"Fifty thousand dollars!" gasped Miss Pryor; "do I hear aright? I wonder what Mrs. Dr. Little, and the Briers, and all them that turned against her, will say to that? It will be a particularly sweet morsel for the Owens. I must call round and visit each one of them, to enjoy their discomfiture."
"What a thing it is to be ignorant and narrow-minded," added Mrs. Wynn.
"I can"t see how people get along through life without any knowledge of human nature. Our poor departed Elder used to say he never could quite make up his mind what to think of a new-comer until he had my opinion of them, and, if I _do_ say it, as shouldn"t say it, I"ve used these eyes thus far to pretty good advantage."
"If she"d have used them less about her neighbors and a little more in looking after that precious daughter of hers," whispered the spinster, maliciously, as the old lady rose to put away the dishes, "it would have been better for all concerned, I guess."
"Why, Betsey, how you _do_ talk!" replied Mrs. Swan. Then in a louder tone: "I came near forgetting another thing that I wanted to ask you about. I"ve sustained a dreadful shock. It"s on account of these new people at the Burton place. I had a long confidential talk with Sister Arguseye, lately, and I haven"t had a peaceful moment since. She called in to see me to warn me about a.s.sociating with them. You know she came from the same place that they did, and knew all about the family."
"What did she say?" chorused both voices.
"Well, I"m grieved to say her report wasn"t favorable. It seems the elder Mrs. Garnet, who appears to be a perfect pattern of propriety, has a grown-up, illegitimate daughter, whose existence they are trying to conceal from strangers, whom they think they can successfully impose upon."
"They have come to the wrong place for that. Vice will be exposed in this community, and the workers of iniquity receive their reward,"
responded Mrs. Wynn, oracularly, and pursing up her thin lips and sniffing her sharp nose higher in the air; "we must ferret this out, Betsey."
"We must, indeed," echoed the spinster, looking as if nothing would delight her more; "such a state of affairs cannot be tolerated in our midst."
"The worst part of it is," continued Mrs. Swan, "they say that the modest-looking daughter-in-law, whom I have felt so interested in, is equally culpable, and married the son for similar reasons. I feel dreadfully about the affair, for I was expecting a good deal of enjoyment in their society."
"They seem very intelligent and agreeable people; but I can"t doubt Sister Arguseye"s positive a.s.sertion. A minister"s wife couldn"t lie,"
said the elder lady, in a tone that showed deep conviction of an unpleasant truth. "There is but one way to find out; to go and state the facts, and have the truth elicited."
"But who is to do it?" asked Mrs. Swan. "_I_ can"t."
"Are you equal to the emergency, Betsey?" asked. Mrs. Wynn.
"I believe I possess the Christian fort.i.tude to do my duty, however disagreeable it may be," replied that personage, with the air of a martyr being led to the stake.
"There, it is settled," said the old lady. "We will go together"--which they did that very day.
Pretty little Mrs. Garnet had finished her work for the day, donned a fresh calico that fitted her plump form without a wrinkle, and sat crooning a soft lullaby to that objectionable baby, when they entered.
She welcomed the ladies hospitably, but eyed askance their sombre and awful countenances.
"It"s a pleasant day," she said, by way of starting conversation.
"There"s _nothing_ pleasant to me, in this wicked world," said Miss Pryor, dolorously.
"How is your rheumatism, Mrs. Wynn?" she asked again, after a prolonged silence, hoping better success from this question regarding that worthy lady"s manifold ailments.
"It"s heavenly in comparison with the state of my mind," was the unlooked-for response.
Then there was another dreadful pause, broken at length by the elder of the group. "I"ve a revelation to make, neighbor, that is of such a nature that I shudder to speak upon the subject, and which closely concerns more than one person in this immediate vicinity."
Thereupon the good lady proceeded to unfold the story that had emanated from the minister"s wife, in regard to the deplorable state of the morals of these new-comers in the quiet village.
Instead of being shocked at the recital, and literally extinguished, as she undoubtedly ought to have been, by the knowledge that her former little peccadillos had come to light, the bright-eyed hostess burst out laughing in the very faces of the lugubrious guests.
"It"s turned out as I expected," she said, at last, when she had done laughing. "Now, ladies, so far as these slanderous reports concern myself, I care very little about them, for I can refute them by bringing convincing proof to the contrary." Thus saying, she rose, and, after a short disappearance, returned with a marriage certificate and the family records. "Here," she said, "is the date of my marriage, some three years back, and the birth of our only child--just one year ago.
Baby was twelve months old yesterday.
"But now comes the disagreeable part of the story. My husband"s mother, whom I love and respect, for having, in the years since I first knew her, been all that I could ask in a parent, had one painful episode in her life. She was to have been married to a wealthy gentleman, whom she loved devotedly; but, on the day appointed for the wedding, the expected bridegroom met with an accident, which proved immediately fatal. After he was buried, the object of his fondest affection found _what_ his loss at such a moment had become to her. A dreadful truth was revealed to her, which became immediately known to those most interested in her welfare. Furious with rage, and forgetting that his child needed now his tenderest care, the outraged father drove her from his door, with the command never to enter it. It was then that a former lover, who had worshipped her from afar in the days of her prosperity, came forward and offered her his protection and an honorable name, that had never been sullied by disgrace.
