Nothing could be more obliging and respectful than the lion's letter was, in appearance; but there was death in the true intent.--L'Estrange.
Nothing could be more obliging and respectful than the lion's letter was, in appearance; but there was death in the true intent.--L'Estrange.
The landscape had grown more dark since Fleda came up the hill,--or else the eyes that looked at it. Both probably. It was just after sundown, and that is a very sober time of day in winter, especially in some states of the weather. The sun had left no largesses behind him; the scenery was deserted to all the coming poverty of night and looked grim and threadbare already. Not one of the colours of prosperity left. The land was in mourning dress; all the ground and even the ice on the little mill-ponds a uniform spread of white, while the hills were draperied with black stems, here just veiling the snow, and there on a side view making a thick fold of black. Every little unpainted workshop or mill shewed uncompromisingly all its forbidding sharpness of angle and outline darkening against the twilight. In better days perhaps some friendly tree had hung over it, shielding part of its faults and redeeming the rest. Now nothing but the gaunt skeleton of a friend stood there,--doubtless to bud forth again as fairly as ever should the season smile. Still and quiet all was, as Fleda's spirit, and in too good harmony with it; she resolved to choose the morning to go out in future. There was as little of the light of spring or summer in her own mind as on the hills, and it was desirable to catch at least a cheering reflection. She could rouse herself to no bright thoughts, try as she would; the happy voices of nature that used to speak to her were all hushed,--or her ear was deaf; and her eye met nothing that did not immediately fall in with the train of sad images that were passing through her mind and swell the procession. She was fain to fall back and stay herself upon these words, the only stand-by she could lay hold of;--
"To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory, and honour, and immortality, eternal life!"--
They toned with the scene and with her spirit exactly; they suited the darkening sky and the coming night; for "glory, honour, and immortality" are not now. They filled Fleda's mind, after they had once entered, and then nature's sympathy was again as readily given; each barren stern-looking hill in its guise of present desolation and calm expectancy seemed to echo softly, "patient continuance in well-doing." And the tears trembled then in Fleda's eyes; she had set her face, as the old Scotchman says, "in the right airth. [Footnote: quarter, direction]" "How sweet is the wind that bloweth out of the airth where Christ is!"
"Well," said Hugh, who entered the kitchen with her, "you have been late enough. Did you have a pleasant walk? You are pale, Fleda!"
"Yes, it was pleasant," said Fleda with one of her winning smiles,--"a kind of pleasant. But have you looked at the hills? They are exactly as if they had put on mourning--nothing but white and black--a crape-like dressing of black tree-stems upon the snowy face of the ground, and on every slope and edge of the hills the crape lies in folds. Do look at it when you go out! It has a most curious effect."
"Not pleasant, I should think," said Hugh.
"You'll see it is just as I have described it. No--not pleasant exactly--the landscape wants the sun to light it up just now--it is cold and wilderness looking. I think I'll take the morning in future. Whither are you bound?"
"I must go over to Queechy Run for a minute, on business--I'll be home before supper--I should have been back by this time but Philetus has gone to bed with a headache and I had to take care of the cows."
"Three times and out," said Barby. "I won't try again. I didn't know as anything would be too powerful for his head; but I find as sure as he has apple dumplin' for dinner he goes to bed for his supper and leaves the cows without none. And then Hugh has to take it. It has saved so many Elephants--that's one thing."
Hugh went out by one door and Fleda by another entered the breakfast-room; the one generally used in winter for all purposes. Mrs. Rossitur sat there alone in an easy-chair; and Fleda no sooner caught the outline of her figure than her heart sank at once to an unknown depth,--unknown before and unfathomable now. She wascoweringover the fire,--her head sunk in her hands, so crouching, that the line of neck and shoulders instantly conveyed to Fleda the idea of fancied or felt degradation--there was no escaping it--how, whence, what, was all wild confusion. But the language of mere attitude was so unmistakable,--the expression of crushing pain was so strong, that after Fleda had fearfully made her way up beside her she could do no more. She stood there tongue-tied, spell-bound, present to nothing but a nameless chill of fear and heart-sinking. She was afraid to speak--afraid to touch her aunt, and abode motionless in the grasp of that dread for minutes. But Mrs. Rossitur did not stir a hair, and the terror of that stillness grew to be less endurable than any other.
Mrs. Rossitur sat there alone.Mrs. Rossitur sat there alone.
Fleda spoke to her,--it did not win the shadow of a reply,--again and again. She laid her hand then upon Mrs. Rossitur's shoulder, but the very significant answer to that was a shrinking gesture of the shoulder and neck, away from the hand. Fleda growing desperate then implored an answer in words--prayed for an explanation--with an intensity of distress in voice and manner, that no one whose ears were not stopped with a stronger feeling could have been deaf to; but Mrs. Rossitur would not raise her head, nor slacken in the least the clasp of the fingers that supported it, that of themselves in their relentless tension spoke what no words could. Fleda's trembling prayers were in vain, in vain. Poor nature at last sought a woman's relief in tears--but they were heart-breaking, not heart-relieving tears--racking both mind and body more than they ought to bear, but bringing no cure. Mrs. Rossitur seemed as unconscious of her niece's mute agony as she had been of her agony of words; and it was from Fleda's own self-recollection alone that she fought off pain and roused herself above weakness to do what the time called for.
"Aunt Lucy," she said laying her hand upon her shoulder, and this time the voice was steady and the hand would not be shaken off,--"Aunt Lucy,--Hugh will be in presently--hadn't you better rouse yourself and go up stairs--for awhile?--till you are better?--and not let him see you so?--"
How the voice was broken and quivering before it got through!
The answer this time was a low long-drawn moan, so exceeding plaintive and full of pain that it made Fleda shake like an aspen. But after a moment she spoke again, bearing more heavily with her hand to mark her words.
"I am afraid he will be in presently--he ought not to see you now--Aunt Lucy, I am afraid it might do him an injury he might not get over--"
She spoke with the strength of desperation; her nerves were unstrung by fear, and every joint weakened so that she could hardly support herself. She had not however spoken in vain; one or two convulsive shudders passed over her aunt, and then Mrs. Rossitur suddenly rose turning her face from Fleda; neither would she permit her to follow her. But Fleda thought she had seen that one or two unfolded letters or papers of some kind, they looked like letters, were in her lap when she raised her head.
