"Who?"
"The devil."
"His mind is wandering," murmured Mortimer--"wandering."
"It isn"t," said Snarle, slowly. "A pa.s.sion, a love, made Flint"s life bitter."
"Flint! Did he ever love anything but gold?"
"Yes; but it was long ago! We are cousins. We were schoolmates and friends, sharing our boyish sports and troubles with that confiding friendship which leaves us in our teens. We lived together. I can see the old white frame house at Hampton Falls!" and the man pa.s.sed his emaciated hand over his eyes, as if to wipe out some unpleasant picture. "A niece of my father"s came to spend a winter with us. Young men"s thoughts run to love. I could but love her, she was so beautiful and good; and while she did a thousand kind things to win my affection, she took a strange aversion to my cousin Flint, who grew rude and impetuous. We were married. But long before that, Flint packed up his little trunk, and, without a word of farewell, left us one night for a neighboring city. Years went by, and from time to time tidings reached us of his prosperity and growing wealth. We were proud of his industry, and thought of him kindly. We, too, were prospering. But the tide of our fortune changed. My father"s affairs and mine became complicated. He died, and the farm was sold. One day I stood at Flint"s office door, and asked for employment. Evil day! better for me if I had toiled in the fields from morning till night, wringing a reluctant livelihood from the earth, which is even more human than Flint. Wet my lips, boy, and come near to me, that I may tell you how I became his slave; softly, so the air may not hear me."
Mortimer drew nearer to him.
"It was a hard winter for the poor. My darling wife was suffering from the mere want of proper medicines and food. I asked Flint for a little more than the pitiable salary which he allowed me. He smiled, and said that I was extravagant. We had not clothes enough to shield us from the cold! I told him that my wife was sick; and he replied, bitterly, "poor men should not have wives." Wet my lips again. Can you love me, boy, after what I shall tell you? I forged a check for a trivial amount!" and Snarle"s voice sunk to a hoa.r.s.e whisper. "Can you love me?"
"Can I love you?" cried Mortimer. He could not see the sick man for his tears. "Can I forget all your kindness. Years ago, when I was a mere child, toiling early and late in Flint"s office, did you not take me to your home, a poor hope-broken boy? Have I not grown up with Daisy, like your own child? Not love you?"
Mortimer laid his face on the same pillow with the sick man"s.
"I was not sent to prison," continued Snarle, with a shudder; "only my own mind, and soul, and actions were prisoners. I was Flint"s! Flint owned me!
That little paper which he guards so carefully is the t.i.tle-deed. O, Mortimer, as you hold my memory dear, destroy that paper--tear it, burn it, trample it out of the world!"
With these words Snarle sank back upon the pillow, from which he had half risen. He went on speaking in a lower tone:
"I have suffered so much that I am sure G.o.d will forgive me. Never let the world know--never let my wife and Daisy know that I was a----"
"O, I will promise you, dear father," cried Mortimer, before he could finish the dreadful word. "I will destroy the paper, though twenty Flints guarded it. The man who steals a loaf of bread for famishing lips, is not such a criminal in G.o.d"s sight as he who steals a million times its value by _law_ to feed his avarice. Think no more of it. The angel who records in his book, has written a hundred good deeds over that unfortunate one. The world"s frown is not G.o.d"s frown, and His heart is open when man"s is barred with unforgiveness."
"Thank you, thank you," said Snarle, brightening up a little. "Your words give me comfort. I have not much more to tell. Flint took me into the firm, but I was the same slave. I worked, and worked, and the reapings were his.
You have seen it--you know it. And this was his revenge. His wounded love and pride have wrecked themselves on me. He has never crossed the threshold of our door--never laid his eyes on my wife since the time when we were thoughtless boys together. O, how cruel he has been to me! Evening after evening, in midwinter, he has made me bring the last editions of the _Express_ to his house, and never asked me in!"
This was said with such a ludicrous expression, that Mortimer would have laughed if it had been anybody but poor Snarle. Exhausted with talking, the sick man sank into a quiet slumber.
Mortimer sat by his bed-side for an hour, watching the change of expressions in the sleeper"s face--the shadow of his dreams coming and going! Then his head drooped upon his bosom, and he slept so soundly that he did not know that Daisy came in the room, and stood beside him, looking in his face with her fond, quiet eyes.
When he awoke, one long dark shadow from the houses opposite slanted into the apartment.
Snarle was looking at him.
"I have been asleep," said Snarle, "and have had such pleasant thoughts that it is painful to find myself in this poor little world again. Ah, me, what will wife and Daisy do in it all alone?"
"Not alone," said Mortimer. "I will watch over them--love them." Then, after a pause: "Father, I love Daisy--I would make her my wife."
"Ah, I wished that; but I did not think it:" and Snarle paused a moment.
"Have you told Daisy so?"
"Yes--but----"
"Well," said Snarle, waiting.
"But she does not love me; and that is why I said love would make life bitter."
"Perhaps she does."
"No."
"What did Daisy say?"
"She said there were clouds in the morning of her life--(these were her own words)--which had no sunshine in them. Then she called me brother and kissed me, and told me that I must never think of her as my wife. She would be my sister always. And when I speak to her of this, she turns away or hums a pleasant air to mock me."
"She is not our child, Mortimer."
"What?"
"No, I am not wandering," said Snarle, in reply to Mortimer"s look. "She is not our child. We adopted her under strange circ.u.mstances. I have not told you this before. Daisy did not wish me to; but it is right that you should know it now. Sit nearer to me."
Mortimer obeyed mechanically.
"One stormy night we were sitting, my wife and I, in the room below. I remember as if it were yesterday, how the wind slammed the window-blinds, and blew out the street-lamps. It was just a year ago that night we lost our little Maye, and we were very sad. We sat in silence, while without the storm increased. The hail and snow dashed against the window-panes, and down the chimney. Every now and then the wind lulled, and everything was still."
Heaven knows why Mr. Snarle ceased speaking just then; but he did, and seemed lost in reverie.
"What was I saying?"
"You were speaking of the storm."
"Yes, yes. It was in one of those pauses of the wind that we heard a low sob under our windows. We did not heed it at first, for sometimes a storm moans like a human voice. It came again so distinctly as to leave no doubt.
I opened the hall-door, and groped about in the snow. When I returned to the sitting-room, I held little Daisy in my arms. She was no larger than our Maye who died--our little three-year-old. The child was half frozen, and nothing but a coa.r.s.e cloak thrown over her night-dress, had saved her from perishing. I reported the circ.u.mstance at the police-station, but such things were of too common occurrence to excite much interest. Weeks pa.s.sed, and then months, and no one answered the advertis.e.m.e.nts. At last we had learned to love the child so dearly, that we dreaded the thought of parting with it. I asked and obtained permission to adopt the pet, and so Daisy became ours. She is very proud, and the mystery of her birth troubles her; and this----"
Before Snarle could finish the sentence, Daisy herself opened the room door, and came tripping up to the bed-side.
Mortimer took her hand very quietly.
"Daisy," he said, "I love you."
Daisy hid her face in the pillow.
"He has told me everything, and I love you, Daisy!"
Daisy looked up with the tears and sunshine of April in her eyes.
"Do you love me?" he asked.
The girl was silent for a moment, then a sweet little "yes" budded on her lips.
Then Mortimer kissed Daisy, and poor Snarle died happy; for that evening his life-stream ebbed with the tide, and mingled with that ocean which is forever and forever.
REQUIESCAT IN PACE.