such a promise. What an ass!" + +"Yes! but he may grow wiser! Put spurs to your jade, and let us +see what her heels are good for, for the next three hours. I do not +yet feel secure. The simpleton may grow wiser and change his mind." + +"He can scarcely do us harm now, if he does." + +"Indeed!" said Stevens--"you know nothing. There's such a thing as +hue and cry, and its not unfrequently practised in these regions, +when the sheriff is not at hand and constables are scarce. Every +man is then a sheriff." + +"Well--but there's no law-process against us!" + +"You are a born simpleton, I think," said Stevens, with little +scruple. He was too much mortified to be very heedful of the +feelings of his companion. "There needs no law in such a case, at +least for the CAPTURE of a supposed criminal; and, for that matter, +they do not find it necessary for his punishment either. Hark ye, +Ben--there's a farmhouse?" + +"Yes, I see it!" + +"Don't you smell tar?--They're running it now!" + +"I think I do smell something like it. What of it?" + +"Do you see that bed hanging from yon window?" + +"Yes! of course I see it!" + +"It is a feather-bed!" + +"Well--what of that? Why tell me this stuff? Of course I can guess +as well as you that it's a feather-bed, since I see a flock of +geese in the yard with their necks all bare." + +"Hark ye, then! There's something more than this, which you may yet +see! Touch up your mare. If this fellow brings the mob at Ellisland +upon us, that tar will be run, and that feather-bed gutted, for our +benefit. What they took from the geese will be bestowed on us. Do +you understand me? Did you ever hear of a man whose coat was made +of tar and feathers, and furnished at the expense of the county?" + +"Hush, for God's sake, Warham! you make my blood run cold with your +hideous notions!" + +"That fellow offered to frizzle your whiskers. These would anoint +them with tar, in which your bear's oil would be of little use." + +"Ha! don't you hear a noise?" demanded the whiskered companion, +looking behind him. + +"I think I do," replied the other musingly. + +"A great noise!" continued Don Whiskerandos. + +"Yes, it seems to me that it is a great noise." + +"Like people shouting?" + +"Somewhat--yes, by my soul, that DOES sound something like a shout!" + +"And there! Don't stop to look and listen, Warham," cried his +companion; "it's no time for meditation. They're coming! hark!--" +and with a single glance behind him--with eyes dilating with the +novel apprehensions of receiving a garment, unsolicited, bestowed +by the bounty of the county--he drove his spurs into the flanks of +his mare, and went ahead like an arrow. Stevens smiled in spite of +his vexation. + +"D--n him!" he muttered as he rode forward, "it's some satisfaction, +at least, to scare the soul out of him!" + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +THE REVELATION. + + + + + +Having seen his enemy fairly mounted, and under way, as he thought, +for Charlemont, Ned Hinkley returned to Ellisland for his own horse. +Here he did not suffer himself to linger, though, before he could +succeed in taking his departure, he was subjected to a very keen +and searching examination by the village publican and politician. +Having undergone this scrutiny with tolerable patience, if not to +the entire satisfaction of the examiner, he set forward at a free +canter, determined that his adversary should not be compelled to +wait. + +It was only while he rode that he began to fancy the possibility of +the other having taken a different course; but as, upon reflection, +he saw no other plan which he might have adopted--for lynching +for suspected offences was not yet a popular practice in and about +Charlemont--he contented himself with the reflection that he had +done all that could have been done; and if Alfred Stevens failed +to keep his appointment, he, at least, was one of the losers. He +would necessarily lose the chance of revenging an indignity, not to +speak of the equally serious loss of that enjoyment which a manly +fight usually gave to Ned Hinkley himself, and which, he accordingly +assumed, must be an equal gratification to all other persons. When +he arrived at Charlemont, he did not make his arrival known, but, +repairing directly to the lake among the hills, he hitched his +horse, and prepared, with what patience he could command, to await +the coming of the enemy. + +The reader is already prepared to believe that the worthy rustic +waited in vain. It was only with the coming on of night that he began +to consider himself outwitted. He scratched his head impatiently, +not without bringing away some shreds of the hair, jumped on his +horse, and, without making many allowances for the rough and hilly +character of the road, went off at a driving pace for the house of +Uncle Hinkley. Here he drew up only to ask if Brother Stevens had +returned. + +"No!" + +"Then, dang it! he never will return. He's a skunk, uncle--as great +a skunk as ever was in all Kentucky!" + +"How! what!--what of Brother Stevens?" demanded the uncle, seconded +by John Cross, who had only some two hours arrived at the village, +and now appeared at the door. But Ned Hinkley was already off. + +"He's a skunk!--that's all!" + +His last words threw very little light over the mystery, and +certainly gave very little satisfaction to his hearers. The absence +of Alfred Stevens, at a time when John Cross was expected, had +necessarily occasioned some surprise; but, of course, no apprehensions +were entertained by either the worthy parson or the bigoted host +that he could be detained by any cause whatsoever which he could +not fully justify. + +The next course of Ned Hinkley was for the cottage of Mr. Calvert. +To the old man he gave a copious detail of all his discoveries--not +only the heads of what he heard from the conspirators in the wood, +but something of the terms of the dialogue. The gravity of Calvert +increased as the other proceeded. He saw more deeply into the +signification of certain portions of this dialogue than did the +narrator; and when the latter, after having expressed his disappointment +at the non-appearance of Stevens on the field of combat, at least +congratulated himself at having driven him fairly from the ground, +the other shook his head mournfully. + +"I am afraid it's too late, my son." + +"Too late, gran'pa! How? Is it ever too late to send such a rascal +a-packing?" + +"It may be for the safety of some, my son." + +"What! Margaret you mean? You think the poor fool of a girl's too +far gone in love of him, do you?" + +"If that were all, Ned--" + +"Why, what more, eh? You don't mean!--" + +The apprehensions of the simple, unsuspecting fellow, for the first +time began to be awakened to the truth. + +"I am afraid, my son, that this wretch has been in Charlemont too +long. From certain words that you have dropped, as coming from +Stevens, in speaking to his comrade, I should regard him as speaking +the language of triumph for successes already gained." + +"Oh, hardly! I didn't think so. If I had only guessed that he +meant such a thing--though I can't believe it--I'd ha' dropped him +without a word. I'd have given him the pacificator as well as the +peace-breaker. Oh, no! I can't think it--I can't--I won't! Margaret +Cooper is not a girl to my liking, but, Lord help us! she's +too beautiful and too smart to suffer such a skunk, in so short a +time, to get the whip-hand of her. No, gran'pa, I can't and won't +believe it!" + +"Yet, Ned, these words which you have repeated convey some such +fear to my mind. It may be that the villain was only boasting to +his companion. There are scoundrels in this world who conceive of +no higher subject of boast than the successful deception and ruin +of the artless and confiding. I sincerely hope that this may be +the case now--that it was the mere brag of a profligate, to excite +the admiration of his comrade. But when you speak of the beauty +and the smartness of this poor girl, as of securities for virtue, +you make a great mistake. Beauty is more apt to be a betrayer than +a protector; and as for her talent, that is seldom a protection +unless it be associated with humility. Hers was not. She was +most ignorant where she was most assured. She knew just enough to +congratulate herself that she was unlike her neighbors, and this is +the very temper of mind which is likely to cast down its possessor +in shame. I trust that she had a better guardian angel than either +her beauty or her talents. I sincerely hope that she is safe. At +all events, let me caution you not to hint the possibility of its +being otherwise. We will take for granted that Stevens is a baffled +villain." + +"I only wish I had dropped him!" + +"Better as it is." + +"What! even if the poor girl is--" + +"Ay, even then!" + +"Why, gran'pa, can it be possible YOU say so?" + +"Yes, my son; I say so here, in moments of comparative calmness, and +in the absence of the villain. Perhaps, were he present, I should +say otherwise." + +"And DO otherwise! You'd shoot him, gran'pa, as soon as I." + +"Perhaps! I think it likely. But, put up your pistols, Ned. You +have nobody now to shoot. Put them up, and let us walk over to your +uncle's at once. It is proper that he and John Cross should know +these particulars." + +Ned agreed to go, but not to put up his pistols. + +"For, you see, gran'pa, this rascal may return. His friend may have +kept him in long talk. We may meet him coming into the village." + +"It is not likely; but come along. Give me that staff, my son, +and your arm on the other side. I feel that my eyes are no longer +young." + +"You could shoot still, gran'pa?" + +"Not well." + +"What, couldn't you hit a chap like Stevens between the eyes at ten +paces? I'm sure I could do it, blindfolded, by a sort of instinct." + +And the youth, shutting his eyes, as if to try the experiment, +drew forth one of his pistols from his bosom, and began to direct +its muzzle around the room. + +"There was a black spider THERE, gran'pa! I'm sure, taking him for +Stevens, I could cut his web for him." + +"You have cut that of Stevens himself, and his comb too, Ned." + +"Yes, yes--but what a fool I was not to make it his gills!" + +By this time the old man had got on his spencer, and, with staff +in hand, declared himself in readiness. Ned Hinkley lowered his +pistol with reluctance. He was very anxious to try the weapon and +his own aim, on somebody or something. That black spider which +lived so securely in the domicil of Mr. Calvert would have stood no +chance in any apartment of the widow Hinkley. Even the "pacificator" +would have been employed for its extermination, if, for no other +reason, because of the fancied resemblance which it had always worn +to Brother Stevens--a resemblance which occurred to him, perhaps, +in consequence of the supposed similarity between the arts of +the libertine and those for the entrapping of his victims which +distinguish the labors of the spider. + +The two were soon arrived at old Hinkley's, and the tale of Ned was +told; but, such was the bigotry of the hearers, without securing +belief. + +"So blessed a young man!" said the old lady. + +"A brand from the burning!" exclaimed Brother Cross. + +"It's all an invention of Satan!" cried old Hinkley, "to prevent +the consummation of a goodly work." + +"We should not give our faith too readily to such devices of the +enemy, Friend Calvert," said John Cross, paternally. + +"I never saw anything in him that wasn't perfectly saint-like," +said Mrs. Hinkley." He made the most heartfelt prayer, and the +loveliest blessing before meat! I think I hear him now--'Lord, +make us thankful'--with his eyes shut up so sweetly, and with such +a voice." + +"There are always some people, Brother Cross, to hate the saints +of the Lord and to slander them! They lie in wait like thieves of +the night, and roaring lions of the wilderness, seeking what they +may devour." + +"Ah," exclaimed Brother Cross, "how little do such know that they +devour themselves; for whoso destroyeth his best friend is a devourer +of himself." + +"The blindness of Satan is upon them, and they do his work." + +And thus--purr, purr, purr--they went on, to the end of the chapter. +Poor Ned Hinkley found the whole kennel was upon him. Not only did +they deny everything that could by possibility affect the fair fame +of the absent brother, but, from defending him, they passed, with +an easy transition, to the denunciation of those who were supposed +to be his defamers. In this the worthy old man Calvert came in for +his share. + +"All this comes of your supporting that worthless boy of mine in +defiance of my will," said old Hinkley. "You hate Brother Stevens +because that boy hated him, and because I love him." + +"You are mistaken, Mr. Hinkley," said Calvert, mildly. "I hate +nobody; at the same time I suffer no mere prejudices to delude me +against sight and reason." + +"Ah!" said Brother Cross, gently, "it's that very reason, Brother +Calvert, that ruins you worldlings. You must not rely on human +reason. Build on faith, and you build on the Rock of Ages." + +"I propose to use reason only in worldly matters, Mr. Cross," said +the other; "for which use, only, I believe it was given us. I +employ it in reference to a case of ordinary evidence, and I beg +your regards now, while I draw your attention to the use I make of +it in the present instance. Will you hear me without interruption?" + +"Surely, Brother Calvert, but call me not Mr. Cross. I am not a +Mister. I am plain John Cross; by virtue of my business, a brother, +if it so please you to esteem me. Call me Brother Cross, or Brother +John Cross, or plain John Cross, either of these will be acceptable +unto me." + +"We are all brothers, or should be," said Calvert; "and it will +not need that there should be any misunderstanding between us on +so small a matter." + +"The matter is not small in the eye of the Lord," said the preacher. +"Titles of vanity become not us, and offend in his hearing." + +The old teacher smiled, but proceeded. + +"Now, Brother Cross, if you will hear me, I will proceed, according +to my reason, to dwell upon the proofs which are here presented +to you, of the worthlessness of this man, Alfred Stevens; and when +you consider how much the feelings and the safety of the daughters +of your flock depend upon the character of those moral and religious +teachers to whom the care of them is intrusted, you will see, I +think, the necessity of listening patiently, and determining without +religious prejudice, according to the truth and reason of the case." + +"I am prepared to listen patiently, Brother Calvert," said John +Cross, clasping his hands together, setting his elbows down upon +the table, shutting his eyes, and turning his face fervently up +to heaven. Old Hinkley imitated this posture quite as nearly as he +was able; while Mrs. Hinkley, sitting between the two, maintained +a constant to-and-fro motion, first on one side, then on the other, +as they severally spoke to the occasion, with her head deferentially +bowing, like a pendulum, and with a motion almost as regular and +methodical. The movements of her nephew, Ned Hinkley, were also a +somewhat pleasant study, after a fashion of his own. Sitting in a +corner, he amused himself by drawing forth his "puppies," and taking +occasional aim at a candle or flowerpot; and sometimes, with some +irreverence, at the curved and rather extravagant proboscis of his +worthy uncle, which, cocked up in air, was indeed something of a +tempting object of sight to a person so satisfied of his skill in +shooting as the young rustic. The parties being thus arranged in +a fit attitude for listening, Mr. Calvert began somewhat after the +following fashion:-- + +"Our first knowledge of Alfred Stevens was obtained through Brother +John Cross." + +"And what better introduction would you have?" demanded old Hinkley. + +"None," said the other, "if Brother Cross knew anything about the +party he introduced. But it so happens, as we learn from Brother +Cross himself, that the first acquaintance he had with Stevens was +made upon the road, where Stevens played a trick upon him by giving +him brandy to drink." + +"No trick, Brother Calvert; the young man gave it me as a medicine, +took it as a medicine himself, and, when I bade him, threw away +the accursed beverage." + +"Ordinary men, governed by ordinary reason, Brother Cross, would +say that Stevens knew very well what he was giving you, and that +it was a trick." + +"But only think, Mr. Calvert," said Mrs. Hinkley, lifting her hands +and eyes at the same moment, "the blessed young man threw away the +evil liquor the moment he was told to do so. What a sign of meekness +was that!" + +"I will not dwell on this point," was the reply of Calvert. "He comes +into our village and declares his purpose to adopt the profession +of the preacher, and proceeds to his studies under the direction +of Brother Cross." + +"And didn't he study them?" demanded Mrs. Hinkley. "Wasn't he, late +and early, at the blessed volume? I heard him at all hours above +stairs. Oh! how often was he on his bended knees in behalf of our +sinful race, ungrateful and misbelieving that we are!" + +"I am afraid, madam," said Calvert, "that his studies were scarcely +so profound as you think them. Indeed. I am at a loss to conceive +how you should blind your eyes to the fact that the greater part +of his time was spent among the young girls of the village." + +"And where is it denied," exclaimed old Hinkley, "that the lambs +of God should sport together?" + +"Do not speak in that language, I pray you, Mr. Hinkley," said +Calvert, with something of pious horror in his look; "this young man +was no lamb of God, but, I