Somewhat disarmed by this humility, Mrs. Fitzgerald said, in a softened tone: "I pity you, Mrs. King. You have had a great deal of trouble, and this is a very trying situation you are in. But it would break my heart to give up Gerald. And then you must see, of course, what an embarra.s.sing position it would place me in before the world."
"I see no reason why the world should know anything about it,"
rejoined Mrs. King. "For Gerald"s sake, as well as our own, it is very desirable that the secret should be kept between ourselves."
"You may safely trust my pride for that," she replied.
"Do you think your father ought to be included in our confidence,"
inquired Mrs. King.
"No indeed," she replied, hastily. "He never can bear to hear my poor husband mentioned. Besides, he has had the gout a good deal lately, and is more irritable than usual."
As she rose to go, Mrs. King said: "Then, with the exception of Eulalia, everything remains outwardly as it was. Can you forgive me?
I do believe I was insane with misery; and you don"t know how I have been haunted with remorse."
"You must have suffered terribly," rejoined Mrs. Fitzgerald, evading a direct answer to the question. "But we had better not talk any more about it now. I am bewildered, and don"t know what to think. Only one thing is fixed in my mind: Gerald is _my_ son."
They parted politely, but with coldness on Mrs. Fitzgerald"s side.
There had arisen in her mind a double dislike toward Mrs. King, as the first love of her husband, and as the mother of the elegant young man who was to her an object of pride as well as fondness. But her chagrin was not without compensation. Mrs. King"s superior wealth and beauty had been felt by her as somewhat overshadowing; and the mortifying circ.u.mstances she had now discovered in her history seemed, in her imagination, to bring her down below a level with herself. She and Gerald sat up late into the night, talking over this strange disclosure. She was rather jealous of the compa.s.sion he expressed for Mrs. King, and of his admiration for her manners and character; though they mutually declared, again and again, that they could realize no change whatever in their relation to each other.
The wise words of Mr. King had not been without their effect on Gerald. The tumult of emotions gradually subsided; and he began to realize that these external accidents made no essential change in himself. The next morning he requested an interview with Mrs.
King, and was received alone. When he entered, she cast upon him a hesitating, beseeching look; but when he said, "My mother!" she flew into his arms, and wept upon his neck.
"Then you do not hate me?" she said, in a voice choked with emotion, "You are not ashamed to call me mother?"
"It was only yesterday," he replied, "that I thought with pride and joy of the possibility that I might some day call you by that dear name. If I had heard these particulars without knowing you, they might have repelled me. But I have admired you from the first moment; I have lately been learning to love you; and I am familiar with the thought of being your son."
She raised her expressive eyes to his with such a look of love, that he could not refrain from giving her a filial kiss and pressing her warmly to his heart. "I was so afraid you would regard me with dislike," said she. "You can understand now why it made me so faint to think of singing "_M"odi! Ah, m"odi_!" with you at Mrs. Green"s party. How could I have borne your tones of anguish when you discovered that you were connected with the Borgias? And how could I have helped falling on your neck when you sang "_Madre mia_"? But I must not forget that the mother who tended your childhood has the best claim to your affection," she added mournfully.
"I love her, and always shall love her. It cannot be otherwise,"
rejoined he. "It has been the pleasant habit of so many years. But ought I not to consider myself a lucky fellow to have two such mothers? I don"t know how I am to distinguish you. I must call you Rose-mother and Lily-mother, I believe."
She smiled as he spoke, and she said, "Then it has not made you so _very_ unhappy to know that you are my son?"
His countenance changed as he replied: "My only unhappiness is the loss of Eulalia. That disappointment I must bear as I can."
"You are both very young," rejoined she; "and perhaps you may see another--"
"I don"t want to hear about that now," he exclaimed impetuously, moving hastily toward the window, against which he leaned for a moment. When he turned, he saw that his mother was weeping; and he stooped to kiss her forehead, with tender apologies for his abruptness.
"Thank G.o.d," she said, "for these brief moments of happiness with my son."
"Yes, they must be brief," he replied. "I must go away and stay away.
But I shall always think of you with affection, and cherish the deepest sympathy for your wrongs and sufferings."
Again she folded him in her arms, and they kissed and blessed each other at parting. She gazed after him wistfully till he was out of sight. "Alas!" murmured she, "he cannot be a son to me, and I cannot be a mother to him." She recalled the lonely, sad hours when she embroidered his baby clothes, with none but Tulee to sympathize with her. She remembered how the little black silky head looked as she first fondled him on her arm; and the tears began to flow like rain.
But she roused in a few moments, saying to herself: "This is all wrong and selfish. I ought to be glad that he loves his Lily-mother, that he can live with her, and that her heart will not be made desolate by my fault. O Father of mercies! this is hard to bear. Help me to bear it as I ought!" She bowed her head in silence for a while; then, rising up, she said: "Have I not my lovely Eulalia? Poor child! I must be very tender with her in this trial of her young heart."
She saw there was need to be very tender, when a farewell card was sent the next day, with a bouquet of delicate flowers from Gerald Fitzgerald.
CHAPTER x.x.xII.
