Then he asked me how I liked the name of Nina St. Claire. _I_ HATE IT!" and the blue eyes flashed as Edith had never seen them flash before. "I won"t be his wife! I"d forgotten all what it was that happened that night until he told it to you in the woods. Then it came back to me, and I remembered how we went to Richard, because he was most blind, and did not often come to Geneva. That was Sarah Warren"s plan I believe, but my head has ached and whirled so since that I most forget. Only this I know, nothing ever came of it; and over the sea I loved Charlie Hudson, and didn"t love Arthur. But, Miggie he"s been so good to me so like my mother.
He"s held me in his arms a heap of nights when the fire was in my brain; and once, Miggie, he held me so long, and I tore so awfully, that he fainted, and Dr. Griswold cried, and said, "Poor Arthur; poor boy!" That"s when _I_ BIT HIM!--bit Arthur, Miggie, right on his arm, because he wouldn"t let me pull his hair. Dr.
Griswold shook me mighty hard, but Arthur never said a word. He only looked at me so sorry, so grieved like, that I came out of my tantrum, and kissed the place. I"ve kissed it ever so many times since then, and Arthur knows I"m sorry. I ain"t a fit wife for him. I don"t blame him for wanting you. I can"t see the WRONG, but it"s because I"m so thick-headed, I suppose! I wish I wasn"t!" And fixing her gaze upon the window opposite, Nina seemed to be living over the past, and trying to arrange the events of her life in some clear, tangible form.
Gradually as she talked Edith had softened toward Arthur--poor Arthur, who had borne so much. She might, perhaps, forgive him, but to FORGET was impossible. She had suffered too much at his hands for that, and uttering a faint moan as she thought how all her hopes of happiness were blasted, she turned on her pillow just as Nina, coming out of her abstracted fit, said to her,
"Did I tell you we are going to Florida--Arthur and I--going back to our old home, in two or three days, Arthur says it is better so. Old scenes may cure me."
Alas, for poor human nature. Why did Edith"s heart throb so painfully, as she thought of Nina cured, and taken to Arthur"s bosom as his wife. She knew SHE could not be that wife, and only half an hour before she had said within herself, "_I_ HATE HIM."
Now, however, she was conscious of a strong unwillingness to yield to another the love lost to her forever, and covering her head with the sheet, she wept to think how desolate her life would be when she knew that far away, in the land of flowers, Arthur was learning to forget her and bestowing his affection upon restored, rational Nina.
"Why do you cry?" asked Nina, whose quick ear detected the stifled sobs. "Is it because we are going? I told him you would, when he bade me come and ask if you would see him before he goes."
"Did he--did he send me that message?" and the Edith, who wouldn"t for the world meet Arthur St. Claire again, uncovered her face eagerly. "Tell him to come to-morrow at ten o"clock. I am the strongest then; and Nina, will you care if I ask you to stay away?
I"d rather see him alone."
Edith"s voice faltered as she made this request, but Nina received it in perfect good faith, answering that she would remain at home.
"I must go now," she added. "He"s waiting for me, and I do so hope you"ll coax him to stay here. I hate old Florida."
Edith however felt that it was better for them both to part. She had caught a glimpse of her own heart, and knew that its bleeding fibres still clung to him, and still would cling till time and absence had healed the wound.
"I will be very cold and indifferent to-morrow," she said to herself, when after Nina"s departure, she lay, antic.i.p.ating the dreaded meeting and working herself up to such a pitch of excitement that the physician declared her symptoms worse, asking who had been there, and saying no one must see her, save the family, for several days.
The doctor"s word was law at Collingwood, and with sinking spirits Edith heard Richard in the hall without, bidding Mrs. Matson keep every body from the sick room for a week. Even Nina was not to be admitted, for it was clearly proved that her last visit had made Edith worse. What should she do? Arthur would be gone ere the week went by, and she MUST see him. Suddenly Victor came into her mind.
She could trust him to manage it, and when that night, while Mrs.
Matson was at her tea he came up as usual with wood, she said to him, "Victor, shut the door so no one can hear, and then come close to me."
He obeyed, and standing by her bedside waited for her to speak.
"Victor, Mr. St. Claire is going to Florida in a day or two. I"ve promised to see him to-morrow at ten o"clock, and Richard says no one can come in here, but I must bid Arthur good-bye and Nina, too. Can"t you manage it, Victor?"
"Certainly," returned Victor, who, better than any one else knew his own power over his master. "You shall see Mr. St. Claire, and see him alone."
Victor had not promised more than be felt able to perform, and when at precisely ten o"clock next day the door bell rang, he hastened to answer the summons, admitting Arthur, as he had expected.
"I called to see Miss Hastings," said Arthur, "I start for Florida to-morrow, and would bid her good-bye."
Showing him into the parlor, Victor sought Richard"s presence, and by a few masterly strokes of policy and well-worded arguments, obtained his consent for Arthur to see Edith just a few moments.
