"Yes, Charlie, if you do not think it too ridiculous for people as old as we are to marry. Why, I am almost sixty."
"But just as dear and young to me as if you were sixteen," was the reply of the Rev. Charles, who was quite as much in love as he had been nearly forty years before, when he asked Hannah Jerrold to be his wife.
Of course after it was settled he went straight to Martha"s grave and staid there all the afternoon, and did a little gardening around it, and trained the rose-bush around the head-stone, and picking a half open blossom, put it in his b.u.t.ton-hole and silently apostrophized the dead woman at his feet, telling her that though he was about to bring a new mistress to the home where she had reigned supreme, he should not forget her, and should so far as was consistent, see that all her ideas were carried out, especially as far as his health was concerned. Then be walked thoughtfully away, whispering to himself;
"Martha was a very good and excellent woman, but I loved Hanny first, and G.o.d forgive me if it is wrong to say it, I think I love her the best."
Then he went and told Miss McPherson, who called him and Hannah fools, to think of marrying at their time of life, but said she was satisfied if they were. Then he told Lucy Grey, who congratulated him warmly and was sure he would be happy. Then he told Bessie, who cried at first because her Aunt Hannah was not to live with her, and then entered heart and soul into the affair and became as much interested in the wedding and the wedding outfit as if the bride-elect had been a young girl in her teens instead or an elderly woman in her fifties. Then he told his senior warden, who, having himself been married three times, had nothing to say, but hurried home with the news, which was all over Allington by the next day, and was received differently, according to the different natures of the receivers. Some were very glad, and predicted that the rector would be far happier with Hannah than he had been with Martha, while others wondered what that worthy woman would say if she knew that another was to fill her place, and _all_ calculated the ages of the respective parties, making _him_ out younger than he was and _her_ a great deal older. But neither he nor she ever knew what was said, and they would not have cared if they had, for both were supremely happy and thankful for the peace and blessedness which had crowned their later life. Fifty and even sixty is not so very old, at least to those who have reached it, and Hannah neither looked nor felt old when in her becoming traveling dress of seal brown she stood up in the parlors of her brother"s house on Beacon street and was made Mrs. Charles Sanford.
This was early in February, and six weeks before, on Christmas Eve, there had come to that same house on Beacon street a little black-eyed, black-haired boy, as unlike either Bessie or Grey as a baby well could be.
"He is not like any one I have ever seen of your family," the old nurse said, when she brought the st.u.r.dy fellow to Bessie, who, the moment she looked at him exclaimed:
"Why, Grey, he is exactly like Neil; his eyes, his hair, his expression, and Neil will be so glad. We must have his picture taken at once and sent to Neil, with a lock of his hair."
Grey thought it doubtful if Neil would be quite as enthusiastic over Bessie"s baby as she seemed to think, but when a few hours later she drew his face down to hers and whispered to him:
"We will call baby Neil McPherson, won"t we?" he fondly kissed the little mother, and answered hesitatingly:
"Yes, darling, we will call our baby Neil McPherson, if you like."
And so with a birth, a christening, and a wedding the winter pa.s.sed rapidly at No. ---- Beacon street, and by the first of May Bessie was again in Allington, armed and equipped for settling Stoneleigh Cottage, and giving the finishing touches to the plateau, which with the advance of summer, began to show marks of great beauty, and to attract general attention. Bessie"s idea of raising it two feet above the level of the ground had been carried out, and the sods which had been placed upon it, and the terrace around it in the autumn, were fresh and green as velvet in the early spring, while of the roses, and lilies, and flowering shrubs which had been planted with so much care, not one had died, and many of them blossomed as freely as plants of older growth. The plateau was Bessie"s especial pride and care, particularly that corner of it over which the bedroom once stood. Here she had an immense bed of pansies, heart-shaped and perfect in outline, and in the center a cross, where only white daisies were growing.
"Grandmother liked pansies and daisies the best, and I thought, perhaps, he did, too; and then mother"s name was Daisy, you know," she said to Hannah, who rightly guessed that this bank of flowers was Bessie"s _In Memoriam_, not only to her uncle, but to her mother as well.
And very beautiful the heart-shaped bed of human-faced pansies, with the daisy cross in the center, looked all the summer long, and many admired and commented upon it, but only five persons ever knew that the white cross marked a grave.
CHAPTER XX.
After Five Years.
"Noiselessly as I be spring-time Her crown of verdure weaves, And all the trees on all the hills Open their thousand leaves,"
So noiselessly and quickly have the years come and gone since we first saw our heroine, Bessie, a little girl on the sands of Aberystwyth, and now we present her to our readers for the last time, a sweet-faced, lovely matron of twenty-six, who, with her husband, was waiting at the Allington station, one bright June afternoon, for the incoming train from New York. Just behind the station, where the horses would not be startled by the engine, stood the family carriage, a large, roomy vehicle, bought for comfort rather than show, and which seemed to be full of children, though in reality there were only three. First, Neil, the boy of five years and a half, who, with his dark eyes and hair, and bright olive complexion, was the very image of the Neil for whom he was named, and who was a most lovable and affectionate child.
Next to Neil was the three-year old Robin, with blue eyes and golden hair, like the blind Robin for whom he was named, and next was the girl baby, who came nearly a year and a half ago, and to whom Grey said, when he first took her in his arms:
"I thank G.o.d for giving you to me my little daughter, and I am sure you look just as your mother did when she first opened her eyes at Stoneleigh. Yes, I am very glad for you, little Bessie McPherson."