The next morning after these conversations, Mrs. Blumenthal, who was as yet unconscious of the secret they had revealed, was singing in the garden, while she gathered some flowers for her vases. Mr. Bright, who was cutting up weeds, stopped and listened, keeping time on the handle of his hoe. When Flora came up to him, she glanced at the motion of his fingers and smiled. "Can"t help it, ma"am," said he. "When I hear your voice, it"s as much as ever I can do to keep from dancing; but if I should do that, I should shock my neighbor the Deacon. Did you see the stage stop there, last night? They"ve got visitors from Carolina,--his daughter, and her husband and children. I reckon I stirred him up yesterday. He came to my shop to pay for some shoeing he"d had done. So I invited him to attend our anti-slavery meeting to-morrow evening. He took it as an insult, and said he didn"t need to be instructed by such sort of men as spoke at our meetings. "I know some of us are what they call mudsills down South," said I; "but it might do you good to go and hear "em, Deacon. When a man"s lamp"s out, it"s better to light it by the kitchen fire than to go blundering about in the dark, hitting himself against everything." He said we should find it very convenient if we had slaves here; for Northern women were mere beasts of burden. I told him that was better than to be beasts of prey. I thought afterward I wasn"t very polite. I don"t mean to go headlong against other folks" prejudices; but the fact is, a man never knows with what impetus he _is_ going till he comes up against a post. I like to see a man firm as a rock in his opinions. I have a sort of a respect for a _rock_, even if it _is_ a little mossy.
But when I come across a _post_, I like to give it a shaking, to find out whether it"s rotten at the foundation. As to things in general, I calculate to be an obliging neighbor; but I shall keep a lookout on these Carolina folks. If they"ve brought any blacks with "em, I shall let "em know what the laws of Ma.s.sachusetts are; and then they may take their freedom or not, just as they choose."
"That"s right," replied Mrs. Blumenthal; "and when you and the Deacon have another encounter, I hope I shall be near enough to hear it."
As she walked away, tying up her bouquet with a spear of striped gra.s.s, she heard him whistling the tune she had been singing. When she returned to the parlor, she seated herself near the open window, with a handkerchief, on which she was embroidering Mrs. Delano"s initials.
Mr. Bright"s remarks had somewhat excited her curiosity, and from time to time she glanced toward Deacon Stillham"s grounds. A hawthorn hedge, neatly clipped, separated the two gardens; but here and there the foliage had died away and left small open s.p.a.ces. All at once, a pretty little curly head appeared at one of these leafy lunettes, and an infantile voice called out, "You"re a Bob-o-lith-o-nitht!"
"Do come here, Mamita Lila, and see this little darling," said Flora, laughing.
For a moment she was invisible. Then the cherub face came peeping out again; and this time the little mouth was laughing, when it repeated, "You"re a Bob-o-lith-o-nitht."
"Isn"t it amusing to hear such an infant trying to abuse us with a big mouthful of a word, to which she attaches no meaning?" said Mrs.
Delano.
Flora beckoned with her hand, and called out, "Come in and see the Bobolithonithts, darling." The little creature laughed and ran away.
At that moment, a bright turban was seen moving along above the bushes. Then a black face became visible. Flora sprang up with a quick cry, and rushed out of the room, upsetting her basket, and leaving b.a.l.l.s and thimble rolling about the floor. Placing her foot on a stump, she leaped over the hedge like an opera-dancer, and the next moment she had the negro woman in her arms, exclaiming: "Bless you, Tulee! You _are_ alive, after all!"
The black woman was startled and bewildered for an instant; then she held her off at arm"s length, and looked at her with astonishment, saying: "Bless the Lord! Is it you, Missy Flory? or is it a sperit?
Well now, _is_ it you, little one?"
"Yes, Tulee; it is I," she replied. "The same Missy Flory that used to plague your life out with her tricks."
The colored woman hugged and kissed, and hugged and kissed, and laughed and cried; ever and anon exclaiming, "Bless the Lord!"
Meanwhile, the playful cherub was peeping at Joe Bright through another hole in the hedge, all unconscious how pretty her little fair face looked in its frame of green leaves, but delighted with her own sauciness, as she repeated, "You"re a Bob-o-lith-o-nitht! you"re a Bob-o-lith-o-nitht!" When he tried to kiss her, she scampered away, but soon reappeared again to renew the fun.
While this by-play was going on, a white servant came through the Deacon"s grounds, and said to Tulee, "Mrs. Robbem wants you to come to her immediately, and bring Laura."
"I must go now, darling," said Tulee, clasping Flora"s hand with a warm pressure.
"Come again quickly," said Flora.
"As soon as I can," she replied, and hurried away with her little charge.
When Mr. Bright offered his hand to help Mrs. Blumenthal over the hedge, he burst into a hearty laugh. "Wasn"t it funny," said he, "to hear that baby calling us Bob-o-lith-o-nithts? They begin education early down South. Before the summer is out she"ll be talking about the cuth o" Ham, and telling the story of Onethimuth. But they"ve found a mare"s nest now, Mrs. Blumenthal. The Deacon will be writing to his Carolina friends how the Ma.s.sachusetts ladies hug and kiss n.i.g.g.e.rs."
Flora smiled as she answered: "I suppose it must seem strange to them, Mr. Bright. But the fact is, that black woman tended me when I was a child; and I haven"t seen her for twenty years."
As soon as she entered the house, she explained the scene to Mrs.
Delano, and then said to her daughter: "Now, Rosen Blumen, you may leave your drawing and go to Aunt Rosa, and tell her I want to see her for something special, and she must come as soon as possible. Don"t tell her anything more. You may stay and spend the day with Eulalia, if you like."
"How many mysteries and surprises we have," observed Mrs. Delano. "A dozen novels might be made out of your adventures."