Mr Cheney always had a kind word for the laundress, and a tip as well; and when Mrs Connor"s dream of seeing him act the part of the Prince and Berene the Cinderella of a modern fairy story, ended in the disappearance of Miss Dumont and the marriage of Mr Cheney to Mabel Lawrence, the unhappy wash-lady mourned unceasingly.
Ten years of hard, unremitting toil and rigid economy pa.s.sed away before Mrs Connor could realise her ambition of becoming a landlady in the purchase of a small house which contained but four rooms, three of which were rented to lodgers. The increase in the value of her property during the next five years, left the fortunate speculator with a fine profit when she sold her house at the end of that time, and rented a larger one; and as she was an excellent financier, it was not strange that, at the time Joy Irving appeared on the scene, "Mrs Connor"s apartments" were as well and favourably known in Beryngford, if not as distinctly fashionable, as the Palace had been more than twenty years ago.
So it was under the roof of her mother"s devoted and faithful mourner that the unhappy young orphan had found a home when she came to hide herself away from all who had ever known her.
The landlady experienced the same haunting sensation of something past and gone when she looked on the girl"s beautiful face, which had so puzzled the Baroness; a something which drew and attracted the warm heart of the Irishwoman, as the magnet draws the steel. Time and experience had taught Mrs Connor to be discreet in her treatment of her tenants; to curb her curiosity and control her inclination to sociability. But in the case of Miss Irving she had found it impossible to refrain from sundry kindly acts which were not included in the terms of the contract. Certain savoury dishes found their way mysteriously to Miss Irving"s menage, and flowers appeared in her room as if by magic, and in various other ways the good heart and intentions of Mrs Connor were un.o.btrusively expressed toward her favourite tenant. Joy had taken a suite of four rooms, where, with her maid, she lived in modest comfort and complete retirement from the social world of Beryngford, save as the close connection of the church with Beryngford society rendered her, in the position of organist, a partic.i.p.ant in many of the social features of the town.
While Joy was in the midst of her preparations for departure, Mrs Connor made her appearance with swollen eyes and red, blistered face.
"And it"s the talk of that ould witch of a Baroness, may the divil run away with her, that is drivin" ye away, is it?" she cried excitedly; "and it"s not Mrs Connor as will consist to the daughter of your mother, G.o.d rest her soul, lavin" my house like this. To think that I should have had ye here all these years, and never known ye to be her child till now, and now to see ye driven away by the divil"s own! But if it"s the fear of not being able to pay the rint because ye"ve lost your position, ye needn"t lave for many a long day to come. It"s Mrs Connor would only be as happy as the queen herself to work her hands to the bone for ye, remembering your darlint of a mother, and not belavin" one word against her, nor ye."
So soon as Joy could gain possession of her surprised senses, she calmed the weeping woman and began to question her.
"My good woman," she said, "what are you talking about? Did you ever know my mother, and where did you know her?"
"In the Palace, to be sure, as they called the house of that imp of Satan, the Baroness. I was the wash-lady there, for it"s not Mrs Conner the landlady as is above spakin" of the days when she wasn"t as high in the world as she is now; and many is the cheerin" cup of coffee or tay from your own mother"s hand, that I"ve had in the forenoon, to chirk me up and put me through my washing, bless her sweet face; and niver have I forgotten her; and niver have I ceased to miss her and the fine young man that took such an interest in her and that I"m as sure loved her, in spite of his marrying the Judge"s spook of a daughter, as I am that the Holy Virgin loves us all; and it"s a foine man that your father must have been, but young Mr Cheney was foiner."
So little by little Joy drew the story from Mrs Connor and learned the name of the mysterious father, so carefully guarded from her in Mrs Irving"s ma.n.u.script, the father at whose funeral services she had so recently officiated as organist.
And strangest and most startling of all, she learned that Arthur Stuart"s insane wife was her half-sister.