fear, as you will find, a wolf in the +fold. It is, I say, very well known that he was constantly wandering, +even till a late hour of the night, with one of the village maidens." + +"Who was that one, Brother Calvert?" demanded John Cross. + +"Margaret Cooper." + +"Hem!" said the preacher. + +"Well, he quarrels with my young friend, the worthy son of Brother +Hinkley--" + +"Do not speak of that ungrateful cub. Brother Stevens did not +quarrel with him. He quarrelled with Brother Stevens, and would +have murdered him, but that I put in in time to save." + +"Say not so, Mr. Hinkley. I have good reason to believe that Stevens +went forth especially to fight with William." + +"I would not believe it, if a prophet were to tell me it." + +"Nevertheless, I believe it. We found both of them placed at the +usual fighting-distance." + +"Ah! but where were Brother Stevens's pistols?" + +"In his pocket, I suppose." + +"He had none. He was at a distance from my ungrateful son, and +flying that he should not be murdered. The lamb under the hands of +the butcher. And would you believe it, Brother Cross, he had gone +forth only to counsel the unworthy boy--only to bring him back into +the fold--gone forth at his own prayer, as Brother Stevens declared +to Betsy, just before he went out." + +"I am of opinion that he deceived her and yourself." + +"Where were his pistols then?" + +"He must have concealed them. He told Ned Hinkley, this very day, +that he had pistols, but that they were here." + +"Run up, Betsy, to Brother Stevens's room and see." + +The old lady disappeared. Calvert proceeded. + +"I can only repeat my opinion, founded upon the known pacific and +honorable character of William Hinkley, and certain circumstances +in the conduct of Stevens, that the two did go forth, under a +previous arrangement, to fight a duel. That they were prevented, +and that Stevens had no visible weapon, is unquestionably true. +But I do not confine myself to these circumstances. This young man +writes a great many letters, it is supposed to his friends, but +never puts them in the post here, but every Saturday rides off, as +we afterward learn, to the village of Ellisland, where he deposites +them and receive others. This is a curious circumstance, which +alone should justify suspicion. + +"The ways of God are intricate, Brother Calvert," said John Cross, +"and we are not to suspect the truth which we can not understand." + +"But these are the ways of man, Brother Cross." + +"And the man of God is governed by the God which is in him. He +obeys a law which, perhaps, is ordered to be hidden from thy sight." + +"This doctrine certainly confers very extraordinary privileges upon +the man of God," said Calvert, quietly, "and, perhaps, this is one +reason why the profession is so prolific of professors now-a-days; +but the point does not need discussion. Enough has been shown to +awaken suspicion and doubt in the case of any ordinary person; and +I now come to that portion of the affair which is sustained by the +testimony of Ned Hinkley, our young friend here, who, whatever his +faults may be, has been always regarded in Charlemont, as a lover +and speaker of the truth." + +"Ay, ay, so far as he knows what the truth is," said old Hinkley, +scornfully. + +"And I'm just as likely to know what the truth is as you, uncle!',' +retorted the young man, rising and coming forward from his corner. + +"Come, come," he continued, "you're not going to ride rough shod +over me as you did over Cousin Bill. I don't care a snap of the +finger, I can tell you, for all your puffed cheeks and big bellied +speeches. I don't, I tell you!" and suiting the action to the +word, the sturdy fellow snapped his fingers almost under the nose +of his uncle, which was now erected heavenward, with a more scornful +pre-eminence than ever. The sudden entrance of Mrs. Hinkley, from +her search after Stevens's pistols, prevented any rough issue between +these new parties, as it seemed to tell in favor of Stevens. There +were no pistols to be found. The old lady did not add, indeed, that +thers was nothing of any kind to be found belonging to the same +worthy. + +"There! That's enough!" said old Hinkley. + +"Did you find anything of Stevens's, Mrs. Hinkley?" inquired Mr. +Calvert. + +"Nothing, whatever." + +"Well, madam," said Calvert, "your search, if it proves anything, +proves the story of Ned Hinkley conclusively. This man has carried +off all his chattels." + +John Cross looked down from heaven, and stared inquiringly at Mrs. +Hinkley. + +"Is this true? Have you found nothing, Sister Betsy?" + +"Nothing." + +"And Brother Stevens has not come back?" + +"No!" + +"And reason for it, enough," said old Hinkley. "Didn't you hear +that Ned Hinkley threatened to shoot him if he came back?" + +"Look you, uncle," said the person thus accused, "if you was anybody +else, and a little younger, I'd thrash you for that speech the same +as if it was a lie! I would." + +"Peace!" said Calvert, looking sternly at the youth. Having obtained +temporary silence, he was permitted at length to struggle through +his narrative, and to place, in their proper lights, all the +particulars which Ned Hinkley had obtained at Ellisland. When this +was done the discussion was renewed, and raged, with no little +violence, for a full hour. At length it ceased through the sheer +exhaustion of the parties. Calvert was the first to withdraw from +it, as he soon discovered that such was the bigotry of old Hinkley +and his wife, and even of John Cross himself, that nothing short +of divine revelation could persuade them of the guilt of one who +had once made a religious profession. + +Brother Cross, though struck with some of the details which Calvert +had given, was afterward prepared to regard them as rather trivial +than otherwise, and poor Ned was doomed to perceive that the +conviction was general in this holy family, that he had, by his +violence, and the terror which his pistols had inspired, driven +away, in desperation, the most meek and saintly of all possible +young apostles. The youth was nearly furious ere the evening and the +discussion were over. It was very evident to Calvert that nothing +was needed, should Stevens come back, but a bold front and a lying +tongue, to maintain his position in the estimation of the flock, +until such time as the truth WOULD make itself known--a thing +which, eventually, always happens. That night Ned Hinkley dreamed +of nothing but of shooting Stevens and his comrade and of thrashing +his uncle. What did Margaret Cooper dream of? + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +STORM AND CONVULSION. + + + + + +What did Margaret Cooper dream of? Disappointment, misery, death. +There was a stern presentiment in her waking thoughts, sufficiently +keen and agonizing to inspire such dreadful apprehensions in her +dreams. The temperament which is sanguine, and which, in a lively +mood, inspires hope, is, at the same time, the source of those +dark images of thought and feeling, which appal it with the most +terrifying forms of fear; and when Saturday and Saturday night +came and passed, and Alfred Stevens did not appear, a lurking dread +that would not be chidden or kept down, continued to rise within +her soul, which, without assuming any real form or decisive speech, +was yet suggestive of complete overthrow and ruin. + +Her dreams were of this complexion. She felt herself abandoned. +Nor merely abandoned. She was a victim. In her desolation she had +even lost her pride. She could no longer meet the sneer with scorn. +She could no longer carry a lofty brow among the little circle, +who, once having envied, were now about to despise her. To the +impatient spirit, once so strong--so insolent in its strength--what +a pang--what a humiliation was here! In her dreams she saw the +young maidens of the village stand aloof, as she had once stood +aloof from them:--she heard the senseless titter of their laugh; +and she had no courage to resent the impertinence. Her courage +was buried in her shame. No heart is so cowardly as that which +is conscious of guilt. Picture after picture of this sort did her +fancy present to her that night; and when she awoke the next morning, +the sadness of her soul had taken the color of a deep and brooding +misanthropy. Such had been the effect of her dreams. Her resolution +came only from despair; and resolution from such a source, we well +know, is usually only powerful against itself. + +It is one proof of a religious instinct, and of a universal belief +in a controlling and benevolent Deity, that all men however abased, +scornful of divine and human law, invariably, in their moments of +desperation, call upon God. Their first appeal is, involuntarily, +to him. The outlaw, as the fatal bullet pierces his breast--the +infidel, sinking and struggling in the water--the cold stony +heart of the murderer, the miser, the assassin of reputation as of +life--all cry out upon God in the unexpected paroxysms of death. +Let us hope that the instinct waich prompts this involuntary appeal +for mercy, somewhat helps to secure its blessings. It is thus +also with one who, in the hey-day of the youthful heart, has lived +without thought or prayer--a tumultuous life of uproar and riot--a +long carnival of the passions--the warm blood suppressing the cool +thought, and making the reckless heart impatient of consideration. +Let the sudden emergency arise, with such a heart--let the blood +become stagnant with disease--and the involuntary appeal is to that +God, of whom before there was no thought. We turn to him as to a +father who is equally strong to help and glad to preserve us. + +Margaret Cooper, in the ordinary phrase, had lived without God. Her +God was in her own heart, beheld by the lurid fires of an intense, +unmethodized ambition. Her own strength--or rather the persuasion +of her own strength--had been so great, that hitherto she had seen +no necessity for appealing to any other source of power. She might +now well begin to distrust that strength. She did so. Her desperation +was not of that sort utterly to shut out hope; and, while there +is hope, there is yet a moral assurance that the worst is not +yet--perhaps not to be. But she was humbled--not enough, perhaps--but +enough to feel the necessity of calling in her allies. She dropped +by her bedside, in prayer, when she arose that morning. We do not +say that she prayed for forgiveness, without reference to her future +earthly desires. Few of us know how to simplify our demands upon +the Deity to this one. We pray that he may assist us in this or +that grand speculation: the planter for a great crop; the banker +for investments that give him fifty per cent.; the lawyer for more +copious fees; the parson for an increase of salary. How few pray for +mercy--forgiveness for the past--strength to sustain the struggling +conscience in the future! Poor Margaret was no wiser, no better, +than the rest of us. She prayed--silly woman!--that Alfred Stevens +might keep his engagament! + +He did not! That day she was to be married! She had some reference +to this in making her toilet that morning. The garments which she +put on were all of white. A white rose gleamed palely from amid +the raven hair upon her brow. Beautiful was she, exceedingly. How +beautiful! but alas! the garb she wore--the pale, sweet flower on +her forehead--they were mockeries--the emblems of that purity of +soul, that innocence of heart, which were gone--gone for ever! She +shuddered as she beheld the flower, and meditated this thought. +Silently she took the flower from her forehead, and, as if it were +precious as that lost jewel of which it reminded her, she carefully +placed it away in her toilet-case. + +Yet her beauty was heightened rather than diminished. Margaret +Cooper was beautiful after no ordinary mould. Tall in stature, with +a frame rounded by the most natural proportions into symmetry, and +so formed for grace; with a power of muscle more than common among +women, which, by inducing activity, made her movements as easy as +they were graceful; with an eye bright like the morning-star, and +with a depth of expression darkly clear, like that of the same +golden orb at night; with a face exquisitely oval; a mouth of great +sweetness; cheeks on which the slightest dash of hue from the red, +red rose in June, might be seen to come and go under the slightest +promptings of the active heart within; a brow of great height and +corresponding expansion; with a bust that impressed you with a +sense of the maternal strength which might be harbored there, even +as the swollen bud gives promises of the full-bosomed luxuriance +of the flower when it opens: add to these a lofty carriage, a +look where the quickened spirit seems ever ready for utterance; a +something of eager solemnity in her speech; and a play of expression +on her lips which, if the brow were less lofty and the eye less +keenly bright, might be a smile--and you have some idea of that +noble and lovely temple on which fires of lava had been raised by +an unholy hand; in which a secret worship is carried on which dreads +the light, shrinks from exposure, and trembles to be seen by the +very Deity whose favor it yet seeks in prayer and apprehension. + +These beauties of person as we have essayed, though most feebly, +to describe them, were enhanced rather than lessened by that air +of anxiety by which they were now overcast. Her step was no longer +free. It was marked by an unwonted timidity. Her glance was no +longer confident; and when she looked round upon the faces of the +young village-maidens, it was seen that her lip trembled and moved, +but no longer with scorn. If the truth were told, she now envied +the meanest of those maidens that security which her lack of beauty +had guarantied. She, the scorner of all around her, now envied the +innocence of the very meanest of her companions. + +Such was the natural effect of her unhappy experience upon her +heart. What would she not have given to be like one of them? She +dared not take her place, in the church, among them. It was a dread +that kept her back. Strange, wondrous power of innocence! The guilty +girl felt that she might be repulsed; that her frailty might make +itself known--MUST make itself known; and she would be driven with +shame from that communion with the pure to which she had no longer +any claim! She sunk into one of the humblest seats in the church, +drawing her reluctant mother into the lowly place beside her. + +John Cross did not that day address himself to her case: but sin has +a family similitude among all its members. There is an unmistakeable +likeness, which runs through the connection. If the preacher speaks +fervently to one sin, he is very apt to goad, in some degree, all +the rest: and though Brother Cross had not the most distant idea +of singling out Margaret Cooper for his censure, yet there was a +whispering devil at her elbow that kept up a continual commentary +upon what he said, filling her ears with a direct application of +every syllable to her own peculiar instance. + +"See you not," said the demon, "that every eye is turned upon you? +He sees into your soul; he knows your secret. He declares it, as +you hear, aloud, with a voice of thunder, to all the congregation. +Do you not perceive that you sit alone; that everybody shrinks from +your side; that your miserable old mother alone sits with you; that +the eyes of some watch you with pity, but more with indignation? +Look at the young damsels--late your companions--they are your +companions no longer! They triumph in your shame. Their titter +is only suppressed because of the place in which they are. They +ask: 'Is this the maiden who was so wise, so strong--who scorned +us--scorned US, indeed!--and was not able to baffle the serpent in +his very first approaches?' Ha! ha! How they laugh! Well, indeed, +they may. It is very laughable, Margaret--not less laughable and +amusing than strange!--that YOU should have fallen!