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diff --git a/21824-8.txt b/21824-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3861684 --- /dev/null +++ b/21824-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4569 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Old Stone House and Other Stories, by +Anna Katharine Green + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Old Stone House and Other Stories + + +Author: Anna Katharine Green + + + +Release Date: June 13, 2007 [eBook #21824] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLD STONE HOUSE AND OTHER +STORIES*** + + +E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Sankar Viswanathan, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +THE OLD STONE HOUSE AND OTHER STORIES + +by + +ANNA KATHARINE GREEN + +Short Story Index Reprint Series + + + + + + + +Books for Libraries Press +Freeport, New York +First Published 1891 + + + + +CONTENTS. + + THE OLD STONE HOUSE + + A MEMORABLE NIGHT + + THE BLACK CROSS + + A MYSTERIOUS CASE + + SHALL HE WED HER? + + + + + + +THE OLD STONE HOUSE. + + +I was riding along one autumn day through a certain wooded portion of +New York State, when I came suddenly upon an old stone house in which +the marks of age were in such startling contrast to its unfinished +condition that I involuntarily stopped my horse and took a long survey +of the lonesome structure. Embowered in a forest which had so grown in +thickness and height since the erection of this building that the +boughs of some of the tallest trees almost met across its decayed +roof, it presented even at first view an appearance of picturesque +solitude almost approaching to desolation. But when my eye had time to +note that the moss was clinging to eaves from under which the +scaffolding had never been taken, and that of the ten large windows in +the blackened front of the house only two had ever been furnished +with frames, the awe of some tragic mystery began to creep over me, +and I sat and wondered at the sight till my increasing interest +compelled me to alight and take a nearer view of the place. + +The great front door which had been finished so many years ago, but +which had never been hung, leaned against the side of the house, of +which it had almost become a part, so long had they clung together +amid the drippings of innumerable rains. Close beside it yawned the +entrance, a large black gap through which nearly a century of storms +had rushed with their winds and wet till the lintels were green with +moisture and slippery with rot. Standing on this untrod threshold, I +instinctively glanced up at the scaffolding above me, and started as I +noticed that it had partially fallen away, as if time were weakening +its supports and making the precipitation of the whole a threatening +possibility. Alarmed lest it might fall while I stood there, I did not +linger long beneath it, but, with a shudder which I afterwards +remembered, stepped into the house and proceeded to inspect its +rotting, naked, and unfinished walls. I found them all in the one +condition. A fine house had once been planned and nearly completed, +but it had been abandoned before the hearths had been tiled, or the +wainscoting nailed to its place. The staircase which ran up through +the centre of the house was without banisters but otherwise finished +and in a state of fair preservation. Seeing this and not being able to +resist the temptation which it offered me of inspecting the rest of +the house, I ascended to the second story. + +Here the doors were hung and the fireplaces bricked, and as I wandered +from room to room I wondered more than ever what had caused the +desertion of so promising a dwelling. If, as appeared, the first owner +had died suddenly, why could not an heir have been found, and what +could be the story of a place so abandoned and left to destruction +that its walls gave no token of ever having offered shelter to a human +being? As I could not answer this question I allowed my imagination +full play, and was just forming some weird explanation of the facts +before me when I felt my arm suddenly seized from behind, and paused +aghast. Was I then not alone in the deserted building? Was there some +solitary being who laid claim to its desolation and betrayed jealousy +at any intrusion within its mysterious precincts? Or was the dismal +place haunted by some uneasy spirit, who with long, uncanny fingers +stood ready to clutch the man who presumed to bring living hopes and +fears into a spot dedicated entirely to memories? I had scarcely the +courage to ask, but when I turned and saw what it was that had alarmed +me, I did not know whether to laugh at my fears or feel increased awe +of my surroundings. For it was the twigs of a tree which had seized +me, and for a long limb such as this to have grown into a place +intended for the abode of man, necessitated a lapse of time and a +depth of solitude oppressive to think of. + +Anxious to be rid of suggestions wellnigh bordering upon the +superstitious, I took one peep from the front windows, and then +descended to the first floor. The sight of my horse quietly dozing in +the summer sunlight had reassured me, and by the time I had recrossed +the dismal threshold, and regained the cheerful highway, I was +conscious of no emotions deeper than the intense interest of a curious +mind to solve the mystery and understand the secret of this remarkable +house. + +Rousing my horse from his comfortable nap, I rode on through the +forest; but scarcely had I gone a dozen rods before the road took a +turn, the trees suddenly parted, and I found myself face to face with +wide rolling meadows and a busy village. So, then, this ancient and +deserted house was not in the heart of the woods, as I had imagined, +but in the outskirts of a town, and face to face with life and +activity. This discovery was a shock to my romance, but as it gave my +curiosity an immediate hope of satisfaction, I soon became reconciled +to the situation, and taking the road which led to the village, drew +up before the inn and went in, ostensibly for refreshment. This being +speedily provided, I sat down in the cosy dining-room, and as soon as +opportunity offered, asked the attentive landlady why the old house in +the woods had remained so long deserted. + +She gave me an odd look, and then glanced aside at an old man who sat +doubled up in the opposite corner. "It is a long story," said she, +"and I am busy now; but later, if you wish to hear it, I will tell you +all we know on the subject. After father is gone out," she whispered. +"It always excites him to hear any talk about that old place." + +I saw that it did. I had no sooner mentioned the house than his white +head lifted itself with something like spirit, and his form, which had +seemed a moment before so bent and aged, straightened with an interest +that made him look almost hale again. + +"I will tell you," he broke in; "I am not busy. I was ninety last +birthday, and I forget sometimes my grandchildren's names, but I never +forget what took place in that old house one night fifty years +ago--never, never." + +"I know, I know," hastily interposed his daughter, "you remember +beautifully; but this gentleman wishes to eat his dinner now, and must +not have his appetite interfered with. You will wait, will you not, +sir, till I have a little more leisure?" + +What could I answer but Yes, and what could the poor old man do but +shrink back into his corner, disappointed and abashed. Yet I was not +satisfied, nor was he, as I could see by the appealing glances he gave +me now and then from under the fallen masses of his long white hair. +But the landlady was complaisant and moved about the table and in and +out of the room with a bustling air that left us but little +opportunity for conversation. At length she was absent somewhat longer +than usual, whereupon the old man, suddenly lifting his head, cried +out: + +"_She_ cannot tell the story. She has no feeling for it; she wasn't +_there_." + +"And you were," I ventured. + +"Yes, yes, I was there, always there; and I see it all now," he +murmured. "Fifty years ago, and I see it all as if it were happening +at this moment before my eyes. But she will not let me talk about it," +he complained, as the sound of her footsteps was heard again on the +kitchen boards. "Though it makes me young again, she always stops me +just as if I were a child. But she cannot help my showing you--" + +Here her steps became audible in the hall, and his words died away on +his lips. By the time she had entered, he was seated with his head +half turned aside, and his form bent over as if he were in spirit a +thousand miles from the spot. + +Amused at his cunning, and interested in spite of myself at the +childish eagerness he displayed to tell his tale, I waited with a +secret impatience almost as great as his own perhaps, for her to leave +the room again, and thus give him the opportunity of finishing his +sentence. At last there came an imperative call for her presence +without, and she hurried away. She was no sooner gone than the old man +exclaimed: + +"I have it all written down. I wrote it years and years ago, at the +very time it happened. She cannot keep me from showing you that; no, +no, she cannot keep me from showing you that." And rising to his feet +with a difficulty that for the first time revealed to me the full +extent of his infirmity, he hobbled slowly across the floor to the +open door, through which he passed with many cunning winks and nods. + +"It grows quite exciting," thought I, and half feared his daughter +would not allow him to return. But either she was too much engrossed +to heed him, or had been too much deceived by his seeming indifference +when she last entered the room, to suspect the errand which had taken +him out of it. For sooner than I had expected, and quite some few +minutes before she came back herself, he shuffled in again, carrying +under his coat a roll of yellow paper, which he thrust into my hand +with a gratified leer, saying: + +"There it is. I was a gay young lad in those days, and could go and +come with the best. Read it, sir, read it; and if Maria says anything +against it, tell her it was written long before she was born and when +I was as pert as she is now, and a good deal more observing." + +Chuckling with satisfaction, he turned away, and had barely +disappeared in the hall when she came in and saw me with the roll in +my hand. + +"Well! I declare!" she exclaimed; "and has he been bringing you that? +What ever shall I do with him and his everlasting manuscript? You will +pardon him, sir; he is ninety and upwards, and thinks everybody is as +interested in the story of that old house as he is himself." + +"And I, for one, am," was my hasty reply. "If the writing is at all +legible, I am anxious to read it. You won't object, will you?" + +"Oh, no," was her good-humored rejoinder. "I won't object; I only hate +to have father's mind roused on this subject, because he is sure to be +sick after it. But now that you have the story, read it; whether you +will think as he did, on a certain point, is another question. I +don't; but then father always said I would never believe ill of +anybody." + +Her smile certainly bore out her words, it was so good-tempered and +confiding; and pleased with her manner in spite of myself, I accepted +her invitation to make use of her own little parlor, and sat down in +the glow of a brilliant autumn afternoon to read this old-time +history. + + * * * * * + +Will Juliet be at home to-day? She must know that I am coming. When I +met her this morning, tripping back from the farm, I gave her a look +which, if she cares anything about me, must have told her that I would +be among the lads who would be sure to pay her their respects at early +candle-light. For I cannot resist her saucy pout and dancing dimples +any longer. Though I am barely twenty, I am a man, and one who is +quite forehanded and able to take unto himself a wife. Ralph +Urphistone has both wife and babe, and he was only twenty-one last +August. Why, then, should I not go courting, when the prettiest maid +that has graced the town for many a year holds out the guerdon of her +smiles to all who will vie for them? + +To be sure, the fact that she has more than one wooer already may be +considered detrimental to my success. But love is fed by rivalry, and +if Colonel Schuyler does not pay her his addresses, I think my chances +may be considered as good as any one's. For am I not the tallest and +most straightly built man in town, and have I not a little cottage all +my own, with the neatest of gardens behind it, and an apple-tree in +front whose blossoms hang ready to shower themselves like rain upon +the head of her who will enter there as a bride? It is not yet dark, +but I will forestall the sunset by a half hour and begin my visit now. +If I am first at her gate, Lemuel Phillips may look less arrogant +when he comes to ask her company to the next singing school. + + * * * * * + +I was not first at her gate; two others were there before me. Ah, she +is prettier than ever I supposed, and chirper than the sparrow which +builds every year a nest in my old apple-tree. When she saw me come up +the walk, her cheeks turned pink, but I do not know if it was from +pleasure or annoyance, for she gave nothing but vexing replies to +every compliment I paid her. But then Lemuel Phillips fared no better; +and she was so bitter-sweet to Orrin Day that he left in a huff and +vowed he would never step across her threshold again. I thought she +was a trifle more serious after he had gone, but when a woman's eyes +are as bright as hers, and the frowns and smiles with which she +disports herself chase each other so rapidly over a face both +mischievous and charming, a man's judgment goes astray, and he +scarcely knows reality from seeming. But true or false, she is pretty +as a harebell and bright as glinting sunshine; and I mean to marry +her, if only Colonel Schuyler will hold himself aloof. + +Colonel Schuyler may hold himself aloof, but he is a man like the rest +of us for all that. Yesterday as I was sauntering in the churchyard +waiting for the appearance of a certain white-robed figure crowned by +the demurest of little hats, I caught a glimpse of his face as he +leaned on one of the tombstones near Patience Goodyear's grave, and I +saw that he was waiting also for the same white figure and the same +demure hat. This gave me a shock; for though I had never really dared +to hope he would remain unmoved by a loveliness so rare in our +village, and indeed, as I take it, in any village, I did not think he +would show so much impatience, or await her appearance with such +burning and uncontrollable ardor. + +Indeed I was so affected by his look that I forgot to watch any longer +for her coming, but kept my gaze fixed on his countenance, till I saw +by the change which rapidly took place in it that she had stepped out +of the great church door and was now standing before us, making the +sunshine more brilliant by her smiles, and the spring the sweeter for +her presence. + +Then I came to myself and rushed forward with the rest of the lads. +Did he follow behind us? I do not think so, for the rosy lips which +had smiled upon us with so airy a welcome soon showed a discontented +curve not to be belied by the merry words that issued from them, and +when we would have escorted her across the fields to her father's +house, she made a mocking curtsy, and wandered away with the ugliest +old crone who mouths and mumbles in the meeting-house. Did she do this +to mock us or him? If to mock him he had best take care, for beauty +scorned is apt to grow dangerous. But perhaps it was to mock us? Well, +well, there would be nothing new in that; she is ever mocking us. + + * * * * * + +They say the Colonel passes her gate a dozen times a day, but never +goes in and never looks up. Is he indifferent then? I cannot think so. +Perhaps he fears her caprices and disapproves of her coquetry. If that +is so, she shall be my wife before he wakens to the knowledge that her +coquetry hides a passionate and loving heart. + +Colonel Schuyler is a dark man. He has eyes which pierce you, and a +smile which, if it could be understood, might perhaps be less +fascinating than it is. If she has noticed his watching her, the +little heart that flutters in her breast must have beaten faster by +many a throb. For he is the one great man within twenty miles, and so +handsome and above us all that I do not know of a woman but Juliet +whose voice does not sink a tone lower whenever she speaks of him. But +he is a proud man, and seems to take no notice of any one. Indeed he +scarcely appears to live in our world. Will he come down from his high +estate at the beck of this village beauty? Many say not, but I say +yes; with those eyes of his he cannot help it. + + * * * * * + +Juliet is more capricious than ever. Lemuel Phillips for one is tired +of it, and imitating Orrin Day, bade her a good-even to-night which I +am sure he does not intend to follow with a blithe good-morrow. + +I might do the same if her pleading eyes would let me. But she seems +to cling to me even when she is most provokingly saucy; and though I +cannot see any love in her manner, there is something in it very +different from hate; and this it is which holds me. Can a woman be too +pretty for her own happiness, and are many lovers a weariness to the +heart? + + * * * * * + +Juliet is positively unhappy. To-day when she laughed the gayest it +was to hide her tears, and no one, not even a thoroughly spoiled +beauty, could be as wayward as she if there were not some bitter arrow +rankling in her heart. She was riding down the street on a pillion +behind her father, and Colonel Schuyler, who had been leaning on the +gate in front of his house, turned his back upon her and went inside +when he saw her coming. Was this what made her so white and reckless +when she came up to where I was standing with Orrin Day, and was it +her chagrin at the great man's apparent indifference which gave that +sharp edge to the good-morning with which she rode haughtily away? If +it was I can forgive you, my lady-bird, for there is reason for your +folly if I am any judge of my fellow-men. Colonel Schuyler is not +indifferent but circumspect, and circumspection in a lover is an +insult to his lady's charms. + + * * * * * + +She knows now what I knew a week ago. Colonel Schuyler is in love with +her and will marry her if she does not play the coquette with him. He +has been to her house and her father already holds his head higher as +he paces up and down the street. I am left in the lurch, and if I had +not foreseen this end to my hopes, might have been a very miserable +man to-night. For I was near obtaining the object of my heart, as I +know from her own lips, though the words were not intended for my +ears. You see I was the one who surprised him talking with her in the +garden. I had been walking around the place on the outer side of the +wall as I often did from pure love for her, and not knowing she was on +the other side was very much startled when I heard her voice speaking +my name; so much startled that I stood still in my astonishment and +thus heard her say: + +"Philo Adams has a little cottage all his own and I can be mistress of +it any day,--or so he tells me. I had rather go into that little +cottage where every board I trod on would be my own, than live in the +grandest room you could give me in a house of which I would not be the +mistress." + +"But if I make a home for you," he pleaded, "grand as my father's, but +built entirely for you--" + +"Ah!" was her soft reply, "that might make me listen to you, for I +should then think you loved me." + +The wall was between us, but I could see her face as she said this as +plainly as if I had been the fortunate man at her side. And I could +see his face too, though it was only in fancy I had ever beheld it +soften as I knew it must be softening now. Silence such as followed +her words is eloquent, and I feared my own passions too much to linger +till it should be again broken by vows I had not the courage to hear. +So I crept away conscious of but one thing, which was that my dream +was ended, and that my brave apple-tree would never shower its bridal +blossoms upon the head I love, for whatever threshold she crosses as +mistress it will not now be that of the little cottage every board of +which might have been her own. + + * * * * * + +If I had doubted the result of the Colonel's offer to Juliet, the news +which came to me this morning would have convinced me that all was +well with them and that their marriage was simply a matter of time. +Ground has been broken in the pleasant opening on the verge of the +forest, and carts and men hired to bring stone for the fine new +dwelling Colonel Schuyler proposes to rear for himself. The whole town +is agog, but I keep the secret I surprised, and only Juliet knows that +I am no longer deceived as to her feelings, for I did not go to see +her to-night for the first time since I made up mind that I would have +her for my wife. I am glad I restrained myself, for Orrin Day, who had +kept his word valiantly up to this very day, came riding by my house +furiously a half hour ago, and seeing me, called out: + +"Why didn't you tell me she had a new adorer? I went there to-night +and Colonel Schuyler sat at her side as you and I never sat yet, +and--and--" he stammered frantically, "_I did not kill him._" + +"You--Come back!" I shouted, for he was flying by like the wind. But +he did not heed me nor stop, but vanished in the thick darkness, while +the lessening sound of his horse's hoofs rang dismally back from the +growing distance. + +So this man has loved her passionately too, and the house which is +destined to rise in the woods will throw a shadow over more than one +hearthstone in this quiet village. I declare I am sorry that Orrin has +taken it so much to heart, for he has a proud and determined spirit, +and will not forget his wrongs as soon as it would be wise for him to +do. Poor, poor Juliet, are you making enemies against your bridal day? +If so, it behooves me at least to remain your friend. + + * * * * * + +I saw Orrin again to-day, and he looks like one haunted. He was riding +as usual, and his cloak flew out behind him as he sped down the street +and away into the woods. I wonder if she too saw him, from behind her +lattice. I thought I detected the curtain move as he thundered by her +gate, but I am so filled with thoughts of her just now that I cannot +always trust my judgment. I am, however, sure of one thing, and that +is that if Colonel Schuyler and Orrin meet, there will be trouble. + + * * * * * + +I never thought Orrin handsome till to-day. He is fair, and I like +dark men; and he is small, and I admire men of stature. But when I +came upon him this morning, talking and laughing among a group of lads +like ourselves, I could not but see that his blue eye shone with a +fire that made it as brilliant as any dark one could be, and that in +his manner, verging as it did upon the reckless, there was a spirit +and force which made him look both dangerous and fascinating. He was +haranguing them on a question of the day, but when he saw me he +stepped out of the crowd, and, beckoning me to follow him, led the way +to a retired spot, where, the instant we were free from watching eyes, +he turned and said: "You liked her too, Philo Adams. I should have +been willing if you--" Here he choked and paused. I had never seen a +face so full of fiery emotions. "No, no, no," he went on, after a +moment of silent struggle; "I could not have borne it to see any man +take away what was so precious to me. I--I--I did not know I cared for +her so much," he now explained, observing my look of surprise. "She +teased me and put me off, and coquetted with you and Lemuel and +whoever else happened to be at her side till I grew beside myself and +left her, as I thought, forever. But there are women you can leave and +women you cannot, and when I found she teased and fretted me more at a +distance than when she was under my very eye, I went back only to +find--Philo, do you think he will marry her?" + +I choked down my own emotions and solemnly answered: "Yes, he is +building her a home. You must have seen the stones that are being +piled up yonder on the verge of the forest." + +He turned, glared at me, made a peculiar sound with his lips, and then +stood silent, opening and closing his hands in a way that made my +blood run chill in spite of myself. + +"A house!" he murmured, at last; "I wish I had the building of that +house!" + +The tone, the look he gave, alarmed me still further. + +"You would build it well!" I cried. It was his trade, the building of +houses. + +"I would build it slowly," was his ominous answer. + + * * * * * + +Juliet certainly likes me, and trusts me, I think, more than any other +of the young men who used to go a-courting her. I have seen it for +some time in the looks she has now and then given me across the +meeting-house during the long sermon on Sunday mornings, but to-day I +am sure of it. For she has spoken to me, and asked me--But let me +tell you how it was: We were all standing under Ralph Urphistone's big +tree, looking at his little one toddling over the grass after a ball +one of the lads had thrown after her, when I felt the slightest touch +on my arm, and, glancing round, saw Juliet. + +She was standing beside her father, and if ever she looked pretty it +was just then, for the day was warm and she had taken off her great +hat so that the curls flew freely around her face that was dimpled and +flushed with some feeling which did not allow her to lift her eyes. +Had she touched me? I thought so, and yet I did not dare to take it +for granted, for Colonel Schuyler was standing on the edge of the +crowd, frowning in some displeasure at the bare head of his provoking +little betrothed, and when Colonel Schuyler frowns there is no man of +us but Orrin who would dare approach the object of his preference, +much less address her, except in the coldest courtesy. + +But I was sure she had something to say to me, so I lingered under the +tree till the crowd had all dispersed and Colonel Schuyler, drawn away +by her father, had left us for a moment face to face. Then I saw I was +right. + +"Philo," she murmured, and oh, how her face changed! "you