_Chapter x.x.x_
AFTER MANY YEARS
The evening train, as it was known,--a local from the south,--was approaching the little village of Ellisburg, winding its way over miles of rolling country dotted with farm-houses of snowy white; to the east, rough, rugged hills surmounted by a wall of forest, while far to the west could be seen the sandy beaches and blue waters of Lake Ontario.
The arrival of this train formed one of the chief events in the daily life of the little town, and each summer evening found a group of from twenty to fifty of the village folk awaiting its incoming. To them it afforded a welcome break in the monotony of their lives, a fleeting glimpse of people and things from that vague world outside the horizon bounding their own.
Amid the usual handful of pa.s.sengers left at the station on this particular evening were two who immediately drew the attention of the crowd. Two men, one something over fifty years of age, tall, with erect form and dark hair well silvered, and with a grave, sweet face; the other not more than seven-and-twenty, but with hair as white as snow, while his face wore an inscrutable look, as though the dark, piercing eyes held within their depths secrets which the sphinx-like lips would not reveal. Closely following them was a splendid collie, trying in various ways to give expression to his delight at being released from the confinement of the baggage-car.
There was a sudden, swift movement in the crowd as a young man stepped quickly forward and grasped the younger of the two by the hand.
"Darrell, old boy! is this you?" he exclaimed; "Great Scott! what have you been doing to yourself these two years?"
"Plenty of time for explanations later," said Darrell, shaking hands heartily; "Ned, I want you to know my father; father, this is my old chum, now Dr. Elliott."
The young physician"s face betrayed astonishment, but he shook hands with Mr. Britton with no remarks beyond the customary greeting.
"Now, Ned," continued Darrell, "get us out of this mob as quickly as you can; I don"t want to be recognized here."
"Not much danger with that white pate of yours; but come this way, my carriage is waiting. I did not let out that you were coming back, for I thought you wouldn"t want any demonstration from the crowd here, so I told no one but father; he"s waiting for you in the carriage."
"You"re as level-headed as ever," Darrell remarked.
They reached the carriage, greetings were exchanged with Mr. Elliott, and soon the party was driving rapidly towards the village.
"We will go at once to my office," Dr. Elliott remarked to Darrell, who was seated beside himself; "we can make arrangements there as to the best method of breaking this news to your mother."
"You have told her nothing, then?" Darrell inquired.
"No; life has so many uncertainties and she has already suffered so much. You had a long journey before you; if anything had happened to detain you, it was better not to have her in suspense."
"You were right," Darrell replied; "you know I left all that to your own judgment."
"Darrell, old boy," said the doctor, inspecting his companion critically, "do satisfy my curiosity: is that white hair genuine or a wig donned for the occasion?"
"What reason could I have for any such masquerading?" Darrell demanded; "when you come to know my experience for the past two years you will not wonder that my hair is white."
"I beg your pardon, old fellow; I meant no offence. We had all given you up for dead--all but your mother; and your telegram nearly knocked me off my feet."
Here the doctor drew rein, and, fastening the horses outside, they entered his office, a small, one-story building standing close to the street in one corner of the great dooryard of his father"s home, and sheltered alike from sun and storm by giant maples.
After brief consultation it was decided that as Dr. Elliott and his father were frequent callers at the Jewett home, the entire party would drive out there, and, in the probable event of not seeing Mrs. Britton, who was an invalid and retired at an early hour, Darrell and his father would spend the night at the old homestead, but their presence would not be known by the wife and mother until the following morning.
"You see, sir," Dr. Elliott remarked to Mr. Britton, "your coming has complicated matters a little. I would not apprehend any danger from the meeting between Mrs. Britton and her son, for she has looked for his return every day; but I cannot say what might be the result of the shock her nervous system would sustain in meeting you. We are safe, however, in going out there this evening, for she always retires to her room before this time."
Both Mr. Britton and Darrell grew silent as the old Jewett homestead came in view. It was a wide-spreading house of colonial build, snowy white with green shutters and overrun with climbing roses and honeysuckle vines. It stood back at a little distance from the street, and a broad walk, under interlacing boughs of oak, elm, and maple, led from the street to the lofty pillared veranda across its front. The full moon was rising opposite, its mellow light throwing every twig and flower into bold relief. Two figures could be seen seated within the veranda, and as the carriage stopped Dr. Elliott remarked,--
"I was right; Mr. Jewett and his elder daughter are sitting outside, but Mrs. Britton has retired."