--so easily, so +blindly--and not even to suspect what every one else was sure of! +O Margaret! Margaret! can it be true? Who will believe in your wit +now, your genius, your beauty? Smutched and smutted! Poor, weak, +degraded! If there is pity for you, Margaret, it is full of mockery +too; it is a pity that is full of bitterness. You should now cast +yourself down, and cover yourself with ashes, and cry, 'Wo is me!' +and call upon the rocks and the hills to cover you!" + +Such was the voice in her soul, which to HER senses seemed like +that of some jibing demon at her elbow. Margaret tried to pray--to +expel him by prayer; but the object of his mockery had not been +attained. She could not surrender herself entirely to the chastener. +She was scourged, but not humbled; and the language of the demon +provoked defiance, not humility. Her proud spirit rose once more +against the pressure put upon it. Her bright, dazzling eye flashed +in scorn upon the damsels whom she now fancied to be actually +tittering--scarcely able to suppress their laughter--at her obvious +disgrace. On John Cross she fixed her fearless eye, like that of +some fallen angel, still braving the chastener, whom he can not +contend with. A strange strength--for even sin has its strength for +a season--came to her relief in that moment of fiendish mockery. +The strength of an evil spirit was accorded her. Her heart once more +swelled with pride. Her soul once more insisted on its ascendency. +She felt, though she did not say:-- + +"Even as I am, overthrown, robbed of my treasure, I feel that I am +superior to these. I feel that I have strength against the future. +If they are pure and innocent, it is not because of their greater +strength, but their greater obscurity. If I am overthrown by the +tempter, it was because I was the more worthy object of overthrow. +In their littleness they live: if I am doomed to the shaft, at +least it will be as the eagle is doomed; it will be while soaring +aloft--while aiming for the sun--while grasping at the very bolt +by which I am destroyed!" + +Such was the consolation offered by the twin-demons of pride and +vanity. The latter finds its aliment in the heart which it too +completely occupies, even from those circumstances which, in other +eyes, make its disgrace and weakness. The sermon which had touched +her sin had not subdued it. Perhaps no sermon, no appeal, however +powerful and touching, could at that moment have had power over +her. The paroxysm of her first consciousness of ruin had not yet +passed off. The condition of mind was not yet reached in which an +appeal could be felt. + +As in the case of physical disease, so with that of the mind and +heart, there is a period when it is neither useful nor prudent to +administer the medicines which are yet most necessary to safety. +The judicious physician will wait for the moment when the frame is +prepared--when the pulse is somewhat subdued--before he tries the +most powerful remedy. The excitement of the wrong which she had +suffered was still great in her bosom. It was necessary that she +should have repose. That excitement was maintained by the expectation +that Stevens would yet make his appearance. Her eye, at intervals, +wandered over the assembly in search of him. The demon at her elbow +understood her quest. + +"He will not come," it said; "you look in vain. The girls follow +your eyes; they behold your disappointment; they laugh at your +credulity. If he leads any to the altar, think you it will be one +whom he could command at pleasure without any such conditions--one +who, in her wild passions and disordered vanity, could so readily +yield to his desires, without demanding any corresponding sacrifices? +Margaret, they laugh now at those weaknesses of a mind which they +once feared if not honored. They wonder, now, that they could have +been so deceived. If they do not laugh aloud, Margaret, it is because +they would spare your shame. Indeed, indeed, they pity you!" + +The head of the desperate, but still haughty woman, was now more +proudly uplifted, and her eyes shot forth yet fiercer fires of +indignation. What a conflict was going on in her bosom. Her cheeks +glowed with the strife--her breast heaved; with difficulty she +maintained her seat inflexibly, and continued, without other signs +of discomposure, until the service was concluded. Her step was more +stately than ever as she walked from church; and while her mother +lingered behind to talk with Brother Cross, and to exchange the +sweetest speeches with the widow Thackeray and others, she went on +alone--seeing none, heeding none--dreading to meet any face lest +it should wear a smile and look the language in which the demon at +her side still dealt. HE still clung to her, with the tenacity of +a fiendish purpose. He mocked her with her shame, goading her, with +dart upon dart, of every sort of mockery. Truly did he mutter in +her ears:-- + +"Stevens has abandoned you. Never was child, before yourself, so +silly as to believe such a promise as he made you. Do you doubt?--do +you still hope? It is madness? Why came he not yesterday--last +night--to-day? He is gone. He has abandoned you. You are not only +alone--you are lost! lost for ever!" + +The tidings of this unsolicited attendant were confirmed the next +day, by the unsuspecting John Cross. He came to visit Mrs. Cooper and +her daughter among the first of his parishioners. He had gathered +from the villagers already that Stevens had certainly favored +Miss Cooper beyond all the rest of the village damsels. Indeed, it +was now generally bruited that he was engaged to her in marriage. +Though the worthy preacher had very stoutly resisted the suggestions +of Mr. Calvert, and the story of Ned Hinkley, he was yet a little +annoyed by them; and he fancied that, if Stevens were, indeed, +engaged to Margaret, she, or perhaps the old lady, might relieve +his anxiety by accounting for the absence of his protege. The notion +of Brother John was, that, having resolved to marry the maiden, +he had naturally gone home to apprize his parents and to make the +necessary preparations. + +But this conjecture brought with it a new anxiety. It, now, for +the first time, seemed something strange that Stevens had never +declared to himself, or to anybody else who his parents were--what +they were--where they were--what business they pursued; or anything +about them. Of his friends, they knew as little. The simple old +man had never thought of these things, until the propriety of such +inquiries was forced upon him by the conviction that they would +now be made in vain. The inability to answer them, when it was +necessary that an answer should be found, was a commentary upon +his imprudence which startled the good old man not a little. But, +in the confident hope that a solution of the difficulty could +be afforded by the sweetheart or the mother, he proceeded to her +cottage. Of course, Calvert, in his communication to him, had forborne +those darker conjectures which he could not help but entertain; +and his simple auditor, unconscious himself of any thought of evil, +had never himself formed any such suspicions. + +Margaret Cooper was in her chamber when Brother Cross arrived. She +had lost that elasticity of temper which would have carried her +out at that period among the hills in long rambles, led by those +wild, wooing companions, which gambol along the paths of poetic +contemplation. The old man opened his stores of scandal to Mrs. +Cooper with little or no hesitation. He told her all that Calvert +had said, all that Ned Hinkley had fancied himself to have heard, +and all the village tattle touching the engagement supposed to +exist between Stevens and her daughter. + +"Of course, Sister Cooper," said he, "I believe nothing of this +sort against the youth. I should be sorry to think it of one whom +I plucked as a brand from the burning. I hold Brother Stevens to be +a wise young man and a pious; and truly I fear, as indeed I learn, +that there is in the mind of Ned Hinkley a bitter dislike to the +youth, because of some quarrel which Brother Stevens is said to +have had with William Hinkley. This dislike hath made him conceive +evil things of Brother Stevens and to misunderstand and to pervert +some conversation which he hath overheard which Stevens hath had +with his companion. Truly, indeed, I think that Alfred Stevens is +a worthy youth of whom we shall hear a good account." + +"And I think so too, Brother Cross. Brother Stevens will be yet a +burning and a shining light in the church. There is a malice against +him; and I think I know the cause, Brother Cross." + +"Ah! this will be a light unto our footsteps, Sister Cooper." + +"Thou knowest, Brother Cross," resumed the old lady in a subdued +tone but with a loftier elevation of eyebrows and head--"thou +knowest the great beauty of my daughter Margaret?" + +"The maiden is comely, sister, comely among the maidens; but beauty +is grass. It is a flower which blooms at morning and is cut down +in the evening. It withereth on the stalk where it bloomed, until +men turn from it with sickening and with sorrow, remembering what +it hath been. Be not boastful of thy daughter's beauty, Sister +Cooper, it is the beauty of goodness alone which dieth not." + +"But said I not, Brother Cross, of her wisdom, and her wit, as +well as her beauty?" replied the old lady with some little pique. +"I was forgetful of much, if I spoke only of the beauty of person +which Margaret Cooper surely possesseth, and which the eyes of +blindness itself might see." + +"Dross, dross all, Sister Cooper. The wit of man is a flash which +blindeth and maketh dark; and the wisdom of man is a vain thing. +The one crackleth like thorns beneath the pot--the other stifleth +the heart and keepeth down the soul from her true flight. I count +the wit and wisdom of thy daughter even as I count her beauty. She +hath all, I think--as they are known to and regarded by men. But +all is nothing. Beauty hath a day's life like the butterfly; wit +shineth like the sudden flash of the lightning, leaving only the +cloud behind it; and oh! for the vain wisdom of man which makes +him vain and unsteady--likely to falter--liable to fall--rash in +his judgment--erring in his aims--blind to his duty--wilful in his +weakness--insolent to his fellow--presumptuous in the sight of +God. Talk not to me of worldly wisdom. It is the foe to prayer and +meekness. The very fruit of the tree which brought sin and death +into the world. Thy daughter is fair to behold--very fair among the +maidens of our flock--none fairer, none so fair: God hath otherwise +blessed her with a bright mind and a quick intelligence; but I think +not that she is wise to salvation. No, no! she hath not yearned +to the holy places of the tabernacle, unless it be that Brother +Stevens hath been more blessed in his ministry than I!" + +"And he hath!" exclaimed the mother. "I tell you, Brother John, the +heart of Margaret Cooper is no longer what it was. It is softened. +The toils of Brother Stevens have not been in vain. Blessed young +man, no wonder they hate and defame him. He hath had a power over +Margaret Cooper such as man never had before; and it is for this +reason that Bill Hinkley and Ned conspired against him, first to +take his life, and then to speak evil of his deeds. They beheld +the beauty of my daughter, and they looked on her with famishing +eyes. She sent them a-packing, I tell you. But this youth, Brother +Stevens, found favor in her heart. They beheld the two as they +went forth together. Ah! Brother John, it is the sweetest sight to +behold two young, loving people walk forth in amity--born, as it +would seem, for each other; both so tall, and young, and handsome; +walking together with such smiles, as if there was no sorrow in +the world; as if there was nothing but flowers and sweetness on +the path; as if they could see nothing but one another; and as if +there were no enemies looking on. It did my heart good to see them, +Brother Cross; they always looked so happy with one another." + +"And you think, Sister Cooper, that Brother Stevens hath agreed to +take Margaret to wife?" + +"She hath not told me this yet, but in truth, I think it hath very +nigh come to that." + +"Where is she?" + +"In her chamber." + +"Call her hither, Sister Cooper; let us ask of her the truth." + +Margaret Cooper was summoned, and descended with slow steps and an +unwilling spirit to meet their visiter. + +"Daughter," said the good old man, taking her hand, and leading her +to a seat, "thou art, even as thy mother sayest, one of exceeding +beauty. Few damsels have ever met mine eyes with a beauty like to +thine. No wonder the young men look on thee with eyes of love; but +let not the love of youth betray thee. The love of God is the only +love that is precious to the heart of wisdom." + +Thus saying, the old man gazed on her with as much admiration as +was consistent with the natural coldness of his temperament, his +years, and his profession. His address, so different from usual, +had a soothing effect upon her. A sigh escaped her, but she said +nothing. He then proceeded to renew the history which had been given +to him and which he had already detailed to her mother. She heard +him with patience, in spite of all his interpolations from Scripture, +his ejaculations, his running commentary upon the narrative, and the +numerous suggestive topics which took him from episode to episode, +until the story seemed interminably mixed up in the digression. + +But when he came to that portion which related to the adventure of +Ned Hinkley, to his espionage, the conference of Stevens with his +companion--then she started--then her breathing became suspended, +then quickened--then again suspended--and then, so rapid in its +rush, that her emotion became almost too much for her powers of +suppression. + +But she did suppress it, with a power, a resolution, not often +paralleled among men--still more seldom among women. After the first +spasmodic acknowledgment given by her surprise, she listened with +comparative calmness. She, alone, had the key to that conversation. +She, alone, knew its terrible signification. She knew that Ned +Hinkley was honest--was to be believed--that he was too simple, +and too sincere, for any such invention; and, sitting with hands +clasped upon that chair--the only attitude which expressed the +intense emotion which she felt--she gazed with unembarrassed eye +upon the face of the speaker, while every word which he spoke went +like some keen, death-giving instrument into her heart. + +The whole dreadful history of the villany of Stevens, her irreparable +ruin--was now clearly intelligible. The mocking devil at her elbow +had spoken nothing but the truth. She was indeed the poor victim +of a crafty villain. In the day of her strength and glory she had +fallen--fallen, fallen, fallen! + +"Why am I called to hear this?" she demanded with singular composure. + +The old man and the mother explained in the same breath--that she +might reveal the degree of intercourse which had taken place between +them, and, if possible, account for the absence of her lover. That, +in short, she might refute the malice of enemies and establish the +falsehood of their suggestions. + +"You wish to know if I believe this story of Ned Hinkley?" + +"Even so, my daughter." + +"Then, I do!" + +"Ha! what is it you say, Margaret?" + +"The truth." + +"What?" demanded the preacher, "you can not surely mean that Brother +Stevens hath been a wolf in sheep's clothing--that he hath been a +hypocrite." + +"Alas!" thought Margaret Cooper--"have I not been my own worst +enemy--did I not know him to be this from the first?" + +Her secret reflection remained, however, unspoken. She answered +the demand of John Cross without a moment's hesitation. + +"I believe that Alfred Stevens is all that he is charged to be--a +hypocrite--a wolf in sheep's clothing!--I see no reason to doubt +the story of Ned Hinkley. He is an honest youth." + +The old lady was in consternation. The preacher aghast and confounded. + +"Tell me, Margaret," said the former, "hath he not engaged himself +to you? Did he not promise--is he not sworn to be your husband?" + +"I have already given you my belief. I see no reason to say +anything more. What more do you need? Is he not gone--fled--has he +not failed--" + +She paused abruptly, while a purple flush went over her face. She +rose to retire. + +"Margaret!" exclaimed the mother. + +"My daughter!" said John Cross. + +"Speak out what you know--tell us all--" + +"No! I will say no more. You know enough already. I tell you, I +believe Alfred Stevens to be a hypocrite and a villain. Is not that +enough? What is it to you whether he is so or not? What is it to +me, at least? You do not suppose that it is anything to me? Why +should you? What should he be? I tell you he is nothing to +me--nothing--nothing--nothing! Villain or hypocrite, or what not--he +is no more to me than the earth on which I tread. Let me hear no +more about him, I pray you. I would not hear his name! Are there +not villains enough in the world, that you should think and speak +of one only?" + +With these vehement words she left the room, and hurried to her +chamber. She stopped suddenly before the mirror. + +"And is it thus!" she exclaimed--"and I am--" + +The mother by this time had followed her into the room. + +"What is the meaning of this, Margaret?--tell me!" cried the old +woman in the wildest agitation. + +"What should it be, mother? Look at me!--in my eyes--do they not +tell you? Can you not read?" + +"I see nothing--I do not understand you, Margaret." + +"Indeed! but you shall understand me! I thought my face would tell +you without my words. _I_ see it there, legible enough, to myself. +Look again!--spare me if you can--spare your own ears the necessity +of hearing me speak!" + +"You terrify me, Margaret--I fear you are out of your mind. + +"No! no! that need not be your fear; nor, were it true, would it +be a fear of mine. It might be something to hope--to pray for. It +might bring relief. Hear me, since you will not see. You ask me +why I believe Stevens to be a villain. I KNOW it." + +"Ha! how know it!" + +"How! How should I know it? Well, I see that I must speak. Listen +then. You bade me seek and make a conquest of him, did you not? Do +not deny it, mother--you did." + +"Well, if I did?" + +"I succeeded! Without trying, I succeeded! He declared to me his +love--he did!--he promised to marry me. He was to have married me +yesterday--to have met me in church and married me. John Cross was +to have performed the ceremony. Well! you saw me there--you saw +me in white--the dress of a bride!--Did he come? Did you see him +there? Did you see the ceremony performed?" + +"No, surely not--you know without asking." + +"I know without asking!--surely I do!--but look you, mother--do you +think that conquests are to be made, hearts won, loves confessed, +pledges given, marriage-day fixed--do these things take place, +as matters of pure form? Is there no sensation--no agitation--no +beating and violence about the heart--in the blood--in the brain! +I tell you there is--a blinding violence, a wild, stormy, sensation +--fondness, forgetfulness, madness! I say, madness! madness! +madness!" + +"Oh, my daughter, what can all this mean? Speak calmly, be deliberate!" + +"Calm! deliberate! What a monster if I could be! But I am not +mad now. I will tell you what it means. It means that, in taking +captive Alfred Stevens--in winning a lover--securing that pious +young man--there was some difficulty, some peril. Would you believe +it?