are my +friend, I know you are my friend, because you alone out of them all +have never given me sharp words; will you, will you do something for +me which will make me less miserable, something which may prevent +wrong and trouble, and keep Orrin--" + +Orrin? did she call him Orrin? + +"Oh," she cried, "you have no sympathy. You--" + +"Hush!" I entreated. "You have not treated me well, but I am always +your friend. What do you want me to do?" + +She trembled, glanced around her in the pleasant sunshine, and then up +into my face. + +"I want you," she murmured, "to keep Orrin and Colonel Schuyler apart. +You are Orrin's friend; stay with him, keep by him, do not let him run +alone upon his enemy, for--for there is danger in their +meeting--and--and--" + +She could not say more, for just then her father and the Colonel came +back, and she had barely time to call up her dimples and toss her head +in merry banter before they were at her side. + +As for myself, I stood dazed and confused, feeling that my six feet +made me too conspicuous, and longing in a vague and futile way to let +her know without words that I would do what she asked. + +And I think I did accomplish it, though I said nothing to her and but +little to her companions. For when we parted I took the street which +leads directly to Orrin's house; and when Colonel Schuyler queried in +his soft and gentlemanlike way why I left them so soon, I managed to +reply: + +"My road lies here"; and so left them. + + * * * * * + +I have not told Orrin what she said, but I am rarely away from his +vicinity now, during those hours when he is free to come and go about +the village. I think he wonders at my persistent friendship, +sometimes, but he says nothing, and is not even disagreeable to--_me_. +So I share his pleasures, if they are pleasures, expecting every day +to see him run across the Colonel in the tavern or on the green; but +he never does, perhaps because the Colonel is always with her now, and +we are not nor are ever likely to be again. + +Do I understand her, or do I understand Orrin, or do I even understand +myself? No, but I understand my duty, and that is enough, though it is +sometimes hard to do it, and I would rather be where I could forget, +instead of being where I am forced continually to remember. + + * * * * * + +Am I always with Orrin when he is not at work or asleep? I begin to +doubt it. There are times when there is such a change in him that I +feel sure he has been near her, or at least seen her, but where or +how, I do not know and cannot even suspect. He never speaks of her, +not now, but he watches the house slowly rising in the forest, as if +he would lay a spell upon it. Not that he visits it by daylight, or +mingles with the men who are busy laying stone upon stone; no, no, he +goes to it at night, goes when the moon and stars alone shed light +upon its growing proportions; and standing before it, seems to count +each stone which has been added through the day, as if he were +reckoning up the months yet remaining to him of life and happiness. + +I never speak to him during these expeditions. I go with him because +he does not forbid me to do so, but we never exchange a word till we +have left the forest behind us and stand again within the village +streets. If I did speak I might learn something of what is going on in +his bitter and burning heart, but I never have the courage to do so, +perhaps because I had rather not know what he plans or purposes. + +She is not as daintily rounded as she was once. Her cheek is thinner, +and there is a tremulous move to her lip I never saw in it in the old +coquettish days. Is she not happy in her betrothal, or are her fears +of Orrin greater than her confidence in me? It must be the latter, for +Colonel Schuyler is a lover in a thousand, and scarcely a day passes +without some new evidence of his passionate devotion. She ought to be +happy, if she is not, and I am sure there is not another woman in town +but would feel herself the most favored of her sex if she had the half +of Juliet's prospects before her. But Juliet was ever wayward; and +simply because she ought to increase in beauty and joy, she pales and +pines and gets delicate, and makes the hearts of her lovers grow mad +with fear and longing. + + * * * * * + +Where have I been? What have I seen, and what do the events of this +night portend? As Orrin and myself were returning from our usual visit +to the house in the woods--it is well up now, and its huge empty +square looms weirdly enough in the moonlighted forest,--we came out +upon the churchyard in front of the meeting-house, and Orrin said: + +"You may come with me or not, I do not care; but I am going in amongst +these graves. I feel like holding companionship with dead people +to-night." + +"Then so do I," said I, for I was not deceived by his words. It was +not to hold companionship with the dead, but with the living, that he +chose to linger there. The churchyard is in a direct line with her +house, and, sitting on the meeting-house steps one can get a very good +view of the windows of her room. + +"Very well," he sighed, and disdained to say more. + +As for myself, I felt too keenly the weirdness of the whole situation +to do more than lean my back against a tree and wait till his fancy +wearied of the moonlight and silence. The stones about us, glooming +darkly through the night, were not the most cheerful of companions, +and when you add to this the soughing of the willows and the +flickering shadows which rose and fell over the face of the +meeting-house as the branches moved in the wind, you can understand +why I rather regretted the hitherto gloomy enough hour we were +accustomed to spend in the forest. + +But Orrin seemed to regret nothing. He had seated himself where I knew +he would, on the steps of the meeting-house, and was gazing, with chin +sunk in his two hands, down the street where Juliet dwelt. I do not +think he expected anything to happen; I think he was only reckless and +sick with a longing he had not the power to repress, and I watched him +as long as I could for my own inner sickness and longing, and when I +could watch no longer I turned to the gnomish gravestones that were no +more motionless or silent than he. + +Suddenly I felt myself shiver and start, and, turning, beheld him +standing erect, a black shadow against the moonlighted wall behind +him. He was still gazing down the street but no longer in apathetic +despair, but with quivering emotion visible in every line of his +trembling form. Reaching his side, I looked where he looked, and saw +Juliet--it must have been Juliet to arouse him so,--standing with some +companion at the gate in the wall that opens upon the street. The +next moment she and the person with her stepped into the street, and, +almost before we realized it, they began to move towards us, as if +drawn by some power in Orrin or myself, straight, straight to this +abode of death and cold moonbeams. + +It was not late, but the streets were otherwise deserted, and we four +seemed to be alone in the whole world. Breathing with Orrin and almost +clasping his hand in my oneness with him, I watched and watched the +gliding approach of the two lovers, and knew not whether to be +startled or satisfied when I saw them cross to the churchyard and +enter where we had entered ourselves so short a time before. For us +all to meet, and meet here, seemed suddenly strangely natural, and I +hardly knew what Orrin meant when he grasped me forcibly by the arm +and drew me aside into the darkest of the dark shadows which lay in +the churchyard's farthest corner. + +Not till I perceived Juliet and the Colonel halt in the moonlight did +I realize that we were nothing to them, and that it was not our +influence but some purpose or passion of their own which had led them +to this gruesome spot. + +The place where they had chosen to pause was at the grave of old +Patience Goodyear, and from the corner where we stood we could see +their faces plainly as they turned and looked at each other with the +moonbeams pouring over them. Was it fancy that made her look like a +wraith, and he like some handsome demon given to haunting churchyards? +Or was it only the sternness of his air, and the shrinking timidity of +hers, which made him look so dark and she so pallid. + +Orrin, who stood so close to me that I could hear his heart beat as +loudly as my own, had evidently asked himself the same question, for +his hand closed spasmodically on mine, as the Colonel opened his lips, +and neither of us dared so much as to breathe lest we should lose what +the lovers had to say. + +But the Colonel spoke clearly, if low, and neither of us could fail to +hear him as he said: + +"I have brought you here, Juliet mine, because I want to hear you +swear amongst the graves that you will be no man's wife but mine." + +"But have I not already promised?" she protested, with a gentle uplift +of her head inexpressibly touching in one who had once queened it over +hearts so merrily. + +"Yes, you have promised, but I am not satisfied. I want you to swear. +I want to feel that you are as much mine as if we had stood at the +altar together. Otherwise how can I go away? How can I leave you, +knowing there are three men at least in this town who would marry you +at a day's notice, if you gave them full leave. I love you, and I +would marry you to-night, but you want a home of your own. Swear that +you will be my wife when that home is ready, and I will go away happy. +Otherwise I shall have to stay with you, Juliet, for you are more to +me than renown, or advancement, or anything else in all God's world." + +"I do not like the graves; I do not want to stay here, it is so late, +so dark," she moaned. + +"Then swear! Lay your hand on Mother Patience's tombstone, and say, 'I +will be your wife, Richard Schuyler, when the house is finished which +you are building in the woods'; and I will carry you back in my arms +as I carry you always in my heart." + +But though Orrin clinched my arm in apprehension of her answer, and we +stood like two listening statues, no words issued from her lips, and +the silence grew appalling. + +"Swear!" seemed to come from the tombs; but whether it was my emotion +that made it seem so, or whether it was Orrin who threw his voice +there, I did not know then and I do not know now. But that the word +did not come from the Colonel was evident from the startled look he +cast about him and from the thrill which all at once passed over her +form from her shrouded head to her hidden feet. + +"Do the heavens bid me?" she murmured, and laid her hand without +hesitation on the stone before her, saying, "I swear by the dead that +surround us to be your wife, Richard Schuyler, when the house you are +building for me in the woods is completed." And so pleased was he at +the readiness with which she spoke that he seemed to forget what had +caused it, and caught her in his arms as if she had been a child, and +so bore her away from before our eyes, while the man at my side +fought and struggled with himself to keep down the wrath and jealousy +which such a sight as this might well provoke in one even less +passionate and intemperate than himself. + +When the one shadow which they now made had dissolved again into two, +and only Orrin and myself were left in that ghostly churchyard, I +declared with a courage I had never before shown: + +"So that is settled, Orrin. She will marry the Colonel, and you and I +are wasting time in these gloomy walks." + +To which, to my astonishment, he made this simple reply, "Yes, we are +wasting time"; and straightway turned and left the churchyard with a +quick step that seemed to tell of some new and fixed resolve. + + * * * * * + +Colonel Schuyler has been gone a week, and to-night I summoned up +courage to call on Juliet's father. I had no longer any right to call +upon _her_; but who shall say I may not call on him if he chooses to +welcome me and lose his time on my account. The reason for my going +is not far to seek. Orrin has been there, and Orrin cannot be trusted +in her presence alone. Though he seems to have accepted his fate, he +is restless, and keeps his eye on the ground in a brooding way I do +not comprehend and do not altogether like. Why should he think so +much, and why should he go to her house when he knows the sight of her +is inflaming to his heart and death to his self-control? + +Juliet's father is a simple, proud old man who makes no attempt to +hide his satisfaction at his daughter's brilliant prospects. He talked +mainly of _the house_, and if he honored Orrin with half as much of +his confidence on that subject as he did me, then Orrin must know many +particulars about its structure of which the public are generally +ignorant. Juliet was not to be seen--that is, during the first part of +the evening, but towards its close she came into the room and showed +me that same confiding courtesy which I have noticed in her ever since +I ceased to be an aspirant for her hand. She was not so pale as on +that weird night when I saw her in the churchyard, and I thought her +step had a light spring in it which spoke of hope. She wore a gown +which was coquettishly simple, and the fresh flower clinging to her +bosom breathed a fragrance that might have intoxicated a man less +determined to be her friend. Her father saw us meet without any +evident anxiety; and if he was as complacent to Orrin when he was +here, then Orrin had a chance to touch her hand. + +But was he as complacent to Orrin? That I could not find out. I am +only sure that I will be made welcome there again _if_ I confine my +visits to the father and do not seek anything more from Juliet than +that simple touch of her hand. + + * * * * * + +Orrin has not repeated his visit, but I have repeated mine. Why? +Because I am uneasy. Colonel Schuyler's house does not progress, and +whether there is any connection between this fact and that of Orrin's +sudden interest in the sawmills and quarries about here, I cannot +tell, but doubts of his loyalty will rise through all my friendship +for him, and I cannot keep away from Juliet any longer. + +Does Juliet care for Colonel Schuyler? I have sometimes thought no, +and I have oftener thought yes. At all events she trembles when she +speaks of him, and shows emotion of no slight order when a letter of +his is suddenly put in her hand. I wish I could read her pretty, +changeful face more readily. It would be a comfort for me to know that +she saw her own way clearly, and was not disturbed by Orrin's comings +and goings. For Orrin is not a safe man, I fear, and a faith once +pledged to Colonel Schuyler should be kept. + +I do not think Juliet understands just how great a man Colonel +Schuyler promises to be. When her father told me to-night that his +daughter's betrothed had been charged with some very important +business for the Government, her pretty lip pouted like a child's. Yet +she flushed, and for a minute looked pleased when I said, "That is a +road which leads to Washington. We shall hear of you yet as being +presented at the White House." + +I think her father anticipates the same. For he told me a few minutes +later that he had sent for tutors to teach his daughter music and the +languages. And I noticed that at this she pouted again, and indeed +bore herself in a way which promised less for her future learning than +for that influence which breathes from gleaming eyes and witching +smiles. Ah, I fear she is a frivolous fairy, but how pretty she is, +and how dangerously captivating to a man who has once allowed himself +to study her changes of feeling and countenance. When I came away I +felt that I had gained nothing, and lost--what? Some of the +complacency of spirit which I had acquired after much struggle and +stern determination. + + * * * * * + +Colonel Schuyler has not yet returned, and now Orrin has gone away. +Indeed, no one knows where to find him nowadays, for he is here and +there on his great white horse, riding off one day and coming back the +next, ever busy, and, strange to say, always cheerful. He is making +money, I hear, buying up timber and then selling it to builders, but +he does not sell to one builder, whose house seems to suffer in +consequence. Where is the Colonel, and why does he not come home and +look after his own? + +I have learned her secret at last, and in a strange enough way. I was +waiting for her father in his own little room, and as he did not come +as soon as I anticipated, I let my secret despondency have its way for +a moment, and sat leaning forward, with my head buried in my hands. My +face was to the fire and my back to the door, and for some reason I +did not hear it open, and was only aware of the presence of another +person in the room by the sound of a little gasp behind me, which was +choked back as soon as it was uttered. Feeling that this could come +from no one but Juliet, I for some reason hard to fathom sat still, +and the next moment became conscious of a touch soft as a rose-leaf +settle on my hair, and springing up, caught the hand which had given +it, and holding it firmly in mine, gave her one look which made her +chin fall slowly on her breast and her eyes seek the ground in the +wildest distress and confusion. + +"Juliet--" I began. + +But she broke in with a passion too impetuous to be restrained: + +"Do not--do not think I knew or realized what I was doing. It was +because your head looked so much like his as you sat leaning forward +in the firelight that I--I allowed myself one little touch just for +the heart's ease it must bring. I--I am so lonesome, Philo, +and--and--" + +I dropped her hand. I understood the whole secret now. My hair is +blonde like Orrin's, and her feelings stood confessed, never more to +be mistaken by me. + +"You love Orrin!" I gasped; "you who are pledged to Colonel Schuyler!" + +"I love Orrin," she whispered, "and I am pledged to Colonel Schuyler. +But you will never betray me," she said. + +"I betray you?" I cried, and if some of the bitterness of my own +disappointed hopes crept into my tones, she did not seem to note it, +for she came quite close to my side and looked up into my face in a +way that almost made me forget her perfidy and her folly. "Juliet," I +went on, for I felt never more strongly than at this moment that I +should act a brother's part towards her, "I could never find it in my +heart to betray you, but are you sure that you are doing wisely to +betray the Colonel for a man no better than Orrin. I--I know you do +not want to hear me say this, for if you care for him you must think +him good and noble, but Juliet, I know him and I know the Colonel, and +he is no more to be compared with the man you are betrothed to +than--" + +"Hush!" she cried, almost commandingly, and the airy, dainty, dimpled +creature whom I knew seemed to grow in stature and become a woman, in +her indignation; "you do not know Orrin and you do not know the +Colonel. You shall not draw comparisons between them. I will have you +think of Orrin only, as I do, day and night, ever and always." + +"But," I exclaimed, aghast, "if you love him so and despise the +Colonel, why do you not break your troth with the latter?" + +"Because," she murmured, with white cheeks and a wandering gaze, "I +have sworn to marry the Colonel, and I dare not break my oath. Sworn +to be his wife when the house he is building is complete; and the oath +was on the graves of the dead; _on the graves of the dead!_" she +repeated. + +"But," I said, without any intimation of having heard that oath, "you +are breaking that oath in private with every thought you give to +Orrin. Either complete your perjury by disowning the Colonel +altogether, or else give up Orrin. You cannot cling to both without +dishonor; does not your father tell you so?" + +"My father--oh, he does not know; no one knows but you. My father +likes the Colonel; I would never think of telling him." + +"Juliet," I declared solemnly, "you are on dangerous ground. Think +what you are doing before it is too late. The Colonel is not a man to +be trifled with." + +"I know it," she murmured, "I know it," and would not say another word +or let me. + +And so the burden of this new apprehension is laid upon me; for +happiness cannot come out of this complication. + + * * * * * + +Where is Orrin, and what is he doing that he stays so much from home? +If it were not for the intent and preoccupied look which he wears when +I do see him, I should think that he was absenting himself for the +purpose of wearing out his unhappy passion. But the short glimpses I +have had of him as he has ridden busily through the town have left me +with no such hope, and I wait with feverish impatience for some fierce +action on his part, or what would be better, the Colonel's return. And +the Colonel must come back soon, for nothing goes well in a long +absence, and his house is almost at a standstill. + + * * * * * + +Colonel Schuyler has come and, I hear, is storming angrily over the +mishaps that have delayed the progress of his new dwelling. He says he +will not go away again till it is completed, and has been riding all +the morning in every direction, engaging new men to aid the dilatory +workmen already employed. Does Orrin know this? I will go down to his +house and see. + + * * * * * + +And now I know _Orrin's_ secret. He was not at home, of course, and +being determined to get at the truth of his mysterious absences, I +mounted a horse of my own and rode off to find him. + +Why I took this upon myself, or whether I had the right to do it, I +have not stopped to ask. I went in the direction he had last gone, and +after I had ridden through two villages I heard of him as having +passed still farther east some two hours before. + +Not in the least deterred, I hurried on, and having threaded a thicket +and forded a stream, I came upon a beautiful open country wholly new +to me, where, on the verge of a pleasant glade and in full view of a +most picturesque line of hills, I saw shining the fresh boards of a +new cottage. Instantly the thought struck me, "It is Orrin's, and he +is building it for Juliet," and filled with a confusion of emotions, I +spurred on my horse, and soon drew up before it. + +Orrin was standing, pale and defiant, in the doorway, and as I met his +eye, I noticed, with a sick feeling of contempt, that he swung the +whip he was holding smartly against his leg in what looked like a very +threatening manner. + +"Good-evening, Orrin," I cried. "You have a very pleasant site +here--preferable to the Colonel's, I should say." + +"What has the Colonel to do with me?" was his fierce reply, and he +turned as if about to go into the house. + +"Only this," I calmly answered; "I think he will get his house done +first." + +He wheeled and faced me, and his eye which had looked simply sullen +shot a fierce and dangerous gleam. + +"What makes you think that?" he cried. + +"He has come back, and to-day engaged twenty extra men to push on the +work." + +"Indeed!" and there was contempt in his tone. "Well, I wish him joy +and a sound roof!" + +And this time he did go into the house. + +As he had not asked me to follow, I of course had no alternative but +to ride on. As I did so, I took another look at the house and saw with +a strange pang at the heart that the plastering was on the walls and +the windows ready for glazing. "I was wrong," said I to myself; "it is +Orrin's house which will be finished first." + + * * * * * + +And what if it is? Will she turn her back upon the Colonel's lofty +structure and take refuge in this cottage remote from the world? I +cannot believe it, knowing how she loves show and the smiles and +gallantries of men. And yet--and yet, she is so capricious and Orrin +so determined that I do not know what to think or what to fear, and I +ride back with a heavy heart, wishing she had never come up from the +farm to worry and inflame the souls of honest men. + + * * * * * + +And now the Colonel's work goes on apace, and the whole town is filled +with the noise and bustle of lumbering carts and eager workmen. The +roof which Orrin so bitterly wished might be a sound one has been +shingled; and under the Colonel's eye and the Colonel's constant +encouragement, part after part of the new building is being fitted to +its place with a precision and despatch that to many minds promise the +near dawning of Juliet's wedding-day. But I know that afar in the east +another home is nearer completion than this, and whether she knows it +too or does not know it (which is just as probable), her wilful, +sportive, and butterfly nature seems to be preparing itself for a +struggle which may rend if not destroy its airy and delicate wings. + +I have prepared myself too, and being still and always her friend, I +stand ready to mediate or assist, as opportunity offers or +circumstances demand. She realizes this, and leans on me in her secret +hours of fear, or why does her face brighten when she sees me, and her +little hand thrust itself confidingly forth from under its shrouding +mantle and grasp mine with such a lingering and entreating pressure? +And the Colonel? Does he realize, too, that I am any more to her than +her other cast-off lovers and would-be friends? Sometimes I think he +does, and eyes me with suspicion. But he is ever so courteous that I +cannot be sure, and so do not trouble myself in regard to a jealousy +so illy founded and so easily dispelled. + +He is always at Juliet's side and seems to surround her with a +devotion which will make it very difficult for any other man, even +Orrin, to get her ear. + + * * * * * + +The crisis is approaching. Orrin is again in town, and may be seen +riding up and down the streets in his holiday clothes. Have some +whispers of his secret love and evident intentions reached the ear of +the Colonel? Or is Juliet's father alone concerned? For I see that the +blinds of her lattice are tightly shut, and watch as I may, I cannot +catch a glimpse of her eager head peering between them at the +flaunting horseman as he goes careering by. + + * * * * * + +The hour has come and how different is the outcome from any I had +imagined. I was sitting last night in my own lonely little room, which +opens directly on the street, struggling as best I might against the +distraction of my thoughts which would lead me from the book I was +studying, when a knock on the panels of my door aroused me, and almost +before I could look