"In her distressed circ.u.mstances, she accepted him thankfully. They were married immediately, and not long after this child of the former lover was born. It was the one false step of a young, inexperienced girl, and bitterly repented and atoned for in after life. The story is well known where these facts occurred, as there was not the least attempt at concealment."
"Then you admit, Madam, that your relative _did_ commit a grievous wrong at one portion of her life," said Miss Pryor, with a glance of severe virtue.
"But she repented, Betsey, and was forgiven, we trust," said Mrs. Wynn, gently, thinking of one at home who had wrung her aged heart by a similar misstep.
"That is not all I have to say upon the subject, either," said Mrs.
Garnet, spiritedly. "Since the minister"s dashing lady has commenced this cowardly attack upon one I love, I shall not hesitate to speak the entire truth. This widow, who was never a wife until she lately married her present husband, and who, I regret to say, has thereby imposed upon a very worthy man, has a grown daughter of unsound mind, who is bound out to a family, where it is well known she has not been treated any too kindly. The heartless mother, engrossed in the pursuit of some victim of sufficient credulity to easily fall into her snares, has spent her time, and what money she could earn, in beautifying and displaying her bold-looking face and unwieldy figure, totally regardless of this unhappy being, who has never known a mother"s love and care. I can imagine the reason for her opening hostilities in this manner. Knowing that we were perfectly familiar with every portion of her former history, and judging by her own spiteful self that we would improve the first opportunity to make the facts known, she thought to poison the minds of the community, so that our story would not be believed.
However, this was all labor spent in vain. Mother and I mutually agreed, that if the woman chose to reform, we would be the last to injure her in the estimation of others."
"Can you prove this?" demanded Miss Pryor, gazing stolidly at the animated speaker.
"I can, by producing the lady"s own daughter, of whose very existence, I doubt not, the pious Elder is at this moment in profound ignorance,"
said Mrs. Garnet.
"That alters the case materially, then," said Mrs. Wynn. "These facts must be carefully investigated, and if they are true, it"s very likely our new minister will have occasion to resign before long. You don"t bear any hardness, I hope, neighbor. It"s been a very tryin" task, but somebody had to undertake it."
"Of course," was the reply. "Our object is to elicit the truth, and I am willing to help probe this matter to the bottom."
"Now," said Betsey Pryor, when they were again upon the street, "we will stir up some excitement, I guess. Let"s go to the minister"s as straight as ever we can."
CHAPTER XVII.
Miss Pryor had never uttered a truer remark than the one at the close of our last chapter. There _was_ an excitement in the little village, before which the sensation created by the pretty schoolmistress, became as nothing. The wordy war raged fiercely, and life-long enmities were created between those who had been intimate friends, endeared to each other by years of pleasant intercourse.
Meanwhile the offending Garnets were socially ostracized. Only little Mrs. Swan resolutely defended them. It seemed that this determined lady was destined to become the champion of all the persecuted of her own s.e.x in the tiny village.
Of course, this matter found its way before the dignitaries of the church, over which the worthy Elder presided. Dr. Little, as one of its most influential members, hastened to give his support to his professional brother, and bitterly denounced these intruders, who sought to create disturbance by their idle tales. The minister"s wife and the doctor"s lady became like sisters in their friendship, and it followed that the feminine portion of the Garnet family were under a ban that excluded them from speech or friendly intercourse with any but the single exception we have before mentioned.
If that had been all, these innocent objects of aversion might have stood aloof and cared little, in the conscious power of rect.i.tude. At first they trusted that some new excitement might arise to absorb public attention, and they be released from their painful position and disagreeable notoriety. But, with time, their trouble seemed to increase instead of diminish, and only added to the difficulties of their situation.
At length old Mr. Garnet rose in righteous wrath. "Wife," he said, emphatically, "I never had anything to do with a woman"s quarrel before.
I did think that after this Prudence Penrose, that has imposed upon the parson, found we wasn"t going to say nothin" about her half-witted daughter, that she"d take the hint and let us alone; but I see she needs a lesson. I am sorry, seein" how things has turned out, that I hadn"t interfered before the affair went so far, but it isn"t too late now.
There"s the minister, and Dr. Little, and Deacon Jones, and a lot more of them, goin" to hold a meetin" about sueing my little daughter-in-law for slander, against the character of a woman that never had any to lose. So I reckon I will have my say on the subject, too." Which he set about doing directly.
Shortly after the irate old gentleman was seen in close conversation with the village constable, and after some plotting, that worthy started with the swiftest team in all Waveland for Ainsworth, the former residence of both the Garnet family and the minister"s lady.
Mrs. Swan was sitting with little baby Garnet on her lap, at her friend"s house, the next evening, when the door burst open and Mr.
Garnet, senior, appeared in a state of excitement, such as he had never been seen before by the little brown-eyed woman, who looked up with a startled glance at his unexpected entrance.
"Richie"s come," he shouted, waving his hat triumphantly. "I"ve sent for her, and here she is. I gave the Constable a commission, and he"s been and brought Richie, and got all the proofs of her parentage."
"Thank Heaven!" said Mrs. Swan, giving the baby a toss in the air, while its little soft-hearted mother hid her head on the old man"s shoulder, and shed a few tears of thankfulness and relief.