"It was too bad to send him away without even a good-bye, when she had esteemed him so highly as a teacher," Richard said, unwittingly repeating Victor"s very words--that a refusal would do her more injury than his seeing her could possibly do. "I"ll go with him. Where is he?" he asked, rising to his feet.
"Now, I wouldn"t if I was you. Let him talk with her alone. Two excite her a great deal more than one, and he may wish to say some things concerning Nina which he does not care for any one else to hear. There is a mystery about HER, you know."
Richard did not know, but he suffered himself to be persuaded, and Victor returned to Arthur, whom be conducted in triumph to the door of Edith"s chamber. She heard his well known step. She knew that he was coming, and the crimson spots upon her cheeks told how much she was excited. Arthur did not offer to caress her--he dared not do that now--but be knelt by her side, and burying his face in her pillow, said to her,
"I have come for your forgiveness, Edith. I could not go without it. Say that I am forgiven, and it will not be so hard to bid you farewell forever."
Edith meant to be very cold, but her voice was choked as she replied,
"I can forgive you, Arthur, but to forget is harder far. And still even that might be possible were I the only one whom you have wronged; but Nina--how could you prove so faithless to your marriage vow?"
"Edith," and Arthur spoke almost sternly. "You would not have me live with Nina as she is now."
"No, no," she moaned, "not as she is now, but years ago. Why didn"t you acknowledge her as your wife, making the best of your misfortune. People would have pitied you so much, and I--oh, Arthur, the world would not then have been so dark, so dreary for me. Why did you deceive me, Arthur? It makes my heart ache so hard."
"Oh, Edith, Edith, you drive me mad," and Arthur took in his the hand which all the time had unconsciously been creeping toward him. "I was a boy, a mere boy, and Nina was a little girl. We thought it would be romantic, and were greatly influenced by Nina"s room-mate, who planned the whole affair. I told you once how Nina wept, pleading with her father to let her stay in Geneva, but I have not told you that she begged of me to tell him all, while I unhesitatingly refused. I knew expulsion from College would surely be the result, and I was far too ambitious to submit to this degradation when it could be avoided. You know of the gradual change in our feelings for each other, know what followed her coming home, and you can perhaps understand how I grew so morbidly sensitive to anything concerning her, and so desirous to conceal my marriage from every one. This, of course, prompted me to keep her existence a secret as long as possible, and, in my efforts to do so, I can see now that I oftentimes acted the part of a fool. If I could live over the past again I would proclaim from the housetops that Nina was my wife. I love her with a different love since I told you all. She is growing fast into my heart, and I have hopes that a sight of her old home, together with the effects of her native air, will do her good. Griswold always said it would, and preposterous as it seems, I have even dared to dream of a future, when Nina will be in a great measure restored to reason."
"If she does, Arthur, what then?" and, in her excitement, Edith raised herself in bed, and sat looking at him with eyes which grew each moment rounder, blacker, brighter, but had in them, alas, no expression of joy; and when in answer to her appeal, Arthur said,
"I shall make her my wife," she fell back upon her pillow, uttering a moaning cry, which to the startled Arthur sounded like,
"No, no! no, no! not your wife."
"Edith," and rising to his feet Arthur stood with folded arms, gazing pityingly upon her, himself now the stronger of the two.
"Edith, you, of all others, must not tempt me to fall. You surely will counsel me to do right! Help me! oh, help me! I am so weak, and I feel my good resolutions all giving way at sight of your distress! If it will take one iota from your pain to know that Nina shall never be my acknowledged wife, save as she is now, I will swear to you that, were her reason ten times restored, she shall not; But, Edith, don"t, don"t make me swear it. I am lost, lost if you do. Help me to do right, won"t you, Edith?"
He knelt beside her again, pleading with her not to tempt him from the path in which he was beginning to walk; and Edith, as she listened, felt the last link, which bound her to him, snapping asunder. For a moment she HAD wavered; had shrank from the thought that any other could ever stand to him in the relation she once had hoped to stand; but that weakness was over, and while chiding herself for it, she hastened to make amends.
Turning her face toward him, and laying both her hands on his bowed head, she said,
"May the Good Father bless you, Arthur, even as you prove true to Nina. I have loved you, more than you will ever know, or I can ever tell, and my poor, bruised heart clings to you still with a mighty grasp. It is so hard to give you up, but it is right. I shall think of you often in your beautiful Southern home, praying always that G.o.d will bless you and forgive you at the last, even as I forgive you. And now farewell, MY Arthur, I once fondly hoped to call you, but mine no longer--NINA"S Arthur--go."
She made a gesture for him to leave her, but did not unclose her eyes. She could not look upon him, find know it was the last, last time, but she offered no remonstrance when he left, upon her lips a kiss so full of hopeless and yearning tenderness that it burned there many a day after he was gone. She heard him turn away, heard him cross the floor, knew he paused upon the threshold, and still her eye-lids never opened, though the hot tears rained over her face in torrents.