up, that same door swung open and a dark form +entered and stood before me. + +For a moment I was too dazed to see who it was, and rising +ceremoniously, I made my bow of welcome, starting a little as I met +the Colonel's dark eyes looking at me from the folds of the huge +mantle in which he had wrapped himself. "Your worship?" I began, and +stumbling awkwardly, offered him a chair which he refused with a +gesture of his smooth white hand. + +"Thank you, no," said he, "I do not sit down in your house till I know +if it is you who have stolen the heart of my bride away from me and if +it is you with whom she is prepared to flee." + +"Ah," was my involuntary exclamation, "then it has come. You know her +folly, and will forgive it because she is such a child." + +"Her folly? Are you not then the man?" he cried; but in a subdued tone +which showed what a restraint he was putting upon himself even in the +moment of such accumulated emotions. + +"No," said I; "if your bride meditates flight, it is not with me she +means to go. I am her friend, and the man who would take her from you +is not. I can say no more, Colonel Schuyler." + +He eyed me for a moment with a deep and searching gaze which showed me +that his intellect was not asleep though his heart was on fire. + +"I believe you," said he; and threw aside his cloak and sat down. "And +now," he asked, "who is the man?" + +Taken by surprise, I stammered and uttered some faint disclaimer; but +seeing by his steady look and firm-set jaw that he meant to know, and +detecting as I also thought in his general manner and subdued tones +the promise of an unexpected forbearance, I added impulsively: + +"Let the wayward girl tell you herself; perhaps in the telling she +will grow ashamed of her caprice." + +"I have asked her," was the stern reply, "and she is dumb." Then in +softer tones he added: "How can I do anything for her if she will not +confide in me. She has treated me most ungratefully, but I mean to be +kind to her. Only I must first know if she has chosen worthily." + +"Who is there of worth in town?" I asked, softened and fascinated by +his manner. "There is no man equal to yourself." + +"You say so," he cried, and waved his hand impatiently. Then with a +deep and thrilling intensity which I feel yet, he repeated, "His name, +his name? Tell me his name." + +The Colonel is a man of power, accustomed to control men. I could not +withstand his look or be unmoved by his tones. If he meant well to +Orrin and to her, what was I that I should withhold Orrin's name. +Falteringly I was about to speak it when a sudden sound struck my +ears, and rising impetuously I drew him to the window, blowing out the +candles as I passed them. + +"Hark!" I cried, as the rush of pounding hoofs was heard on the road, +and "Look!" I added, as a sudden figure swept by on the panting white +horse so well known by all in that town. + +"Is it he?" whispered the dark figure at my side as we both strained +our eyes after Orrin's fast vanishing form. + +"You have seen him," I returned; and drawing him back from the window, +I closed the shutters with care, lest Orrin should be seized with a +freak to return and detect me in conference with his heart's dearest +enemy. + +Silence and darkness were now about us, and the Colonel, as if anxious +to avail himself of the surrounding gloom, caught my arm as I moved to +relight the candles. + +"Wait," said he; and I understood and stopped still. + +And so we stood for a moment, he quiet as a carven statue and I +restless but obedient to his wishes. When he stirred I carefully lit +the candles, but I did not look at him till he had donned his cloak +and pulled his hat well over his eyes. Then I turned, and eying him +earnestly, said: + +"If I have made a mistake--" + +But he quickly interrupted me, averring: + +"You have made no mistake. You are a good lad, Philo, and if it had +been you--" He did not say what he would have done, but left the +sentence incomplete and went on: "I know nothing of this Orrin Day, +but what a woman wills she must have. Will you bring this fellow--he +is your friend is he not?--to Juliet's house in the morning? Her +father is set on her being the mistress of the new stone house and we +three will have to reason with him, do you see?" + +Astonished, I bowed with something like awe. Was he so great-hearted +as this? Did he intend to give up his betrothed to the man whom she +loved, and even to plead her cause with the father she feared? My +admiration would have its vent, and I uttered some foolish words of +sympathy, which he took with the stately, rather condescending grace +which they perhaps merited; after which, he added again: "You will +come, will you not?" and bowed kindly and retreated towards the door, +while I, abashed and worshipful, followed with protestations that +nothing should hinder me from doing his will, till he had passed +through the doorway and vanished from my sight. + +And yet I do not want to do his will or take Orrin to that house. I +might have borne with sad equanimity to see her married to the +Colonel, for he is far above me, but to Orrin--ah, that is a bitter +outlook, and I must have been a fool to have promised aught that will +help to bring it about. Still, am I not her sworn friend, and if she +thinks she can be happy with him, ought I not to do my share towards +making her so? + +I wonder if the Colonel knows that Orrin too has been building himself +a house? + +I did not sleep last night, and I have not eaten this morning. +Thoughts robbed me of sleep, and a visit from Orrin effectually took +away from me whatever appetite I might have had. He came in almost at +daybreak. He looked dishevelled and wild, and spoke like a man who had +stopped more than once at the tavern. + +"Philo," said he, "you have annoyed me by your curiosity for more than +a year; now you can do me a favor. Will you call at Juliet's house and +see if she is free to go and come as she was a week ago?" + +"Why?" I asked, thinking I perceived a reason for his bloodshot eye, +and yet being for the moment too wary, perhaps too ungenerous, to +relieve him from the tension of his uncertainty. + +"Why?" he repeated. "Must you know all that goes on in my mind, and +cannot I keep one secret to myself?" + +"You ask me to do you a favor," I quietly returned. "In order to do it +intelligently, I must know why it is asked." + +"I do not see that," objected Orrin, "and if you were not such a boy +I'd leave you on the spot and do the errand myself. But you mean no +harm, and so I will tell you that Juliet and I had planned to run away +together last night, but though I was at the place of meeting, she did +not come, nor has she made any sign to show me why she failed me." + +"Orrin," I began, but he stopped me with an oath. + +"No sermons," he protested. "I know what you would have done if +instead of smiling on me she had chanced to give all her poor little +heart to you." + +"I should not have tempted her to betray the Colonel," I exclaimed +hotly, perhaps because the sudden picture he presented to my +imagination awoke within me such a torrent of unsuspected emotions. +"Nor should I have urged her to fly with me by night and in stealth." + +"You do not know what you would do," was his rude and impatient +rejoinder. "Had she looked at you, with tears in her arch yet pathetic +blue eyes, and listened while you poured out your soul, as if heaven +were opening before her and she had no other thought in life but you, +then--" + +"Hush!" I cried, "do you want me to go to her house for you, or do you +want me to stay away?" + +"You know I want you to go." + +"Then be still, and listen to what I have to say. I will go, but you +must go too. If you want to take Juliet away from the Colonel you must +do it openly. I will not abet you, nor will I encourage any +underhanded proceedings." + +"You are a courageous lad," he said, "in other men's affairs. Will you +raise me a tomb if the Colonel runs me through with his sword?" + +"I at least should not feel the contempt for you which I should if you +eloped with her behind his back." + +"Now you are courageous on your own behalf," laughed he, "and that is +better and more to the point." Yet he looked as if he could easily +spit me on his own sword, which I noticed was dangling at his heels. + +"Will you come?" I urged, determined not to conciliate or enlighten +him even if my forbearance cost me my life. + +He hesitated, and then broke into a hoarse laugh. "I have drunk just +enough to be reckless," said he; "yes, I will go; and the devil must +answer for the result." + +I had never seen him look so little the gentleman, and perhaps it was +on this very account I became suddenly quite eager to take him at his +word before time and thought should give him an opportunity to become +more like himself; for I could not but think that if she saw him in +this condition she must make comparisons between him and the Colonel +which could not but be favorable to the latter. But it was still quite +early, and I dared not run the risk of displeasing the Colonel by +anticipating his presence, so I urged Orrin into that little back +parlor of mine, where I had once hoped to see a very different person +installed, and putting wine and biscuits before him, bade him refresh +himself while I prepared myself for appearing before the ladies. + +When the hour came for us to go I went to him. He was pacing the floor +and trying to school himself into patience, but he made but a sorry +figure, and I felt a twinge of conscience as he thrust on his hat +without any attempt to smooth his dishevelled locks, or rearrange his +disordered ruffles. Should I permit him to go thus disordered, or +should I detain him long enough to fit him for the eye of the dainty +Juliet? He answered the question himself. "Come," said he, "I have +chewed my sleeve long enough in suspense. Let us go and have an end of +it. If she is to be my wife she must leave the house with me to-day, +if not, I have an hour's work before me down yonder," and he pointed +in the direction of his new house. "When you see the sky red at +noonday, you will know what that is." + +"Orrin!" I cried, and for the first time I seized his arm with +something like a fellow-feeling. + +But he shook me off. + +"Don't interfere with me," he said, and strode on, sullen and fierce, +towards the place where such a different greeting awaited him from any +that he feared. + +Ought I to tell him this? Ought I to say: "Your sullenness is uncalled +for and your fierceness misplaced; Juliet is constant, and the Colonel +means you nothing but good"? Perhaps; and perhaps, too, I should be a +saint and know nothing of earthly passions and jealousies. But I am +not. I hate this Orrin, hate him more and more as every step brings +us nearer to Juliet's house and the fate awaiting him from her +weakness and the Colonel's generosity. So I hold my peace and we come +to her gate, and the recklessness that has brought him thus far +abandons him on the instant and he falls back and lets me go in +several steps before him, so that I seem to be alone when I enter the +house, and Juliet, who is standing in the parlor between the Colonel +and her father, starts when she sees me, and breaking into sobs, +cries: + +"Oh, Philo, Philo, tell my father there is nothing between us but what +is friendly and honorable; that I--I--" + +"Hush!" commanded that father, while I stared at the Colonel, whose +quiet, imperturbable face was for the first time such a riddle to me +that I hardly heeded what the elder man said. "You have talked enough, +Juliet, and denied enough. I will now speak to Mr. Adams and see what +he has to say. Last night my daughter, who, as all the town knows, is +betrothed to this gentleman"--and he waved his hand deferentially +towards the Colonel--"was detected by me stealing out of the garden +gate with a little packet on her arm. As my daughter never goes out +alone, I was naturally startled, and presuming upon my rights as her +father, naturally asked her where she was going. This question, simple +as it was, seemed to both terrify and unnerve her. Stumbling back, she +looked me wildly in the eye and answered, with an effrontery she had +never shown me before, that she was flying to escape a hated marriage. +That Colonel Schuyler had returned, and as she could not be his wife, +she was going to her aunt's house, where she could live in peace +without being forced upon a man she could not love. Amazed, for I had +always supposed her duly sensible of the honor which had been shown +her by this gentleman's attentions, I drew her into my study and +there, pulling off the cloak which she held tightly drawn about her, I +discovered that she was tricked out like a bride, and had a whole +bunch of garden roses fastened in her breast. 'A pretty figure,' cried +I, 'for travelling. You are going away with some man, and it is a +runaway match I have interrupted.' She could not deny it, and just +then the Colonel came in and--but we will not talk about that. It +remained for us to find out the man who had led her to forget her +duty, and I could think of no man but you. So I ask you now before my +trembling daughter and this outraged gentleman if you are the +villain." + +But here Colonel Schuyler spoke up quietly and without visible anger: +"I was about to say when this gentleman's entrance interrupted my +words that I had been convinced overnight that our first suspicions +were false, and that Mr. Adams was, as your daughter persists in +declaring, simply a somewhat zealous friend." + +"But," hastily vociferated the old man, "there has been no one else +about my daughter for months. If Mr. Adams is not to blame for this +attempted escapade, who is? I should like to see the man, and see him +standing just there." + +"Then look and tell me what you think of him," came with an insolent +fierceness from the doorway, and Orrin, booted and spurred, with mud +on his holiday hose, and his hat still on his head, strode into our +midst and confronted us all with an air of such haughty defiance that +it half robbed him of his ruffianly appearance. + +Juliet shrieked and stepped back, fascinated and terrified. The +Colonel frowned darkly, and the old man, who had seemed by his words +to summon him before us, quailed at the effect of his words and stood +looking from the well-known but unexpected figure thus introduced +amongst us, to the Colonel who persistently avoided his gaze, till the +situation became unbearable, and I turned about as if to go. + +Instantly the Colonel took advantage of the break and spoke to Orrin: +"And so it is to you, sir, that I have to address the few words I have +to say?" + +"Yes, to him and to me!" cried little Juliet, and gliding from between +the two natural protectors of her girlhood she crossed the floor and +stood by Orrin's side. + +This action, so unexpected and yet so natural, took away whatever +restraint we had hitherto placed upon ourselves, and the Colonel +looked for a moment as if his self-control would abandon him entirely +and leave him a prey to man's fiercest and most terrible passions. But +he has a strong soul, and before I could take a step to interpose +myself between him and Juliet, his face had recovered its steady +aspect and his hands ceased from their ominous trembling. Her father, +on the contrary, seemed to grow more ireful with every instant that he +saw her thus defiant of his authority, while Orrin, pleased with her +courage and touched, I have no doubt, by the loving confidence of her +pleading eyes, threw his arm about her with a gesture of pride which +made one forget still more his disordered and dishevelled condition. + +I said nothing, but I did not leave the room. + +"Juliet!"--the words came huskily from the angry father's lips, "come +from that man's embrace, and do not make me shudder that I ever +welcomed the Colonel to my dishonored house." + +But the Colonel, putting out his hand, said calmly: + +"Let her stay; since she has chosen this very honorable gentleman to +be her husband, where better could she stand than by his side?" + +Then forcing himself still more to seem impassive, he bowed to Orrin, +and with great suavity remarked: "If she had chosen me to that honor, +as I had every reason to believe she had, it would not have been many +more weeks before I should have welcomed her into a home befitting +her beauty and her ambition. May I ask if you can do as much for her? +Have you a home for your bride in which I may look forward to paying +her the respects which my humble duty to her demands?" + +Ah then, Orrin towered proudly, and the pretty Juliet smiled with +something of her old archness. + +"Saddle your horse," cried the young lover, "and ride to the east. If +you do not find a wee, fresh nest there, I am no prophet. What! steal +a wife and not have a home to put her in!" + +And he laughed till the huge brown rafters above his head seemed to +tremble, so blithe did he feel, and so full of pride at thus daring +the one great man in the town. + +But the Colonel did not laugh, nor did he immediately answer. He had +evidently not heard of the little cottage beyond both thicket and +stream, and was consequently greatly disconcerted. But just when we +were all wondering what held him so restrained, and what the words +were which should break the now oppressive silence, he spoke and +said: + +"A wee nest is no place for the lady who was to have been my wife. If +you will have patience and wait a month she shall have the home that +has been reared for her. The great stone house would not know any +other mistress, and therefore it shall be hers." + +"No, no," Orrin began, aghast at such generosity. But the thoughtless +Juliet, delighted at a prospect which promised her both splendor and +love, uttered such a cry of joy that he stopped abashed and half +angry, and turning upon her, said: "Are you not satisfied with what I +can give you, and must you take presents even from the man you have +affected to despise?" + +"But, but, he is so good," babbled out the inconsiderate little thing, +"and--and I do like the great stone house, and we could be so happy in +it, just like a king and queen, if--if--" + +She had the grace to stop, perhaps because she saw nothing but rebuke +in the faces around her. But the Colonel, through whose voice ran in +spite of himself an icy vein of sarcasm, observed, with another of his +low bows: + +"You shall indeed be like king and queen there. If you do not believe +me, come there with me a month hence, and I will show you what a +disappointed man can do for the woman he has loved." And taking by the +arm the old man who with futile rage had tried more than once to break +into this ominous conversation, he drew him persuasively to his side, +and so by degrees from the room. + +"Oh," cried Juliet, as the door closed behind them, "can he mean it? +Can he mean it?" + +And Orrin, a little awed, did not reply, but I saw by his face and +bearing that whether the Colonel meant it or not was little to him; +that the cottage beyond the woods was the destined home of his bride, +and that we must be prepared to lose her from our midst, perhaps +before the month was over which the Colonel had bidden them to wait. + +I do not know through whom Dame Gossip became acquainted with +yesterday's events, but everywhere in town people are laying their +heads together in wonder over the jilting of Colonel Schuyler and the +unprecedented magnanimity which he has shown in giving his new house +to the rebellious lovers. If I have been asked one question to-day, I +have been asked fifty, and Orrin, who flies into a rage at the least +intimation that he will accept the gift which has been made him, +spends most of his time in asserting his independence, and the firm +resolution which he has made to owe nothing to the generosity of the +man he has treated with such unquestionable baseness. Juliet keeps +very quiet, but from the glimpse I caught of her this afternoon at her +casement, I judge that the turn of affairs has had a very enlivening +effect upon her beauty. Her eyes fairly sparkled as she saw me; and +with something like her old joyous abandonment of manner, she tore off +a branch of the flowering almond at her window and tossed it with +delicious laughter at my feet. Yet though I picked it up and carried +it for a few steps beyond her gate, I soon dropped it over the wall, +for her sparkle and her laughter hurt me, and I would rather have seen +her less joyous and a little more sensible of the ruin she had +wrought. + +For she has wrought ruin, as any one can see who looks at the Colonel +long enough to note his eye. For though he holds himself erect and +walks proudly through the town, there is that in his look which makes +me tremble and hold my own weak complainings in check. He has been up +to his house to-day, and when he came back there was not a blind from +one end of the street to the other but quivered when he went by, so +curious are the women to see him who they cannot but feel has merited +all the sympathy if not the homage of their sex. Ralph Urphistone +tells me to-night that the workmen at the new house have been offered +extra wages if they put the house into habitable condition by the end +of the month. + + * * * * * + +For all his secret satisfaction Orrin is very restless. He has tried +to induce Juliet to marry him at once, and go with him to the little +cottage he has raised for her comfort. But she puts him off with +excuses, which, however, are so mingled with sweet coquetries and +caresses, that he cannot reproach her without seeming insensible to +her affection, and it is not until he is away from the fascination of +her presence, and amongst those who do not hesitate to say that he +will yet see the advantage of putting his brilliant bird in a cage +suitable to her plumage, that he remembers his manhood and chafes at +his inability to assert it. I am sorry for him in a way, but not so +deeply as I might be if _he_ were more humble and more truly sensible +of the mischief he has wrought. + + * * * * * + +Orrin will yet make himself debtor to the Colonel. Something has +happened which proves that fate--or man--is working against him to +this end, and that he must from the very force of circumstances +finally succumb. I say _man_, but do I not mean _woman_? Ah, no, no, +no! my pen ran away with me, my thoughts played me false. It could +have been no woman, for if it was, then is Juliet a--Let me keep to +facts. I have not self-control enough for speculation. + +To-day the sun set red. As we had been having gray skies, and more or +less rain for a fortnight, the brightness and vivid crimson in the +west drew many people to their doors. I was amongst them, and as I +stood looking intently at the sky that was now one blaze of glory +from horizon to zenith, Orrin stepped up behind me and said: + +"Do you want to take a ride to-night?" + +Seeing him look more restless and moody than ever, I answered "Yes," +and accordingly about eight that night he rode up to my door and we +started forth. + +I thought he would turn in the direction of the stone house, for one +night when I had allowed myself to go there in my curiosity at its +progress, I had detected him crouching in one of the thickest shadows +cast by the surrounding trees. But if any such idea had been in his +mind, it soon vanished, for almost the instant I was in the saddle, he +wheeled himself about and led the way eastward, whipping and spurring +his horse as if it were a devil's ride he contemplated, and not that +easy, restful canter under the rising moon demanded by our excited +spirits and the calm, exquisite beauty of the summer night. + +"Are you not coming?" was shouted back to me, as the distance +increased between us. + +My answer was to spur my own horse, and as we rode once more side by +side, I could not but note what a wild sort of beauty there was in +him as he thus gave himself up to the force of his feelings and the +restless energy of this harum-scarum ride. "Very different," thought +I, "would the Colonel look on a horse at this hour of night"; and +wondered if Juliet could see him thus she would any longer wound him +by her hesitations, after having driven him by her coquetries to +expect full and absolute surrender on her part. + +Did he guess my thoughts, or was his mind busy with the same, that he +suddenly cried in harsh but thrilling tones: + +"If I had her where she ought to be, here behind me on this horse, I +would ride to destruction before I would take her back again to the +town and the temptations which beset her while she can hear the sound +of hammer upon stone." + +"And you would be right," I was about to say in some bitterness, I +own, when the full realization of the road we were upon stopped me and +I observed instead: + +"You would take her yonder where you hope to see her happy, though no +other woman lives within a half-mile of the place." + +"No man you should say," quoth Orrin bitterly, lashing his horse till +it shot far ahead of me, so that some few minutes passed before we +were near enough together for him to speak again. Then he said: "She +loads me with promises and swears that she loves me more than all the +world. If half of this is true she ought to be happy with me in a +hovel, while I have a dainty cottage for her dwelling, where the vines +will soon grow and the birds sing. You have not seen it since it has +been finished. You shall see it to-night." + +I choked as I tried to answer, and wondered if he had any idea of what +I had to contend with in these rides I seemed forced to take without +any benefit to myself. If he had, he was merciless, for once launched +into talk he kept on till I was almost wild with hateful sympathy and +jealous chagrin. Suddenly he paused. + +The forest we had been threading had for the last few minutes been +growing thinner, and as the quick cessation in his speech caused me to +look up, I saw, or thought I saw, a faint glow shining through the +branches before me, which could not have come from the reflection +made by the setting sun, as that had long ago sunk into darkness. + +Orrin who, as he had ceased speaking, had suddenly reined in his +panting horse, now gave a shout and shot forward, and I, hardly +knowing what to fear or expect, followed him as fast as my evidently +weary animal would carry me, and thus bounding along with but a few +paces between us, we cleared the woods and came out into the