Left alone, Fleda sat down on the floor by the easy-chair and rested her head there; waiting,--she could do nothing else,--till her extreme excitement of body and mind should have quieted itself. She had a kind of vague hope that time would do something for her before Hugh came in. Perhaps it did; for though she lay in a kind of stupor, and was conscious of no change whatever, she was able when she heard him coming to get up and sit in the chair in an ordinary attitude. But she looked like the wraith of herself an hour ago.
"Fleda!" Hugh exclaimed as soon as he looked from the fire to her face,--"what is the matter?--what is the matter with you?"
"I am not very well--I don't feel very well," said Fleda speaking almost mechanically,--"I shall have a headache to-morrow--"
"Headache! But you look shockingly! what has happened to you? what is the matter, Fleda?"
"I am not ill--I shall be better by and by. There is nothing the matter with me that need trouble you, dear Hugh."
"Nothing the matter with you!" said he,--and Fleda might see how she looked in the reflection of his face,--"where's mother?"
"She is up-stairs--you mustn't go to her, Hugh!" said Fleda laying a detaining hand upon him with more strength than she thought she had,--"I don't want anything."
"Why mustn't I go to her?"
"I don't think she wants to be disturbed--"
"I must disturb her--"
"You musn't!--I know she don't--she isn't well--something has happened to trouble her--"
"What?"
"I don't know."
"And is that what has troubled you too?" said Hugh, his countenance changing as he gained more light on the subject;--"what is it, dear Fleda?"
"I don't know," repeated Fleda, bursting into tears. Hugh was quiet enough now, and sat down beside her, subdued and still, without even desiring to ask a question. Fleda's tears flowed violently, for a minute,--then she checked them, for his sake; and they sat motionless, without speaking to one another, looking into the fire and letting it die out before them into embers and ashes, neither stirring to put a hand to it. As the fire died the moonlight streamed in,--how very dismal the room looked!
"What do you think about having tea?" said Barby opening the door of the kitchen.
Neither felt it possible to answer her.
"Mr. Rossitur ain't come home, is he?"
"No," said Fleda shuddering.
"So I thought, and so I told Seth Plumfield just now--he was asking for him--My stars! ha'n't you no fire here? what did you let it go out for?"
Barby came in and began to build it up.
"It's growing cold I can tell you, so you may as well have something in the chimney to look at. You'll want it shortly if you don't now."
"Was Mr. Plumfield here, did you say, Barby?"
"Yes."
"Why didn't he come in?"
"I s'pose he hadn't a mind to," said Barby. "Twa'n't for want of being asked. I did the civil thing by him if he didn't by me;--but he said he didn't want to see anybody but Mr. Rossitur."
Did not wank to see anybody but Mr. Rossitur, when he had distinctly said he did not wish to see him? Fleda felt sick, merely from the mysterious dread which could fasten upon nothing and therefore took in everything.
"Well what about tea?" concluded Barby, when the fire was going according to her wishes. "Will you have it, or will you wait longer?"
"No--we won't wait--we will have it now, Barby," said Fleda, forcing herself to make the exertion; and she went to the window to put down the hangings.
The moonlight was very bright, and Fleda's eye was caught in the very act of letting down the curtain, by a figure in the road slowly passing before the courtyard fence. It paused a moment by the horse-gate, and turning paced slowly back till it was hid behind the rose acacias. There was a clump of shrubbery in that corner thick enough even in winter to serve for a screen. Fleda stood with the curtain in her hand, half let down, unable to move, and feeling almost as if the very currents of life within her were standing still too. She thought, she was almost sure, she knew the figure; it was on her tongue to ask Hugh to come and look, but she checked that. The form appeared again from behind the acacias, moving with the same leisurely pace the other way towards the horse-gate. Fleda let down the curtain, then the other two quietly, and then left the room and stole noiselessly out at the front door, leaving it open that the sound of it might not warn Hugh what she was about, and stepping like a cat down the steps ran breathlessly over the snow to the courtyard gate. There waited, shivering in the cold but not feeling it for the cold within,--while the person she was watching stood still a lew moments by the horse-gate and came again with leisurely steps towards her.
"Seth Plumfield!"--said Fleda, almost as much frightened at the sound of her own voice as he was. He stopped immediately, with a start, and came up to the little gate behind which she was standing. But said nothing.
"What are you doing here?"
"You oughtn't to be out without anything on," said he,--"you're fixing to take your death."
He had good reason to say so. But she gave him no more heed than the wind.
"What are you waiting here for? What do you want?"
"I have nothing better to do with my time," said he;--"I thought I'd walk up and down here a little. You go in!"
"Are you waiting to see uncle Rolf?" she said, with teeth chattering.
"You mustn't stay out here," said he earnestly--"you're like nothing but a spook this minute--I'd rather see one, or a hull army of 'em. Go in, go in!"
"Tell me if you want to see him, Seth."
"No I don't--I told you I didn't."
"Then why are you waiting for him?"
"I thought I'd see if he was coming home to-night--I had a word to say if I could catch him before he got into the house."
"Ishe coming home to-night?" said Fleda.
"I don't know!" said he looking at her. "Do you?"
Fleda burst open the gate between them and putting her hands on his implored him to tell her what was the matter. He looked singularly disturbed; his fine eye twinkled with compassion; but his face, never a weak one, shewed no signs of yielding now.
"The matter is," said he pressing hard both her hands, "that you are fixing to be down sick in your bed by to-morrow. You mustn't stay another second."
"Come in then."
"No--not to-night."
"You won't tell me!--"
"There is nothing I can tell you--Maybe there'll be nothing to tell--Run in, run in, and keep quiet."
Fleda hurried back to the house, feeling that she had gone to the limit of risk already. Not daring to show herself to Hugh in her chilled state of body and mind she went into the kitchen.
"Why what on earth's come over you?" was Barby's terrified ejaculation when she saw her.
"I have been out and got myself cold--"
"Cold!" said Barby,--"you're looking dreadful! What on earth ails you, Fleda?"
"Don't ask me, Barby," said Fleda hiding her face in her hands and shivering,--"I made myself very cold just now--Aunt Lucy doesn't feel very well and I got frightened," she added presently.
"What's the matter with her?"