--there were some privileges which he claimed. He took me in his +arms. Ha! ha! He held me panting to his breast. His mouth filled +mine with kisses--" + +"No more, do not say more, my child!" + +"Ay, more! more! much more! I tell you--then came blindness and +madness, and I was dishonored--made a woman before I was made a +wife! Ruined, lost, abused, despised, abandoned! Ha! ha! ha! no +marriage ceremony. Though I went to the church. No bridegroom there, +though he promised to come. Preacher, church, bride, all present, +yet no wedding. Ha! ha! ha! How do I know!--Good reason for it, +good reason--Ha! ha!--ah!" + +The paroxysm, terminated in a convulsion. The unhappy girl fell +to the floor as if stricken in the forehead. The blood gushed from +her mouth and nostrils, and she lay insensible in the presence of +the terrified and miserable mother. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +THE FATES FIND THE DAGGER AND THE BOWL. + + + + + +For a long time she lay without showing any signs of life. Her +passions rebelled against the restraint which her mind had endeavored +to put upon them. Their concentrated force breaking all bonds, so +suddenly, was like the terrific outburst of the boiling lava from +the gorges of the frozen mountain. Believing her dead, the mother +rushed headlong into the highway, rending the village with her +screams. She was for the time a perfect madwoman. The neighbors +gathered to her assistance. That much-abused woman, the widow +Thackeray, was the first to come. Never was woman's tenderness +more remarkable than hers--never was woman's watch by the bed of +sickness and suffering--that watch which woman alone knows so well +how to keep--more rigidly maintained than by her! From the first +hour of that agony under which Margaret Cooper fell to earth +insensible, to the last moment in which her recovery was doubtful, +that widow Thackeray--whose passion for a husband had been described +by Mrs. Cooper as so very decided and evident--maintained her place +by the sick bed of the stricken girl with all the affection of a +mother. Widow Thackeray was a woman who could laugh merrily, but +she could shed tears with equal readiness. These were equally the +signs of prompt feeling and nice susceptibility; and the proud Margaret, +and her invidious mother, were both humbled by that spontaneous +kindness for which, hitherto, they had given the possessor so +very little credit, and to which they were now equally so greatly +indebted. + +Medical attendance was promptly secured. Charlemont had a very +clever physician of the old school. He combined as was requisite +in the forest region of our country, the distinct offices of the +surgeon and mediciner. He was tolerably skilful in both departments. +He found his patient in a condition of considerable peril. She had +broken a blood-vessel; and the nicest care and closest attendance +were necessary to her preservation. It will not need that we should +go through the long and weary details which followed to her final +cure. Enough, that she did recover. But for weeks her chance was +doubtful. She lay for that space of time, equally in the arms of +life and death. For a long period, she herself was unconscious of +her situation. + +When she came to know, the skill of her attendants derived very +little aid from her consciousness. Her mind was unfavorable to her +cure; and this, by the way, is a very important particular in the +fortunes of the sick. To despond, to have a weariness of life, +to forbear hope as well as exertion, is, a hundred to one, to +determine against the skill of the physician. Margaret Cooper felt +a willingness to die. She felt her overthrow in the keenest pangs +of its shame; and, unhappily, the mother, in her madness, had +declared it. + +The story of her fall--of the triumph of the serpent--was now the +village property, and of course put an end to all further doubts +on the score of the piety of Brother Stevens; though, by way of +qualification of his offence, old Hinkley insisted that it was the +fault of the poor damsel. + +"She," he said, "had tempted him--had thrown herself in his way--had +been brazen," and all that, of which so much is commonly said in +all similar cases. We, who know the character of the parties, and +have traced events from the beginning, very well know how little +of this is true. Poor Margaret was a victim before she was well +aware of those passions which made her so. She was the victim not +of lust but of ambition. Never was woman more unsophisticated--less +moved by unworthy and sinister design. She had her weaknesses--her +pride, her vanity; and her passions, which were tremendous, worked +upon through these, very soon effected her undoing. But, for +deliberate purpose of evil--of any evil of which her own intellect +was conscious--the angels were not more innocent. + +But mere innocence of evil design, in any one particular condition, +is not enough for security. We are not only to forbear evil; virtue +requires that we should be exercised for the purposes of good. She +lacked the moral strength which such exercises, constantly pursued, +would have assured her. She was a creature of impulse only, not of +reflection. Besides, she was ignorant of her particular weaknesses. +She was weak where she thought herself strong. This is always the +error of a person having a very decided will. The will is constantly +mistaken for the power. She could not humble herself, and in her +own personal capacities--capacities which had never before been +subjected to any ordeal-trial--she relied for the force which was +to sustain her in every situation. Fancy a confident country-girl--supreme +in her own district over the Hobs and Hinnies thereabouts--in +conflict with the adroit man of the world, and you have the whole +history of Margaret Cooper, and the secret of her misfortune. Let +the girl have what natural talent you please, and the case is by no +means altered. She must fall if she seeks or permits the conflict. +She can only escape by flight. It is in consideration of this +human weakness, that we pray God, nightly, not to suffer us to be +exposed to temptation. + +When the personal resources of her own experience and mind failed +Margaret Cooper, as at some time or other they must fail all who +trust only in them, she had no further reliance. She had never +learned to draw equal strength and consolation from the sweet +counsels of the sacred volume. Regarding the wild raving and the +senseless insanity, which are but too frequently the language of +the vulgar preacher, as gross ignorance and debasing folly, she +committed the unhappy error of confounding the preacher with his +cause. She had never been taught to make an habitual reference to +religion; and her own experience of life, had never forced upon +her those sage reflections which would have shown her that TRUE +religion is the very all of life, and without it life has nothing. +The humility of the psalmist, which was the real source of all the +strength allotted to the monarch minstrel, was an unread lesson +with her; and never having been tutored to refer to God, and relying +upon her own proud mind and daring imagination, what wonder that +these frail reeds should pierce her side while giving way beneath +her. + +It was this very confidence in her own strength--this fearlessness +of danger (and we repeat the lesson here, emphatically, by way of +warning)--a confidence which the possession of a quick and powerful +mind naturally enough inspires--that effected her undoing. It was +not by the force of her affections that she fell. THE AFFECTIONS +ARE NOT APT TO BE STRONG IN A WOMAN WHOSE MIND LEADS HER OUT FROM +HER SEX! + +The seducer triumphed through the medium of her vanity. Her +feeling of self-assurance had been thus active from childhood, and +conspicuous in all her sports and employments. SHE HAD NEVER BEEN +A CHILD HERSELF. SHE LED ALWAYS IN THE PASTIMES OF HER PLAYMATES, +MANY OF WHOM WERE OLDER THAN HERSELF. + +She had no fears when others trembled; and, if she did not, at any +time, so far transcend the bounds of filial duty as to defy the +counsels of her parents, it was certainly no less true that she +never sought for, and seldom seemed to need them. IT IS DANGEROUS +WHEN THE WOMAN, THROUGH SHEER CONFIDENCE IN HER OWN STRENGTH, VENTURES +UPON THE VERGE OF THE MORAL PRECIPICE. THEY VERY EXPERIMENTAL, +WHERE THE PASSIONS ARE CONCERNED, PROVES HER TO BE LOST. + +Margaret Cooper, confident in her own footsteps, soon learned to +despise every sort of guardianship. The vanity of her mother had +not only counselled and stimulated her own, but was of that gross +and silly order, as to make itself offensive to the judgment of the +girl herself. This had the effect of losing her all the authority +of a parent; and we have already seen, in the few instances where +this authority took the shape of counsel, that its tendency was to +evil rather than to good. + +The arts of Alfred Stevens had, in reality, been very few. It was +only necessary that he should read the character of his victim. +This, as an experienced worldling--experienced in such a volume--he +was soon very able to do. He saw enough to discover, that, while +Margaret Cooper was endowed by nature with an extraordinary measure +of intellect, she was really weak because of its possession. In +due proportion to the degree of exercise to which she subjected +her mere mind--making that busy and restless--was the neglect of +her sensibilities--those nice ANTENNAE OF THE HEART. + +"Whose instant touches, slightest pause," + +teach the approach of the smallest forms of danger, however +inoffensive their shapes, however unobtrusive their advance. When +the sensibilities are neglected and suffered to fall into disrepute, +they grow idle first, and finally obtuse! even as the limb which you +forbear to exercise loses its muscle, and withers into worthlessness. + +When Alfred Stevens discovered this condition, his plan was simple +enough. He had only to stimulate her mind into bolder exercise--to +conduct it to topics of the utmost hardihood--to inspire that sort +of moral recklessness which some people call courage--which delights +to sport along the edge of the precipice, and to summon audacious +spirits from the great yawning gulfs which lie below. This practice +is always pursued at the expense of those guardian feelings which +keep watch over the virtues of the tender heart. + +The analysis of subjects commonly forbidden to the sex, necessarily +tends to make dull those habitual sentinels over the female conduct. +These sentinels are instincts rather than principles. Education +can take them away, but does not often confer them. When, through +the arts of Alfred Stevens, Margaret Cooper was led to discuss, +perhaps to despise, those nice and seemingly purposeless barriers +which society--having the experience of ages for its authority--has +wisely set up between the sexes--she had already taken a large +stride toward passing them. But of this, which a judicious education +would have taught her, she was wholly ignorant. Her mind was too +bold to be scrupulous; too adventurous to be watchful; and if, at +any moment, a pause in her progress permitted her to think of the +probable danger to her sex of such adventurous freedom, she certainly +never apprehended it in her own case. Such restraints she conceived +to be essential only for the protection of THE WEAK among her sex. +Her vanity led her to believe that she was strong; and the approaches +of the sapper were conducted with too much caution, with a progress +too stealthy and insensible, to startle the ear or attract the +eye of the unobservant, yet keen-eyed guardian of her citadel. An +eagle perched upon a rock, with wing outspread for flight, and an +eye fixed upon the rolling clouds through which it means to dart, +is thus heedless of the coiled serpent which lies beneath its feet. + +The bold eye of Margaret Cooper was thus heedless. Gazing upon the +sun, she saw not the serpent at her feet. It was not because she +slept: never was eye brighter, more far-stretching; never was mind +more busy, more active, than that of the victim at the very moment +when she fell. It was because she watched the remote, not the +near--the region in which there was no enemy, nothing but glory--and +neglected that post which is always in danger. Her error is that +of the general who expends his army upon some distant province, +leaving his chief city to the assault and sack of the invader. + +We have dwelt somewhat longer upon the moral causes which, in our +story, have produced such cruel results, than the mere story itself +demands; but no story is perfectly moral unless the author, with a +wholesome commentary, directs the attention of the reader to the +true weaknesses of his hero, to the point where his character fails; +to the causes of this failure, and the modes in which it may be +repaired or prevented. In this way alone may the details of life +and society be properly welded together into consistent doctrine, +so that instruction may keep pace with delight, and the heart and +mind be informed without being conscious of any of those tasks +which accompany the lessons of experience. + +To return now to our narrative. + +Margaret Cooper lived! She might as well have died. This was HER +thought, at least. She prayed for death. Was it in mercy that her +prayer was denied? We shall see! Youth and a vigorous constitution +successfully resisted the attacks of the assailant. They finally +obtained the victory. After a weary spell of bondage and suffering, +she recovered. But she recovered only to the consciousness of a +new affliction. All the consequences of her fatal lapse from virtue +have not yet been told. She bore within her an indelible witness +of her shame. She was destined to be a mother without having been +a wife! + +This, to her mother at least, was a more terrible discovery than the +former. She literally cowered and crouched beneath it. It was the +WRITTEN shame, rather than the actual, which the old woman dreaded. +She had been so vain, so criminally vain, of her daughter--she had +made her so constantly the subject of her brag--that, unwitting of +having declared the whole melancholy truth, in the first moment of +her madness, she shrank, with an unspeakable horror, from the idea +that the little world in which she lived should become familiar +with the whole cruel history of her overthrow. She could scarcely +believe it herself though the daughter, with an anguish in her eyes +that left little to be told, had herself revealed the truth. Her +pride as well as her life, was linked with the pride and the +beauty of her child. She had shared in her constant triumphs over +all around her; and overlooking, as a fond, foolish mother is apt +to do, all her faults of temper or of judgment, she had learned to +behold nothing but her superiority. And now to see her fallen! a +thing of scorn, which was lately a thing of beauty!