open +fields beyond. As we did so a cry went up from Orrin, faintly echoed +by my own lips. It was a fire that we saw, and the flames, which had +now got furious headway, rose up like pillars to the sky, illuminating +all the country round, and showing me, both by their position and the +glare of the stream beneath them, that it was Orrin's house which was +burning, and Orrin's hopes which were being destroyed before our eyes. +The cry he gave as he fully realized this I shall never forget, nor +the gesture with which he drove his spurs into his horse and flashed +down that long valley into the ever-increasing glare that lighted +first his flowing hair and the wet flanks of the animal he bestrode, +and finally seemed to envelop him altogether, till he looked like some +avenging demon rushing through his own element of fury and fire. + +I was far behind him, but I made what time I could, feeling to the +core, as I passed, the weirdness of the solitude before me, with just +this element of horror flaming up in its midst. Not a sound save that +of our pounding hoofs interrupted that crackling sound of burning +wood, and when the roof fell in, as it did before I could reach his +side, I could hear distinctly the echo which followed it. Orrin may +have heard it too, for he gave a groan and drew in his horse, and when +I reached him I saw him sitting there before the smouldering ashes of +his home, silent and inert, without a word to say or an ear to hear +the instinctive words of sympathy I could not now keep back. + +Who had done it? Who had started the blaze which had in one half-hour +undone the work and hope of months? That was the question which first +roused me and caused me to search the silence and darkness of the +night for some trace of a human presence, if only so much as the mark +of a human foot. And I found it. There, in the wet margin of the +stream, I came upon a token which may mean nothing and which may +mean--But I cannot write even here of the doubts it brought me; I +will only tell how on our slow and wearisome passage home through the +sombre woods, Orrin suddenly let his bridle fall, and, flinging up his +arms above his head, cried bitterly: + +"O that I did not love her so well! O that I had never seen her who +would make of me a slave when I would be a man!" + + * * * * * + +The gossips at the corners nod knowingly this morning, and Orrin, +whose brow is moodier than the Colonel's, walks fiercely amongst them +without word and without look. He is on his way to Juliet's house, and +if there is enchantment left in smiles, I bid her to use it, for her +fate is trembling in the balance, and may tip in a direction of which +she little recks. + + * * * * * + +Orrin has come back. Striding impetuously into the room where I sat at +work, he drew himself up till his figure showed itself in all its +full and graceful proportions. + +"Am I a man?" he asked, "or," with a fall in his voice brimmed with +feeling, "am I a fool? She met me with such an unsuspicious look, +Philo, and bore herself with such an innocent air, that I not only +could not say what I meant to say, but have promised to do what I have +sworn never to do--accept the Colonel's unwelcome gift, and make her +mistress of the new stone house." + +"You are--a man," I answered. For what are men but fools where women +of such enchantment are concerned! + +He groaned, perhaps at the secret sarcasm hidden in my tone, and sat +down unbidden at the table where I was writing. + +"You did not see her," he cried. "You do not know with what charms she +works, when she wishes to comfort and allure." Ah! did I not. "And +Philo," he went on, almost humbly for him, "you are mistaken if you +think she had any hand in the ruin which has come upon me. She had not. +How I know it I cannot say, but I am ready to swear it, and you must +forget any foolish fears I may have shown or any foolish words I may +have uttered in the first confusion of my loss and disappointment." + +"I will forget," said I. + +"The fact is I do not understand her," he eagerly explained. "There +was innocence in her air, but there was mockery too, and she laughed +as I talked of my grief and rage, as though she thought I was playing +a part. It was merry laughter, and there was no ring of falsehood in +it, but why should she laugh at all?" + +This was a question I could not answer; who could? Juliet is beyond +the comprehension of us all. + +"But what is the use of plaguing myself with riddles?" he now asked, +starting up as suddenly as he had sat down. "We are to be married in a +month, and the Colonel--I have seen the Colonel--has promised to dance +at our wedding. Will it be in the new stone house? It would be a +fitting end to this comedy if he were to dance in _that_?" + +I thought as Orrin did about this, but with more seriousness perhaps; +and it was not till after he had left me that I remembered I had not +asked whom he suspected of firing his house, now that he was assured +of the innocence of her who was most likely to profit by its burning. + + * * * * * + +"Now I understand Juliet!" was the cry with which Orrin burst into my +presence late this afternoon. "Men are saying and women whispering +that I destroyed my own house, in order to save myself the shame of +accepting the Colonel's offer while I had a roof of my own." And, +burning with rage, he stamped his foot upon the ground, and shook his +hand so threateningly in the direction of his fancied enemies that I +felt some reflection of his anger in my own breast, and said or tried +to say that they could not know him as I did or they would never +accuse him of so mean a deed, whatever else they might bring against +him. + +"It makes me wild, it makes me mad, it makes me feel like leaving the +town forever!" was his hoarse complaint as I finished my feeble +attempt at consolation. "If Juliet were half the woman she ought to be +she would come and live with me in a log-cabin in the woods before +she would accept the Colonel's house now. And to think that she, _she_ +should be affected by the opinions of the rest, and think me so +destitute of pride that I would stoop to sacrifice my own home for the +sake of stepping into that of a rival's. O woman, woman, what are you +made of? Not of the same stuff as we men, surely." + +I strove to calm him, for he was striding fiercely and impatiently +about the room. But at my first word he burst forth with: + +"And her father, who should control her, aids and encourages her +follies. He is a slave to the Colonel, who is the slave of his own +will." + +"In this case," I quietly observed, "his will seems to be most +kindly." + +"That is the worst of it," chafed Orrin. "If only he offered me +opposition I could struggle with him. But it is his generosity I hate, +and the humiliating position into which it thrusts me. And that is not +all," he angrily added, while still striding feverishly about the +room. "The Colonel seems to think us his property ever since we +decided to accept his, and as a miser watches over his gold so does +he watch over us, till I scarcely have the opportunity now of speaking +to Juliet alone. If I go to her house, there he is sitting like a +black statue at the fireplace, and when I would protest, and lead her +into another room or into the garden, he rises and overwhelms me with +such courtesies and subtle disquisitions that I am tripped up in my +endeavors, and do not know how to leave or how to stay. I wish he +would fall sick, or his house tumble about his head!" + +"Orrin, Orrin!" I cried. But he interrupted my remonstrance with the +words: + +"It is not decent. I am her affianced husband now, and he should leave +us alone. Does he think I can ever forget that he used to court her +once himself, and that the favors she now shows me were once given as +freely, if not as honestly, to him? He knows I cannot forget, and he +delights--" + +"There, Orrin," I broke in, "you do him wrong. The Colonel is above +your comprehension as he is above mine; but there is nothing +malevolent in him." + +"I don't know about that," rejoined his angry rival. "If he wanted to +steal back my bride he could take no surer course for doing it. +Juliet, who is fickle as the wind, already looks from his face to mine +as if she were contrasting us. And he is so damned handsome and suave +and self-forgetting!" + +"And you," I could not help but say, "are so fierce and sullen even in +your love." + +"I know it," was his half-muttered retort, "but what can you expect? +Do you think I will see him steal her heart away from before my eyes?" + +"It would be but a natural return on his part for your former +courtesies," I could not forbear saying, in my own secret chagrin and +soreness of heart. + +"But he shall not do it," exclaimed Orrin, with a backward toss of his +head, and a sudden thump of his strong hand on the table before me. "I +won her once against all odds, and I will keep her if I have to don +the devil's smiles myself. He shall never again see her eyes rest +longer on his face than mine. I will hold her by the power of my love +till he finds himself forgotten, and for very shame steals away, +leaving me with the bride he has himself bestowed upon me. He shall +never have Juliet back." + +"I doubt if he wishes to," I quietly remarked, as Orrin, weary with +passion, ran from my presence. + +I do not know whether Orrin succeeded or not in his attempts to shame +the Colonel from intruding upon his interviews with Juliet. I am only +sure that Orrin's countenance smoothed itself after this day, and that +I heard no more complaints of Juliet's wavering fidelity. I myself do +not believe she has ever wavered. Simply because she ought from every +stand-point of good judgment and taste to have preferred the Colonel +and clung to him, she will continue to cleave to Orrin and make him +the idol of her wayward heart. But it is all a mystery to me and one +that does not make me very happy. + + * * * * * + +I went up by myself to the new stone house to-day, and found that it +only needs the finishing touches. Twenty workmen or more were there, +and the great front door had just been brought and was leaning against +the walls preparatory to being hung. Being curious to see how they +were progressing within, I climbed up to one of the windows and looked +in, and not satisfied with what I could thus see, made my way into the +house and up the main staircase, which I was surprised to see was +nearly completed. + +The sound of the hammer and saw was all about me, and the calling of +orders from above and below interfered much with any sentimental +feelings I might have had. But I was not there to indulge in +sentiment, and so I roamed on from room to room till I suddenly came +upon a sight that drove every consideration of time and place from my +mind, and made me for a moment forgetful of every other sentiment than +admiration. This was nothing less than the glimpse which I obtained in +passing one of the windows, of the Colonel himself down on his knees +on the scaffolding aiding the workmen. So, so, he is not content with +hurrying the work forward by his means and influence, but is lending +the force of his example, and actually handling the plane and saw in +his anxiety not to disappoint Juliet in regard to the day she has +fixed for her marriage. + +A week ago I should have told Orrin what I had seen, but I had no +desire to behold the old frowns come back to his face, so I determined +to hold my silence with him. But Juliet ought to know with what manner +of heart she has been so recklessly playing, so after stealing down +the stairs I felt I should never have mounted, I crept from the house +and made my way as best I could through the huge forest-trees that so +thickly clustered at its back, till I came upon the high-road which +leads to the village. Walking straight to Juliet's house I asked to +see her, and shall never forget the blooming beauty of her presence as +she stepped into the room and gave me her soft white hand to kiss. + +As she is no longer the object of my worship and hardly the friend of +my heart, I think I can speak of her loveliness now without being +misunderstood. So I will let my pen trace for once a record of her +charms, which in that hour were surely great enough to excuse the +rivalry of which they had been the subject, and perhaps to account for +the disinterestedness of the man who had once given her his heart. + +She is of medium height, this Juliet, and her form has that sway in it +which you see in a lily nodding on its stem. But she is no lily in her +most enchanting movements, but rather an ardent passion-flower burning +and palpitating in the sun. Her skin, which is milk-white, has strange +flushes in it, and her eyes, which never look at you twice with the +same meaning, are blue, or gray, or black, as her feeling varies and +the soul informing them is in a state of joy, or trouble. Her most +bewitching feature is her mouth, which has two dangerous dimples near +it that go and come, sometimes without her volition and sometimes, I +fear, with her full accord and desire. Her hair is brown and falls in +such a mass of ringlets that no cap has ever yet been found which can +confine it and keep it from weaving a golden net in which to entangle +the hearts of men. When she smiles you feel like rushing forward; when +she frowns you question yourself humbly what you have done to merit a +look so out of keeping with the playful cast of her countenance and +the arch bearing of her spirited young form. She was dressed, as she +always is, simply, but there was infinite coquetry in the tie of the +blue ribbon on her shoulder, and if a close cap of dainty lace could +make a face look more entrancing, I should like the privilege of +seeing it. She was in an amiable mood and smiled upon my homage like a +fairy queen. + +"I have come to pay my final respects to Juliet Playfair," I +announced; "for by the tokens up yonder she will soon be classed among +our matrons." + +My tone was formal and she looked surprised at it, but my news was +welcome and so she made me a demure little courtesy before saying +joyously: + +"Yes, the house is nearly done, and to-morrow Orrin and I are going up +there together to see it. The Colonel has asked us to do this that we +might say whether all is to our liking and convenience." + +"The Colonel is a man in a thousand," I began, but, seeing her frown +in her old pettish way, I perceived that she partook enough of Orrin's +spirit to dislike any allusion to one whose generosity threw her own +selfishness into startling relief. + +So I said no more on this topic, but let my courtesy expend itself in +good wishes, and came away at last with a bewildering remembrance of +her beauty, which I am doing my best to blot out by faithfully +recounting to myself the story of those infinite caprices of hers +which have come so near wrecking more than one honorable heart. + +I do not expect to visit her again until I pay my respects to her as +Orrin's wife. + + * * * * * + +It is the day when Orrin and Juliet are to visit the new house. If I +had not known this from her own lips, I should have known it from the +fact that the workmen all left at noon, in order, as one of them said, +to leave the little lady more at her ease. I saw them coming down the +road, and had the curiosity to watch for the appearance of Orrin and +the Colonel at Juliet's gate but they did not come, and assured by +this that they meditated a later visit than I had anticipated, I went +about my work. This took me up the road, and as it chanced, led me +within a few rods of the wood within which lies the new stone house. I +had not meant to go there, for I have haunted the place enough, but +this time there was reason for it, and satisfied with the fact, I +endeavored to fix my mind on other matters and forget who was likely +at any moment to enter the forest behind me. + +But when one makes an effort to forget he is sure to remember all the +more keenly, and I was just picturing to my mind Juliet's face and +Juliet's pretty air of mingled pride and disdain as the first sight of +the broad stone front burst upon her, when I heard through the +stillness of the woods the faint sound of a saw, which coming from the +direction of the house seemed to say that some one was still at work +there. As I had understood that all the men had been given a +half-holiday, I felt somewhat surprised at this, and unconsciously to +myself moved a few steps nearer the opening where the house stood, +when suddenly all was still and I could not for the moment determine +whether I had really heard the sound of a saw or not. Annoyed at +myself, and ashamed of an interest that made every trivial incident +connected with this affair of such moment to me, I turned back to my +work, and in a few moments had finished it and left the wood, when +what was my astonishment to see Orrin coming from the same place, +with his face turned toward the village, and a hardy, determined +expression upon it which made me first wonder and then ask myself if I +really comprehended this man or knew what he cherished in his heart of +hearts. + +Going straight up to him, I said: + +"Well, Orrin, what's this? Coming away from the house instead of going +to it? I understood that you and Juliet were expecting to visit it +together this afternoon." + +He paused, startled, and his eyes fell as I looked him straight in the +face. + +"We are going to visit it," he admitted, "but I thought it would be +wiser for me to inspect the place first and see if all was right. An +unfinished building has so many traps in it, you know." And he laughed +loudly and long, but his mirth was forced, and I turned and looked +after him, as he strode away, with a vague but uneasy feeling I did +not myself understand. + +"Will the Colonel go with you?" I called out. + +He wheeled about as if stung. "Yes," he shouted, "the Colonel will go +with us. Did you suppose he would allow us the satisfaction of going +alone? I tell you, Philo," and he strode back to my side, "the Colonel +considers us his property. Is not that pleasant? His _property_! And +so we are," he fiercely added, "while we are his debtors. But we shall +not be his debtors long. When we are married--if we _are_ married--I +will take Juliet from this place if I have to carry her away by force. +She shall never be the mistress of this house." + +"Orrin! Orrin!" I protested. + +"I have said it," was his fierce rejoinder, and he left me for the +second time and passed hurriedly down the street. + +I was therefore somewhat taken aback when a little while later he +reappeared with Juliet and the Colonel, in such a mood of forced +gayety that more than one turned to look after them as they passed +merrily laughing down the road. Will Juliet never be the mistress of +that house? I think she will, my Orrin. That dimpled smile of hers has +more force in it than that dominating will of yours. If she chooses to +hold her own she will hold it, and neither you nor the Colonel can +ever say her nay. + +What did Orrin tell me? That she would never be mistress of that +house? Orrin was right, she never will; but who could have thought of +a tragedy like this? Not I, not I; and if Orrin did and planned it-- +But let me tell the whole just as it happened, keeping down my horror +till the last word is written and I have plainly before me the awful +occurrences of this fearful day. + +They went, the three, to that fatal house together, and no man, saving +myself perhaps, thought much more about the matter till we began to +see Juliet's father peering anxiously from over his gate in the +direction of the wood. Then we realized that the afternoon had long +passed and that it was getting dark; and going up to the old man, I +asked whom he was looking for. The answer was as we expected. + +"I am looking for Juliet. The Colonel took her and Orrin up to their +new house, but they do not come back. I had a dreadful dream last +night, and it frightens me. Why don't they come? It must be dark +enough in the wood." + +"They will come soon," I assured him, and moved off, for I do not like +Juliet's father. + +But when I passed by there again a half-hour later and found the old +man still standing bare-headed and with craning neck at his post, I +became very uneasy myself, and proposed to two or three neighbors, +whom I found standing about, that we should go toward the woods and +see if all were well. They agreed, being affected, doubtless, like +myself, by the old man's fears, and as we proceeded down the street, +others joined us till we amounted in number to a half-dozen or more. +Yet, though the occasion seemed a strange one, we were not really +alarmed till we found ourselves at the woods and realized how dark +they were and how still. Then I began to feel an oppression at my +heart, and trod with careful and hesitating steps till we came into +the open space in which the house stands. Here it was lighter, but oh! +how still. I shall never forget how still; when suddenly a shrill cry +broke from one amongst us, and I saw Ralph Urphistone pointing with +finger frozen in horror at something which lay in ghastly outline upon +the broad stone which leads up to the gap of the great front door. + +What was it? We dared not approach to see, yet we dared not linger +quiescent. One by one we started forward till finally we all stood in +a horrified circle about the thing that looked like a shadow, and yet +was not a shadow, but some horrible nightmare that made us gasp and +shudder till the moon came suddenly out, and we saw that what we +feared and shrank from were the bodies of Juliet and Orrin, he lying +with face upturned and arms thrown out, and she with her head pillowed +on his breast as if cast there in her last faint moment of +consciousness. They were both dead, having fallen through the planks +of the scaffolding, as was shown by the fatal gap open to the +moonlight above our heads. Dead! dead! and though no man there knew +how, the terror of their doom and the retribution it seemed to bespeak +went home to our hearts, and we bowed our heads with a simultaneous +cry of terror, which in that first moment was too overwhelming even +for grief. + +The Colonel was nowhere to be seen, and after the first few minutes of +benumbing horror, we tried to call aloud his name. But the cries died +in our throat, and presently one amongst us withdrew into the house to +search, and then another and another, till I was left alone in awful +attendance upon the dead. Then I began to realize my own anguish, and +with some last fragment of secret jealousy--or was it from some other +less definite but equally imperative feeling?