"I don't know--if you'll make me a cup of tea I'll take it up to her, Barby."
"You put yourself down there," said Barby placing her with gentle force in a chair,--"you'll do no such a thing till I see you look as if there was some blood in you. I'll take it up myself."
But Fleda held her, though with a hand much too feeble indeed for any but moral suasion. It was enough. Barby stood silently and very anxiously watching her, till the fire had removed the outward chill at least. But even that took long to do, and before it was well done Fleda again asked for the cup of tea. Barby made it without a word, and Fleda went to her aunt with it, taking her strength from the sheer emergency. Her knees trembled under her as she mounted the stairs, and once a glimpse of those words flitted across her mind,--"patient continuance in well-doing." It was like a lightning flash in a dark night shewing the way one must go. She could lay hold of no other stay. Her mind was full of one intense purpose--to end the suspense.
She gently tried the door of her aunt's room; it was unfastened, and she went in. Mrs. Rossitur was lying on the bed; but her first mood had changed, for at Fleda's soft word and touch she half rose up and putting both arms round her waist laid her face against her. There were no tears still, only a succession of low moans, so inexpressibly weak and plaintive that Fleda's nature could hardly bear them without giving way. A more fragile support was never clung to. Yet her trembling fingers, in their agony moved caressingly among her aunt's hair and over her brow as she begged her--when she could, she was not able at first--to let her know the cause that was grieving her. The straightened clasp of Mrs. Rossitur's arms and her increased moaning gave only an answer of pain. But Fleda repeated the question. Mrs. Rossitur still neglecting it, then made her sit down upon the bed, so that she could lay her head higher, on Fleda's bosom; where she hid it, with a mingling of fondness given and asked, a poor seeking for comfort and rest, that wrung her niece's heart.
They sat so for a little time; Fleda hoping that her aunt would by degrees come to the point herself. The tea stood cooling on the table, not even offered; not wanted there.
"Wouldn't you feel better if you told me, dear aunt Lucy?" said Fleda, when they had been for a little while perfectly still. Even the moaning had ceased.
"Is your uncle come home?" whispered Mrs. Rossitur, but so low that Fleda could but half catch the words.
"Not yet."
"What o'clock is it?"
"I don't know--not early--it must be near eight.--Why?"
"You have not heard anything of him?"
"No--nothing."
There was silence again for a little, and then Mrs. Rossitur said in a low fearful whisper,
"Have you seen anybody round the house?"
Fleda's thoughts flew to Seth, with that nameless fear to which she could give neither shape nor direction, and after a moment's hesitation she said,
"What do you mean?"
"Have you?" said Mrs. Rossitur with more energy.
"Seth Plumfield was here a little while ago."
Her aunt had the clew that she had not, for with a half scream, half exclamation, she quitted Fleda's arms and fell back upon the pillows, turning from her and hiding her face there. Fleda prayed again for her confidence, as well as the weakness and the strength of fear could do; and Mrs. Rossitur presently grasping a paper that lay on the bed held it out to her, saying only as Fleda was about quitting the room, "Bring me a light."
Fleda left the letter there and went down to fetch one. She commanded herself under the excitement and necessity of the moment,--all but her face; that terrified Barby exceedingly. But she spoke with a strange degree of calmness; told her Mrs. Rossitur was not alarmingly ill; that she did not need Barby's services and wished to see nobody but herself and didn't want a fire. As she was passing through the hall again Hugh came out of the sitting-room to ask after his mother. Fleda kept the light from her face.
"She does not want to be disturbed--I hope she will be better to-morrow."
"What is the matter, Fleda?"
"I don't know yet."
"And you are ill yourself, Fleda!--you are ill!--"
"No--I shall do very well--never mind me. Hugh, take some tea--I will be down by and by."
He went back, and Fieda went up stairs. Mrs. Rossitur had not moved. Fleda set down the light and herself beside it, with the paper her aunt had given her. It was a letter.
"Queechy,Thursday--
"It gives me great concern, my dear madam, to be the means of bringing to you a piece of painful information--but it cannot be long kept from your knowledge and you may perhaps learn it better from me than by any other channel. May I entreat you not to be too much alarmed, since I am confident the cause will be of short duration.
"Pardon me for what I am about to say.
"There are proceedings entered into against Mr. Rossitur--there are writs out against him--on the charge of having, some years ago, endorsed my father's name upon a note of his own giving.--Why it has lain so long I cannot explain. There is unhappily no doubt of the fact.
"I was in Queechy some days ago, on business of my own, when I became aware that this was going on--my father had made no mention of it to me. I immediately took strict measures--I am happy to say I believe with complete success,--to have the matter kept a profound secret. I then made my way as fast as possible to New York to confer on the subject with the original mover of it--unfortunately I was disappointed. My father had left for a neighbouring city, to be absent several days. Finding myself too late to prevent, as I had hoped to do, any open steps from being taken at Queechy, I returned hither immediately to enforce secrecy of proceedings and to assure you, madam, that my utmost exertions shall not be wanting to bring the whole matter to a speedy and satisfactory termination. I entertain no doubt of being able to succeed entirely--even to the point of having the whole transaction remain unknown and unsuspected by the world. It is so entirely as yet, with the exception of one or two law-officers whose silence I have means of procuring.
"May I confess that I am not entirely disinterested? May the selfishness of human nature ask its reward, and own its moving spring? May I own that my zeal in this cause is quickened by the unspeakable excellencies of Mr. Rossitur's lovely niece--which I have learned to appreciate with my wholeheart--and be forgiven?--And may I hope for the kind offices and intercession of the lady I have the honour of addressing, with her niece Miss Ringgan, that my reward,--the single word of encouragement I ask for,--may be given me?--Having that, I will promise anything--I will guaranty the success of any enterprise, however difficult, to which she may impel me,--and I will undertake that the matter which furnishes the painful theme of this letter shall never more be spoken or thought of, by the world, or my father, or by Mrs. Rossitur's
obliged, grateful, and faithful servant, Lewis Thorn."