--the despised, +which was lately the worshipped and the wondered at! No wonder that +her weak, vain heart was crushed and humbled, and her head bowed +in sorrow to the earth. She threw herself upon the floor, and wept +bitter and scalding tears. + +The daughter had none. Without sob or sigh, she stooped down and +tenderly assisted the old woman to rise. Why had she no tears? She +asked herself this question, but in vain. Her external emotions +promised none. Indeed, she seemed to be without emotions. A weariness +and general indifference to all things was now the expression of +her features. But this was the deceitful aspect of the mountain, +on whose breast contemplation sits with silence, unconscious of the +tossing flame which within is secretly fusing the stubborn metal +and the rock. Anger was in her breast--feelings of hate mingled up +with shame--scorn of herself, scorn of all--feelings of defiance +and terror, striving at mastery; and, in one corner, a brooding +image of despair, kept from the brink of the precipice only by the +entreaties of some fiercer principle of hate. She felt life to be +insupportable. Why did she live? This question came to her repeatedly. +The demon was again at work beside her. + +"Die!" said he. "It is but a blow--a moment's pang--the driving a +needle into an artery--the prick of a pin upon the heart. Die! it +will save you from exposure--the shame of bringing into the world +an heir of shame! What would you live for? The doors of love, and +fame, even of society, are shut against you for ever. What is life +to you now? a long denial--a protracted draught of bitterness--the +feeling of a death-spasm carried on through sleepless years; perhaps, +under a curse of peculiar bitterness, carried on even into age! +Die! you can not be so base as to wish for longer life!" + +The arguments of the demon were imposing. His suggestions seemed +to promise the relief she sought. Hers seemed the particular case +where the prayer is justified which invokes the mountains and the +rocks upon the head of the guilty. But the rock refused to fall, +the mountain to cover her shame, and its exposure became daily +more and more certain. Death was the only mode of escape from the +mountain of pain which seemed to rest upon her heart. The means +of self-destruction were easy. With a spirit so impetuous as hers, +to imagine was to determine. She did determine. Yet, even while +making so terrible a resolve, a singular calm seemed to overspread +her soul. She complained of nothing--wished for nothing--sought +for nothing--trembled at nothing. A dreadful lethargy, which made +the old mother declaim as against a singular proof of hardihood, +possessed her spirit. Little did the still-idolizing mother conjecture +how much that lethargy concealed! + +The moment that Margaret Cooper conceived the idea of suicide, it +possessed all her mind. It became the one only thought. There were +few arguments against it, and these she rapidly dismissed or overcame. +To leave her mother in her old age was the first which offered +itself; but this became a small consideration when she reflected +that the latter could not, under any circumstances, require her +assistance very long; and to spare her the shame of public exposure +was another consideration. The evils of the act to herself were +reduced with equal readiness to the transition from one state +to another by a small process, which, whether by the name of stab +or shot, was productive only of a momentary spasm; for, though as +fully persuaded of the soul's immortality as the best of us, the +unhappy girl, like all young free-thinkers, had persuaded herself +that, in dying by her own hands, she was simply exercising a +discretionary power under the conviction that her act in doing so +was rendered by circumstances a judicious one. The arguments by +which she deceived herself are sufficiently commonplace, and too +easy of refutation, to render necessary any discussion of them +here. Enough to state the fact. She deliberately resolved upon the +fatal deed which was to end her life and agony together, and save +her from that more notorious exposure which must follow the birth +of that child of sin whom she deemed it no more than a charity to +destroy. + +There was an old pair of pistols in the house, which had been the +property of her father. She had often, with a boldness not common +to the sex, examined these pistols. They were of brass, well made, +of English manufacture, with common muzzles, and a groove for +a sight instead of the usual drop. They were not large, but, in +a practised hand, were good travelling-pistols, being capable of +bringing down a man at twelve paces, provided there was anything +like deliberation in the holder. Often and again had she handled +these weapons, poising them and addressing them at objects as +she had seen her father do. On one occasion she had been made to +discharge them, under his own instructions; she had done so without +terror. She recalled these events. She had seen the pistols loaded. +She did not exactly know what quantity of powder was necessary for a +charge, but she was in no mood to calculate the value of a thimbleful. + +Availing herself of the temporary absence of her mother, she +possessed herself of these weapons. Along with them, in the same +drawer, she found a horn which still contained a certain quantity +of powder. There were bullets in the bag with the pistols which +precisely fitted them. There, too, was the mould--there were +flints--the stock was sufficiently ample for all her desires; and +she surveyed the prize, in her own room, with the look of one who +congratulates himself in the conviction that he holds in his hand +the great medicine which is to cure his disease. In her chamber +she loaded the weapons, and, with such resignation as belonged to +her philosophy, she waited for the propitious moment when she might +complete the deed. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +FOLDING THE ROBES ABOUT HER. + + + + + +It was the sabbath and a very lovely day. The sun never shone more +brightly in the heavens; and as Margaret Cooper surveyed its mellow +orange light, lying, like some blessed spirit, at sleep upon the +hills around her, and reflected that she was about to behold it +for the last time, her sense of its exceeding beauty became more +strong than ever. Now that she was about to lose it for ever, it +seemed more beautiful than it had ever been before. + +This is a natural effect, which the affections confer upon the +objects which delight and employ them. Even a temporary privation +increases the loveliness of the external nature. How we linger +and look. That shade seems so inviting; that old oak so venerable! +That rock--how often have we sat upon it, evening and morning, and +mused strange, wild, sweet fancies! It is an effort to tear one's +self away--it is almost like tearing away from life itself; so +many living affections feel the rending and the straining--so many +fibres that have their roots in the heart, are torn and lacerated +by the separation. + +Poor Margaret! she looked from her window upon the bright and +beautiful world around her. Strange that sorrow should dwell in +a world so bright and beautiful! Stranger still, that, dwelling +in such a world, it should not dwell there by sufferance only and +constraint! that it should have such sway--such privilege. That +it should invade every sanctuary and leave no home secure. Ah! but +the difference between mere sorrow and guilt! Poor Margaret could +not well understand that! If she could--but no! She was yet to learn +that the sorrows of the innocent have a healing effect. That they +produce a holy and ennobling strength, and a juster appreciation of +those evening shades of life which render the lights valuable and +make their uses pure. It is only guilt which finds life loathsome. +It is only guilt that sorrow weakens and enslaves. Virtue grows +strong beneath the pressure of her enemies, and with such a power +as was fabled of the king of Pontus, turns the most poisonous fruits +of earth into the most wholesome food. + +But, even in the heart of Margaret Cooper, where the sense of the +beautiful was strong, the loveliness of the scene was felt. She +drank in, with strange satisfaction--a satisfaction to which she +had long been a stranger--its soft and inviting beauties. They +did not lessen her sense of suffering, perhaps, but they were not +without their effect in producing other moods, which, once taken +in company with the darker ones of the soul, may, in time, succeed +in alleviating them. Never, indeed, had the prospect been more +calm and wooing. Silence, bending from the hills, seemed to brood +above the valley even as some mighty spirit, at whose bidding strife +was hushed, and peace became the acknowledged divinity of all. The +humming voices of trade and merriment were all hushed in homage to +the holy day; and if the fitful song of a truant bird, that presumed +beside the window of Margaret Cooper, did break the silence of the +scene, it certainly did not disturb its calm. The forest minstrel +sung in a neighboring tree, and she half listened to his lay. The +strain seemed to sympathize with her sadness. She thought upon her +own songs, which had been of such a proud spirit; and how strange +and startling seemed the idea that with her, song would soon cease +for ever. The song of the bird would be silent in her ears, and +her own song! What song would be hers? What strain would she take +up? In what abode--before what altars? + +This train of thought, which was not entirely lost, however, was +broken, for the time, by a very natural circumstance. A troop of the +village damsels came in sight, on their way to church. She forgot +the song of birds, as her morbid spirit suggested to her the probable +subject of their meditations. + +"They have seen me," she muttered to herself as she hastily +darted from the window. "Ay, they exult. They point to me--me, the +abandoned--the desolate--soon to be the disgraced! But, no! no! +that shall never be. They shall never have that triumph, which is +always so grateful a subject of regale to the mean and envious!" + +The voice of her mother from below disturbed these unhappy meditations. +The old lady was prepared for church, and was surprised to find +that Margaret had not made her toilet. + +"What! don't you mean to go, Margaret?" + +"Not to-day, mother." + +"What, and the new preacher too, that takes the place of John Cross! +They say he makes a most heavenly prayer." + +But the inducement of the heavenly prayer of the new preacher was +not enough for Margaret. The very suggestion of a new preacher would +have been conclusive against her compliance. The good old lady was +too eager herself to get under way to waste much time in exhortation, +and hurrying off, she scarcely gave herself time to answer the +inquiry of the widow Thackeray, at her own door, after the daughter's +health. + +"I will go in and see her," said the lighthearted but truehearted +woman. + +"Do, do, ma'am---if you please! She'll be glad to see you. I'll +hurry on, as I see Mrs. Hinkley just ahead." + +The widow Thackeray looked after her with a smile, which was +exchanged for another of different character when she found herself +in the chamber of Margaret. She put her arms about the waist of +the sufferer; kissed her cheeks, and with the tenderest solicitude +spoke of her health and comfort. To her, alone, with the exception +of her mother--according to the belief of Margaret--her true +situation had been made known. + +"Alas!" said she, "how should I feel--how should I be! You should +know. I am as one cursed--doomed, hopeless of anything but death." + +"Ah! do not speak of death, Margaret," said the other kindly. "We +must all die, I know, but that does not reconcile me any more to +the thought. It brings always a creeping horror through my veins. +Think of life--talk of life only." + +"They say that death is life." + +"So it is, I believe, Margaret; and now I think of it, dress yourself +and go to church where we may hear something on this subject to +make us wiser and better. Come, my dear--let us go to God." + +"I can not--not to-day, dear Mrs. Thackeray." + +"Ah, Margaret, why not? It is to the church, of all places, you +should now go." + +"What! to be stared at? To see the finger of scorn pointing at me +wherever I turn? To hear the whispered insinuation? To be conscious +only of sneer and sarcasm on every hand? No, no, dear Mrs. Thackeray, +I can not go for this. Feeling this, I should neither pray for +myself, nor find benefit from the prayers of others. Nay, THEY +would not pray. They would only mock." + +"Margaret, these thoughts are very sinful." + +"So they are, but I can not think of any better. They can not but +be sinful since they are mine." + +But you are not wedded to sin, dearest. Such thoughts can give you +no pleasure. Come with me to church! Come and pray! Prayer will do +you good." + +"I would rather pray here. Let me remain. I will try to go out +among the hills when you are all engaged in church, and will pray +there. Indeed I must. I must pray then and pray there, if prayer +is ever to do me good." + +"The church is the better place, Margaret. One prays better where +one sees that all are praying." + +"But when I KNOW that they are not praying! When I know that envy +is in their hearts, and malice, and jealousy and suspicion--that +God is not in their hearts, but their fellow; and not him with +friendly and fond, but with spiteful and deceitful thoughts!" + +"Ah! Margaret, how can you know this? Judge not lest ye be judged." + +"It matters not, dear Mrs. Thackeray. God is here, or there. He +will be among the hills if anywhere. I will seek him there. If I +can command my thoughts anywhere, it will be in the woods alone. +In the church I can not. Those who hate me are there--and their +looks of hate would only move my scorn and defiance." + +"Margaret, you do our people wrong. You do yourself wrong. None +hate you--none will point to you, or think of your misfortune; and +if they did, it is only what you might expect, and what you must +learn patiently to bear, as a part of the punishment which God +inflicts on sin. You must submit, Margaret, to the shame as you +have submitted to the sin. It is by submission only that you can +be made strong. The burden which you are prepared to bear meekly, +becomes light to the willing spirit. Come, dear Margaret, I will +keep with you, sit by you--show you, and all, that I forget your +sin and remember only your suffering." + +The good widow spoke with the kindest tones. She threw her +arms around the neck of the desolate one, and kissed her with the +affection of a sister. But the demon of pride was uppermost. She +withstood entreaty and embrace. + +"I can not go with you. I thank you, truly thank you, dear Mrs. +Thackeray, but I can not go. I have neither the courage nor the +strength." + +"They will come--the courage and the strength--only try. God is +watchful to give us help the moment he sees that we really seek +his assistance. By prayer, Margaret--" + +"I will pray, but I must pray alone. Among the hills I will pray. +My prayer will not be less acceptable offered among his hills. My +voice will not remain unheard, though no chorus swells its appeal." + +"Margaret, this is pride." + +"Perhaps!" + +"Ah! go with me, and pray for humility." + +"My prayer would rather be for death." + +"Say not so, Margaret--this is impiety." + +"Ay, death!--the peace, the quiet of the grave--of a long sleep--an +endless sleep--where the vulture may no longer gnaw the heart, nor +the fire burn within the brain! For these I must pray." + +And, thus speaking, the unhappy woman smote her throbbing head with +violent hand. + +"Shocking thought! But you do not believe in such a sleep? Surely, +Margaret, you believe in life eternal?" + +"Would I did not!" + +"O Margaret!--but you are sick; you are very feverish. Your eyeballs +glare like coals of fire; your face seems charged with blood. I am +afraid you are going to have another attack, like the last." + +"Be not afraid. I have no such fear." + +"I will sit with you, at least," said the kind-hearted woman. + +"Nay, that I must positively forbid, Mrs. Thackeray; I will not +suffer it. I will not sit with YOU. Go you to church. You will +be late. Do not waste your time on me. I mean to ramble among the +hills this morning. THAT, I think, will do me more good than anything +else. There, I am sure--there only--I will find peace." + +The worthy widow shook her head doubtfully. + +"But I am sure of it," said Margaret. "You will see. Peace, peace--the +repose of the heart--the slumber of the brain!--I shall find all +there!" + +Mrs. Thackeray, finding her inflexible, rose to depart, but with +some irresoluteness. + +"If you would let me walk with you, Margaret--" + +"No! no!--dear Mrs. Thackeray--I thank you very much; but, with a +mood such as mine, I shall be much better alone." + +"Well, if you are resolved--" + +"I am resolved! never more so." + +These words were spoken in tones which might have startled a +suspicious mind. But the widow was none. + +"God bless you!" she said, kissing her at parting." I will see you +when I come from church." + +"Will you?" said Margaret, with a significant but sad smile. Then, +suddenly rising, she exclaimed:-- + +"Let me kiss you, dear Mrs. Thackeray, and thank you again, before +you go. You have been very kind to me, very kind, and you have my +thanks and gratitude." + +Mrs. Thackeray was touched by her manner. This was the first time +that the proud spirit of Margaret Cooper had ever offered such an +acknowledgment. It was one that the gentle and unremitting kindnesses +of the widow amply deserved. After renewing her promise to call on +her return from church, Mrs. Thackeray took her departure. + +Margaret Cooper was once more alone. When she heard the outer door +shut, she then threw herself upon the bed, and gave way to the +utterance of those emotions which, long restrained, had rendered +her mind a terrible anarchy. A few tears, but very few, were wrung +from her eyes; but she groaned audibly, and a rapid succession of +shivering-fits passed through her frame, racking the whole nervous +system, until she scarcely found herself able to rise from the +couch where she had thrown herself. A strong, determined will alone +moved her, and she rose, after a lapse of half an hour, to the +further prosecution of her purpose. Her temporary weakness and +suffering of frame had no effect upon her resolves. She rather seemed +to be strengthened in them. This strength enabled her to sit down +and dictate a letter to her mother, declaring her intention, and +justifying it by such arguments as were presented by the ingenious +demon who assists always in the councils of the erring heart. + +She placed this letter in her bosom, that it might be found upon +her person. It was curious to observe, next, that she proceeded +to tasks which were scarcely in unison with the dreadful deed she +meditated. She put her chamber in nice order. Her books, of which +she had a tolerably handsome collection for a private library in +our forest-country, she arranged and properly classed upon their +shelves. Then she made her toilet with unusual care. It was for the +last time. She gazed upon the mirror, and beheld her own beauties +with a shudder. + +"Ah!" she thought, though she gave no expression to the thought, +"to be so beautiful, yet fail!" + +It was a reflection to touch any heart with sorrow. Her dress was +of plain white; she wore no ornament--not even a riband. Her hair, +which was beautifully long and thick, was disposed in a clubbed +mass upon her head, very simply but with particular neatness; and, +when all was done, concealing the weapon of death beneath a shawl +which she wrapped around her, she left the house, and stole away +unobserved along the hills, in the seclusion and sacred silence +of which she sought to avoid the evil consequences of one crime by +the commission of another far more heinous. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +SUSPENSE AND AGONY. + + + + + +At the risk of seeming monotonous, we must repeat the reflection +made in our last chapter, that the things we are about to lose for +ever seem always more valuable in the moment of their loss. They +acquire a newer interest in our eyes at such a time, possibly +under the direction of some governing instinct which is intended +to render us tenacious of life to the very last. Privation teaches +us much more effectually than possession the value of all human +enjoyments; and the moralist has more than once drawn his sweetest +portraits of liberty from the gloom and the denials of a dungeon. +How eloquent of freedom is he who yearns for it in vain! How glowing +is that passion which laments the lost! + +To one dying, as we suppose few die, in the perfect possession +of their senses, how beautiful must seem the fading hues of the +sunlight, flickering along the walls of a chamber! how heavenly +the brief glimpses of the blue sky through the half-opened window! +how charming the green bit of foliage that swings against the pane! +how cheering and unwontedly sweet and balmy the soft, sudden gust +of the sweet south, breathing up from the flowers, and stirring the +loose drapery around the couch! How can we part with these without +tears? how reflect, without horror, upon the close coffin, the damp +clod, the deep hollows of the earth in which we are to be cabined? +Oh, with what earnestness, at such a moment, must the wholly +conscious spirit pray for life! now greedily will he drink the +nauseous draught in the hope to secure its boon! how fondly will +he seize upon every chimera, whether of his own or of another's +fancy, in order to gain a little respite--in order still to keep +within the grasp of mind and sight, these lovely agents of earth +and its Master, which, in our day of strength and exultation, we +do not value at one half their worth! And how full of dread and +horror must be that first awful conviction which assures him that +the struggle is in vain--that the last remedy is tried--that nothing +is left him now but despair--despair and death! Then it is that +Christianity comes to his relief. If he believes, he gains by his +loss. Its godlike promise assures him then that the things which +his desires make dear, his faith has rendered immortal. + +The truth of many of these reflections made their way into the +mind of Margaret Cooper, as she pursued the well-known path along +the hills. She observed the objects along the route more narrowly +than ever. She was taking that path for the last time. Her eyes +would behold these objects no more. How often had she pursued the +same route with Alfred Stevens! But then she had not seen these +things; she had not observed these thousand graces and beauties of +form and shadow which now seemed to crowd around, challenging her +regard and demanding her sympathies. Then she had seen nothing +but him. The bitterness which this reflection occasioned made her +hurry her footsteps; but there was an involuntary shudder that +passed through her frame, when, in noting the strange beauty of the +path, she reflected that it would be trodden by her for the last +time. Her breathing became quickened by the reflection. She pressed +forward up the hills. The forests grew thick around her--deep, +dim, solemn, and inviting. The skies above looked down in little +blessed blue tufts, through the crowding tree-tops. The long vista +of the woods led her onward in wandering thoughts. + +To fix these thoughts--to keep them from wandering! This was +a difficulty. Margaret Cooper strove to do so, but she could not. +Never did her mind seem such a perfect chaos--so full of confused +and confusing objects and images. Her whole life seemed to pass in +review before her. All her dreams of ambition, all the struggles +of her genius! Were these to be thrown away? Were these all to be +wasted? Was her song to be unheard? Was her passionate and proud +soul to have no voice? If death is terrible to man, it is terrible, +not as a pang, but as an oblivion; and to the soul of genius, +oblivion is a soul-death, and its thought is a source of tenfold +terror. + +"But of what avail were life to me now? Even should I live," said +the wretched woman, "would it matter more to the ambition which I +have had, and to the soul which flames and fevers within me? Who +would hearken to the song of the degraded? Who, that heard the +story of my shame, would listen to the strains of my genius? Say +that its utterance is even as proud as my own vanity of heart would +esteem it--say that no plaint like mine had ever touched the ear +or lifted the heart of humanity! Alas! of what avail! The finger +of scorn would be uplifted long before the voice of applause. The +sneer and sarcasm of the worldling would anticipate the favoring +judgment of the indulgent and the wise. Who would do justice to +my cause? Who listen? Alas! the voice of genius would be of little +avail speaking from the lips of the dishonored. + +"To the talent which I have, and the ambition which still burns +within me, life then can bring nothing--no exercise--no fruition. +Suppose, then, that the talent is left to slumber--the ambition +stifled till it has no further longings! Will life yield anything +to the mere creature of society--to my youth--to my beauty--to +my sense of delight--if still there be any such sense left to me? +Shall I be less the creature of social scorn, because I have yielded +my ambition--because I have forborne the employment of those glorious +gifts which Heaven in its bounty has allotted me? + +"Alas! no! am I not a woman, one of that frail, feeble sex, whose +name is weakness?--of whom, having no strength, man yet expects +the proofs of the most unyielding--of a firmness which he himself +can not exercise--of a power of self-denial and endurance of which +he exhibits no example. If I weep, he smiles at my weakness. If I +stifle my tears, he denounces my unnatural hardihood. If I am cold +and unyielding, I am masculine and neglected--if I am gentle and +pliant, my confidence is abused and my person dishonored. What +can society, which is thus exacting, accord to me, then, as a mere +woman? What shame will it not thrust upon me--a woman--and as I +am? + +"Life then promises me nothing. The talent which I have, lies +within me idle and without hope of use. The pure name of the woman +is lost to me for ever. Shame dogs my footsteps. Scorn points its +finger. Life, and all that it brings to others--love, friends, +fame, fortune--which are the soul of life--these are lost to me +for ever. The moral death is here already. The mere act of dying, +is simply the end of a strife, and a breathing and an agony. That +is all!" + +The day became overcast. A cloud obscured the sunlight. The blue +tufts of sky no longer looked downward through the openings of the +trees. The scene, dim and silent before, became unusually dark. The +aspect of nature seemed congenial with the meditated deed. She had +reasoned herself into its commission, and she reproached herself +mentally with her delay. Any self-suggestion of an infirmity of +purpose, with a nature such as hers, would have produced precipitation. +She turned down a slight gorge among the hills where the forest +was more close. She knelt beneath a tree and laid down her pistol +at its foot. + +She knelt--strange contradiction!--she knelt for the purposes of +prayer. But she could not pray. It would seem that she attributed +this effort to the sight of the pistols, and she put them behind +her without changing her position. The prayer, if she made any, was +internal; and, at all events it did not seem to be satisfactory. +Yet, before it was ended, she started with an expression of +painful thought upon her face. The voice of her reason had ceased +its utterance. The voice of her conscience, perhaps, had been unheard; +but there was yet another voice to be heard which was more potent +than all. + +It was the mother's voice! + +She placed her hand upon her side with a spasmodic effort. The +quickening of a new life within her, made that new voice effectual. +She threw herself on the ground and wept freely. For the first +time she wept freely. The tears were those of the mother. The true +fountain of tears had been touched. That first throb of the innocent +pledge of guilty passion subdued the fiend. She could have taken +her own life, but dared not lift the deadly weapon against that. The +arm of the suicide--was arrested. She groaned, she wept, bitterly +and freely. She was at once feebler and more strong. Feebler, as +regarded her late resolution; stronger as regarded the force of +her affections, the sweet humanities, not altogether subdued within +her heart. The slight pulsation of that infant in her womb had been +more effectual than the voice of reason, or conscience, or feminine +dread. The maternal feeling is, perhaps, the most imperious of all +those which gather in the heart of woman. + +Margaret Cooper, however, had not altogether resolved against +the deed. She only could not do it there and then. Her wretched +determination was not wholly surrendered, but it was touched, enfeebled; +and with the increasing powers of reflection, the impetuosity of +the will became naturally lessened. Those few glimpses along the +roadside which had made her sensible to the beauties she was about +to lose, had prepared her mind to act in counteraction of her +impulse; and the event which had brought into play the maternal +instinct, naturally helped the cause of roason in her soul. + +Still, with the erring pride of youth she reproached herself with +her infirmity of purpose. She resolved to change her ground, as if +the instinct which had been awakened in one spot would not everywhere +pursue her. Time was gained, and in such cases, to gain time is +everything. Perhaps no suicide would ever take place if the individual +would wait ten minutes. The soul takes its color from the cloud, +and changes its moods as often. It is one of the best lessons to +the young, to wait! wait! wait! One of the surest signs of strength +is where the individual waits patiently and makes no complaint. + +Margaret Cooper changed her ground. The spot was a wild one. A +broken ledge of rock was at her feet, and just below it ran a dark, +narrow winding footpath half-obscured by the undergrowth. Here she +once more proceeded to nerve her mind for the commission of the +deed, but she had not been there an instant when she was surprised +to hear the sound of voices. + +This was unusual. Who could they be? The villagers were not apt +to stray from church-service whenever a preacher was to be found, +and there was a new one, and consequently a new attraction, that +day, for the spiritual hungry of Charlemont. The path below was +seldom trodden except by herself and an occasional sportsman. The +idea that entered her mind was, that her purpose had been suspected, +and that she was pursued. + +With this idea, she placed the pistol to her breast. She had +already cocked the weapon. Her finger was on the trigger. But the +tones of another voice reached her ears from below. They were those +of a woman--sweet, musical, and tender. + +A new light broke in upon her mind. This was the language of love. +And who were these new lovers in Charlemont? Could it be that the +voice of the male speaker was that of Stevens? Something in the tone +sounded like it, Involuntarily, with this impression, the weapon +was turned from her own bosom, and addressed in the direction in +which the persons below were approaching. A sudden, joyous feeling +touched her soul. The thought to destroy the criminal by whom she +had been destroyed was a source of exultation. She felt that she +could do it. Both pistols were in her hand. The pathway was not +more than twenty paces distant; and her nerves, for the first time, +braced to an unusual tension, trembled with the new excitement in +her soul. + +The intruders continued to approach. Their voices became more +distinct, and Margaret Cooper was soon undeceived as to one of them +being that of Alfred Stevens. She was compelled to lie close, that +she might not betray her position and purpose. The male speaker was +very urgent; the voice seemed that of a stranger. That of the female +was not so clearly distinguishable, yet it seemed more familiar to +the unintentional listener. + +Something of feminine curiosity now entered the bosom of Margaret +Cooper. Crouching where she was, she deposited the pistols at her +feet. She remained breathlessly, for the slightest movement would +have revealed her to the persons who were now just below. They +passed close beneath the place of her concealment, and she soon +discovered that they were lovers; and what their language was, even +if she had not heard it, might have been conjectured. + +The girl was a very pretty brunette of Charlemont--a sweet, retiring +damsel of her own age, named Rivers--whom she knew only slightly. +She was a shy, gentle, unpresuming girl, whom, for this reason, +perhaps, Margaret had learned to look upon without dislike or scorn. +Her companion was a youth whom Margaret had known when a lad, but +who had been absent on the Mississippi for two years. His tall and +masculine but well-made and graceful person sufficiently accounted +for, while it justified, the taste of the maiden. He was a youth +of fine, frank, manly countenance. His garb was picturesque, that +of a bold border-hunter, with hunting-frock of yellow buckskin, +and Indian leggings. + +The girl looked up to him with an expression at once of eagerness +and timidity. Confidence and maiden bashfulness spoke equally in +the delight which glowed upon her features. The bright eyes and +sun-burned features of the youth were flushed with the feeling of +happy triumph and assuring love. The relation of the two was sufficiently +evident from their looks, even had they no other language. + +What were the emotions of Margaret Cooper as she looked down upon +this pair? At first she thought, as will most persons: "Surely there +is nothing in nature so lovely as the union of two--fond, devoted +hearts. The picture is one equally of moral and physical beauty. +The slight, fragile, depending damsel, hanging in perfect confidence +on the arm of the manly, lofty, and exulting youth--looking up +into his eyes in hope, while he returns the gaze with pride and +fondness! Unconscious of all things but the love which to them is +life and all things besides, they move along the forest way and +know not its solitude; they linger and loiter along its protracted +paths, and see not their length; they cling together through the +lengthened hours, and fancy they have lost no time; they hear each +other's voices, and believe that life is all music and delight." + +While Margaret Cooper looked down and heard the pleadings and +promises of the youth, and beheld the sweet emotions of his companion, +engaged in a pleasant struggle between her hopes and misgivings, +she scarcely restrained herself from rising where she was and crying +aloud--like another Cassandra, not to be believed: "Beware! beware!" + +But the warning of Margaret Cooper would have been unnecessary. +The girl was not only free from danger, but she was superior to it. +She had the wholesome fear of doing wrong too strongly impressed +upon her by education--she had too little confidence in herself--was +too well assured of her own weakness--to suffer herself, even for +a moment, to depart, in either thought or deed, from those quiet +but stern proprieties of conduct which are among the best securities +of the young. While she looked in her lover's face with confidence, +and held his arm with the grasp of one who is sure of a right to +do so, there was an air of childish simplicity in her manner which +was wholly at variance with wild passions and improper fancies. +While the hunter maintained her on his arm, and looked down into her +eyes with love, his glance was yet as respectful, as unexpressive +of presumption, as her own. Had the eyes of all Charlemont been +looking on, they would have beheld nothing in the conduct of either +which could have incurred the censure of the most becoming delicacy. + +Keen was the emotion and bitter was the thought which worked in the +mind of Margaret Cooper. She looked on the deportment of that young +maiden, whose intellect at another day she would have despised, +with envy and regret. Truer thoughts and feelings came to her as she +listened to the innocent but fond dialogue between the unconscious +pair. The hunter was pursuing an erratic life of enterprise and +industry, then very common among the western youth. He had been +down upon the Mississippi, seeking his fortune in such adventures +as make border-life in our country something like the more civilized +life of the middle ages. He had returned after a long absence, +to claim the bride whose affections he had won long before he had +departed. + +Never had knight-errant been more true to his mistress. Her image +had been his talisman as well against danger from without, as against +the demon within. It had never left his mind, and he now returned +for his reward. He had returned to Charlemont just before the church +service had begun, and, being unprepared to go thither, had found +no difficulty in persuading his sweetheart to give the hour of +morning service to himself. + +Mixed up with his professions of love was the story of his wanderings. +Never were adventures more interesting to any auditor. Never was +auditor more easily moved by the transitions of the tale from tears +to smiles, and from smiles again to tears. His risks and rewards; +his defeats and successes; his wild adventures by fell and flood--not +perhaps so perilous as those of Othello, but such as proved he +had the soul to encounter the worst in Othello's experience, and +maintain himself as well--drew largely on the maiden's wonder and +delight, increased her tenderness and tremors, and