--was about to stoop +forward and lift her head from a pillow that I somehow felt defiled +it, when a quick hand drew me aside, and looking up, I saw Ralph +standing at my back. He did not speak, and his figure looked ghostly +in the moonlight, but his hand was pointing toward the house, and when +I moved to follow him, he led the way into the hollow entrance and up +the stairway till we came to the upper story where he stopped, and +motioned me toward a door opening into one of the rooms. + +There were several of our number already standing there, so I did not +hesitate to approach, and as I went the darkness in which I had +hitherto moved disappeared before the broad band of moonlight shining +into the room before us, and I saw, darkly silhouetted against a +shining background, the crouching figure of the Colonel, staring with +hollow eyes and maddened mien out of the unfinished window through +which in all probability the devoted couple had stepped to their +destruction. + +"Can you make him speak?" asked one. "He does not seem to heed us, +though we have shouted to him and even shook his arm." + +"I shall not try," said I. "Horror like this should be respected." And +going softly in I took up my station by his side in silent awe. + +But they would have me talk, and finally in some desperation I turned +to him and said, quietly: + +"The scaffolding broke beneath them, did it not?" At which he first +stared and then flung up his arms with a wild but suppressed cry. But +he said nothing, and next moment had settled again into his old +attitude of silent horror and amazement. + +"He might better be lying with them," I whispered after a moment, +coming from his side. And one by one they echoed my words, and as he +failed to move or even show any symptoms of active life, we gradually +drifted from the spot till we were all huddled again below in the +hollow blackness of that doorway guarded over by the dead. + +Who should tell her father? They all looked at me, but I shook my +head, and it fell to another to perform this piteous errand, for +fearful thoughts were filling my brain, and Orrin did not look +altogether guiltless to me as he lay there dead beside the maiden he +had declared so fiercely should never be mistress of this house. + + * * * * * + +Was ever such a night of horror known in this town! + +They have brought the two bruised bodies down into the village and +they now lie side by side in the parlor where I last saw Juliet in the +bloom and glow of life. The Colonel is still crouching where I left +him. No one can make him speak and no one can make him move, and the +terror which his terror has produced affects the whole community, not +even the darkness of the night serving to lessen the wild excitement +which drives men and women about the streets as if it were broad +daylight, and makes of every house an open thorough-fare through +which anybody who wishes can pass. + +I, who have followed every change and turn in this whole calamitous +affair, am like one benumbed at this awful crisis. I too go and come +through the streets, hear people say in shouts, in cries, with bitter +tears and wild lamentations, "Juliet is dead!" "Orrin is dead!" and +get no sense from the words. I have even been more than once to that +spot where they lie in immovable beauty, and though I gaze and gaze +upon them, I feel nothing--not even wonder. Only the remembrance of +that rigid figure frozen into its place above the gulf where so much +youth and so many high hopes fell, has power to move me. When amid the +shadows which surround me I see _that_, I shudder and the groan rises +slowly to my lips as if I too were looking down into a gulf from which +hope and love would never again rise. + + * * * * * + +The Colonel is now in his father's house. He was induced to leave the +place by Ralph Urphistone's little child. When the great man first +felt the touch of those baby fingers upon his, he shuddered and half +recoiled, but as the little one pulled him gently but persistently +towards the stair, he gradually yielded to her persuasion, and +followed till he had descended to the ground-floor and left the fatal +house. I do not think any other power could have induced him to pass +that blood-stained threshold. For he seems thoroughly broken down, and +will, I fear, never be the same man that he was before this fearful +tragedy took place before his eyes. + +All day I have paced the floor of my room asking myself if I should +allow Juliet to be laid away in the same tomb as Orrin. He was her +murderer, without doubt, and though he has shared her doom, was it +right for me to allow one stone to be raised above their united +graves. Feeling said no, but reason bade me halt before I disturbed +the whole community with whispers of a crime. I therefore remained +undecided, and it was in this same condition of doubt that I finally +went to the funeral and stood with the rest of the lads beside the +open grave which had been dug for the unhappy lovers in that sunny +spot beside the great church door. At sight of this grave and the twin +coffins about to be lowered into it, I felt my struggle renewed, and +yet I held my peace and listened as best I could to the minister's +words and the broken sobs of such as had envied these two in their +days of joyance, but had only pity for pleasure so soon over and hopes +doomed to such early destruction. + +We were all there; Ralph and Lemuel and the other neighbors, old and +young, all except that chief of mourners, the Colonel; for he was +still under the influence of that horror which kept him enchained in +silence, and had not even been sensible enough of the day and its +mournful occasion to rise and go to the window as the long funeral +cortege passed his house. We were all there and the minister had said +the words, and Orrin's body had been lowered to its final rest, when +suddenly, as they were about to move Juliet, a tumult was observed in +the outskirts of the crowd, and the Colonel towering in his rage and +appalling in his just indignation, fought his way through the +recoiling masses till he stood in our very midst. + +"Stop!" he cried, "this burial must not go on." And he advanced his +arm above Juliet's body as if he would intervene his very heart +between it and the place of darkness into which it was about to +descend. "She was the victim, he the murderer; they shall not lie +together if I have to fling myself between them in the grave which you +have dug." + +"But--but," interposed the minister, calm and composed even in the +face of this portentous figure and the appalling words which it had +uttered, "by what right do you call this one a murderer and the other +a victim? Did you see him murder her? Was there a crime enacted before +your eyes?" + +"The boards were sawn," was the startling answer. "They must have been +sawn or they would never have given way beneath so light a weight. And +then he urged her--I saw him--pleaded with her, drew her by force of +eye and hand to step upon the scaffold without, though there was no +need for it, and she recoiled. And when her light foot was on it and +her half-smiling, half-timid face looked back upon us, he leaped out +beside her, when instantly came the sound of a great crack, and I +heard his laugh and her cry go up together, and--and--everything has +been midnight in my soul ever since, till suddenly through the blank +and horror surrounding me I caught the words, 'They will lie together +in one tomb!' Then--then I awoke and my voice came back to me and my +memory, and hither I hastened to stop this unhallowed work; for to lay +the victim beside her murderer is a sacrilege which I for one would +come back even from the grave to prevent." + +"But why," moaned the father feebly amid the cries and confusion which +had been aroused by so gruesome an interference on the brink of the +grave, "but why should Orrin wish my Juliet's death? They were to have +been married soon--" + +But piteous as were his tones no one listened, for just then a lad who +had been hiding behind the throng stepped out before us, showing a +face so white and a manner so perturbed that we all saw that he had +something to say of importance in this matter. + +"The boards _have_ been sawn," he said. "I wanted to know and I +climbed up to see." At which words the whole crowd moved and swayed, +and a dozen hands stooped to lift the body of Juliet and carry it away +from that accursed spot. + +But the minister is a just man and cautious, and he lifted up his arms +in such protest that they paused. + +"Who knows," he suggested, "that it was Orrin's hand which handled the +saw?" + +And then I perceived that it was time for me to speak. So I raised my +voice and told my story, and as I told it the wonder grew on every +face and the head of each man slowly drooped till we all stood with +downcast eyes. For crime had never before been amongst us or soiled +the honor of our goodly town. Only the Colonel still stood erect; and +as the vision of his outstretched arm and flaming eyes burned deeper +and deeper into my consciousness, I stammered in my speech and then +sobbed, and was the first to lift the silent form of the beauteous +dead and bear it away from the spot denounced by one who had done so +much for her happiness and had met with such a bitter and +heart-breaking reward. + +And where did we finally lay her? In that spot--ah! why does my blood +run chill while I write it--where she stood when she took that oath to +the Colonel, whose breaking caused her death. + +A few words more and this record must be closed forever. That night, +when all was again quiet in the village and the mourners no longer +went about the streets, Lemuel, Ralph, and I went for a final visit to +the new stone house. It showed no change, that house, and save for the +broken scaffolding above gave no token of its having been the scene of +such a woful tragedy. But as we looked upon it from across its +gruesome threshold Lemuel said: + +"It is a goodly structure and nigh completed, but the hand that began +it will never finish it, nor will man or woman ever sleep within its +walls. The place is accursed, and will stand accursed till it is +consumed by God's lightning or falls piecemeal to the ground from +natural decay. Though its stones are fresh, I see ruin already written +upon its walls." + +It was a strong statement, and we did not believe it, but when we got +back to the village we were met by one who said: + +"The Colonel has stopped the building of the new house. 'It is to be +an everlasting monument,' he says, 'to a rude man's pride and a sweet +woman's folly.'" + +Will it be a monument that he will love to gaze upon? I wot not, or +any other man who remembers Juliet's loveliness and the charm it gave +to our village life for one short year. + + * * * * * + +What was it that I said about this record being at an end? Some +records do not come to an end, and though twenty years have passed +since I wrote the above, I have cause this day to take these faded +leaves from their place and add a few lines to the story of the +Colonel's new house. + +It is an old house now, old and desolate. As Lemuel said--he is one of +our first men--it is accursed and no one has ever felt brave enough or +reckless enough to care to cross again its ghostly threshold. Though I +never heard any one say it is haunted, there are haunting memories +enough surrounding it for one to feel a ghastly recoil from invading +precincts defiled by such a crime. So the kindly forest has taken it +into its protection, and Nature, who ever acts the generous part, has +tried to throw the mantle of her foliage over the decaying roof, and +about the lonesome walls, accepting what man forsakes and so +fulfilling her motherhood. + +I am still a resident in the town, and I have a family now that has +outgrown the little cottage which the apple-tree once guarded. But it +is not to tell of them or of myself that I have taken these pages from +their safe retreat to-day, but to speak of the sight which I saw this +morning when I passed through the churchyard, as I often do, to pluck +a rose from the bush which we lads planted on Juliet's grave twenty +years ago. They always seem sweeter to me than other roses, and I take +a superstitious delight in them, in which my wife, strange to say, +does not participate. But that is neither here nor there. + +The sight which I thought worth recording was this: I had come slowly +through the yard, for the sunshine was brilliant and the month June, +and sad as the spot is, it is strangely beautiful to one who loves +nature, when as I approached the corner where Juliet lies, and which +you will remember was in the very spot where I once heard her take her +reluctant oath, I saw crouched against her tomb a figure which seemed +both strange and vaguely familiar to me. Not being able to guess who +it was, as there is now nobody in town who remembers her with any more +devotion than myself, I advanced with sudden briskness, when the +person I was gazing upon rose, and turning towards me, looked with +deeply searching and most certainly very wretched eyes into mine. I +felt a shock, first of surprise, and then of wildest recollection. The +man before me was the Colonel, and the grief apparent in his face and +disordered mien showed that years of absence had not done their work, +and that he had never forgotten the arch and brilliant Juliet. + +Bowing humbly and with a most reverent obeisance, for he was still the +great man of the county, though he had not been in our town for years, +I asked his pardon for my intrusion, and then drew back to let him +pass. But he stopped and gave me a keen look, and speaking my name, +said: "You are married, are you not?" And when I bowed the meek +acquiescence which the subject seemed to demand, he sighed as I +thought somewhat bitterly, and shrugging his shoulders, went +thoughtfully by and left me standing on the green sward alone. But +when he had reached the gate he turned again, and without raising his +voice, though the distance between us was considerable, remarked: "I +have come back to spend my remaining days in the village of my birth. +If you care to talk of old times, come to the house at sunset. You +will find me sitting on the porch." + +Gratified more than I ever expected to be by a word from him, I bowed +my thanks and promised most heartily to come. And that was the end of +our first interview. + +It has left me with very lively sensations. Will they be increased or +diminished by the talk he has promised me? + + * * * * * + +I had a pleasant hour with the Colonel, but we did not talk of _her_. +Had I expected to? I judge so by the faint but positive disappointment +which I feel. + + * * * * * + +I have been again to the Colonel's, but this time I did not find him +in. "He is much out evenings," explained the woman who keeps house +for him, "and you will have to come early to see him at his own +hearth." + + * * * * * + +What is there about the Colonel that daunts me? He seems friendly, +welcomes my company, and often hands me the hospitable glass. But I am +never easy in his presence, though the distance between us is not so +great as it was in our young days, now that I have advanced in worldly +prosperity and he has stood still. Is it that his intellect cows me, +or do I feel too much the secret melancholy which breathes through all +his actions, and frequently cuts short his words? I cannot answer; I +am daunted by him and I am fascinated, and after leaving him think +only of the time when I shall see him again. + + * * * * * + +The children, who have grown up since the Colonel has been gone, seem +very shy of him. I have noted them more than once shrink away from his +path, huddling and whispering in a corner, and quite forgetting to +play as long as his shadow fell across the green or the sound of his +feet could be heard on the turf. I think they fear his melancholy, not +understanding it. Or perhaps some hint of his sorrows has been given +them, and it is awe they feel rather than fear. However that may be, +no child ever takes his hand or prattles to him of its little joys or +griefs; and this in itself makes him look solitary, for we are much +given in this town to merry-making with our little ones, and it is a +common sight to see old and young together on the green, making sport +with ball or battledore. + +And it is not the children only who hold him in high but distant +respect. The best men here are contented with a courteous bow from +him, while the women--matrons now, who once were blushing +maidens--think they have shown him enough honor if they make him a +deep curtsey and utter a mild "Good-morrow." + +The truth is, he invites nothing more. He talks to me because he must +talk to some one, but our conversation is always of things outside of +our village life, and never by any chance of the place or any one in +it. He lives at his father's house, now his, and has for his sole +companion an old servant of the family, who was once his nurse, and +who is, I believe, the only person in the world who is devotedly +attached to him. + +Unless it is myself. Sometimes I think I love him; sometimes I think I +do not. He fascinates me, and could make me do most anything he +pleased, but have I a real affection for him? Almost; and this is +something which I consider strange. + + * * * * * + +Where does the Colonel go evenings? His old nurse has asked me, and I +find I cannot answer. Not to the tavern, for I am often there; not to +the houses of the neighbors, for none of them profess to know him. +Where then? Is the curiosity of my youth coming back to me? It looks +very much like it, Philo, very much like it. + + * * * * * + +My daughter said to me to-day: "Father, do not go any more to the +Colonel's." And when I asked her why, she answered that her lover--she +has a _lover_, the minx--had told her that the Colonel held secret +talks with the witches, and though I laughed at this, it has set me +thinking. He goes to the forest at night, and roams for hours among +its shadows. Is this a healthy occupation for a man, especially a man +with a history? I shall go early to the Schuyler homestead to-night +and stay late, for these midnight communings with nature may be the +source of the hideous gloom which I have observed of late is growing +upon his spirits. No other duty seems to me now greater than this, to +win him back to a healthy realization of life, and the need there is +of looking cheerfully upon such blessings as are left to our lot. + + * * * * * + +I went to the Colonel's at early candle-light, and I stayed till ten, +a late hour for me, and, as I hoped, for him. When I left I caught a +sight of old Hannah, standing in a distant hallway, and I thought she +looked grateful; at all events, she came forward very quickly after my +departure, for I heard the key turn in the lock of the great front +door before I had passed out of the gate. + +Why did I not go home? I had meant to, and there was every reason why +I should. But I had no sooner felt the turf under my feet and seen the +stars over my head, than I began to wander in the very opposite +direction, and that without any very definite plan or purpose. I think +I was troubled, and if not troubled, restless, and yet movement did +not seem to help me, for I grew more uneasy with every step I took, +and began to look towards the woods to which I was half unconsciously +tending as if there I should find relief just as the Colonel, perhaps, +was in the habit of doing. Was it a mere foolish freak which had +assailed me, or was I under some uncanny influence, caught from the +place where I had been visiting? + +I was yet asking myself this, when I heard distinctly through the +silence of the night the sound of a footstep behind me, and astonished +that any one else should have been beguiled at this hour into a walk +so dreary, I slipped into the shadow of a tree that stood at the +wayside and waited till the slowly advancing figure should pass and +leave me free to pursue my way or to go back unnoticed and +undisturbed. + +I had not long to wait. In a moment a weirdly muffled form appeared +abreast of me, and it was with difficulty I suppressed a cry, for it +was the Colonel I saw, escaped, doubtless, from his old nurse's +surveillance, and as he passed he groaned, and the sad sound coming +through the night at a time when my own spirits were in no comfortable +mood affected me with almost a superstitious power, so that I trembled +where I stood and knew not whether to follow him or go back and seek +the cheer of my own hearth. But I decided in another moment to follow +him, and when he had withdrawn far enough up the road not to hear the +sound of my footfalls, I stepped out from my retreat and went with him +into the woods. + +I have been as you know a midnight wanderer in that same place many a +time in my life; but never did I leave the fields and meadows with +such a foreboding dread, or step into the clustering shadows of the +forest with such a shrinking and awe-struck heart. Yet I went on +without a pause or an instant of hesitation, for I knew now where he +was going, and if he were going to the old stone house I was +determined to be his companion, or at least his watcher. For I knew +now that I loved him and could never see him come to ill. + +There was no moon at this time, but the sound of his steps guided me +and when I had come into the open place where the stars shone I saw by +the movement which took place in the shadows lying around the open +door of the old house, that he was near the fatal threshold and would +in another moment be across it and within those mouldy halls. That I +was right, another instant proved, for suddenly through the great +hollow of the open portal a mild gleam broke and I saw he had lighted +a lantern and was moving about within the empty rooms. + +Softly as man could go, I followed him. Crouching in the doorway, with +ear turned to the emptiness within, I listened. And as I did so, I +felt the chill run through my blood and stiffen the hair on my head, +for he was talking as he walked, and his tones were affable and +persuasive, as if two ghosts roamed noiselessly at his side and he +were showing them as in the days of yore, the beauties of his nearly +completed home. + +"An ample parlor, you see," came in distinct, suave monotone to my +ear. "Room enough for many a couple on gala nights, as even sweet +Mistress Juliet will say. Do you like this fireplace, and will there +be space enough here for the portrait which Lawrence has promised to +make of young Madam Day? I do not like too much light myself, so I +have ordered curtains to be hung here. But if Mistress Juliet prefers +the sunshine, we will tell the men nay, for all is to be according to +your will, fair lady, as you must know, being here. Pardon me, that +was an evil step; you should have a quick eye for such mishaps, friend +Orrin, and not leave it to my courtesy to hold out a helping hand. Ah! +you like this dusky nook. It was made for a sweet young bride to hide +in when her heart's fulness demands quiet and rest. Do the trees come +too near the lattice? If so they shall be trimmed away. And this +dining-parlor--Can you judge of it with the floor half laid and its +wainscoting unnailed? I trow not, but you can trust me, pretty Juliet, +you can trust me; and Orrin, too, need not speak, for me to know just +how to finish this study for him. Up-stairs? You do not wish to go +up-stairs? Ah, then, you miss the very cream of the house. I have +worked with my own hand upon the rooms up-stairs, and there is a +little Cupid wrought into the woodwork of a certain door which I +greatly wish you to pass an opinion upon. I think the wings lack +airiness, but the workmen swear it is as if he would fly from the door +at a whisper. Come, Mistress Juliet; come, friend Orrin, if I lead the +way you need not hesitate. Come! come!" + +Was he alone? Were those eager steps of his unaccompanied, and should +I not behold, if I looked within, the blooming face of Juliet and the +frowning brows of Orrin, crowding close behind him as he moved? The +fancy invoked by his words was so vivid, that for a moment I thought I +should, and I never shall forget the thrill which seized me as I +leaned forward and peered for one minute into the hall and saw there +his solitary figure pausing on the lower step of the stairs, with that +bend of the body which bespeaks an obeisance which is half homage and +half an invitation. He was still talking, and as he went up, he looked +back smiling and gossiping over his shoulder in a smooth and courtly +way which made it impossible for me to withdraw my fascinated eyes. + +"No banisters, sweet Juliet? Not yet--not yet; but Orrin will protect +you from falling. No harm can come to you while he is at your side. Do +you admire this sweep to the stairs? I saw a vision when I planned it, +of a pretty woman coming down at the sound of her husband's step. The +step has changed in sound to my imagination, but the pretty woman is +prettier than ever, and will look her best as she comes down these +stairs. Oh, that is a window-ledge for flowers. A honeymoon is nothing +without flowers, and you must have forget-me-nots and pansies here +till one cannot see from the window. You do not like such humble +flowers? Fie! Mistress Juliet, it is hard to believe that,--even Orrin +doubts it, as I see by his chiding air." + +Here the gentle and bantering tones ceased, for he had reached the top +of the stair. But in another moment I heard them again as he passed +from room to room, pausing here and pausing there, till suddenly he +gave a cheerful laugh, spoke her name in most inviting accents, and +stepped into _that_ room. + +Then as if roused into galvanic action, I rose and followed, going up +those midnight stairs and gaining the door where he had passed as if +the impulse moving me had lent to my steps a certainty which preserved +me from slipping even upon that dank and dangerous ascent. When in +view of him again, I saw, as I had expected, that he was drawn up by +the window and was bowing and beckoning with even more grace and +suavity than he had shown below. "Will you not step out, Mistress +Juliet?" he was saying; "I have a plan which I am anxious to submit to +your judgment and which can only be decided upon from without. A high +step true, but Orrin has lifted you over worse places and--and you +will do me a great favor if only--" Here he gave a malignant shriek, +and his countenance, from the most smiling and benignant expression, +altered into that of a fiend from hell. "Ha, ha, ha!" he yelled. "She +goes, and he is so fearful for her that he leaps after. That is a +goodly stroke! Both--both--Crack! Ah, she looks at me, she looks--" + +Silence and then a frozen figure crouching before my eyes, just the +silence and just the figure I remembered seeing there twenty years +before, only the face is older and the horror, if anything, greater. +What did it mean? I tried to think, then as the full import of the +scene burst upon me, and I realized that it was a murderer I was +looking upon, and that Orrin, poor Orrin, had been innocent, I sank +back and fell upon the floor, lost in the darkness of an utter +unconsciousness. + +I did not come to myself for hours; when I did I found myself alone in +the old house. + + * * * * * + +Nothing was ever done to the Colonel, for when I came to tell my story +the doctors said that the facts I related did not prove him to have +been guilty of crime, as his condition was such that his own words +could not be relied upon in a matter on which he had brooded more or +less morbidly for years. So now when I see him pass through the +churchyard or up and down the village street and note that he is +affable as ever when he sees me, but growing more and more preoccupied +with his own thoughts I do not know whether to look upon him with +execration or profoundest pity, nor can any man guide me or satisfy my +mind as to whether I should blame his jealousy or Orrin's pride for +the pitiful tragedy which once darkened my life, and turned our +pleasant village into a desert. + +Of one thing only have I been made sure; that it was the Colonel who +lit the brand which fired Orrin's cottage. + + + + +A MEMORABLE NIGHT. + +CHAPTER I. + + +I am a young physician of limited practice and great ambition. At the +time of the incidents I am about to relate, my office was in a +respectable house in Twenty-fourth Street, New York City, and was +shared, greatly to my own pleasure and convenience, by a clever young +German whose acquaintance I had made in the hospital, and to whom I +had become, in the one short year in which we had practised together, +most unreasonably attached. I say unreasonably, because it was a +liking for which I could not account even to myself, as he was neither +especially prepossessing in appearance nor gifted with any too great +amiability of character. He was, however, a brilliant theorist and an +unquestionably trustworthy practitioner, and for these reasons +probably I entertained for him a profound respect, and as I have +already said a hearty and spontaneous affection. + +As our specialties were the same, and as, moreover, they were of a +nature which did not call for night-work, we usually spent the evening +together. But once I failed to join him at the office, and it is of +this night I have to tell. + +I had been over to Orange, for my heart was sore over the quarrel I +had had with Dora, and I was resolved to make one final effort towards +reconciliation. But alas for my hopes, she was not at home; and, what +was worse, I soon learned that she was going to sail the next morning +for Europe. This news, coming as it did without warning, affected me +seriously, for I knew if she escaped from my influence at this time, I +should certainly lose her forever; for the gentleman concerning whom +we had quarrelled, was a much better match for her than I, and almost +equally in love. However, her father, who had always been my friend, +did not look upon this same gentleman's advantages with as favorable +an eye as she did, and when he heard I was in the house, he came +hurrying into my presence, with excitement written in every line of +his