Fleda felt as she read as if icicles were gathering about her heart. The whirlwind of fear and distress of a little while ago which could take no definite direction, seemed to have died away and given place to a dead frost--the steady bearing down of disgrace and misery, inevitable, unmitigable, unchangeable; no lessening, no softening of that blasting power, no, nor ever any rising up from under it; the landscape could never be made to smile again. It was the fall of a bright star from their home constellation; but alas! the star was fallen long ago, and the failure of light which they had deplored was all too easily accounted for; yet now they knew that no restoration was to be hoped. And the mother and son--what would become of them? And the father--what would become of him? what further distress was in store?--Publicdisgrace?--and Fleda bowed her head forward on her clasped hands with the mechanical, vain endeavour to seek rest or shelter from thought. She made nothing of Mr. Thorn's professions; she took only the facts of his letter; the rest her eye had glanced over as if she had no concern with it, and it hardly occurred to her that she had any. But the sense of his words she had taken in, and knew, better perhaps than her aunt, that there was nothing to look for from his kind offices. The weight on her heart was too great just then for her to suspect as she did afterwards that he was the sole mover of the whole affair.
As the first confusion of thought cleared away, two images of distress loomed up and filled the view,--her aunt, broken under the news, and Hugh still unknowing to them; her own separate existence Fleda was hardly conscious of. Hugh especially,--how was he to be told, and how could he bear to hear? with his most sensitive conformation of both physical and moral nature. And if an arrest should take place there that night!--Fleda shuddered, and unable to go on thinking rose up and went to her aunt's bedside. It had not entered her mind till the moment she read Mr. Thorn's letter that Seth Plumfield was sheriff for the county. She was shaking again from head to foot with fear. She could not say anything--the touch of her lips to the throbbing temples, soft and tender as sympathy itself, was all she ventured.
"Have you heard anything of him?" Mrs. Rossitur whispered.
"No--I doubt if we do at all to-night."
There was a half breathed "Oh!--" of indescribable pain and longing; and with a restless change of position Mrs. Rossitur gathered herself up on the bed and sat with her head leaning on her knees. Fleda brought a large cloak and put it round her.
"I am in no danger," she said,--"I wish I were!"
Again Fleda's lips softly, tremblingly, touched her cheek.
Mrs. Rossitur put her arm round her and drew her down to her side, upon the bed; and wrapped half of the big cloak about her; and they sat there still in each other's arms, without speaking or weeping, while quarter after quarter of an hour passed away,--nobody knew how many. And the cold bright moonlight streamed in on the floor, mocking them.
"Go!" whispered Mrs. Rossitur at last,--"go down stairs and take care of yourself--and Hugh."
"Won't you come?"
Mrs. Rossitur shook her head.
"Mayn't I bring you something?--do let me!"
But Mrs. Rossitur's shake of the head was decisive. Fleda crawled off the bed, feeling as if a month's illness had been making its ravages upon her frame and strength. She stood a moment to collect her thoughts; but alas, thinking was impossible; there was a palsy upon her mind. She went into her own room and for a minute kneeled down,--not to form a petition in words, she was as much beyond that; it was only the mute attitude of appeal, the pitiful outward token of the mind's bearing, that could not be forborne, a silent uttering of the plea she had made her own in happy days. There was something of comfort in the mere feeling of doing it; and there was more in one or two words that even in that blank came to her mind;--"Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him;" and she again recollected that "Providence runneth not upon broken wheels." Nothing could be darker than the prospect before her, and these things did not bring light; but they gave her a sure stay to hold on by and keep her feet; a bit of strength to preserve from utterly fainting. Ah! the storehouse must be filled and the mind well familiarized with what is stored in it while yet the days are bright, or it will never be able to find what it wants in the dark.
Fleda first went into the kitchen to tell Barby to fasten the doors and not sit up.
"I don't believe uncle Rolf will be home to-night; but if he comes I will let him in."
Barby looked at her with absolutely a face of distress; but not daring to ask and not knowing how to propose anything, she looked in silence.
"It must be nine o'clock now," Fleda went on.
"And how long be you going to sit up?" said Barby.
"I don't know--a while yet."
"You look proper for it!" said Barby half sorrowfully and half indignantly;--"you look as if a straw would knock you down this minute. There's sense into everything. You catch me a going to bed and leaving you up! It won't do me no hurt to sit here the hull night; and I'm the only one in the house that's fit for it, with the exception of Philetus, and the little wit he has by day seems to forsake him at night. All the light that ever gets into his head,Ibelieve, comes from the outside; as soon as ever that's gone he shuts up his shutters. He's been snoozing a'ready now this hour and a half. Go yourself off to bed, Fleda," she added with a mixture of reproach and kindness, "and leave me alone to take care of myself and the house too."
Fleda did not remonstrate, for Barby was as determined in her way as it was possible for anything to be. She went into the other room without a particle of notion what she should say or do.
Hugh was walking up and down the floor--a most unusual sign of perturbation with him. He met and stopped her as she came in.
"Fleda, I cannot bear it. What is the matter?--Do you know?'" he said as her eyes fell.
"Yes.----"
"What is it?"
She was silent and tried to pass on to the fire. But he stayed her.
"What is it?" he repeated.
"Oh I wish I could keep it from you!" said Fleda bursting into tears.
He was still a moment, and then bringing her to the arm-chair made her sit down, and stood himself before her, silently waiting, perhaps because he could not speak, perhaps from the accustomed gentle endurance of his nature. But Fleda was speechless too.
"You are keeping me in distress," he said at length.
"I cannot end the distress, dear Hugh," said Fleda.
She saw him change colour and he stood motionless still.
"Do you remember," said Fleda, trembling even to her voice,--"what Rutherford says about Providence 'not running on broken wheels'?"
He gave her no answer but the intent look of expectation. Its intentness paralyzed Fleda. She did not know how to go on. She rose from her chair and hung upon his shoulder.
"Believe it now, if you can--for oh, dear Hugh!--we have something to try it."
"It is strange my father don't come home," said he, supporting her with tenderness which had very little strength to help it,--"we want him very much."
Whether or not any unacknowledged feeling prompted this remark, some slight involuntary movement of Fleda's made him ask suddenly,
"Is it about him?"
He had grown deadly pale and Fleda answered eagerly,
"Nothing that has happened to-day--it is not anything that has happened to-day--he is perfectly well, I trust and believe."
"But it is about him?"
Fleda's head sank, and she burst into such an agony of tears that Hugh's distress was for a time divided.
"When did it happen, Fleda?"
"Years ago."
"And what?"
Fleda hesitated still, and then said,
"It was something he did, Hugh."