Added to all this, Joy was made aware of the nature of the reports which the Baroness had been circulating about her; and her feeling of bitter resentment and anger toward the church committee was modified by the knowledge that it was not owing to the shadow on her birth, but to the false report of her own evil life, that she had been asked to resign.
After Mrs Connor had gone, Joy was for a long time in meditation, and then turned in a mechanical manner to her delayed task. Her book of "Impressions" lay on a table close at hand.
And as she took it up the leaves opened to the sentence she had written three years before, after her talk with the rector about Marah Adams.
"It seems to me I could not love a man who did not seek to lead me higher; the moment he stood below me and asked me to descend, I should realise he was to be pitied, not adored!"
She shut the book and fell on her knees in prayer; and as she prayed a strange thing happened. The room filled with a peculiar mist, like the smoke which is illuminated by the brilliant rays of the morning sun; and in the midst of it a small square of intense rose-coloured light was visible. This square grew larger and larger, until it a.s.sumed the size and form of a man, whose face shone with immortal glory. He smiled and laid his hand on Joy"s head. "Child, awake,"
he said, and with these words vast worlds dawned upon the girl"s sight. She stood above and apart from her grosser body, untrammelled and free; she saw long vistas of lives in the past through which she had come to the present; she saw long vistas of lives in the future through which she must pa.s.s to gain the experience which would lead her back to G.o.d. An ineffable peace and serenity enveloped her. The divine Presence seemed to irradiate the place in which she stood--she felt herself illuminated, transfigured, sanctified by the holy flame within her.
When she came back to the kneeling form by the couch, and rose to her feet, all the aspect of life had changed for her.
CHAPTER XXI
Joy Irving had unpacked her trunks and set her small apartment to rights, when the postman"s ring sounded, and a moment later a letter was slipped under her door.
She picked it up, and recognised Arthur Stuart"s penmanship. She sat down, holding the unopened letter in her hands.
"It is Arthur"s message, appointing a time and place for our meeting," she said to herself. "How long ago that strange interview with him seems!--yet it was only yesterday. How utterly the whole of life has changed for me since then! The universe seems larger, G.o.d nearer, and life grander. I am as one who slept and dreamed of darkness and sorrow, and awakes to light and joy."
But when she opened the envelope and read the few hastily written lines within, an exclamation of surprise escaped her lips. It was a brief note from Arthur Stuart and began abruptly without an address (a manner more suggestive of strong pa.s.sion than any endearing words).
"The first item which my eye fell upon in the telegraphic column of the morning paper, was the death of my wife in the Retreat for the Insane. I leave by the first express to bring her body here for burial.
"A merciful providence has saved us the necessity of defying the laws of G.o.d or man, and opened the way for me to claim you before all the world as my worshipped wife so soon as propriety will permit.
"I shall see you at any hour you may indicate after to-morrow, for a brief interview.
"ARTHUR EMERSON STUART."
Joy held the letter in her hand a long time, lost in profound reflection. Then she sat down to her desk and wrote three letters; one was to Mrs Lawrence; one to the chairman of the church committee, who had requested her resignation; the third was to Mr Stuart, and read thus:
"My Dear Mr Stuart,--Many strange things have occurred to me since I saw you. I have learned the name of my father, and this knowledge reveals the fact to me that your unfortunate wife was my half-sister.
I have learned, too, that the loss of my position here as organist is not due to the narrow prejudice of the committee regarding the shadow on my birth, but to malicious stories put in circulation by Mrs Lawrence, relating to me.
"Infamous and libellous tales regarding my life have been told, and must be refuted. I have written to Mrs Lawrence demanding a letter from her, clearing my personal character, or giving her the alternative of appearing in court to answer the charge of defamation of character. I have also written to the church committee requesting them to meet me here in my apartments to-morrow, and explain their demand for my resignation.
"I now write to you my last letter and my farewell.