fine face. + +"Ah, Dick, my boy," he exclaimed joyfully, "how opportune this is! I +was wishing you would come, for, do you know, Appleby has taken +passage on board the same steamer as Dora, and if he and she cross +together, they will certainly come to an understanding, and that will +not be fair to you, or pleasing to me; and I do not care who knows +it!" + +I gave him one look and sank, quite overwhelmed, into the seat nearest +me. Appleby was the name of my rival, and I quite agreed with her +father that the _tête-à-têtes_ afforded by an ocean voyage would +surely put an end to the hopes which I had so long and secretly +cherished. + +"Does she know he is going? Did she encourage him?" I stammered. + +But the old man answered genially: "Oh, she knows, but I cannot say +anything positive about her having encouraged him. The fact is, Dick, +she still holds a soft place in her heart for you, and if you were +going to be of the party--" + +"Well?" + +"I think you would come off conqueror yet." + +"Then I will be of the party," I cried. "It is only six now, and I can +be in New York by seven. That gives me five hours before midnight, +time enough in which to arrange my plans, see Richter, and make +everything ready for sailing in the morning." + +"Dick, you are a trump!" exclaimed the gratified father. "You have a +spirit I like, and if Dora does not like it too, then I am mistaken in +her good sense. But can you leave your patients?" + +"Just now I have but one patient who is in anything like a critical +condition," I replied, "and her case Richter understands almost as +well as I do myself. I will have to see her this evening of course and +explain, but there is time for that if I go now. The steamer sails at +nine?" + +"Precisely." + +"Do not tell Dora that I expect to be there; let her be surprised. +Dear girl, she is quite well, I hope?" + +"Yes, very well; only going over with her aunt to do some shopping. A +poor outlook for a struggling physician, you think. Well, I don't know +about that; she is just the kind of a girl to go from one extreme to +another. If she once loves you she will not care any longer about +Paris fashions." + +"She shall love me," I cried, and left him in a great hurry, to catch +the first train for Hoboken. + +It seemed wild, this scheme, but I determined to pursue it. I loved +Dora too much to lose her, and if three weeks' absence would procure +me the happiness of my life, why should I hesitate to avail myself of +the proffered opportunity. I rode on air as the express I had taken +shot from station to station, and by the time I had arrived at +Christopher Street Ferry my plans were all laid and my time disposed +of till midnight. + +It was therefore with no laggard step I hurried to my office, nor was +it with any ordinary feelings of impatience that I found Richter out; +for this was not his usual hour for absenting himself and I had much +to tell him and many advices to give. It was the first balk I had +received and I was fuming over it, when I saw what looked like a +package of books lying on the table before me, and though it was +addressed to my partner, I was about to take it up, when I heard my +name uttered in a tremulous tone, and turning, saw a man standing in +the doorway, who, the moment I met his eye, advanced into the room and +said: + +"O doctor, I have been waiting for you an hour. Mrs. Warner has been +taken very bad, sir, and she prays that you will not delay a moment +before coming to her. It is something serious I fear, and she may have +died already, for she would have no one else but you, and it is now an +hour since I left her." + +"And who are you?" I asked, for though I knew Mrs. Warner well--she is +the patient to whom I have already referred--I did not know her +messenger. + +"I am a servant in the house where she was taken ill." + +"Then she is not at home?" + +"No, sir, she is in Second Avenue." + +"I am very sorry," I began, "but I have not the time--" + +But he interrupted eagerly: "There is a carriage at the door; we +thought you might not have your phaeton ready." + +I had noticed the carriage. + +"Very well," said I. "I will go, but first let me write a line--" + +"O sir," the man broke in pleadingly, "do not wait for anything. She +is really very bad, and I heard her calling for you as I ran out of +the house." + +"She had her voice then?" I ventured, somewhat distrustful of the +whole thing and yet not knowing how to refuse the man, especially as +it was absolutely necessary for me to see Mrs. Warner that night and +get her consent to my departure before I could think of making further +plans. + +So, leaving word for Richter to be sure and wait for me if he came +home before I did, I signified to Mrs. Warner's messenger that I was +ready to go with him, and immediately took a seat in the carriage +which had been provided for me. The man at once jumped up on the box +beside the driver, and before I could close the carriage door we were +off, riding rapidly down Seventh Avenue. + +As we went the thought came, "What if Mrs. Warner will not let me +off!" But I dismissed the fear at once, for this patient of mine is an +extremely unselfish woman, and if she were not too ill to grasp the +situation, would certainly sympathize with the strait I was in and +consent to accept Richter's services in place of my own, especially as +she knows and trusts him. + +When the carriage stopped it was already dark and I could distinguish +little of the house I entered, save that it was large and old and did +not look like an establishment where a man servant would be likely to +be kept. + +"Is Mrs. Warner here?" I asked of the man who was slowly getting down +from the box. + +"Yes, sir," he answered quickly; and I was about to ring the bell +before me, when the door opened and a young German girl, courtesying +slightly, welcomed me in, saying: + +"Mrs. Warner is up-stairs, sir; in the front room, if you please." + +Not doubting her, but greatly astonished at the barren aspect of the +place I was in, I stumbled up the faintly lighted stairs before me and +entered the great front room. It was empty, but through an open door +at the other end I heard a voice saying: "He has come, madam"; and +anxious to see my patient, whose presence in this desolate house I +found it harder and harder to understand, I stepped into the room +where she presumably lay. + +Alas! for my temerity in doing so; for no sooner had I crossed the +threshold than the door by which I had entered closed with a click +unlike any I had ever heard before, and when I turned to see what it +meant, another click came from the opposite side of the room, and I +perceived, with a benumbed sense of wonder, that the one person whose +somewhat shadowy figure I had encountered on entering had vanished +from the place, and that I was shut up alone in a room without visible +means of egress. + +This was startling, and hard to believe at first, but after I had +tried the door by which I had entered and found it securely locked, +and then bounding to the other side of the room, tried the opposite +one with the same result, I could not but acknowledge I was caught. +What did it mean? Caught, and I was in haste, mad haste. Filling the +room with my cries, I shouted for help and a quick release, but my +efforts were naturally fruitless, and after exhausting myself in vain +I stood still and surveyed, with what equanimity was left me, the +appearance of the dreary place in which I had thus suddenly become +entrapped. + + +CHAPTER II. + +It was a small square room, and I shall not soon forget with what a +foreboding shudder I observed that its four blank walls were literally +unbroken by a single window, for this told me that I was in no +communication with the street, and that it would be impossible for me +to summon help from the outside world. The single gas jet burning in a +fixture hanging from the ceiling was the only relief given to the eye +in the blank expanse of white wall that surrounded me; while as to +furniture, the room could boast of nothing more than an old-fashioned +black-walnut table and two chairs, the latter cushioned, but stiff in +the back and generally dilapidated in appearance. The only sign of +comfort about me was a tray that stood on the table, containing a +couple of bottles of wine and two glasses. The bottles were full and +the glasses clean, and to add to this appearance of hospitality a box +of cigars rested invitingly near, which I could not fail to perceive, +even at the first glance, were of the very best brand. + +Astonished at these tokens of consideration for my welfare, and +confounded by the prospect which they offered of a lengthy stay in +this place, I gave another great shout; but to no better purpose than +before. Not a voice answered, and not a stir was heard in the house. +But there came from without the faint sound of suddenly moving wheels, +as if the carriage which I had left standing before the door had +slowly rolled away. If this were so, then was I indeed a prisoner, +while the moments so necessary to my plans, and perhaps to the +securing of my whole future happiness, were flying by like the wind. +As I realized this, and my own utter helplessness, I fell into one of +the chairs before me in a state of perfect despair. Not that any fears +for my life were disturbing me, though one in my situation might well +question if he would ever again breathe the open air from which he had +been so ingeniously lured. I did not in that first moment of utter +downheartedness so much as inquire the reason for the trick which had +been played upon me. No, my heart was full of Dora, and I was asking +myself if I were destined to lose her after all, and that through no +lack of effort on my part, but just because a party of thieves or +blackmailers had thought fit to play a game with my liberty. + +It could not be; there must be some mistake about it; it was some +great joke, or I was the victim of a dream, or suffering from some +hideous nightmare. Why, only a half hour before I was in my own +office, among my own familiar belongings, and now--But, alas, it was +no delusion. Only four blank, whitewashed walls met my inquiring eyes, +and though I knocked and knocked again upon the two doors which +guarded me on either side, hollow echoes continued to be the only +answer I received. + +Had the carriage then taken away the two persons I had seen in this +house, and was I indeed alone in its great emptiness? The thought made +me desperate, but notwithstanding this I was resolved to continue my +efforts, for I might be mistaken; there might yet be some being left +who would yield to my entreaties if they were backed by something +substantial. + +Taking out my watch, I laid it on the table; it was just a quarter to +eight. Then I emptied my trousers pockets of whatever money they held, +and when all was heaped up before me, I could count but twelve +dollars, which, together with my studs and a seal ring which I wore, +seemed a paltry pittance with which to barter for the liberty of which +I had been robbed. But it was all I had with me, and I was willing to +part with it at once if only some one would unlock the door and let me +go. But how to make known my wishes even if there was any one to +listen to them? I had already called in vain, and there was no +bell--yes, there was; why had I not seen it before? There was a bell +and I sprang to ring it. But just as my hand fell on the cord, I heard +a gentle voice behind my back saying in good English, but with a +strong foreign accent: + +"Put up your money, Mr. Atwater; we do not want your money, only your +society. Allow me to beg you to replace both watch and money." + +Wheeling about in my double surprise at the presence of this intruder +and his unexpected acquaintance with my name, I encountered the +smiling glance of a middle-aged man of genteel appearance and +courteous manners. He was bowing almost to the ground, and was, as I +instantly detected, of German birth and education, a gentleman, and +not the blackleg I had every reason to expect to see. + +"You have made a slight mistake," he was saying; "it is your society, +only your society, that we want." + +Astonished at his appearance, and exceedingly irritated by his words, +I stepped back as he offered me my watch, and bluntly cried: + +"If it is my society only that you want, you have certainly taken very +strange means to procure it. A thief could have set no neater trap, +and if it is money you want, state your sum and let me go, for my time +is valuable and my society likely to be unpleasant." + +He gave a shrug with his shoulders that in no wise interfered with his +set smile. + +"You choose to be facetious," he observed. "I have already remarked +that we have no use for your money. Will you sit down? Here is some +excellent wine, and if this brand of cigars does not suit you, I will +send for another." + +"Send for the devil!" I cried, greatly exasperated. "What do you mean +by keeping me in this place against my will? Open that door and let me +out, or--" + +I was ready to spring and he saw it. Smiling more atrociously than +ever, he slipped behind the table, and before I could reach him, had +quietly drawn a pistol, which he cocked before my eyes. + +"You are excited," he remarked, with a suavity that nearly drove me +mad. "Now excitement is no aid to good company, and I am determined +that none but good company shall be in this room to-night. So if you +will be kind enough to calm yourself, Mr. Atwater, you and I may yet +enjoy ourselves, but if not--" the action he made was significant, and +I felt the cold sweat break out on my forehead through all the heat of +my indignation. + +But I did not mean to show him that he had intimidated me. + +"Excuse me," said I, "and put down your pistol. Though you are making +me lose irredeemable time, I will try and control myself enough to +give you an opportunity for explaining yourself. Why have you +entrapped me into this place?" + +"I have already told you," said he, gently laying the pistol before +him, but within easy reach of his hand. + +"But that is preposterous," I began, fast losing my self-control +again. "You do not know me, and if you did--" + +"Pardon me, you see I know your name." + +Yes, that was true, and the fact set me thinking. How did he know my +name? I did not know him, nor did I know this house, or any reason for +which I could have been beguiled into it. Was I the victim of a +conspiracy, or was the man mad? Looking at him very earnestly, I +declared: + +"My name is Atwater, and so far you are right, but in learning that +much about me you must also have learned that I am neither rich nor +influential, nor of any special value to a blackmailer. Why choose me +out then for--your society? Why not choose some one who can--talk?" + +"I find your conversation very interesting." + +Baffled, exasperated almost beyond the power to restrain myself, I +shook my fist in his face, notwithstanding I saw his hand fly to his +pistol. + +"Let me go!" I shrieked. "Let me go out of this place. I have +business, I tell you, important business which means everything to me, +and which, if I do not attend to it to-night, will be lost to me for +ever. Let me go, and I will so far reward you that I will speak to no +one of what has taken place here to-night, but go my ways, forgetful +of you, forgetful of this house, forgetful of all connected with it." + +"You are very good," was his quiet reply, "but this wine has to be +drunk." And he calmly poured out a glass, while I drew back in +despair. "You do not drink wine?" he queried, holding up the glass he +had filled between himself and the light. "It is a pity, for it is of +most rare vintage. But perhaps you smoke?" + +Sick and disgusted, I found a chair, and sat down in it. If the man +were crazy, there was certainly method in his madness. Besides, he +had not a crazy eye; there was calm calculation in it and not a little +good-nature. Did he simply want to detain me, and if so, did he have a +motive it would pay me to fathom before I exerted myself further to +insure my release? Answering the wave he made me with his hand by +reaching out for the bottle and filling myself a glass, I forced +myself to speak more affably as I remarked: + +"If the wine must be drunk, we had better be about it, as you cannot +mean to detain me more than an hour, whatever reason you may have for +wishing my society." + +He looked at me inquiringly before answering, then tossing off his +glass, he remarked: + +"I am sorry, but in an hour a man can scarcely make the acquaintance +of another man's exterior." + +"Then you mean--" + +"To know you thoroughly, if you will be so good; I may never have the +opportunity again." + +He must be mad; nothing else but mania could account for such words +and such actions; and yet, if mad, why was he allowed to enter my +presence? The man who brought me here, the woman who received me at +the door, had not been mad. + +"And I must stay here--" I began. + +"Till I am quite satisfied. I am afraid that will take till morning." + +I gave a cry of despair, and then in my utter desperation spoke up to +him as I would to a man of feeling: + +"You don't know what you are doing; you don't know what I shall suffer +by any such cruel detention. This night is not like other nights to +me. This is a special night in my life, and I need it, I need it, I +tell you, to spend as I will. The woman I love"--it seemed horrible to +speak of her in this place, but I was wild at my helplessness, and +madly hoped I might awake some answering chord in a breast which could +not be void of all feeling or he would not have that benevolent look +in his eye--"the woman I love," I repeated, "sails for Europe +to-morrow. We have quarrelled, but she still cares for me, and if I +can sail on the same steamer, we will yet make up and be happy." + +"At what time does this steamer start?" + +"At nine in the morning." + +"Well, you shall leave this house at eight. If you go directly to the +steamer you will be in time." + +"But--but," I panted, "I have made no arrangements. I shall have to go +to my lodgings, write letters, get money. I ought to be there at this +moment. Have you no mercy on a man who never did you wrong, and only +asks to quit you and forget the precious hour you have made him lose?" + +"I am sorry," he said, "it is certainly quite unfortunate, but the +door will not be opened before eight. There is really no one in the +house to unlock it." + +"And do you mean to say," I cried aghast, "that you could not open +that door if you would, that you are locked in here as well as I, and +that I must remain here till morning, no matter how I feel or you +feel?" + +"Will you not take a cigar?" he asked. + +Then I began to see how useless it was to struggle, and visions of +Dora leaning on the steamer rail with that serpent whispering soft +entreaties in her ear came rushing before me, till I could have wept +in my jealous chagrin. + +"It is cruel, base, devilish," I began. "If you had the excuse of +wanting money, and took this method of wringing my all from me, I +could have patience, but to entrap and keep me here for nothing, when +my whole future happiness is trembling in the balance, is the work of +a fiend and--" I made a sudden pause, for a strange idea had struck +me. + + +CHAPTER III. + +What if this man, these men and this woman, were in league with him +whose rivalry I feared, and whom I had intended to supplant on the +morrow. It was a wild surmise, but was it any wilder than to believe I +was held here for a mere whim, a freak, a joke, as this bowing, +smiling man before me would have me believe? + +Rising in fresh excitement, I struck my hand on the table. "You want +to keep me from going on the steamer," I cried. "That other wretch who +loves her has paid you--" + +But that other wretch could not know that I was meditating any such +unusual scheme, as following him without a full day's warning. I +thought of this even before I had finished my sentence, and did not +need the blank astonishment in the face of the man before me to +convince me that I had given utterance to a foolish accusation. "It +would have been some sort of a motive for your actions," I humbly +added, as I sank back from my hostile attitude; "now you have none." + +I thought he bestowed upon me a look of quiet pity, but if so he soon +hid it with his uplifted glass. + +"Forget the girl," said he; "I know of a dozen just as pretty." + +I was too indignant to answer. + +"Women are the bane of life," he now sententiously exclaimed. "They +are ever intruding themselves between a man and his comfort, as for +instance just now between yourself and this good wine." + +I caught up the bottle in sheer desperation. + +"Don't talk of them," I cried, "and I will try and drink. I almost +wish there was poison in the glass. My death here might bring +punishment upon you." + +He shook his head, totally unmoved by my passion. + +"We deal punishment, not receive it. It would not worry me in the +least to leave you lying here upon the floor." + +I did not believe this, but I did not stop to weigh the question +then; I was too much struck by a word he had used. + +"Deal punishment?" I repeated. "Are you punishing me? Is that why I am +here?" + +He laughed and held out his glass to mine. + +"You enjoy being sarcastic," he observed. "Well, it gives a spice to +conversation, I own. Talk is apt to be dull without it." + +For reply I struck the glass from his hand; it fell and shivered, and +he looked for the moment really distressed. + +"I had rather you had struck me," he remarked, "for I have an answer +for an injury like that; but for a broken glass--" He sighed and +looked dolefully at the pieces on the floor. + +Mortified and somewhat ashamed, I put down my own glass. + +"You should not have exasperated me," I cried, and walked away beyond +temptation, to the other side of the room. + +His spirits had received a dampener, but in a few minutes he seized +upon a cigar and began smoking; as the wreaths curled over his head he +began to talk, and this time it was on subjects totally foreign to +myself and even to himself. It was good talk; that I recognized, +though I hardly listened to what he said. I was asking myself what +time it had now got to be, and what was the meaning of my +incarceration, till my brain became weary and I could scarcely +distinguish the topic he discussed. But he kept on for all my seeming, +and indeed real, indifference, kept on hour after hour in a monologue +he endeavored to make interesting, and which probably would have been +so if the time and occasion had been fit for my enjoying it. As it +was, I had no ear for his choicest phrases, his subtlest criticisms, +or his most philosophic disquisitions. I was wrapped up in self and my +cruel disappointment, and when in a certain access of frenzy I leaped +to my feet and took a look at the watch still lying on the table, and +saw it was four o'clock in the morning, I gave a bound of final +despair, and throwing myself on the floor, gave myself up to the heavy +sleep that mercifully came to relieve me. + +I was roused by feeling a touch on my breast. Clapping my hand to the +spot where I had felt the intruding hand, I discovered that my watch +had been returned to my pocket. Drawing it out I first looked at it +and then cast my eyes quickly about the room. There was no one with +me, and the doors stood open between me and the hall. It was eight +o'clock, as my watch had just told me. + +That I rushed from the house and took the shortest road to the +steamer, goes without saying. I could not cross the ocean with Dora, +but I might yet see her and tell her how near I came to giving her my +company on that long voyage which now would only serve to further the +ends of my rival. But when, after torturing delays on cars and +ferry-boats, and incredible efforts to pierce a throng that was +equally determined not to be pierced, I at last reached the wharf, it +was to behold her, just as I had fancied in my wildest moments, +leaning on a rail of the ship and listening, while she abstractedly +waved her hand to some friends below, to the words of the man who had +never looked so handsome to me or so odious as at this moment of his +unconscious triumph. Her father was near her, and from his eager +attitude and rapidly wandering gaze I saw that he was watching for me. +At last he spied me struggling aboard, and immediately his face +lighted up in a way which made me wish he had not thought it necessary +to wait for my anticipated meeting with his daughter. + +"Ah, Dick, you are late," he began, effusively, as I put foot on deck. + +But I waved him back and went at once to Dora. + +"Forgive me, pardon me," I incoherently said, as her sweet eyes rose +in startled pleasure to mine. "I would have brought you flowers, but I +meant to sail with you, Dora, I tried to--but wretches, villains, +prevented it and--and--" + +"Oh, it does not matter," she said, and then blushed, probably because +the words sounded unkind, "I mean--" + +But she could not say what she meant, for just then the bell rang for +all visitors to leave, and her father came forward, evidently thinking +all was right between us, smiled benignantly in her face, gave her a +kiss and me a wink and disappeared in the crowd that was now rapidly +going ashore. + +I felt that I must follow, but I gave her one look and one squeeze of +the hand, and then as I saw her glances wander to his face, I groaned +in spirit, stammered some words of choking sorrow and was gone, before +her embarrassment would let her speak words, which I knew would only +add to my grief and make this hasty parting unendurable. + +The look of amazement and chagrin with which her father met my +reappearance on the dock can easily be imagined. + +"Why, Dick," he exclaimed, "aren't you going after all? I thought I +could rely on you. Where's your pluck, lad? Scared off by a frown? I +wouldn't have believed it, Dick. What if she does frown to-day; she +will smile to-morrow." + +I shook my head; I could not tell him just then that it was not +through any lack of pluck on my part that I had failed him. + +When I left the dock I went straight to a restaurant, for I was faint +as well as miserable. But my cup of coffee choked me and the rolls and +eggs were more than I could face. Rising impatiently, I went out. Was +any one more wretched than I that morning and could any one nourish