"What?"
"He put another person's name on the back of a note he gave."
She did not look up, and Hugh was silent for a moment.
"How do you know?"
"Mr. Thorn wrote it to aunt Lucy--it was Mr. Thorn's father."
Hugh sat down and leaned his head on the table. A long, long, time passed,--unmeasured by the wild coursing of thought to and fro. Then Fleda came and knelt down at the table beside him, and put her arm round his neck.
"Dear Hugh," she said--and if ever love and tenderness and sympathy could be distilled in tones, such drops were those that fell upon the mind's ear,--"can't you look up at me?"
He did then, but he did not give her a chance to look at him. He locked his arms about her, bringing her close to his breast; and for a few minutes, in utter silence, they knew what strange sweetness pure affection can mingle even in the communion of sorrow. There were tears shed in those minutes that, bitter as they seemed at the time, Memory knew had been largely qualified with another admixture.
"Dear Hugh," said Fleda,--"let us keep what we can--won't you go to bed and rest?"
He looked dreadfully as if he needed it. But the usual calmness and sweetness of his face was not altered;--it was only deepened to very great sadness. Mentally, Fleda thought, he had borne the shock better than his mother; for the bodily frame she trembled. He had not answered and she spoke again.
"You need it worse than I, poor Fleda"
"I will go too presently--I do not think anybody will be here tonight."
"Is--Are there--Is this what has taken him away?" said Hugh.
Her silence and her look told him, and then laying her cheek again alongside of his she whispered, how unsteadily, "We have only one help, dear Hugh."
They were still and quiet again for minutes, counting the pulses of pain; till Fleda came back to her poor wish "to keep what they could." She mixed a restorative of wine and water, which however little desired, she felt was necessary for both of them, and Hugh went up stairs. She staid a few minutes to prepare another glass with particular care for her aunt. It was just finished, and taking her candle she had bid Barby good-night, when there came a loud rap at the front door. Fleda set down candle and glass, from the quick inability to hold them as well as for other reasons; and she and Barby stood and looked at each other, in such a confusion of doubt and dread that some little time had passed before either stirred even her eyes. Barby then threw down the tongs with which she had begun to make preparations for covering up the fire and set off to the front.
"You mustn't open the door, Barby," cried Fleda, following her. "Come in here and let us look out of one of the windows."
Before this could be reached however, there was another prolonged repetition of the first thundering burst. It went through Fleda's heart, because of the two up stairs who must hear it.
Barby threw up the sash.
"Who's there?"
"Is this Mr. Rossitur's place?" enquired a gruff voice.
"Yes, it is."
"Well will you come round and open the door?"
"Who wants it open?"
"A lady wants it open?"
"A lady!--what lady?"
"Down yonder in the carriage."
"What lady? who is she?"
"I don't know who she is--she wanted to come to Mr. Rossitur's place--will you open the door for her?"
Barby and Fleda both now saw a carriage standing in the road.
"We must see who it is first," whispered Fleda.
"When the lady comes I'll open the door," was Barby's ultimatum.
The man withdrew to the carriage; and after a few moments of intense watching Fleda and Barby certainly saw something in female apparel enter the little gate of the court-yard and come up over the bright moonlit snow towards the house, accompanied by a child; while the man with whom they had had the interview came behind transformed into an unmistakeable baggage-carrier.
Zeal was the spring whence flowed her hardiment.
Zeal was the spring whence flowed her hardiment.
Fairfax.
Fairfax.
Barby undid bolt and lock and Fleda met the traveller in the hall. She was a lady; her air and dress shewed that, though the latter was very plain.
"Does Mr. Rossitur live here?" was her first word.
Fleda answered it, and brought her visitor into the sitting room. But the light falling upon a form and face that had seen more wear and tear than time, gave her no clue as to the who or what of the person before her. The stranger's hurried look round the room seemed to expect something.
"Are they all gone to bed?"
"All but me," said Fleda.
"We have been delayed--we took a wrong road--we've been riding for hours to find the place--hadn't the right direction."--Then looking keenly at Fleda, from whose vision an electric spark of intelligence had scattered the clouds, she said;
"I am Marion Rossitur."
"I knew it!" said Fleda, with lips and eyes that gave her already a sister's welcome; and they were folded in each other's arms almost as tenderly and affectionately, on the part of one at least, as if there had really been the relationship between them. But more than surprise and affection struck Fleda's heart.
"And where are they all, Fleda? Can't I see them?"
"You must wait till I have prepared them--Hugh and aunt Lucy are not very well. I don't know that it will do for you to see them at all to-night, Marion."
"Not to-night! They are not ill?"
"No--only enough to be taken care of--not ill. But it would be better to wait"
"And my father?"
"He is not at home."
Marion exclaimed in sorrow, and Fleda to hide the look that she felt was on her face stooped down to kiss the child. He was a remarkably fine-looking manly boy.
"That is your cousin Fleda," said his mother.
"No--auntFleda," said the person thus introduced--"don't put me off into cousindom, Marion. I am uncle Hugh's sister--and so I am your aunt Fleda. Who are you?"
"Rolf Rossitur Schwiden."
Alas how wide are the ramifications of evil! How was what might have been very pure pleasure utterly poisoned and turned into bitterness. It went through Fleda's heart with a keen pang when she heard that name and looked on the very fair brow that owned it, and thought of the ineffaceable stain that had come upon both. She dared look at nobody but the child. He already understood the melting eyes that were making acquaintance with his, and half felt the pain that gave so much tenderness to her kiss, and looked at her with a grave face of awakening wonder and sympathy. Fleda was glad to have business to call her into the kitchen.
"Who is it?" was Barby's immediate question.
"Aunt Lucy's daughter."
"She don't look much like her!" said Barby intelligently.
"They will want something to eat, Barby."
"I'll put the kettle on. It'll boil directly. I'll go in there and fix up the fire."
A word or two more, and then Fleda ran up to speak to her aunt and Hugh.
Her aunt she found in a state of agitation that was frightful. Even Fleda's assurances, with all the soothing arts she could bring to bear were some minutes before they could in any measure tranquillize her. Fleda's own nerves were in no condition to stand another shock when she left her and went to Hugh's door. But she could get no answer from him though she spoke repeatedly.
She did not return to her aunt's room. She went down stairs and brought up Barby and a light from thence.