made her quite +as devoted to her hero as ever was Desdemona to her dusky chief. +As they went from hearing below, the manner in which the hunter +concluded his narrative provided a sufficient test for the faith +of his companion. + +"And now, Selina, you see all the risks and the dangers. There's +work and perhaps trouble for you to go down with me along the Choctaw +borders. But if there's work, I am the man to do my own share, and +help you out in yours; and, if there's trouble, here's the breast +to stand it first, and here's the arm to drive it back, so that +it'll never trouble yours. No danger shall come to you, so long +as I can stand up between it and you. If so be that you love me as +you say, there's one way to show it: you'll soon make up your mind +to go with me. If yon don't, why--" + +"But you know I do love you, John--" murmured the girl. + +"Don't I believe it? Well, if what you say means what it should, +you're ready. Here's my hand, and all that it's good for. It can +work for you and fight for you, Selina, and it's yours etarnally, +with all that I have." + +The hand of the girl was silently put into that of the speaker. +The tears were in her eyes; but, if she made any other answer, it +was unheard by Margaret Cooper. The rustic pair moved from sight +even as they spoke, and the desolate woman once more remained alone! + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +SHAME AND DEATH--THE OATH. + + + + + +Margaret Cooper was at length permitted to emerge from the place +of her concealment. The voices of the lovers were lost, as well +as their forms, in the wooded distance. Dreaming, like children as +they were, of life and happiness, they had wandered off, too happy +to fancy for a moment that the world contained, in its wide, vast +bosom, one creature half so wretched as she who hung above them, +brooding, like some wild bird of the cliff, over the storm which +had robbed her of her richest plumage. + +She sank back into the woods. She no longer had the heart to commit +the meditated crime. This purpose had left her mind. It had given +place to another, however, scarcely less criminal. We have seen +her, under the first impression that the stranger whose voice she +heard was Alfred Stevens, turning the muzzle of the pistol from +her breast to the path on which he was approaching. Though she +discovered her error, and laid the weapon down, the sudden suggestion +of her mind, at that moment, gave a new direction to her mood. + +Why should she not seek to avenge her wrong? Was he to escape without +penalty? was she to be a quiescent victim? True, she was a woman, +destined it would seem to suffer--perhaps with a more than ordinary +share of that suffering which falls to her sex. But she had also +a peculiar strength--the strength of a man in some respects; and +in her bosom she now felt the sudden glow of one of his fiercest +passions. Revenge might be in her power. She might redress her +wrong by her own hand. It was a weapon of death which she grasped. +In her grasp it might be made a weapon of power. The suggestion +seemed to be that of justice only. It was one that filled her whole +soul with a triumphant and a wild enthusiasm. + +"I shall not be stricken down without danger to mine enemy. For +THIS--this, at least--strength is allotted me. Let him tremble! In +his place of seeming security let him tremble! I shall pursue his +steps. I will find him out. There shall be a day of retribution! +Alfred Stevens, there is a power within me which tells me you are +no longer safe! + +"And why may I not secure this justice--this vengeance? Why? +Because I am a woman. Ha! We shall see. If I am a woman, I can be +an enemy--and such an enemy! An enemy not to be appeased, not to +be overcome. War always with my foe--war to the knife--war to the +last!" + +Such a nature as that of Margaret Cooper needed some such object +to give it the passionate employment without which it must recoil +upon itself and end either in suicide or madness. She brooded upon +this new thought. She found in it a grateful exercise. From the +moment when she conceived the idea of being the avenger of her own +wrong, her spirit became more elastic--she became less sensible to +the possible opinions upon her condition which might be entertained +by others. She found consolation, in retreating to this one thought, +from all the rest. Of the difficulties in the way of her design, +it was not in her impetuous character to think. She never once +suspected that the name of Alfred Stevens had been an assumed one. +She never once asked how she was to pursue and hunt him up. She +thought of a male disguise for herself, it is true; but of the means +and modes of travel--in what direction to go. and after what plan +to conduct her pursuit, she had not the most distant idea. + +She addressed herself to her new design, however, in one respect, +with amazing perseverance. It diverted her from other and more +oppressive thoughts. Her pistols she carried secretly to a very +distant wood, where she concealed them in the hollow of a tree. +To this wood she repaired secretly and daily. Here she selected a +tree as a mark. A small section of the bark, which she tore away, +at a given height, she learned to regard as the breast of her +seducer. This was the object of her aim. Without any woman fears, +she began her practice and continued it, day by day, until, as we +are told by one of the chroniclers of her melancholy story, "she +could place a ball with an accuracy, which, were it universally +equalled by modern duellists, would render duelling much more fatal +than it commonly is." + +In secret she procured gunpowder and lead, by arts so ingenious as +to baffle detection. At midnight when her mother slept she moulded +her bullets. Well might the thoughts and feelings which possessed her +mind, while engaged in this gloomy labor, have endowed every bullet +with a wizard spell to make it do its bidding truly. Bitter, indeed, +were the hours so appropriated; but they had their consolations. +Dark and terrible were the excited moods in which she retired from +her toils to that slumber which she could not always secure. And +when it did come, what were its images! The tree, the mark, the +weapon, the deep, dim forest, all the scenes and trials of the day, +were renewed in her sleep. A gloomy wood filled her eyes--a victim +dabbled in blood lay before her; and, more than once, her own fearful +cry of vengeance and exultation awakened her from those dreams of +sleep, which strengthened her in the terrible pursuit of the object +which occasioned them. + +Such thoughts and practices, continued with religious pertinacity, +from day to day, necessarily had their effect upon her appearance +as well as her character. Her beauty assumed a wilder aspect. Her +eye shot forth a supernatural fire. She never smiled. Her mouth +was rigid and compressed as if her heart was busy in an endless +conflict. Her gloom, thus nurtured by solitude and the continual +presence of a brooding imagination of revenge, darkened into +something like ferocity. Her utterance became brief and quick--her +tones sharp, sudden, and piercing. She had but one thought which +never seemed to desert her, yet of this thought no ear ever had +cognizance. It was of the time when she should exercise the skill +which she had now acquired upon that destroyer of herself, whom +she now felt herself destined to destroy. + +Of course we are describing a madness--one of those peculiar +forms of the disease which seems to have its origin in natural and +justifiable suggestions of reason. Not the less a madness for all +that. + +Succeeding in her practice at one distance, Margaret Cooper changed +it. From one point to another she constantly varied her practice, +until her aim grew certain at almost any distance within the ordinary +influence of the weapon. To strike her mark at thirty feet became, +in a little while, quite as easy as to do so at five; and, secure +now of her weapon, her next object--though there was no cessation +of her practice--was how to seek and where to find the victim. + +In this new object she meditated to disguise herself in the apparel +of a man. She actually commenced the making up of the several +garments of one. This was also the secret labor of the midnight +hour, when her feeble-minded mother slept. She began to feel some +of the difficulties lying in the way of this pursuit, and her mind +grew troubled to consider them, without however, relaxing in its +determination. That seemed a settled matter. + +While she brooded over this new feature of her purpose--as if +fortunately to arrest the mad design--her mother fell seriously +sick, and was for some time in danger. The duty of attending upon +her, put a temporary stop to her thoughts and exercises; though +without having the effect of expelling them from her mind. + +But another event, upon her mother's recovery, tended to produce +a considerable alteration in her thoughts. A new care filled her +heart and rendered her a different being, in several respects. She +was soon to become a mother. The sickness of soul which oppressed +her under this conviction, gave a new direction to her mood +without lessening its bitterness; and, in proportion as she found +her vengeance delayed, so was the gratification which it promised, +a heightened desire in her mind. + +For the humiliating and trying event which was at hand, Margaret +Cooper prepared with a degree of silent firmness which denoted +quite as strongly the resignation of despair as any other feeling. + +The child is born. + +Margaret Cooper has at length become a mother. She has suffered +the agony, without being able to feel the compensating pride and +pleasure of one. It was the witness of her shame--could she receive +it with any assurances of love? It is doubtful if she did. + +For some time after its birth, the hapless woman seemed to be +unconscious, or half-conscious only, of her charge. A stupor weighed +upon her senses. When she did awaken, and her eyes fell upon the +face and form of the infant with looks of recognition, one long, +long piercing shriek burst from her lips. She closed her eyes--she +turned away from the little unoffending, yet offensive object with +a feeling of horror. + +Its features were those of Alfred Stevens. The likeness was +indelible; and this identity drew upon the child a share of that +loathing hatred with which she now remembered the guilty father. + +It may very well be supposed that the innocent babe suffered under +these circumstances. The milk which it drew from the mother's breast, +was the milk of bitterness, and it did not thrive. It imbibed gall +instead of nutriment. Day after day it pined in hopeless misery; +and though the wretched mother strove to supply its wants and soothe +its little sorrows, with a gradually increasing interest which +overcame her first loathing, there was yet that want of sweetest +sympathy which nothing merely physical could well supply. + +Debility was succeeded by disease--fever preyed upon its little +frame, which was now reduced to a skeleton. One short month only +had elapsed from its birth, and it lay, in the silence of exhaustion +upon the arm of its mother. Its eyes, whence the flickering light +was escaping fast, looked up into hers, as she fancied, with an +expression of reproach. She felt, on the instant, the pang of the +maternal conscience. She forgot the unworthy father, as she thought +of the neglectful mother. She bent down, and, for the first time, +imprinted on its little lips the maternal kiss. + +A smile seemed to glimmer on its tiny features; and, from that +moment, Margaret Cooper resolved to forget her injuries, for the +time, at least, in the consideration of her proper duties. But +her resolution came too late. Even while her nipple was within its +boneless gums, a change came over the innocent. She did not heed +it. Her eyes and thoughts were elsewhere; and thus she mused, gazing +vacantly upon the wall of her chamber until her mother entered the +room. Mrs. Cooper gave but a single glance at the infant when she +saw that its little cares were over. + +"Oh, Margaret!" she exclaimed, "the child is dead." + +The mother looked down with a start and shudder. A big tear fell +from her eyes upon the cold cheek of the innocent. She released +it to her mother, turned her face upon the couch, and uttered her +thanks to Heaven that had sedecreed it--that had left her again +free for that darker purpose which had so long filled her mind. + +"Better so," she murmured to her mother. "It is at peace. It will +neither know its own nor its mother's griefs. It is free from that +shame for which I must live!" + +"Come now, Margaret, no more of that," said the mother sharply. +"There's no need of shame. There are other things to live for +besides shame." + +"There are--there are!" exclaimed the daughter, with spasmodic +energy. "Were there not, I should, indeed, be desperate." + +"To be sure you would, my child. You have a great deal to live +for yet; and let a little time blow over, and when everything's +forgotten, you will get as good a husband as any girl in the +country." + +"For Heaven's sake, mother, none of this?" + +"But why not! Though you are looking a little bad just now--quite +pale and broken--yet it's only because you have been so ill; and +this nursing of babies, and having 'em too, is a sort of business +to make any young woman look bad; but in spite of all, there's not +a girl in the village, no matter how fresh she may be looking, that +can hold a candle to you." + +"For mercy, mother!--" + +"Let me speak, I tell you! Don't I know? You're young, and you'll +get over it. You will get all your beauty and good looks back, now +that the baby's out of the way, and there's no more nursing to be +done. And what with your beauty and your talents, Margaret--" + +"Peace! mother! Peace--peace! You will drive me to madness if you +continue to speak thus." + +"Well, I'm sure there's no knowing what to say to please you. I'm +sure, I only want to cheer you up, and to convince you that things +are not so bad as you think them now. The cloud will blow over +soon, and everything will be forgotten, and then, you see--" + +The girl waved her hand impatiently. + +"Death--death!" she exclaimed. "Oh! child of shame, and bitterness, +and wrath!" she murmured, kneeling down beside the infant, "thou +art the witness that I have no future but storm, and cloud, and +wrath, and--Vengeance!" + +The last word was inaudible to her mother's ears. + +"It is an oath!" she cried; "an oath!" And her hands were uplifted +in solemn adjuration. + +"Come--come, Margaret! none of this swearing. You frighten me with +your swearing. There's nothing that you need to swear about! What's +done can't be helped now, by taking it so seriously. You must only +be patient, and give yourself time. Time's the word for us now; +after a little while you'll see the sky become brighter. It's a +bad business, it's true; but it needn't break a body's heart. How +many young girls I've known in my time, that's been in the same +fix. There was Janet Bonner, and Emma Loring, and Mary Peters--I +knew 'em all, very well. Well, they all made a slip once in their +lives, and they never broke their hearts about it, and didn't look +very pale and sad in the face either; but they just kept quiet and +behaved decent for awhile, and every one of 'em got good husbands. +Janet Bonner, she married Dick Pyatt, who came from Massachusetts, +and kept the school down by Clayton's Meadow; Emma Loring married +a baptist-preacher from Virginia, named Stokes. I never saw him to +know him; and as for Mary Peters, there never was a girl that had +a slip that was ever so fortunate, for she's been married no less +than three times since, and as she's a widow again, there's no +telling what may happen to her yet. So don't you be so downcast. +You're chance is pretty nigh as good as ever, if you will only hold +up your head, and put the best face on it." + +"Oh! torture--torture! Mother, will you not be silent? Let the dead +speak to me only. I would hear but the voice of this one witness--" + +And she communed only with the dead infant, sitting or kneeling +beside it. But the communion was not one of contrition or tears--not +of humility and repentance--not of self-reproach and a broken +spirit. Pride and other passions had summoned up deities and angels +of terror and of crime, before the eyes and thoughts of the wretched +mourner, and the demon who had watched with her and waited on her, +and had haunted her with taunt and bitter mockeries, night and day, +was again busy with terrible suggestions, which gradually grew to +be divine laws to her diseased imagination. + +"Yes!" she exclaimed unconsciously. + +"I hear! I obey! Yet speak again. Repeat the lesson. I must learn +it every syllable, so that I shall not mistake--so that I can not +fail!" + +"Who are you talking to, Margaret?" asked the mother anxiously. + +"Do you not see them, where they go? There--through the doors; +the open windows--wrapped in shadows, with great wings at their +shoulders, each carrying a dart in his bony grasp." + +"Lord, have mercy! She's losing her senses again!" and the mother +was about to rush from the apartment to seek assistance; but with +the action, the daughter suddenly arose, wearing a look of singular +calmness, and motioning to the child, she said:-- + +"Will you not dress it for the grave?" + +"I'm going about it now. The poor lovely little creature. The +innocent little blossom. We must put it in white, Margaret--virgin +white--and put white flowers in its little hands and on its breast, +and under its head. Oh! it will look so sweet in its little coffin!" + +"God! I should