a +more bitter grievance? As I strode towards my lodgings I chewed the +cud of my disappointment till my wrongs loomed up like mountains and +I was seized by a spirit of revenge. Should I let such an interference +as I had received go unpunished? No, if the wretch who had detained me +was not used to punishment he should receive a specimen of it now and +from a man who was no longer a prisoner, and who once aroused did not +easily forego his purposes. Turning aside from my former destination, +I went immediately to a police-station and when I had entered my +complaint was astonished to see that all the officials had grouped +about me and were listening to my words with the most startled +interest. + +"Was the man who came for you a German?" one asked. + +I said "Yes." + +"And the man who stood guardian over you and entertained you with wine +and cigars, was not he a German too?" + +I nodded acquiescence and they at once began to whisper together; then +one of them advanced to me and said: + +"You have not been home, I understand; you had better come." + +Astonished by his manner I endeavored to inquire what he meant, but he +drew me away, and not till we were within a stone's throw of my office +did he say, "You must prepare yourself for a shock. The impertinences +you suffered from last night were unpleasant no doubt, but if you had +been allowed to return home, you might not now be deploring them in +comparative peace and safety." + +"What do you mean?" + +"That your partner was not as fortunate as yourself. Look up at the +house; what do you see there?" + +A crowd was what I saw first, but he made me look higher, and then I +perceived that the windows of my room, of our room, were shattered and +blackened and that part of the casement of one had been blown out. + +"A fire!" I shrieked. "Poor Richter was smoking--" + +"No, he was not smoking. He had no time for a smoke. An infernal +machine burst in that room last night and your friend was its wretched +victim." + +I never knew why my friend's life was made a sacrifice to the revenge +of his fellow-countrymen. Though we had been intimate in the year we +had been together, he had never talked to me of his country and I had +never seen him in company with one of his own nation. But that he was +the victim of some political revenge was apparent, for though it +proved impossible to find the man who had detained me, the house was +found and ransacked, and amongst other secret things was discovered +the model of the machine which had been introduced into our room, and +which had proved so fatal to the man it was addressed to. Why men who +were so relentless in their purposes towards him should have taken +such pains to keep me from sharing his fate, is one of those anomalies +in human nature which now and then awake our astonishment. If I had +not lost Dora through my detention at their hands I should look back +upon that evening with sensations of thankfulness. As it is, I +sometimes question if it would not have been better if they had let me +take my chances. + + * * * * * + +Have I lost Dora? From a letter I received to-day I begin to think +not. + + + + +THE BLACK CROSS. + + +A black cross had been set against Judge Hawkins' name; why, it is not +for me to say. We were not accustomed to explain our motives or to +give reasons for our deeds. The deeds were enough, and this black +cross meant death; and when it had been shown us, all that we needed +to know further was at what hour we should meet for the contemplated +raid. + +A word from the captain settled that; and when the next Friday came, a +dozen men met at the place of rendezvous, ready for the ride which +should bring them to the Judge's solitary mansion across the +mountains. + +I was amongst them, and in as satisfactory a mood as I had ever been +in my life; for the night was favorable, and the men hearty and in +first-rate condition. + +But after we had started, and were threading a certain wood, I began +to have doubts. Feelings I had never before experienced assailed me +with a force that first perplexed and then astounded me. I was afraid, +and what rather heightened than diminished the unwonted sensation, was +the fact that I was not afraid of anything tangible, either in the +present or future, but of something unexplainable and peculiar, which, +if it lay in the skies, certainly made them look dark indeed; and if +it hid in the forest, caused its faintest murmur to seem like the +utterance of a great dread, as awful as it was inexplicable. + +I nevertheless proceeded, and should have done so if the great streaks +of lightning which now and then shot zigzag through the sky had taken +the shape of words and bid us all beware. I was not one to be daunted, +and knew no other course than that of advance when once a stroke of +justice had been planned, and the direction for its fulfilment marked +out. I went on, but I began to think, and that to me was an +experience; for I had never been taught to reflect, only to fight and +obey. + +The house towards which we were riding was built on a hillside, and +the first thing we saw on emerging from the forest, was a light +burning in one of its distant windows. This was a surprise; for the +hour was late, and in that part of the country people were accustomed +to retire early, even such busy men as the Judge. He must have a +visitor, and a visitor meant a possible complication of affairs; so a +halt was called and I was singled out to reconnoitre the premises, and +bring back word of what we had a right to expect. + +I started off in a strange state of mind. The fear I had spoken of had +left me, but a vague shadow remained, through which, as through a +mist, I saw the light in that far away window beckoning me on to what +I felt was in some way to make an end of my present life. As I drew +nearer to it, the feeling increased; then it, too, left me, and I +found myself once more the daring avenger. This was when I came to the +foot of the hill and discovered I had but a few steps more to take. + +The house, which had now become plainly visible, was a solid one of +stone, built as I have said, on the hillside. It faced the road, as +was shown by the large portico, dimly to be discerned in that +direction; but its rooms were mainly on the side, and it was from one +of these that the light shone. As I came yet nearer, I perceived that +these rooms were guarded by a piazza, which, communicating with the +portico in front, afforded an open road to that window and a clear +sight of what lay behind it. + +I was instantly off my horse and upon the piazza, and before I had had +time to realize that my fears had returned to me with double force, I +had crept with stealthy steps towards that uncurtained window and +looked in. + +What did I see? At first nothing but a calm, studious figure, bending +above a batch of closely written papers, upon which the light shone +too brightly for me to perceive much of what lay beyond them. But +gradually an influence, of whose workings I was scarcely conscious, +drew my eyes away, and I began to discover on every side strange and +beautiful objects which greatly interested me, until suddenly my eyes +fell upon a vision of loveliness so enchanting that I forgot to look +elsewhere, and became for the moment nothing but sight and feeling. + +It was a picture, or so I thought in that first instant of awe and +delight. But presently I saw that it was a woman, living and full of +the thoughts that had never been mine; and at the discovery a sudden +trembling seized me; for I had never seen anything in heaven or earth +like her beauty, while she saw nothing but the man who was bending +over his papers. + +There was a door or something dark behind her, and against it her tall +strong figure, clad in a close white gown, stood out with a +distinctness that was not altogether earthly. But it was her face that +held me, and made of me from moment to moment a new man. + +For in it I discerned what I had never believed in till now, devotion +that had no limit, and love which asked nothing in return. She seemed +to be faltering on the threshold of that room, like one who would like +to enter but does not dare, and in another moment, with a smile that +pierced me through and through, she turned as if to go. Instantly I +forgot everything but my despair, and leaned forward with an +impetuosity that betrayed my presence, for she glanced quickly towards +the window, and seeing me, turned pale, even while she rose in height +till I felt myself shrink and grow small before her. + +Thrusting out her hand, she caught from the table before her what +looked like a small dagger, and holding it up, advanced upon me with +blazing eyes and parted lips, not seeing that the Judge had risen to +his feet, not seeing anything but my face glued against the pane, and +staring with an expression that must have struck her to the heart as +surely as her look pierced mine. When she was almost upon me I turned +and fled. Hell could not have frightened me, but Heaven did; and for +me that woman was Heaven whether she smiled or frowned, gazed upon +another with love, or raised a dagger to strike me to the ground. + +How soon I met my mates I cannot say. In a few minutes, doubtless, for +they had stolen after me and had detected me running away from the +window. I was forced to tell my tale, and I told it unhesitatingly, +for I knew I could not save him--if I wanted to--and I knew I should +save her or die in the attempt. + +"He is alone there with a girl," I announced. "Whether she is his wife +or not I cannot say, but there is no cross against her name, and I +ask that she be spared not only from sharing his fate, but from the +sight of his death, for she loves him." + +This from me! No wonder the captain stared, then laughed. But I did +not laugh in return, and being the strongest man in the band and the +surest with my rifle, he did not trifle long, but listened to my plans +and in part consented to them, so that I retreated to my post at the +gateway with something like confidence, while he, approaching the +door, lifted the knocker and let it fall with a resounding clang that +must have rung like a knell of death to the hearts within. + +For the Judge knew our errand. I saw it in his face when he rose to +his feet, and he had no hope, for we had never failed in our attempts, +and the house, though strongly built, was easily assailable. + + * * * * * + +While the captain knocked, three men had scaled the portico and were +ready to enter the open windows, if the Judge refused to appear or +offered any resistance to what was known as the captain's will. + +"Death to the Judge!" was the cry; and it was echoed not only at the +door, but around the house, where the rest of the men had drawn a +cordon ready to waylay any one who sought to escape. Death to the +Judge! And the Judge was loved by that woman and would be mourned by +her till--But a voice is speaking, a voice from out that great house, +and it asks what is wanted and what the meaning is of these threats of +death. + +And the captain answers short and sharp: + +"The Ku-Klux commands but never explains. What it commands now is for +Judge Hawkins to come forth. If he shrinks or delays his house will be +entered and burnt; but if he will come out and meet like a man what +awaits him, his house shall go free and his family remain unmolested." + +"And what is it that awaits him?" pursued the voice. + +"Four bullets from four unerring rifles," returned the captain. + +"It is well; he will come forth," cried the voice, and then in a +huskier tone: "Let me kiss the woman I love. I will not keep you +long." + +And the captain answered nothing, only counted out clearly and +steadily, "One--two--three," up to a hundred, then he paused, turned, +and lifted his hand; when instantly our four rifles rose, and at the +same moment the door, with a faint grating sound I shall never forget, +slowly opened and the firm, unshrinking figure of the Judge appeared. + +We did not delay. One simultaneous burst of fire, one loud quick +crack, and his figure fell before our eyes. A sound, a cry from +within, then all was still, and the captain, mounting his horse, gave +one quick whistle and galloped away. We followed him, but I was the +last to mount, and did not follow long; for at the flash of those guns +I had seen a smile cross our victim's lip, and my heart was on fire, +and I could not rest till I had found my way back to that open doorway +and the figure lying within it. + +There it was, and behind it a house empty as my heart has been since +that day. A man's dress covering a woman's form--and over the +motionless, perfect features, that same smile which I had seen in the +room beyond and again in the quick glare of the rifles. + +I had harbored no evil thought concerning her, but when I beheld that +smile now sealed and fixed upon her lips, I found the soul I had never +known I possessed until that day. + + + + +A MYSTERIOUS CASE. + + +It was a mystery to me, but not to the other doctors. They took, as +was natural, the worst possible view of the matter, and accepted the +only solution which the facts seem to warrant. But they are men, and I +am a woman; besides, I knew the nurse well, and I could not believe +her capable of wilful deceit, much less of the heinous crime which +deceit in this case involved. So to me the affair was a mystery. + +The facts were these: + +My patient, a young typewriter, seemingly without friends or enemies, +lay in a small room of a boarding-house, afflicted with a painful but +not dangerous malady. Though she was comparatively helpless, her vital +organs were strong, and we never had a moment's uneasiness concerning +her, till one morning when we found her in an almost dying condition +from having taken, as we quickly discovered, a dose of poison, +instead of the soothing mixture which had been left for her with the +nurse. Poison! and no one, not even herself or the nurse, could +explain how the same got into the room, much less into her medicine. +And when I came to study the situation, I found myself as much at loss +as they; indeed, more so; for I knew I had made no mistake in +preparing the mixture, and that, even if I had, this especial poison +could not have found its way into it, owing to the fact that there +neither was nor ever had been a drop of it in my possession. + +The mixture, then, was pure when it left my hand, and, according to +the nurse, whom, as I have said, I implicitly believe, it went into +the glass pure. And yet when, two hours later, without her having left +the room or anybody coming into it, she found occasion to administer +the draught, poison was in the cup, and the patient was only saved +from death by the most immediate and energetic measures, not only on +her part, but on that of Dr. Holmes, whom in her haste and +perturbation she had called in from the adjacent house. + +The patient, young, innocent, unfortunate, but of a strangely +courageous disposition, betrayed nothing but the utmost surprise at +the peril she had so narrowly escaped. When Dr. Holmes intimated that +perhaps she had been tired of suffering, and had herself found means +of putting the deadly drug into her medicine, she opened her great +gray eyes, with such a look of child-like surprise and reproach, that +he blushed, and murmured some sort of apology. + +"Poison myself?" she cried, "when you promise me that I shall get +well? You do not know what a horror I have of dying in debt, or you +would never say that." + +This was some time after the critical moment had passed, and there +were in the room Mrs. Dayton, the landlady, Dr. Holmes, the nurse, and +myself. At the utterance of these words we all felt ashamed and cast +looks of increased interest at the poor girl. + +She was very lovely. Though without means, and to all appearance +without friends, she possessed in great degree the charm of +winsomeness, and not even her many sufferings, nor the indignation +under which she was then laboring, could quite rob her countenance of +that tender and confiding expression which so often redeems the +plainest face and makes beauty doubly attractive. + +"Dr. Holmes does not know you," I hastened to say; "I do, and utterly +repel for you any such insinuation. In return, will you tell me if +there is any one in the world whom you can call your enemy? Though the +chief mystery is how so deadly and unusual a poison could have gotten +into a clean glass, without the knowledge of yourself or the nurse, +still it might not be amiss to know if there is any one, here or +elsewhere, who for any reason might desire your death." + +The surprise in the child-like eyes increased rather than diminished. + +"I don't know what to say," she murmured. "I am so insignificant and +feeble a person that it seems absurd for me to talk of having an +enemy. Besides, I have none. On the contrary, every one seems to love +me more than I deserve. Haven't you noticed it, Mrs. Dayton?" + +The landlady smiled and stroked the sick girl's hand. + +"Indeed," she replied, "I have noticed that people love you, but I +have never thought that it was more than you deserved. You are a dear +little thing, Addie." + +And though she knew and I knew that the "every one" mentioned by the +poor girl meant ourselves, and possibly her unknown employer, we were +none the less touched by her words. The more we studied the mystery, +the deeper and less explainable did it become. + +And indeed I doubt if we should have ever got to the bottom of it, if +there had not presently occurred in my patient a repetition of the +same dangerous symptoms, followed by the same discovery, of poison in +the glass, and the same failure on the part of herself and nurse to +account for it. I was aroused from my bed at midnight to attend her, +and as I entered her room and met her beseeching eyes looking upon me +from the very shadow of death, I made a vow that I would never cease +my efforts till I had penetrated the secret of what certainly looked +like a persistent attempt upon this poor girl's life. + +I went about the matter deliberately. As soon as I could leave her +side, I drew the nurse into a corner and again questioned her. The +answers were the same as before. Addie had shown distress as soon as +she had swallowed her usual quantity of medicine, and in a few minutes +more was in a perilous condition. + +"Did you hand the glass yourself to Addie?" + +"I did." + +"Where did you take it from?" + +"From the place where you left it--the little stand on the farther +side of the bed." + +"And do you mean to say that you had not touched it since I prepared +it?" + +"I do, ma'am." + +"And that no one else has been in the room?" + +"No one, ma'am." + +I looked at her intently. I trusted her, but the best of us are but +mortal. + +"Can you assure me that you have not been asleep during this time?" + +"Look at this letter I have been writing," she returned. "It is eight +pages long, and it was not begun when you left us at 10 o'clock." + +I shook my head and fell into a deep revery. How was that matter to be +elucidated, and how was my patient to be saved? Another draught of +this deadly poison, and no power on earth could resuscitate her. What +should I do, and with what weapons should I combat a danger at once so +subtle and so deadly? Reflection brought no decision, and I left the +room at last, determined upon but one point, and that was the +immediate removal of my patient. But before I had left the house I +changed my mind even on this point. Removal of the patient meant +safety to her, perhaps, but not the explanation of her mysterious +poisoning. I would change the position of her bed, and I would even +set a watch over her and the nurse, but I would not take her out of +the house--not yet. + +And what had produced this change in my plans? The look of a woman +whom I met on the stairs. I did not know her, but when I encountered +her glance I felt that there was some connection between us, and I was +not at all surprised to hear her ask: + +"And how is Miss Wilcox to-day?" + +"Miss Wilcox is very low," I returned. "The least neglect, the least +shock to her nerves, would be sufficient to make all my efforts +useless. Otherwise--" + +"She will get well?" + +I nodded. I had exaggerated the condition of the sufferer, but some +secret instinct compelled me to do so. The look which passed over the +woman's face satisfied me that I had done well; and, though I left the +house, it was with the intention of speedily returning and making +inquiries into the woman's character and position in the household. + +I learned little or nothing. That she occupied a good room and paid +for it regularly seemed to be sufficient to satisfy Mrs. Dayton. Her +name, which proved to be Leroux, showed her to be French, and her +promptly paid $10 a week showed her to be respectable--what more could +any hard-working landlady require? But I was distrustful. Her face, +though handsome, possessed an eager, ferocious look which I could not +forget, and the slight gesture with which she had passed me at the +close of the short conversation I have given above had a suggestion of +triumph in it which seemed to contain whole volumes of secret and +mysterious hate. I went into Miss Wilcox's room very thoughtful. + +"I am going--" + +But here the nurse held up her hand. "Hark," she whispered; she had +just set the clock, and was listening to its striking. + +I did hark, but not to the clock. + +"Whose step is that?" I asked, after she had left the clock, and sat +down. + +"Oh, some one in the next room. The walls here are very thin--only +boards in places." + +I did not complete what I had begun to say. If I could hear steps +through the partition, then could our neighbors hear us talk, and what +I had determined upon must be kept secret from all outsiders. I drew a +sheet of paper toward me and wrote: + +"I shall stay here to-night. Something tells me that in doing this I +shall solve this mystery. But I must appear to go. Take my +instructions as usual, and bid me good-night. Lock the door after me, +but with a turn of the key instantly unlock it again. I shall go down +stairs, see that my carriage drives away, and quietly return. On my +re-entrance I shall expect to find Miss Wilcox on the couch with the +screen drawn up around it, you in your big chair, and the light +lowered. What I do thereafter need not concern you. Pretend to go to +sleep." + +The nurse nodded, and immediately entered upon the programme I had +planned. I prepared the medicine as usual, placed it in its usual +glass, and laid that glass where it had always been set, on a small +table at the farther side of the bed. Then I said "Good-night," and +passed hurriedly out. + +I was fortunate enough to meet no one, going or coming. I regained the +room, pushed open the door, and finding everything in order, proceeded +at once to the bed, upon which, after taking off my hat and cloak and +carefully concealing them, I lay down and deftly covered myself up. + +My idea was this--that by some mesmeric influence of which she was +ignorant, the nurse had been forced to either poison the glass herself +or open the door for another to do it. If this were so, she or the +other person would be obliged to pass around the foot of the bed in +order to reach the glass, and I should be sure to see it, for I did +not pretend to sleep. By the low light enough could be discerned for +safe movement about the room, and not enough to make apparent the +change which had been made in the occupant of the bed. I waited with +indescribable anxiety, and more than once fancied I heard steps, if +not a feverish breathing close to my bed-head; but no one appeared, +and the nurse in her big chair did not move. + +At last I grew weary, and fearful of losing control over my eyelids, I +fixed my gaze upon the glass, as if in so doing I should find a +talisman to keep me awake, when, great God! what was it I saw! A hand, +a creeping hand coming from nowhere and joined to nothing, closing +about that glass and drawing it slowly away till it disappeared +entirely from before my eyes! + +I gasped--I could not help it--but I did not stir. For now I knew I +was asleep and dreaming. But no, I pinch myself under the clothes, and +find that I am very wide awake indeed; and then--look! look! the glass +is returning; the hand--a woman's hand--is slowly setting it back in +its place, and-- + +With a bound I have that hand in my grasp. It is a living hand, and it +is very warm and strong and fierce, and the glass has fallen and lies +shattered between us, and a double cry is heard, one from behind the +partition, through an opening in which this hand had been thrust, and +one from the nurse, who has jumped to her feet and is even now +assisting me in holding the struggling member, upon which I have +managed to scratch a tell-tale mark with a piece of the fallen glass. +At sight of the iron-like grip which this latter lays upon the +intruding member, I at once release my own grasp. + +"Hold on," I cried, and leaping from the bed, I hastened first to my +patient, whom I carefully reassured, and then into the hall, where I +found the landlady running to see what was the matter. "I have found +the wretch," I cried, and drawing her after me, hurried about to the +other side of the partition, where I found a closet, and in it the +woman I had met on the stairs, but glaring now like a tiger in her +rage, menace, and fear. + +That woman was my humble little patient's bitter but unknown enemy. +Enamoured of a man who--unwisely, perhaps--had expressed in her +hearing his admiration for the pretty typewriter, she had conceived +the idea that he intended to marry the latter, and, vowing vengeance, +had taken up her abode in the same house with the innocent girl, +where, had it not been for the fortunate circumstance of my meeting +her on the stairs, she would certainly have carried out her scheme of +vile and secret murder. The poison she had bought in another city, and +the hole in the partition she had herself cut. This had been done at +first for the purpose of observation, she having detected in passing +by Miss Wilcox's open door that a banner of painted silk hung over +that portion of the wall in such a way as to hide any aperture which +might be made there. + +Afterward, when Miss Wilcox fell sick, and she discovered by short +glimpses through her loop-hole that the glass of medicine was placed +on a table just under this