Hugh was lying senseless and white; not whiter than his adopted sister as she stood by his side. Her eye went to her companion.
"Not a bit of it!" said Barby--"he's in nothing but a faint--just run down stairs and get the vinegar bottle, Fleda--the pepper vinegar.--Is there any water here?--"
Fleda obeyed; and watched, she could do little more, the efforts of Barby, who indeed needed no help, with the cold water, the vinegar, and rubbing of the limbs. They were for sometime unsuccessful; the fit was a severe one; and Fleda was exceedingly terrified before any signs of returning life came to reassure her.
"Now you go down stairs and keep quiet!" said Barby, when Hugh was fairly restored and had smiled a faint answer to Fleda's kiss and explanations,--"Go, Fleda! you ain't fit to stand. Go and sit down some place, and I'll be along directly and see how the fire burns. Don't you s'pose Mis' Rossitur could come in and sit in this easy-chair a spell without hurting herself?"
It occurred to Fleda immediately that it might do more good than harm to her aunt if her attention were diverted even by another cause of anxiety. She gently summoned her, telling her no more than was necessary to fit her for being Hugh's nurse; and in a very few minutes she and Barby were at liberty to attend to other claims upon them. But it sank into her heart, "Hugh will not get over this!"--and when she entered the sitting-room, what Mr. Carleton years before had said of the wood-flower was come true in its fullest extent--"a storm-wind had beaten it to the ground."
She was able literally to do no more than Barby had said, sit down and keep herself quiet. Miss Elster was in her briskest mood; flew in and out; made up the fire in the sitting-room and put on the kettle in the kitchen, which she had been just about doing when called to see Hugh. The much-needed supper of the travellers must be still waited for; but the fire was burning now, the room was cosily warm and bright, and Marion drew up her chair with a look of thoughtful contentment. Fleda felt as if some conjuror had been at work here for the last few hours--the room looked so like and felt so unlike itself.
"Are you going to be ill too, Fleda?" said Marion suddenly. "You are looking--very far from well!"
"I shall have a headache to-morrow," said Fleda quietly. "I generally know the day beforehand."
"Does it always make you look so?"
"Not always--I am somewhat tired."
"Where is my father gone?"
"I don't know.--Rolf, dear," said Fleda bending forward to the little fellow who was giving expression to some very fidgety impatience,--"what is the matter? what do you want?"
The child's voice fell a little from its querulousness towards the sweet key in which the questions had been put, but he gave utterance to a very decided wish for "bread and butter."
"Come here," said Fleda, reaching out a hand and drawing him, certainly with no force but that of attraction, towards her easy-chair,--"come here and rest yourself in this nice place by me--see, there is plenty of room for you;--and you shall have bread and butter and tea, and something else too, I guess, just as soon as Barby can get it ready."
"Who is Barby?" was the next question, in a most uncompromising tone of voice.
"You saw the woman that came in to put wood on the fire--that was Barby--she is very good and kind and will do anything for you if you behave yourself."
The child muttered, but so low as to shew some unwillingness that his words should reach the ears that were nearest him, that "he wasn't going to behave himself."
Fleda did not choose to hear; and went on with composing observations till the fair little face she had drawn to her side was as bright as the sun and returned her smile with interest.
"You have an admirable talent at moral suasion, Fleda," said the mother half smiling;--"I wish I had it."
"You don't need it so much here."
"Why not?"
"It may do very well for me, but I think not so well for you."
"Why?--what do you mean? I think it is the only way in the world to bring up children--the only way fit for rational beings to be guided."
Fleda smiled, though the faintest indication that lips could give, and shook her head,--ever so little.
"Why do you do that?--tell me."
"Because in my limited experience," said Fleda as she passed her fingers through the boy's dark locks of hair,--"in every household where 'moral suasion' has been the law, the children have been the administrators of it. Where is your husband?"
"I have lost him--years ago--" said Marion with a quick expressive glance towards the child. "I never lost what I at first thought I had, for I never had it. Do you understand?"
Fleda's eyes gave a sufficient answer.
"I am a widow--these five years--in all but what the law would require," Marion went on. "I have been alone since then--except my child. He was two years old then; and since then I have lived such a life, Fleda!--"
"Why didn't you come home?"
"Couldn't--the most absolute reason in the world. Think of it!--Come home! It was as much as I could do to stay there!"
Those sympathizing eyes were enough to make her go on.
"I have wanted everything--except trouble. I have done everything--except ask alms. I have learned, Fleda, that death is not the worst form in which distress can come."
Fleda felt stung, and bent down her head to touch her lips to the brow of little Rolf.
"Death would have been a trifle!" said Marion. "I mean,--not thatIshould have wished to leave Rolf alone in the world; but if I had been left--I mean I would rather wear outside than inside mourning."
Fleda looked up again, and at her.
"O I was so mistaken, Fleda!" she said clasping her hands,--"so mistaken!--in everything;--so disappointed,--in all my hopes. And the loss of my fortune was the cause of it all."
Nay verily! thought Fleda; but she said nothing; she hung her head again; and Marion after a pause went on to question her about an endless string of matters concerning themselves and other people, past doings and present prospects, till little Rolf soothed by the uninteresting soft murmur of voices fairly forgot bread and butter and himself in a sound sleep, his head resting upon Fleda.
"Here is one comfort for you, Marion," she said looking down at the dark eyelashes which lay on a cheek rosy and healthy as ever seven years old knew;--"he is a beautiful child, and I am sure, a fine one."
"It is thanks to his beauty that I have ever seen home again," said his mother.
Fleda had no heart this evening to speak words that were not necessary; her eyes asked Marion to explain herself.
"He was in Hyde Park one day--I had a miserable lodging not far from it, and I used to let him go in there, because he must go somewhere, you know,--I couldn't go with him--"
"Why not?"
"Couldn't!--Oh Fleda!--I have seen changes!--He was there one afternoon, alone, and had got into difficulty with some bigger boys--a little fellow, you know,--he stood his ground man-fully, but his strength wasn't equal to his spirit, and they were tyrannizing over him after the fashion of boys, who are I do think the ugliest creatures in creation!" said Mme. Schwiden, not apparently reckoning her own to be of the same gender,--"and a gentleman who was riding by stopped and interfered and took him out of their hands, and then asked him his name,--struck I suppose with his appearance. Very kind, wasn't it? men so seldom bother themselves about what becomes of children, I suppose there were thousands of others riding by at the same time."