"In the overwrought and desperate mood in which you found me, it did not seem a sin for me to go away with the man who loved me and whom I loved, before false ideas of life and false ideas of duty made him the husband of another. Conscious that your wife was a hopeless lunatic whose present or future could in no way be influenced by our actions, I reasoned that we wronged no one in taking the happiness so long denied us.
"The last three years of my life have been full of desolation and sorrow. From the day my mother died, the stars of light which had gemmed the firmament for me, seemed one by one to be obliterated, until I stood in utter darkness. You found me in the very blackest hour of all--and you seemed a shining sun to me.
"Yet so soon as my tired brain and sorrow-worn heart were able to think and reason, I realised that it was not the man I had worshipped as an ideal, who had come to me and asked me to lower my standard of womanhood. It was another and less worthy man--and this other was to be my companion through time, and perhaps eternity. When I learned that your insane wife was my sister, and that knowing this fact you yet planned our flight, an indescribable feeling of repulsion awoke in my heart.
"I confess that this arose more from a sentiment than a principle.
The relationship of your wife to me made the contemplated sin no greater, but rendered it more tasteless.
"Had I gone away with you as I consented to do, the world would have said, she but follows her fatal inheritance--like mother like daughter. There were some bitter rebellious hours, when that thought came to me. But to-day light has shone upon me, and I know there is a law of Divine Heredity which is greater and more powerful than any tendency we derive from parents or grandparents. I have believed much in creeds all my life; and in the hour of great trials I found I was leaning on broken reeds. I have now ceased to look to men or books for truth--I have found it in my own soul. I acknowledge no unfortunate tendencies from any earthly inheritance; centuries of sinful or weak ancestors are as nothing beside the G.o.d within. The divine and immortal ME is older than my ancestral tree; it is as old as the universe. It is as old as the first great Cause of which it is a part. Strong with this consciousness, I am prepared to meet the world alone, and unafraid from this day onward. When I think of the optimistic temperament, the good brain, and the vigorous body which were naturally mine, and then of the wretched being who was my legitimate sister, I know that I was rightly generated, however unfortunately born, just as she was wrongly generated though legally born.
"My father, I am told, married into a family whose crest is traced back to the tenth century. I carry a coat-of-arms older yet--the Cross; it dates back eighteen hundred years--yes, many thousand years, and so I feel myself the n.o.bler of the two. Had you been more of a disciple of Christ, and less of a disciple of man, you would have realised this truth long ago, as I realise it to-day. No man should dare stand before his fellows as a revealer of divine knowledge until he has penetrated the inmost recesses of his own soul, and found G.o.d"s holy image there; and until he can show others the way to the same wonderful discovery. The G.o.d you worshipped was far away in the heavens, so far that he could not come to you and save you from your baser self in the hour of temptation. But the true G.o.d has been miraculously revealed to me. He dwells within; one who has found Him, will never debase His temple.
"Though there is no legal obstacle now in the path to our union, there is a spiritual one which is insurmountable. I NO LONGER LOVE YOU. I am sorry for you, but that is all. You belonged to my yesterday--you can have no part in my to-day. The man who tempted me in my weak hour to go lower, could not help me to go higher. And my face is set toward the heights.
"I must prove to that world that a child born under the shadow of shame, and of two weak, uncontrolled parents, can be virtuous, strong, brave and sensible. That she can conquer pa.s.sion and impulse, by the use of her divine inheritance of will; and that she can compel the respect of the public by her discreet life and lofty ideals.
"I shall stay in this place until I have vindicated my name and character from every aspersion cast upon them. I shall retain my position of organist, and retain it until I have acc.u.mulated sufficient means to go abroad and prepare myself for the musical career in which I know I can excel. I am young, strong and ambitious. My unusual sorrows will give me greater power of character if I accept them as spiritual tonics--bitter but strengthening.
"Farewell, and may G.o.d be with you.
"Joy Irving."
When the rector of St Blank"s returned from the Beryngford Cemetery, where he had placed the body of his wife beside her father, he found this letter lying on his table in the hotel.