"The sweetest joy I have ever known was my love for you, Edith Hastings," he whispered, and then the door was closed between them.
Down the winding stairs he went, Edith counting every step, for until all sound of him had ceased she could not feel that they were parted forever. The sounds did cease at last, he had bidden Richard a calm good-bye, had said good-bye to Victor, and now he was going from the house. He would soon be out of sight, and with an intense desire to stamp his image upon her mind just as he was now, the changed, repentant Arthur, Edith arose, and tottering to the window, looked after him, through blinding tears, as he pa.s.sed slowly from her sight, and then crawling, rather than walking back to her bed, she wept herself to sleep.
It was a heavy, unnatural slumber, and when she awoke from it, the fever returned with redoubted violence, bringing her a second time so near the gates of death that Arthur St. Claire deferred his departure for several days, and Nina became again the nurse of the sick room. But all in vain were her soft caresses and words of love. Edith was unconscious of everything, and did not even know when Nina"s farewell kiss was pressed upon her lips and Nina"s gentle hands smoothed her hair for the last time. A vague remembrance she had of an angel flitting around the room, a bright-haired seraph, who held her up from sinking in the deep, dark river, pointing to the friendly sh.o.r.e where life and safety lay, and this was all she knew of a parting which had wrung tears from every one who witnessed it, for there was something wonderfully touching in the way the crazy Nina bade adieu to "Miggie," lamenting that she must leave her amid the cold northern hills, and bidding her come to the southland, where the magnolias were growing and flowers were blossoming all the day long. Seizing the scissors, which lay upon the stand, she severed one of her golden curls, and placing it on Edith"s pillow, glided from the room, followed by the blessing of those who had learned to love the beautiful little girl as such as she deserved to be loved.
One by one the grey December days went by, and Christmas fires were kindled on many a festal hearth. Then the New Year dawned upon the world, and still the thick, dark curtains shaded the windows of Edith"s room. But there came a day at last, a pleasant January day, when the curtains were removed, the blinds thrown open, and the warm sunlight came in shining upon Edith, a convalescent. Very frail and beautiful she looked in her crimson dressing gown, and her little foot sat loosely in the satin slipper, Grace Atherton"s Christmas gift. The rich lace frill encircling her throat was fastened with a locket pin of exquisitely wrought gold, in which was encased a curl of soft, yellow hair, Nina"s hair, a part of the tress left on Edith"s pillow. This was Richard"s idea,--Richard"s New Year"s gift to his darling; but Richard was not there to share in the general joy.
Just across the hall, in a chamber darkened as hers had been, he was lying now, worn out with constant anxiety and watching. When Nina left, his prop was gone, and the fever which had lain in wait for him so long, kindled within his veins a fire like to that which had burned in Edith"s, but his strong, muscular frame met it fiercely, and the danger had been comparatively slight.
All this Grace told to Edith on that morning when she was first suffered to sit up, and asked why Richard did not come to share her happiness, for in spite of one"s mental state, the first feeling of returning health is one of joy. Edith felt it as such even though her heart was so sore that every beat was painful. She longed to speak of Gra.s.sy Spring, but would not trust herself until Victor, reading her feelings aright, said to her with an a.s.sumed indifference, "Mr. St. Claire"s house is shut up, all but the kitchen and the negro apartments. They are there yet, doing nothing and having a good time generally."
"And I have had a letter from Arthur," chimed in Mrs. Atherton, while the eyes resting on Victor"s face turned quickly to hers.
"They reached Sunny Bank in safety, he and Nina, and Soph."
"And Nina," Edith asked faintly, "how is she?"
"Improving, Arthur thinks, though she misses you very much."
Edith drew a long, deep sigh, and when next she spoke, she said, "Take me to the window, please, I want to see the country."
In an instant, Victor, who knew well what she wanted, took her in his arms, and carrying her to the window, set her down in the chair which Grace brought for her; then, as if actuated by the same impulse, both left her and returned to the fire, while she looked across the snow-clad fields to where Gra.s.sy Spring reared its ma.s.sive walls, now basking in the winter sun. It was a mournful pleasure to gaze at that lonely building, with its barred doors, its closed shutters, and the numerous other tokens it gave of being nearly deserted. There was no smoke curling from the chimneys, no friendly door opened wide, no sweet young face peering from the iron lattice of the Den, no Arthur, no Nina there. Nothing but piles of snow upon the roof, snow upon the window-sills, snow upon the doorsteps, snow upon the untrodden walk, snow on the leafless elms, standing there so bleak and brown. Snow everywhere, as cold, as desolate as Edith"s heart, and she bade Victor take her back again to the warm grate where she might perhaps forget how gloomy and sad, and silent, was Gra.s.sy Spring.