"For the love you bear your good name, Mr. Flint", he continued, "look at the paper which you so innocently put in your pocket."
An idea struck Flint, which caused him to turn pale. He tore open the letter; but it was not the one for which he would have given half his fortune. Oh! sagacious, wily, clear-sighted Mr. Flint!
"You had better tell these gentlemen that you have made a mistake, Flint.
But, before they go, they must have a gla.s.s of wine."
Michel had failed to appear with the extra gla.s.ses; but the want of them was elegantly supplied by three silver goblets which stood on the _beaufait_. And poor, collapsed Flint! he could only bid the officers go, with a wave of his hand.
They were alone.
The sailor, with a scornful curl in his lip, stood by the chair of the merchant, whose dejected countenance, taken in connection with his white cravat, was delightfully comical.
"Flint," commenced the man, "your verdancy is refreshing. Your sweet and child-like simplicity is like a draught of your old wine--it"s rare, it"s rare."
If anything touched Flint, it was sarcasm. He stood in dread of ridicule, as most men do whose foibles and vices deserve lashing.
"Edward Walters!" he cried, springing to his feet, "you have outwitted me.
Well, you are a knave; it is your pride to be one. Your companions will shout to-night, in some obscure den of this city, as you tell them of your ingenuity, and you will be a hero among----"
"Stop, John Flint! For sixteen years to-night my life has been as pure as a child"s. The vices of pa.s.sion and avarice have not touched me. I have borne a sorrow in my heart which shrunk instinctively from sin. During these years I have been poor, very poor." The man paused. "There is a link lost somewhere in my life--was I an age in a madhouse? Let it go. I have loved my fellow-man; I have lingered at the hammock of a sick mess-mate, and closed his eyes kindly when he died; I have spoken words of cheer when my heart was bitterness. I do not say this boastfully, for G.o.d"s eyes are upon us all. I have done these things to atone for the one great sin of my life, which has stalked through memory like a plague. John Flint, I have had the misfortune to know you for twenty years, and during that time you never have, to my knowledge, performed a single act worthy of being remembered. You have a narrow, malicious mind; you have been tyrannical when you should have been generous; you have been the devil"s emissary under the cant of religion. You call Jesus master, but you crucify him daily! There is your photograph, John Flint!"
"You flatter me," remarked that personage, sarcastically; "but go on."
"It is seldom that a rich man has the truth spoken to him plainly--the poor man hears it often enough. Consider yourself favored. You have called me a knave. I will draw some pictures, and I wish you to look at them:
"Many years ago, a seafaring man who had just lost his ship in which his little fortune had been invested, returned to this city sick at heart, and weak from a wound which he had received in the wreck. He had battled many a year against misfortune, and his utmost exertions had barely found bread for his children. He owed money to a heartless and exacting man. He stood before his creditor and said, "I am beggared, but I will work for you."
The merchant replied, "Come to my house to-night, and I will find means by which this debt can be liquidated." The sailor expected reproaches and hard words; so he was surprised at the softness of this speech, and his heart was full of grat.i.tude.
"That night he sat in the parlor of the merchant, who plied him with rare wines, until his mind went from him. Then he made a proposal to the sailor, who, if he had had his senses, would have felled him to the floor. The merchant had been appointed guardian to a motherless babe, which his brother, dying, begged him to love and educate. His ship on the sea, and the bales of merchandize in his warehouses, were not enough to feed his hungry avarice. He needs must have the little inheritance of the babe.
Well, while he was speaking, making artful pictures in the eyes of his drugged dupe, the child ran into the room, and twined her arms around the neck of him who should have worshiped her. But he coldly unclasped the little hands and pushed her from him. John Flint, when that man, on Judgment Day, shall cringe before the throne of G.o.d, the Evil Angel will trample him down!"
Flint was as white as the marble mantel-piece on which he leaned. Edward Walters stood a short distance in front of him; his eyes were fixed, and he spoke like one who sees what he is describing.
"Then the man--the merchant--wrapped the child in the sailor"s cloak. In a few minutes the sailor stood in the stormy street, with a frightened little heart throbbing against his own. The cutting sleet and snow beat in his face, and the wine made a veil before his eyes. It was a fearful night. Not a human form was to be seen; the street lamps were blown out, and the poor mariner drifted to and fro like a deserted ship. He had become mad; the strange events had eaten into his brain. He wrapped the babe closer in his cloak, and placed her in a doorway, out of the cold. He wandered from street to street, then he sank down in the snow. When his senses came to him he had been in a madhouse--G.o.d, how many years! Was it ten? The June wind broke through the barred window; it touched his forehead, and it was like a human hand rousing one from a dreamless sleep. One evening soon after, he stood before the merchant, who was sipping his choice cordials, as you were to-night, Flint, and the sailor asked for the child. The man replied: "The child is dead; you left it in the cold, and it died, or you threw it into the river. I saw a body at the dead-house, weeks afterward, which looked like the child. You committed murder; it was your own act.
Suppose you were to be hung for it!" Have I a good memory, John Flint?"
And the man turned his wild eyes on Mr. Flint, who gave no other evidence of not being a statue than a slight tremor of his upper lip.