banner, she could not resist the temptation +to enlarge the hole to a size sufficient to admit the pushing aside of +the banner and the reaching through of her murderous hand. Why she did +not put poison enough in the glass to kill Miss Wilcox at once I have +never discovered. Probably she feared detection. That by doing as she +did she brought about the very event she had endeavored to avert, is +the most pleasing part of the tale. When the gentleman of whom I have +spoken learned of the wicked attempt which had been made upon Miss +Wilcox's life, his heart took pity upon her, and a marriage ensued, +which I have every reason to believe is a happy one. + + + + +SHALL HE WED HER? + + +When I met Taylor at the Club the other night, he looked so cheerful I +scarcely knew him. + +"What is it?" cried I, advancing with outstretched hand. + +"I am going to be married," was his gay reply. "This is my last night +at the Club." + +I was glad, and showed it. Taylor is a man for whom domestic life is a +necessity. He has never been at home with us, though we all liked him, +and he in his way liked us. + +"And who is the fortunate lady?" I inquired; for I had been out of +town for some time, and had not as yet been made acquainted with the +latest society news. + +"My intended bride is Mrs. Walworth, the young widow--" + +He must have seen a change take place in my expression, for he +stopped. + +"You know her, of course?" he added, after a careful study of my face. + +I had by this time regained my self-possession. + +"Of course," I repeated, "and I have always thought her one of the +most attractive women in the city. Another shake upon it, old man." + +But my heart was heavy and my mind perplexed notwithstanding the +forced cordiality of my tones, and I took an early opportunity to +withdraw by myself and think over the situation. + +Mrs. Walworth? She is a pretty woman, and what is more, she is to all +appearance a woman whose winning manners bespeak a kindly heart. "Just +the person," I contemplated, "whom I would pick out for the helpmate +of my somewhat exacting friend, if--" I paused on that if. It was a +formidable one and grew none the smaller or less important under my +broodings. Indeed, it seemed to dilate until it assumed gigantic +proportions, worrying me and weighing so heavily upon my conscience +that I at last rose from the newspaper at which I had been hopelessly +staring, and looking up Taylor again asked him how soon he expected to +become a benedict. + +His answer startled me. "In a week," he replied, "and if I have not +asked you to the ceremony it is because Helen is not in a position +to--" + +I suppose he finished the sentence, but I did not hear him. If the +marriage was so near, of course it would be folly on my part to +attempt to hinder it. I drew off for the second time. + +But I could not remain easy. Taylor is a good fellow, and it would be +a shame to allow him to marry a woman with whom he could never be +happy. He would feel any such disappointment so keenly, so much more +keenly than most men. A lack of principle or even of sensibility on +her part would make him miserable. Anticipating heaven, he would not +need a hell to make him wretched; a purgatory would do it. Was I right +then in letting him proceed in his intentions regarding Mrs. Walworth, +when she possibly was the woman who--I paused and tried to call up +her countenance before me. It was a sweet one and possibly a true +one. I might have trusted her for myself, but I do not look for +perfection, and Taylor does, and will certainly go to the bad if he is +deceived in his expectations. But in a week! It is too late for +interference--only it is never too late till the knot is tied. As I +thought of this, I decided impulsively, and perhaps you may say +unwisely, to give him a hint of his danger, and I did it in this wise: + +"Taylor," said I, when I had him safely in my own rooms, "I am going +to tell you a bit of personal history, curious enough, I think, to +interest you even upon the eve of your marriage. I do not know when I +shall see you again, and I should like you to know how a lawyer and +man of the world can sometimes be taken in." + +He nodded, accepting the situation good-humoredly, though I saw by the +abstraction with which he gazed into the fire that I should have to be +very interesting to lure him from the thoughts that engrossed him. As +I meant to be very interesting, this did not greatly concern me. + +"One morning last spring," I began, "I received in my morning mail a +letter, the delicate penmanship of which at once attracted my +attention and awakened my curiosity. Turning to the signature, I read +the name of a young lady friend of mine, and somewhat startled at the +thought that this was the first time I had ever seen the handwriting +of one I knew so well, I perused the letter with an interest that +presently became painful as I realized the tenor of its contents. I +will not quote the letter, though I could, but confine myself to +saying that after a modest recognition of my friendship for her--quite +a fatherly friendship, I assure you, as she is only eighteen, and I, +as you know, am well on towards fifty--she proceeded to ask in a +humble and confiding spirit for the loan--do not start--of fifty +dollars. Such a request coming from a young girl well connected and +with every visible sign of being generously provided for by her +father, was certainly startling to an old bachelor of settled ways and +strict notions, but remembering her youth and the childish innocence +of her manner, I turned over the page and read as her reason for +proffering such a request, that her heart was set upon aiding a +certain poor family that stood in immediate need of food, clothes, and +medicines, but that she could not do what she wished, because she had +already spent all the money allowed her by her father for such +purposes and dared not go to him for more, as she had once before +offended him by doing this, and feared if she repeated her fault he +would carry out the threat he had then made of stopping her allowance +altogether. But the family was a deserving one and she could not see +any member of it starve, so she came to me, of whose goodness she was +assured, convinced I would understand her perplexity and excuse her, +and so forth and so forth, in language quite child-like and +entreating, which, if it did not satisfy my ideas of propriety, at +least touched my heart and made any action which I could take in the +matter extremely difficult. + +"To refuse her request would be at once to mortify and aggrieve her; +to accede to it and give her the fifty dollars she asked--a sum by the +way I could not well spare--would be to encourage an action easily +pardoned once, but which if repeated would lead to unpleasant +complications, to say the least. The third course, of informing her +father of what she needed, I did not even consider, for I knew him +well enough to be sure that nothing but pain to her would be the +result. I therefore compromised the affair by inclosing the money in a +letter, in which I told her that I comprehended her difficulty and +sent with pleasure the amount she needed, but that as a friend I must +add that while in the present instance she had run no risk of being +misunderstood or unkindly censured, that such a request made to +another man and under other circumstances might provoke a surprise +capable of leading to the most unpleasant consequences, and advised +her if she ever again found herself in such a strait to appeal +directly to her father, or else to deny herself a charity which she +was in no position to bestow. + +"This letter I undertook to deliver myself, for one of the curious +points of her communication had been the entreaty that I would not +delay the help she needed by trusting the money to any hand but my +own, but would bring it to a certain hotel down-town and place it at +the beginning of the book of Isaiah in the large Bible I would find +lying on a side table in the small parlor off the main one. She would +seek it there before the morning was over, and so, without the +intervention of a third party, acquire the means she desired for +helping a poor and deserving family. + +"I knew the hotel she mentioned, and I remembered the room, but I did +not remember the Bible. However, it was sure to be in the place she +indicated; and though I was not in much sympathy with my errand, I +respected her whim and carried the letter down-town. I had reached +Main Street and was in sight of the hotel designated, when suddenly on +the opposite corner of the street I saw the young girl herself. She +looked as fresh as the morning, and smiled so gayly I felt somewhat +repaid for the annoyance she had caused me, and gratified that I could +cut matters short by putting the letter directly in her hand, I +crossed the street to her side. As soon as we were face to face, I +said: + +"'How fortunate I am to meet you. Here is the amount you need sealed +up in this letter. You see I had it all ready.' + +"The face she lifted to mine wore so blank a look that I paused, +astonished. + +"'What do you mean?' she asked, her eyes looking straight into mine +with such innocence in their clear blue depths, I was at once +convinced she knew nothing of the matter with which my thoughts were +busy. 'I am very glad to see you, but I do not in the least understand +what you mean by the amount I need.' And she glanced at the letter I +held out, with an air of distrust mingled with curiosity. + +"'You cut me short in my efforts to do a charitable action. I heard, +no matter how, that you were interested just now in a destitute +family, and took this way of assisting you in their behalf.' + +"Her blue eyes opened wider. 'The poor are always with us,' she +replied, 'but I know of no especial family just now that requires any +such help as you intimate. If I did, papa would give me what +assistance I needed.' + +"I was greatly pleased to hear her say this, for I am very fond of my +young friend, but I was deeply indignant also against the unknown +person who had taken advantage of my regard for this young girl to +force money from me. I therefore did not linger at her side, but after +due apologies hastened immediately here where there is a man employed +who to my knowledge had once been a trusted member of the police. + +"Telling him no more of the story than was necessary to ensure his +co-operation in the plan I had formed to discover the author of this +fraud, I extracted the bank-notes from the letter I had written, and +put in their place stiff pieces of manila paper. Taking the envelope +so filled to the hotel already referred to, I placed it at the opening +chapters of Isaiah in the Bible, as described. There was no one in any +of the rooms when I went in, and I encountered only a bell-boy as I +came out, but at the door I ran against a young man whom I strictly +forbore to recognize, but whom I knew to be my improvised detective +coming to take his stand in some place where he could watch the parlor +and note who went into it. + +"At noon I returned to the hotel, passed immediately to the small +parlor and looked into the Bible. The letter was gone. Coming out of +the room, I was at once joined by my detective. + +"'Has the letter been taken?' he eagerly inquired. + +"I nodded. + +"His brows wrinkled and he looked both troubled and perplexed. + +"'I don't understand it,' he remarked. 'I've seen every one who has +gone into that room since you left it, but I do not know any more than +before who took the letter. You see,' he continued, as I looked at him +sharply, 'I had to remain out here. If I had gone even into the large +room, the Bible would not have been disturbed, nor the letter either. +So, in the hope of knowing the rogue at sight, I strolled about this +hall, and kept my eye constantly on that door, but--' + +"He looked embarrassed, and stopped. 'You say the letter is gone,' he +suggested, after a moment. + +"'Yes,' I returned. + +"He shook his head. 'Nobody went into that room or came out of it,' he +went on, 'whom you would have wished me to follow. I should have +thought myself losing time if I had taken one step after any one of +them.' + +"'But who did go into that room?' I urged, impatient at his +perplexity. + +"'Only three persons this morning,' he returned. 'You know them all.' +And he mentioned first Mrs. Couldock." + +Taylor, who was lending me the superficial attention of a preoccupied +man, smiled frankly at the utterance of this name. "Of course, she had +nothing to do with such a debasing piece of business," he observed. + +"Of course not," I repeated. "Nor does it seem likely that Miss Dawes +could have been concerned in it. Yet my detective told me that she was +the next person who went into the parlor." + +"I do not know Miss Dawes so well," remarked Taylor, carelessly. + +"But I do," said I; "and I would as soon suspect my sister of a +dishonorable act as this noble, self-sacrificing woman." + +"The third person?" suggested Taylor. + +I got up and crossed the floor. When my back was to him, I said, +quietly--"was Mrs. Walworth." + +The silence that followed was very painful. I did not care to break +it, and he, doubtless, found himself unable to do so. It must have +been five minutes before either of us spoke; then he suddenly cried: + +"Where is that detective, as you call him? I want to see him." + +"Let me see him for you," said I. "I should hardly wish Sudley, +discreet as I consider him, to know you had any interest in this +affair." + +Taylor rose and came to where I stood. + +"You believe," said he, "that she, the woman I am about to marry, is +the one who wrote you that infamous letter?" + +I faced him quite frankly. "I do not feel ready to acknowledge that," +I replied. "One of those three women took my letter out from the +Bible, where I placed it; which of them wrote the lines that provoked +it I do not dare conjecture. You say it was not Mrs. Couldock, I say +it was not Miss Dawes, but--" + +He broke in upon me impetuously. + +"Have you the letter?" he asked. + +I had, and showed it to him. + +"It is not Helen's handwriting," he said. + +"Nor is it that of Mrs. Couldock or Miss Dawes." + +He looked at me for a moment in a wild sort of way. + +"You think she got some one to write it for her?" he cried. "Helen! my +Helen! But it is not so; it cannot be so. Why, Huntley, to have sent +such a letter as that over the name of an innocent young girl, who, +but for the happy chance of meeting you as she did might never have +had the opportunity of righting herself in your estimation, argues a +cold and calculating selfishness closely allied to depravity. And my +Helen is an angel--or so I have always thought her." + +The depth to which his voice sank in the last sentence showed that for +all his seeming confidence he was not without his doubts. + +I began to feel very uncomfortable, and not knowing what consolation +to offer, I ventured upon the suggestion that he should see Mrs. +Walworth and frankly ask her whether she had been to the hotel on Main +Street on such a day, and if so, if she had seen a letter addressed +to Miss N---- lying on the table of the small parlor. His answer +showed how much his confidence in her had been shaken. + +"A woman who, for the sake of paying some unworthy debt or of +gratifying some whim of feminine vanity, could make use of a young +girl's signature to obtain money, would not hesitate at any denial. +She would not even blench at my questions." + +He was right. + +"I must be convinced in some other way," he went on. "Mrs. Couldock or +Miss Dawes do not either of them possess any more truthful or +ingenuous countenance than she does, and though it seems madness to +suspect such women--" + +"Wait," I broke in. "Let us be sure of all the facts before we go on. +You lie down here and close your eyes; now pull the rug up so. I will +have Sudley in and question him. If you do not turn towards the light +he will not know who you are." + +Taylor followed my suggestion, and in a few moments Sudley stood +before me. I opened upon him quite carelessly. + +"Sudley," said I, throwing down the newspaper I had been ostensibly +reading, "you remember that little business you did for me in Main +Street last month? Something I've been reading made me think of it +again." + +"Yes, sir." + +"Have you never had a conviction yourself as to which of the three +ladies you saw go into the parlor took the letter I left hid in the +Bible?" + +"No, sir. You see I could not. All of them are well known in society +here and all of them belong to the most respectable families. I +wouldn't dare to choose between them, sir." + +"Certainly not," I rejoined, "unless you have some good reason for +doing so, such as having been able to account for the visits of two of +the ladies to the hotel, and not of the third." + +"They all had a good pretext for being there. Mrs. Couldock gave her +card to the boy before going into the parlor, and left as soon as he +returned with word that the lady she called to see was not in. Miss +Dawes gave no card, but asked for a Miss Terhune, I think, and did +not remain a moment after she was informed that that lady had left the +hotel." + +"And Mrs. Walworth?" + +"She came in from the street adjusting her veil, and upon looking +around for a mirror was directed to the parlor, into which she at once +stepped. She remained there but a moment, and when she came out passed +directly into the street." + +These words disconcerted me; the mirror was just over the table in the +small room, but I managed to remark nonchalantly: + +"Could you not tell whether any of these three ladies opened the +Bible?" + +"Not without seeming intrusive." + +I sighed and dismissed the man. When he was gone I approached Taylor. + +"He can give us no assistance," I cried. + +My friend was already on his feet, looking very miserable. + +"I know of only one thing to do," he remarked. "To-morrow I shall call +upon Mrs. Couldock and Miss Dawes, and entreat them to tell me if, for +any reason, they undertook to deliver a letter mysteriously left in +the Bible of the ---- Hotel one day last month. They may have been +deputed to do so, and be quite willing to acknowledge it." + +"And Mrs. Walworth? Will you not ask her the same question?" + +He shook his head and turned away. + +"Very well," said I to myself, "then I will." + +Accordingly the next day I called upon Mrs. Walworth. + +Taking her by the hand, I gently forced her to stand for a moment +where the light from the one window fell full upon her face. I said: + +"You must pardon my intrusion upon you at a time when you are +naturally so busy, but there is something you can do for me that will +rid me of a great anxiety. You remember being in ---- Hotel one +morning last month?" + +She was looking quietly up at me, her lips parted, her eyes smiling +and expectant, but at the mention of that hotel I thought--and yet I +may have been mistaken--that a slight change took place in her +expression, if it was only that the glance grew more gentle and the +smile more marked. + +But her voice when she answered was the same as that with which she +had uttered her greeting. + +"I do not remember," she replied, "yet I may have been there; I go to +so many places. Why do you ask?" she inquired. + +"Because if you were there on that morning--and I have been told you +were--you may be able to solve a question that is greatly perplexing +me." + +Still the same gentle, inquiring look on her face; only now there was +a little furrow of wonder or interest between the eyes. + +"I had business in that hotel on that morning," I continued. "I had +left a letter for a young friend of mine in the Bible that lies on the +small table of the inner parlor, and as she never received it I have +been driven into making all kinds of inquiries in the hope of finding +some explanation of the fact. As you were there at the time you may +have seen something that would aid me. Is it not possible, Mrs. +Walworth?" + +Her smile, which had faded, reappeared. On the lips which Taylor so +much admired a little pout became visible, and she looked quite +enchanting. + +"I do not even remember being at that hotel at all," she protested. +"Did Mr. Taylor say I was there?" she inquired, with just that added +look of exquisite näivete which the utterance of a lover's name should +call up on the face of a prospective bride. + +"No," I answered gravely; "Mr. Taylor, unhappily, was not with you +that morning." She looked startled. + +"Unhappily," she repeated. "What do you mean by that word?" And she +drew back looking very much displeased. + +I had expected this, and so was not thrown off my guard. + +"I mean," I proceeded calmly, "that if you had had such a companion +with you on that morning I should now be able to put my questions to +him, instead of taking your time and interrupting your affairs by my +importunities." + +"You will tell me just what you mean," said she, earnestly. + +I was equally emphatic in my reply. "That is only just. You ought to +know why I trouble you with this matter. It is because this letter of +which I speak was taken from its hiding-place by some one who went +into the hotel parlor between the hours of 10:30 and 12 o'clock, and +as to my certain knowledge only three persons crossed its threshold on +that especial morning at that especial time, I naturally appeal to +each of them in turn for an answer to the problem that is troubling +me. You know Miss N----. Seeing by accident a letter addressed to her +lying in a Bible in a strange hotel, you might have thought it your +duty to take it out and carry it to her. If you did and if you lost +it--" + +"But I didn't," she interrupted, warmly. "I know nothing about any +such letter, and if you had not declared so positively that I was in +that hotel on that especial day I should be tempted to deny that too, +for I have no recollection of going there last month." + +"Not for the purpose of rearranging a veil that had been blown off?" + +"Oh!" she said, but as one who recalls a forgotten fact, not as one +who is tripped up in an evasion. + +I began to think her innocent, and lost some of the gloom which had +been oppressing me. + +"You remember now?" said I. + +"Oh, yes, I remember that." + +Her manner so completely declared that her acknowledgments stopped +there, I saw it would be useless to venture further. If she were +innocent she could not tell more, if she were guilty she would not; +so, feeling that the inclination of my belief was in favor of the +former hypothesis, I again took her hand, and said: + +"I see that you can give me no help. I am sorry, for the whole +happiness of a man, and perhaps that of a woman also, depends upon the +discovery as to who took the letter from out the Bible where I had +hidden it on that unfortunate morning." And, making her another low +bow, I was about to take my departure, when she grasped me impulsively +by the arm. + +"What man?" she whispered; and in a lower tone still, "What woman?" + +I turned and looked at her. "Great heaven!" thought I, "can such a +face hide a selfish and intriguing heart?" and in a flash I summoned +up in comparison before me the plain, honest, and reliable countenance +of Mrs. Couldock and that of the comely and unpretending Miss Dawes, +and knew not what to think. + +"You do not mean yourself?" she continued, as she met my look of +distress. + +"No," I returned; "happily for me my welfare is not bound up in the +honor of any woman." And leaving that shaft to work its way into her +heart, if that heart were vulnerable, I took my leave, more troubled +and less decided than when I entered. + +For her manner had been absolutely that of a woman surprised by +insinuations she was too innocent to rate at their real importance. +And yet, if she did not take away that letter, who did? Mrs. Couldock? +Impossible. Miss Dawes? The thought was untenable, even for an +instant. I waited in great depression of spirits for the call I knew +Taylor would not fail to make that evening. + +When he came I saw what the result of my revelations was likely to be +as plainly as I see it now. He had conversed frankly with Mrs. +Couldock and with Miss Dawes, and was perfectly convinced as to the +utter ignorance of them both in regard to the whole affair. In +consequence, Mrs. Walworth was guilty in his estimation, and being +held guilty could be no wife for him, much as he had loved her, and +urgent as may have been the cause for her act. + +"But," said I, in some horror of the consequences of an interference +for which I was almost ready to blame myself now, "Mrs. Couldock and +Miss Dawes could have done no more than deny all knowledge of this +letter. Now Mrs. Walworth does that, and--" + +"You have seen her? You have asked her--" + +"Yes, I have seen her, and I have asked her, and not an eyelash +drooped as she affirmed a complete ignorance of the whole affair." + +Taylor's head fell. + +"I told you how that would be," he murmured at last. "I cannot feel +that it is any proof of her innocence. Or rather," he added, "I should +always have my doubts." + +"And Mrs. Couldock and Miss Dawes?" + +"Ah!" he cried, rising and turning away; "there is no question of +marriage between either of them and myself." + +I was therefore not astonished when the week went by and no +announcement of his wedding appeared. But I was troubled and am +troubled still, for if mistakes are made in criminal courts, and the +innocent sometimes, through the sheer force of circumstantial +evidence, are made to suffer for the guilty, might it not be that in +this little question of morals Mrs. Walworth has been wronged, and +that when I played the part of arbitrator in her fate, I only +succeeded in separating two hearts whose right it was to be made +happy? + +It is impossible to tell, nor is time likely to solve the riddle. Must +I then forever blame myself, or did I only do in this matter what any +honest man would have done in my place? Answer me, some one, for I do +not find my lonely bachelor life in any wise brightened by the doubt, +and would be grateful to any one who would relieve me of it. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLD STONE HOUSE AND OTHER +STORIES*** + + +******* This file should be named 21824-8.txt or 21824-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/1/8/2/21824 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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