And so that was the name they gave the baby with l.u.s.trous blue eyes and wavy hair, and the same sweet, patient expression about the mouth as there was about the mouth of the young girl-mother, whom Neil and Robin called "Bessie mamma," while to their sister they gave the name of "Baby Bessie."
And Baby Bessie was in the roomy carriage, sitting on Jenny"s lap, and playing peek-a-boo with Robin, while Neil stood on the opposite seat engaged in a hot altercation with another boy about his own age, who, dressed in deep black, which gave him a peculiar look, was seated at a little distance in a most elegant carriage, with servants in livery, and who, when asked by some one standing near what his name was, had answered:
"I am Lord Rossiter Hardy, and I am waiting for my mother, who is coming from New York, and who is going to bring me a bicycle."
Something in the boy"s tone of superiority irritated Neil, who was thoroughly democratic, and he called out:
"Phoo!--a _lord_--why you are n.o.body but Ross Hardy! and your grandmother--"
"Hush, Neil, or I"ll tell your father; and look where you are standin", with your dirthy fate on the cushions. Come down directly, or I"ll be afther helpin" ye!" said Jennie; whereupon Neil turned his attention to her, and a spirited battle ensued, in which Robin also took part, and which was only brought to an end by the sound of the train in the distance.
"There"s the whistle! Out with ye, or ye"ll not be in time to grate yer uncle!" Jennie cried; and with a bound Neil was upon the ground, and rushing through the station, joined his mother, who with Grey was looking anxiously at the few pa.s.sengers alighting from the train.
First came Lady Augusta Hardy, habited in the deepest of c.r.a.pe. Poor Teddie had died a few months before, and with her little son Rossiter, who was now the heir of Hardy Manor, she was spending the summer at home, and with her foreign airs and liveried servants brought from Dublin was creating quite a sensation to Allington. With a bow to the Jerrolds, who were among the few she condescended to notice, she pa.s.sed on to where her coachman and footman waited for her, while Bessie ran hastily down the platform towards a tall, sickly looking man, who almost tottered as he walked, while a sudden pallor about his lips told how weak he was.
"Oh, Neil, I am so glad--and so sorry, too. I did not think you were like this," Bessie cried, as she took both his hands in hers, and, standing on tiptoe, kissed the quivering lips, which could not for a moment speak to her "You are very tired," she continued, as Grey came up and, after greeting the stranger cordially, offered him his arm.
"You are very tired from the voyage and the journey here, it is so hot and dusty; but you will rest now, our house is so cool and the air here so pure. There, let me help you, too."
And in her eagerness, Bessie pa.s.sed her arm through Neil"s, or rather put it around him, and thus supported, the sick man went slowly to the open carriage, where Jennie had the children with the exception of little Neil, who, finding himself overlooked, was cultivating the station master and telling him that the dark-looking man was his Uncle Neil from India, and that they were to have ice cream for dinner in honor of his arrival, and he was to go to the table and have two saucers full.
In her anxiety for her cousin, Bessie had forgotten her children, but at the sight of them she exclaimed:
"Oh, Neil, look! Here are two of my babies, Robin and Bessie, and the boy over there throwing stones, is your namesake. I hope they will not trouble you--Robin and Bessie, I mean--for you and I are to go in the carriage with them, and Grey will take little Neil in the phaeton."
"Yes, thank you," Neil replied, too sick and tired to care for anything just then; and leaning back in the carriage, he closed his eyes wearily, and did not open them again until they were more than half way to Stoneleigh Cottage.
Then Robin, who had been regarding the stranger curiously, laid his little dimpled hand on the thin, wasted one, and said:
"Is you s"eep?"
With a start Neil"s eyes unclosed, and he looked for the first time on Bessie"s children, with such a pain in his heart as he had hoped he might never feel again. Over and over he had said to himself that she should never know how the very thought of them hurt and almost maddened him, and how, in his foolish anger, he had burned the lock of hair which she had sent to him from the head of her first-born. And he said it to himself again, now that he was face to face with the little ones, and though every nerve in his body thrilled at the touch of the soft hand on his, he tried to smile, and said:
"No, I am not asleep; I am only tired. What is your name, my little man?"
"Wobin; tree years old. And this is Baby Bessie, and this is Bessie mamma," was the prompt reply; and Neil rejoined:
"Yes, I knew your mamma when she was a little girl no bigger than you, and her hands felt just as yours feel."
"I p"ays for you every night when mamma puts me to bed. I say, "G.o.d bless Uncle Neil,"" the child continued.
Then two great tears gathered in the sick man"s eyes, but he brushed them away quickly, while Bessie took the boy in her lap and kept him from talking any more.
By this time they were in the road which led from the highway to the house. This had formerly been little more than a lane, but under Bessie"s supervision it had been transformed into a broad avenue, bordered with trees and footpaths on either side, and seats beneath the trees, which, though young, had grown rapidly, and already cast cool shadows upon the gra.s.s.
"This is the place; that is Stoneleigh Cottage," Bessie said, pointing to the house where Grey was waiting for them, with the boy Neil at his side.
"And this is Neil, my eldest; we think he is like you," Bessie continued, as she alighted from the carriage and presented the child to her cousin.
"Phoo! I ain"t a bit like him," was the boy"s mental comment, while Neil, the elder said, quickly:
"Heaven forbid that he should be like me."
They took him to his room at once--the pleasant south room, whose windows overlooked the plateau, now all ablaze with flowers.
"You must lie down and rest till dinner. I ordered it at seven to-night, I will send you up some tea at once. I hope you will be comfortable and ask for what you want," Bessie said, as she flitted about the room, anxious to make her guest feel at home.