As the four men alighted and proceeded up the walk towards the house strangely varied emotions surged through the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of Darrell and his father. To one this was his childhood"s home, the only home of which he had any distinct memory; to the other it was the home to which long ago he had been welcomed as a friend, but from which he had been banished as a lover. But all reminiscent thoughts were suddenly put to flight.
They had advanced only about half-way up the walk when one of the long, old-fashioned windows upon the veranda was hastily thrown open and a slender figure robed in a white dressing-gown came with swift but tremulous steps down the walk to meet them, crying, in glad accents,--
"Oh, my son! my son! you have come, as I knew you would some day!"
Darrell sprang forward and caught his mother in his arms, and then, unable to speak, held her close to his breast, his tears falling on her upturned face, while she caressed him and crooned fond words of endearment as in the days when she had held him in her arms. Dr.
Elliott and his father stood near, nonplussed, uncertain what to do or what course to take. The old gentleman on the veranda left his seat and took a few steps towards the group, as though to a.s.sist his daughter to the house, but Dr. Elliott motioned him to remain where he was. Mr.
Britton, scarcely able to restrain his feelings, yet fearful of agitating his wife, had withdrawn slightly to one side, but unconsciously was standing so that the moonlight fell full across his face.
At that instant Mrs. Britton raised her head, and, seeing the familiar faces of Dr. Elliott and his father, looked at the solitary figure as though to see who it might be. Their eyes met, his shining with the old-time love with which he had looked on her as she stood a bride on that summer evening crowned with the sunset rays, only a thousand-fold more tender. She gave a startled glance, then raised her arms to him with one shrill, sweet cry,--the cry of the lone night-bird for its mate,--
"John!"
"Patience!" came the responsive note, deep, resonant, tender.
He held her folded within his arms until he suddenly felt the fragile form grow limp in his clasp, then, lifting her, he bore her tenderly up the walk, past the bewildered father and sister, into the house, Dr.
Elliott leading the way, and laid her on a couch in her own room.
She was soon restored to consciousness, and, though able to say little, lay feasting her eyes alternately upon the face of husband and son, her glance, however, returning oftener and dwelling longer on the face of the lover, who, after more than twenty-seven years of absence, was a lover still.
_Chapter x.x.xI_
AN EASTERN HOME
Within a few days Darrell and his father were domiciled in the Jewett homestead, the physicians p.r.o.nouncing it unwise to attempt to remove Mrs. Britton to another home.
To Experience Jewett, who reigned supreme in her father"s house, it seemed as though two vandals had invaded her domain, so ruthlessly did they open up the rooms for years jealously guarded from sunshine and dust, while her cherished household G.o.ds were removed by sacrilegious hands from their time-honored niches and consigned to the ignominy of obscure back chambers or the oblivion of the garret.
Under Mr. Britton"s supervision, soon after his arrival, the great double parlors, which had not been used since the funeral of Mrs. Jewett some seven years before, were thrown wide open, Sally, the "help,"
standing with open mouth and arms akimbo, aghast at such proceedings, while Miss Jewett executed a lively quick-step in pursuit of a moth, which, startled by the unusual light, was circling above her head.
Not only were the gayly flowered Brussels carpet and the black haircloth furniture the same as when he had been a guest in those rooms nearly thirty years before, but each piece of furniture occupied the same position as then. He smiled as he noted the arm-chair by one of the front windows, to which he had been invariably a.s.signed and in which he had slipped and slid throughout each evening to the detriment of the crocheted "tidy" pinned upon its back. The vases and candlesticks upon the mantel were arranged with the same mathematical precision. He could detect only one change, which was that to the collection of family photographs framed and hanging above the mantel, there had been added a portrait of the late Mrs. Jewett.
Within a week the old furnishings had been relegated to other parts of the house and modern upholstery had taken their places, the soft subdued tints of which blended harmoniously, forming a general impression of warmth and light.
Most of these innovations Miss Jewett viewed with disfavor, particularly the staining of the floors preparatory to laying down two Turkish rugs of exquisite coloring and design.
"I don"t see any use in being so skimping with the carpets," she remarked to Sally; "if I"d been in his place I"d have got enough to cover the whole floor while I was about it, even if I"d bought something a little cheaper. A carpet with bare floor showing all "round it puts me in mind of d.i.c.k"s hat-band that went part way "round and stopped."
"That"s jest what it does!" Sally a.s.sented.
"I wanted to lay down some strips of carpeting along the edges, but he wouldn"t hear to it," Miss Jewett continued, regretfully.
"I s"pose," Sally remarked, sagely, "it"s all on account of livin" out west along with them wild Injuns and cow-boys so many years. Western folks "most always has queer ideas about things."