"Very kind," Fleda said.
"When he heard what his name was he gave his horse to his servant and walked home with Rolf; and the next day he sent me a note, speaking of having known my father and mother and asking permission to call upon me.--I never was so mortified, I think, in my life," said Marion after a moment's hesitation.
"Why?" said Fleda, not a little at a loss to follow out the chain of her cousin's reasoning.
"Why I was in such a sort of a place--you don't know, Fleda; I was working then for a fancy store-keeper, to support myself--living in a miserable little two rooms.--If it had been a stranger I wouldn't have cared so much, but somebody that had known us in different times--I hadn't a thing in the world to answer the note upon but a half sheet of letter paper."
Fleda's lips sought Rolf's forehead again, with a curious rush of tears and smiles at once. Perhaps Marion had caught the expression of her countenance, for she added with a little energy,
"It is nothing to be surprised at--you would have felt just the same; for I knew by his note, the whole style of it, what sort of a person it must be."
"My pride has been a good deal chastened," Fleda said gently.
"I never wantmineto be, beyond minding everything," said Marion; "and I don't believe yours is. I don't know why in the world I did not refuse to see him--I had fifty minds to--but he had won Rolf's heart, and I was a little curious, and it was something strange to see the face of a friend, any better one than my old landlady, so I let him come."
"Wasshea friend?" said Fleda.
"If she hadn't been I should not have lived to be here--the best soul that ever was; but still, you know, she could do nothing for me but be as kind as she could live;--this was something different. So I let him come, and he came the next day."
Fleda was silent, a little wondering that Marion should be so frank with her, beyond what she had ever been in former years; but as she guessed, Mme. Schwiden's heart was a little opened by the joy of finding herself at home and the absolute necessity of talking to somebody; and there was a further reason which Fleda could not judge of, in her own face and manner. Marion needed no questions and went on again after stopping a moment.
"I was so glad in five minutes,--I can't tell you, Fleda,--that I had let him come. I forget entirely about how I looked and the wretched place I was in. He was all that I had supposed, and a great deal more, but somehow he hadn't been in the room three minutes before I didn't care at all for all the things I had thought would trouble me. Isn't it strange what a witchery some people have to make you forget everything but themselves!"
"The reason is, I think, because that is the only thing they forget," said Fleda, whose imagination however was entirely busy with thesingularnumber.
"I shall never forget him," said Marion. "He was very kind to me--I cannot tell how kind--though I never realized it till afterwards; at the time it always seemed only a sort of elegant politeness which he could not help. I never saw so elegant a person. He came two or three times to see me and he took Rolf out with him I don't know how often, to drive; and he sent me fruit--such fruit!--and game, and flowers; and I had not had anything of the kind, not even seen it, for so long--I can't tell you what it was to me. He said he had known my father and mother well when they were abroad."
"What, was his name?" said Fleda quickly.
"I don't know--he never told me--and I never could ask him. Don't you know there are some people you can't do anything with but just what they please? There wasn't the least thing like stiffness--you never saw anybody less stiff,--but I never dreamed of asking him questions except when he was out of sight. Why, do you know him?" she said suddenly.
"When you tell me who he was I'll tell you," said Fleda smiling.
"Have you ever heard this story before?"
"Certainly not!"
"He is somebody that knows us very well," said Marion, "for he asked after every one of the family in particular."
"But what had all this to do with your getting home?"
"I don't wonder you ask. The day after his last visit came a note saying that he owed a debt in my family which it had never been in his power to repay; that he could not give the enclosure to my father, who would not recognize the obligation; and that if I would permit him to place it in my hands I should confer a singular favour upon him."
"And what was the enclosure?"
"Five hundred pounds."
Fleda's head went down again and tears dropped fast upon little Rolf's shoulder.
"I suppose my pride has been a little broken too," Marion went on, "or I shouldn't have kept it. But then if you saw the person, and the whole manner of it--I don't know how I could ever have sent it back. Literally I couldn't, though, for I hadn't the least clue. I never saw or heard from him afterwards."
"When was this, Marion?"
"Last spring."
"Last spring!--then what kept you so long?"
"Because of the arrival of eyes that I was afraid of. I dared not make the least move that would show I could move. I came off the very first packet after I was free."
"How glad you must be!" said Fleda.
"Glad!--"
"Glad of what, mamma?" said Rolf, whose dreams the entrance of Barby had probably disturbed.
"Glad of bread and butter," said his mother; "wake up--here it is."
The young gentleman declared, rubbing his eyes, that he did not want it now; but however Fleda contrived to dispel that illusion, and bread and butter was found to have the same dulcifying properties at Queechy that it owns in all the rest of the world. Little Rolf was completely mollified after a hearty meal and was put with his mother to enjoy most unbroken slumbers in Fleda's room. Fleda herself, after a look at Hugh, crept to her aunt's bed; whither Barby very soon despatched Mrs. Rossitur, taking in her place the arm-chair and the watch with most invincible good-will and determination; and sleep at last took the joys and sorrows of that disturbed household into its kind custody.
Fleda was the first one awake, and was thinking how she should break the last news to her aunt, when Mrs. Rossitur put her arms round her and after a most affectionate look and kiss, spoke to what she supposed had been her niece's purpose.
"You want taking care of more than I do, poor Fleda!"
"It was not for that I came," said Fleda;--"I had to give up my room to the travellers."
"Travellers!--"
A very few words more brought out the whole, and Mrs. Rossitur sprang out of bed and rushed to her daughter's room.
Fleda hid her face in the bed to cry--for a moment's passionate indulgence in weeping while no one could see. But a moment was all. There was work to do and she must not disable herself. She slowly got up, feeling thankful that her headache did not announce itself with the dawn, and that she would be able to attend to the morning affairs and the breakfast, which was something more of a circumstance now with the new additions to the family. More than that she knew from sure signs she would not be able to accomplish.