go mad with all this!" exclaimed the daughter. +"were it not for that work which is before me! I must be calm for +that-calm and stern! I must not hear--I must not think--not feel--lest +I forget myself, and the deed which I have to do. That oath--that +oath! It is sworn! It is registered in heaven, by the fatal angel +of remorse, and wrath, and vengeance!" + +And again, a whisper at her ears repeated:-- + +"For this, Margaret, and for this only, must thou live". + +"I must! I will!" she muttered, as it were in reply, and her eye +glared upon the opened door, as she heard a voice and footsteps +without; and the thought smote her:-- + +"Should it be now! Come for the sacrifice! Ha!" + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +THE PALL UPON THE COFFIN. + + + + + +The noise which arrested the attention of Margaret Cooper, and +kindled her features into an expression of wild and fiery ferocity, +was of innocent origin. The widow Thackeray was the intruder. Her +kindness, sympathy, and unweared attentions, so utterly in conflict +with the estimates hitherto made of her heart and character, +by Mrs Cooper, had, in some degree, disarmed the censures of that +excellent mother, if they had not wholly changed her sentiments. +She professed to be very grateful to Thackeray's attentions, and, +without making any profession, Margaret certainly showed her that +she felt them. She now only pointed the widow to the corpse of the +child, in that one action telling to the other all that was yet +unknown. Then she seated herself composedly, folded her hands, +and, beside the corpse, forgot its presence, forgot the presence of +all--heard no voice, save that of the assiduous demon whom nothing +could expel from her companionship. + +"Poor little thing!" murmured the widow Thackeray, as she proceeded +to assist Mrs. Cooper in decking it for the grave. + +The duty was finally done. Its burial was appointed for the morrow. + +A village funeral is necessarily an event of some importance. The +lack of excitements in small communities, in vests even sorrow and +grief and death with a peculiar interest in the eyes of curiosity. +On the present occasion, all the villagers attended. The funeral +itself might have sufficed to collect them with few exceptions; +but now there was a more eager influence still, working upon the +gossippy moods of the population. To see Margaret Cooper in her +affliction--to see that haughty spirit humbled and made ashamed--was, +we fear, a motive, in the minds of many, much stronger than +the ostensible occasion might have awakened. Had Margaret been +a fashionable woman, in a great city, she might have disappointed +the vulgar desire, by keeping to her chamber. Nay, even according +to the free-and-easy standards prevailing at Charlemont, she might +have done the same thing, and incurred no additional scandal. + +It was, indeed, to the surprise of a great many, that she made her +appearance. It was still more a matter of surprise--nay, pious and +virgin horror--that she seemed to betray neither grief nor shame, +surrounded as she was by all whom she knew, and all, in particular, +whom, in the day of her pride, she had kept at a distance. + +"What a brazen creature!" whispered Miss Jemima Parkinson, an +interesting spinster of thirty-six, to Miss Ellen Broadhurst, who +was only thirty-four; and Miss Ellen whispered back, in reply:-- + +"She hasn't the slightest bit of shame!" + +Interesting virgins! they had come to gloat over the spectacle of +shame. To behold the agonizing sense of degradation declare itself +under the finger-pointing scorn of those who, perhaps, were only +innocent from necessity, and virtuous because of the lack of the +necessary attractions in the eyes of lust. + +But Margaret Cooper seemed quite as insensible to their presence +as to their scorn and her own shame. She, in truth, saw none of +them. She heard not their voices. She conjectured non (sic) nts. +She had anticipated all of them; and having, in consequence, reached +a point of intensity in her agony which could bear no addition, +she had been relieved only by a still more intense passion, by +which the enfeebling one, of mere society, stood rebuked and almost +forgotten. + +They little dreamed the terrible thoughts which were working, +beneath that stolid face, in that always eager-working brain. They +never fancied what a terrible demon now occupied that fiery heart +which they supposed was wholly surrendered to the consciousness of +shame. Could they have heard that voice of the fiend whispering in +her ears, while they whispered to one another--heard his terrible +exhortations--heard her no less terrible replies--they would have +shrunk away in horror, and felt fear rather than exultation. + +Margaret Cooper was insensible to all that they could say or do. +She knew them well--knew what they would say, and feel, and do; +but the very extremity of her suffering had placed it out of their +power any longer to mortify or shame. + +Some few of the villagers remained away. Ned Hinkley and his widowed +sister were absent from the house, though they occupied obscure +places in the church when the funeral-procession took place. An +honorable pity kept them from meeting the eyes of the poor +shame-stricken but not shame-showing woman. + +And Margaret followed the little corpse to its quiet nook in the +village graveyard. In that simple region the procession was wholly +on foot; and she walked behind the coffin as firmly as if she knew +not what it held. There was a single shiver that passed over her +frame, as the heavy clods fell upon the coffin-lid--but that was +all; and when her mother and the widow Thackeray took each of them +one of her arms, and led her away from the grave, and home, she went +quietly, calmly, it would seem, and with as firm a step as ever! + +"She has not a bit of feeling!" said Miss Jemima to Miss Ellen. + +"That's always the case with your very smart women," was the reply. +"It's all head with 'em; there's no heart. They can talk fine things +about death, and sorrow, and affliction, but it's talk only. They +don't feel what they say." + +Ned Hinkley had a juster notion of the state of the poor victim--of +her failings and her sensibilities, her equal strength and weakness. + +"Now," said he to his sister, "there's a burning volcano in that +woman's heart, that will tear her some day to pieces. For all that +coldness, and calmness, and stateliness, her brain is on fire, and +her heart ready for a convulsion. Her thoughts now, if she thinks +at all, are all desperate. She's going through a very hell upon +earth! When you think of her pride--and she's just as proud now as +the devil himself--her misfortune hasn't let her down--only made her +more fierce--you wonder that she lets herself be seen; you wonder +that she lives at all. I only wonder that she hasn't thrown herself +from the rocks and into the lake. She'll do it yet, I'm a-thinking. + +"And just so she always was. I knew her long ago. She once told +me she was afraid of nothing--would do as she pleased--she could +dare anything! From that moment I saw she wasn't the girl for Bill +Hinkley. I told him so, but he was so crazy after her, he'd hear to +nothing. A woman--a young woman--a mere girl of fifteen--boasting +that she can dare and do things that would set any woman in +a shiver! I tell you what, sis, the woman that's bolder than her +sex is always in danger of falling from the rocks. She gets such a +conceit of her mind, that the devil is always welcome. Her heart, +after that, stands no sort of chance! + +"Protect me, say I, from all that class of women that pride themselves +on their strongmindedness! They get insolent upon it. They think +that mind can do everything. They're so vain, that they never can +see the danger, even when it's yawning at their feet. A woman's +never safe unless she's scary of herself, and mistrusts herself, +and never lets her thoughts and fancies get from under a tight rein +of prudence. For, after all, the passions will have their way some +day, and then what's the use of the mind? I tell you, sis, that +the passions are born deaf--they never listen to any argument. + +"But I'm sorry for her--God knows I'm sorry for her! I'd give +all I'm worth to have a fair shot or clip at that rascal Stevens. +Brother Stevens! Ain't it monstrous, now, that a sheep's cover should +be all that's sufficient to give the wolf freedom in the flock?--that +you've only to say, 'This is a brother--a man of God'--and no proof +is asked! nobody questions! The blind, beastly, bigoted, blathering +blockheads! I feel very much like setting off straight, and licking +John Hinkley, though he's my own uncle, within an inch of his life! +He and John Cross--the old fools who are so eager to impose their +notions of religion upon everybody, that anybody may impose upon +them--they two have destroyed this poor young creature. It's at +their door, in part, this crime, and this ruin! I feel it in my +heart to lick 'em both out of their breeches! + +"Yet, as I'm a living sinner, they'll stand up in the congregation, +and exhort about this poor girl's misfortune, just as if they were +not to blame at all who brought the wolf into the farmyard! They'll +talk about her sins, and not a word, to themselves or anybody else, +about their own stupidities! I feel it in my heart to lather both +of them right away!" + +The sister said little, and sorrowfully walked on in silence +homeward, listening to the fierce denunciations of Ned Hinkley. +Ned was affected, or, rather, he showed his sympathies, in a manner +entirely his own. He was so much for fight, that he totally forgot +his fiddle that night, and amused himself by putting his two +"barking-pups" in order--getting them ready, as he said, "in case +he ever should get a crack at Brother Stevens!" + +The cares of the child's burial over, and the crowd dispersed, +the cottage of the widow Cooper was once more abandoned to the +cheerlessness and wo (sic) within. Very dismal was the night of that +day to the two, the foolish mother and wretched daughter, as they +sat brooding together, in deep silence, by the light of a feeble +candle. The mother rocked a while in her easy-chair. The daughter, +hands clasped in her lap, sat watching the candlelight in almost +idiotic vacancy of gaze. At length she stood up and spoke--slowly, +deliberately, and apparently in as calm a mood as she had ever felt +in all her life:-- + +"We must leave this place, mother. We must go hence--to-morrow if +we can." + +"Go?--leave this place? I want to know why! I'm sure we're very +comfortable here. I can't be going just when you please, and leaving +all my company and friends." + +"Friends!" + +"Yes, friends! There's the widow Thackeray--and there's--" + +"And how long is it since Mrs. Thackeray was such a dear friend, +mother?" asked the daughter, with ill-suppressed scorn. + +"No matter how long: she's a good friend now. She's not so foolish +as she used to be. She's grown good; she's got religion; and I +don't consider what she was. No!--I'm willing--" + +"Pshaw, mother! tell me nothing of your friendships. You'll find, +wherever you go, as many friends as you please, valued quite as +much as Mrs. Thackeray." + +"Well, I do say, Margaret, it's very ungrateful of you to speak +so disrespectfully of Mrs. Thackeray, after all her kindness and +attention." + +"I do not speak disrespectfully of Mrs. Thackeray. I NEVER did speak +ill of her, even when it was your favorite practice to do so. I +only speak of your newly-acquired appreciation of her. But this is +nothing to the purpose. I repeat, mother, we can not remain here. +I will depart, whether you resolve to go or not. I can not, I will +not, exist another week in Charlemont." + +"And where would you go?" + +"Back--back to that old farm, from which you brought me in evil +hour! It is poor, obscure, profitless, unsought, unseen: it will +give me a shelter--it may bring me peace. I must have solitude for +a season; I must sleep for months." + +"Sleep for months! La me, child, what a notion's that!" + +"No matter--thither let us go. I seem to see it, stretching out +its hands, and imploring us to come." + +"Bless me, Margaret! a farm stretching out its hands! Why, you're +in a dream!" + +"Don't wake me, then! Better I should so dream! Thither I go. It +is fortunate that you have not been able to sell it. It is a mercy +that it still remains to us. It was my childhood's home. Would +it could again receive me as a child! It will cover my head for a +while, at least, and that is something. We must leave this place. +Here every thing offends me--every spot, every face, every look, +every gesture." + +"It's impossible, Margaret!--" + +"What! you suppose it an honorable distinction, do you, when the +folks here point to your daughter, and say--ha! ha!--listen what +they say! It is the language of compliment! They are doing me honor, +with tongue and finger! Repeat, mother; tell me what they say--for +it evidently gives you great pleasure." + +"O Margaret! Margaret!--" + +"You understand, do you? Well, then, we go. We can not depart +too soon. If I stay here, I madden! And I must not madden. I have +something which needs be done--which must be done. It is an oath! +an oath in heaven! The child was a witness. She heard all--every +syllable!" + +"What all? what did you hear?" + +"No matter! I'm sworn to be secret. But you shall hear in time. We +have no time for it now. It is a very long story. And we must now +be packing. Yes, we must go. _I_ must go, at least. Shall I go +alone?" + +"But you will not leave your mother, Margaret!" + +"Father and mother--all will I leave, in obedience to that oath. +Believe me or not, mother--go with me or not--still I go. Perhaps +it is better that I should go alone." + +The strong will naturally swayed the feebler, as it had ever done +before. The mother submitted to an arrangement which she had not +the resolution to oppose. A few days were devoted to necessary +arrangements, and then they left Charlemont for ever. Margaret +Cooper looked not once behind them as they traversed the lonely +hills looking down upon the village--those very hills from which, +at the opening of this story, the treacherous Alfred Stevens and +his simple uncle beheld the lovely little settlement. She recognised +the very spot, as they drove over it, where Stevens first encountered +her, and the busy demon, at her ears whispered:-- + +"It was here! You remember!" + +And she clinched her teeth firmly together, even though she +shuddered at her memories; and she renewed her oath to the demon, +who, thereupon, kept her company the rest of the journey, till she +reached the ancient and obscure farmstead in which she was born. + +"She retired," says the rude chronicle from which we have borrowed +many of the materials for this sombre history, "to a romantic little +farm in---, there to spend in seclusion, with her aged mother and +a few servants, the remainder of her days." + +Our simple chronicler takes too much for granted. Margaret +Cooper retired with no such purpose. She had purposes entirely at +conflict with any idea of repose or quiet. She thought nothing of +the remainder of her days. Her mother was not so aged but that she +could still think, six months afterward, of the reported marriage +of the widow Thackeray with repining, and with the feeling of one +who thinks that she has suffered neglect and injustice at the hands +of the world. Touching the romance of the ancient farmstead, we +are more modestly content to describe it as sterile, lonely, and +unattractive; its obscurity offering, for the present, its chief +attractions to our desolate heroine, and the true occasion for that +deep disgust with which her amiable mother beheld it. + +Our chronicle of Charlemont is ended. We have no further object +or interest within its precincts. William Hinkley is gone, no one +knows whither, followed by his adopted father, the retired lawyer, +whose sensibilities were fatal to his success. It was not long +before Ned Hinkley and his widowed sister found it their policy +to depart also, seeking superior objects in another county; and +at this moment Charlemont is an abandoned and deserted region. +It seemed to decline from the moment when the cruel catastrophe +occurred which precipitated Margaret Cooper from her pride of place. +Beautiful as the village appeared at the opening of our legend, +it was doomed to as rapid a decay as growth. "Something ails it +now--the spot is cursed!" + +But OUR history does not finally conclude with the fate of Charlemont. +That chronicle is required now to give place to another, in which +we propose to take up the sundered clues, and reunite them in a +fresh progress. We shall meet some of the old parties once more, in +new situations. We shall again meet with Margaret Cooper, in a new +guise, under other aspects, but still accompanied by her demon--still +inspired by her secret oath--still glowing with all the terrible +memories of the past--still laboring with unhallowed pride; and +still destined for a lark catastrophe. Our scene, however, lies in +another region, to which the reader, who has thus far kept pace with +our progress, is entreated still to accompany us. The chronicle of +"CHARLEMONT" will find its fitting sequel in that of "BEAUCHAMPE"--known +proverbially as "THE KENTUCKY TRAGEDY." + +END OF CHARLEMONT. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, CHARLEMONT *** + +This file should be named chrlm10.txt or chrlm10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, chrlm11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, chrlm10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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