"What did the madman say to the merchant? He took the cool, calculating villain by the throat, and cried, "Write me out, in your round, clerkly hand, a full avowal of your guilt in this matter, or I"ll strangle you!"
The merchant knew he would, so he wrote this doc.u.ment with trembling fingers, and he signed it JOHN FLINT!"
Then the sailor drew from his pocket an old stained letter, and held it up to the light. He looked at it sadly, and then his mind seemed to wander off through a gloomy mist of memories, for his eyes grew gentle and dreamy.
He spoke softly, almost tenderly:
"John Flint, you never saw me weep. Look at me, then. I am thinking of an old country-house which stood in a cl.u.s.ter of trees near a sea-sh.o.r.e. It once held everything that was dear to me--my children. Three years ago I stood with my hand on the gate, and looked into the little garden. It had gone to waste; the wind had beaten down the flower frames; the honeysuckle vines were running wild, and there was the moss of ten years" growth on the broken chimney-pots. The rain had washed the paint off the house, and the windows were boarded up. There was something in the ruin and stillness of the place which spoke to me. Twilight added a gloomy background to the picture. I broke the rusty fastenings of a side door, and entered the deserted building. It may have been fancy, but I saw two forms wandering from room to room, and through the darkened entries; now they would pause, as if listening for foot-steps, then they would move on again, sorrowfully, sorrowfully. In the bedroom over the front door, I saw the shadow of a little coffin! _She_ used to sleep there. Where were my children? Where was trustful old Nanny, that she did not come to me? The house was full of strange shadows, and I fled from it. I did not dare go to the village hard by. There were too many who might have known me. I sat down in the quiet church-yard where my wife had slept many a long year. I sat by a little mound on which a wreath of flowers had been laid--nothing remained of them but stems and the rotting string that had bound them. It had a peaceful look, the grave, and I wished that I had died when my mound would not have been made longer than the one at my side. What did the simple head-stone say? It said: "LITTLE BELL!"--that was all!"
The sailor grasped Flint"s arm.
"Only little Bell!--that was all. But it was all the world to me! What a tale it told! What a tale of weary waiting, and despair, and death! Did her little heart wait for me! Did she sicken and die when I did not come to her? Aye, it said all this and more. And my boy--was he living? was he searching for me? No, not searching, for close by my child"s grave, a white stone had these words carved on it:" and the man repeated them slowly,
SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF OUR FATHER, LOST AT SEA.
"Not lost at sea," he said, almost inaudibly, "but lost! Ah, I could have died in that quiet place, with the moonlight on me! But I was startled from my grief by the shouts of some men on the roadside, and I turned and fled.
Have you looked at the picture, John Flint?"
He spoke so mournfully, that Flint raised his little, sharp eyes, which all this time had been fixed on the carpet; but he made no reply.
"I"ll have none of your gold, man. I was weak to want it. Give it to the poor. The shining round pieces may fall like sunlight into some wretched home. To me they are like drops of blood!"
And he pushed the gold from him, and went to the window. He saw the dim eyes of Heaven looking down through the mist--heard the murmurs of the city dying away, and the calm of night entered his soul.
"May you be a better man when we meet again," he said, turning to Flint.
"But the letter," cried Flint, fearfully, "you won"t----"
The sailor"s lips curled, and something of his former severity returned.
"Take off your sanctimonious cravat," he answered, "wrap charity around you like a robe, that you may be pleasing in G.o.d"s sight. You sent some gold to convert the Hindoos--the papers said so. Why, man! there is a Heathen Land at your door-step! John Flint, good night!"
The merchant stood alone.
The night wind swayed the heavy curtains to and fro, and half extinguished the brilliant jets of gas. He threw himself into a chair, and a vision of the Past rose up before him--the terrible Past. The ghosts of dead years haunted his brain, and remorse sat on his heart, boding and mysterious, like the Raven of the sweet poet--
"That unhappy master, whom unmerciful disaster Followed fast, and followed faster, till his songs one burden bore!"
That night, as we have said, he dreamt of two blue, innocent eyes, which once looked confidingly in his--of two infant arms which encircled his neck. Those eyes haunted him into the realm of sleep, where myriads of little arms were stretched out to him, and he turned restlessly on his pillow!
VIII.
_He trudged along, unknowing what he sought, And whistled as he went, for want of thought._
DRYDEN.
VIII.
MR. FLINT IS PERFECTLY ASTONISHED, AND MORTIMER HAS A VISION.
_The Light Heart--A Scene--The Sunny Heart--A Dream of Little Bell--A Hint._
Now that Mortimer Walters had destroyed the record of poor Snarle"s guilt, he determined to be no longer a subject of Flint"s authority. He had watched for months for an opportunity to become possessed of the forged cheque; and it was with a heart as light as a singing bird"s that he tripped up the office stairs an hour before his time the next morning.
Tim was sweeping out.
Sleep had left no cobwebs in his young eyes; but when he saw Mortimer throw open the office door, humming a light-hearted air, he rubbed his eyelids with the sleeve of his dusty coat, as if it were a question in his mind whether or not he was dreaming.