It was all done and done well, though with what secret flagging of mind and body nobody knew or suspected. The business of the day was arranged, Barby's course made clear, Hugh visited and smiled upon; and then Fleda set herself down in the breakfast-room to wear out the rest of the day in patient suffering. Her little spaniel, who seemed to understand her languid step and faint tones and know what was coming, crept into her lap and looked up at her with a face of equal truth and affection; and after a few gentle acknowledging touches from the loved hand, laid his head on her knees, and silently avowed his determination of abiding her fortunes for the remainder of the day.
They had been there for some hours. Mrs. Rossitur and her daughter were gathered in Hugh's room; whither Rolf also after sundry expressions of sympathy for Fleda's headache, finding it a dull companion, had departed. Pain of body rising above pain of mind had obliged as far as possible even thought to be still; when a loud rap at the front door brought the blood in a sudden flush of pain to Fleda's face. She knew instinctively what it meant.
She heard Barby's distinct accents saying that somebody was "not well." The other voice was more smothered. But in a moment the door of the breakfast-room opened and Mr. Thorn walked in.
The intensity of the pain she was suffering effectually precluded Fleda from discovering emotion of any kind. She could not move. Only King lifted up his head and looked at the intruder, who seemed shocked, and well he might. Fleda was in her old headache position; bolt upright on the sofa, her feet on the rung of a chair while her hands supported her by their grasp upon the back of it. The flush had passed away leaving the deadly paleness of pain, which the dark rings under her eyes shewed to be well seated.
"Miss Ringgan!" said the gentleman, coming up softly as to something that frightened him,--"my dear Miss Fleda!--I am distressed!--You are very ill--can nothing be done to relieve you?"
Fleda's lips rather than her voice said, "Nothing."
"I would not have come in on any account to disturb you if I had known--I did not understand you were more than a trifle ill--"
Fleda wished he would mend his mistake, as his understanding certainly by this time was mended. But that did not seem to be his conclusion of the best thing to do.
"Since I am here,--can you bear to hear me say three words? without too much pain?--I do not ask you to speak"--
A faint whispered "yes" gave him leave to go on. She had never looked at him. She sat like a statue; to answer by a motion of her head was more than could be risked.
He drew up a chair and sat down, while King looked at him with eyes of suspicious indignation.
"I am not surprised," he said gently, "to find you suffering. I knew how your sensibilities must feel the shock of yesterday--I would fain have spared it you--I will spare you all further pain on the same score if possible--Dear Miss Ringgan, since I am here and time is precious may I say one word before I cease troubling you--take it for granted that you were made acquainted with the contents of my letter to Mrs. Rossitur?--withallthe contents?--were you?"
Again Fleda's lips almost voicelessly gave the answer.
"Will you give me what I ventured to ask for?" said he gently,--"the permission to workfor you?Do not trouble those precious lips to speak--the answer of these fingers will be as sure a warrant to me as all words that could be spoken that you do not deny my request."
He had taken one of her hands in his own. But the fingers lay with unanswering coldness and lifelessness for a second in his clasp and then were drawn away and took determinate hold of the chair-back. Again the flush came to Fleda's cheeks, brought by a sharp pain,--oh, bodily and mental too!--and after a moment's pause, with a distinctness of utterance that let him know every word, she said,
"A generous man would not ask it, sir."
Thorn sprang up, and several times paced the length of the room, up and down, before he said anything more. He looked at Fleda, but the flush was gone again, and nothing could seem less conscious of his presence. Pain and patience were in every line of her face, but he could read nothing more, except a calmness as unmistakably written. Thorn gave that face repeated glances as he walked, then stood still and read it at leisure. Then he came to her side again and spoke in a different voice.
"You are so unlike anybody else," he said, "that you shall make me unlike myself. I will do freely what I hoped to do with the light of your smile before me. You shall hear no more of this affair, neither you nor the world--I have the matter perfectly in my own hands--it shall never raise a whisper again. I will move heaven and earth rather than fail--but there is no danger of my failing. I will try to prove myself worthy of your esteem even where a man is most excusable for being selfish."
Barby's energies and fainting remedies were again put in use.Barby's energies and fainting remedies were again put in use.
He took one of her cold hands again,--Fleda could not help it without more force than she cared to use, and indeed pain would by this time almost have swallowed up other sensation if every word and touch had not sent it in a stronger throb to her very finger ends. Thorn bent his lips to her hand, twice kissed it fervently, and then left her; much to King's satisfaction, who thereupon resigned himself to quiet slumbers.
His mistress knew no such relief. Excitement had dreadfully aggravated her disorder, at a time when it was needful to banish even thought as far as possible. Pain effectually banished it now, and Barby coming in a little after Mr. Thorn had gone found her quite unable to speak and scarce able to breathe, from agony. Barby's energies and fainting remedies were again put in use; but pain reigned triumphant for hours, and when its hard rule was at last abated Fleda was able to do nothing but sleep like a child for hours more.
Towards a late tea-time she was at last awake, and carrying on a very one-sided conversation with Rolf, her own lips being called upon for little more than a smile now and then. King, not able to be in her lap, had curled himself up upon a piece of his mistress's dress and as close within the circle of her arms as possible, where Fleda's hand and his head were on terms of mutual satisfaction.
"I thought you wouldn't permit a dog to lie in your lap," said Marion.
"Do you remember that?" said Fleda with a smile. "Ah I have grown tender-hearted, Marion, since I have known what it was to want comfort myself. I have come to the conclusion that it is best to let everything have all the enjoyment it can in the circumstances. King crawled into my lap one day when I had not spirits enough to turn him out, and he has kept the place ever since.--Little King!"--In answer to which word of intelligence King looked in her face and wagged his tail, and then earnestly endeavoured to lick all her fingers. Which however was a piece of comfort she would not give him.
"Fleda," said Barby putting her head in, "I wish you'd just step out here and tell me which cheese you'd like to have cut."
"What a fool!" said Marion. "Let her cut them all if she likes."
"She is no fool," said Fleda. She thought Barby's punctiliousness however a little ill-timed, as she rose from her sofa and went into the kitchen.
"Well youdolook as if you wa'n't good for nothing but to be taken care of!" said Barby. "I wouldn't have riz you up if it hadn't been just tea-time, and I knowed you couldn't stay quiet much longer;"--and with a look which explained her tactics she put into Fleda's hand a letter directed to her aunt.
"Philetus gave it to me," she said, without a glance at Fleda's face,--"he said it was give to him by a spry little shaver who wa'n't a mind to tell nothin' about himself."